Page 51 of If I Gave You My Heart
He tilted his head to the side and then looked at me.
"I've been scouting for my replacement," he announced.
I raised my eyebrow because I never thought he would hang his chain up.
"Your replacement?" I questioned.
Murray quickly pulled the handkerchief out of his suit pocket to cough in it. He flipped it in my direction, and I saw that he had coughed blood into it.
"I'm dying," he lowly disclosed.
My heart fell into my stomach because the man seated across from me used to be Superman in my eyes. In our prime, we were unstoppable.
"Fix your face, my love. Everyone gets their time," he said to me with a slight smile.
"How?" was all that I could muster out.
"Colon cancer, stage four."
Cancer had run in his family, so there was no surprise in that. The stage of his illness was what got to me. Murray never frequented the doctor. I was the responsibility in his life, and when I left, I knew he had not been keeping up with his body. Although my heart went out to him, my priority in this meeting was to keep my family together.
"Jolene needs to be next in line. She's the next Supreme that's up." He and I both knew it.
"She's a hothead," he coldly stated.
"She's just like you…"
He sat there for a while before he let those lips part.
"There's still so much she will have to learn before filling my shoes, and I just don't have the time."
"You don't need the time. I know everything you do. I will show her."
He sat there, running his tongue across the upper row of his teeth.
"Okay…"
I blew out a sharp breath in relief.
"And as for the bounty on Nyoka?"
"That'll be up to Onyx."
Jolene didn't even know that The Heart Mirage was going to her. Being that I didn't know of the relationship between her and Nyoka, I was going to put my own spin on things before relaying messages.
"I'll let her know," I simply said before standing from the table. "Thank you, King of Hearts."
I started to walk to make my exit, but Murray caught my hand while passing. I turned to the right to look in his direction. In those light brown pupils, I saw he was tired. He looked so tired, and I felt bad for him.
"I miss my wife," he said as he stared me deeply in the eyes.
"I miss her too."
When Murray decided he didn't want to be a family, it broke me in ways I would never allow myself to feel again. That heartbreak also repaired my vision. It made me the best mother I could be to Jolene and an even better grandmother to Adira and Adonis.
"Joyous Love, I need you."
This was the closest that Murray was going to get to begging. He lifted his unoccupied hand, and when he did, a beat started to lowly play through the speakers on the walls.
