Since the day he and Gilberto had first talked, the Don Alejandro had visited the prison every day.
At first, his conversations with his estranged son were awkward, for there were too many bad memories being stirred up every time they saw each other.
But, as Don Alejandro had pointed out during that rather brief initial talk they had, he was nothing if not stubborn. And he was determined to do more than forgive his son. Most of all, he wanted to get to know him, and to help him become the kind of man he should have grown up to be.
After spending some time recounting to him about his wife, and Gilberto's mother, he started telling the young man about his own childhood and youth, about his parents, grandparents, and all he had been through.
A few days later, he brought with him a small portrait of his wife, as well as a larger portrait of his parents, himself, and his brother as children, and a drawing of Alfonso as a young man.
"Your mother drew this as a present for me, a few months after my brother's passing. I didn't have any portrait of his as a young man, so she thought I'd want one. Truth be told, though, I hid it in a drawer and only rarely looked at it… It's hard, you see… I miss him still, very much. Just like I miss your mother, my parents, my in-laws…" Don Alejandro uttered.
"I'm sorry to hear that…" Gilberto uttered before taking a look at Alfonso's portrait. "He looked a lot like Diego." He remarked at studying it.
"Did he?" Don Alejandro asked, then took the portrait to study it. "You're right!" He agreed rather confused. "How strange that I never saw the resemblance before you mentioned it…"
"Sometimes it's harder to see those things closer to us than it is to see those far away." Gilberto answered.
"Harder to see the lies of someone you trust…" The old don answered.
"Yes... I should know that better than anyone…" His estranged son replied.
During the following week, after offering to let Gilberto keep his mother's portrait, the elderly don also brought with him some of the letters she had sent him in their youth.
His son read them and re-read them several times, even asked to keep them, but Don Alejandro couldn't bring himself to agree. Portraits of her, he had a few. Her letters, however, were each unique; each a piece of her, a fragment of her thoughts. He could not bring himself to part with any of them. So, instead, he promised Gilberto that he'd be able to read them anytime once he'd finally come home.
One day, about five weeks after Don Alejandro's first visit, he brought Gilberto a book.
"Diego thought you might want something to read," he explained as he handed it the young man.
"Robinson Crusoe…" Gilberto read out loud at accepting it with some enthusiasm.
"It's one of the books he's brought back with him from Spain. He said it's a good read but, since I haven't gotten to it myself, I don't actually know what it's about."
"He was kind to send it to me."
"Yes… I assume he knows, by experience, that one can get bored looking at the same walls every day…"
Gilberto just nodded, and turned to look away.
"I didn't mean…" The elderly don said. "No, that is not true… I did mean it! I try… I do! But I am still so upset with you! You condemned your own brother to a fate worse than death! Do you know he tried to killed himself in that prison? That he was whipped? Do you have even the slightest idea what he went through? How could you do something like that? What fault could he have had in your eyes?"
Gilberto didn't dare look at him. He just shook his head and said, in a low voice, barely audible. "He was the son you chose… At least, that's what I was told… What I believed at the time."
"Had that been even remotely true, it still doesn't justify what you did!" Don Alejandro shouted.
"I know! And I know nothing will ever justify the way I treated him… What I did, I did out of jealousy. I met him and... I understood why you would have chosen him… He's better than me in every possible way."
The elderly don was surprised by those words. Not that he didn't know them to be true. Falling silent for a while, he eventually shook his head, then subtly nodded. "Perhaps me coming here today wasn't the best idea… I… I think I'd better go…" He said next, then knocked on the prison door for Mendoza to let him out.
To Gilberto's utter surprise, however, he returned the following day with some clean clothes, a soft pillow and a couple of blankets. "It's a bit cold these days. I thought you might need these." He uttered, not looking the young man in the eyes.
"I'm sorry…" Gilberto said. "I'm very sorry for all I've done… Please, believe me!" He just replied, wondering if to accept his father's gifts.
Don Alejandro nodded, tears once again gathering in his eyes. "I believe you…" He replied before leaving.
The day's visit was short, yet, beginning the following morning, the elderly don started spending more and more time with Gilberto.
He continued to recount to him his memories, insisting on everything he could remember about his wife, and about how they had met and fallen in love. He didn't tell him much about Diego's childhood, though, for he feared the young man's reaction and inner thoughts. Instead, he told him about his brother's relationship with Victoria, about her parents and brothers, about Felipe and about his closest relatives and friends.
