Penance of Honor | BOOK 2 ✔️

Chapter: Twenty-Nine

Pierce's P.O.V

I linger around my father's room. For the past week, I had been avoiding seeing him. I know I am being ridiculous for not wanting to see my father after all this time, and what he had done for me. 

Soon, my lips begin to purse.

Still, that man is my father with both the good and the bad he had done. I cannot just recognize the good without seeing the bad as well... Cassius had helped me realize that.

I open the door and see my father's eyes staring outside the window. He had gotten somewhat better since the events played out. The blade was lucky enough to have lodged into his rib cage. 

"...Father..."

"Ah, Pierce...I thought you would not come and see me. I have seen all of my children's' faces but yours."

"My mate is a handful..." I murmur as I step closer to his bedside.

He lets out a gruff laugh before smiling. "That he is. I had told you. He can be a bit much for someone like you." 

I sit down on one of the two chairs pressing close to his bedside before my eyes fall. 

"I love him still."

"Of course, you do... You will continue to love him as much as I loved your mother...It is what I expect," he rasps. "I only want what's best for my children and I did not see that Alpha being that for you. I did not see Sanuel being any good for Aaron either."

His eyes begin to water. 

"But I cannot dictate who you should love and who becomes your mate. I very well know that. However, you are my children. All that I have left of her." 

"...I know..."

"No, I do not think you know."

My eyes swell with tears after a long silence. 

"I thought I could not live after losing her in such a terrible way. But when I gazed into your faces, I knew you all were relying on me to take care of you, to love you, to be both a mother and father to you." Tears start to fall from his eyes. 

"And I swore that day, I would do anything to protect you from the cruelty of what the world has to offer." 

 "Fa-"

"I know I have failed in that and I want to ask for your forgiveness...I do not want to be that thing that tears you apart from the inside." 

"..."

"I want you to love freely. Do not worry about my feelings any longe-"

"Yes, I worry about your feelings on things. You are my father. I want you to approve of things as they are, not merely just accepting it as it is." 

"Pierce..."

"You had not done bad without some good...and I forgive you for that...I will always forgive you as you know I will. You are my father. Do not take advantage of it."

"...I just wish for your happiness now..." he sighs out while holding his side. "If he is the person that gives you it, who am I to deny you it?" 

I let out a small smile before my head falls. Soon, I begin to twiddle my fingers trying to resist the urge to smile.

"I want you to be a part of our lives not only because you are my father, but... you will be the only grandparent he or she will have and I want them to know you." 

As soon as I raise my head, I feel his hand clench onto mine. His eyes are wide and his mouth is left hanging open.

"Do not tell me... I am going to be a grandfather? You are giving me a grandchild?"