It's not anyone's fault how I feel about him and how he doesn’t feel about me. If anything, I should have kept my mouth shut. We were in a good place. Now, he’s absent again.

“Mrs. De La Rosa?”

I shake my head to find Marco staring at me, eyebrows raised. “Sorry. What did you say?”

“It’s a bit cooler out today, and a rainstorm is expected. You might want to grab a jacket.”

“Oh. Okay. Thanks. And can you please just call me Ivy?”

He nods but I’ve asked him before, and I have a feeling to him it’s a show of respect for Santiago.

“Is Santiago at the hospital?” I ask when we get into the car.

“No, ma’am.”

I bite the inside of my lip and turn to look out the window as we drive in silence. I wonder what Marco thinks. What he knows.

When we get to the hospital, Marco takes me up to my father’s floor and stands just outside, as usual, as I walk into the small room. My father is getting stronger and stronger. Every time I visit, I see the man he once was slowly returning as he puts on weight and regains his stolen strength.

“Dad, you look good,” I say, walking to where he’s sitting behind a table, working on a laptop. I hug him, and he hugs me back. “This is new.” The desk is sturdy and the chair a comfortable-looking office chair. Not his wheelchair, which is good to see, but I don’t miss the furrow between his brows. His mind is on something else even while I visit.

“How are you, Ivy? How’s Eva?”

“We’re both good. Eva’s annoyed about school again so that’s a good sign of life going back to normal, right?”

“That is a good sign.” He says the words absently.

“Do you think we’ll ever get to normal, Dad?”

He blinks, then smiles at me. “Sorry, what?”

“Do you think we’ll ever get to normal? Eva and I? And the baby when he or she comes.” I pause. “And Santiago?” I add. Although what is his normal? Maybe this is it.

“I hope so, sweetheart.”

“What are you doing with the computer? Why does he have you working when you should just be focused on getting better?”

“Ivy, your husband is a complicated man.”

“Do you think I don’t know that?”

“He has demons, and I know he’s trying to banish them. If my work helps—”

“He’s set on revenge, dad. That’s how he’ll banish them. By killing them.” By killing you. I don’t say it. He knows this better than I.

“We had a hand in what happened to him and his family.”

“What do you mean we?”

He shakes his head. “Not you. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.”