Family history

She opened the desk drawer, which her father always kept locked, and found a photograph with the whole family in it. Her father, her mother, her and her two little brothers. She never thought her father could have kept that photograph after what happened.

Her mother left home when she was 15 years old. With what she remembered and what her uncles, aunts and other relatives told her, she tried to piece together her mother's story.

They married her off at 14 to a young man of 29, in her social circle that was common, she wanted to study, she wanted another life. At 20, with 2 children, she told her husband she would study at night and if he didn't accept it she would leave home. He agreed, he was an important merchant and a separation could hurt his business, deep down he knew he loved her and admired her intelligence. Several women worked in his shop, one of them, they said, was the owner's mistress. At home the wife had a woman who took care of everything, took the kids to school, picked them up, did the cleaning, looked after the clothes; the mother did the shopping and cooked.

When she finished high school, she was pregnant with her third child, but she announced she would keep studying, the law degree. Her parents were desperate, they said the son-in-law was a saint for allowing her this madness, family life carried on as normal.

Time passed and when the girl turned 15, after the party. The mother disappeared, she left a note saying she had graduated as a lawyer, that she knew her rights and would come back once she could support herself and help her children become independent and so that her daughter could marry when she wanted and whoever she wanted. The father said nothing, he shut himself up in an anguished silence. The house went on the same as if nothing had happened; a year later the mother came back, she wanted to take her children with her, now she could support them.

The parents had a long talk, then they gathered the children together. The family came back together, he left his mistress and the mother returned to work as a lawyer and take her place in society.