Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

The quiet hum of the university library’s upper floor was punctuated only by the soft rustle of turning pages and the rhythmic tapping of pens against wooden desks. With their very first end-of-semester exam scheduled to begin in less than an hour, Alice and Dai were buried under a mountain of color-coded highlighters, messy lecture summaries, and heavy textbooks, conducting a desperate, last-minute revision ritual.

Dai slumped back in her chair, stretching her arms high above her head with a long, dramatic groan. "I swear, if I have to read one more case study on international market trends, my brain is going to liquefy and pour straight out of my ears." She rested her chin on her palm, looking across the table at Alice with a sudden, conspiratorial gleam in her eyes. "Hey... when this nightmare semester finally ends, we should totally go on a vacation."

Alice didn't raise her eyes from her notes, her yellow highlighter steadily tracking across a dense paragraph. "A vacation?"

"Yes! A proper responsibility-free getaway," Dai insisted, leaning in over their spread-out papers. "My grandparents live near the coast in Phuket. The beach is literally five minutes from their doorstep, and my grandmother cooks the most insane seafood spread you will ever taste in your life. Come with me for the semester break. We can just rot on the beach and pretend university doesn't exist."

Alice paused her highlighter mid-sentence, a faint, thoughtful beat passing between them. "I'll... check and let you know," she replied softly, offering a small, noncommittal nod. "I don't really have any solid plans as of now, but I'm not sure what my schedule looks like yet."

"Fair enough, but the offer stands," Dai grinned, tapping the edge of Alice's notebook. "Phuket is waiting."

As Dai turned back to her side of the table, Alice watched her pull out a sleek, rectangular metallic device from her canvas bag. It was a high-tech digital voice recorder, equipped with noise-canceling dual microphones and a tiny digital display screen. Dai casually plugged a pair of wired headphones into the side jack, slipped the earbuds into her ears, and pressed play, tapping her foot to whatever audio was spooling through the wire.

Alice knew the device well. Dai was notoriously lazy when it came to taking speed-notes during morning classes, often relying on the little gadget to record entire two-hour lectures so she could re-listen to them while lounging in her room or when her attention span inevitably drifted off during class.

Alice tilted her head, staring at the gadgets cluttering Dai's desk space with a deadpan expression. "Why exactly are you engaging in top-secret espionage technology forty minutes before an exam?"

Dai paused her audio, pulling one earbud down onto her neck and looking visibly offended. She puffed out her cheeks, crossing her arms over her chest. "Excuse me? Espionage?!" Dai scoffed, gesturing dramatically at the tiny device. "This is a legitimate academic tool of the highest order! It's a voice recorder for class lectures, you absolute nerd, not a wiretap for the CIA!"

A ghost of a dry, teasing smirk touched the corner of Alice's lips as she adjusted her glasses. "It's not espionage... until it's used for espionage."

Dai stared at her for two solid seconds before breaking into a childish pout. She maturely stuck her tongue out at Alice, let out a dramatic humpf, and shoved the earbud firmly back into her ear, diving headfirst back into her binder as if Alice had deeply insulted her lineage.

Alice just shook her head with a faint, quiet breath of amusement, the rare, light-hearted warmth easing the tight knot in her chest as she turned her attention back to her textbook.

The massive iron gates of the university campus seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief as the final afternoon bell signaled the end of the grueling exam week. For most students, the air felt lighter, recharged with the thrilling promise of freedom and warm summer rain.

Dai collapsed onto a stone bench outside the examination hall, throwing her arms back and letting out a loud, unrefined groan of triumph. "We survived! It's over! I am officially dead to the academic world for the next three weeks!"

While Dai leaned back, drinking in the sudden absence of pressure, Alice stood silently beside her, her thoughts sinking into a dark, suffocating spiral.

For the past seven days, the relentless schedule of final exams had served as Alice’s ultimate fortress. It had been her perfect, untouchable shield—an ironclad excuse to leave the penthouse early in the morning , to hide in the library until late at night, to skip meals under the guise of endless revision, and to dodge both Lena and Miu without raising suspicion. But now, with the last paper handed in and the pens laid down, her fortress had completely crumbled. The excuse was gone. She had no reason left to stay out late, no reason to avoid her family, and no wall to hide behind.

"Oh no, you don't," Dai said suddenly, cutting through Alice's quiet spiraling as she jumped to her feet and grabbed Alice by the arm. "You have that terrifying 'I'm going to go home and stare at a wall' look on your face. Absolutely not. You are coming with me."

Before Alice could protest, Dai hauled her toward a waiting rideshare, refusing to hear a single word of objection.

Twenty minutes later, the car pulled up under the sprawling glass canopy of a prestigious five-star luxury hotel in the heart of Bangkok. Uniformed bellhops opened the doors, ushering them into a grand, marble-floored dining hall illuminated by towering crystal chandeliers and filled with the gentle, melodious sounds of a live grand piano.

Alice blinked in surprise, adjusting the thick black frames of her glasses as she looked around at the pristine white tablecloths and high-end patrons. "Dai... how on earth did you get a reservation here? This place is booked months in advance, and it costs a small fortune."

Dai let out a boisterous, unapologetic laugh, pulling Alice toward a plush velvet booth by the window overlooking a serene courtyard garden. "Okay, don't look so alarmed! You know my dad is a senior defense lawyer, right? Well, one of his high-profile corporate clients gifted him a VIP dinner reservation for two as a thank-you gesture. But my dad is a total workaholic—he's currently stuck in court trials all week and forgot the voucher even existed. So, being the dutiful, selfless daughter I am, I 'borrowed' it from his desk to treat us to the most absurdly expensive meal we will ever eat!"

A rare, faint smile touched Alice’s lips as she settled into the leather seat. "So you stole your father's luxury dinner."

"I repurposed it for a noble cause," Dai corrected with a wink, waving down a waiter. "Now order whatever you want. We are eating like royalty tonight."

Once their orders were placed—a delicate spread of gourmet dishes that Dai practically drooled over—the tension that had gripped Alice’s shoulders for weeks began to imperceptibly melt away. Surrounded by the gentle ambient noise of the restaurant and insulated from the quiet tragedies waiting at home, Alice felt a strange, fleeting sense of peace settle over her.

As they ate, their conversation drifted naturally away from academics and into the soft memories of their pasts.

"I miss the quiet, honestly," Alice murmured softly, swirling the water in her glass as she looked at the gardens outside. "Growing up in Chiang Mai was so different from Bangkok. The mountains, the misty mornings... my mother and I had a quiet routine there before everything changed. It felt like time moved slower."

"Chiang Mai sounds so dreamy," Dai sighed, resting her chin in her hand. "My childhood was just non-stop ocean air. Every single summer break, my parents would ship me off to my grandparents' place in Phuket. I spent every year from age five to eighteen running around on the beach, covered in sand, getting chased by wild dogs, and eating my grandmother's spicy crab curry until my tongue burned off."

Alice listened quietly, a genuine warmth easing her pale features as Dai painted vivid, chaotic pictures of her family trips to Japan and Europe, recounting hilarious disasters from airport layovers and lost luggage. For the first time in months, Alice wasn't guarding every word, wasn't calculating her distance, and wasn't fighting off the dark shadows of her mind. She was simply a young woman having dinner with her best friend.

Dai leaned across the table, her sharp eyes taking in Alice’s face under the warm dining lights. "Hey, Alice?"

"Hmm?"

"When are you going to stop wearing those glasses?" Dai asked, tilting her head curiously. "I mean, you never used to wear them until a few weeks ago. What happened to your contacts?"

Alice paused, her fingers instinctively brushing against the thick frame resting on the bridge of her nose. She had started wearing the oversized glasses specifically as a shield—a physical barrier to hide the hollow, sunken shadows beneath her eyes, the dark circles left by endless nights of starvation and tears, and the haunting emptiness in her gaze that she knew would terrify Lena.

"Why?" Alice asked softly, looking down at her napkin. "Do I look bad in them?"

"No, not at all! You look super intellectual and chic, like a dark-academia protagonist," Dai chuckled warmly. "It's just that I’m so used to seeing your actual face without them. It feels like you're wearing a little mask."

Alice looked out the window, a quiet, tender memory surfacing through the fog of her exhaustion. "Lin likes them," Alice murmured, a soft, genuine smile breaking across her face—the first real smile she had worn in a long time. "The little kid thinks they look really cool. She kept trying to pull them off my face the other day so she could wear them herself."

Dai watched the gentle, loving light flicker in Alice’s eyes at the mention of the little girl, feeling a quiet ache in her own chest. "She really adores you, you know," Dai said gently.

Alice didn't reply, but her smile lingered for a moment longer as she adjusted her glasses, holding onto the sweet, fragile memory of Lin’s bright laughter before the quiet darkness of the real world softly pulled her back.

The final forkful of mango panna cotta lingered near Dai’s lips, untouched and completely forgotten. Her dark eyes were narrowed, fixed intently on a dimly lit corner table tucked behind Alice’s left shoulder. She blinked hard, leaning slightly to the side to re-examine the figure through the soft, ambient glow of the dining hall, ensuring her mind wasn't playing a cruel trick on her.

Because of the exclusive nature of the hotel’s VIP wing, the dining area had been designed around the absolute sanctity of privacy. Deep mahogany partitions, heavy velvet drapes, and wide spatial gaps separated the tables, catering to the country's elite, high-profile figures, and celebrities who wished to dine away from the prying lenses of the press.

And yet, no amount of subtle lighting or secluded architecture could obscure the man sitting three tables away.

Dai would recognize that face anywhere—indeed, virtually anyone in Thailand would. It was Voradech Srisuwan. A formidable political titan, a prominent cabinet minister, and the man widely tipped by analysts to assume the office of Prime Minister in the upcoming elections. But to Dai, his identity carried a far more personal, chilling weight. He wasn't just a powerful politician on the nightly news; he was Alice’s father. Dai had seen his stern, unyielding features in the formal family portraits Alice had reluctantly shown her during their high school years and when they first arrived on campus as freshmen.

A cold, sudden wave of shock washed over Dai, making her throat go dry. Voradech was not alone.

Seated directly across from him was an elegant woman in her late thirties, dressed in an understated designer silk dress. What caught Dai’s breath was not merely her presence, but the unreserved, intimate nature of their interaction. The woman reached across the white linen tablecloth, her fingers resting naturally over his hand, her body leaning forward in a gesture that reeked of deep, established familiarity.

"Alice," Dai whispered, her voice dropping into an urgent, taut rasp.

Alice pulled her gaze away from her glass of sparkling water, frowning at the sudden shift in her friend's demeanor. "What is it, Dai? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Don't make it obvious," Dai said, her fingers tightening around her cloth napkin. "Slowly... turn around and look at the corner table near the floor-to-ceiling glass."

Alice’s brows knitted together in gentle confusion, but she obliged, turning her shoulders slightly to glance over the top of their leather booth.

The air instantly evaporated from Alice’s lungs. A sharp, violent tremor ran through her limbs, her pupils dilating in sheer, paralyzing shock behind her thick glasses. Her heart slammed against her ribs like a trapped bird.

Standing up from the corner table was her father. Voradech smoothed the front of his tailored suit, his sharp, formidable presence commanding the space around him. But before the initial wave of panic could fully consume Alice, the scene unfolded further.

The bill had been settled, and the couple was preparing to leave through the private VIP valet exit. As the woman stood up, Voradech didn't maintain the rigid, calculated distance he always displayed in public—or the cold, commanding indifference he showed at home. Instead, he stepped close, reaching out to gently cup the woman’s cheek. He leaned down and pressed a slow, lingering kiss onto her forehead, his eyes softening with an intense, tender affection that Alice had never once seen him direct toward Lena in his entire life.

The woman smiled up at him, her fingers casually adjusting his lapel before sliding her hand into the crook of his arm.

Sitting in the dim, golden light of the luxury dining room, Alice felt a sudden, suffocating wave of heat rise from her chest straight to her face. The shock vanished, instantly consumed by a blinding, white-hot surge of pure, unadulterated rage.

