“Bianci,” he mutters.
“Warden,” Anthony replies, holding his gaze. The two men stare off for what seems like forever before the warden glances over his shoulder at the metal door. He turns around, rapping his knuckles three times against the small pane of glass. Another correction officer opens the door and steps to the side allowing us room to walk inside.
My stomach rolls as Mikey presses his hand against the small of my back and together we follow Anthony and Adrianna inside the private room. I breathe a sigh of relief when I glance around the empty room, not ready for the moment I’ll see my dad. There’s a table centered in the room and six chairs, two on one side of the table and four on the other. I don’t question the other chair, figuring it was for a guard or something.
“Why didn’t they bring us to the visitor’s room?” Adrianna asks, turning around to face Anthony with worried eyes. “Did something happen?”
“Relax, Reese’s,” Anthony soothes, placing his hands on her shoulders as he bends his knees, making himself eye level with her. “It’s all good, baby.”
The door opens as I spin around to face Mikey and my eyes glance over his shoulder to the guard stepping out of the way for my father. I watch with trepidation as my father strides through the door. His head is down, shielding his face from my view but I notice his hair is grayer than the last time, even thinner but still immaculate, not a strand out of place.
“Enjoy your visit, Pastore,” the guard says before closing the door behind him.
Slowly, like a scene in a movie, my dad lifts his head and whatever response he was about to give the guard becomes lost on his tongue as his eyes find mine and my sister’s.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” he whispers hoarsely.
Tears blur my vision as I smile widely and run to him, wrapping my arms tightly around him. He’s thin and another man may have been knocked down by the gusto behind my embrace but not my dad. Standing his ground, he wraps his brittle arms around me and hugs me back with everything he has left inside his worn body.
“My, girl,” he whispers against my hair. His voice is different, gone was the deep lethal voice that only warmed around his family and all that cancer has left behind is a raspy voice full of strangled breaths.
I was being selfish, holding on for dear life not willing to give my sister a chance at embracing our father but I couldn’t bring myself to unlock my arms from around him. He smelt like Old Spice cologne, the generic crap they let inmates buy with their commissary not the Yves St. Laurent he usually wore.
His aging face comes into my view as he slowly pulls back. His complexion is awful, his olive skin was now gray and the whiskers he had along his jaw blended into his skin. Aside from the dark circles shadowing them, his eyes are the only feature that still resembles traces of him. Eyes that are full of pride, love and smile at me just as his mouth does.
“You’re beautiful,” he rasps, taking my hand in both of his and bringing it to his pale lips. “How’d the doctor’s visit go?”
“I’ll be okay,” I choke out.
“I want all the details,” he demands in between breaths, releasing my hands and looking across the room at my sister. Reluctantly, I step out of the way and grant my sister her time with our dad.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from Adrianna, she always had a bumpy relationship with our dad. I knew she loved him as much as I did but this wasn’t only goodbye for her, this was the last chance she had at forgiving our father for all the mistakes he made.
“There’s my other beauty,” Dad says, shuffling his feet closer to Adrianna.
She didn’t try to meet him half way instead, she bowed her head and her body writhed with sobs. Anthony wrapped an arm around her waist and bent his head to whisper something only she could hear.
Dad’s pace quickened as he continued toward Adrianna. Her husband continued to whisper words into her ear and she nodded in understanding. She lifted her head just as our dad reached her and Anthony took a step back, giving him room to take his daughter into his arms and comfort her just as he used to when we were kids.
“Dry your eyes,” he whispers, swaying slightly with his arms tightly wound around her tiny frame. “You’ve cried enough over me,” he adds.
Big fat tears ran down my father’s cheeks causing my heart to break a little more with each one released.
Adrianna pulls back, taking his face into her hands and smiles, giving him the brightest smile she had. When we were kids, she used to look up at him as she is now, like he was her favorite person in the entire world. Like he was her hero.
He smiled sadly as she stared at him, memorizing every feature of his face.
“I love you,” she whispers. “I’m sorry if I sometimes didn’t show it, so sorry I ever made you doubt it.”