217. HOW TO BE HAPPY

217. HOW TO BE HAPPY
SELINE

We were all children. We didn't know better.

We were all kids. The pain was too much.

None of us was wrong here. There were no enemies among us. The people who thought children were tools for their sick experiments.

We were all victims. Including Mateo. But Kade wouldn't understand it.

Maybe I didn't understand it. Maybe I was wrong. The things Mateo did when he was a child are not in his control. But as an adult, he clearly made some mistakes. He intentionally tried to hurt me. Still, I can understand why he did what he did.

Kade didn't. He still wants to kill Mateo.

"Will you name your child after Celia?" Mateo asked me.

We are outside the cafe. He is leaving this continent.

"If it's a girl, yes." I tell him at the same time Kade growled, "You have no business learning about my girl's name."

Just like that, I am back to my reality.

"I wish I had done things differently," Mateo whispered, his teary eyes focused on my bump.

"I should have been the one to walk you down the aisle." He raised his head, looking into my eyes for the first time after he came here.

"I promise I'll spend the rest of my life helping kids like you, me and Celia. I will spend the rest of my life repenting. When I meet you again—"

"You won't," Kade said immediately.

Mateo smiled. "When I meet you again," he continued, "I will be a new man. I will be the man you need me to be."

"She never needed you," Kade commented.

Mateo ignored him. "I will become the man children like Celia need."

Kade scoffed.

He doesn't trust him. I shouldn't either. But I can't help but trust him. To Kade's dismay, Mateo and I shook hands.

He left.

I looked down and observed my shoe lace. I never learnt to tie them.

Kade followed my gaze, and the next second, he was on his knees, tying my shoelaces.

'Are you happy, Celia?' I thought. 'You wanted me to have a life outside Delmere. I have one now. A happy one.'



FOUR MONTHS LATER

KADE

"You packed another bag?" Seline's sleepy voice drifted through the darkness.

I looked over my shoulder.

She was sitting up against the headboard, one hand supporting the enormous curve of her stomach, her hair a complete mess, eyes barely open, looking at me as though I were the biggest inconvenience in her life.

"I packed another emergency bag."

She stared.

"Kade."

"This one has different blankets."

"Kade."

"In case the hospital ones are rough."

"Kade."

"And different bottles."

"We don't know if they'll like those bottles."

"Kade."

"What?"

She rubbed her face.

"You packed four hospital bags."

"They're for different situations."

She blinked. "What situations?"

"I don't know yet."

She sighed dramatically before lying back down. "I married anxiety disguised as a six-foot-four man."

"I am six-three."

She didn't answer.

Because she was already asleep again.

I stood there for another minute, watching her.

Her breathing had become heavier these last few weeks.

The twins had grown impatient.

Apparently, they had inherited that trait from me.

Every doctor assured us everything was progressing normally. Every report looked perfect. Every scan looked healthy. Every reassurance somehow made me prepare more.

I checked the hospital bag one last time.

Then the nursery.

Again.

The cots.

Again.

The monitors.

Again.

The baby clothes.

Again.

Storm lifted his head from the rug and looked at me with the exact same expression Seline usually reserved for my stupidity.

"What?"

He sighed. Actually sighed.

I switched off the nursery light and quietly walked downstairs.

The house had finally fallen asleep.

I almost made it to my office before I noticed someone sitting alone on the veranda.

Kai.

He wasn't drinking. He frequently visits my house at least twice a day. He and Seline became friends. Yes, Friends!

He was simply watching the garden.

"You've walked past this veranda four times." He spoke without turning around. "I counted."

"I was checking the security."

"You were avoiding sleep."

"I wasn't."

Kai finally looked at me.

"You were."

Silence settled comfortably between us.

"You've become worse than me."

"I doubt that."

He chuckled quietly.

Neither of us spoke.

The night air was cold.

Somewhere beyond the gates, a guard changed shifts. "I spoke to Dr Mira."

I looked at him.

"She said twins often come early."

"I know."

"You've doubled security around the hospital."

"I know."

"You've stationed snipers."

"I know."

"You've frightened half the medical staff."

"I don't care."

Kai laughed through his nose. "I know."

Another silence.

Then—

"You'll be a good father."

The words caught me completely off guard.

"I haven't even met them."

"No."

"But I've watched you preparing for them."

His eyes drifted toward the nursery window upstairs.

"You've memorised every appointment."

"Every medicine, every symptom. You know which side Seline prefers to sleep on. You know which foods make her nauseous. You know when she's pretending she's fine."

He smiled. "You're already a father."

The words landed somewhere I wasn't prepared for.

I looked away.

"I don't know what I'm doing."

Kai laughed.

"Good."

That surprised me.

"You think fathers know?"

"I assumed."

He shook his head.

"We're just terrified men pretending to have answers."

"I used to think becoming Don was the hardest day of my life."

He folded his hands together. "It wasn't."

"The hardest day..."

His voice became quieter.

"I learnt about my children."

I looked at him.

"You both are small...and suddenly every enemy became bigger."

"I wasn't afraid of dying anymore. I became afraid of leaving."

The words settled heavily between us.

"Have you thought about what happens if they don't choose this life?"

"They won't."

The answer came immediately.

"They'll choose for themselves."

"No expectations."

"No obligations."

"No inheritance."

"If one of them wants to become a teacher, so be it."

"If neither of them ever wants to hear the word Outfit..."

I shrugged.

"...good."

Kai watched me for a long moment.

"You've already become a better Don than I was."

"No."

"A better father."

I didn't answer.

Because I didn't know how.

Kai leaned back.

"I spent twenty years telling myself I searched for Layla because I loved her."

"You did."

He nodded.

"But that wasn't the whole truth."

His eyes remained fixed on the darkness beyond the garden.

"I searched because it was easier."

I frowned.

"Easier than what?"

"Looking at you."

The words knocked the air from my lungs.

"I found you."

He continued quietly.

"A frightened little boy, so angry, so quiet. I looked at you, and every time I did, I remembered everything I'd failed before I even knew you existed.

"So I worked. I fought. I searched. I built an empire. I convinced myself all of it was for my family."

Another pause.

"It never occurred to me that while I was looking for one child, another one was growing up without a father."

The night suddenly felt unbearably still.

"I taught you to shoot. I taught you strategy, politics, how to survive."

He finally looked at me.

"I never taught you how to be happy."