Keifer noticed it first.
Not in Jay.
In himself.
He stopped rushing out of the mansion after meetings.
Stopped drowning his evenings in reports.
Stopped pretending that exhaustion was the only thing he felt.
One night, back in his room, his phone lit up.
Jay : Location sent.
No explanation.
No greeting.
He smiled at the screen.
That was new.
And dangerous.
He locked the phone.
Then unlocked it again.
And went.
Later that week, during a review, Kaizer asked him something directly.
"Keifer?"
He looked up.
For half a second…
He was somewhere else.
"Sorry. Yes."
The room went silent.
Kaizer didn't miss that.
Neither did Serina.
Keifer wasn't careless.
He was… lighter.
More patient.
Less sharp at the wrong people.
And that unsettled a family that had raised him to be precise, not peaceful.
But Keifer didn't connect it to Jay.
Not consciously.
Until—
Keigan grinned at him across the breakfast table one morning.
"You smile at your phone now."
Keifer froze.
Just a fraction.
"I don't."
Keiren didn't even look up from his tablet.
"You do."
Keifer shot him a warning look.
It didn't work.
He realised it in the silence that followed.
He wasn't hiding it well.
And somewhere deep down…
He didn't want to.
—
Jasfer noticed it in a completely different way.
Jay came home before midnight.
Twice.
In the same week.
That alone was suspicious.
But more than timing…
It was her face.
She entered the house humming.
Actually humming.
Jasfer looked up from his papers.
Paused.
"You seem… happy."
Jay stopped mid-step.
"Oh."
Just that.
Like happiness had surprised her too.
He watched her closely over the next few days.
She ate properly.
Didn't disappear into her room after dinner.
Even sat with him while he watched the news.
Quietly.
Peacefully.
One evening, as she poured tea for him, Jasfer said gently—
"Something changed."
Jay's hand stilled.
"Changed how?"
He studied her face.
The softened eyes.
The unguarded mouth.
"You don't look like you're fighting the world anymore."
The words landed too close.
Jay swallowed.
"…Is that a bad thing?"
Jasfer shook his head.
"No."
Then, after a pause—
"Just unfamiliar."
Jay smiled faintly.
And for the first time since her mother had left this world—
Jasfer realised something that made his chest tighten.
His daughter was no longer lonely.
And far away, inside a palace that taught boys how to rule—
Keifer Watson was quietly learning the same truth.