Chapter 18 — The Speech

At nine, he asked for the room’s attention and stepped onto a small platform facing the garden.

My mother took her place at his right, Ximena at his left.

I stayed at the back, in the wheelchair, where they’d put me.

“Friends,” Emiliano began, his voice catching on cue, “these have been the hardest days of my life.

My wife may never again be the woman she was.