Semua Bab The Man I Swore to Hate: Bab 61 - Bab 66

Time did not heal everything. But it softened the edges.It dulled the pain, like the hush of waves smoothing broken glass. And in that quiet, in that slow unfolding of grief, I began to rediscover what it meant to be a mother.Not the version I was before—the one obsessed with perfection, terrified of failure. Not the woman who was always running, always fighting, always looking over her shoulder for ghosts.This time, I learned to be present. Because Achileas was growing up. And I didn’t want to miss a thing.“Ma, look!” he giggled, running barefoot across the garden with a grasshopper cupped between his palms. “It’s jumping, like me!”His little legs were scratched and muddy. His cheeks sun-kissed. His joy was so loud, so fierce, that it cracked something open in my chest.I knelt beside him, tucking a loose curl behind his ear. “You caught that all by yourself?”He nodded proudly. “I wanna keep him.”I laughed. “You’ll have to ask your Papa if bugs are allowed in the house.”Achil

I watched the bus pull away with a quiet ache in my chest. Achileas sat by the window, eyes already lost in the gray sprawl of the city ahead. He didn’t wave. He never did. But I knew he looked back.I stood there on the curb, arms crossed, the wind rustling my dress. Romero was beside me, hands in his pockets. We didn’t speak. We just stood together, watching our son vanish into a new life.“He’ll be fine,” Romero said, eventually.“I know,” I replied, though my voice sounded thinner than usual. “It’s Rosetta I’m worried about now.”He didn’t say anything to that. Because he knew.Everything changed the moment Achileas left. The house grew too quiet—and somehow, at the same time, too loud. Rosetta filled the silence with her voice, her presence, her drama.She used to cling to her brother’s every word. Now she slammed her bedroom door when I told her to clean up after herself. She used to curl beside me on the couch to watch old movies. Now she scrolled through her phone with a scoff

The house had been too quiet lately.Rosetta and Achileas’s absence was louder than the silence I used to carry. I found myself setting out four plates at dinner, only to remove two with a tight smile when Romero gave me a knowing glance. They've been gone only a few moths. Studying abroad. Living on their own. Thriving, maybe. Or pretending to. Like I used to.Romero found me out by the edge of the property again, standing where the grass thinned and the earth dropped into the flow of the river. My old spot. Where I once shouted into the wind, and where, just days before Rosetta left, I had my final real conversation with her.“You’ll catch a cold,” Romero said gently, placing a shawl over my shoulders.I didn’t answer. I was staring across the river like it could bring her back. He didn’t push me. He stood beside me like he always did, patient, warm. Unshakable.“She still hasn't told you why she chose to study abroad?” I muttered. “She says it was her friend from class, but I don't