Chapter 223: Chapter Two Hundred and Twenty-Three

Chapter Two Hundred and Twenty-Three

Malachi’s POV

Travis’s wedding was in two weeks.

We’d booked flights. Arranged for Lia’s first extended trip. Coordinated with both families about logistics and schedules and making sure everyone would be there.

"I’m nervous," Alicia admitted one evening while packing Lia’s things. "About seeing everyone. About being in Dark City again. About people judging us."

"Let them judge. We know our truth."

"Easy for you to say. You belong there. I’m still the outsider who broke up a marriage."

"You didn’t break up anything. Travis did that himself long before you and I happened. And you’re not an outsider. You’re a Blackwood and a Moretti. You belong anywhere you choose to be."

She folded another tiny outfit, added it to the growing pile. "Lia’s going to need so many things. Diapers and wipes and bottles and—"

"We’ll bring everything. And whatever we forget, we’ll buy there."

"What if she doesn’t sleep? What if the travel is too much for her? What if—"

I crossed the room, took the onesie from her hands, pulled her close. "Stop. You’re spiraling. What’s really bothering you?"

She was quiet for a moment, her face pressed against my chest. "What if going back changes you? What if you see the mansion and the family and remember who you used to be and decide you miss it?"

"That’s not going to happen."

"You don’t know that."

"I do know that. Because I’ve already been back. At Thanksgiving. And I couldn’t wait to leave. Couldn’t wait to come home to you and this life we’ve built."

"But that was different. That was family dinner. This is a wedding. There’ll be dancing and drinking and celebrating. All the things that used to be your world."

"Alicia, look at me."

She tilted her head up, her eyes uncertain.

"My world is here. With you. With Lia. Everything else is just places I used to be. People I used to know. A life I used to live. But it’s not my life anymore. You are. This is. Nothing’s going to change that."

"Promise?"

"I promise. We go to the wedding. We support Travis and Emily. We show everyone we’re happy. Then we come home. Together. End of story."

She nodded against my chest, but I could feel the tension still radiating from her body.

The next morning, Maurice called with news.

"The wedding’s gotten complicated," he said. "Tom’s sick. Really sick. The doctors are saying maybe weeks, maybe days. He wants to see you before the wedding. Wants to meet Lia properly. Wants to say things he should have said years ago."

My father. Dying. The man who’d been distant and cold my entire childhood, who’d followed Pa’s orders without question, who’d made me into a weapon instead of a son.

"How sick?"

"Cancer. Advanced. He’s been hiding it for months. Didn’t want anyone to know until he couldn’t hide it anymore."

"Does Travis know?"

"He just found out. He’s devastated. They’ve gotten close over the past year. Sobriety meetings together. Actual conversations. Tom was trying to be a better father to him at least."

"I’ll come early. Before the wedding. Bring Alicia and Lia."

"He’d like that. He talks about you constantly. About how proud he is. About how you did what he could never do. Walked away. Built something clean."

After hanging up, I found Alicia feeding Lia in the nursery.

"We need to go to Dark City sooner than planned. My father’s dying. He wants to see us."

Her face softened immediately. "I’m so sorry. How do you feel?"

"I don’t know. He was never much of a father. But he’s still my father. And I have things I need to say to him before it’s too late."

"Then we’ll go. Whatever you need."

We flew out three days later. Lia did remarkably well on the plane, sleeping most of the way, charming the flight attendants when she was awake.

"She’s definitely your daughter," Alicia said, watching Lia smile at yet another stranger. "You could charm anyone when you wanted to."

"Could?"

"Can. You can charm anyone when you want to. You just choose not to most of the time."

"I only need to charm one person. Everyone else can think what they want."

Tom was in hospice care. The room was nice, private, but it couldn’t hide what was happening. He’d lost so much weight I barely recognized him. His skin had a grayish tone. His breathing was labored.

But his eyes lit up when he saw us walk in.

"Malachi. Alicia. And this must be Lia."

"This is her," I said, carrying our daughter closer. "Your granddaughter."

"She’s beautiful. Looks like your mother. Like my mother. She has our eyes."

"She does."

Tom gestured weakly. "Can I hold her?"

I looked at Alicia. She nodded.

I carefully transferred Lia into Tom’s arms. He held her like she was made of glass, tears streaming down his face.

