Hailey's POV

A loud ringing alarm instantly wakes me up from my nap and I'm sitting up in bed as panic begins to wash over me from the sudden wake. After a couple seconds I feel a little more awake, a little more alert and begin to pay attention to the loud sound that's ringing throughout the house.

It's not his, it's not his alarm, I tell myself, attempting to get my heart out of my throat.

I toss the throw blanket off of me and slowly get out of bed and reach for the night stand as I listen closely to the alarm.

It's not the intruder alarm either meaning no one's in the house but I decide to play it safe still and make my husband proud and reach for Isaac's bedroom gun in the drawer and hold it beside me as I walk over to the door.

'Don't you ever take safety unless you actually feel like you're in danger,' his voice plays in my head and I immediately begin to feel sick to my stomach, nauseous. I can't tell if it's from the sudden wake up; the gun in my hand, the high anxiety or the pregnancy.

All of the above.

Placing my free hand on the door knob I begin to turn it and softly crack my door open to find a quiet dead house, there's no movement going on down the hall or down the stairs and it makes me uneasy about it for a second.

Where the hell is everybody at? When Isaac's alarm went off there were a dozen men storming the house with Dominic.

I slowly walk over to the stairway and the front door slams open causing me to jump and four tall beefy guys burst into the house, three of them heading towards the stairs, one stays downstairs guarding the front door with a gun in his hand.

I recognize the man that's in front of the other two guys that are making their way up, Vito, he's one of the main estate security guys.

He immediately reaches for the gun in my hand once he's reached me and the other two guys behind him are passing us walking down the hall, "we're not under attack," he puts my suspicion at ease, "but I suggest you get into a little more appropriate attire," he points to Isaac's big baggy shirt and my small shorts. "We head out in five."

I frown as light knocking begins to happen behind me, "where are we going?"

Vito doesn't say anything, he remains quiet and is looking behind me.

I turn to look with him when I hear the two men behind me knock for a third time on Isaac's parents bedroom door, a little more roughly this time.

Why isn't she answering?

"Bust it in already!" Vito raises his voice at the two men still standing at the door, shouting over the loud alarm. He looks back over at me, "the queen's presence is needed at Saint Frances immediately, along with yours. You're not to stay alone in the house."

My heart begins to pound in my chest as another wave of anxiety attempts to wash over me, "I-is everything okay?"

Vito never gets the chance to respond because the men behind me are kicking the door in a second late and it's slamming open.

"Wait!" I shout, causing the guys to come to a halt before they can rush in. "She could be indecent!" I say walking over towards them.

Both guys stay completely still looking in my direction or so I think, they're actually looking past me, towards Vito, waiting for his approval.

I glance over at him and he's quickly cocking his head to the side looking in front of him, "let her through first."

The men don't answer, they simply stand to the side allowing me to step through. I glance at the broken door as I enter the room and mentally scoff to myself, Carmelo won't be happy that the door has to be replaced, it's nearly broken in half.

I stand at the entrance not wanting to go in deeper than I intend to but Isaac's mom is nowhere to be around. I take a couple more steps forward so that the bathroom door is in my view and notice the door is open and the light is off, she's not in there either.

I turn to look back at Vito and the guys, tell them that she's not in here, when we hear a small thump and tiny sob come from the walk in closet and the guys are immediately brushing by me and come to a quick stop when they push the door open.

Worried about what they're looking at I immediately walk over to them and find a crying Adriana sitting on the closet door, with her phone in her hand and her back towards some shelf where she keeps her heels organized,

"Adriana?" I call out to her softly, pushing between the men, standing in front of them, giving her some distance still, not wanting to crowd her.

She snaps her head up as the phone call she's making continues to ring on speaker, light streaks of eyeliner smeared under her eyes, "it his," her voice breaks. "The alarm is his."

My heart instantly falls to my stomach.

"H-he always answers this line, always." She looks down at the phone, hanging up the call that has reached the voicemail that isn't set up and is dialing it again.

"Mrs. Matteo," Vito says in an overly soft voice as he makes his way into the closet and is crouching down in front of her.

She shakes her head, "even if he can't get to the phone some always answer, Vito, la sai tu."

Vito nods his head, "I know," he mutters and is reaching for Adriana's phone, gently taking it out of her hands when the line doesn't get answered again. He ends the call and is grabbing her hands, "let's get you off of this floor and into the truck"

She nods her head in agreement and is then getting up to her feet, "tell me he's okay, just give me that much."

