Second Chances

Prologue: Once Upon a Time, in a Faraway Land...

Alan Lertwongsa sat in his office, staring blankly at the email on his computer screen. The hum of the bank's air conditioning seemed louder today, as if the world had turned down the volume on everything else just so he could hear the roar of his own racing thoughts. His life had already taken a sharp turn a few months ago when Wen, his partner of six years, walked out. The pain of that loss was still fresh, clinging to every corner of his heart like a stubborn shadow.

He leaned back in his chair, running a hand through his already tousled hair. The breakup had left him feeling hollow, with no roadmap to navigate the overwhelming emptiness. Now, just as he was starting to convince himself he could piece things back together, another blow had come, this one so far removed from his personal struggles that it felt surreal.

His sister, the one he hadn't spoken to in years, was gone.

A car accident. Just like that, she was taken from the world. And now, her children—two-year-old twins—were his responsibility. Ayan and Ray. Names that felt foreign on his tongue, but familiar enough to tug at something deep within him.

He barely remembered the last time he'd seen her. They had grown apart, life pulling them in different directions, and Alan hadn't even known she had children. The lawyer's words still echoed in his head: "As her next of kin, the court has decided to grant you custody of the twins."

Twins. What did he know about raising children? He could barely take care of himself these days. He had spent the last few months numbing the pain with extra hours at the bank, avoiding emotions he wasn't ready to confront. And now he was supposed to be responsible for two little lives?

Alan exhaled slowly, pinching the bridge of his nose. His heart ached from the weight of everything—his sister's death, the unfamiliar weight of parenthood thrust upon him, the lingering sting of Wen's departure.

"Can I even do this?" he murmured to himself, the question hanging in the empty room like a cloud of doubt.

His gaze shifted to the picture frame on his desk—a photo of him and Wen from a vacation years ago. They had looked happy then, carefree, before life had chipped away at their foundation. It felt like a lifetime ago now. But no matter how much he longed to go back to a simpler time, he couldn't. Reality was here, pressing in on him with its demands.

The twins would arrive tomorrow. Strangers to him, yet somehow his family. He imagined their tiny faces, the weight of their loss heavier than they could probably understand. How could he help them through something like this when he was still drowning in his own grief?

Alan sighed, closing his laptop. He wasn't ready for this. He wasn't ready for any of it. But he didn't have a choice.

He stood and walked over to the window, looking out at the city below. The lights twinkled, oblivious to the turmoil inside him. Life, it seemed, was determined to keep moving forward, whether he was ready or not.

Once upon a time, he thought, this might have felt like a story. But now it's real.

And it was up to him to write the next chapter.

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I apologize in advance because the characters will probably more OOC and I won't be following their storyline in the drama except for the AlanWen break up but it won't matter much in this story.