Chapter 6: Rosa’s Hidden Scars
Rosa was not a trained child psychologist. She was a woman who had spent forty years cleaning up other people's messes. But she possessed an emotional intelligence forged in the fires of her own difficult past. Growing up, Rosa had watched her own brother consumed by a similar, unnameable rage. She knew what it looked like when a child felt completely untethered from the world.
She knew that when a cornered animal lashes out, it isn't looking for a fight; it's looking for an escape. That was why she didn't run when Mateo threw the cup. She knew that if she ran, she would just be confirming his worst fear: that he was a monster, that he was unlovable, and that his pain was too toxic for anyone to handle. By stepping forward, into the danger zone, Rosa dismantled his entire defense mechanism in a matter of seconds.
