“Then, I’m happy for you.” She smiles, but I see the tightness in her eyes. I hear the sorrow she dares not speak.

And just like that, the furiously burning joy within me fades to little more than a smoldering ember. It isn’t gone, not entirely, but it is drowned in a wash of guilt.

Here I am, emanating my own happiness while Rosalita is trying to quell her own despair.

I have the surviving de Sonza child upstairs. The one she loved is gone forever.

“Rosalita…”

She must hear the things I lack the capacity to verbalize because she shakes her head. Vehemently. “Don’t.”

“Don’t what? I haven’t done anything.”

Other than be an insensitive jerk, but that’s to be expected from me at this point if we’re being perfectly honest.

“He would have wanted you to be happy.” There’s a certainty in Rosalita’s voice that I’m not sure I’d feel if our positions were reversed. “He would have wanted her to be happy.”

And it is true. I know it. Alejandro was a good person. A better one than I am, that much is certain.

“I’m glad you two have each other.” Rosalita’s eyes drop as she stares into her cup. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her drunk, and while she doesn’t seem inebriated, I know that look. It’s the look that screams of hurt that wants nothing more than to be silenced by the sweet bliss of oblivion.

“I miss him, too.”

Her smile is watery. Wobbly. But real. And still good. She reaches for the locket at her throat, wrapping reverent fingers around it. “He was one of the good ones, wasn’t he?”

I nod, blinking past a sudden heat in the corners of my eyes. “He was.”

She nods, more to herself than to me. Then, she tilts her head in the direction of the stairs and the bedrooms and the person waiting for me behind one of those doors. “Go. Don’t keep her waiting.” She exhales a soft, wistful sigh. “Time is precious. You never know how much you have. Cherish every second.”

“I will.” It doesn’t feel like enough, but it’s all I have. “I promise.”

She nods, a little too rapidly. “Good. Now get out of here and let me drown my sorrows in peace.”

I hesitate. She fixes me with a hard stare.

“I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure? Because usually when someone says they need to drown their sorrows, they’re anything but fine.”

A weary smile tugs at her lips.

“True enough, but…” She jerks her head toward the stairs again. “Go. It’ll warm my heart to know one of us is content.”