No blood test could measure that.
By noon, Andrés returned to the hospital with red eyes and the posture of a man carrying a house on his back.
Rachel came with him.
So did Detective Kim.
I understood immediately.
This was not a casual visit.
Andrés sat across from me in the family consultation room.
His hands were clasped so tightly his knuckles were white.
“I gave a statement,” he said.
I said nothing.
“I told them everything I knew. Everything she said. Everything she did.”
“Now?”
His face twisted.
“I deserve that.”
“Yes,” I said. “You do.”
He nodded.
“My mother told me you were overwhelmed. She said Emma was too much for you. She said you resented being a mother.”
I laughed once.
A dead sound.
“And you believed that?”
He looked at the floor.
“I didn’t want to think she could lie like that.”
“So you chose to think I was failing instead.”
He closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
The honesty hurt more than denial.
