176 - Hassan Al-Makki

Hassan Al-Makki

With time, we learned that she hates the mess we make when searching for anything in our travel bags, so we just wait for our wife to organize what we need. Seeing her content is what we love to do, especially if it will make her happy. As Bruno always says, "Happy wife, happy life."

“I’m sure we all fit just fine here; if not, I’ll sleep with the girls!” I frowned at the idea.

While Bruno shook his head, I started taking off my clothes, just as our wife removed everything she was wearing and chose a swimsuit and a beach cover-up with sleeves. I swapped my underwear for swim trunks, put on shorts, and left my shirt open.

After all, we were all family, and with the day promising to be hot, I was sure we would soon be sailing. We were just waiting for our grandchildren and a few more friends to arrive. I sat on the edge of the bed, and Bruno placed his hand on my shoulder.

“We’ll be by your side the whole time, but it’s time to reconcile with our boy, brother!” he said, smiling.

We heard the door to the room where he was sleeping open, which made us believe that he must already be with his siblings.

“Let’s go!” Carol said, pulling my hand.

I took a deep breath and walked out of the room with them, only to be surprised by Laís, who appeared with a mischievous smile we knew all too well.

“They went that way; Hope is talking to him,” Laís said. I frowned and looked at Carolina, who just sighed in relief.

We walked with our wife between us and started to see my son sitting with Hope facing him. We stopped for a moment and looked at each other in disbelief that they had managed to reconcile.

After everything that happened, I never imagined she would forgive him. After all, we always knew how sweet Hope was, which made us believe she would never forgive him.

“They’re in love!” Carol said, surprised.

We saw them exchanging caresses and a kiss. Bruno pulled us a bit further out of sight, and we noticed Hope looking our way. I thanked Allah that, at this moment, my Star never let go of my hand, providing the support she had always been for us.

I knew how harsh I had been with our son, feeling quite ashamed for pushing him so far away from me. Hope passed by me and made a small bow.

“Your Highness!” she said as she approached Carol, who gently touched her face.

We watched her leave the bow of the yacht, probably heading toward where my other children were.

“Dad…” Mahjub said.

I saw the insecurity, fear, and anxiety in his eyes, all of which I was solely responsible for.

I stepped away from my triad, walking toward the boy I saw, and pulled my son into a hug. I saw in him the same boy who always seemed frightened by the absence of his parents during his childhood.

But now he is a grown man, wearing our traditional clothes with a different sparkle in his eyes. I know he is hurt, disappointed, and filled with other accusations, which I deserve to hear every one of them.

“Forgive me, bint!” I asked with an open heart. “For being a terrible father, for not understanding how absent I was during your childhood.”

I felt my son startle. He released me from our embrace and looked at me with eyes full of tears, seemingly unable to comprehend what I was saying to him. Bruno approached and placed a hand on our boy's shoulder.

“Even though in the past we agreed that you would come into this world, so your mother wouldn’t lose a part of her heart by loving Hassan…” Bruno said, holding our son’s shoulder. “We loved you in our own way, kid!”

“You were the child who brought me the most worries, the one I did everything to protect and make feel loved in ways that didn’t seem like I preferred you over the others. You are four, my love; I have to love you all equally.” Carol held his full beard.

Although Mahjub had an athletic build very similar to Bruno’s, there was a lot of me in him, which always made me proud.

“I love you, son, we all love you, and I want you back home. I understand what happened, and I know we will talk about everything in time.” Tears streamed down Mahjub’s face.

“I never slept with them; the recording ends before it shows that I left them alone!” he said, and another wave of guilt washed over me.

“Why didn’t you tell us or try to explain yourself?” Bruno asked.

“There was a video, and you were already more than angry with my behavior,” he said, lowering his gaze and passing his masbaha through his fingers.

“No matter how angry we are with you or your siblings, never stop expressing what you feel, Mahjub!” I said, lifting his head to look him in the eyes.

“I think that was my mistake, never saying how I felt sidelined, the child who was created just so you could live out your love…” The weight of his truth made the three of us tremble.

“My son!” I said, pulling him to a shaded area where we sat down.

We placed him between us, as the beloved son he had always been, but whom we had failed to show our love in a way he could understand.

“Forgive us, not for what happened with Hope, but because we failed to be clearer about how much we love you,” I said, looking at Bruno.

Bruno seemed as shocked as Carolina; we did not expect to hear this from him, given that we had changed our entire business lives to always be in Sudan and only left when it was absolutely necessary for their presence somewhere else.

“Dear, forgive me for not realizing you felt this way, but we always believed you knew that we love you!” I could see how frustrated my wife was.

It was a sentiment we all shared at that moment.

“Son, I’m sorry if we failed you in that regard, but know that we love you just as much as we love your misfit siblings,” Bruno said, and we all looked at him.

“Seriously, Dad…” We started to laugh.

“Don’t mind your father, he’s old and doesn’t know what he’s saying anymore…” I said, looking at Bruno.

“I may be old, but at least my cardiologist didn’t ban me from drinking coffee…” Bruno retorted, reminding me of my addiction.

I rolled my eyes at Bruno, who had worsened his teasing about my caffeine addiction.

“I missed seeing this!” Mahjub wiped his face and smiled at us.

“Let’s celebrate your birthday. It looks like you managed to work things out with Hope?” I asked curiously, touching the masbaha that had once been broken.

“Yes, we just need to figure out how to break off her engagement to Guilherme, since he also made up with Pietra.” We were surprised when Carolina started clapping her hands.

“I knew it!!!” We looked at her, confused. “That she liked someone else, that’s why she was always out partying.”

We all burst into light laughter, something we hadn’t done as a family in a long time.

“Let’s go, I want to make my relationship with Hope official with all of you here!”

I felt an immense pride in my son. I looked at Bruno, who seemed even more smug than necessary, and he leaned in close to my ear.

“Die of envy, he takes after me…”