I reached out to the letter,s. but my fingers were shaking so hard that I couldn’t get it. Luke noticed and gently pushed the glass of water towards me, while Matteo sat in the chair to my right.

Not a sum of money.

It was the certainty that she had been their mother all the time.

I turned off the living room light and headed for the bedroom.

From Luke’s room there was a voice:

Good night, Mom!

Then Matteo shouted from the next room:
Ezoic

We stayed a moment motionless in the hallway.

I put my hand to my heart.

I love you too, my boys.

I closed the bedroom door with a smile on my lips.

In fourteen years, they had never said to me “mother.”

But that evening I understood that their love had been there from the beginning, even when it had not had a name.

Because a mother is not only defined by the child she brings into the world.

Sometimes it is defined by the child next to whom it chooses to stay.

And I chose to stay.