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I know this man sitting there in front of the TV watching football. I’ve spent so much of my life in this house when I dated Luke. I have sat at his dinner table. I’ve spoken with him so many times. He’s written me Christmas cards. I once spent Thanksgiving here in this very room with this man carving the turkey.
Eugene doesn’t seem like the type to commit a gang murder to me.
But I see that look of certainty in Damon’s eyes. He has the look of a man who knows he is in the right.
And I don’t doubt him for a heartbeat. Damon reallybelieves Luke’s dad is that man who destroyed his life and that of his godfather’s all those years ago. I know Damon well enough to know he is totally hellbent on killing the man I’ve known for so very long right here and right now.
And that’s why I have to stand in front of him.
I bet even Luke didn’t know about any of this; he didn’t know who his dad was, or what he might’ve once done to the crime boss.
“Don’t do this, Damon,” I say as I put myself between the man and Eugene.
“Ava, get out of the way,” the gangster says to me, determined to follow through with the motion of his knife.
“Please don’t do this,” I whisper in defiance.
I gaze directly into Damon’s eyes, and in that moment, it feels as if the entire world has dissolved around us. It’s as though we’re the only two souls present, locked in an overpowering connection.
For the two of us, Luke is no longer here. Eugene is no longer here.
This is a struggle only Damon and I can figure out.Together.
“Ava, this man killed the man I loved,” Damon says. He is almost begging. He wants me to move out of the way with every fiber of his being. He can’t do anything until I move.
I shake my head at the insanity of it all. I just want him to see sense. I know Damon isn’t truly like this.
IhopeDamon isn’t truly like this.
“If you are right, then Eugene has done a lot of bad things, and I know that you made a vow to fulfill your revenge, but there are other ways for him to pay,” I explain, my voice shaking. “There are other ways that don’t contain spilled blood. Damon, this should not be an eye for an eye.”
“Ava. You don’t understand. This man did the worst thing in the world…”
Damon’s voice is soft. Childlike. I can see that moment behind those dark eyes of his: that time a teenage Damon witnessed his godfather shot down in a hail of bullets.
He attempts to interrupt me, but my resolve is stronger than his effort. I haven’t said everything I need to say, and neither Damon nor his burning intensity can silence me now.
“I know you’ve never received any true satisfaction from hurting others, Damon,” I reply sternly. “I’ve really gotten to know you over the last few weeks, and I know that this is not you. No matter what you might say.”
“I have to do this,” Damon replies. “I have to avenge my godfather.”
“I understand, Damon. But this isn’t the way to do it. This isn’tyou.”
“Ava…”
“Damon.”
A hint of uncertainty briefly crosses his gaze, an unusual moment of doubt for Damon.
But I know him. I know his true character.
Sometimes he needs a reminder as to who he really is.
“I have to do this...”
His voice is weaker now than it was before. He’s less convinced than he was a moment ago.
I lift up my hands and tenderly cradle his face.
