Chapter 15
Livia asked to see Camilla after ten months.
I did not suggest it.
Did not discourage it.
We met in the mountain garden.
Camilla arrived alone.
No diamonds.
No Marco.
Livia stayed beside me.
Camilla crouched several feet away.
“I’m sorry.”
Livia looked at her.
“For vase?”
Camilla shook her head.
“No. The vase didn’t matter.”
Good start.
“For slap?”
“Yes.”
“For saying vase more money than me?”
Camilla began crying.
“Yes.”
Livia frowned.
“That was mean.”
“Yes.”
Then came the harder question.
“For Mommy?”
Camilla looked at me.
I did not rescue her.
She turned back to Livia.
“I helped people scare your mommy because I wanted your family to stay near me.”
Livia processed that.
“Mom got hurt?”
Camilla’s voice broke.
“Yes.”
“Did you want?”
“No.”
Livia looked at the flowers.
Then said:
“But happened.”
Camilla nodded.
“Yes.”
No euphemism.
Good.
Livia did not hug her.
She asked:
“You still make pancakes?”
I almost laughed.
Camilla cried harder.
“Yes.”
“Good ones?”
“Yes.”
Livia thought.
“Maybe another day.”
Camilla smiled through tears.
“Okay.”
That was all she received.
More than she deserved.
Exactly as much as Livia wanted to give.
After Camilla left, my daughter looked at me.
“You mad?”
“At you?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Because I talk her?”
“No.”
She seemed relieved.
Important.
Children should never have to prove loyalty by hating who their parents hate.
I wanted Livia to know what happened.
May you like
I did not want to hand her my anger as inheritance.
Sofia would have understood the difference.