I watch Vito's jaw flex as he starts to slowly move her forward, "I'm in the dark just as much as you are ma'am. The distress signal came in and my only instructions given to me was to collect yourself and Hailey and take you to Saint Frances, that's it."

Annoyance instantly begins to stir inside me as Vito walks out of the closet with Adriana right beside him and I'm quickly swatting him in the arm, giving him an ugly look.

"But I'm sure he's fine," he quickly attempts to save himself as he walks her to the bed, sitting her down at the edge.

I quickly grab the slippers that are near the closet and rush over to Isaac's mom and place them on the floor in front of her. "Here," I stick my hand out in front of her so she can take it, she does. She gets up and slips her shoes on.

"Carmelo's a stubborn man, Adriana, I'm sure it's nothing, we'll be back home before we know it," I offer her a small smile, attempting to reassure her.

She forces the smallest smile on her face, placing her hand on top of mine, "the last time that Carmelo was in the hospital it was nearly over twenty years ago when his parents died. My husband doesn't do hospitals, he despises them, he goes to his infirmary so Leo can patch him up, Hailey." Her eyes begin to fill up with tears again. "Somethings wrong, I can feel it."

I stay quiet for a moment not knowing what to say or how to comfort her at this point and decide that maybe it's just best to keep my mouth shut until we actually get to the hospital. I close my hand around hers, placing my other free hand on top of her hand. "Whatever it is you're not alone, Adriana. I'll be right there every step of the way."

She nods her head on last time as tears begin to stream down her face and an instant ache is in my chest as we make our way out of her bedroom and into the hallway with the men following behind us.

I quickly rush into the bedroom and change out of my shorts into Isaac's overly large sweat pants that he had on this morning and grab my phone and bag before rushing back out of the room and heading down stairs.

I attempt to call Isaac before I climb into the truck with his mom when I notice that I have a missed call from him and begin to panic when he doesn't answer but keep my thoughts and worries to myself, his mom doesn't need anymore added stress, she has enough going on already.

There's a black SUV waiting near the entrance of the house in the driveway with one of Carmelo's guys waiting patiently by the door as I make my way over to them. He instantly opens the door for me and closes it once I've climbed in as he climbs into the passenger seat himself and we're heading out of the estate and onto the open road a second later.

The drive from the house to the hospital is a ten to fifteen minute drive, tops, and it was probably one of the most unbearable drives that I've ever been on in my life.

About a million and one things begin to run through my head and I can't seem to calm myself down as I double, no- triple, text, Isaac asking him if he's okay, what's going on, is everything okay but my messages don't get answered. They don't get read, nor delivered and that instantly worries me, Isaac's not one to let his phone die anymore.

Vito, the other guy who's name I don't know, Isaac's mother, and I, ride up the hospital elevator quietly, not uttering a single word to each other or in general. I think we're all on edge at this point, even the men. Vito has this uncomfortable look on his face that makes me feel even sicker than I already do, I'm about eighty eight percent sure that he knows what's going on and is just playing the part for Mrs. Matteo's sake.

Perusal, the family has the entire floor to themselves once we step out of the elevator and walk down the hallway and into the little waiting room area.

My heart immediately flutters and breaks all together at the sight of my husband sitting in a chair, alone, well technically he's not alone because there's about six guys standing around the waiting room and halls, two of them with big guns in their hands and that immediately catches me off guard.

Something's definitely wrong.

Isaac's hunched over on the chair with his arms on his legs and his hands on his head as he looks down so he has no clue that we're here until one of the guys is clearing his throat and he's looking up.

I'm quickly rushing over to him a second later and running into his arms as he gets up from the chair and is wrapping his arms around me, burying his face into the crook of my neck.

"I'm okay, I'm okay," he whispers, tightening his arms around me.

I shake my head and feel my eyes begin to burn, "the alarm-"

"I know," he says and is pulling apart from me a second later, placing his hands on the side of my head. "I'm here, I'm sorry."

I nod and my vision instantly gets blurry with tears as the worry and anxiety begin to go away when I see that he's okay and is being replaced with ease but there's still a soft ache. I look him in the eyes and notice just how bloodshot they are and that instantly makes me want to cry, he's hurting, he's been crying, he's been alone this entire time.

"What's going on?" I asked.

He doesn't answer me, his attention immediately snaps up and he's looking behind me. He places a quick kiss on my forehead and says softly, "I'll be back," and begins to walk towards his mothers direction.

I turn to look behind me, following his trail to find his mom standing still in the middle of the floor, Vito and the other guy standing pretty close behind her.

"Where is he?" She questions.

