The authorities took the matter seriously. They asked detailed questions, including whether Sofia felt safe returning home.
She said no.
That answer was enough for me to understand that taking her back simply because it was legally my house would be a terrible mistake.
We stayed with my brother, Rafael, who lived on the other side of León. His wife made Sofia a proper breakfast, found clean pajamas for her, and offered her the spare bedroom without asking a single question she wasn’t ready to answer.
That afternoon, I attended the meeting at Sofia’s school.
Her counselor explained that Sofia had become withdrawn over several months. She had stopped participating in class and sometimes arrived looking exhausted.
One teacher had noticed a bruise near her wrist and asked about it.
Sofia had claimed she had fallen.
The teacher had suspected something was wrong, but Patricia’s reassuring phone calls had complicated the school’s attempts to understand the situation.
