My dark Professor

Epilogue

She laughs when I tell her she's my antidote. 

 But I am not exaggerating one bit. There's no other way to explain what she does for me except that she made me better. I feel it in the very air I breathe. 

Suddenly I long to stay alive.

 To live and wake up every single day just so I can see her moonshine smile and night sky eyes. God, the things she makes me say. But my words are never enough, they would never do justice to her. 

This is what I've become —a man controlled by his heart. I snort at the thought. 

There was no use denying it. I am a man madly in love with a girl who I should never have been in love with. I couldn't explain it, but I didn't have to because the matter of the heart can never be understood except by the one who felt it.

It's been fifteen years since she became mine. Don't get me wrong, she's always been mine from the first time I laid eyes on her. But the day she accepted me and took my dark heart and intertwined it with her pure one. That was the day she truly became mine. 

Oh to be loved by a girl with a soul and heart as hers. I was the luckiest man in the entire world. So fuck what society thinks about our love. Yes, she was once my student and yes I was much older. But none of that matters because we were like Eros and Psyche. Andromeda and Perseus. Our love will conquer all. 

"Daddy!" 

A little bundle of human sunshine with wild curls runs to me. She crashes into my legs, her tiny hands wrap around the back of my calves. 

I bend and pick her up. 

My heart swells in my chest. It also tightens to the point of pain. It might explode from all the love it's been giving and getting. But I don't mind. Let it explode, as long as it continues to feel this way. 

"Daddy I was calling you! Didn't you hear me?" 

I look at my daughter who was a spitting image of me, but also weirdly looks exactly like her mom. She was a product of our love so of course she has to look like both of us. She has her mom's cute button nose and afro curls. But the rest of her is a Williams. Gray eyes and slanted sharp cheekbones not quite obvious on her chubby face but still visible. She's so beautiful. I would do anything for her.

I smile and pinch her cheeks. She huffs and moves away from my grippy fingers. 

"My love, what did I tell you about running on the tiles?"

Her cheeks redden before she looks away and mutters, "It's not safe. I could slip and break my bones."

My smile widens even more. Her grumpy tone always makes me laugh, her mother says she got that from me but I think she got that all by herself. "You wouldn't wanna break your bones would you?" I say sternly. 

She trembles in my arms and fervently shakes her head. "No Daddy," she whispers.

"Good girl. My Alia is such a good girl. Aren't you?" I smooth my expression and speak in a playful tone.

Her fear quickly evaporates and she lets out an adorable giggle. My heart clenches like a fist at the sound. 

"Yes! I am!" 

"You are!"  I tighten my arms around her small body and hug her close. "Sometimes, Daddy has to be strict so you don't hurt yourself. If you hurt yourself your mom and I would be very sad."

She nods, making her curls bounce with the motion. "I love you," she tells me in a quiet voice. 

"I love you too."