Isaac walks up to his mom and is placing a hand behind her moving her towards the rows of chairs "sit down ma-"

Adriana immediately begins to shake her head and is taking a step back, away from her son, "don't you dare-," her eyes instantly begin to fill up with tears and she's looking all over the waiting room. "Where. Is. He?"

Isaac extends a hand out in front of him, bringing his mom in, "ma please, sit."

"WHERE IS HE!?"

Isaac looks off to the floor and is shaking his head "we got ambushed on the way home.. A b-bullet ended up piercing his chest cavity." She continues to shake her head, "no-"

"I tried to contain the bleeding as much as I could, I did. I did everything right, I did everything I was taught- but there was too much internal damage by the time he got here, t-they couldn't get him back."

"What are you saying, Isaac?!"

"He's gone mom."

"H-he's what?" I croak in disbelief, inching a step forward.

Adriana's knees suddenly buckle and Isaac is quickly catching his mom in his arms as she threatens to fall to the ground, her legs instantly giving out on her as he holds her up.

She continues to shake her head in a panic as she looks up at her son, both her hands clenching onto a handful of his shirt, "tell me you're lying,"she hits him weakly on the chest. "it's not true, tell me he's not-"

"I'm sorry ma," I watch Isaac's eyes briefly weld up with tears but never stream down his face and feel my heart instantly shatter as he looks down at his mom, "I wish I could," his voice breaks towards the end. "H-he didn't make it, Pops is gone."

Chills begin to run up my arms right away as Adriana lets out the most heart wrenching scream I've ever heard in my life. There's a sudden heavy weight on my chest as I watch her fall down to the ground completely and Isaac is quick to kneel down next to her, holding onto her tightly as she screams and cries her heart out.

My hands quickly fly up to my mouth as I try and cover it, mumbling my own sobs as I watch my husband attempt to hold himself together for his mother's sake.

This can not be happening. This isn't real.

Isaac tightens his arms around his mom as she continues to let out heart breaking sobs, a few lone tears managing to trail down his cheek. All I want to do right now is run over to him and attempt to give him the same comfort that he's giving his mom. I of all people know what it feels like to lose a parent.

"Adriana.."

Isaac quickly looks up at the sound of the deep voice to find his uncle Sal standing in the hallway, looking just as bad as he did the day he dropped Jessica off with his sister, giving them full custody until he could pull himself together.

He carefully takes a few steps forward, getting closer towards his sister and nephew. "It's all over the news- I rushed over as fast as I could," he explains. "I'm so sorry."

Isaac nods his head never once letting go of his mom and Sal's walking up to them, crouching down beside her, "here, lemme take her, you go to your wife."

Isaac slowly begins pulling apart from his mom, murmuring "Sal's here mom."

She looks over at him and her eyes immediately begin to fill up with tears all over again as her bottom lip begins to quiver and Sal's wrapping his arms around her as Adriana taps her hand on her chest, "i-it hurts, I c-can't b-breathe, Sal."

I watch Isaac stand up and take a couple steps back as Sal grabs ahold of his sister's face, "I know, Adri, I know, but you have to try angel. Big breath, inhale through your nose."

She shakes her head, "I can't," she sobs. "He can't be gone, Sal," she cries. "He can't-"

Sal pulls Adriana into him, hugging her tightly, "I am so sorry, sorella."

"What am I supposed to do without him, Sal? He was my entire world." She cries into his chest. "H-he was all I ever had when they gave up on me."

Sal places a hand on the back of his sister's head, holding her even closer to him, "I haven't been the best brother, lately, Adri, but I'm still here. I am not going anywhere, I am so sorry, we're gonna get you through this, we'll survive this together."

Isaac looks up his eyes instantly finding my own and my breath immediately hitches at the pain and hurt that I see behind his, he begins to walk around the siblings coming in my direction.

My feet motion to step forward and meet Isaac half way when I feel a heavy hand on my shoulder that's preventing me from moving and turn around to find Dion standing behind me.

"Oh my god!" I immediately fly into his arms and he's instantly wrapping them around me. "W-what are you doing h-here?"

"Ric called me the second they sent out a distress call, I was already in the hospital. Ang started getting contractions late last night so they've been monitoring her all morning."

"She's coming?"

Dion smiles and nods his head in response, "can I?" He shifts his gaze towards Isaac, who's stopped in the middle of the room, leaving some distance between us.

I nod.

Dion smiles softly and is leaning back down to hug me one last time, "you take care of him at home," he whispers into my ear. "Let me handle the ugly part right now."

