Chapter 5 – Thirty Years Later - Age 67
AIDA
Dear Diary,
It’s been a while since I’ve written. A good fifty years in fact.
Sometimes I read the things I had written to you when I was there, in that house, with that monster of a man, and I can’t believe that was me.
Because my life, it’s been good. So good.
For those first few years, I feared it was a mere illusion, casting me in a spell.
But it’s real—my life, the love we found.
Matteo and I, we have each other, our children, our sweet grandchildren, and we treat every day like it’s a gift.
We made up for everything we had lost, everything we had missed out on. We even crossed off everything on Matteo’s bucket list, including skinny-dipping. Boy, was that fun.
We tried that again a time or two. But these days, my old bones can’t take much of that. I’ll always have the memories though, the days filled with sunsets and laughter, and the beauty of life reborn from the dusk of our despair.
So, it’s time to say goodbye, my old friend. This will be my last entry. You served me well, like a true friend, and I’ll never forget you.
I close the diary, the same one I had since I was fourteen, the one Alison had given me for my birthday, and I place it on top of my lap.
“What are you writing, sweetheart?” Matteo drapes an arm around me, pulling me in for a kiss.
“Just how much I love you.” I drop my head over his shoulder and his lips touch the top of my head.
“Not as much as I love you.” He sighs as we swing a gaze at our six grandchildren, making way too much noise, but we don’t care because that’s how it’s supposed to be. That’s what I always wanted.
His laughter rumbles from beside me as he watches Sasha, the three-year-old, wrestle her cousin Mica. “I hope I’ve given you everything you dreamed of,” he says with affection tethered to his voice.
“Everything and more, my love. Everything and more.”
Thank you for reading the Cavaleri Brothers series!