Luis visits once a month.
The first visit is awkward.
He brings pan dulce from the bakery and places the receipt beside the box like an offering. You do not ask for it. He shows you anyway. You both pretend not to understand how much it means.
He does not sit in the cabecera.
Neither do you at first.
Then one Sunday, Silvia says, “Don Ernesto, for God’s sake, sit in your own chair.”
So you do.
The world does not end.
Luis pays back small amounts.
Very small.
Painfully small.
But regular.
That matters more than size.
He keeps the warehouse job longer than anyone expected, then finds office work doing inventory because numbers, apparently, were hiding in his blood after all. He starts seeing a therapist after Marcela’s lawyer contacts him as a witness in Daniel and Karla’s mess.
He tells you this one evening with great discomfort.
