* * *
"David, Jordan Bronson is right! No matter what reason he has, whether it's justified or not, if he's going to harm me or my family then I will do everything in my power to protect us. He's not wrong for doing this and whether you like it or not, one of us will have to die tonight," Laotian said, dropping David's heart. He knew none of the two would back down from this but is it too much to wish for them both to be fine? He cared for both equally despite how it looks.
"And that I agree," Jordan scuffs before he pulls the trigger and aims at David. It was so sudden it caught Laotian off guard but it was only for a quick moment as he quickly raised his gun and shot Jordan on his leg, making him fall onto the ground moaning his curses.
Laotian quickly ran towards David and inspected where he was shot. It was unmistakable that Jordan hated his father but Laotian didn't think the Omega would shoot his father since despite being the cruelest person, he didn't think an Omega would do something this cold-hearted. It's a thought he grew up with, he thought Omegas are naturally caring people no matter how they grew up. It's their nature. But then again, seeing the situation now, he was proven wrong.
He thought that despite what Omega was saying, he still cared for David and only did this because he wanted recognition or attention from his father.
"Y-Young Master, p-please forgive m-my son," David was still able to say despite having a hole in his body.
"Don't talk," Laotian said and quickly fished out his mobile phone. He didn't know if Nigel and his team were still alive during the earlier collision since he quickly left the area following Jordan's escaping figure, however, since the gunshots soon after ended, he believed the man should go to where he was soon.
Laotian quickly dialed for emergency and called for an ambulance. It was not his character to panic, but seeing so much blood from David he forgot to unarm Jordan that while Laotian was pressing on the old man's wound giving his current location to the person on the other line of the phone call, Jordan was aiming at him.
From then on everything went fast, before anyone at the scene could sink in what had happened, a gunshot echoed across the hall and later followed a man falling on the ground with a loud thud.
* * *
Reading his magazine, Daniel suddenly overheard Luangmin's loud bawls coming from where he was. It's still past 8 pm and too early to sleep but because Luangmin was tired from playing all day with his cousin, he fell asleep very quickly after dinner but now, it was pretty unusual for this little guy to cry just because of a nightmare. Most of the time, the little boy wouldn't cry, he would just wake up from his nightmare, climb down his crib and lay beside Daniel, and sleep again.
With a helpless smile on his lips, Daniel walked towards his son's crib and pat him on his bun gently hoping that it'll make him feel better somehow because he couldn't lift him for a hug like before.
"Shhh, it's okay, Minmin. Mommy's here for you," Daniel whispered as he continually soothes his son while humming. Thankfully, the little man soon calmed down as he shifted in his sleep looking at a comfortable spot on his bed but not long after the little man woke up calling upon Daniel.
"Mommy," Luangmin called as he sat up, wiping his damp lashes.
"Yes, Baby? Did you have a bad dream?" Daniel asked to which Luangmin quickly replied with a nod, his lips trembling with a pout remembering his dream so he was trying to keep himself from crying.
"Hmmn, can I sweep with Mommy?" Luangmin said, his voice was as if about to cry still so Daniel quickly nodded.
"Ahw, of course, Baby. Do you want to talk about it?" Daniel said and urged the little boy to stand and step out of his crib. They walked towards the bed and laid comfortably, hugging each other.
"It's okay if you don't want to talk about it. Mommy understands, just remember that your Dada and I will always be here for you, okay?" Daniel said smiling, seeing no reply from the little man. He couldn't help but be a little sad that his baby had already grown big enough for him to keep things from him but also feel happy that Luangmin was growing normally like other kids.
"Okway," Luangmin replied as he tightened his hug towards his mother. When Daniel felt it, he also hugged the little man kissing the top of his head. They were silent for more than a minute until the little one said something that immediately understood what Luangmin might have dreamed about.
"Mommy and Dada stway with Minmin always, rwight Mommy?" Luangmin said, his tone as if comforting his own self-doubts.
"Of course, no question asked for that. Mommy and Dada will stay Minmin forever," Daniel said with his brightest smile, kissing the top of Luangmin's head again that when the little man heard his mother, an even brighter smile flashed on the lips that greatly resembled his father's before he finally decided to close his eyes.
"Good night, my Love," Daniel whispered, combing his son's smooth and silky hair using his fingers. He always does this when Luangmin has nightmares, however couldn't recently because he has been in the hospital. This was the first time in a long time they've laid in bed together because he and Laotian were training the little guy to sleep on his own crib and learn that he couldn't be with his mother and father always but of course, nights like this are an exemption.
The next day. Daniel and Luangmin woke up early as usual planning to have their routine walk when he noticed two of his bodyguards were talking to Ian having serious expressions.
"What happened?" Daniel asked while letting go of Luangmin who instantly toddled towards his cousin.
