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“Do you forgive me?” Nihil asked Terzo, who was currently sitting in front of him; his feet up on the desk while looking at him disapprovingly.
“For?” Terzo scoffed. “With all of the shit you’ve pulled, you need to be specific.”
“For my, uh, rather inept approach to being a father,” Nihil muttered, staring down at his desk.
“Inept is a way to say it,” Terzo sneered. “Would’ve gone with the shittiest father of the year. While I imagine there’s fathers out there there that’d make you look like the pinnicale of fatherhood, you were still fucking awful.”
“I’ve come to realize that,” Nihil sighed, finally looking up to meet his son’s eyes.
“You’re about 30 years late to that realization,” Terzo said, standing up and hovering over his father’s desk. “But to answer your question, should I? Should I forgive the man that never failed to remind me of all my failures, but never once praised me for my successes? Should I forgive you for making me feel so unloved and unworthy that I crawled into the bed of the first person who made me feel somewhat worthwhile?”
Terzo slowly made his way around the desk between them, his hands trembling and exasperated tears threatening to spill over.
“Should I forgive you for abandoning my brothers and I just so you could fuck as many willing people in a night?” He continued. “Should I forgive you for inflicting both mental but even physical harm to a child ? Tell me, should I forgive you?”
At this point Terzo was towering over his father, the angry tears now freely flowing down his face. Nihil stood up to look at his bewildered son and felt his heart drop as he watched his son flinch.
“It means nothing,” Nihil said, finally looking his son in the eyes. “But I am sorry. You and your brothers deserved better. I’m proud of you all for who you are and everything you all have done.”
“The harm you inflicted upon us cannot be undone,” Terzo whispered bitterly. “I’m proud of who I am and you have no right to be proud of me now. The person I am today is in spite of the shit you have done to us.”
Nihil could only watch as his son sharply turned on his heel and shot him a hateful glare before slamming his office door shut, regret and shame bubbling up inside his chest.
As he gazed down into his son’s casket, their final conversation replayed through his head. All he could do now is hope that in their deaths, his sons have found the happiness he couldn’t give them in life.