Chapter 6: The Healing
The healing began the day my mother was discharged from the hospital.
I brought her home to the small house I had rented after leaving the mansion. Elena came with us. She had nowhere else to go, and I owed her more than I could ever repay.
My mother was still weak. She needed help with meals, with medication, with moving from room to room. Elena and I took turns caring for her. We cooked simple meals. We sat with her in the garden. We listened when she wanted to talk about the months of isolation and fear.
One evening, my mother looked at Elena and said, “You saved my life.”
Elena shook her head. “I only did what was right.”
My mother took her hand. “That is more than most people do.”
The healing was slow.
It was quiet nights watching old movies.
It was mornings with coffee on the porch.
It was the first time my mother laughed again.
Elena and I talked late into the night. She told me about her life before coming to work for us — the struggles, the dreams she had put aside to send money home to her family. I told her about the years I had ignored the warning signs in my marriage.
We became friends.
Then something more.
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The healing was not just for my mother.
It was for all of us.