"Something happened last night and Mr. David was badly hurt," Ian replied, which instantly shocked Daniel. The last time he remembered, David was on a vacation so he wondered how the old man got hurt.
"What? Ryan, what happened?" Daniel asked worriedly before he glanced at his bodyguards who nodded at him before Ryan started talking.
"There had been an enemy encounter last night with the Eldest Young Master, Mr. David was also in the area and was shot," Ryan, Daniel's personal bodyguard and driver, replied that when Daniel Laotian was mentioned his eyes instantly went even wider.
"L-Laotian? W-what about Laotian? What happened to him?" Daniel asked, he thought the Alpha attended the art gallery last night. How did they even have an enemy encounter in an art gallery event?
'Is this why he didn't call me last night?' Daniel thought. He was waiting for the Alpha's call last night but he ended up falling asleep waiting when usually the Alpha always calls him even for just simply wishing me a good night. Last night, he thought for sure that after seeing his painting the Alpha would instantly call him or even visit him, but he didn't. Was this the reason why? But then shouldn't he call me since it's an emergency?
"Eldest Young Master is fine, he sent us here to inform you and whether Young Master Daniel and Young Master Ian would want to go back today," Ryan replied. Daniel sighed in relief knowing that Laotian was fine but later a frown formed on his brows before he fished out his mobile phone and dialed Laotian's number.
"I'm going to call him. How can he ask someone to tell this to me," Daniel mumbled, making Ian sigh helplessly smiling towards the Omega before dismissing the two bodyguards that are now assigned to guard both him and Daniel and Lan and Luangmin.
At the same time, Laotian was talking to publishers and agreed with privacy terms. Due to what had happened last night to the art gallery, of course, it was not a surprise that the media got a hold of cover footage of the scene. This was not the first time this had happened but this had never gone out of the public eye because the Mo Empire and the organization were covering it up with of course a sufficient amount of money and non disclosure contracts.
Preceding that was the head of the FBI that he needed to talk to about what had happened so they could tweak the report to cover up what happened. He didn't have time to even see David's face after what had happened last night because he had to take care of the aftermath since the place was a commercial area and many people had witnessed what had happened.
Not to mention they had to shut all those people in order to minimize the backlash. He didn't need to personally talk to all of them but he needed to at least talk to the first two mentioned.
"I trust that none of this would go out like always," Laotian said at the end. It's 7 am in the morning and he had been talking to these greedy people for hours just to agree with the right amount of hush money. He hasn't slept a wink that finally, they settled with 35 Million dollars for each publishing company or he'd make sure none of them would see the light again.
"Yes, of course, Mr. Mo. Good doing business with you as always," One after the other said to which Laotian only nodded as they at last bid their goodbyes. A lot of things happened, unexpected things, but hopefully, after today, everything will finally settle down.
After seeing 3 people leave his office at the Mo Empire, Laotian walked inside again heading straight to where Daniel's paintings were. He glanced at the beautiful image of two people's semi-hugging each other while sitting on the field of flowers with bees and butterflies and dreamy blue skies. At one glance one could tell that the couple in the painting were partners seeing that they were in an intimate position. The smaller figure was leaning forward to the larger figure covering each other's exposed bodies. It was slightly similar to that painting of Joshua Bronson that Daniel decided to display in their bathroom but also quite unique at the same time.
It was a beautiful image that Laotian couldn't take his eyes off of. The drawing didn't look similar to either him or Daniel but Laotian could feel that the paintings were drawn from their images. This painting specifically gave him different emotions from the first and last painting that represented his and Daniel's individuality before they met each other.
Still appreciating the art, his personal mobile suddenly rang pulling Laotian from his daydream. He set a different ring for Daniel's call that when Laotian realized the Omega was calling, he quickly fished his phone out and pressed receive. He already knows why Daniel probably called so early so Laotian was already prepared with his apologies since he purposely didn't call Daniel last night, knowing that his wife would worry so much that he might not be able to sleep.
[Hello, Laotian? Are you alright? What happened? Why didn't you call me last night and only inform me now? And through Ryan at that,] Daniel instantly bombarded Laotian with questions but despite that, it brought a soft smile on the Alpha's lips. It might be too out of his character but Daniel's voice never fails to make him feel much better. His voice was just like a lullaby in his ears even though he sounded so worried.
"I'm sorry, I knew you would worry that's why I purposely didn't tell you, I didn't want to cause you anxiety in the middle of the night," Laotian replied, walking towards his floor-to-ceiling glass window. He truly wanted to call Daniel last night but he didn't want to lie just to keep the Omega from unnecessary causes of worry so he suppressed himself and decided to go back to the Mo Empire and fixed everything before the sun came down and people started talking about what had happened.