Papa was gone. Right in front of me the shell of his body sat slumped over. My tears I could not hide. My heart would always have a whole that none would be able to fill. Not even Marius.
Yes, I loved Marius deeply and knew that we'd stay true to our vow. Marius would never take papa's place. Yes, I knew he'd take care of me and love me like papa did. But no one could ever replacea girl's father. Especially not my father.
You see, I'll never know my real father. I don't care to either. He left when I was a baby, maybe before. My mother had to take work and couldn't take care of me, so she paid in keepers to take of me. There I was treated badly. I never knew love growing up. That is until papa came along.
He'd been at my mother's side when she died. He even took her to the hospital when he found her ill in the streets. As my mother laid dying papa promised her that I'd be under his care.
The night she died, papa found me walking alone in the woods carrying a bucket much too heavy for my small frame.
It was when we got back to the in keepers we learned of my mother's death and papa's vo to her to take me away.
Papa had secrets, this I knew from the start. But truth I was just so grateful to get away I didn't mind too much.
As I got older it was harder as I sometimes felt so alone and hidden away from the world.
Papa knew this and tried his best to make me feel otherwise. But his secrets always seemed to hold him back in some ways.
When papa took me in I soon knew love. I knew what it felt like to be safe and taken care of for the first time in my life. I'll be forever grateful to him for it.
Papa could always make me smile and laugh. No matther what I was going through or how lonely I sometimes felt, I always had papa.
Now being held in the arms of my husband, I felt no comfort. All I could think about was papa was dead.
Papa even saved my Marius and brought him home to me. Papa risked his own life to bring me love and joy from another.
It broke my heart that papa disappeared before the wedding. But all that vanished when I saw him at the convert. Marius whisked me away fromt he wedding and got to papa as fast as he could.
Before papa died he handed me a letter. A letter I knew took all he had left in him to write.
And now papa was gone. Marius slowly helped me to my feet. With one arm close around me we started to leave. But I stopped. I looked at papa and leaned over to give him one last kiss.
Two days after papa's passing I still could not stop the tears. But I knew I had papa's letter to read. I tried my best to get through it.
In the letter papa finally told me all his secrets he kept. But at the end he wrote through we only had a short nine years, I had been the best part of his life and he'd always love me.
I put down the letter with tears in my eyes. I went over to the window and stood there. Then in the cool breeze I felt a peace and comfort for the first time since papa died. It was almost as if someone was giving me a loving embrace. I knew who it was. "I'll always love you papa." I whispered into the wind.
End