🐅 🐅 🐅
NOW an adult, Feilong sat behind the organ while wrapped in robes.
“Fodder!” Angelina cried, throwing her arms around him.
Feilong stiffened, his eyes widening. As he remained silent, unsure what to do, Angelina looked at him anxiously.
“Fodder?” she asked. “Do you remember me? Did it not work?”
“It worked,” he answered, looking into her watery, azure eyes and shaking his head. “I remember everything.”
“Then why won’t you hug me?” Angelina pressed in a trembling voice, clearly on the verge of tears. “Are you mad that I caused all this?”
Feilong gasped. “N-No…”
He couldn’t speak properly. The air in his lungs had frozen, and his windpipe had constricted. It hurt to even breathe.
“I’m not angry,” Feilong said, wringing out the words stuck inside his chest. “But why would you help me when I caused you so much misery?” Feilong hugged himself even tighter, his nails digging into his arms. “You should’ve just abandoned me.”
For a moment, Angelina had no idea what to say. Then, she squeezed Feilong in her arms and said, “Fodder.”
“I have no right to feel your embrace,” he answered. “What I did to you was unforgivable. Punish me, Lina.”
Angelina pressed her forehead against Feilong’s and shook her head. “You sacrificed yourself to protect me.”
“I only did what’s expected of a father…”
And only after I failed as a father for so long, Feilong thought.
Angelina wanted to cry as she watched regret torment Feilong. Remembering everything had racked him with guilt. He could no longer look at Angelina with a clear conscience, as he’d done earlier.
“That’s not true,” Angelina said. “You did more than what’s expected.”
Some parents couldn’t love their children, and some children couldn’t love their parents. Likewise, some people didn’t know how to express their love. In previous lives, Angelina had even rejoiced over her father and brother’s deaths rather than mourning them. Sadly, familial bonds didn’t guarantee unconditional love. Having a family that cared about you was a miracle. As such, Angelina cherished the present moment.
Now’s my chance, she thought. I have to tell him what I regretted being unable to say.
“I love you, Fodder,” Angelina said in a nasal voice. “Sorry for not being able to say it until now…”
Feilong lifted his head. Seeing Angelina’s tear-stained face flustered him.
“Will you hug me like you did when you were little?” Angelina asked.
“Lina… I’m sorry.”
As Feilong acted perplexed, Kyril hugged him from behind. “You should say thank you during times like this, Father.”
Feilong’s chest warmed in response to Kyril’s words, his frozen lungs beginning to thaw. Hesitantly, he wrapped his arms around Angelina, who relaxed and leaned into him.
“Thank you, Angelina,” Feilong said.
Angelina responded with a silent smile and nod.
“And thank you, Kyril,” Feilong added, rubbing him on the back with one arm.
Kyril embraced his father even tighter. “I’m just glad you’re safe.”
Feilong wrapped his children in a hug, wringing out his next words in a trembling voice. “I love both of you… so, so much.”