One day, as he felt he made it through most of the stories – or, at least, through the ones he remembered at the time – he asked Gilberto to tell him about his life. It was not the first time, but it was the first time that the young man didn't refuse.
"I… I was not the happiest child." He started. "Since I was very small, I was told that my father didn't want me. Inez told me I should have grown up rich, the son of a caballero, grandson of a count; but, instead, I had been abandoned due to a deformity. That my younger brother was now enjoying all that should have been mine… I was just a child when she first started telling me those lies. So I grew up filled with resentment and jealousy towards all my peers who had a father; and towards the children richer than I was. Had I known better, I would have tried to find out for myself if everything was true. But, alas, I was not that wise, so I just believed her.
"Every time a richer boy looked at me with pity, I resented you and my brother a little more. Every time I was getting into a fight, it was you and him I imagined hitting, not the bullies in front of me.
"I hated the rich because, in my mind, they were like you: unwilling to accept me for who I truly was. And I hated the poor because they believed I was one of them, and I always thought myself better. Ironic, isn't it?
"When I turned 13, the priest of our church in Malaga, who was also running the school for the poor, convinced Inez to let me attend the Real Colegio de San Bartolomé in Granada. I was much younger than everyone else there, so I was terrified, to say the truth. Everyone was bigger and stronger than me, and I was certain they'd take every opportunity to beat me senseless. Instead, after the first class, several of the boys came to tell me I did a good job. The professors, themselves, said I was gifted: "a very intelligent young man," they called me. It was the first time I felt good about myself… The first time I felt... seen.
"I graduated when I was 17, and, after that, I enrolled in the Military Academy of Seville. My so-called mother also came with me there, probably afraid that I might stop resenting you should too much time pass without her repeating to me how it was my duty to take my revenge and claim what should have always been mine.
"About two years later, I met Diego. He was attending the University in Madrid… But you must already know all that… As you know what happened next…"
"I know what happened to him... I know his perspective, at least. I think I'd like to hear yours…" The elderly man replied.
Gilberto nodded and continued. "Ignacio was my colleague at the time Diego and I first met. He recounted to me how he had been expelled from the University because of Diego's false claims about him cheating, all because he liked the same woman Ignacio loved."
"That was not true! Diego – "
"I know! I know now that he had lied to me. But, at the time, I believed him. I think I wanted to believe him. I wanted to believe the worst about my brother. It helped my ego in some strange way. All Ignacio ever told me were lies, and I believed them, not because I was a fool, but because I wanted those lies to be true."
"I… I guess I can understand that…" Don Alejandro uttered.
"May we stop here?" Gilberto asked. "I know I owe you all the truth about me, and about my deeds. But I can't… Not yet…"
The elderly caballero slightly shook his head. He didn't want him to stop, but could also understand why the young man didn't want to continue. "That's alright. You can tell me when you feel ready to…" He said. "I'm sure there are other subjects we can talk about."
In truth, however, he had no idea what other subjects were there for them to discuss. They hardly had much in common. Yet, the caballero was not one to give up, certainly not considering all the effort he had already put into building a relationship with his new son.
ZZZ
"I've been thinking," Don Alejandro announced as he walked into the library one day.
Diego and Victoria were both there, pretending to read, yet truly spending the time flirting with each other.
"What about?" The tall caballero asked.
"I gave you your name. Your mother and I, that is."
"Indeed…"
"We should have been the ones to name your brother, as well."
"True, but…"
"I talked to the padre, and he agreed that, considering the circumstances, I should have the right to baptize my other son."
"Don't you think Gilberto has already been baptized?" Victoria inquired. "He's a grown man!"
"Not by me, he wasn't! As for that woman, considering all she has done, I doubt she was even a Christian! Besides, I would have never called him Gilberto. I knew a Gilberto when I was a Lieutenant. A gambler and womanizer… No…. I must rectify that!"
Diego and Victoria exchanged a confused glance.
"Rectify? You don't mean you want to change his name?" The tall caballero inquired.
"That's exactly what I mean! I will go talk to him, then schedule the baptism with the padre. He will not marry Juliana as Gilberto Risendo, but as a true De la Vega!"
Saying that, the elderly don left calling for one of his stable hands.
Diego and Victoria look in some confusion at his disappearing shape.
