Chapter 14 - ELENA AND LEOAt twenty-one, Leo visited Elena at the children’s rehabilitation hospital where she now worked.
She wore navy scrubs.
Badge:
ELENA REYES-RUIZ, RN
Leo stared at it.
“You actually did it.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“You sound surprised.”
“No.”
“You do.”
“I was eight months old when you started planning.”
“Yes.”
“I had doubts.”
She smacked his arm.
He laughed.
They ate lunch in the cafeteria.
Leo asked:
“Do you ever regret staying?”
“At the mansion?”
“Yes.”
Elena considered.
“Sometimes.”
That surprised him.
“I thought you loved me.”
“I did.”
“Then why regret?”
“Because love doesn't automatically make every sacrifice healthy.”
Leo listened.
“I stayed longer than I wanted because I was afraid leaving would hurt you.”
“Would it?”
“Yes.”
“So?”
“So I still needed my own life.”
She smiled.
“Marcus learned that.”
“He helped?”
“He mostly learned to stop helping before asking.”
Leo laughed.
Accurate.
Then his face became serious.
“You saved me.”
Elena shook her head.
“I protected you once.”
“You did more.”
“I cared for you.”
“Same thing?”
“No.”
She leaned closer.
“Don't turn me into a saint.”
“I was tired.”
“I needed money.”
“I was angry sometimes.”
“I almost quit twice.”
Leo smiled.
“Why didn't you?”
“You had pneumonia once.”
“Then your first birthday.”
“Then I was already applying to school.”
“Life got messy.”
She shrugged.
“People love clean stories.”
“Maid loves baby more than rich mother.”
“Good woman.”
“Bad woman.”
“Hero father arrives.”
“That's not what happened.”
Leo looked at her.
“What happened?”
Elena thought.
“A lot of people failed in different ways.”
“Some more seriously than others.”
“You were a baby.”
“I was an employee afraid to speak.”
“Your father was absent.”
“Victoria was desperate and dangerous.”
“Then everyone had to make new choices.”
Leo smiled.
“That’s less exciting.”
“Usually means it’s closer to true.”
Before leaving, Leo hugged her.
“Thank you.”
Elena hugged back.
“For what?”
“For staying long enough.”
She smiled.
“Thank you for letting me leave.”
That sentence became one of Leo’s favorites.
Because love was not proved only by staying.
May you like
Sometimes it was proved by letting someone go become who they were meant to be—
without punishing them for no longer being needed in the same way.
