But when the boy finally spoke, it was not anger.

“I can’t tell you it didn’t hurt,” Santiago said.

“It did.

I needed a grandfather for a lot of years, and I didn’t have one, and there’s no pretending that away.

But if we’re going to be a family now — really be one — then I don’t want us to spend it punishing each other for what already happened.

You can’t give me back the fifteen years.

I can’t pretend I didn’t need them.