News of the death of the Vice President was out only days later. The papers flooded with headlines, all saying Vice President Burr shot and killed in duel with former Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton.
When Eliza read that paper, she was furious.
"How could you?" She shouted at him, waving the paper. "Why do you not have any self-control? How are the children supposed to go to school when everyone knows their father is a murderer!"
I did not murder him. Alexander thought, head in his hands. It was a fair duel, I will not be charged for murder.
He kept his thought silent, however, knowing his wife would only disagree and argue with him more.
After that conversation, Eliza left to live with her father and she took the children. Alexander stayed behind, stayed in his office. He read the letters he and Burr had exchanged just months before the duel. He read them over and over again, tears falling from his face every time.
How could he have been so stupid? He'd killed a man, his first friend, over what? Something as trivial as pride? Burr had warned him too. Warned him that his pride would be the death of them. Well, Alexander's pride was the death of Burr and Alexander's career.
A thought suddenly hit him. Theodosia. Her mother had died, what, ten years ago? And now her father was dead too... Oh, God... What had he done? He made a poor, innocent child an orphan! A fate he had promised to never grant, not after his experience.
He leaned back in his chair, tears flowing down his face. So many close to him had died. First his mother, then John, then Washington, Peggy, his darling boy Philip and now Burr. Why was this his fate? Why did the ones close to him always have to perish?
He glanced down at the letters sitting on his desk. He stared at them for a long time before grabbing them. He stood up and slowly made his way downstairs to the fireplace. He bit his lip, before stoking the fire. He waited impatiently for the fire to grow. Once it did, he glanced down at the letters in his hands.
He hesitated for a moment, before tossing all the letters into the flames. Those letters didn't deserve to be Burr's, no Aaron's, legacy.
As he watched the letters crumble to ash, there was a knock at the door. He stared at it, wondering for a moment if his wife had returned, but then thought that she wouldn't knock to come into her own house.
He gnawed on his lip as he went to the door and opened it. His breath caught in the back of his throat when he saw the exhausted looking form of Theodosia Burr.
"M-Miss Burr." He stammered. He looked her over, wincing when he saw the deep and dark bags settled under her eyes. Her eyes were dark as well and she was dressed in all black.
"Mister Hamilton." She greeted coldly. "May I come in?"
Alexander swallowed, before stepping out of the way. Without a single glance in his direction, Aaron's daughter walked in.
"What brings you here?" Alexander asked quietly as he shut the door.
"I am not here because I wish to be." She said.
He watched as she reached into the folds of her dress and pulled out two letters. She turned to him, eyes cold and blank. Alexander shivered. Those eyes were eerily similar to Aaron's.
"My father left these for you." She said, handing him the letters. He took them and she yanked her hands back when his brushed them. He looked down at the two letters, blinking back a wave of fresh tears at the familiar signature decorating it.
"If you don't want them," Miss Burr said, "Then return them to me."
He looked up at her and just for a moment, he saw a deep sadness in her eyes, a crack in her mask.
"The only reason I am even giving them to you is because my father requested it in his will." The crack had smoothed over and now her eyes were steely and cold. "I respect his wishes."
Alexander didn't move as she walked past him and to the door, opening it and stepping outside.
"Good day to you, Mister Hamilton." She spat, before leaving the house and the broken man inside.
