Clara froze.
Alejandro turned to Teresa.
—Come in, please.
She hesitated, looking at her dirty feet and the spotless floor.
—I’m going to make him dirty.
« I wish, » he replied. « This house needs to get really dirty to clean itself up inside. »
Teresa entered.
Not with shame, but with a solemn slowness, like someone treading on a place that had owed them respect for decades. The servants stepped aside. Rosa lowered her head, red with sorrow.
Once in the main room, beneath a huge chandelier, Alejandro asked for coffee, bread, and a comfortable chair. Teresa sat on the edge, the shopping cart visible through the window as a reminder of everything she had experienced away from there.
« I’m going to open the company files tomorrow, » Alejandro said. « All of them. I’m going to look for the information about the bridge, the compensation, the lawyer, everything. And even if I don’t find a single document, I’m going to respond. »
—And how does one respond for a dead child? —Teresa asked without harshness, only with truth.
He couldn’t answer immediately.
« There’s no answer, » he finally said. « But we stop running away. »
Then he did something that no one in that house would ever forget.
He knelt in front of her.
Clara let out a stifled sigh. Rosa covered her mouth. The driver looked away.
Alejandro placed the watch on Teresa’s knees and lowered his head.
« Forgive me, » he said. « For my father. For my name. For these twenty-seven years. For having lived in peace with a life that was given to me at the price of your son’s. Forgive me for drinking water every day without knowing to whom I owed each sip. »
Teresa watched him for a long time. Her tired eyes filled with tears, but she didn’t cry immediately. She seemed to be looking not at the businessman, but at the boy she had rescued from the river.
« I didn’t come for your forgiveness, » he said slowly. « I came because my legs couldn’t take it anymore and I was thirsty. »
Leave a Comment