The Sins of Duke Evander (BOOK III)

EPILOGUE

***

"Why did you do that?" I asked my son.

"He was annoying," He scoffed, not looking the least bit ashamed of his actions.

"I don't think that gives you the right to beat him up like that, and now he's in the hospital with his parents trying, and failing, to sue me," I rolled my eyes.

"Well, I don't think you had the right to murder a man just because you were jealous of him," Aurelio shot back as I scoffed, glaring at his choice of words, still annoyed at myself for letting him find out about the dead detective.

"I wasn't jealous of him. I was teaching him a lesson for looking at my wife, and your mother in that unsanitary way. You can't disagree to that," He shrugged, not saying anything. It wasn't like Aurelio to beat people up, so when he did, I knew there was a good reason for it, I didn't have to worry about him becoming like me in that sense.

"I won't tell your mother what you did, she doesn't need to know since it'll only worry her. You know how she is," I changed the subject.

"I know," Elio sighed.

I glanced at him as he sat on the passenger seat, looking out the window with a nonchalant look on his face before turning my eyes back on the road.

A good few years have passed since the fateful day in which I attempted to kill myself by shooting a bullet through my brain, and since then, Elio has grown up, and thankfully, he's not as psychotic as me, which I hoped it stayed like for the rest of his life.

While I haven't killed anyone since that day, the same can't be said about injuring them to a certain degree, it was necessary to blow off steam, and it's not like I beat up innocent people, I only beat up the annoying ones that no one liked. 

And Elio seems to have caught that same habit. He beats up people who get on his nerve, but thankfully he hasn't taken any lives.

"Did you give them money to shut them up?" Elio mumbled; eyes unmoving from the window as I spared him another glace.

"I gave them how much they deserved. Which is more than enough to cover the hospital fees, the rest is their problem," I replied as he hummed.

"Mama would be disappointed,"

"Yes. She would... But you know her, she loves you," He chuckled at that, knowing it was true because it was. And I know she loved her child more than she loved me, and I also know that my kid loves her more than me, to the extent to which his love can go.

As I drove passed the main gates, and into the garage, Elio hopped out of the car, swinging his backpack over his shoulder before entering the house, and I followed behind.

Entering the kitchen, I caught him hugging my wife as she laughed, pausing in her baking to turn around and hug him back, nearly two heads shorter than him. And there was once a time where he fit inside her womb.

"Welcome home," I smiled at her words, never getting bored of hearing them as I pecked her lips in greeting, following with my turn at hugging her.

"You're late today," She stated.

"Traffic," I replied, going to sit on the island as Elio nodded in agreement, backing me up as Alina didn't think another thought about it, going back to her baking.

"Go wash up. Dinner will be ready soon, and I'm making dessert today," She proudly said. She's recently grown a hobby of baking, and now she bakes at whatever chance she gets.

Her dream of fashion designing is also going well as she's no longer an apprentice at the boutique she works at with Paulo, but a business partner with hundreds of customers wearing her designs.

I don't think things have ever been so peaceful before.

I am well aware that I have hurt her, and I know that she's been scarred by past events, it's possible with one look into her eyes. But she is smiling, and she is happy, that's what matters.

Even if I am disappearing.

With Evan and I regularly going to therapy, and Evan coming to terms with everything that happened in our lives, I am becoming meaningless. My job was to protect him, but he no longer needed protecting.

In the past, to prevent him from coming to terms with everything, and to prevent me from disappearing, I had become erratic and did things to scare him further into disbelief, lengthening my lifeline, but I can't do that anymore. I promised her.

And I know that one day I will completely vanish.

"You know that you are the light of my life, don't you?" I breathed out.

"That came out of nowhere," She turned away from her kneading to look at me, coming to sit on the stool beside me as I outstretched a hand to brush ringlets of her black hair away, looking into those violet eyes that were becoming more of a memory than reality for me.

"But yes. I know that." She eventually said as I smiled.

"Good. And I want you to remember that. Remember me,"

I have sinned an uncountable number of sins, and if the afterlife exists for me then I am sure to burn in the depths of hells for them.

Evan has years left to live. He's healthy, he's strong, and he has a wife and a son to live for. While I had something to live for too, I know that they don't need me to live, so with that knowledge, it's best I slowly disappear without a word.

But it's okay. I'm okay.

While it all blurred in the middle, it's become clear to me now. I protected him well enough, I did good, and he knows that. We don't need to write that down in our diary to know.

I survived. 

I sinned. 

And I lived. I, Alvise Moretti lived.

...

THE END.

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