They made us sleep on the floor with my children… Three days later, my mother called me 98 times begging for forgiveness.

Then she asked, “Mom, doesn’t Grandma love us?”

My hands tightened on the steering wheel.

“I love you,” I said. “And tonight, that is enough.”

I drove away without looking back.

I didn’t know that by leaving, I had also stopped funding the life my family had built on my silence. PlanFamily Trips

Part 2
I couldn’t find a hotel.

Every place I called was full because of the holiday weekend and a convention in town. Mateo fell asleep against the window. Lucía pretended to sleep so I wouldn’t worry.

I parked outside an Oxxo, bought hot chocolate, sandwiches, and terrible coffee, then called an old college friend, Inés.

She answered sleepily.

“Clara?”