The hypocrisy of it tore through her soul like a jagged blade. This was the man who had forced Lena into a golden, suffocating cage. This was the political dynasty that had destroyed Lena's youth, and demanded total, flawless submission to preserve their immaculate public image. For twenty years, Lena had endured a loveless, icy marriage, surrendering her freedom and her heart to protect those she loved—while the man who held the leash was quietly bestowing his warmth, his fortune, and his affection on another woman in the dark.

Alice gripped the edge of the mahogany table, her knuckles turning stark white, her jaw clenched so tight the muscles throbbed. She stared at her father’s retreating back as he led his mistress out toward the private doors, her blood burning with a furious, dangerous fire that threatened to consume whatever fragile composure she had left.

While Alice remained frozen in a state of hyper-focused, burning rage, watching her father navigate the dim perimeter of the VIP room, Dai’s mind began moving at a frantic, calculated pace.

As Alice’s closest friend, Dai knew far too much about the Srisuwan dynasty. She had heard the bitter, quiet truths from Alice—how Voradech’s family operated not as a home, but as a cold political machine where every member was an asset, every emotion was a vulnerability, and power was the only currency that mattered. If Alice lost control and confronted a man who held the levers of national power, a minister on the precipice of becoming Prime Minister, his first instinct would be self-preservation. He would spin, manipulate, threaten, or completely crush any threat to his public image—even if that threat was his own eighteen-year-old daughter.

Alice needed insurance. She needed an ironclad shield in case this night turned into a catastrophe.

Keeping her body hidden behind the tall mahogany partition of their booth, Dai reached into her canvas bag with trembling, decisive fingers. Her hand closed around the small, cool metallic casing of her digital voice recorder—the very same gadget they had joked about in the library just hours ago. She flicked the red power switch, setting the high-sensitivity omnidirectional microphone to record continuously for the next three hours.

With practiced stealth, while Alice was still staring fixedly toward the valet exit, Dai slipped the small device deep into the open side pocket of Alice’s leather shoulder bag, burying it beneath a stack of notebook folders.

Alice finally turned back around, her face pale, her jaw locked in an intense, dangerous set, her dark eyes blazing behind her glasses. Before she could even speak, Dai met her gaze with fierce, unwavering clarity and gave a sharp, reassuring nod.

"Go," Dai whispered urgently, leaning across the table and taking Alice’s icy hand for a quick, firm squeeze. "I’ll pay the bill, handle the staff, and wait right here for you. Don't worry about anything in this room. Just go."

"Thank you, Dai," Alice breathed, her voice dropping into a tight, strained thread.

She snatched her shoulder bag and slid out of the velvet booth.

Alice slipped through the heavy velvet curtains separating the VIP dining hall from the quiet, carpeted corridors of the hotel’s south wing. Her heart hammered like a war drum against her ribs, but her movements were swift and silent, guided entirely by the blinding white heat of her anger.

She caught sight of them at the end of a long, dimly lit hallway lined with gold-framed artwork and warm sconce lighting. Voradech was walking at an unhurried, confident pace, his long arm draped protectively around the woman’s waist as she laughed at something he murmured into her ear. They turned a corner toward the private suite wing—a secluded enclave of high-security luxury rooms reserved for state guests and ultra-wealthy patrons.

Every step Alice took behind them felt like walking on broken glass.

A wave of sickening, bitter clarity washed over her soul. For as long as Alice could remember, Lena had tried with agonizing, tragic desperation to forge a bond between Alice and her father. Through all the years in Chiang Mai and Bangkok, Lena had painstakingly arranged family dinners, reminded Voradech of Alice’s birthdays, encouraged Alice to excel in school to make him proud, and constantly made excuses for his coldness, his late nights, his weeks of absence, and his total indifference to their lives. Lena had blamed his grueling political career, his heavy responsibilities to the nation, and his exhausting schedule for why he was never a father to Alice or a husband to Lena.

Lena had broken herself trying to build a bridge to a man who didn't want to be reached.

Now, staring at the gentle, attentive way Voradech slowed his stride to match the woman's pace, how he leaned in to listen to her whisper, and how his hand lingered at her hip, the cruel reality laid itself bare before Alice's eyes.

It was never about his career. It was never about his busyness, his stress, or the weight of his office. He had plenty of warmth, plenty of time, and plenty of affection to give—he had simply chosen never to give a single drop of it to Lena or Alice. He had left Lena to rot in a golden, loveless cage, forcing her to erase her past and surrender her freedom for a family that was nothing more than a convenient political prop.

Alice’s fingers coiled into tight, white-knuckled fists at her sides, her chest heaving in shallow, fiery gasps as she followed the ghost of her father deeper into the quiet sanctuary of the suite corridor.

The polished teak door of Suite 804 was almost flush with the heavy doorframe when a frail, trembling hand slammed violently against the wood, halting its swing in mid-air.

Voradech Srisuwan froze, his hand tightening on the brass lever. He pushed the door open to reprimand the intruder, only for the words to die in his throat. Standing in the soft halogen light of the hallway was Alice. Her long, sharp silhouette swayed slightly from sheer exhaustion, her face as pale as linen, her bloodshot eyes blazing with an unholy, terrifying fire behind her thick glasses.

"Alice...?" Voradech breathed, his practiced, authoritative voice cracking with genuine, unscripted shock.

Before he could react, a sweet, melodic voice echoed from the opulent living room inside the suite. "Teerak? What's taking you so long? Did the room service bring the champagne?"

The intimate, casual endearment—Teerak—struck Alice like a bucket of ice water, turning her shock into a sudden, overwhelming wave of pure nausea. Disgust twisted her features. Without waiting for an invitation, she placed her palm against her father's chest, shoving past his towering frame with every ounce of physical strength left in her starved body, and strode directly into the suite.

The woman inside, dressed in a silk robe, turned around with a soft smile that instantly withered into utter shock as her eyes landed on the shivering, furious teenager standing in the middle of the foyer.

"Who... who is this?" the woman stammered, looking nervously past Alice toward Voradech.

Voradech rushed into the room, his shock instantly morphing into a cold, dangerous glare as he stepped between Alice and his mistress. "Alice, what are you doing here? How dare you follow me? You need to leave this room right now."

Alice let out a harsh, bitter laugh—a sound so hollow and devoid of humor that it made the air in the room turn to ice. She glared straight into her father’s eyes, refusing to step back an inch.

"I finally get it," Alice whispered, her voice trembling with a terrifying, white-hot rage that vibrated through the silent suite. She gestured wildly around the luxurious room. "I finally understand why you were never home. Why you were always 'busy with cabinet meetings,' why you couldn't make it to a single school event, why you couldn't spare ten minutes to sit down for a meal with us! It wasn't the nation keeping you away... you were just busy playing house somewhere else!"

"Watch your tongue, Alice," Voradech warned, his voice dropping into the low, menacing register he used to silence political rivals in committee rooms. "You know nothing about my life or my duties. Go home to your mother. Now."

"My mother?!" Alice screamed, the dam bursting as tears of pure fury finally spilled over her lashes, burning her cheeks. "Do you have any idea what my mother sacrificed to keep your pathetic, fake family together?! Do you have any idea what she went through?!"

The woman in the silk robe shrank back against the sofa, terrified by the sheer intensity of the young girl's outburst.

"For eighteen years, I grew up without a father!" Alice choked out, her fingers curling into tight, trembling fists at her sides. "My mother raised me completely alone! Every single night, when I asked why my dad wasn't home, she sat by my bed and made up endless, beautiful lies just to protect your reputation in my head! She broke her own heart trying to overcompensate for your absolute, disgusting absence! She forced herself to believe you were working for our future, just so I wouldn't grow up knowing my father didn't give a damn about me!"

Voradech’s jaw clenched tightly, his eyes narrowing as he took a firm step toward her, his imposing presence towering over her frail form. "That is enough, Alice. You are speaking out of line—"

"Why did you keep her?!" Alice shouted over him, stepping right back into his space, her chest heaving in violent, shallow gasps. "Why did you bind her to a cold, suffocating, loveless marriage for twenty years?! Why didn't you just let her go when she begged you?! She could have been happy! She could have had a real life!"

Alice paused, letting out another ragged, scathing laugh as a cold, terrifying clarity settled into her gaze. She looked at her father with an absolute, unadulterated contempt that made the powerful politician visibly flinch.

"Oh... but why would you let her go?" Alice scoffed, her voice dropping into a deadly, razor-sharp whisper that sliced through the quiet room. "You never cared about her. You never cared about her feelings, her dreams, or her pain. All you have ever cared about is your precious public image and your political career. Because a divorce would taint your immaculate image, wouldn't it? What would the voters say? How could a man who can't even hold his own family together possibly run the entire nation?"

Voradech stood frozen, his face flushed with a mixture of dark anger and stunned paralysis, unable to utter a single word as his own daughter laid bare the monstrous truth of his soul in the quiet luxury of the suite.

Voradech’s calm, calculated demeanor cracked completely, shattering into a violent storm of wounded pride and suppressed rage. His face flushed a deep, dangerous crimson, the veins along his neck bulging against his crisp collar as he took a heavy step toward his daughter, towering over her frail, shivering frame.

"You think you know everything, Alice?!" Voradech roared, his voice booming off the suite's high ceilings and rattling the glass fixtures. "You stand there accusing me like I’m a monster, but you don't know a damn thing about what happened! You think your precious mother is a saint? I tried, Alice! I tried for years to make her love me, but she never even gave me a chance!"

Alice didn't flinch. She stood her ground, her jaw set, her dark eyes glaring through her thick lenses with cold, unyielding contempt.

"I saw her first!" Voradech sneered, his breathing heavy, his hands trembling as decades of bitter obsession spilled out of his throat. "I went to a university event to support a family friend, and there she was—breathtaking, brilliant, unreachable. I fell for her the second I saw her. I approached her, I tried to court her like any gentleman would, and do you know what she did? She rejected me right to my face! Without a second thought! Me—a Srisuwan!"

The mistress behind him gasped softly, shrinking further into the plush cushions of the sofa, but Voradech was completely consumed by his own explosive rant.

"I waited," he continued, stepping closer, his finger pointing aggressively at Alice's chest. "I exercised restraint. I waited until she finished her degree, and then I used my family to send a formal marriage proposal. And she had the audacity to refuse me again. So yes! I did what I had to do! I told her what would happen to her father's business, to her family’s standing, and to her entire future if she walked away from me. I gave her an ultimatum, and she signed the papers!"

Alice’s breath hitched in her throat, a cold, sickening shock piercing through her anger. Her stomach twisted into a hard, painful knot. All her life, she had believed her grandfather was the sole architect of Lena's forced marriage—that her grandfather had coerced Lena into a loveless political alliance to save his failing company. But the horrifying reality laid bare before her was far more sinister. It was her own father. Voradech had personally stalked, manipulated, trapped, and threatened Lena into a golden cage simply because he couldn't accept her refusal.

"And despite how it started, I gave her everything!" Voradech bellowed, his voice laced with a pathetic, desperate self-pity. "I brought her wealth, I showered her with luxury, I gave her a mansion, clothes, influence—anything she could ever want! But she treated it all like garbage! She played the perfect, quiet, obedient politician's wife, but her heart was an iceberg. And then we had you. I thought... God, I foolishly thought that with a child, we would finally be a real family. I thought having a daughter would make her open her heart to me. But no! She poured every single drop of her love, her energy, and her devotion into you, and completely iced me out! I was nothing to her! I tried, Alice! I tried to be a husband, but she chose to starve me of affection!"

Silence descended on the suite, heavy and suffocating, broken only by Voradech’s ragged breathing.

Alice stared at the man standing before her—a powerful minister, a titan of statecraft, reduced to a pathetic creature crying over his own self-inflicted wounds. If she had despised him before, she was now consumed by a profound, agonizing disgust that turned her blood to ice.

A quiet, terrifying chuckle escaped Alice’s pale lips—a dry, razor-sharp sound that cut straight through her father's lingering shouts.

