The Bloodied Bouquet

I shook my head. “No,” I said. “I’m not a child. And I’m not playing. I love Dante. And he loves me. And nothing you say or do can change that.”

My father looked at Dante. “Is that true?” he asked. “Do you love my son?”

Dante looked at me, his eyes softening. “Yes,” he said, his voice rough. “I love him. More than anything.”

My father’s face twisted. “Then you’re both fools,” he said. “And fools deserve what they get.”

He raised his hand, and his men stepped forward, their guns raised.

But Dante was faster. He shoved me behind him, firing off a shot that hit one of the men in the chest. The man went down, and then all hell broke loose.

Bullets flew everywhere. Men screamed. Men died.

Dante and I fought back to back, our guns blazing. We were outnumbered, outgunned, but we didn’t care. We fought like demons, like men possessed.

And somehow, impossibly, we won. We cut through my father’s men like a knife through butter, leaving a trail of bodies in our wake.

When it was over, when the last man had fallen, Dante and I stood alone in the foyer, our chests heaving, our guns smoking.

My father lay dead at our feet, a bullet hole in his forehead.

Dante’s father was nowhere to be seen.

We looked at each other, and I saw the same thing in his eyes that I felt in my heart: relief. And fear. And love.

“We have to go,” Dante said.

I nodded. “I know,” I said.

We packed quickly, taking only what we could carry. We left the city that night, driving west until the sun came up.

We didn’t stop until we reached the ocean. We found a small town, a quiet place where no one knew our names.

And there, finally, we began to build a life together. A real life. A life of our own choosing.

It wasn’t easy. We had to learn to trust each other. To rely on each other. To love each other, truly and deeply.

But we did it. We’re still doing it.

And now, as I sit here recording this confession, I know that I made the right choice. That we made the right choice.

We chose each other. We chose love. We chose a future together, no matter what it cost us.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

[END OF RECORDING]