"Hello, little one. I’m your grandfather. I wish I had more time with you. Wish I could watch you grow up. But I’m glad I got to meet you. Glad I got to see what your father built. What he became despite everything I failed to teach him."

"You taught me enough," I said.

"I taught you to be hard. To be cold. To use violence as currency. That’s not enough. That’s not anything to be proud of."

"You also taught me loyalty. Determination. How to protect what matters. Those lessons served me well."

"Did they? Or did you have to unlearn everything I taught you to find happiness?"

He wasn’t wrong. Most of what Tom had taught me, I’d had to discard to become the man Alicia needed.

"I took what was useful and left the rest," I said finally. "That’s all anyone can do with their parents’ lessons."

Tom looked at Alicia. "Thank you. For loving him. For seeing past what we made him into. For giving him a chance to be more."

"He gave himself that chance," Alicia said. "I just reminded him it was possible."

"Either way. Thank you. You saved him. You saved our whole family in a way. Showed us that change was possible. That we could be more than what Pa demanded."

Lia started fussing. Tom kissed her forehead gently before handing her back to me.

"I need to tell you something," he said, his voice getting weaker. "About your mother. About why she left."

I stiffened. My mother was a subject we never discussed. She’d left when I was five. Disappeared completely. Tom had always refused to talk about her.

"She didn’t want to leave you boys. She loved you more than anything. But Pa gave her a choice. Leave or watch him turn you into killers. She chose to leave hoping you’d have some chance at normal lives without her influence."

"That’s not what you told us. You said she abandoned us. That she didn’t want to be a mother."

"I lied. Because Pa told me to. Because it was easier than admitting he’d driven her away. Easier than facing my own complicity in it."

"Where is she now?"

"I don’t know. She changed her name. Disappeared completely. I tried to find her once, years ago. Got close. But she made it clear she didn’t want to be found. That she’d chosen her path and had to live with it."

"Why are you telling me this now?"

"Because you deserve the truth. Because you have a daughter now and you should know what your mother sacrificed for you. She gave up everything hoping you’d have a chance at something better. Looks like she was right."

I didn’t know what to say. Didn’t know how to process this information that rewrote my entire childhood.

"I’m sorry," Tom continued. "For lying. For not being a better father. For letting Pa control everything. For making you into something you had to fight so hard to escape. I’m sorry for all of it."

"I forgive you," I said, surprised to find I meant it. "You did the best you could with what you knew. That’s all any of us can do."

"Be better than I was. Be the father to Lia that I couldn’t be to you. Break the cycle completely."

"I will. I am."

We stayed for another hour. Talking. Sharing memories. Letting Tom hold Lia again. Making peace with the past in whatever way was possible in the time we had left.

When we finally left, Tom was sleeping. Peaceful for the first time since we’d arrived.

"He won’t last much longer," the nurse told us quietly. "Days maybe. But you gave him what he needed. Peace. Closure. That’s a gift."

In the car, Alicia took my hand. "How are you feeling?"

"Strange. Sad. Relieved. All of it mixed together in ways I can’t separate."

"Your mother left to protect you. That’s a different kind of love than I expected."

"She chose to suffer so I might have a chance. That’s..." I couldn’t finish. The emotion was too big.

"That’s what parents do," Alicia said gently. "They sacrifice. They protect. They choose their children’s wellbeing over their own happiness. Your mother did that. And now you’re doing it for Lia."

"I’m not sacrificing anything. This life with you is everything I want."

"But you sacrificed the empire. The power. Everything you’d built. You walked away from it for us."

"That wasn’t sacrifice. That was choosing something better. There’s a difference."

Lia made a sound from her car seat. We both turned to look at her. She was awake, looking around with those dark eyes, taking everything in.

"She’s so alert," I said. "So aware of everything."

"She gets that from you. Always watching. Always assessing."

"I hope she gets your heart. Your capacity for forgiveness and love and seeing the best in people."

"She’ll get pieces of both of us. The good and the bad. And we’ll help her navigate all of it."

We drove back to the hotel where we were staying. Not the family mansion. Neutral territory where we could control our environment.

That night, after Lia was asleep, I held Alicia close and thought about my mother. About the sacrifice she’d made. About how she’d given up everything hoping I’d have a chance at something better.

She’d been right. I did have something better. Had found it despite everything. Despite Pa’s training and Tom’s failures and my own darkness.

I had this. This family. This love. This life.

And I’d protect it the way my mother had tried to protect me.