Still Aint Forgave Myself

Damien woke from his dream in a cold sweat on his leather couch. God had spoken to him and he knew it. He searched the living room for his son then he stood up and searched his house for his only son. He called out his name and when he heard no answer, he fell to his knees and bursted into tears. Diamond came out of her room and rushed to her father's aide. She stroked his shoulders and pleaded with him, "Daddy? What's wrong!? Are you okay!?"
He just kept repeating, "I'm a monster! A monster, what've I become!?"
She continued to wipe the tears from his face, but to no avail. The tears just kept pouring from his dark eyes. She was at a loss. She had never seen her father in so much pain.
Then Young Demon and Don walked into the house with Don's head sunk low to the ground. His heart filled with shame. His father had heard their footsteps and he rushed to face his son. When Damien saw the shamed face of his son, he reached for him and pulled him close. "Son!? My son! What have I done!? Are you okay, mijo!?"
Don shook in his father's embrace as Young Demon watches with a hint of jealousy. Such love he had never known. He would never know what it was like to be embraced in this way. The thought pained him in a way that a bullet could never touch.
Damien began to calm down while he held his son in his arms. He pulled his son at arms length and looked deep into his son's eyes and with Diamond looking over his shoulder, he asked, "Son, please tell me you didn't go through with my order? Please tell me that you didn't kill Rico?"
Don looked to the ground and thought about what had just occured in that apartment, the murders that he had been a part of. He remembered holding the gun to Rico, shaking. His eyes and his curses affecting Don on a level that he couldn't understand. Not at that moment. Young Demon understood, and he knew his friend would not pull that trigger, but Young Demon could not allow Rico to live, not after he had seen both of their faces, not after they had went through so much planning to have his crew betray him. If he had allowed Rico to keep his soul, they would have both been marked men all throughout Harlem. Not only that, but it would have made the Family look weak and Young Demon could not allow that. So he pulled the weapon out of his own jeans and proceeded to empty the entire clip of his Beretta into Rico's chest. Don knew he wouldn't be the same after that.
Afterward, after they had paid Rico's crew, they had left from the apartment, got inside of Don's Cadillac, and left, just in time to avoid the bullets from the assault rifles that filled the remaining members of Rico's crew. In that car, Young Demon had made a promised that if anyone were to ask, Young Demon would tell them that Don had been the shooter, but Don saw it in his father's tear filled eyes that he had wanted, had needed the truth. So that was exactly what he had decided to give him. He looked into his father's puffy eyes and with his own tear filled gaze, he answered, "No."
The happiness that filled his father's heart could be seen by all as Diamond let out a sigh of relief. She was so glad that her brother was unable to follow in her father's footsteps. "Oh son, that makes me so happy! Happier than you will ever understand."
"But pa, I failed you." His voice was filled with shame as he spoke, but the relief in his father's own voice made him fill a little at ease of not a little confused. "How could you be proud of me?"
"Son, you aren't like me." Damien looked over Don's shoulder into Young Demon's eyes and added, "Like Demon....Demon, that is name is not you anymore. You have saved my son again. You are more than Family. You are family. Come here, Dante."
Young Demon had not heard his real name ever since he watched his mother overdosed. Only his blood family ever called him by this name and in that instance, he felt like an orphan who had just found the family he had been searching for his entire life. He walked toward Damien's embrace with tears in his own eyes and Diamond watched as she gained another brother in her father's eyes. "Thank you, Dante for saving my son from the monster I was going to build in him. When no one else, including me, including himself, saw the potential in him, you did. I'm sure you took care of Rico and his crew for the Family and I am sorry for making you do that for me."
Dante looked up into Damien's eyes and answered with crocodile tears, "Anything for the Family."
Damien smiled and patted Dante on his shoulder. "You're right, Dante, so now it is time for me to do something for you."
Dante looked into Damien's eyes, confused. "Pops, but you've given me everything. What more could I possibly ask for?"
"Love, mijo. I've never told you that I loved you like a son. When I first looked into your eyes, I knew then that I should've been your father, a father to you. You were me."
"But you have been. You've given me everything when moms wouldn't even give me attention."
"But I gave you the wrong idea. When I was a little older than you two, I made a promise to myself that my family would never have to go through what I went through. I had forgotten that promise, but I was reminded by you. Not only that, but you saved my son from becoming a monster like his father." Dante nodded his head as he listened to every word. "I promised myself that I would do anything for my family, and you are just family to me, mijo. You are something like a son, no, you are a son to me, so it is time we make this official." He turned around and yelled with a voice filled with happy tears, "Come here, Diamond. I want all my children around me."
Diamond did just as she was told as Dante looked up to Damien. He had heard him when he had said "children" and he thought to himself, "Was he talking about me?"
Damien pulled all of them together as though they were babies waiting for him to tell a story. "Listen. You are all my children and I love all of you very much. I have not been the best father I must admit. I wanted my two sons to follow in my footsteps, but I have seen the light, my youngest son helped me with that." A light began to warm the recesses of Dante's heart. He had never heard someone say they loved him like a son, and it coming from a man he had revered so much, it was almost too much. "But from now on, I want you to find your own paths in life, a better path a better dream, and whatever you need to fulfill this dream, I will be here to help, just be something better than me. Be better than me."
Dante kept his gaze, "But what if I dream to be you, pops?"
Damien laughed but then his gaze became real serious. "Then have another dream, son."