Across six years of marriage.
Footsteps approached.
Then she appeared.
Elena.
Flour dusted the sleeve of her sweater.
Her hair was tied loosely at the back of her neck.
A simple gold wedding ring hung from a delicate chain around her neck instead of resting on her finger.
She looked up.
Their eyes met.
The wooden spoon in her hand slipped to the floor.
Neither of them spoke.
One year of silence filled the doorway between them.
Then a small face peeked out from behind Elena’s leg.
Dark curls.
Brown eyes.
A worn gray elephant clutched tightly in one small hand.
Mateo.
He looked at Alessandro with quiet uncertainty, as though trying to remember someone from a dream.
Alessandro’s knees gave way beneath him.
Power.
Money.
Fear.
None of them mattered anymore.
Tears blurred his vision as he knelt on the rain-soaked steps.
Then, in a tiny uncertain voice, the little boy whispered only one word.
