We Need to Separate... 04

"For those of you who are surprised I even showed up here today, I hope you at least bet a chicken dinner with someone that I wouldn't and now you have to pay. For the rest of you, I'm only here because of two people and my feeble attempt to bring them some happiness on this sad day. Angelina and Angelo, I'm sorry for your loss and I know I can't replace him, but I promise that I'll always be there for both of you whenever you need me and for whatever reason.

I want everyone present here today to know that I forgave Aaron many years ago for the betrayal he fested on me with what he did with and to Angie. Its public record that he was the father of Angie's children and my niece and nephew, but the story that it was accomplished through artificial insemination that he and Mary have been telling all these years was a lie.

I know some of you have figured that out for yourselves especially after the way Angie and I left and then basically disappeared, but now everyone knows the truth. Am I sorry it happened? Yes and no. Yes, because then I wouldn't have had to go through the pain that I went through because of Angie and Aaron's betrayal of me. No, because if it hadn't have happened those two wonderful people sitting on the right hand side of the front pew wouldn't be here today.

I love you, Aaron, and always have. I forgive you and hope to be reunited with you some day in heaven since it didn't happen here on Earth, but like the freed Gladiator said at the end of the movie said "Not Today". Thank you everyone for coming and try to remember my brother with happy memories and not sad ones because that's what I'm going to do."

There were more shocked expressions on the faces of my audience than there were crying ones, but the two most important people in my life at that moment were both crying and didn't hesitate to rush to me and stand there hugging me as hard as they could when I was finished speaking. The kiss on the cheek that Ainge gave me was expected, but the one Angelo gave me on the other cheek was not.

They couldn't stop thanking me as they led me back to our seats. I did manage to glance at their step-mother during that short walk and if looks could kill I'd have ended up laid out dead in the floor feet away from Aaron's lifeless body. Mary didn't wait for the end of the service after my little speech, but grabbed Annette's wrist; drug her down the center aisle and out of the church. Ainge and Angelo both flashed a quick grin at me when that happened.

I rode with Ainge and Angelo in the back of the funeral home's limo to the cemetery that Aaron would be interred in and threw my own handful of dirt upon his casket with them after it had been lowered into the grave. The only reason there was only one empty seat in the front row they'd set up in front of Aaron's final resting place was because I was sitting in the one I'm sure had been set for Annette.

I didn't shed a tear throughout the entire funeral from beginning to end, but between them, Ainge and Angelo shed enough for all three of us. They spent the rest of the day with me at my hotel room when I refused to go back to the farm with them. They had been and were still living in mine and Angie's old house which I hadn't sold and had had a property management company rent and maintain over the years until Angie's children had come of age and became the new owners of it. That was the first and last time Angie wanted something bad enough to stand up and demand that her wish be granted and naturally I'd given her what she wanted.

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Epilogue:

It has been ten years since my brother's death and it's almost time for me to join him and my beloved Angie in heaven. I'm seventy five years old and except for the inoperable brain tumor that is going to end my life, in excellent shape for a man of my age.

I didn't find another woman to love and finish out my days with, but it wasn't because of a lack of trying. I had my fair share of women during the twenty five years I survived Angie and her death, but none of them came close to winning my love. Some were one night stands, some were very short relationships, and a couple had been long relationships that might have led to more if the women hadn't fucked up and caused the breakup of our relationship.

I walked away from the first woman I got close enough to that marriage might have been in our future when I found out she was only with me because of my money and didn't love me, at least not as much as she loved the idea of getting her hands on my money.

The second woman broke my heart and killed the budding love that had been developing for her when she fucked another man after promising me that she'd be my woman and not have any other men in her life. I walked away from her and never looked back.

Ainge and Angelo remained in my life and I walked Ainge down the aisle and gave her away on her wedding day. I was Angelo's best man at his wedding only because he insisted that I do it. They both seem happy and I pray neither of them experience the pain that I had felt when the most important person in their life betrays them with another lover.

I never saw Mary again after she'd stormed out of Aaron's funeral and her step-children know better than to mention her or her well-being (or not so well-being) around me. I had to give up my hatred of her for my chance to get into heaven and be reunited with the two people who I had actually loved during my time on Earth so I did.

Did I do the right thing when I did everything I did so I could keep Angie as my wife? A good many people think I didn't, but I personally think I did.

Yes, she'd cuckolded me for years and with another woman no less. Yes, she'd gotten pregnant by another man, bore those children, and nearly died during their births. And yes, she'd forced me to become a different person than I'd been before to keep her, but I had loved her and still do with all my heart and the many years of joy and happiness we'd shared together after her betrayal more than made up for that short period of pain and suffering she'd caused me.

I'm no expert on love or life and would never claim to be, but I do know that everyone has choices they have to make in life unless they become like Angie and give control of their lives to or have that control taken from them by someone else. Not all of those choices will be easy and someone on the outside looking in will always be there to tell you you're making the wrong choice no matter what you choose, but there's one thing that I know is true no matter what you choose.

Make the choice, do everything you possibly can to make that choice happen, deal and live with any consequences the choice brings, and never waffle or waiver when it comes to the choice you made no matter what anybody else says or tries to do about your choice.

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That's the end of my soap box rant and my story and hopefully some of you enjoyed.