If / Else statement to ternary condition for input into postslider.php

Hi,

I have a custom field that I am inserting into various elements on site. It’s a field that adds a read time to all blogs.

I’m using an If / Else statement to say…

If a value is set for read time echo the value if not, do nothing.

 $k3read = get_post_meta($the_id, 'k3read', true);
  if (empty($k3read)){  
  echo "";
  }
 else{
 echo "<span class='k3-cptc'>{$k3read} MINUTE READ</span>";
 echo "<span class='text-sep text-sep-comment'>/</span>";
 }

That has worked a treat in loop-index.php and loop-search.php.
However in postslider.php the original code is slightly different and what ever I do breaks something.
How do I change the if / else statement to fit into the code below?

if ( $commentCount != "0" || comments_open($the_id) && $entry->post_type != 'portfolio')
							
						{
							$link_add = $commentCount === "0" ? "#respond" : "#comments";
							$text_add = $commentCount === "1" ? __('Comment', 'avia_framework' ) : __('Comments', 'avia_framework' );
							$linkedin = get_post_meta($the_id, 'linkurl', true);
							$k3read = get_post_meta($the_id, 'k3read', true);
							$meta .= "<div class='slide-meta-comments'><a href='{$link}{$link_add}'>{$commentCount} {$text_add}</a></div><div class='slide-meta-del'>/</div><span class='k3-cpt'>{$linkedin}</span><span class='k3-cptb'>{$k3read} minutes read</span>";
						}
                        $markup = avia_markup_helper(array('context' => 'entry_time','echo'=>false, 'id'=>$the_id, 'custom_markup'=>$custom_markup));
						$meta .= "<time class='slide-meta-time updated' $markup>" .get_the_time(get_option('date_format'), $the_id)."</time>";
						$meta .= "</div>";

Thanks

TJ