Stone's Diary: Ava

Chapter 30.)

It was October 14th, it's been a rough seven days since Reign's attempted suicide and things have been quite challenging for the family. Everyone seemed to be walking on eggshells around King. He hadn't spoken much since the incident and often found himself locked in the bedroom or bathroom crying.

This situation was too much for him to process mentally. He had things that he was stressing about before but none of that matter anymore. His daughter needed him and he shut her out. She needed him and he was blind to her cry for help and only caught on when it was already too late.

Kaari found herself staying over the house more just to make sure her siblings were ok and handling things well. Reign was in a coma and so far, hadn't shown any signs of improvement. It was almost too real to be true but it was there in plain sight; things were going to get harder before it got better.

The kids were allowed to stay home to emotionally unwind from the trauma they witnessed and would return Monday of next week. Renae had made sure she spoke with their principals two days after the incident because she had to mentally and emotionally unwound herself.

It's funny how you never realize how much of an impact someone has had on your life until they're gone.

Light knocking on the bedroom door caught King's attention but he refused to move or respond. Truthfully, he wanted everyone to leave him the hell alone. Every time he looked in the face of his family, it reminded him that they all kept secrets from him and threw the blame on him as if he was a mind reader.

"Daddy..." Ava cracked the door open. Other than Renae, Ava was the only one who could get close enough to him but King still wanted to be alone.

"Shawn's here," she opened the door wider and Yae'Shawn came into view.

King closed his eyes and balled his fists. Ava knew better. They all knew how King felt about him and knew that Shawn was to not enter their home.

What was she doing?

"Get out."

Ava frowned softly and looked up at Yae'Shawn slightly conflicted. She felt sorry for him. He looked just as hurt as her father and everyone was giving him the cold shoulder. It was obvious that he hadn't slept in days, he wasn't allowed to visit Reign and Kwan made sure of it.

Kwan always tried to stay out of the family business but this... Reign was family and the only person who knew just how bad she was hurting refused to tell any of them. That pissed Kwan off.

"Mr. Ston-"

"Get... out," King replied evenly. It was taking everything in him not to move from the bed. It was taking the Lord himself to hold King's body down because if he moved, Yae'Shawn was gonna be a dead man walking.

"I wanted to tell you... I should hav-" it was as if Yae'Shawn had blinked and gone to heaven with how fast King had flown off the bed and pushed him into the hallway, knocking Ava down in the process.

Yae'Shawn stumbled back into the wall and tried to process what the hell was going on but before he even had time to speak, King's fist crashed into his jaw knocking him down.

"DADDY!" Ava shrieked, pushing King into the closest door.

The look in King's eyes was a mixture of death and hurt. Death because he wanted to kill him. Hurt because he trusted Shawn with his daughter's life and he failed to come to him like a man. King was hurt because he knew he could have prevented this if Shawn would have just opened his mouth.

Maybe he was wrong for putting his hands on him but could you blame him? He was a broken man and wanted any and everything to feel his pain, his anguish.