---
Thirty minutes later, my phone buzzed again.
This time, it was my mother-in-law, Lidia.
“How dare you humiliate my son like this?!” she shouted the moment I answered.
“How dare I?” I repeated quietly.
“Yes! They have nowhere to go! Valeria is pregnant!”
“Oh… then maybe you should let them stay with you.”
Silence.
Because Lidia lived in a small apartment — one I had been quietly paying the rent for.
“I… we don’t have space,” she muttered.
“Then maybe Mauricio should find a job,” I replied.
“You’re being cruel.”
“No,” I said calmly.
“I’m being fair.”
