The funeral was scheduled for that Friday afternoon.

Keiba, Min, Ruth, and Ben were reluctant to go, but some part of them really wanted the closure of seeing Meaghan six feet under.

It was cloudy that day, and a little windy. And while everyone waited at the gravesite for the pallbearers to arrive, an older woman tapped Keiba on the shoulder.

“Hello,” she started. “You’re Keiba, yes?”

"Yes." She nodded.

“I’m Aina’s mother.”

Keiba’s eyes widened slightly. She hadn’t wanted to speak to anyone in affiliation with Meaghan, least of all her mother, but Keiba soon found that the woman was Meaghan’s exact opposite. She was sweet. And very tragic. It looked as though the stress had aged her greatly. She'd only came over to apologize for what Meaghan had done to her. And from what Keiba understood, Meaghan was all that she’d had since her husband had walked out on them when Meaghan was younger. So Meaghan’s mother was all alone now.

After hearing that, Keiba hugged the woman. She hugged her for a long time as she broke down and cried, and didn’t let go until Sun-Hee came to take over. She’d apologized to Keiba when she was still in the hospital for trying to seduce Min, and Keiba had forgiven her. She offered a small smile, and Sun-Hee tried to return it. She was faring better than Meaghan’s mother, but she was still very upset: she’d cried almost consistently since she’d arrived at the cemetery. Fortunately, Rickie was there to keep her together. Min had told her that they’d decided to try and work things out.

Darcie had broken her ankle in her effort to flee from Banks, ironically, and she was currently sitting in jail, waiting bitterly for her court date. As far as she was concerned, Meaghan was the reason she’d gone down such a dark path. But as usual, she was just refusing to take responsibility for her actions. She’d chosen that path before she’d met Meaghan; Keiba had just been an outlet for her spite.

She and Min held hands next to Ruth and Ben as the pallbearers arrived and the coffin was lowered into the grave. It was a beautiful service, they had to admit: her casket was a pearly white color and dark purple roses were gathered on top.

 “How’re you, Keiba?” Ben asked as people started to depart for the wake.

“I’m okay.” She said. Her face and body was still sore and battered-looking, and the stitches in her side were scheduled for removal that following Tuesday—the ones in her foot having already been removed the day before. Her ankle was in a cast and she was walking on crutches. She’d thought she’d only sprained it, but there was a hairline fracture that the doctors had only recently seen in the xrays.

“Are you still getting nightmares, sweetie?” Ruth asked.

She nodded and looked down. Min squeezed her hand. The dreams always included fire and Meaghan and Keiba not being able to get out of that shed alive, but the causes for why she couldn’t escape seemed to vary each time. Her dad was paying for her to see a therapist, and she’d had her first session earlier in the week. Her symptoms aligned with PTSD which didn’t surprise anyone.

Ruth hugged her hard. “Hang in there, Keiba,” she murmured. “Ben and I are here for anything you need.”

She nodded and tears came to her eyes. “Yes. Thank you, Ruth. Ben.”

Ben smiled encouragingly before hugging her too. They left for home, but Min and Keiba felt like staying a little longer.

It was quiet as they walked along the path through the cemetery. The gentle of the wind was the only sound between them. Min had had a yellow rose in his hand the entire time that he’d been twirling around. Keiba looked down at it, finally curious as to why he’d brought it.

She started to ask, but he stopped her with a question of his own, “Isn’t this the cemetery where your mom is buried?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Will you take me to see her?”

She nodded. They walked a little further down the path before veering onto the grass again. They walked for a little while until they reached a modest tombstone with lilies etched into the stone around Angela Heman's name. The sight of it for some reason brought tears to Keiba’s eyes.

“Hey, mom,” she began. “It’s been a little while since I’ve visited and I’m sorry about that. Things just got… busy, y’know?” She paused, moistening her lips with her tongue. “I wanted to thank you for helping me with the competition. I know that I couldn’t have won it without you. I also brought someone with me. I know I should’ve done this earlier, mom, but this is Min-Kyung, my boyfriend.”

Min kissed her temple before he stepped forward. “Hello, Mrs. Heman.” He greeted respectfully. “I’ve wanted to meet you for a while now, but like Keiba said, things got a little complicated.” He went forward and crouched beside Angela’s grave.

“I feel so humbled being next to you right now." He admitted, playing with the rose. "I didn’t go over exactly what I wanted to say and now that I’m here I really, really wish that I had. Though I think it's pretty obvious why I'm here.” He clenched his hand against the tears he could feel welling up behind his eyes. “I have to be honest with you, Mrs. Heman. I... I'm so ashamed of myself. For the way I'd frozen up that day. I don’t know if anything would’ve changed if I’d reacted sooner, but the fact that I couldn't immediately rush to Keiba's side just disgusts me. And even with Keiba's help it's so hard for me to forgive myself. Anything could've happened to her while I just... stood there." He shook his head. 

