Midnights Lotus.

34 - end of the road,

Reese stared down at the engraved headstone, his eyes watering once. He quickly blinked away the tears and let go of a deep breath. He felt a hand clasp onto his shoulder; looking back, he saw as Mid stood next to him, also staring at the headstone as well. Neither spoke a word as the eerie silence continued to linger over them. The rest of the crew—Gotti, Tiny, and Santos stood afar at the truck, watching from a distance.

Reese finally revealed himself to his ecstatic mother; to say the least, it was overwhelming knowing that her son was still alive—but her happiness was short-lived after finding out that Rylo was now gone.

Over the last few weeks, there had been many mixed emotions. After finding out what Bambi had been up to, it was safe to say that the situation still left a bitter taste in everyone's mouths. Mid and his parents took a step back and re-evaluated their lives, even though there was still some anger lived in them—they still couldn't help but feel saddened as well.

Clarence and Minnie very much did blame themselves for the way that Bambi had felt for all of those years, and while they did try their best to give both Mid and her an equal amount of love, they couldn't help if she pushed them away at times.

When the time arrived for Clarence to pass down the business to Mid, he felt as if he were ready. Mid demonstrated the same drive that Clarence had when he was younger. During his running the business, he often presented problems to both Mid and Bambi, letting them develop their solutions to test them. Mid shown natural leadership, however at the time, Bambi seemed to show no interest in going any further in the business. Preferably instead, stick with dealing and handling the merchandise.

So, it was a surprise to them that Bambi had ill feelings towards them all. For the life of them, though, they couldn't understand why she hadn't just come to them with her issues but instead chose the route of trying to sabotage the empire and hurt everyone in the process. They could have moved past it, but they left the decision up to Mid to what should have been done. Mid decided that she needed to be dealt with; as much as it hurt him, he knew he would be a fool if he had let her live.

However, Mid couldn't bring himself to physically harm her other than when he choked her to put the chain around her neck, so he made sure to let the rest of the crew know what was unfolding and decided to let the one person who had been affected by the situation the most--Lotus.

While Reese did torture her, along with the rest of the crew, Mid decided that Lotus deserved the honors of ending the life of the person who made the call to kill off her dad. Once Lotus was out of recovery, they had taken her back to the building where she and Reese had been held captive and let her finish what had been started.

During that time, Mid remained quiet about what Bambi had revealed to him weeks before what Lotus had done. Over time it started to bother him even more, that eventually, Mid requested Reese to take him to his house where Lotus had been staying since being discharged from the hospital.

Mid hadn't revealed to anyone else what Bambi told him. He didn't tell his parents about it either; even after what she did, he didn't want his parent's view of her to change.

Despite the secret, she had remained the most loyal to him. Even during his lowest point, Lotus had stuck by him and uplifted him when he needed it. When he questioned those around him, Lotus made him feel secure and put his mind at ease, knowing that she wouldn't betray him like the others—but he was wrong.

Nonetheless, with the two snakes now deceased, it was time to confront the last enemy in disguise.

"Never thought I'd be looking at this grave any time soon." Reese scoffed, turning around. Mid followed him, walking back to the truck. "What the fuck going on with the simulation?"