PART 2
On the way home, Sofia said almost nothing. He touched his hair as if he still didn’t understand where he had gone. I drove with my hands so tight behind the wheel that my fingers hurt.
When I arrived, I made him chamomile tea. He sat in the kitchen with a huge sweatshirt, his legs tied up and his gaze lost.
Then he blurted out the phrase that ended up breaking me.
“They held me down, mom.”
I left the cup on the table.
“What did you say?”
“I told them no. Aunt Marisol pushed me into a chair. My grandmother grabbed my arms. My grandfather said it was going to serve as a lesson to me. And Vale shouted that they should cut off my forehead too.”
I felt nauseous.
“Has anyone helped you?”
He shook his head.
“Mateo was recording with his tablet. He laughed. He said he was going to send it to the family chat.”
There I stopped feeling afraid. I began to feel clarity.
“Sofia, what they did was not a prank. They touched you without permission, held you down and humiliated you. That’s aggression.”
She looked up.
“So I’m not exaggerating?”
I knelt in front of her.
“No my love. They want you to think that because it suits them.”
I asked him if he wanted to report. I didn’t pressure her. I told her that I was going to support her no matter what she decided.
It took a few seconds.
“Yeah. I want you to know that it wasn’t right.”
I gave him my cell phone and he wrote to Mateo:
“I know you recorded. Can you send me the video?”
Thirty seconds later he arrived.
Unapologetically. Without fear. Just a laughing emoji and the file.
We saw it together.
It lasted just fifteen seconds.
Sofia appeared crying, saying: “No, please, no.” Marisol pulled a lock on him. My mother held her by the shoulders. My dad, with a plate of cake in his hand, said: “Leave her, so she can learn.” Valeria shouted: “Shorter, shorter!” And Mateo laughed behind the camera.
When he finished, Sofia didn’t cry.
Just said:
“Let’s go.”
We went to the Public Ministry that same night. A lawyer named Álvarez assisted us. He listened to Sofía with a patience that I will never forget. He watched the video twice. His face changed from kind to serious.
“We are going to file the complaint”, he said. “Notification will also be given to the DIF.”
Sofía answered questions with a calmness that broke my heart. She didn’t look like a scared girl anymore. She seemed like a girl tired of being made to feel guilty for existing.
The next day hell began.
My mom called me first.
“You’re crazy? Report your own family for a haircut?”
“It wasn’t a cut. It was an attack.”
“You are going to destroy us.”
“You started when you touched my daughter.”
I hung.
Then Marisol called. I cried. He said that the DIF had gone to his house, that they asked about Valeria, that they reviewed the family atmosphere.
“Lucía, please withdraw the complaint. This got out of control.”
“No. For the first time, the consequences came in time.”
That afternoon they published their version on Facebook.
They said that Sofía had asked for a change of look. That I was conflictive. That I always wanted to do less to Marisol. That I was using my daughter for childhood revenge.
People started commenting.
“Poor family.”
“Lucía was always intense.”
“How exaggerated, if the hair grows.”
I showed everything to Sofia. I thought it was going to collapse.
But not.
He looked at me and said:
“Upload the video.”
The truth was one click away from setting everything on fire.
And no one was prepared for what would be revealed in the third part…