"You are so utterly disgusting," Alice whispered, her voice chillingly calm, carrying a weight of pure venom that made Voradech's eyes widen slightly. "Listen to yourself... You stand in this room, surrounded by your luxury and your mistress, trying to make yourself out to be the victim."

She took a slow step forward, looking up into her father’s flushed face with absolute, unadulterated disdain.

"You didn't love my mother," Alice said, her words slicing through the room like iron blades. "You were obsessed with an object you couldn't own. You stalked her, you blackmailed her, you destroyed her life, her youth, and her freedom—and then you had the nerve to expect her to smile and love you for it? You brought her luxury like you were feeding a caged bird, and you expected her to be grateful that you held the key!"

Tears of pure fury burned in Alice’s eyes, but her gaze never wavered from his.

"And when she couldn't love the monster who held her hostage, you turned around and blamed her," Alice spat, her voice rising into an intense, trembling crescendo. "You blamed me for taking away the devotion you were never entitled to! You ruined my mother's life, you robbed me of a real family, and you destroyed every single person in your path—all because your fragile, pathetic male ego couldn't handle a young woman saying 'no' to you!"

Voradech’s chest stopped heaving. The flushed red stain of anger drained from his neck and face, replaced by a ghastly, calculated pale. The violent storm in his eyes vanished, snuffed out in an instant, leaving behind a cold, abyss-like stillness.

He was, after all, a Srisuwan. He had been groomed from childhood in the dark arts of political warfare—trained to read people like weak joints in armor, to twist narratives until up became down, and to strike precisely where a heart was most vulnerable. He did not care about the woman cowering on his couch, nor did he care about the daughter trembling in front of him. What he cared about was the peak of a political career he had spent thirty years bloodily climbing. The prime ministership was within his grasp. He could not—would not—let an eighteen-year-old girl destroy his legacy with a single word of scandal.

To survive, he didn't need to defeat Alice in an argument. He needed to break her spirit so completely that she would never find the strength to speak again.

Voradech took a slow, deliberate step back, casually adjusting the gold cufflinks on his sleeves. When he raised his head, his voice was no longer a roar; it was a quiet, deadly whisper, smooth as ice and dripping with poison.

"You really see yourself as her savior, don't you, Alice?" Voradech asked, a small, terrifying smile curling the edge of his lips.

Alice blinked, the sudden shift in his demeanor striking her like a cold draft. Her fists remained clenched, but the air in her lungs felt suddenly thin.

"You stand there accusing me of caging her," Voradech continued, walking slowly toward the suite's floor-to-ceiling window, looking out over the glittering, indifferent city lights before turning back to face her. "You claim I stole her life, her youth, her freedom. But tell me, my sweet, foolish daughter... who do you think actually turned the lock?"

He stepped closer, his shadow falling heavily over her frail, exhausted frame.

"I threatened her family twenty years ago, yes," Voradech murmured, his tone eerily gentle, like a father telling a bedtime story. "I forced her to sign a paper. But after you were born... I didn't have to force her to stay anymore. I didn't need to make threats. Do you know why? Because of you."

Alice’s breath hitched. A sharp, icy panic began to claw at her throat. "Stop talking..."

"She stayed because of you, Alice," Voradech pressed on, his eyes tracking every flicker of agony on her pale face. "She sacrificed every single dream she ever had, every breath of freedom she ever desired, not for me—she hated me—but because she couldn't leave you behind. You think you are the light of her life? You think you are her comfort?"

He let out a soft, pitying chuckle that made Alice’s stomach violently turn.

"You are not her light, Alice. You are her darkness," Voradech whispered, leaning down until his lips were inches from her ear, his words cutting straight into the deepest, most agonizing insecurity she had buried in her soul. "If I built the cage, then you... you were the iron chains that bound her inside it. Every time she looked at you, she didn't just see a child. She saw her sentence. She saw the living, breathing wall that kept her from the life she actually wanted."

"No..." Alice choked out, tears bursting from her eyes as she shook her head frantically, stepping back, but Voradech stepped with her, relentless, merciless.

"Do you know what she feels when she looks into your eyes?" Voradech asked, his voice a sharp, surgical blade opening her heart. "She looks at your face, at Lena’s own eyes and nose on you, and she remembers everything she was forced to give up. She sees her ruin. She sees the life she was robbed of. You are nothing to her but a constant, walking reminder of her own misery—an obligation she was too noble to abandon, a burden she had to carry until her back broke!"

Alice covered her ears with her trembling hands, her knees buckling as her father’s words echoed with the terrifying weight of the lie she had always secretly feared to be true.

"I may be a monster, Alice," Voradech concluded, standing tall and looking down at her collapsed, weeping figure with cold, victorious satisfaction. "But so are you. We destroyed her together. So go on... run to the press. Tell the world about my affair. Destroy my career. But remember every single day for the rest of your life that you are the reason Lena’s soul died twenty years ago, and you are the only reason she can never be free."

He turned his back on her, walking back toward his bedroom without a second glance.

Alice sat frozen on the cold carpet of the suite's foyer, her chest heaving in silent, agonizing sobs, completely shattered in the dark.

Voradech’s words had not merely wounded Alice; they had systematically dismantled the fragile foundation of her entire existence. They did not feel like a cruel father's lies—they felt like the horrific, undeniable confirmation of every dark, suffocating fear she had carried in her heart since childhood. Every silent tear she had ever seen Lena shed, every forced smile, every heavy sigh that echoed through their Chiang Mai home—it was all hers to bear. She was not a daughter; she was the anchor dragging her mother into the depths of an inescapable ocean.

A terrifying, absolute emptiness settled into Alice’s eyes. Whatever soul, fire, or defiance had propelled her into that suite was completely gone, snuffed out in an instant.

She pushed herself off the cold carpet with numb, leaden limbs. Her body moved on autopilot, an empty vessel obeying a phantom command to leave. She pulled the heavy suite door open and stepped out into the quiet hallway, her sneakers dragging uselessly against the plush floor.

When she rounded the corner into the grand dining wing, Dai instantly leapt up from their booth, her face pale with frantic concern.

"Alice!" Dai rushed over, grabbing Alice’s trembling arms, searching her face with wide, terrified eyes. "Alice, oh my god, what happened? Are you okay? Did he—what did he say to you?"

Alice didn't answer. Her dark eyes, wide and hollow behind her thick glasses, stared straight through Dai, fixated on nothing at all. She moved past her friend like a ghost, her pale lips tightly sealed.

"Alice! Talk to me!" Dai pleaded, hurrying beside her as Alice made a sharp turn into the nearest marble-tiled washroom.

The moment the heavy door swung shut, Alice collapsed over the porcelain sink. Her stomach twisted violently into an agonizing knot, and a wave of pure, physical revulsion washed over her. Every single bite of the luxury meal she had shared with Dai surged up her throat, and she threw up violently, her body heaving in painful, ragged convulsions until there was nothing left to expel but dry gasps and bitter bile.

Dai hovered helplessly beside her, rubbing Alice’s trembling back in sheer panic, her eyes shining with tears. "Alice, please... speak to me. Say something..."

Alice rinsed her mouth with cold water, her eyes dull and unblinking in the vanity mirror. She offered Dai no words, no tears, and no sounds. She gave only an absolute, terrifying silence.

Gently wrapping an arm around Alice’s frail shoulder, Dai guided her through the hotel lobby and out onto the driveway. The early evening sky was painted in bruised hues of violet and deep orange, the Bangkok traffic beginning to swell as people headed home from work. Dai hailed a cab, holding Alice’s hand tightly as they sank into the back seat. Throughout the entire ride across the city, Alice stared out the window at the glowing streetlights flickered on one by one, her breath so faint and shallow that Dai repeatedly checked to ensure her friend was still breathing. The utter void in Alice's gaze frightened Dai more than any scream or outburst ever could.

When the cab finally pulled up in front of Alice’s apartment complex in the blue dusk, Dai turned to her, her voice trembling with intense hesitation. "Alice... let me come up with you. Please. Let me walk you to your door. You shouldn't be alone right now."

Alice turned her head slowly. Her raspy, threadbare voice sounded distant, as if traveling from miles away. "I'm... I'm okay, Dai. I can go up by myself. I'm just really tired."

Dai’s heart sank. She knew with complete certainty that Alice was not okay, but the quiet, impenetrable wall Alice had built around herself left no room to push. "Promise me you'll call me if you need anything," Dai whispered softly, reluctantly letting go of Alice’s hand. "Promise me, Alice."

Alice gave a single, faint nod that meant nothing at all, before stepping out into the cool evening air.

Every single step toward the building felt like dragging her bare feet over jagged glass, treading on the sharp, pulverized fragments of her own shattered soul. The physical act of breathing felt like an impossible, exhausting war—a battle her tired body no longer wanted to fight. All she yearned for, with every fiber of her being, was to close her eyes, slip into the dark, and never wake up again to face the weight of her existence.

She didn't remember entering the elevator or pressing the button. She simply found herself standing in the warm, ambient light of her penthouse foyer, the heavy oak door clicking shut behind her.

As she stepped into the living room, her hollow gaze landed on the sofa. Sitting side by side in the soft twilight streaming through the glass windows were Lena and Miu. Both women held their glowing smartphones in their hands, their faces etched with deep, visible anxiety. They had been waiting for her to return after exams, expecting a dinner celebration, only to be met with unanswered calls.

The moment the front door closed, Lena jumped to her feet, her eyes wide with frantic, maternal relief as she stepped toward her daughter.

"Alice!" Lena cried out, her voice laced with trembling worry. "Where have you been? It's getting so late into the evening! We’ve been calling your phone continuously for the past two hours... why didn't you pick up?"

Alice stood motionless under the warm living room lights. She looked at Lena—the mother whose youth, dreams, and life she had unwittingly destroyed—and then at Miu, the woman whose heart had bled for twenty years because of the very choice that brought Alice into the world.

She stood there in total, heartbreaking silence, unable to utter a single word, carrying the unbearable secret that she was the darkness devouring them all.

Alice stood frozen under the warm glow of the living room lamps, her eyes wide, glassy, and completely hollow. Yet beneath that terrifying void burned a raw, volatile mixture of suffocating rage, agonizing grief, and a lifetime of suppressed trauma.

Lena took a small step forward, her hand reaching out, her lips trembling. "Alice, sweetheart... please, what’s wrong? Talk to me—"

Alice’s hollow gaze shifted away from Lena, locking directly onto Miu.

The air in the penthouse instantly turned to lead. Miu and Lena stood like statues, paralyzed by the shattering, otherworldly intensity radiating from the eighteen-year-old girl. Neither of them could move; neither of them could draw a proper breath.

Alice’s lips parted. Her voice, thin and shattered at first, scraped against the quiet room like broken glass.

"Why...?"

A single, heavy tear brimmed over her lashes, tracing a glistening path down her pale, hollow cheek. And with that single tear, all hell broke loose.

"Why didn't you chase her?!" Alice screamed, her voice exploding into an agonizing, throat-tearing shriek that shattered the silence of the penthouse.

Miu’s heart stopped. A cold, suffocating shock pierced straight through Miu’s chest as the realization struck her like a physical blow. Alice knew. The dots had been connected. Alice had finally realized that the woman in Miu’s tragic past—the woman Miu had loved, lost, and mourned for twenty long years—was Lena.

"Why didn't you go after her?!" Alice demanded, taking a violent, unsteadied step toward Miu, her chest heaving in shallow, ragged gasps as tears poured unrestrained down her face. "When she left you ... when she walked away leaving that letter... why did you just stand there like a coward?! Why didn't you run after her?! Why didn't you drag her back?!"

Lena gasped, her hand flying to her mouth in utter horror, her eyes swinging wildly between Miu and her daughter. Miu stood completely frozen, her jaw trembling, her dark eyes filling with tears, unable to utter a single word.

"If you had just chased her..." Alice choked out, her voice breaking into a ragged, pathetic sob before hardening back into pure, unadulterated venom. "If you had been brave enough to go after the love of your life, then mom would have been with you today! She would have been happy! She wouldn't have been forced into a cage! And that means..."

