The sweet scent of the perfume mingled with Leo’s muffled cry. He was barely eight years old, and his blue eyes filled with tears as he felt the burning sensation. His aunt, Clara, laughed nervously. “It was just a joke,” she murmured, as the little boy desperately rubbed his eyelids. But what hurt the most wasn’t the stinging, but the laughter that followed.
His mother, Marta, let out a harsh laugh: “If he goes blind, at least he won’t see the disaster that is his life.” His father, Andrés, added without looking at the boy: “At least he smells good now.” Leo stood still, motionless, his gaze lost in thought. No one came to help him.
Sofia, his older sister, witnessed everything from the kitchen doorway. At that moment, something shifted within her. For years she had endured her parents’ sarcasm, the oppressive atmosphere of a house that seemed to thrive on contempt. But seeing her brother tremble silently, his eyes burning and tears streaming down his face, ignited a cold fury within her.
“Stop it!” she shouted. “What on earth is wrong with you? He’s a child!”
Marta frowned. “Shut up, Sofía. You always exaggerate. Nothing happened.”
“Nothing? They threw perfume in his eyes!”
Andrés shrugged. “She should learn not to be so weak.”
Sofia took Leo’s hand and led him to the bathroom. The boy was sobbing softly, trying not to make a sound. She gently rinsed his eyes, and when he finally stopped crying, she hugged him. “Everything’s going to be alright, Leo. I promise.”
“Why do they hate me so much?” he asked, his voice trembling.
“Because they don’t know how to love,” she replied without thinking.
That night, while Leo slept with a damp towel over his eyelids, Sofia made a decision that would change everything. She couldn’t let them keep destroying him. She started searching her phone for shelters, assistance programs, anywhere they could escape.
At midnight, she heard her mother’s footsteps in the hallway. Marta opened the door without knocking.
“What were you doing in the bathroom with him for so long?”
“I was helping him. Someone had to.”
“Stop playing the martyr, Sofia. You can’t save everyone.”
“I just need to save him.”
When Marta left, Sofia realized that her promise to Leo wasn’t an impulse. It was a declaration of war.
The following days were a parade of silences and excuses. Marta kept repeating that it had all been a misunderstanding, that “children exaggerate.” Andrés, as always, locked himself in his study to drink whiskey and watch the news, ignoring the constant trembling in Leo’s hands.
Sofia, on the other hand, couldn’t forget. Every time she saw her brother’s irritated eyes, she remembered her parents’ laughter. She knew that house wasn’t a home: it was a trap, a cage built with sarcasm and fear.
One afternoon, while her parents argued in the living room, Sofía discreetly searched on her computer for a place they could escape to. She found an organization that helped victims of domestic abuse: Casa Esperanza , on the outskirts of Valencia. They had an emergency number and a foster care program for minors.
She dialed the number.
“Good afternoon, my name is Sofía… I’m sixteen years old. My brother and I…” Her voice trembled. “We need help.”
The woman on the other end of the line listened attentively. She asked her to speak in code if anyone approached, and to save the number under a different name.
Sofía hung up with the feeling that she had taken the first step toward an abyss.
But the tension was growing. Marta began to suspect something. “You’ve been very nervous lately, Sofía. What are you up to?” she asked her one day while they were folding laundry.
“I’m just studying,” she lied.
“Well, it seems like you’re studying to escape.”
That night, Andrés got more drunk than usual. When Leo accidentally knocked over a glass of water, his father stood up abruptly and shoved him against the wall.
“Useless!” he shouted. “You can’t even hold a glass!”
Sofía rushed to intervene.
“Leave him alone!”
Andrés raised his hand, but stopped himself.
“Both of you to your rooms.”
She locked the door. Leo huddled in a corner, sobbing.
“Sofi… I’m scared.”
She hugged him.
“Almost there, Leo. Just a little longer. We’ll leave tomorrow.”
She waited until everyone was asleep. With a flashlight and a small backpack, she gathered the documents, some money, and an old photo of the two of them at the beach. When the clock struck three, she pushed open the bathroom window and helped Leo out. Outside, the cool air smelled of freedom.
They ran to the nearest station. The train to Valencia was leaving in twenty minutes. While they waited, Leo asked quietly,
“Do you think they’ll look for us?”
Sofia nodded.
“Yes. But this time they won’t find us so easily.”
Casa Esperanza wasn’t big, but it had something their parents’ house never had: peace. There, Sofía and Leo found refuge. They were given clean clothes, hot food, and, for the first time in a long time, someone looked at them with tenderness.
The center’s psychologist, Elena Morales , greeted them with a patient smile.
“You’re safe here,” she assured them. “We’ll work everything else out little by little.”
It took Leo weeks to stop waking up screaming at night. He was afraid of strong smells, the sound of doors opening, and adults laughing. Sofia, meanwhile, began attending group therapy with other girls who had gone through the same thing. She discovered that her story wasn’t unique, and that her guilt—that weight she carried in silence—wasn’t hers to bear.
A month later, the police contacted the center. Marta and Andrés had reported their children missing, but the investigation revealed a history of neglect and abuse. Sofía’s testimony, corroborated by marks around Leo’s eyes and psychological reports, was enough to open a legal case.
During the trial, Marta avoided looking at her children. Andrés, on the other hand, smiled arrogantly, convinced that everything would be resolved. But when the judge read the sentence—removal of custody and restraining orders—the smile vanished.
As they left the courthouse, Leo looked at his sister.
“Is it over?
” “Not entirely,” she replied. “But something better is about to begin.”
The following months brought changes. Sofia won a scholarship to study social work; she wanted to help other children who, like Leo, had been silenced by fear. Leo started attending the neighborhood school, where he discovered he had a talent for drawing. He drew with soft, almost timid strokes, but each of his pictures held something luminous, as if he were trying to reconstruct the world that had been taken from him.
One spring afternoon, Sofia came home to find her brother painting by the open window. The scent of flowers drifted in from the garden.
“Do you remember that day?” he asked without looking at her.
“Yes,” she said. “But it doesn’t hurt so much anymore.”
Leo smiled.
“I think I can smell now without being afraid.”
Sofia hugged him. There were no perfect happy endings, but there were new beginnings. And in Leo’s eyes, now free of any trace of pain, there was something he hadn’t had before: hope.
