PART 5: THE FAMILY WE LOST

The next morning, I woke up in my childhood bedroom.

I had barely slept.

Every time I closed my eyes,[ I saw Sofia as a baby.]

Then I saw Valentina.

Two daughters.

Two lives.

One mother who had spent twenty years believing she had only one child.

I sat on the edge of the bed and looked around the room.

The furniture had changed.

The walls had been repainted.

But the feeling was exactly the same.

I was home.

For the first time, I understood the meaning behind my mother’s words in that old photograph.

“No matter what happens, this will always be your home.”

She had never stopped believing that.

A few hours later, Sofia knocked on the door.

“Can I come in?”

I smiled.

“Of course.”

She sat beside me.

For a moment, neither of us spoke.

Then she asked the question I had been afraid of.

“What was my life supposed to be like?”

I looked at her.

“I don’t know.”

She smiled sadly.

“That’s okay.”

I took her hand.

“But I know what I want it to[]