We’ve never heard Pa admit that he was scared. Even when times were tough—when we were running low on money, or before my mom’s surgery—he had never spoken these words. He’s always tried to stay strong, to be the rock we need whenever everything seems uncertain, so now that he’s said it, none of us knows what to do. Should we comfort him? Should we tell him to be strong? Should we remind him we’re here with him, and that he’s not alone?

In the end, Ma is the one who speaks up. “Todos tenemos miedo,” she tells him, and it’s the truest thing she could’ve spoken. When I look around the kitchen table and meet Sophie’s and Jorge’s eyes, I see it more clearly than ever—we’re all scared.

“But you’re gonna be okay, Papi,” Sophie says suddenly. And in the second that follows, a lot of things happen. Pa sighs loudly into the phone. Ma goes awfully quiet. Amy relaxes her shoulders, and Uncle Jorge starts nodding to himself. Meanwhile, I become aware of something awakening deep inside of me. It starts as a small ray of hope, but it becomes bigger and brighter, until it starts to overpower the fear I had inside of me a minute ago.

“Everything’s gonna be okay,” my sister adds.

And so, during the last few minutes that we’re ever going to share together as a family before Pa’s future is decided, we all choose to believe that Sophie’s instinct is right. We choose to hold on to what little hope we have left, and to the thought that maybe—just maybe—by this time tomorrow we’ll be sitting here again, and Pa is going to be sitting right next to us.

That night, Sophie and I watch Pasiones in the living room with the volume turned down really low. This is the way we’ve had to watch it lately, because Jorge, Amy, and Ellie usually go to bed early. At times, when something unexpected happens and Sophie and I let out loud gasps, I worry that Uncle Jorge will come out of his bedroom and tell us to keep quiet, but that hasn’t happened yet.

After the episode is over, I decide to go straight to bed. I know I should stay up studying for a trig test I have on Friday, but I don’t think it would make much of a difference anyway. I’m too distracted to memorize formulas and solve practice problems at this point, so I hope that whatever I studied earlier in the week will be enough.