Luca POV
Elena called on Thursday evening and said she wanted the children for the weekend.
She did not ask whether they had plans. She did not ask whether they wanted to go. She spoke as though the decision had already been made and all I needed to do was prepare their bags.
“I will pick them up on Saturday morning,” she said.
I sat behind the desk in my office, looking through a schedule I had stopped reading the moment she called.
“For how long?”
“Until Sunday evening.”
“No.”
There was a short silence.
Then Elena laughed softly.
“I expected that.”
“You have barely spent a full afternoon with them in months.”
“That is why I want the weekend.”
“You do not fix months of absence in two days.”
“I am not trying to fix anything.”
“That is exactly the problem.”
Her voice became
