Aurora:
“Baby girl,” I said, lifting my daughter in my arms, hugging her to my chest. She laughed and pulled on my hair, taking it in her mouth, making me laugh.
“She missed you a lot,” Natalia said, making me smile. The two of us, somehow, made amends together, and though I knew that we haven’t talked about anything, her mother’s funeral after everything happened was one that I wouldn’t forget.
The way our eyes met and the way she walked toward me, being the one person she wanted to see at that moment, she wrapped her arms around me, pulling me to her, and I hugged just as tightly, knowing that I was her rock and wall. She looked for it, and I was going to give it to her.
“I missed her too,” I said, and Natalia laughed, pulling my hair from my daughter’s mouth. She looked at me for a
