The Final Goodbye

“Sia, can you please do one thing for me?” Jacob's voice was weak, his breaths shallow as he lay on the stretcher in the ambulance. Alessia clung to his hand as tears were streaming down her face and her heart was heavy with the weight of the secrets he had just confessed.

“Yes, Baba,” she replied, her voice breaking. She couldn’t understand the gravity of everything he had revealed and it crushed her to know how much he had been hiding. But in this moment, he wasn’t a killer, nor the man stuck in his past sins. He was just her father, the only family she had left, and he was slipping away from her. She felt helpless.

Jacob coughed, the effort drained what little strength he had left. Alessia sobbed harder, the panic rising in her chest. "Baba, I will call Anne. She should be here with you."

Jacob shook his head weakly. “No. Don’t call her. I can’t die seeing her face, Sia. She will hate me forever when she knows the truth, and I can’t hide it from her. Please... don’t let her come.”

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