A trail of warm tears quickly begins to stream down my face as I nod my head in agreement and attempt to control the panic attack that wants to happen, I don't want to see what's about to happen, I don't want to see him break, I don't want to see him hurt and I'm pretty sure that's why he's holding himself together right now.

He'll shut himself down, he'll suppress his own feelings to make sure any and everyone around him is okay first and I can't let him do that right now. He can't push this away, he needs to feel this grief as bad as it's gonna hurt. He needs to move through this pain because this will be his ruin if he suppresses it and I know that the only person that can bring it out of him right now is his best friend, Dion.

Dion unwraps his arms from around me and begins to move towards my husband, who's patiently waiting a couple feet away, watching us.

Isaac takes a step back the second that Dion gets near him and begins to shake his head.

"I'll fix it, I'll make changes-"

Dion continues to inch closer towards Isaac, "It's fine, KP."

I move in a little closer towards the guys so that Isaac knows I'm right here if he needs me and my heart completely breaks with what happens next.

Isaacs eyes immediately begin to glister with tears as he inhales a deep shaky breath, "I-I'm s-sorry."

Dion cuts off any little space between him and Isaac, "stop worrying about me, KP. I'm sorry," he says and is pulling him in for an overly large hug.

I watch my husband instantly embrace his best friend back when he moves in to hug him. He wraps his arms around him and completely lets himself break as he lets the sorrow consume him.

"I c-can't- I don't want it," Isaac cries out loud while shaking his head as he continues to hang onto Dion.

***

A loud rumble instantly wakes me up from my sleep and I'm immediately sitting up on the bed all over again like earlier today as the second wave of thunder hits a couple seconds later.

Fuck thunder storms, I love the rain, but hate how loud and scary thunder sounds.

I turn to the right of me to find my husband's side of the bed empty and begin to frown when I don't see him lying there. I turn to look in front of me to check if the light is on in the bathroom. Maybe he's in there but the room is completely dark, there's no light creeping in from the bathroom nor the closet; if he's not in there then where is he?

I made sure to stay awake past him when we got home from the hospital because I in no way wanted him to be awake alone in his head, he needed to get some sleep and it took a couple hours, but he finally managed to rest as he laid on top of me.

I woke up the second I felt him move and get off of me and scoot closer to him when he made himself comfortable on his side of the bed.

We stayed at the hospital for over three hours after Dion showed up. Little by little more and more people kept showing up that eventually Isaac got frustrated and overwhelmed that he shut the whole hospital down. He went into complete boss mode and an army of men came in and closed the entire second floor off. He didn't want anymore people coming in and only allowed certain people to stay with us.

The police couldn't even step foot into the hospital when they came to get Isaac's statement because of how heavily guarded it was. My dad even called and showed up an hour later saying that they were working on an arrest warrant for Isaac because he was at the murder scene and that Immediately sent the family into a frenzy.

They had just lost the king to their empire and they were damned if they were about to lose the prince as well.

Luckily my dad had enough connections to calm everything down on both sides and suggested the authorities wait a couple days before coming to talk to Isaac and getting his statement on what happened but Isaac wasn't about to break their most sacreate code; omerta.

He told my dad that if any law enforced men stepped onto our prosperity that they wouldn't be making it back out alive. The sorrow and grief was officially gone and replaced with anger and vengeance.

I turn to look at the digital clock on the wall to see that it's 2:14 in the morning and notice that the bedroom door is not closed all the way, there's a very small faint light coming in from under and to the side of the door.

I wait patiently in bed for a few more minutes to see if Isaac walks in and comes back to bed but after five minutes of waiting I'm climbing out of bed and reaching for my night robe and rushing out of the room when another rumble of thunder hits.

I don't dare turn on the hallway light because I don't want to wake his mother up if she managed to fall asleep, Isaac mentioned that Bevens gave her a couple sleeping pills to help her get some rest but she was refusing to take them so he was in the room with her for about an hour before he came into bed.

Pulling my robe tighter I slowly make my way downstairs and see that the light that is on is actually coming from Carmelo's office.

I inhale a very shaky deep breath, praying to God that I'll find him magically standing in his office when I reach the doorway but the only thing I find in there is my husband.

He's sitting behind his father's desk, shirtless, leaned over asleep on top of the desk, on top of a bunch of paperwork.

I slowly start to make my way over towards him and place my hand on the back of his bare shoulder. I lean down to whisper in his ear, slightly shaking him, "baby.."

He wakes up almost instantly and is bolting up on the chair when I notice his gun in his other hand.

