She didn't stop, her words tumbling out in a broken, desperate flood, begging for a redemption she felt she didn't deserve.
For a long time, Matteo sat there, letting the tears fall silently down his face as the storm inside him slowly began to settle. He didn't want to pick apart every wound or revisit every painful detail of the past. He knew that if he said too much, if he dug too deeply into everything he had endured, it would only awaken a fury and pain so deep that he might not be able to move past it. He wanted to heal, not reopen old scars.
Taking a deep, shaky breath, Matteo finally pulled himself together and lifted his head to look directly at her.
"It's fine, Mom," Matteo said, his voice raw and quiet, carrying the weight of a man choosing peace over bitterness.
His mother stopped crying for a fraction of a second, her breath catching as she looked up at him with wide, tear-filled eyes.
"Mom... I forgive you," Matteo said softly.
