The sting of Monica’s death remains fresh for Kayce and his son, Tate.

PEOPLE’s exclusive clip from the Sunday, March 29 episode of Marshals captures a rare, vulnerable father-son moment between Kayce (Luke Grimes) and Tate (Brecken Merrill) as they continue grappling with the loss of Monica (Kelsey Asbille).

In the clip, Kayce comes downstairs to see Tate looking through Monica’s stuff, and Tate says he’s “trying to find something we could read for the ceremony.”

“We’ll have to see if I can go,” Kayce informs his son, before delivering some even worse news. “Finding Haley’s gonna take priority.”

“Wait, what? So she is missing?” Tate asks his dad, the newly minted U.S. Marshal. “Did she run away? Was she taken, like that girl you found in the back of the van that time?”

“We’re gonna bring her home,” Kayce promises. “I’m gonna find her, alright?”

Despite his fear, Tate sees the circumstances as something of a sign from his late mom. “We never would’ve crossed paths with Haley if we weren’t trying to sell mom’s horse,” he points out. “Almost like mom’s trying to save her from above.”

Then he tells his father: “If you won’t make it to the ceremony, bringing Haley back is the best way to honor her.”

Speculation was rampant that Asbille, who was married to Grimes’ character in Yellowstone, wouldn’t be reprising her role as Monica in the CBS spinoff in the lead-up to the show’s release.

The premiere episode confirmed that Monica died after being diagnosed with cancer, and Grimes, 42, said he was “heartbroken” about her fate.

“It felt like, I don’t even know what that would look like doing it without her, what that would feel like. Kelsey’s become one of my best friends,” he told TV Insider. “She’s the coolest actor I’ve ever worked with. She’s down to earth, sweet and kind to every other actor and the crew.”

He said he had to work up “the courage to call” Asbille, 34, and let her know about the plans for the spinoff. “I didn’t know how she was going to feel about it. I had to see how she was doing.”

They “had a great conversation,” he told the outlet. “In true Kelsey fashion, she handled it like a pro and totally understood. She’s going to do just fine.”

From creator Spencer Hudnut’s perspective, killing Monica opened up Kayce to a new chapter of life. “We had to shake up his life, to get him off the ranch and into a new position,” he told the outlet.

Hudnut also crafted the show’s storyline so that Monica’s death is related to “a bigger issue” that’s ongoing. “We’re shining a light on an issue. She passes because of cancer. Reservations have a high rate of cancer because of all the toxins that have been dumped on them. We wanted to make her death about a bigger issue. We wanted to be very respectful of that character.”