He had killed the man who had imprisoned Annick. Had removed him from power. Had set her free, but it didn’t erase what had happened to her.
You could never erase the bad things in the past. You could only go forward. Otherwise... It was like Annick had said.
Seeing bars where there weren’t any.
“How do you live with it? How do you live with the flaws inside of you? How do you move forward?”
“I didn’t have a choice. I love you. And Minerva and Violet. And I love your mother more than anything. And I have to live with myself. So there comes a point where you simply have to do just that. Live. Even if things don’t seem fair. Even if the world is broken. Even if you are.”
“I don’t deserve her.”
“I don’t deserve your mother. I don’t deserve the fact that you still speak to me, Maximus. I never have, and I don’t take that for granted. I don’t deserve Dante’s loyalty, or Min and Violet’s devotion. I can only accept your love. Because it’s the only thing that makes living worth it. It’s not the money. It’s you.”
It was the strangest thing. Because the world was still as it was, and his father had still made the mistakes he had. But there was a deep acceptance inside of him now that hadn’t existed before. The world was broken and he couldn’t fix it.
But he could love a woman who lived in this world. And she could love him. And with that love it was possible that they would make things better than he ever had with vengeance. Than he ever had with darkness.
There were no scales.
There was no cosmic scoresheet. There were tragedies. And there were triumphs. And there was right and wrong, and justice to be sure.
But mostly, there was love. And with love you could blot out a multitude of sins. If you were only brave enough to try.
“Thank you,” Maximus said. “For helping me see.” He hesitated for a moment. “I’m not who anyone in this family thinks I am.”
“We should talk about it. Sometime. When you’ve settled things with your wife.”
Maximus nodded. “All right. But I warn you that when you know the truth, you might not want me as a son anymore.”
“Maximus, you have wanted me as a father in spite of my frailties. I could never not want you as a son.”
Maximus hung up the phone and sat there for a long moment. Then the strongest, sharpest pain he’d ever felt pierced his chest. It was like dying. But he was still alive. Everything that he had tried not to feel since the attempt on Annick’s life assaulted him then. It was no longer just anger. No longer a desperate need for revenge. He had nearly lost her. He had nearly lost her without ever truly having her. He had nearly lost her without ever telling her that he loved her. Without ever letting himself feel it. It was not protection. It was foolishness. It was fear.
And fear was a great liar.
He was gasping for breath now, barely able to.
He had told her he didn’t love her. His Annick. He had hurt her. She had already been hurt so many times.
He did not deserve her. He didn’t.
He doubled over with that knowledge. With that pain.
But she had said that she accepted him. All of him. Everything that he was.
Why? How?
He didn’t have the answer.
But as he lay there, stunned by the full force of these emotions, he knew that it didn’t matter why.
Because it wasn’t fair.
Nothing about life was.
Not the childhood Annick had spent in the dungeon, the death of Stella or the fact that Annick loved him. Knowing all that he was.
None of it was fair.