Sitting in the hospital room with Gun, Troy looked at the folder in his hand. Nervously, he handed it over to Gun, who looked ill and in pain, “Here are the pictures of the children.”

  “Thank you,” Gun thanked him in a whisper.

  As he opened the folder, Troy said, “Sandie phoned. She wants to know what’s going to happen with both businesses. The children don’t know that their father is dead yet.”

  “Won’t she be in line to take over?” Gun asked.

  Looking down at the picture of Jason, his lip trembled. Jason looked so much like his father. Thinking back to the day in the bathroom, he smiled. “I’d love to meet the children.”

  “It was King’s wish for you to meet them, unfortunately you met them at the wrong time.”

  Gun looked at him, asking, “And my question?”

  Sighing, Troy said, “Well, everything will be discussed after the funeral. He has a will in pce, so until then, the wyer is pced in charge.”

  Gun shook his head. “I need to meet him.”

  “Her,” he said.

  Nodding his head, “It doesn’t matter. When can I meet the children?”

  “Whenever you are ready,” he said.

  “Why did he move them out of the country?” Gun asked, looking at the picture of Elijah.

  “We got news that there was an attack going to happen. He was worried that his children might be in danger, so he had them moved. But then the danger moved to you,” he expined apologetically.

  Gun sighed, looking at the picture of Adalynn, “I feel stupid and selfish. I loved that man even though he was dangerous and barely shared anything with me. When I found out that he had kids, I understood why he didn’t want to spend money on me. They came first and I’m now regretting not telling him before that I was willing to be by his side through everything.”

  Troy watched as the tears fell as he closed the folder.

  “What do I even do from now on? I know we broke up, but what am I supposed to do knowing that I will never see him again?”

  Troy shook his head. “Have you decided when we’re going to hold his funeral?”

  “I don’t want to say goodbye to him.”

  *

  “Son?” Marwin called.

  Gun opened his eyes and stared at his father. He struggled to sit up, and smiled at him, “Hey papa.”

  “How are you holding up?” Marwin asked as he sat down on the bed.

  He licked his lips as he thought about what he was going through, then shook his head, “Not good, papa. Why’d he have to die?”

  Marwin sighed and hugged his son, ying down with him. Closing his eyes, he kissed him on the head, saying, “You went through so much since being with Kai. I can’t answer your question, but maybe it’s just how things are supposed to go. We are born, live and die, and it was Kai’s turn to meet the afterlife.”

  “That doesn’t help papa,” Gun said as he started sobbing.

  Marwin chuckled, “Well, I don’t mean to be mean about this. We have to move on with our lives, and I’m certain that Kai wouldn’t want you crying your eyes out.”

  Gun frowned, sitting up, he looked at his father, he asked, “So, what do you want me to do?”

  “Toughen up, son. You need to get better. It’s already been a week since his death and the news knows about you. The police also want a statement from you.”

  Gun sulked. “So you’re here to do the government’s work.”

  He raised a brow. “Well, I came to see how my son is doing, since he wants nothing to do with us all.”

  *

  Chips rolled Gun out in a wheelchair into the lobby of the hotel they were holding King’s funeral at. On the side of the hall, there was a room that they entered.

  Gun came face to face with a family he had seen before but didn’t have the best of impression of.

  Chips stopped and Gun looked at the beautiful woman that stood up and looked at him cautiously. Her eyes were red from crying. He looked at the boys beside her and saw that they were looking at him curiously and sadness was wrapped around them.

  Standing up with difficulty, Gun walked up to them. Forcing a smile, he said, “I hoped that we could meet under different circumstances, but unfortunately, we’re here today.”

  Sandie looked at her children, then quickly wiped her tears away and walked up to him. Holding his hands, she said, “Gun, it’s truly a pleasure to meet you, but I too wished that it was under different circumstances. Kai spoke so much of you.”

  Hearing Kai’s name made him choke up. He looked down and squeezed her hands as the tears came out. “I’m so sorry for how I behaved the st time we met. I didn’t know about you.”

  She pulled him in for a hug and let him cry, “I know, I know. Things have gotten complicated, but we’ll get through this. I need you to get through this Gun. Not only for yourself, but for the boys and Adalynn, too.”

  She moved away from him and looked at her sons. “They know about your retionship with their father, and I’ve expined to them that we are a family. We have been all this time. It’s just that they never knew about you.”

  Speaking to her sons, she said, “Boys, I need you to help me look after Gun for your father. They loved each other very much and our family won’t be complete without Gun.”

  Sandie took out a box from her clutch bag and opened it. Showing him the beautiful bck diamond cut engagement ring, she said, “Kai, he—he wanted to give this to you. The day before you walked in on us, he showed me the ring and was pnning an engagement to you. He already got your father’s permission and Mr Marwin helped him design the ring. I—I know it might be too te, but I want you to have this. He would have wanted you to have it.”

  Gun’s hands trembled as he accepted the box. He stared at the ring, listening to her words, and it was as if a wire snapped in his mind. He stared at her until she finished and the tears that were flowing from before came to a stop.

  Taking out the ring, the box dropped to the floor as he slipped the ring onto his finger. He stared at it for a moment, then nodded his head. Looking at the boys, he said, “I’ll do my best and more.”

  Sandie looked at him, confused, but then nodded her head. “We’ll be counting on you.”

  Gun walked up to Jason and held his hand out.

  Looking at his hand, Jason didn’t know what to do. He looked at his mother, who was clueless but had a smile on her face, then looked back at Gun and pced his hand in his cautiously.

  “It’s nice to meet you,” Gun said.

  Jason nodded his head.

  “I heard that they’ll kill you if they find out about you. Do you want to take the risk? Your father was walking in the shoes of a monster. Do you want to take on that role, or will you leave it with me until you’re ready?”

  Sandie’s eyes widened. She opened her mouth to step in but from the side she saw that Chips was shaking his head.

  Jason stared at their hands then retracted his saying, “My father doesn’t want me to walk in his footsteps.”

  Gun nodded, “I understand.”

  Turning to Chips, he walked back to the wheelchair and sat down. Closing his legs with the bnket, he said, “Let’s go.”

  Looking at Sandie, he said, “I’ll see you again.”

  She nodded with a smile and as Gun looked at the boys, his heart skipped a beat.

  As they left the room and the door closed behind him, Gun said, “Once this is over, I don’t care how deep you have to hide them, but do it. I don’t want any of them dying. Hide your tracks. Get them into a private school with a gated community far from here.”

  “Yes, sir.”