Page 82 of The Tempted
“What? No! Dad, what did you do?” I asked frantically.
“I love you,” he whispered as they cuffed him. I dropped Mikey’s hands and hurried to my father before the police could take him away.
“Daddy, please! Don’t do this!” I begged. I stared at him for a beat waiting for him to react, but he never did and when I looked in his eyes, I realized that I had really lost him. My father was ready to pay for his sins. There was nothing I could do or say to change his mind. Nobody would stand in the way of his penance.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and cried into his chest.
“I love you, daddy,” I cried against him. “I’ll always love you.”
My father pulled back, giving me one final look before nodding towards the police. I sobbed as the police escorted my father out of the room.
“Come here Princess,” Mikey pleaded from the confines of his hospital bed. It took everything in me not to follow my father, but in the end, I went to Mikey. He made me push down the bar so that I could lie beside him and he carefully draped one arm around my shoulder.
“I’ve got you,” he said softly against my hair as I cried on his shoulder.
My father was the first man I ever loved and tonight I lost him when he turned himself into the authorities, but I found solace in the man I was meant to love for the rest of my life. The Valente’s and the Pastore’s never had it easy in this life we were given our father’s both fell victims to the mob, but in the end, it was mine and Mikey’s love that prevailed.
The End