Alice pressed her palms against her own chest, her fingers clawing frantically at her shirt over her heart, as if trying to rip out the agony burning beneath her ribs.

"That means I wouldn't have been born!" Alice roared, her voice echoing off the high glass walls. "I didn't ask for this life! I didn't ask to be brought into this miserable world! I didn't ask for this endless, suffocating pain! So why am I being punished every single day just for existing?!"

She raised a trembling, accuseful finger, pointing it straight at Miu’s pale, weeping face.

"Because you were a coward!" Alice spat, every word dripping with a lifetime of hidden agony. "Because you let her walk away, I have to live my life like this! Do you have any idea what every single day feels like for me?! I want nothing more than to just close my eyes and die! Because my entire existence is nothing but pain! I am nothing but evidence of loss! A walking shadow of darkness!"

Miu covered her mouth, a sharp, heartbroken wail escaping her throat as tears flooded her vision. "Alice... no... please, my baby, don't say that..."

"Don't call me that!" Alice screamed, wiping her cheeks with the back of her trembling hand, her eyes blazing with a terrifying, wild intensity. "You sit on the rooftop and you talk about Lin! You describe Lin's life with so much devotion, so much warmth—a beautiful manifestation of your love! But what am I?! What am I to anyone?! I am nothing but a reminder! An evidence of everything you and mom lost! I became the iron chains that bound my mother to a monster so she couldn't live her life! If you had just been brave twenty years ago, I wouldn't have had to be born, and I would have spared everyone from feeling like such a useless, pathetic disappointment!"

Lena rushed forward, tears streaming down her face as she tried to wrap her arms around her daughter's trembling shoulders. "Alice, stop! Stop, please, I beg you! You are my world! You are not a burden, Alice—"

Alice violently shoved herself back, pulling away from Lena’s touch as if it burned, her breath coming in jagged, wheezing gasps. She kept her tear-soaked eyes fixed on Miu, laying bare the raw, bleeding wounds of her shattered soul.

"You described your life to me..." Alice whispered, her voice dropping into a raspy, agonizing tremor that cut deeper than any scream. "You said you lived your life loving the same person every single day, yearning for her, carrying her memory... You got to live in a beautiful, poetic sorrow. But my life? My life has been a complete, brutal destruction!"

She swallowed down the bitter taste of bile and tears, her shoulders slumping under a weight too heavy for an eighteen-year-old girl to bear.

"I spent my entire life trying to be worthy..." Alice sobbed, her knees buckling as she looked at both of them with hollow, broken eyes. "I lived every single breath feeling so unwanted... so utterly repulsive... feeling like the only reason everything in this world is broken... is because I exist."

The penthouse living room felt as though it had been stripped of oxygen, suspended in a suffocating, atmospheric pressure where every word Alice spoke struck like a physical blow against the silence.

Alice took another ragged, gasping breath, her hand clutching at her chest as she stared through the heavy veil of her tears at Miu. "Do you have any idea how I grew up?" she rasped, her voice torn, carrying the raw, unedited agony of a childhood spent in the dark. "Do you have any idea what it felt like? As a little girl, I went to sleep every single night believing I wasn't important enough... believing I was so unlovable that my own father couldn't even bother to come home to see me. I thought if I just studied harder, if I was quieter, if I was perfect, he would come back."

She let out a harsh, sobbing gasp, her eyes turning toward Lena, who stood utterly petrified, her skin drained of all color, her lips parted in silent horror.

"And then I grew up..." Alice whispered, her tone dropping into a terrifyingly quiet, broken rhythm. "And I realized the truth. I realized that my father didn't stay away because I wasn't enough... he stayed away because he didn't care. And my mother... my mother couldn't choose her own happiness, couldn't breathe, couldn't live her own life, simply because I existed. Do you know what it feels like to live every single second under that weight? Do you know what it feels like to drown in that guilt?!"

Miu stood frozen, her tear-streaked face pale, her jaw trembling violently. She tried to reach out, to take a step toward Alice, but her legs felt like lead, bound by the crushing, undeniable weight of Alice’s words.

"Every single day," Alice choked out, tears pouring continuously over her lips, "I live with the guilt of destroying every life around me. I am the breathing, walking evidence of everything that could have been, but couldn't happen! I cry in total silence every night until my chest aches so badly I can't breathe. Every morning I wake up and living feels like a divine punishment! Every single day, all I pray for... all I desperately want... is to disappear. To just vanish into thin air so everyone else can finally be free!"

She pressed her palms against her temples, squeezing her eyes shut as if trying to block out the very reality of her existence. "Do you know what it feels like to look in the mirror and see a tragedy staring back at you? To look at your own face and feel so unappreciated, so deeply unwanted, that you hate every single second you are forced to draw breath?!"

The room swayed around her. The strength in Alice’s legs gave out completely, and she collapsed onto her knees, her hands slamming against the hard floor.

"I am begging you..." Alice sobbed, her forehead pressing against the cold tiles, her voice reduced to a shattered, pathetic whisper that cut straight through the souls of the two women above her. "Please... just let me go. I can't live like this anymore. I am so tired... I have no strength left. Even breathing hurts... it hurts so much. Just let me close my eyes and never wake up again... take me out of this misery. Please... I have had enough. There is nothing left of me... nothing at all..."

And with those final, threadbare words, the last lingering embers of Alice’s energy vanished. Her trembling hands slackened, her eyes closed, and her head slumped softly onto the cold floor as her body gave out entirely, slipping into complete, absolute unconsciousness.

For a second, time stopped completely.

Lena stood completely paralyzed, her eyes wide and blank, staring at her daughter’s limp form on the floor as if her mind refused to process the scene before her. The trauma, the terrifying revelation of Alice’s secret torment, and the sheer horror of her collapse had locked Lena’s body in a frozen, silent shock.

"Alice!"

Miu was the first to break the paralysis. Dropping to her knees with a desperate, unrefined scramble, Miu threw herself across the floor, gathering Alice’s pale, lifeless body into her arms. "Alice! Alice, look at me! Open your eyes, please! Alice!" Miu cried out, her voice cracking as she cupped Alice’s icy, clammy cheeks, frantically checking for a pulse.

The loud, shattering commotion from the living room had echoed into the guest bedroom. A small, sleepy figure stumbled out into the hallway—Lin, rubbing her eyes with her small fists, wearing her oversized pajamas. But the moment the four-year-old’s eyes adjusted to the warm living room light, her sleepiness vanished.

"P'Alice...?" Lin whimpered, her small voice trembling.

Seeing Alice lying motionless in her mother's arms, Lin rushed forward as fast as her small legs could carry her. She dropped beside Miu, her tiny hands reaching out to pat Alice’s arm, her big eyes filling with sudden, terrified tears. "P'Alice! Wake up! P'Alice, please wake up!" Lin cried, shaking Alice’s quiet hand, tears spilling over her chubby cheeks as she wept, confused and frightened by the lack of response. "Mama, why isn't P'Alice talking to me?!"

Miu squeezed Alice tight against her chest, feeling the terrifyingly faint, threadbare pulse at her neck, before snapping her head up toward Lena, who was still standing motionless like a ghost.

"Lena!" Miu screamed at the top of her lungs, her voice echoing with raw, commanding desperation that shattered the silence. "Lena, snap out of it! Call an ambulance! NOW!"

Without waiting another second for the ambulance, Miu slipped her arms under Alice’s knees and shoulders, gathering the girl’s limp body into her arms and standing up in one swift, desperate motion. A sharp, agonizing pang struck Miu’s heart as she lifted her—Alice felt terrifyingly weightless, like a bundle of hollow bones and faded echoes. There was no real physical substance left to her, only the brittle frame of a child who had starved herself in silence and secret grief for far too long.

Lena, snapped out of her trance by the sudden shift, scrambled forward and scooped a sobbing Lin into her arms. The four-year-old buried her tear-stained face into her mother’s neck, her tiny chest heaving with distressed hiccups as they all rushed out of the penthouse and toward the elevators.

"Alice... stay with me, please," Miu whispered frantically, her voice trembling against Alice’s cold forehead as they waited for the metal doors to slide open. "Please. Open your eyes. Just listen to my voice..."

The drive to the hospital was a terrifying, suffocating nightmare suspended in the blue twilight of the city. The paramedic in the back of the swift-moving vehicle worked with practiced, quiet speed, hooking Alice up to a heart monitor and slipping an oxygen mask over her pale face. The rhythmic, agonizingly slow beep... beep... beep... of the monitor was the only anchor keeping them from losing their minds.

Miu sat on the narrow bench beside the gurney, her fingers wrapped tightly around Alice’s limp, icy hand. She kept rubbing Alice’s knuckles with her thumb, leaning down to whisper relentless, soft pleas into her ear, praying that somehow her voice could reach whatever dark void Alice had retreated into. Across from her, Lena sat hunched over, holding the weeping Lin tightly against her chest, her entire body shaking with violent, silent tremors. Tears poured continuously down Lena’s pale cheeks, her eyes wide and fixed on the oxygen mask fogging faintly with Alice’s threadbare breaths.

When the vehicle screeched to a halt under the bright neon lights of the emergency entrance, the rear doors flew open. The medical team moved like a disciplined storm, wheeling the gurney out and rushing Alice through the automatic double doors.

"Immediate triage! Severe malnutrition, physical collapse, bradycardia!" a paramedic shouted, pushing through the swinging doors of the critical trauma unit.

Miu and Lena hurried behind them, but a stern nurse stepped in front of the threshold, placing two hands firmly against Miu’s shoulders. "You have to stay outside, ma'am. Let the doctors work. Please wait in the lounge."

The double doors swung shut with a dull, heavy thud, cutting off the sight of Alice’s gurney disappearing down the fluorescent hallway.

The silence that settled over the waiting room was heavy, suffocating, and absolute.

Miu backed away until her spine hit the cold white wall, sliding down slowly until she was sitting on the floor, her hands buried deep in her dark hair. She didn't care about the cold tiles beneath her. All she could hear, echoing over and over in the cavernous quiet of her mind, were the shattering words Alice had spat at her in the penthouse.

It wasn't the bitter accusations that tore Miu’s soul to shreds—she would have willingly accepted a thousand screams, a thousand curses, and all the blame in the world if it meant taking away Alice’s pain. What bled Miu dry was the terrifying revelation of how Alice had lived. The agonizing knowledge that while Miu had been nursing her own poetically quiet grief for twenty years, a young girl had been growing up in total darkness, believing her very breath was a crime. Alice had looked into the mirror every morning and seen a tragic mistake. She had spent eighteen years drowning in the suffocating guilt of existing, carrying the weight of two broken mothers on a back that was never built to hold it.

A few yards away, Lena sat on a plastic waiting room chair, holding Lin in her lap. The little girl had finally cried herself to exhaustion, her breath coming in soft, rhythmic sighs, her small fingers still loosely clutching the fabric of Lena’s shirt. Lena wrapped her arms around Lin, holding her with a frantic, desperate tightness—not just to comfort the child, but because holding something small and alive was the only thing keeping Lena from shattering into a million pieces.

Lena stared at the floor, her eyes hollow, her soul drowning in an ocean of unbearable maternal failure.

"Where did I go wrong...?" Lena whispered, her voice a fragile, raspy thread that barely carried across the quiet hall.

Miu slowly raised her head from her hands, her bloodshot eyes looking up at Lena.

"How did I never see it, Miu?" Lena sobbed silently, her chest heaving as tears dripped onto Lin's sleeping hair. "I was her mother... I was right there with her every single day. I thought I was protecting her. I gave up everything—my life, my happiness, my heart—just so she could have a home, so she would be safe... and she was bleeding to death right in front of my eyes."

Lena squeezed her eyes shut, a sound of pure, unadulterated agony escaping her throat. "I loved her so much... she was my entire world, Miu. How could I have failed her this badly?"

