Chapter 367 - I Found You

Hao Suyin thought that she already escaped her fate. It had almost been two decades since they killed the last person related with The Order of the Red Hand. She had lived her life the way that she wanted to.

There was happiness… more than she was able to imagine. Her boys had grown into men and she was proud of them. The Kingly was now one of the biggest companies in Chengshi.

In her eyes and in many other people's eyes, she was living the best life. She had a picture perfect family. Her husband was putting in more money than they would be able to spend. She had three gorgeous boys. A house that was beyond compare.

She had love.

But things caught up to her in the end. The warning came in the form of a letter. Just like in the old days. No digital tracks. She entered her sun room and found a small envelope on her easel.

At the sight of it, it felt like all the walls of her perfect house suddenly toppled over her. She recognized the envelope immediately. With her heart pounding inside her chest, she snatched it and ripped the top open.

Her hands shook as she read the short sentence in script.

"I found you."

There was a hideous crawl that ran through her body. The next moment, she was ripping the paper into shreds until the words disappeared out of her sight.

She breathed out, feeling like there was not enough air in the room. Her hands were running down her carefully arranged hair. Her body felt cold with sweat even though it was in the middle of summer.

She snapped back to reality when a head poked in her room. "What are you doing?" her second son asked, staring at the mess by her foot.

"Oh nothing," she smiled. "I just… I didn't like what I drew. I tore it to shreds."

"Aw, you should've let me see it first," Qing Chen said.

"Trust me, it was so ugly you would not want to see it."

Her son smiled back at him. "Are you coming with us?"

"Where to?"

"We're going out with father. We'll see Enigma."

"Are you taking Lok as well?"

He nodded.

"Well, I'll just stay at home. Have fun with your father. Heavens know I need a break from all you boys."

"You offend us," he said but he was still smiling. "I'll see you later."

"Yes, you be careful."

Then her son disappeared. She heard him from down the hall calling his brothers, telling them that they were set to go.

Hao Suyin took another breath to steady herself before she bent down and started picking up the pieces of the torn letter. She was going to have to do something about this.

What was she even going to tell Zihao?

It had been years since Hao Suyin punched something but that was what she did while her family was away for the day. Her hands had gone soft. The callouses of her palms and feet were long gone in the years of regular spa days with her mother-in-law.

She honestly felt like her bones would crack when it connected with a punching bag. Had she gone that soft? That brittle in this thing? How was she supposed to protect her family when she would not be able to protect herself?!

That night when she crawled into bed with her husband, she felt like she shouldn't tell him. She didn't want to involve the rest of her family in her issue that they had once buried. Her sons… her sons would not appreciate this new threat to their family.

They were becoming killing machines—her firstborn, Qing Wei, showing the most promise of taking the same path that she did when she was younger. Just by looking at him, she grew scared. She escaped that life for a reason and here was her son diving right into it.

When he was born and she first carried him, she could not stop the tears from coming for about an hour. They could not even take a decent picture of them together because she was so emotional.

"I would give my life for you," was what she first whispered to his ears. She never thought she would be capable of loving someone more than she did her first child.

She thought that this experience would never happen again. But for the next two times that she gave birth, the cycle happened over and over. There was nothing that she would not do for her babies.

"How was your day?" she asked him.

"The boys are great. They show great interest in the mafia, darling," Qing Zihao said, his voice had gone deeper over the years. He had put on weight and sadly his habit of smoking was not a thing that he cured. "They're going to be great heirs."

Hao Suyin smiled at him. "That's good to know. When you finally retire and we leave everything to them, we're just going to sit somewhere by the beach and let them run things."

He smiled at her so beautifully that her heart broke. Being a mother and wife clearly had soften her. She loved him so much that tears ran down her cheeks before she could try to stop and hide them.

"What's wrong?" Qing Zihao asked over and over again as he wrapped his warm arms around her, kissed her head, and rubbed her back as the tears continued. "What's happening?"

When she could speak she said, "They're here. The Order. They want me. They're going to kill me, Zihao. They're going to come after our family. I have to get out of here."

Qing Zihao sat up. "What are you talking about? You're not going to leave," he said but it was like he was trying to convince himself. "You can't just leave the boys."

"I know," she said and wiped her nose.

"We're going to kill them. Don't you trust us?"

"I do, Zihao. But I don't think I am ready to tell the boys of how my life had been before I had them—before I had you. I never told them who I was and I don't intend for them to know ever."

Qing Zihao looked defeated. He knew how serious she was about this. They had this conversation before Qing Wei was born. "The less they know, the better," she had said. They had been careful not to let anyone know about Hao Suyin's past.

He could not help but ask her again. "Are you sure about that?"

Crying still, she nodded her head. "We're going to need to plan about this, okay? Everything will be fine."

They stayed up all night, ironing out all of the details that needed to happen. They were going to stage her death then she would escape to one of their properties and remain in hiding until they knew what they should do.

But it was the right thing to do. She was not going to put them in harm's danger. So even if it felt like burning her own heart, she left her dear boys.