Chapter 55

Ramon POV

My mother’s eyes searched my face, looking for reassurance that I had the capability to make good on that promise. Whatever she saw there seemed to satisfy her, because she nodded slowly.

“What do you need from me?” she asked.

“Keep Ollie calm,” I said. “Help Lake when he wakes up. Make sure they both eat something—neither of them has had proper meals in days. And Mamá? Don’t let them know you’re aware of all the details. Lake is... he’s ashamed of what he had to do. He doesn’t need people looking at him with pity.”

“Not pity,” my mother corrected firmly. “Respect. What Lake did—raising that baby alone, keeping him safe despite impossible circumstances, sacrificing everything for his child—that’s not something to pity. That’s something to honor.”

If she only knew that Lake had been doing all of that since he was fourteen years old, for a brother rather than a son, the respect would be even greater. But that revelation wasn’t mine to mak