“I thought I would want it, but I don’t. I’m a different person now.” I wanted to raise my kid in the village, have a quiet life with Aurelia and Medusa, spend time with my mother while she was still around. “Which works out great because I think you’d do a much better job anyway.”
He turned his head to me when he heard what I said. He stared, the silence somehow louder than words.
“I abandoned Rome to a psychopathic dictator—but you stayed.”
He continued to stare at me.
“I betrayed my country and my people for one person—and you stayed. You continued to fight against Darius and preserve the Roman Republic. Even when you knew it would probably claim your life, you continued to fight back. My reign has ended, and yours has begun.”
He continued to hold his silence as he stared at me.
I couldn’t figure out how he felt about it, not when his face was as stoic as stone. “Do you accept?”
“You didn’t betray your country, Con. A man should always put his family first, and that’s exactly what you did. You wouldn’t be the right leader for Rome if you’d done otherwise. I think I made you feel bad because ... I didn’t want to do it alone. I blamed you for everything, when it’s obvious Darius was always a complicated problem. And what I said about your brother ... it was fucked up, and I regret saying it.Would take it back if I could.” He looked away when he finished, like he didn’t want to see my reaction to the last thing he said.
I’d felt no anger toward him at all, but now, I felt somehow lighter. “You can take it back.”
After a hesitation, he turned back to me.
“Because as far as I’m concerned, it never happened. So, do you accept?”
His eyes flicked back and forth between mine, but he let me change the subject and move on from the past. “Yeah.”
I smiled. “Good.”
“Do I get your place?”
“Fuck off,” I said with a laugh.
“Well, what the hell are you going to do with it?”
“Fair point,” I said. “I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll sell it to you—if you let us stay there when we visit.”
“Are you gonna visit often?”
“Probably not.”
“How much?” he asked.
“More than you can afford. But in a couple months, you should be able to cover it. I’m flexible.”
“Sounds like a deal,” he said.
“The least I can do for ... abandoning you.”
He looked at the TV again and watched it for a while.
I stayed at his bedside even though I still had a lot of things to do. This story had a happy ending, but I was still bummed I wouldn’t see him every day like I used to. He was the closest thing I had to a brother ... since mine had died.
“Have you gotten Edric yet?” He turned back to me. He pushed the blankets to his waist as if he’d gotten warm in that little bed.
“No. I’ll swing by tomorrow.”
“Alone?”
“No. Tommaso said he would help me.”
“Good,” he said. “Do you ... feel better now?”