"He seems very determined." The new lady of the house remarked.
"Indeed." Her husband agreed as he returned to his lecture. "I wonder what name he'd like to give him, though…" He uttered, glancing at his wife, only then noticing the book in her hands. "What are you reading?" He then asked.
"Oh… Ah…" Victoria uttered, closing the book and reading the cover. "Othello… by William Shakespeare…" She answered, mispronouncing the bard's name.
"I had no idea you are so accomplished in English as to read the original version." Diego remarked with a slight smile, certain his library did not include a translation of the play.
"Well…" Victoria said, getting a little red with both embarrassment and rage, "there are many things you don't know about me, seeing how you were away for so long."
She felt bad the moment those words came out of her mouth.
"It was not by choice that I was away from you." Diego replied calmly. "But," he continued, standing up and heading towards her, "as your husband, it's my duty to find out all I can about you. In fact, I should know you by heart… And, although, I hope you'll agree that I'm making good progress, perhaps it's time for a new lesson." Saying that, he lifted her into his arms, and, a wicked grin on his face, turned on his heel and sprinted with her towards their rooms.
"Are you mad? Diego! Put me down! I don't have time now! I promised Juliana I would go with her to the dressmaker in less than an hour!" Victoria uttered as her husband was climbing the stairs.
"We have plenty of time then. Besides, you should know by now that I take my education very seriously." He replied as he closed the door behind them, and headed for the bedroom. She smiled and didn't protest anymore as soon as he carefully placed her on their bed. After all, she also had some studying to do.
ZZZ
"You want to baptize me… As in give me another name?" Gilberto inquired, for a moment fearing his father may have gone mad.
"Exactly. Look, Son… Gilberto might have been the name you wore since birth. So, I know it must be hard for you to even consider giving up that name. But it was not given to you by your true parents. We would have called you by another name, one both I and your mother discussed when we were still hoping we might have more children. And I wish for you to take that name, just as I wish for you to take the name De la Vega."
"You called me Son…" Gilberto uttered, that being the only part of his father's monologue he had actually heard.
"Well… You are my son…"
"But you had never before called me that…"
Both men just remained silent for a few moments, looking at each other.
"I… I must have… Didn't I?"
"Not before now…"
"If you don't want me to call you that…"
"I do! I very much do… Father! May I call you Father?"
"Of course, you may…" Don Alejandro uttered, tears gathering in his eyes at realizing that, even though he still had a long way to go to forgive the young man, in his heart, he had already assigned him the room that he was always meant to have.
A few more moments of silence followed, as they both struggled to find their words and stop their tears. "So? Will you agree to the baptism?" Don Alejandro eventually asked.
Gilberto just nodded.
ZZZ
It was the morning before Juliana's wedding when Emmanuel found her on the terrace, looking into the distance. Following her glance, he saw that she was looking at Diego and Victoria, who were both standing atop a nearby hill, the young man holding his wife in his arms, both watching the sunrise.
"Do you ever wonder what it would be like to be so in love?" The young woman asked, having noticed Emmanuel as soon as he had joined her.
"At times... It's rare, I believe, to find someone you truly belong with."
"You never did?"
"No!" He hurried to say. "I don't even know if that is in the cards for me. Not that I envy them… Well, maybe a little… Now. Yet I can hardly imagine the sort of hell they both went through before finding each other again… Neither of them knowing whether the other one was alive, still faithful to their promise... or even whether they'd ever see each other again…"
"It must have been very hard…"
"It must have been hell... Perhaps that is why what they have is so unique…"
"What do you mean?"
"I have this theory, you see… I believe that there is neither happiness nor misery in the world; that there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. Thus, only he who has felt the deepest grief is truly able to experience supreme happiness.*" Emmanuel answered, smiled at noticing the confused look on the young woman's face, then refocused on Diego and Victoria. "To put it simple," he explained, "I think that they are so happy now precisely because they have been so miserable for so long in the past."
Juliana stared at him pensively, then returned her glance to the young couple.
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Slightly modified quote from "The Count of Monte Cristo". Credit for that piece of wisdom belongs to Al. Dumas (the father).
AN: This story was supposed to end two chapters ago. Sorry, but I just seem unable to conclude it. It seems like the muse has more to say... Hope you enjoy the following chapters, although, by now, the Count part is kinda' done.