INICIAR SESIÓNThe next message came before I could type.No Name: Karl can play house for a weekend. That doesn’t make him their father.A cold kind of fury slid from the back of my neck down my spine.I looked at Karl again. He was kneeling on the wet ground, helping Max tie a little string around two sticks to make a “security gate.” Issa sat near him, her hair escaping her beanie, cheeks red, mouth busy giving instructions. Karl didn’t look like a man playing father. He looked like a man with enough patience to listen to a four-year-old explain the immigration laws of a pinecone kingdom.And maybe that was what made Zach the angriest.Not that Karl was touching his children.But that those children were laughing with Karl without knowing there was another man demanding a place in their lives from behind a screen.I typed.ME: Don’t talk about them like they’re furniture you left behind in your old house.Zach’s reply didn’t come right away.I waited.Five seconds.Ten.The forest moved slowly.F
By almost ten, after one round of clothing negotiations, two threats of no hot chocolate, and one request from Issa for “an outfit that looks like rich forest girl, not lost child,” we finally made it outside.The plan was simple: a short trail to a little viewpoint, a scavenger hunt for the kids, then a picnic lunch near the creek before heading back to the cabin.Simple, said someone who had not given birth to two little De Sanctises with the last name Gómez.Max wore a dark blue rain jacket, a gray beanie, and mustard-yellow boots he had chosen because, according to him, they were “ranger but stylish.” Issa wore a pale lavender coat, white boots, and fluffy earmuffs that were absolutely not appropriate for hiking but were perfect for becoming a problem.Karl carried a backpack full of water, snacks, a first-aid kit, a rain cover, extra socks, and all the things that made him look like a competent adult man.I carried lip balm, my phone, sunglasses, and trauma.Balance.The morning
Morning began with the sound of something falling.Not an alarm.Not birds.Not pretty rain tapping on the window like an indie film.The sound came from downstairs, from the living room. Loud. Followed by a silence so clean it had no business existing in a house with two four-year-olds.I opened one eye.Outside the bedroom window, the pine forest was still foggy, the sky a soft gray, and a thin drizzle fell like someone was spraying the world on the mist setting. The cabin was warm. Thick blanket. Pillows smelling like expensive laundry. My body, for the first time in several days, did not wake up feeling like it wanted to bite an Italian man.“YOU KILLED MY T-REX!”I closed my eye again.God heard I’d had twelve seconds of peace and immediately said, adorable, no.I came downstairs ten minutes later with my hair thrown into a messy ponytail, an oat-colored oversized sweater, black leggings, and the face of a woman who was beautiful before coffee but not necessarily merciful.The li
The night after baths, easy pasta Karl made because I refused to cook “on a vacation that is legally supposed to not be work,” and one small drama over who got the blue bowl, the cabin finally went quiet.Our version of quiet.In the living room, Max and Issa lay on their stomachs on the rug near the fireplace, each holding a crayon. Drawing paper was scattered in front of them. Bunny sat beside Issa like a supervisor. Max’s T-Rex lay on its back on a pile of pillows, possibly dead from exhaustion.“I’m drawing the waterfall,” Max said.“That looks like blue spaghetti,” Issa said.“It’s water moving fast.”“It’s spaghetti.”“What are you drawing?”“The cabin.”“That’s a box with eyelashes.”“Because this cabin is feminine.”I sat on the porch sofa outside, the glass door cracked open just enough so I could still hear them. The night air had gone cold, but it didn’t bite. After the rain, the sky had opened up. Stars appeared above the pines, small and clean, as if someone had spilled s
The day was going too well.Which....made me suspicious.Because in my life, things that went too well usually came with tiny terms and conditions at the bottom of the page, written in six-point font by a devil with a law degree.We had lunch at a little café near the main road, the kind of place with big windows facing the pines, wood floors, and a menu trying very hard to look rustic even though the avocado toast could clearly fund a week of therapy. I sat by the window with my second latte of the day, because my body needed caffeine to compensate for the emotional mistakes my brain had been making since Boston.Max ate his grilled cheese with both hands, his round cheeks moving, his blue eyes focused like he was closing an international deal.Issa, beside Karl, stared at her bowl of tomato soup with delicate disgust. “This is too red,” she said.I stopped buttering my bread. “Tomato soup is supposed to be red.”“But this is aggressive red.”Karl picked up his spoon and tasted a lit
Rain fell in that very Oregon way. A thin misty drizzle suspended in the air, just enough to dampen the ends of your hair, make the cabin’s wooden steps shine, and turn the whole pine forest around us into a movie set built specifically to make women make bad decisions.The cabin stood among tall, dark, beautiful trees, with big windows, a wooden porch, warm yellow lights tucked under the roof, and one small road that still made sense for people who required espresso, Wi-Fi, and basic human rights. Down the hill was the main road, with a little café, a general store, and the bakery we had passed earlier. So yes, technically this was a “retreat to the woods.” In practice, it was the woods for people who still wanted artisan croissants and full signal.I stood on the wet gravel in front of the cabin with both hands tucked into the pockets of my camel wool coat, staring at the row of rain-darkened pines, then at the thin fog hanging low between the tree trunks.I grew up with too many mo
The morning after the party, the Gómez mansion woke up the way it always did: too much light, too much noise, and too many people who believed butter was a love language.I was only halfway down the stairs when the first explosion came from the dining room.“THAT’S MINE!”“NO, IT’S NOT! Tía Abuelit
Fiona started making her way down from the center of the room. Zach moved with her, calm, unhurried. Which was worse. I preferred reckless men. They were easier to predict.This one wasn’t.“Bella!” Fiona’s voice carried over to us, warm, happy, completely unaware she’d just lit a bomb in a room fu
I didn’t really breathe again until everyone finally started sitting down.The Gómez dining room that night looked like an ad for a rich family that was chaotic but still photogenic. Little candles in the center of the table. White porcelain plates. Crystal glasses. Flowers arranged a little too pe
Two in the afternoon in Oregon is always the color of a depressed rich person.Gray sky. Thin rain. Low fog threading through the pines. My glass house sits on top of the hill like a woman too beautiful to be honest, and usually that view is enough to make my head stop throwing glasses at the wall.