Miu pushed herself up from the floor and walked over with slow, aching steps, sinking down onto the chair beside Lena. She reached out, resting her hand over Lena’s trembling shoulder, her own voice breaking into a soft, weeping whisper.

"You didn't fail her, Lena," Miu murmured, looking toward the closed doors of the emergency room, where their daughter was fighting for her life. "We both did. We were so blinded by the darkness of our past... that we never saw the shadow it cast over her."

The heavy double doors of the critical care wing swung open with a muffled swoosh, and a tired-looking physician in green scrubs stepped into the waiting room, pulling his surgical mask down past his chin.

Lena and Miu both snapped up instantly, their eyes wild with frantic, unspoken terror.

"Family of Alisa S?" the doctor asked softly.

"Yes! How is she, Doctor? Is she okay?!" Lena stumbled forward, her voice tight and desperate, holding the sleeping Lin awkwardly against her shoulder.

The doctor offered a gentle, reassuring nod, though his expression remained grave. "She is stable now, but her body has undergone severe physical trauma. Alice is suffering from extreme exhaustion, severe malnutrition, and a dangerous drop in blood pressure brought on by acute emotional shock. Her system essentially shut down to protect itself." He looked down at his chart before continuing. "We have put her on an IV drip to restore her fluids and essential nutrients. She needs complete, uninterrupted rest."

Miu took a step closer, her hand gripping the back of a chair to steady herself. "When will she wake up?"

"She has been given a mild sedative to help her body recuperate," the doctor explained. "We are letting her sleep naturally now. She will wake up on her own when her system has recovered enough strength. Also, per the arrangements requested by your family's representative, Miss Alisa is being shifted to the VVIP private suite on the top floor."

Relief washed over the women, brief and fragile, before the overwhelming weight of reality settled back down.

Twenty minutes later, Alice was transferred to the top-floor suite—a spacious, quiet sanctuary far removed from the sterile rush of the main hospital. It featured polished hardwood floors, floor-to-ceiling glass windows overlooking the quiet night lights of Bangkok, and a dedicated lounge area equipped with plush velvet sofas and private amenities.

Yet, despite the luxurious surroundings, the room felt hollow and cold.

In the center of the room, tucked beneath crisp white linen sheets, lay Alice. She looked heart-wrenchingly frail, her pale skin almost translucent under the soft ambient lighting. Her thick glasses had been removed and placed on the bedside table, exposing the deep, dark shadows carved beneath her closed eyes. The rhythmic drip of the IV tube running into her thin wrist was the only sound in the vast, silent room.

Miu gently guided Lena toward the sofa in the corner. Both women sat down side by side, their movements slow and heavy. In the span of just two hours, the sheer terror and shattered secrets had aged them both by ten years. They sat in total silence, staring at the small, motionless girl in the bed, trying to process the catastrophic wreckage of their lives. Lin lay soundlessly across Lena's lap, her small face flushed from crying, fast asleep.

After thirty agonizing minutes of silence, the soft chime of Miu’s phone dissolved the quiet. Miu pulled it out, her eyes scanning the screen.

"It's my father," Miu whispered, her voice raspy and barely audible. "He’s downstairs in the parking bay to pick up Lin."

Lena blinked slowly, looking down at the small child in her lap as if waking from a long dream.

"I'll go down and hand Lin over to him," Miu said gently. She leaned in, carefully sliding her arms beneath Lin's small frame and lifting her up into her arms. Lin let out a soft, sleepy sigh, resting her chin on Miu’s shoulder without opening her eyes.

Miu stood up, then paused, looking down at Lena. Lena’s eyes were bloodshot, her lips chapped and pale, her posture completely collapsed under the weight of her guilt.

"Lena," Miu murmured softly. "Come down with me. Go to the cafeteria and get something to drink... maybe a hot soup or some water."

Lena shook her head instantly, her fingers clutching at her own skirt. "No... no, Miu, I can't leave her. I need to stay right here next to her."

"Lena, look at yourself," Miu insisted, her tone firm yet brimming with a tender, desperate empathy. She knelt slightly so she was eye-level with Lena. "Alice is going to wake up. And when she opens her eyes, she is going to need you more than ever. She needs your support, your strength, and your love to pull her out of that dark place. You cannot help her if you break down completely right now. Please... just ten minutes. Get some water. Stay strong for her."

Lena looked up into Miu's tear-filled eyes, the truth of those words slowly piercing through her fog of despair. She swallowed hard and offered a single, fragile nod. "Okay... okay."

Miu adjusted Lin in her arms and turned toward the door, taking one final, lingering glance at Alice’s quiet, sleeping face on the bed before stepping out into the hallway with Lena.

The glowing screen of Dai’s laptop flickered with the vibrant colors of an action movie, but the sound was completely lost on her. She sat cross-legged on her bed, staring right through the display, her hand limply holding a bowl of untouched popcorn. Every corner of her mind was consumed by the sight of Alice—the hollow, vacant eyes, the ghost-like silence in the back of the cab, and the agonizing, broken way she had dragged herself into her apartment building earlier that evening.

A sharp, sudden ring from her phone cut through the quiet room, making Dai jump so violently she nearly spilled the popcorn across her desk.

She scrambled for her phone, seeing her mother’s caller ID flashing on the screen. "Mom?" Dai answered frantically, her voice laced with an immediate, nervous edge.

"Dai, sweetie?" her mother’s voice came through, sounding tired yet distinctly puzzled over the hospital line. "I’m on my evening shift at the medical center right now, and one of the senior pediatric consultants just mentioned something strange. He said a girl named Alisa Srisuwan was just transferred to our top-floor private suite... isn't that your best friend from university?"

All the blood drained instantly from Dai’s face. A cold, suffocating wave of panic slammed into her chest, making her knees tremble. "Alice...? Mom, is she—what happened?! Is she okay?!"

"The chart says extreme exhaustion and severe malnutrition, Dai," her mother sighed softly. "Her body basically gave out. I know how close you two are, but that suite floor is high-security VIP. They don't just let visitors wander up there without direct guardian clearance—"

"Mom, please!" Dai pleaded, her voice cracking as she leapt off the bed and frantically kicked off her sweatpants. "Please, Mom, you have to get me an access card! I need to see her right now! Please!"

There was a long, hesitant silence on the other end of the line before her mother sighed in defeat. "Fine. I’ll leave an emergency staff access card at the main reception desk for you. But Dai, listen to me—this is completely against hospital protocol. Giving an unauthorized student access to a VIP private room without her parents' consent could get me reprimanded."

"I’ll handle it, Mom! I swear no one will even notice me! Thank you, I love you!" Dai blurted out before hanging up.

Moving like a whirlwind, Dai threw on a dark jacket and pulled her hair into a messy ponytail. Just as she grabbed her canvas bag, her eyes landed on a blue folder sitting on her desk—the physical copies of Alice’s medical records and blood test results from weeks ago, when Dai had practically dragged a reluctant Alice to a clinic for a forced checkup. Dai snatched the folder, shoving it firmly into her bag, knowing intuitively that the doctors might need every piece of history they could get.

She sprinted down the stairs of her apartment complex, her thumbs flying across her phone screen to book a rapid motorcycle taxi. Within three minutes, she was clinging to the driver's jacket as the bike darted aggressively through the evening Bangkok traffic, the wind roaring in her ears while her heart hammered against her ribs like a trapped bird.

The moment the motorcycle screeched to a halt outside the grand, polished entrance of the hospital, Dai threw a wad of cash at the driver and sprinted inside. She snagged the blue access card left under her name at the front desk, bypassing the main waiting area entirely, and rushed toward the private VIP elevators.

Swipe. Beep. The heavy silver doors slid open, and Dai rode the elevator straight to the top floor, her pulse racing in her ears.

When she stepped out onto the quiet, carpeted hallway of the suite wing, the corridor was completely deserted. She hurried down the line of mahogany doors until she reached Suite 801. Taking a deep, steadying breath, Dai swiped the card against the sensor. The electronic lock clicked green, and she gently pushed the door open.

The suite was bathed in the dim, warm glow of a single bedside lamp. To Dai’s surprise, the spacious lounge was empty.

Movement on the bed caught Dai’s eye.

Alice was slowly stirring beneath the white linen sheets. Her thick glasses were missing, her dark hair was a tangled mess against the pillow, and her face looked impossibly small and pale. She groaned softly, her frail hands weakly pushing against the mattress as she attempted to push herself upright, her brows furrowed in sheer physical effort.

"Alice!" Dai breathed, her voice a sharp, tear-filled whisper as she rushed across the room to the bedside.

"Dai...?" Alice’s voice was barely a thread, raspy and dry.

"Don't strain yourself, don't strain!" Dai murmured frantically, reaching out to gently support Alice’s thin back, helping her slide up against the propped-up pillows.

Dai quickly grabbed the glass of water from the nightstand, guiding the paper straw to Alice’s dry, cracked lips. Alice took a few slow, desperate sips, the cool water soothing her raw throat. She blinked heavily, her blurred, unassisted vision scanning the spacious, quiet room, her brows knitting together in deep, groggy confusion.

"Where... where am I?" Alice asked softly, adjusting to the dim light. "Why does it... smell like disinfectant?"

"You're in the hospital, you absolute idiot," Dai whispered, her voice a mixture of intense relief and lingering panic as she set the water glass back down. "You completely passed out at your place. Your mother and Professor Miu brought you here."

Before Dai could say another word or ask a hundred questions burning in her chest, Dai’s eyes widened slightly as she shifted uncomfortably on her feet. She clutched her own stomach, letting out an embarrassed, frantic gasp.

"Oh, sweet lord," Dai blurted out, her dramatic panic momentarily derailing the heavy atmosphere. "Alice, stay right there! Don't move an inch! I swear I’ve been holding my pee since I was on the back of that motorcycle, and if I don't use the washroom in the next five seconds, I’m going to ruin this high-end suite!"

Without waiting for a reply, Dai sprinted across the polished floor and ducked into the suite's private bathroom, slamming the door shut, leaving Alice sitting quietly in the soft light of the room.

The quiet click of the suite door's electronic lock echoed through the room like a gunshot.

Alice turned her head slowly, her blurred vision straining in the dim lamplight. Framing the doorway was the sharp, immaculate silhouette of Voradech Srisuwan. He looked completely untroubled, his charcoal suit pressed to perfection, his hair combed back, his posture radiating the cold, untouchable authority of a cabinet minister.

Alice froze, every muscle in her body instantly locking up. For a second, her heart stopped—and then a blinding, white-hot surge of pure, unadulterated rage flooded her veins, chasing away the groggy fog of the sedatives.

Voradech closed the door behind him with a soft snap. He looked at Alice sitting propped up against the pillows, taking in the pale skin, the dark circles, and the IV tube running into her wrist. He let out a quiet, condescending breath, shaking his head.

"Look at you," Voradech said, his voice smooth, even, and dripping with thinly veiled contempt. "You can't even manage to take care of your own pathetic body. You really never fail to disappoint me, Alice."

Alice gripped the edge of the crisp white linen sheets so hard her knuckles turned stark white. She ignored his comment entirely, her raspy voice slicing through the quiet room like a rusted blade. "What are you doing here?" She glared at him with bloodshot, furious eyes. "It's not as if you actually give a damn about whether I'm alive or dead."

Voradech let out a heavy sigh, adjusting the gold watch on his wrist as he strolled casually toward the center of the room. "Don't be dramatic. I am here because of the public image, obviously. The daughter of a senior minister collapsed and was admitted to the hospital—it would look terrible if the press reported that her devoted father didn't make an appearance. I have a reputation as an attentive family man to maintain."

Inside the adjacent washroom, Dai stood frozen near the sink. Hearing the cold, familiar voice of the minister through the thin door, her blood turned to ice. Moving with silent, frantic precision, Dai pulled her smartphone from her pocket, tapped the screen, and switched on the voice recorder, holding her breath as she pressed her ear closer to the wood.

Back in the room, Alice tore the heavy blanket off her legs and swung her feet over the edge of the high hospital bed. She gritted her teeth against the violent wave of dizziness that threatened to knock her over, fighting with every ounce of willpower to stand upright on her trembling, leaden legs.