"I came here to make a promise to you and to Keiba that I’ll never let my fears get the best of me again--especially not where Keiba's concerned. She was so brave through all this, and I… I fell short. I love her very, very much, and I want to be good enough to be your son-in-law someday. I’m promising both of you today that I’ll become a better man for her and that I'll protect her to the end.”

Keiba covered as tears started to pour down her cheeks. She watched as Min gently laid the rose over the grave. As he walked back toward her, she dropped her crutches and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. He held her just as tightly against him though he was mindful of her wounds. She cried silently into his shirt and she felt droplets of wetness hit her shoulder as he cried too. They held on to each other desperately for a while before she pulled back to thumb away his tears.

“I love you.” She told him. “I love you so much and to me you are the strongest and most perfect man I’ve ever met despite what you think.”

He smiled a little and wiped her tears away too. “I love you too, Keiba. I always will. And I want to do everything in my power to keep you next to me. You’re the most important thing in my life right now. You know that, don’t you?”

She nodded. Another tear slipped free as they kissed again. 

Three months later, they were cuddled up together in their new condo. They’d moved in a couple of weeks ago and had only recently put everything in order. They were exhausted. It was the first time in a while that they’d both been able to relax.

In addition to getting moved in, Keiba had a concert a couple of days ago (which had been a big success), and she and Min had been in and out of court.

They, along with Ruth; Ben; Spencer; and two or three other people Keiba didn’t know, had testified against Darcie. Regina had invested in the most expensive lawyer she could afford, but he couldn’t do much against the overwhelming amounts of evidence against her daughter. Darcie was found not guilty with her involvement with Yun and Steven, but they had been able to convict her with many other charges, including accessory to the Ardyn Grove fire. Darcie was sentenced to 120 years in prison with absolutely no chance of parole.

Keiba and Min, along with Max and the boy who'd been knocked out, also had to testify against Spencer. He was to spend a few years in jail himself, but he received a lighter sentence for helping put Darcie behind bars.

Regina had also been taken to court. Gerald had finally seen how evil she was and he divorced her. Unfortunately, Regina had claim of over a third of Gerald’s investments when the divorce was finalized. And as if that wasn’t enough, she’d taken to following him around and damaging his property. Gerald had to get a restraining order against her in addition to getting her to pay for the damages.

He moved out of the house and into an apartment. He didn’t like the way things had turned out, but he was glad to finally be rid of Regina. And, on the bright side, his and Keiba’s relationship had improved greatly. They even had a lunch date for tomorrow, and Gerald had invited Min over to watch a boxing match with him and some of his friends.

Ben had proposed to Ruth a month before and Keiba and Min would help them prepare for that. Keiba's therapist had also commended her on how much she’d improved. Things were really looking up for everyone.

“Listen,” Min said into the silence of their bedroom.

Keiba ran her hand up and down his chest. “Hm?”

“My parents will be visiting some family in Colorado in a few months. I was wondering if you’d like to go with me to see them.”

Her eyes widened slightly. She sat up on her elbow and looked down at him. “Seriously?” she asked.

He nodded, pushing her hair over her shoulder. “I was waiting for the right time for you to meet them, and they couldn’t make it for the summer this year.”

“Do they… know anything about me?”

“Of course. I’ve told them virtually everything.”

“So they know that I’m black?”

He nodded. “They want to meet you. They’re really… curious.”

“I’m sure.”

“So? Do you want to go with me?”

She thought about it for a moment, then she nodded.

“Yeah?”

She nodded again blushing. “I really want to meet them too. Though, I’m a little nervous about it.”

“Don’t be.” He said. “You won’t be alone.”

She grinned and kissed his forehead. “I know; I’ll have ma lune prince to help me.”

He smiled and pulled her down for a kiss. They kissed again and again and then made love as the sun set and a full moon reached its peak in the sky.

fin.

Tied Up in Knots is finally over you guys and it's been an awesome ride! Thanks so much to all my subscribers, commenters, and silent readers ^^ you guys have been so great sticking with me for so long! 

I know I'll be getting questions about a sequel, and unfortunately there won't be one--at least, not where Min and Keiba are the main characters. Some of you may have noticed that I posted the forward to a story called Forgive and Forget. But recently I've been having doubts about which story I should start writing next because of all of the ideas I've got in my head right now. I'll post something more to this story later on today to see what you guys think about that. 

But anyway, I really hope you enjoyed my story ^-^ I know I have a lot of editing to do and I may or may not update this story with them, again depending on how you guys feel.