My last act as your bodyguard.
I open the envelope and see a letter inside. When I look over it I realize in an instant it’s not written by Ilya. This is my father’s handwriting.
The letter is from him.
Dear Aiden,
If you’re reading this it means tow things. It means I am dead and so is Ilya.
In the same manner as my father, I gave each of boy’s bodyguards a letter of wisdom from me.
One I felt I had to pass to you as the leader of this family and the Voirik.
Aiden it took me a long time to write your letter, and as I do you sit in Ognenny Ostrov.
Maybe it took me this length of time because it feels like you had everything life could throw at you happen all at once.
You lost your wife and your child and because of that you lost your way.
My message to you is this;
Do not be afraid to live.
Death is something we must all face, and it will happen in different ways for each of us.
Sometimes it’s a thing we have no control over.
How we live, however, is different.
We can choose to be happy or sad, but when we’re allow fear to rule us we miss the chance to be in control of our lives.
I know how you felt when you lost Gabriella. Your mother was killed right in from of me and there was nothing I could do but watch.
I blamed myself for a long time and then I realized I would have still preferred to live a hundred lives with her than without her.
I would never have chosen my life to be any other way and more importantly. Neither would she.
So don’t allow fear or guilt to rule you, or stop you from living.
Or finding love again.
That is death.
I hope this helps.
Always,
Your father.
His last words hit me hard and I find myself re-reading them. Each time I read them the words scream to me and I think of Olivia because the last few weeks without her have felt empty with a nothingness nothing can fill.
Even though I found Aleksei I’m dead inside. The love a parent has for their child is different to any other.
Different to the love I still have for her.
I love her in a way I never thought was possible and that emptiness that increases daily will continue to eat away at me if I don’t do something about it.
I don’t want fear or guilt to rule me.
And I don’t want to be dead inside anymore.
She made me feel alive.
I want that again.