"Give my mother a divorce," Alice demanded, her voice trembling not with fear, but with a terrifying, absolute fury that vibrated through the suite.

Voradech paused, looking at her as if she had just spoken in a foreign language. Then, a low, cruel laugh escaped his lips. "A divorce? My sweet, foolish child... don't make demands you have no power to enforce."

"I am not asking!" Alice spat, taking a heavy, unsteady step toward him, her hands clenched into tight fists. "If you agree to grant mom a full, clean divorce—if you let her go and never touch her life again—I will keep my mouth shut. I won't utter a single word about your mistress or your affair to anyone."

Voradech stared at her for a beat before throwing his head back in a genuine, mocking chuckle. "You think you're blackmailing me?" His voice dropped into a dark, predatory register as he took a step into her space, towering over her frail form. "Let me educate you on how power works, Alice. I can completely obliterate Lena's life within seconds. I can ruin her family's name, strip away every asset she touches, and make her existence a living hell before you even manage to open your mouth to a single reporter. You have no leverage here."

Something inside Alice snapped—a complete, catastrophic rupture of her sanity.

The suffocating guilt, the years of quiet agony, her father's cruel confession, and his endless arrogance coalesced into a violent, blinding impulse. She didn't think; she reacted. Alice lunged to her left, her pale hand frantically snatching the heavy, thick glass flower vase sitting on the bedside table.

She turned and charged directly at Voradech, raising the heavy glass object high above her head with a guttural, primal scream.

The violence of her sudden move ripped the plastic IV line right out of her wrist. The tape tore away, the needle snapped out, and a bright, crimson stream of blood instantly spurted from her vein, splattering across her white hospital gown and dripping onto the hardwood floor.

"Alice, NO!"

The washroom door burst open with a loud slam. Dai sprinted across the room like a thunderbolt, throwing her entire body weight into Alice just before the glass vase could come crashing down onto Voradech's head. Dai wrapped her arms tightly around Alice's waist, dragging her back, wrestling the heavy vase out of her shaking hands and dropping it onto the soft velvet couch.

"Let me go! Let me kill him! LEAVE ME ALONE!" Alice shrieked, thrashing violently in Dai's tight grip, her blood smearing across Dai's clothes as she glared at her father with wild, unhinged eyes.

Voradech stood frozen in place, his face drained of color, his jaw slackened in genuine, unscripted shock. For the first time in his entire life, he was staring at a version of his daughter he didn't recognize—a girl driven so far past the brink of despair that she had become completely unhinged and utterly unpredictable.

"Stop it, Alice! Please, stop!" Dai cried out, using all her strength to hold the shivering girl upright as blood continued to trickle down Alice's arm.

Alice slowly stopped struggling. Her chest heaved in violent, shallow gasps. She pushed Dai's support away just enough to stand on her own two feet, wiping a streak of red across her cheek with the back of her bleeding hand. She stared straight into Voradech's stunned eyes, her voice dropping into a deadly, chillingly quiet rhythm that hung in the air like heavy smoke.

"You've always wanted to use me, haven't you?" Alice whispered, her words razor-sharp and cold as death. "All these years, you wanted a piece of clay you could mold for your political dynasty. You wanted a trophy child to parade around for your career."

Voradech blinked, his calculated political mind frantically trying to regain control of the situation.

"So here is my deal," Alice continued, stepping directly into the pooling crimson on the floor, her eyes dead and unblinking. "You give mom a total, legally binding divorce. You relinquish all claims over her. You take my full custody. The second she is free, I will give up my entire life. I will join your political party, I will stand by your side in front of the cameras, and I will be the obedient, perfect politician's daughter you always wanted. I will do every single thing you tell me to do."

Silence descended upon the room, so absolute that the dripping of blood onto the floor sounded like a ticking clock.

Voradech narrowed his eyes, searching her pale, blood-stained face. "Are you... are you serious?" he asked, his voice hesitant for the very first time.

"I will do anything for my mother's freedom," Alice rasped, taking one more step closer to him, her voice lacing with a terrifying, suicidal resolve. "And listen to me very carefully ... if you try to double-cross me, if you try to hurt her, or if you refuse this deal... I will kill myself right here in this room. And I will make absolutely sure I leave a letter naming you, your abuse, and your affair as the sole reason for my death. I will tear your political career down to the ashes from beyond the grave."

Voradech stared at his daughter. He looked at the deep, terrifying void in her eyes, at the blood dripping from her wrist, and at the total absence of fear in her stance. He realized, with a cold strike of terror in his gut, that she wasn't bluffing. She had reached a point where her own life meant less than nothing to her. She was a weapon with nothing left to lose.

A long, agonizing beat passed.

Voradech slowly straightened his jacket, adjusting his posture as the cold, calculating politician returned. He offered a single, stiff nod.

"I will have my legal team draw up the divorce papers as soon as possible," Voradech said, his tone devoid of any emotion.

Without another word, he turned on his heel, opened the suite door, and walked out into the quiet hallway, leaving the two girls standing in the blood-stained room.

The final thread of adrenaline holding Alice together snapped instantly the moment the heavy door clicked shut behind her father.

Her fingers opened numbly, and the heavy glass vase slipped from her trembling grip. It crashed violently against the hardwood floor, exploding into a dozen sharp, jagged shards. One of the large glass splinters sliced deep across the sole of Alice’s bare foot, but she didn't even flinch; the physical pain was completely swallowed by the vast, hollow void inside her. Her knees buckled, her head rolled back, and her body went entirely limp, sinking fast toward the shattered glass.

"Alice! No, no, no—I got you!" Dai gasped frantically, throwing her arms around Alice’s chest, taking the full, dead weight of her friend's collapsing frame. Dai strained with every muscle in her body, her own sneakers slipping slightly against the pooling blood on the floor as she fought to keep Alice from landing on the razor-sharp fragments.

Just then, the electronic lock chimed, and the suite door swung open.

Miu and Lena stepped into the room, holding two paper cups of tea from the cafeteria. The serene silence they expected was shattered in an instant. The tea cups slipped from Lena’s numb fingers, crashing to the floor as both women froze, paralyzed by the horrific scene before them.

The pristine floor was smeared with deep crimson blood. Shards of broken glass glinted under the soft lamps. Dai was covered in blood, the entire front of her light-colored top soaked in dark red stains as she struggled to hold up a ghost-like Alice. The IV line dangled uselessly from Alice’s torn wrist, blood still trickling down her knuckles and dripping onto her bare, cut foot.

"Oh my God—ALICE!" Lena screamed, a sound of pure, unadulterated agony tearing from her throat as she scrambled forward across the floor, her hands shaking so violently she couldn't even reach out.

Miu’s face drained of every drop of color, her eyes wide with sheer terror as she rushed to assist Dai. "What happened?! What did she do?!"

Hearing those familiar, trembling voices, Alice slowly lifted her head. Through the heavy, suffocating fog of her fading consciousness and her blurred, lens-less vision, she looked at the two women standing before her—the two mothers whose lives had been bound, broken, and tortured by her very existence.

With a terrifying, unnatural surge of remaining willpower, Alice forced her blood-stained feet to plant themselves against the floor. She pushed away from Dai’s support, standing upright for one final, devastating moment, swaying like a lone reed in a storm.

"Alice, please, lie down!" Miu begged, tears pouring down her face as her hands hovered inches from Alice’s shoulders, afraid to touch her, afraid to break her.

"Listen to me..." Alice rasped, her voice a threadbare, razor-sharp whisper that cut through the frantic room, commanding a terrifying, absolute silence.

Lena stood frozen, her chest heaving in violent, silent sobs, her hands pressed against her mouth.

Alice looked at Miu, and then turned her dark, bloodshot eyes toward Lena. "If you... if you both really care about me even a little bit..." Alice choked out, a single, bloody tear tracing down her pale, hollow cheek. "Then do me one last favor..."

She took a shallow, painful breath, every word costing her a piece of her soul.

"Get away from me," Alice whispered, her words echoing with a heartbreaking, absolute finality. "Leave my life. Forget I was ever born... Go and live the dream you were always meant to have with each other. Build a happy family... with Lin. Please... just let me be..."

"Alice, no! Don't say that! Please, my baby, no!" Lena cried out, collapsing onto her knees in the middle of the broken glass, reaching for her daughter's hands.

Before Lena’s fingers could touch her, the world turned completely black for Alice. Her eyes rolled back, her breath stopped, and her body went utterly limp, falling backward into the dark.

"Alice!" Dai caught her under her arms, sliding down to the floor with her. Without losing another second, Dai reached out with a trembling, blood-stained hand and repeatedly smashed the emergency call button located at the foot of the hospital bed.

The alarm chimed loudly in the hallway. Within ten seconds, the suite door burst open. A team of two doctors and three nurses rushed into the room, taking in the blood and glass in a single glance.

"Get her back onto the bed! Fast!" the lead physician ordered, his voice crisp and sharp.

The nurses efficiently lifted Alice’s light, lifeless body off the floor, placing her gently back onto the white linen sheets. One nurse immediately applied heavy gauze and pressure to the torn vein in her wrist to stop the bleeding, while another began carefully cleaning and bandaging the cut on her foot.

Miu pulled a weeping, devastated Lena back from the bed, wrapping her arms around Lena’s waist, holding her tight as Lena buried her face into Miu’s neck, her body shaking with uncontrollable, heartbreaking sobs.

"She pulled the line out, Doctor!" Dai explained breathlessly, her hands trembling as she wiped her bloodied palms against her jeans. 

"We need to stabilize her system immediately," the doctor interrupted, taking a fresh IV line from the nurse. "Her vitals are wildly erratic due to the emotional shock and physical strain. I am administering a much heavier sedative now. She needs to remain completely unconscious for her brain and heart to recover."

The doctor carefully inserted the new line into Alice’s other arm, pressing the plunger of a syringe filled with a strong sedative into the tube.

Within moments, the tight, agonizing tension melted from Alice’s pale face. Her shallow, rapid breathing slowed down into a deep, rhythmic, heavy sleep. The heart monitor’s frantic, high-pitched beep settled back into a quiet, steady, reassuring hum.

Dai stood by the foot of the bed, leaning heavily against the metal frame, her chest heaving as she let out a long, shuddering sigh of relief. She watched the steady rise and fall of Alice’s chest beneath the blankets, knowing that for now, at least for the next few hours, her best friend was safe from the world, from her father, and from her own dangerous, bleeding heart.

Dai looked over at Miu, who was still standing in the center of the room, her eyes wide and glossed over, staring at the fresh white bandage wrapped around Alice's wrist. The older woman looked entirely hollowed out, trapped in a daze by the blood and the brutal, heartbreaking words that had echoed through the suite moments before.

"I'm going to head down to my mom's quarters to change and wash off," Dai said softly, her voice gentle so as not to break the fragile quiet. "I'll be back in a little bit."

Miu offered a slow, vacant nod, barely registering the words as she sank onto the edge of the velvet couch beside Lena.

It took Dai nearly half an hour to scrub the dried crimson off her skin and out from under her fingernails. She took a long, hot shower in her mother’s private doctor's quarters on the floor below. Luckily, her mother had remembered a gift bag resting in her office cabinet—a few brand-new outfits she had bought for Dai’s birthday, which Dai had carelessly forgotten to take back to her home. Slipping into a clean, oversized t-shirt and fresh trousers felt like a small, comforting mercy after the sheer horror of the last hour.

When Dai swiped her access card and stepped back into Suite 801, the room had been completely transformed. The hospital housekeepers had done their job with swift, silent efficiency; the broken glass was gone, the floor was scrubbed spotless, and the faint metallic smell of blood had been replaced by the subtle, clean scent of lavender antiseptic.

Dai walked in holding a small tray with three steaming porcelain cups of jasmine tea, which she had quietly sneaked from her mother’s private pantry.

