“I came here asking about my daughter.”
“You raise her however you want in your house.”
“That doesn’t answer me.”
Her voice sharpened.
“I corrected her.”
“With a belt?”
Teresa did not answer immediately.
Then she said, “Sometimes words don’t work.”
I felt the floor beneath me differently after that.
Until then, a small part of me had still been waiting for some explanation that would make the situation less deliberate.
There wasn’t one.
Teresa believed she had been entitled to do it.
I kept my voice low.
“You were told not to comment on Sofía’s weight.”
“I was told many things.”
“You agreed.”
“I agreed because Ricardo asked me to.”
That was the first time she brought up my husband.
Something in her tone changed when she said his name.
Not affection.
Something more complicated.
I noticed it.
“What does Ricardo have to do with this?”
Teresa crossed her arms.
“You think all this started with Sofía?”
I did not move.
“What does that mean?”
She gave a short laugh.
“You really don’t know your husband as well as you think.”
My stomach tightened.
“Explain.”
Teresa looked toward the hallway behind her.
Then back at me.
