Then his face grew serious.
“I used to think success meant getting out.”
Mariana looked at him carefully.
“And now?”
“Now I think it means bringing you with me.”
Her eyes filled.
“Mijo, you don’t owe me your life.”
“I know. But I want you in it.”
That was the difference.
Obligation drains love.
Choice restores it.
Damian tried to see Miguel before college move-in.
Miguel agreed to coffee in a public place.
Mariana did not attend. She wanted to, but she knew this conversation belonged to her son. Miguel returned two hours later, quiet.
“How did it go?” she asked.
He set his keys on the counter.
“He apologized.”
Mariana waited.
Miguel leaned against the sink.
“Not perfectly. He said he should have handled things differently. He said Beatrice got carried away. I told him if he keeps blaming her for what he allowed, we won’t have much to talk about.”