Miu looked up, her bloodshot eyes softening just a fraction as Dai set the tray down on the coffee table. "Thank you, Dai," Miu murmured, her voice raspy and exhausted.

Dai offered a small, sympathetic smile, then turned her attention to the woman sitting beside Miu. Lena looked shattered, her eyes red-rimmed, her shoulders hunched as if trying to shrink away from the overwhelming weight of the room.

"We haven't been properly introduced," Dai said softly, keeping her tone warm and respectful. "I'm Dai. I'm Alice's classmate and her best friend."

A fragile, poignant smile flickered across Lena’s pale lips as she looked up. "I know who you are, Dai... Alice talks about you all the time in her letters and calls. She tells me how much you take care of her."

"I try," Dai replied with a soft nod.

She turned and walked over to the armchair in the corner where her canvas bag had been tossed during the chaos. Reaching inside, Dai pulled out the crisp blue paper folder containing the duplicate medical documents she had brought from home. She walked back to the seating area and sat down in the armchair directly across from Miu and Lena, laying the blue folder flat on the glass coffee table.

Miu and Lena sat shoulder-to-shoulder on the couch, their gazes immediately pulled to the dark blue binder resting between them.

"I don't know how much Alice has shared with either of you about how she's really been doing," Dai began, her voice dropping into a serious, heavy cadence. "But knowing Alice... she probably didn't tell you a single thing. She never wants to be a burden to anyone."

Lena’s brows knitted together in anxious confusion. She reached forward with trembling fingers and picked up the file, opening the cover. Miu leaned in close, her eyes scanning the dense medical charts, test results, and red-inked diagnostic summaries.

"I begged her to see a doctor weeks ago," Dai explained quietly, watching the color drain from both women's faces as they read through the pages. "Her physical health was deteriorating right in front of my eyes. Since my mom is a senior consultant here, I managed to get Alice an urgent, off-the-record appointment before you came back from Sydney, Khun Mae. I kept a duplicate copy of her entire file, just in case. The original is hidden in her desk at the dorm."

Silence stretched across the plush suite, heavy and unbearable, broken only by the quiet rustle of paper as Lena flipped through the reports. Nothing on those pages was good. The numbers painted a terrifying picture of a young girl whose body was slowly, systematically eating itself alive from the inside out.

Dai let out a long, heavy sigh, resting her elbows on her knees and lacing her fingers together. "She's been suffering from chronic, severe insomnia for months. She barely sleeps two hours a night. And her appetite... her system is completely rejecting food."

Lena paused on a page detailing severe gastrointestinal distress and acute acid reflux, her throat tightening. She looked up at Dai, her eyes filled with an unspoken, desperate question.

Dai met her gaze with a sad, heartbreakingly tender smile and gave a slow nod.

"Yes," Dai confirmed softly, answering the unspoken terror in Lena's heart. "Even those meals she sat down to eat with you at home, Khun Mae... the moment you stepped away or went to bed, Alice would run to the washroom and throw every single bite back up. Her stomach couldn't hold anything because of the sheer amount of stress and anxiety crushing her."

Miu let out a deep, shuddering breath, closing her eyes as she leaned her head back against the cushion of the sofa. A sharp, silent tear escaped her lashes, tracing down her temple into her hair. Lena gripped the paper report so hard the edges crumpled in her fist, her chest heaving as she fought with every fiber of her being not to burst into hysterical sobs right then and there.

Dai turned her head to look toward the hospital bed. Alice lay completely still under the crisp white covers, her face relaxed into a soft, unnatural peace under the heavy influence of the sedative.

"The doctor prescribed her sleep aids and appetite stimulants that day," Dai whispered, her voice cracking with the memory of those desperate weeks in their dorm room. "I begged her to take them. I cried in front of her. I even promised her that if she just swallowed her pills every morning, I would write every single one of her academic assignments for the next three and a half years until we graduated..."

Dai swallowed the hard lump in her throat, a dry, humorless smile touching her lips. "She just looked at me, smiled, and said she didn't want to rely on chemicals to feel human."

Dai took a sip of her warm jasmine tea, cradling the ceramic cup between her hands as her eyes softened with memory.

"Even after she refused, I didn't give up," Dai continued quietly. "I kept begging her every single day until she finally gave in and started taking the medicine. But eating was still a battle. On the days her throat felt completely closed up and she refused to touch a plate, I had to use my secret weapon. I’d start bringing up Lin. I’d talk about how cute Lin was, or ask her what kind of gifts she wanted to buy for her. The second Lin was mentioned, Alice's whole face would soften. I could manage to spoon-feed her half a bowl of soup just by making her talk about her sister. Lin is so dear to her... I think Lin might be the one person in this world Alice loves most of all."

A tender, fragile warmth flickered across the room. Both Miu and Lena let out faint, soft smiles, their eyes lingering on the sleeping girl as the mental image of little Lin brought a brief moment of light to the suffocating darkness.

Lena reached across the table, her trembling hand resting gently on Dai’s wrist. "Thank you, Dai," Lena murmured, her eyes brimming with fresh tears of pure gratitude. "Thank you for taking such good care of my daughter when I wasn't there to protect her."

"I tried," Dai said, offering a small, humble smile. "I really tried."

Dai set her teacup down on the glass table with a soft clink. She leaned forward, resting her forearms on her knees as her expression turned deeply serious. She took in the sight of the two women sitting across from her—their pale skin, the heavy dark circles under their eyes, and the hollow, bone-deep exhaustion etched into their features.

"I know what both of you are doing right now," Dai said, her voice dropping into a grounded, unmistakable truth. "It’s completely obvious. You’re sitting there tearing yourselves apart, playing back every choice, wondering what you could have done differently. Honestly... I’ve been doing the exact same thing. I kept telling myself I should have found a way to contact you in Sydney, Khun Mae. Or that I should have just barged right into Professor Miu’s office, slammed those medical reports on her desk, and demanded she help me. The truth is, all of us failed her in one way or another."

Miu and Lena flinched slightly, the raw honesty of Dai's words striking a deep, tender nerve.

"But drowning in guilt isn't going to save her now," Dai emphasized, her gaze shifting firmly between the two women. "What matters right this second isn't what we could have done—it's what we are going to do next. Because right now, the most important thing in the world is protecting Alice. She is in some very, very serious danger."

The subtle warmth in the room vanished instantly. Lena stiffened, her breath catching in her throat, while Miu’s eyes widened in sudden, sharp alarm. "Danger?" Miu asked, leaning forward. "What kind of danger, Dai? What are you talking about?"

Dai drew in a long breath, letting the heavy silence build before delivering the truth.

"Alice's father..." Dai said slowly, staring directly into Miu's eyes, "...Khun Voradech Srisuwan."

The name dropped like a live grenade in the center of the quiet suite.

Miu’s jaw practically hit the floor. The breath left her lungs in a sharp, audible gasp. After twenty complete years of dead silence—two decades without a single word, letter, or phone call between herself and Lena—Miu had been entirely in the dark about who Lena had married or what kind of life she had built. And in the six months since Alice had moved into the apartment next door as her university student, Alice had kept her personal life locked behind an impenetrable vault, never once breathing a word about her family or her father's identity.

Miu slowly turned her head toward Lena, her eyes wide with utter, bewildered disbelief. "You... you married Voradech Srisuwan?" Miu asked, her voice squeaking slightly in shock. "The Cabinet Minister?! The frontrunner to be the next Prime Minister of the entire country?!"

Lena shot Miu a thoroughly annoyed, razor-sharp glare, clearly in no mood to be cross-examined about the choices she made during their twenty years apart. "Stop it, Miu," Lena muttered under her breath, crossing her arms defensively as a flush of stress rose on her cheeks. "I have my own mountain of regrets. Do not sit there and judge my life choices right now."

Miu slowly turned her head back toward the bed, looking at Alice as if seeing her in an entirely new, mind-boggling light. "She’s... she’s the daughter of the man who might rule this country in a few months..." Miu muttered, so utterly stunned her academic composure completely evaporated. She blinked twice, shaking her head in sheer bewilderment. "Wow..."

Sitting in the armchair, Dai had to bite the inside of her cheek to suppress a sudden, absurd urge to laugh at the sheer craziness of Miu's dumbfounded reaction.

Thwack!

"Ow!" Miu winced, rubbing her arm where Lena had just delivered a swift, resounding slap.

"Focus, Miu!" Lena hissed, snapping her eyes back to Dai with urgent intensity. "This is serious!"

Miu immediately straightened her spine, clearing her throat as she quickly regained her footing. "Right. Sorry. Focus." She looked back at Dai, her tone turning dead serious. "Dai... tell us everything."

Unlike Miu, who was still trying to digest the sheer political gravity of the name, Lena understood Voradech Srisuwan and his vicious family all too well. She knew the ruthless machinery that powered his dynasty. They were monsters wrapped in tailored silk—people who would utterly crush anyone standing in their path to ultimate power, even if that person happened to be their own flesh and blood. Panic seized Lena’s chest, making her breath come in short, frantic hitches as her mind raced through the terrifying possibilities of what Voradech was capable of doing to Alice.

"You don't understand, Miu," Lena whispered, her voice trembling with a terrifying, raw dread. "He won't hesitate. If he feels threatened, he will destroy her without a second thought."

Dai took a heavy breath, pulling her legs up onto the armchair as she recounted the catalyst of Alice's unraveling. "It started right after our final exams today," Dai explained quietly. "We decided to celebrate and went to that luxury high-end hotel near the river for lunch. After we finished eating, Alice noticed him... . But he wasn't alone. He was with another woman. He was having an affair right out in the open."

Lena’s hands clutched her knees, her face turning ghost-white, while Miu’s eyes darkened with growing fury.

"Alice saw them," Dai continued, her voice heavy with grief. "She followed him up to his private suite to confront him. I stayed in the outside because she insisted on going alone. I don't know every single detail of what was said inside that room, but when Alice finally walked back out... she was completely shattered. It was like the soul had been ripped out of her."

Miu clenched her fist so hard her knuckles turned stark white, the bone cracking under the pressure. "Whatever that bastard said to her in that room," Miu spat, her voice laced with deadly venom, "it completely broke her mind."

Suddenly, Dai perked up, her eyes widening as a lightning bolt of realization struck her. "Wait!" she gasped, hurriedly grabbing her phone from the table. "I forgot—I might actually have the whole thing!"

Miu and Lena both snapped their heads toward her. "What do you mean?" Lena asked desperately.

Dai’s fingers flew across her touchscreen, unlocking her cloud storage app. "Alice... on the rare moments we hung out, she would occasionally drop subtle hints about the kind of man her father was, and how cruel his family could be. I was terrified for her. I was so afraid that one day something terrible would happen to her and no one would believe us. So right before she went up to his hotel suite that day, I slipped my little digital voice recorder into the side pocket of her bag."

Dai looked up at them, her chest heaving as she navigated to her files. "It's the small recorder I use to tape lectures. I had set it on a three-hour continuous loop timer. The device itself is probably still sitting in Alice's bag, but the file automatically syncs and backs up to my personal cloud drive!"

Miu stared at the young student in front of her, her shock momentarily giving way to profound, fierce admiration. "Dai..." Miu said softly, her tone filled with deep respect. "You are remarkably intelligent."

A rare, quiet flush of pride washed over Dai’s face. "It's always nice to get a compliment from a professor," she murmured, a faint, fleeting smile appearing on her lips before her expression hardened again. "I found it. It's downloading now."

A second later, Dai tapped the screen, and the crisp, clear audio began playing through the phone's speaker, filling the silent hospital suite.

The initial rustle of fabric echoed through the room, followed by the muffled sound of a hotel door opening. Then came Voradech's smooth, arrogant, and icy voice, ringing out with painful clarity.

For the first few minutes, Miu’s entire world was violently torn apart. As the recording played on, Voradech casually, callously brought up the past, boasting about how he had manipulated, cornered, and forced Lena into marrying him two decades ago. He laid out his blackmail in cold, precise detail, laying bare the trap he had constructed to lock Lena into a cage for his own political gain.

