That morning, Mateo had asked whether grandmothers could be angry with children.

Lucia had been buttoning her black turtleneck. She stopped with one hand at her throat.

“Why would you ask that?”

He sat on the bed, swinging his feet above the floor.

“Grandma says I make Papa sad when I want to come home.”

Lucia sat beside him.

“You are allowed to miss me when you’re with Papa. You’re allowed to miss Papa when you’re here. Neither feeling is wrong.”

“She says big boys don’t cry.”

“Big boys have feelings too.”

Mateo nodded, but kept looking at his shoes.

Since her divorce from Daniel, Lucia had tried to keep adult disagreements outside her son’s life. She answered messages politely. She packed his favorite pajamas for weekends with his father. She refused to criticize Daniel within his hearing.

Carmen treated that restraint as an invitation.

At first, she sent suggestions about food and bedtime. Then came demands about schooling and friends. When Lucia declined, Carmen began calling her selfish, always through Daniel, always with enough tenderness in her voice to make the accusation sound concerned.

Daniel’s answer rarely changed.

“She’s old fashioned. Don’t turn everything into a fight.”

Now Lucia opened her phone and reread Carmen’s message from the previous evening.

“You cannot expect us to keep accepting your arrangements. This will be settled soon.”

She had assumed Carmen meant another argument about holidays.

She took a screenshot and sent it to Daniel.

“Please speak to your mother. Mateo is worried about upsetting her. Any changes to visits need to be discussed between us.”

Daniel replied during lunch.

“You’re reading too much into it. She’s buying him a coat.”

Lucia wanted to believe him. For the rest of the day, she worked, collected Mateo, and listened as he described a drawing he had made at school.

She was still listening when they passed through the iron gate.

Now, with Carmen holding her cheek and Mateo crying behind her, Lucia remembered the message.

This will be settled soon.

She finally understood that Carmen had meant to settle it herself.