Chapter 14 - Lucia Finally Walked the Upper Corridor Again
The hardest place for Lucia was the upstairs hallway.
Same windows.
Same cream walls.
Same direction toward the double glass doors she had walked through eight years earlier after telling Alejandro not to follow.
She stopped midway.
Alejandro remained several steps behind.
“Want me to leave?”
“No.”
“Want me closer?”
“No.”
He almost smiled.
“Useful.”
Lucia stared through the glass.
“That night, I wanted you to stop me.”
Alejandro felt the sentence land.
“You said not to follow.”
“I know.”
“I believed you.”
“I know.”
She turned.
“I was twenty-nine and furious and wanted you to understand the opposite of what I said.”
“That seems inefficient.”
Lucia laughed unexpectedly.
“Yes.”
Then:
“You could’ve called the next day.”
“Yes.”
“So could I.”
“Yes.”
For years, each built moral certainty around the other person’s failure to make the next move.
Isabel exploited that certainty.
But she had not invented it.
Lucia touched the wall where an old family portrait used to hang.
“I thought if you really loved me, you’d ignore what I said.”
Alejandro nodded.
“I thought if you really loved me, you’d come back despite what I said.”
Lucia looked at him.
“We were idiots.”
“Apparently.”
She stepped closer.
Then hugged him.
Alejandro froze.
Not because he did not want it.
Because he refused to grab too tightly and turn reconciliation into possession.
Lucia felt his hesitation.
“You can hug me back.”
He did.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Sophie appeared at the far doorway, saw them, and immediately began backing away.
Lucia noticed.
“Sophie.”
The child stopped.
“You can come here.”
Sophie ran toward them.
Alejandro opened one arm.
Then paused.
“Want in?”
Sophie nodded.
Only then did he pull her close.
Small change.
May you like
Ask first.
He was learning.