Miu sat frozen, her blood instantly turning from ice to boiling magma. Hearing the monster brag about destroying the life of the woman Miu had loved for twenty painful, silent years made every nerve in her body scream for violence. Miu’s chest heaved, her eyes seeing pure red, her hands trembling with a sudden, murderous impulse. She wanted to hunt the man down and tear him apart with her bare hands.

Lena felt the violent, terrifying wave of rage radiating off Miu. She reached over and gently placed her hand on Miu's tense, shaking shoulder, pressing down with a grounding warmth.

"Miu... please," Lena whispered, her own tears brimming as she looked into Miu's fiery eyes. "Focus on Alice right now. We do this for Alice first. We can think about me later."

Miu swallowed hard, forcing her jaw to unlock, though the burning fury in her chest didn't recede even a fraction. She gave a single, tight nod, reaching over to grip Lena's hand in return.

Then, the recording reached the core of the confrontation between father and daughter—and all three women froze in absolute, horror-struck silence.

Voradech’s voice on the speaker transformed into something vile, dropping into a tone of quiet, systematic psychological torture. He didn't just reject Alice; he surgically dismantled her self-worth. In sharp, biting words, he systematically convinced his nineteen-year-old daughter that she was the sole problem in her family. He made Alice believe that her very existence was the anchor dragging Lena down into the dirt, that her birth was the tragic mistake holding her mother hostage in a loveless, abusive marriage.

"If I built the cage, then you... you were the iron chains that bound her inside it. Every time she looked at you, she didn't just see a child. She saw her sentence. She saw the living, breathing wall that kept her from the life she actually wanted."

A terrible, suffocating silence fell over the hospital suite as the audio cut off.

Lena completely collapsed inward, burying her face in her hands as a guttural, heartbreaking sob tore from her throat. "No... oh God, no..." Lena wept, her heart shattering into a thousand agonizing pieces. "How could he say that to her?! None of it is true! She was never a chain... she was my only light! How much pain was she hiding while holding all of that inside?!"

Dai sat completely speechless in her chair, her hands trembling on her lap, utterly horrified at the realization that a human father could inflict such venomous cruelty upon his own child.

Miu abruptly stood up from the sofa. She couldn't sit still for another second. The fury surging through her veins was so intense it felt like fire in her lungs. She stared down at the phone, and then at the peaceful, sedated girl lying in the hospital bed, her jaw clenched so tight her muscles throbbed.

How dare he? How dare that pathetic, power-hungry politician use his own daughter's unconditional love for her mother as a weapon to destroy her mind?

"He did this on purpose," Miu said, her voice dropping into a razor-sharp, terrifying calm that made even the air in the room feel cold. "He systematically broke her so she would lose her will to fight back." Miu turned to face Lena and Dai, her eyes burning with an unshakeable, lethal resolve. "That man is going to pay for every single word he spoke to Alice. I swear to God, I will destroy him myself."

Lena pulled gently on Miu’s sleeve, tugging her back down toward the velvet sofa. "Miu, please... sit down," Lena urged, her voice thick with unshed tears but grounded in a sudden, fiercely maternal quiet. "We cannot afford to lose our heads. If we rush into this blindly, he will use everything in his power to crush us. Right now, this is about protecting Alice. Only Alice."

Miu reluctantly sank back onto the cushion, every muscle in her back pulled taut as a bowstring. She took a shuddering breath, forcing the white-hot fury in her chest into cold, focused embers. She turned her head, looking at the pristine white hospital bed where Alice lay in her heavy, sedated sleep.

"Then explain to me what happened in this room," Miu demanded, her eyes shifting to Dai. "Why was she drenched in blood? Why were you holding her back when Lena and I walked through that door?"

Dai let out a long, heavy sigh, resting her hands on her knees as she organized the timeline in her head.

"When my mother called me to tell me Alice had been admitted, I came here immediately," Dai began softly. "When I got into this suite, Alice was just starting to regain consciousness. I helped her sit up, checked her vitals, and got her a glass of water. But then... I urgently needed to use the washroom. While I was inside, I heard the door click open. It was Khun Voradech."

Dai tapped her phone screen again, bringing up a second audio file—a recording she had quietly started on her phone the second she heard Voradech's heavy footsteps enter the room while she was trapped inside the washroom.

She pressed play.

The tinny speaker echoed with the tense, fragile atmosphere of the hospital suite from just an hour prior. Alice’s voice came through first—weak, raspy, but brimming with a sudden, desperate defiance. She was demanding that Voradech grant Lena an immediate, full divorce.

Then came Voradech’s voice, smooth, cold, and utterly mocking, reminding Alice that Lena was his legal property and that he would drag Lena's name through the mud and destroy her entire life if she ever dared to leave him.

Dai paused the recording right there, looking up at Miu and Lena.

"That was the exact moment Alice lost control," Dai explained, her voice trembling slightly at the memory. "When he threatened Khun Mae's life, Alice snapped. She grabbed the heavy crystal flower vase off the bedside table, tore herself out of bed, and raised it, intending to smash it right over his head."

Miu and Lena’s mouths dropped open in total, speechles shock.

"She moved so violently that the IV line snapped straight out of the vein in her wrist," Dai continued, gesturing to her own arm. "Blood started spraying everywhere. I was terrified she was actually going to hit him or that he would hurt her back, so I burst out of the washroom and grabbed Alice from behind, pinning her arms down with all my strength. That’s why my shirt was soaked in blood when you walked in."

Dai hit play once more to let them hear the final, harrowing bargain.

Through the speaker, Alice’s ragged, heaving breaths mixed with the sound of Dai trying to hold her back. Then Alice dropped the ultimate ultimatum, her voice ringing out with a terrifying, unhinged clarity:

Alice's recorded voice rasped, cold enough to freeze blood,"You give mom a total, legally binding divorce. You relinquish all claims over her. You take my full custody. The second she is free, I will give up my entire life. I will join your political party, I will stand by your side in front of the cameras, and I will be the obedient, perfect politician's daughter you always wanted. I will do every single thing you tell me to do."

A short, agonizing pause echoed from the phone before Alice added her final condition:

"And listen to me very carefully ... if you try to double-cross me, if you try to hurt her, or if you refuse this deal... I will kill myself right here in this room. And I will make absolutely sure I leave a letter naming you, your abuse, and your affair as the sole reason for my death. I will tear your political career down to the ashes from beyond the grave."

Dai clicked the phone screen off, plunging the room back into a heavy, suffocating silence.

Lena couldn't hold it in any longer. A raw, guttural cry broke from her throat, and she collapsed forward, burying her face into her trembling hands as tears poured uncontrollably down her cheeks.

"She was trading her life for mine..." Lena sobbed, her voice breaking into agonizing pieces as Miu wrapped a firm, protective arm around her shaking shoulders. "She was sacrificing her whole future... just so I could be free from him... Oh God, Alice... my poor baby..."

Miu sat completely still, unable to say a single word. Her eyes remained fixed on Alice’s pale, peaceful face resting against the white pillows. Behind that quiet, fragile exterior lay a daughter who was willing to dismantle her own soul, bleed her own blood, and burn her entire existence to the ground, if it meant protecting her mother from the monster that haunted them both.

As the deep quiet of the night settled heavily over the hospital suite, the low hum of the heart monitor provided a steady rhythm in the room. Dai tapped a few final buttons on her phone screen, sending the audio files directly to Miu's email and messaging app.

"I've sent all the recordings over to your phone, Professor," Dai said quietly, setting her device face down on the glass table.

Miu offered a slow, appreciative nod. "Thank you, Dai. I have them."

Dai turned her attention toward Lena, her eyes softening with deep concern for both mother and daughter. "When Alice wakes up tomorrow, Khun Mae... you need to tell her how precious she is to you. Deep down, Alice knows she is loved, but in her head, she’s convinced herself that she doesn't deserve any of it. She thinks her existence is a curse to everyone around her. You have to be the one to break that lie. You need to remind her how much she truly means to you."

Lena’s throat tightened, fresh tears sparkling in her eyes as she looked toward the bed. "I will," she whispered, her voice trembling. "I'll tell her every single day for the rest of my life."

Dai then looked over at Miu, her expression earnest and full of unshakeable faith. "And as for you, Professor... you're the only one who can truly pull Alice out of this darkness."

Miu blinked, slightly caught off guard by Dai's words. "Dai..."

"It's true," Dai insisted gently, a faint smile touching her lips. "No matter how pitch-black the world gets for Alice, you’ve always been able to reach her and find her. You know her better than anyone. Remember when she got trapped in the sports archive room back on campus? You ran straight to her instinctively. Before I could even finish asking you for help, you already knew where she was and what she needed."

Dai took a step closer, resting a comforting hand on Miu's arm. "When she wakes up, you need to scold her. Hold her accountable the way only you can. Everyone else around Alice has failed her or treated her like she had to be an adult, but with you, Alice gets to just be a kid. You need to scold her, remind her that she’s still just a baby who doesn't have to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders, and drag her back out of that dark place she's lost in."

Miu’s eyes brimmed with tears as Dai’s words sank deep into her heart. The sheer trust the young student was placing in her was overwhelming, yet deeply grounding. Miu reached out and squeezed Dai’s hand firmly. "Thank you, Dai," Miu choked out, her voice filled with profound gratitude. "For everything."

After Dai gathered her things and quietly took her leave for the night, the room fell into a heavy, peaceful stillness. Lena walked over to the sofa, rubbing her tired eyes as a sudden curiosity flickered across her face.

"Miu... what was Dai talking about earlier?" Lena asked softly, looking up. "What sports archive room?"

Miu’s brows knitted together in mild surprise. "Did Alice really never tell you about that?"

Lena shook her head, sitting down on the edge of the velvet couch. "No. She never mentioned anything like that to me."

Miu let out a soft breath, her mind drifting back to that frantic afternoon on campus. "It was almost two months ago. Alice was helping out with the university sports league logistics. While she was putting away some heavy file boxes in the old sports archive room in the basement, the heavy security door accidentally slammed shut and locked from the outside. The signal in that room is dead, and nobody uses that wing on weekends. She was trapped in the pitch dark for hours until I realized something was wrong and went down to get her out."

Lena was completely stunned, her mouth slightly parted as she pictured her daughter huddled alone in the dark. "She never said a word... she always acts like nothing ever happens to her."

Miu walked over to the closet, pulled out a spare warm blanket, and draped it gently over Lena's shoulders. "You need to get some rest now, Lena," Miu urged softly, smoothing the blanket down. "I'm going to leave for the night. I need to head home, check on little Lin, and bring back fresh clothes and homemade food for both of you in the morning."

Lena looked up at her, exhausted to her very core, and gave a grateful nod. "Thank you, Miu. Please give Lin a hug for me."

"I will," Miu promised, her voice tender. "Lie down and sleep. Alice is stable and resting under the sedative. You need to gather all your strength so that when she opens her eyes tomorrow, you have all the energy in the world to tell her how much you love her."

Lena smiled faintly, nodding as she pulled the blanket around herself. "Alright. I'll lie down."

As Lena stood up and walked into the adjoining washroom to wash her face, Miu stepped quietly toward the bedside. She looked down at Alice’s pale, serene face, resting so quietly against the stark white pillows.

Slowly, Miu reached out and wrapped her warm fingers around Alice’s small, ice-cold hand, gentle enough not to disturb the IV line taped to her skin.

"I promise you, kiddo," Miu whispered into the quiet room, her voice dropping into a fierce, absolute oath. "I am going to protect you at all costs. I am never, ever leaving your side again. Nobody gets to hurt my baby and get away with it."

Miu leaned down, her lips lingering gently against Alice's cool forehead in a long, lingering kiss filled with pure, maternal devotion.

Straightening up, Miu turned and walked toward the heavy suite door. The gentle, academic warmth in her eyes vanished completely, replaced by a cold, lethal focus. As she stepped out into the dim hospital hallway and the door clicked shut behind her, every single step she took echoed through the corridor like a terrifying countdown—a promise that the Srisuwan political empire was about to be burned to the ground.