The Young Dragon

At the police station, Jason and Hailey wait as Terry does a search on the woman they saw in the Juilliard yearbook that is Jason's mother. While her father searches, Hailey holds Jason's hand as he is obviously nervous about what he will find.

"We have a match." Terry says.

Jason takes a deep breath and looks at the screen and sees her mother.

"Her name is Mai Han... died due to suicide." Terry says with a saddened tone.

Jason is visibly disappointed by the news that his mother isn't alive anymore. Hailey puts her hands on Jasons shoulder.

"I'm so sorry, Jason." She says.

Jason holds her hand and smiles.

"It's ok. I just... I wish I knew... anything about her."

After a few seconds pass, Hailey gets an idea about what to do.

"Let's go to Juilliard." Hailey says.

Jason is confused by this idea.

"What?" Jason asks.

"What?" Terry asks as well.

"I'm going to New York for an on campus tour. You can come with me and ask questions about your mom." Hailey suggests.

Jason doesn't respond for a moment.

"I don't know. I mean, is it even ok with your dad?" Jason asks.

Hailey then turns to her father with puppy dog eyes that causes Terry to let out a sigh.

"Fine. As long as you two promise to be on your best behavior." Terry says.

Hailey smiles, giving her dad a kiss on the cheek while Jason thinks for a moment.

"Alright. Let's go to New York." Jason says.

Hailey gets excited and hugs Jason as the two smile. A few weeks pass and Jason and Hailey are flying first class to New York. Hailey is amazed by this, while Jason is just happy to see her smile.

"This is incredible! How did you afford this?" Hailey asks.

Jason tries to come up with a reasonable explanation.

"Uh... I saved up some money over the years." Jason says.

While Hailey looks around the first class area While Jason thinks about finally getting answers about his mother and where he comes from. A few hours later, They are on the tour of Juilliard. Jason sees her excited smile yet again, happy that she's having a good time. He then looks over at a piano and gets flashes of a memory of his mother playing and smiling at him.

"And are you interested in attending Juilliard as well, young man?" The instructor asks.

Jason quickly snaps out of the memory of his mother to answer the question.

"Uh, not exactly. I was wondering about a former student that went here... Mai Han? She was my mother." Jason asks.

The instructor almost immediately smiles when she hears this.

"Come with me." The instructor says.

Jason and Hailey look at each other then follows the instructor. They soon enter a room and the instructor pulls out a folder.

"Forty years of faces, and I've never forgotten one. Especially this one." The instructor says, handing Jason a picture of his mother.

"She was absolutely brilliant. Didn't even let a surprise pregnancy get in the way of her studies here. She was destined for greatness, we were sure of it... then one day, she just disappeared. We assumed she went to her home in China but then her family there wrote to us trying to get in touch with her. The news soon got out that she... took her own life." The instructor says.

Jason stays silent for a moment and just stares at the picture. Later on, Jason and Hailey sit alone in the piano room while the young man continues to stare at the photo of his mother.

"Are you ok?" Hailey asks.

Jason doesn't answer for a moment.

"I'm ok... It's just that, none of this is adding up. The lady said that she was an excellent piano player, a star student... a loving mother. So why kill herself?" Jason says, not taking his eyes off of the photo.

Hailey shrugs.

"Depression maybe?" Hailey suggests.

Jason continues to think to himself as Hailey looks over at the picture.

"You wanna hear what she played?" Hailey asks.

Jason is confused.

"How?"

"The notes are right here in the picture. Your mom played beautiful music." Hailey says as she sits at the piano and plays the same music Jason's mother was playing in the photo.

As Hailey starts playing, Jason finally starts to fully remember his mother and what really happened the day of her death. Years ago, when Jason was a little boy playing with his toys, his mother was playing the piano, smiling at her while she played. She then heard a loud knock on the door and got visibly worried, grabbing Jason and carrying him to the closet. Mai Han then tells her son to be quiet and kisses him on the forehead before closing the door. At that moment, the door is kicked in and a younger Frank walks in with three other men.

"Nice to see you again, miss." Frank says.

Mai is visibly scared, trying to think of what to say.

"What do you want?" She asks.

Frank laughs at the question.

"I told you before. I want the money your boyfriend owes me." Frank says.

"And I told you, he's not my boyfriend and his debt is between you and him. Not me." She says.

Frank smirks, walking closer towards Mai.

"Well unfortunately for you, I can't find him anywhere. So not only did he leave you with a kid, he also left you with his debt. And I'm here to collect now."

Mai doesn't say anything, trembling out of fear while Jason watches from the closet. Frank then reaches over and touches Mai's arm gently, making her uncomfortable.

"I know you don't have the money. If you did, he'd still be around. But everything is negotiable, right? I'm a reasonable man... and you're a very attractive young woman. We can work something out." Frank says.

Frank then starts to kiss Mai on her neck while the three men watches and laugh. Mai quickly fights him off and smashes a vase over his head. As blood drips down his forehead, Frank gets enraged.

"You little bitch!"

Frank then pulls out his gun and aims it right at Mai's head. Jason's eyes widen as his mother turns towards the closet, giving her son one last smile before Frank shoots her in the head. An angry Jason bursts out of the closet and punches Frank in the stomach. He then turns around and gets punched in the face by one of the men, hitting his head on the edge of a table on the way down to the ground. While Jason is knocked out on the ground, one of the other men pulls out his gun and aims it at Jason but is stopped by Frank.

"Hold on a minute. That kid packs a punch. I think I just found a way for Tommy to pay his debt. Grab him, the kids coming with us." Frank says.

When Hailey finishes playing, Jason snaps out of it, a tear falling down his face. Hailey notices this and quickly rushes to his side.

"Jason, are you ok?" She asks.

Jason's entire body trembles out of both devastation and anger.

"I remember... I remember what happened to my mother... and she didn't kill herself." Jason says.