You start keeping a toothbrush at his place. The girls ask if you can come to their dance recital. Mateo holds your hand in public like he is not ashamed to be seen wanting something.
You begin to believe that maybe this time, love will not require you to shrink or apologize or prove your worth every single day.
Then one afternoon, everything shifts.
You are at Mateo’s house helping the girls with a school project when his phone rings.
He glances at the screen, and his face goes pale.
He steps into the hallway to take the call, and you hear his voice drop into something tight and controlled.
When he comes back into the room, he looks like he has seen a ghost.
“That was my lawyer,” he says quietly, so the girls do not hear. “Mariana wants to see them.”
Your stomach drops.
Mariana. Their mother. The actress with the perfect smile and the red carpet photos.
The woman who left when the girls were barely two years old because motherhood did not fit into her career plan.
“After all this time?” you ask, barely above a whisper.
Mateo nods, jaw tight.
“She says she wants to reconnect. That she has changed. That motherhood is the most important thing to her now.”
The words sound rehearsed, and your skin prickles with distrust.
“Do you believe her?” you ask.
Mateo looks at you with eyes full of old wounds.
“I do not know,” he admits. “But I cannot stop her from trying. Legally, she still has rights.”
That night, after the girls go to bed, Mateo sits at the kitchen table with his head in his hands.
“I do not want a war,” he whispers. “But I am not letting them become accessories in her career.”
You take his hand across the table.
“You are not alone,” you tell him, and you mean it in a way that surprises both of you.
The meeting is scheduled for the following week.
Mariana arrives wearing expensive perfume and a camera crew waiting discreetly outside.
She looks exactly like she does on magazine covers. Polished. Perfect. Practiced.
She hugs the girls like she is performing for an invisible audience, and you watch their little bodies stiffen in confusion.
They do not remember her. Not really.
“I have missed you so much,” Mariana says, voice sweet like marketing copy.
Renata looks at her father, uncertain.
Valentina stays quiet, which is unusual for her.
Lucía asks the question that makes your heart crack.
“Are you staying this time?”
Mariana smiles, but it does not reach her eyes.
“We will see, sweetheart,” she says. “Mama has a very busy schedule.”
