Hearing the word father, Dorian looked completely lost. He didn’t know what to do with himself. The tears which had stopped flowing a while ago came back but this time they carried something different.

It wasn’t grief anymore. I could clearly see it on his face. He wanted to hug her. Cry on the only shoulder left behind for him in this world.

I could feel his heart wanted to hold that very hand and kiss it. And he went for it too. But in a different way than what his heart was asking.

He gently grabbed the hand that was hovering on his cheek. Then removed it. Placed it back at her side.

"Don’t call me that." His voice was barely holding together. "Call me a demon. Call me a murderer. Call me the thing that took your mother from you. Any of those. But please, not that."

She looked at him with a painful smile that shouldn’t have existed on a face that young.

"How can I even say that? I am not blind. I know everything. I heard and saw everything. Even my mother’s life through that diary. And there is no one other than me who knows how she lived with that pain."

Her voice was steady despite the tears still sitting at the edges.

"I had a very vague memory of her. I was too young to understand anything back then. But every word she said to me still revolves around my head. The way she hid the pain behind her eyes and told me that I can live as I want. Do as I like. Love any person regardless of status. And she would handle the rest."

She swallowed.

"How can a five year old understand the weight behind those words? But now I do. Now I know the pain she was carrying when she handed me that pendant and made me promise that I would never show it to anyone. That I would only look inside once I reached adulthood."

Her gaze didn’t waver from his face.

"She was a victim of this cursed world. This cursed system that took everything from her. But she wasn’t alone in that. There was someone else on the other side. Another victim. He suffered the same way. The scenario was different but the pain was identical."

She stepped closer.

"Don’t call yourself a monster. Because all I see is a broken man. A victim who fell right into the hands of a cruel fate. A man who was blinded by betrayal because it came from the person he truly loved. And that alone shows how much your world revolved around that one person. That you destroyed yourself, your own body, and I know very well that you knew the consequences of the power you accepted."

Her voice hardened with certainty.

"So I know exactly what you are. I know every sin attached to your name. I know the blood on these hands."

She reached for those grey hands and held them.

"And I am still calling you father. Because mama spent her entire life protecting a boy she loved. She gave up everything for him. Her pride. Her happiness. Her future. Her life. All for one person."

Her grip tightened around his fingers.

"If that person was worth all of that to her, then he is worth more than just one word from me."

Dorian’s face twisted as if to protest. "But, daught..."

He couldn’t finish. She placed a finger on his lips.

"Shhh."

Then she said with a firm voice that carried her mother’s stubbornness through every syllable. "It’s Mariam. And remember this. If you ever call yourself a monster again or tell me to say the same, I will never talk to you. And I will hate you for it."

She looked into his bloody hollow eyes.

"Because which monster breaks like this? Which monster shows this much vulnerability?"

Something escaped his face that hadn’t been there in six years. A smile. Small and cracked but real.

He grabbed her hand and brought it to his lips. Kissed her palm gently. Then said. "Mariam. That’s a lovely name. But do you know where it came from?"

She shook her head. "I don’t know."

"It was the name we came up with together. Me and your mother. We decided on it long before you were born. If we ever had a girl, she would be called Mariam." A faint laugh escaped him. "It took us three days and endless fights to settle on it. Mari from her mother, your grandmother Maria. And Am from my mother, Amaya."

He looked up at the sky. "She really carried the promise."

Mariam said. "She did. Even after you killed her. Even right now, seeing from the heavens, I bet she still doesn’t hate you. She would still love you. After all, you were the most precious thing to her."

She wiped a tear from his cheek.

"So don’t feel sad about it. Don’t let her see you break like this. Otherwise she will be mad at you after everything she sacrificed."

Dorian looked at his daughter. Studied her face like he was searching for something specific. And then he found it.

"That same motherly scolding. That same hair color." His voice cracked softly. "You remind me of just her."

He looked up at the sky again and said. "Mirena, you liar. You said she looked like me. But she is just a carbon copy of you. Even after your death your habit of lying is still teasing me."

Mariam wiped her own tears. Then Dorian looked at her and slowly they both closed the distance between them.

They hugged.

Tightly. So tightly that neither seemed willing to let go first. Like if either of them loosened their grip even slightly the other would vanish.

It lasted for several minutes. Long enough for both of their backs to be soaked with the other’s tears. Long enough for the silence around them to feel sacred.

Then something snapped Dorian out of it.

He pressed both hands against his head in sudden pain. His face contorted and his body jerked violently. Those voices were back. And looking at his condition this time it wasn’t just discomfort. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

He shouted. "Just leave me alone, you devil!"

After some time when the pain faded and he came back to his senses, he looked at Mariam. And the expression on his face was one of pure defeat.

"Forgive your father for what he will do next." His voice was low and final. "I will have to bid farewell to you. Because if I don’t then these hands will not be mine anymore. And they will do something that will make me carry a regret far worse than everything before."

Mariam’s face filled with panic. "What do you mean? If the thing inside you is trying to control you then just fight it! Fight for me! I won’t let you leave when I just got you back!"

Dorian placed a finger on her lips this time. The same gesture she had given him minutes ago.

"I was never alive to begin with. I already sold my soul to a demon. And I have no choice but to end my remaining life before she takes over my body completely. I refused her orders and broke the pact. This is the consequence."

She shoved his finger aside. "No! We can find a way! There has to be someone who can break whatever pact you..."

"There is no one." His voice was calm now. Settled. "And even if there was, my body is already rotten. I won’t make it. But don’t worry about me."

Something that looked almost like peace crossed his grey face.

"I always wanted this end. Before today I was never in enough control of my own body to even take my own life. But right now, in this moment, I can."

He punched his fist through his own chest.

CRUNCH.

His claws found his heart inside. And crushed it.

"I can finally be free." Blood poured from his lips as he smiled. "And go meet your mother where ever she is."

His body started falling forward but Mariam caught him. She lowered him into her lap, cradling his head against her legs.

He looked up at her face with a smile that was getting weaker by the second. "What do you think? Will she forgive me? How many months or years will it take to make up?"

He coughed softly. "Knowing how stubborn she is I bet she will be furious for quite a long time."

Mariam stroked his head gently and said through her tears. "But she will be curiously waiting for you too."

"Same." He laughed weakly. "I can already feel a very long lecture coming."

His legs were vanishing now. Dissolving from the feet upward like black soil crumbling away. But he didn’t want to waste a single moment he had left with his daughter.

"And I will be waiting to see her. To tell her how our daughter has grown into a fine woman. How sensible and kind she turned out. Unlike a certain someone."

Mariam’s hand moved to her stomach. She held it gently and said. "And also tell her this. That she will soon be a grandma."

Dorian’s dissolving face froze with shock.

Mariam continued with a tearful smile. "And you will be a grandpa."

She gestured toward a man standing at the edge of the scene. He had been watching everything unfold from a distance. The same man who had been protesting against Mariam coming here. Begging her not to walk into danger.

And now Mariam was calling him forward.