I sat beside her.
“No one can replace your child, Silvia.”
“I know that in my head. But not in my heart.”
I put my hand on her shoulder.
“You will always be my daughter. And Mikhail will always be my son. Emilia doesn’t take anything away from you.”
“But she’ll inherit.”
There was the truth.
Small.
Uncomfortable.
But still there.
I looked at her.
“Yes. She will inherit. Just like you will. But love isn’t property that gets divided into square meters.”
Silvia lowered her head.
“I’m sorry about the lawsuit.”
Those words couldn’t erase anything.
They couldn’t.
But they were a beginning.
“And I’m sorry I kept you at a distance,” I said. “I shouldn’t have told you everything on the first day. But I should have told you more.”
She nodded.
Emilia made a little sound and smiled in her sleep.
Silvia looked at her.
“Maybe one day she’ll call me Auntie.”
“Maybe.”
Mikhail came much later.
Not with a gift.
Not with an apology.
He came with questions.
“What’s going to happen to the house?”
That was the first thing he said.
Todor was there.
He looked at him calmly.
“Hello, Mikhail.”
Mikhail didn’t answer.
