Every missing thing had been proof she wasn’t losing her mind. Every returned thing was a little piece of ground under her feet.

Andrés stepped toward her. “Valeria, let’s talk.”

She moved behind me. It wasn’t much. One step. But it was the most important step she’d taken all day.

“No,” she said.

His face hardened. “You don’t get to destroy a marriage over dishes.”

She looked down at her hands. The purple hadn’t fully left her fingers. “It was never about dishes.”