"Hey," I place my hand back on the top of his shoulder, pulling him back into the room. He quickly looks over at me, sleep still deeply hazed in his eyes, he looks exhausted.

"What are you doing down here, baby?" His voice is extra deep and raspy tonight.

An instant flash of light beams through the curtains as a louder rumble follows after it again and Isaac's quickly placing his hand on top of mine, "I'm so sorry, are you okay?" He asked, most likely referring to the thunder, he knew just how much I hated it. "I-I couldn't fall back asleep when you knocked out so I came down to get some things together and I must have dozed off."

I nod, squeezing his hand, "come back to bed, we'll deal with whatever you were dealing with later."

He nods silently only he doesn't make any attempt to get up from the chair, he looks straight ahead of him, looking into nothing and everything at the same time.

"Babe.." I place my hand back on him.

"He's gone," he mutters under his breath and chills are instantly running up my spine when he looks back up at me. The grief is back, the sorrow is back. His eyes are bloodshot as they begin to glaze up with tears. "He's really gone.."

I nod and lean down to wrap my arms around him as my eyes begin to burn with my own tears, holding him tightly as he begins to break and crumble under my embrace for the very first time since we got the bad news.

"I- I don't want it," he sobs as he clings onto my arms, "not like this. It wasn't supposed to happen like this."

I attempted to hug him even tighter, "I know, baby, I'm so sorry."

"I can't do this without him, Hail, I'm not ready, I don't know what to do, where to start."

Placing both of my hands on his face I force him to look up at me, "look at me, Isaac, you were born into this life, baby, meaning you were born ready for this role. You know what to do, you know where to start, you're just scared right now. You know these guys better than they know themselves. Some of these men out there even helped raise you, Isaac, they've watched you grow up into the man you are, the king you're about to become. Your dads even said you're more than half the man he ever was at your age."

"I don't want to do this without him, I don't want Isaiah growing up without him. We still need him."

I feel my heart immediately begin to swell in my chest as Isaac refers to our son as Isaiah, it was one of the top names we were considering.

We decided that his name would be Isaiah Isaac during dinner yesterday, a junior named right after his dad and I loved how natural and easy it just came out of him. But at the same time my heart was threatening to shatter for the man I love.

I hated seeing Isaac hurt so much, feel so broken. We were barely starting to get him back, his dad was finally getting through to him and his bottled up anger. I hate feeling so helpless and not being able to bring him any type of comfort right now.

"He won't," my voice threatens to crack as I comb some of Isaac's hair out of his face, caressing it. "He may not be here physically anymore but you're so much like him, Isaac. I know you hate being compared to him, baby, but it's not entirely a bad thing. Your dad was a fucking legend. As notorious and feared as he was, your dad was so compassionate. He would do anything for you, for your mom, he would move the world just to see his family happy. This kingdom, that family he built, it was never his baby, it was always yours; he did everything for you and your mom, he wouldn't leave you unprepared, he knew you were ready."

"Spoken like a true queen."

I quickly turn to look behind me to find Don and Beanie standing at the entrance of Carmelo's office guns in their hands already.

Don's a couple feet away from beanie, "the motion sensors went off," he points towards the gadget in the corner ceiling. "Just wanted to make sure everyone was still breathing."

"Thank you," I nod. "We're okay."'

Dominic nods his head in return as he tucks his gun away and it's then that I noticed just how exhausted both of the guys actually look.

"Isaac-" Donny's voice cracks and he's quickly clearing his throat. "Your dad was more than just our boss," he turns to look back at Beanie who's now walking up to stand next to Don. "He was my friend," his voice cracks for a second time. "His death will not go in vain. I also will not let you consume yourself in that anger that's bottling up inside you, I won't make that same mistake twice. I couldn't save your old man from himself back when we were your age but I've had plenty of practice since then to save his son, just like he intended to."

"You may have lost your father today, kid," Beanie takes a step forward. "But there's plenty of us," he points back and forth from Dom and himself. "Who are still here for you, who you can still turn to, who will look after you, and not just because you're our boss now, or his kid."

"There's plenty of us that were here the day your parents met, the day they brought you home. We were here when you took your first steps, when you spoke your first words," Dom says. "We attended school programs, we bailed you out when you got in trouble, we watched you grow up into the man you dad raised you to be kid, you're not alone, we're gonna get these mother fuckers- excuse my language," he waves a hand in my direction.

I smile softly.

"We," Beanie points a finger at Dominic and himself, "are still here, we are not going anywhere, boss. We will reign hell just like we did with your father, we'll take this city back and burn anyone down that gets in the way. They fucked with the wrong family."