After midnight he waited under the lamp. She spotted him as she was approaching, frowned angrily, and moved away from where he was standing.

“I’ve been waiting,” he pleaded. “It’s been agony for me. We must talk.”

She walked on without answering, and so he stood in her way. “She’s my daughter,” he said. “At least tell me that.”

“I’ll yell for the police,” she said angrily.

“She’s my daughter! I know the whole truth.”

“I’ll yell for the police. Aren’t you listening?”

“You should yell mercy and forgiveness instead.”

She cowed him with a flood of abuse. “Hellfire’s what you deserve,” she retorted, “not forgiveness.”

“Let’s look for a way to forget the past.”

“I’ve forgotten it entirely. Now you disappear with it!”

“Listen, Riri. You’re waiting in vain. You’ll get your freedom and then…”

“What a lousy wretch you are!” she interrupted furiously. “Just as you always were. Can’t you ever imagine anything good?”

He screwed up his face in pain. “It really has been agony for me,” he groaned.

“Your agonies are no business of mine,” she replied bitterly.

“She’s my daughter. She’s got nothing to do with that man in prison.”

Riri looked at him aghast but soon recovered her composure. “She’s his daughter,” she replied. “He adopted her because of his own ideas about what’s right. She belongs to him forever and so do I.”

He screwed up his face even more.

“Just make sure you don’t meet me again after this,” she said threateningly. “I’m warning you…”

“You’re closing the door of mercy, Riri.”

“You closed it yourself. So get lost.”

“But my daughter…” he said tearfully.

“You’re not a father,” she retorted as she rushed on her way. “You’re a coward; you could never be a father!”

THIRTY-ONE