The next morning, the private elevator from Rafah's penthouse chimed.
The polished doors slid open, revealing Rafah in a fitted jet-black suit. She stepped out of the elevator with her phone pressed to her ear.
"I want Petra to work with our foundation, Anya... do whatever it takes."
The person on the other end said something, but Rafah cut in at once.
"No... I don't care how. Pull strings, use money, make whatever offer you have to. I want Petra close to me."
The feeling in Rafah's heart was clear.
Petra was different from every woman she had ever met. Not because of her beauty or her intelligence, but because Petra dared to refuse her, something no other woman had ever dared to do.
This was the first time Rafah had not gotten what she wanted.
And it made her both irritated and made her want Petra even more than before.
Rafah's lips curved slightly as her mind filled with the image of the day Petra would be in her bed.
"Make it happen, Anya."
She gave the final order, then ended the call as she stepped out of the private corridor and into the lobby of the super-luxury condominium, greeting the new morning that had just begun.
Rafah walked toward her favorite black Jaguar, which the staff had already brought around and parked in front of the building. But before she could reach the luxury car, someone stepped into her path.
"Rafah! Did you take that woman up to your penthouse yesterday?"
The voice hit her head-on without warning.
It was Naphatsorn Sivakan, Rafah's temporary bed partner and nothing more, standing right there.
Rafah stopped short. She assessed the situation quickly. Although she wondered how Naphatsorn had found out, her sharp face remained composed. Her keen eyes lifted to Naphatsorn.
"And what does my private life have to do with you?" Her irritated tone was enough to show that Rafah's patience was close to running out.
Naphatsorn gave a sneering smile, her eyes full of mockery.
"So this is why you didn't answer my calls or reply to my messages. You're humiliating me, Rafah."
Naphatsorn stressed every word with arrogance, her face flushed with anger, her eyes locked on Rafah without blinking. Yet the only thought running through Rafah's mind was irritation.
Rafah's only response was a short sentence.
"Phat, I'm not discussing this here."
"No. I want to talk about it. You have to answer me. Did you already fuck that Petra bitch?"
That sentence made Rafah turn sharply. Her razor-sharp eyes turned ice-cold. Her lips moved slowly, each word clear and deliberate.
"If you dare speak to me like that one more time... I'll have security drag you out of here right now."
It worked.
Naphatsorn froze. Every movement stopped in an instant.
Rafah did not waste even a fraction of a second. She merely spoke in a calm voice before stepping past her.
"We'll talk in the car."
Then she walked straight toward her favorite car without looking back.
...
After nearly an hour of driving, Rafah slowed the car and pulled over by the curb in a suburban area. The road ahead was empty, with no passing traffic. The silence inside the cabin made their breathing the only sound, hers and Naphatsorn's.
All this time, Rafah had been fully aware that her relationship with Naphatsorn had begun to cross the line of what they had once agreed upon. What had started as nothing more than a casual, temporary, no-strings-attached sexual arrangement had gradually become jealousy, with Naphatsorn trying to step across the boundary into the role of a lover.
Even though Rafah had never opened that door for Naphatsorn, not even slightly.
The growing possessiveness, the constant questioning, the unnecessary sulking and demands, all of it was a clear sign that Naphatsorn was seeing this relationship differently than she was.
Rafah had been thinking about ending this for a long time. Long before Petra ever entered her life. There simply had not been the right moment to say it clearly.
Until now.
"I've been thinking about this for a long time, and I think I've hinted at it more than once. I just never said it clearly. But before this goes any further... Phat, I want to end our friends-with-benefits arrangement."
Naphatsorn's eyes widened. She turned to look at Rafah almost immediately.
"What did you just say?"
"I think you heard me clearly, Phat."
Rafah's voice was calm, cold, and deliberately clear, meant to cut the conversation short. But that only poured fuel onto the fire in Naphatsorn's chest.
"So you really did fuck her, didn't you?"
Naphatsorn spoke as if she could no longer hold herself back.
Rafah was silent for a moment before she decided to answer.
"I admit I'm interested in Petra."
Her voice was flat, but every word was clear.
"But Petra and I haven't slept together, and I was the one who approached her. So stop talking about her like that. I don't like it."
Rafah's blunt honesty did not make the situation better. It only drove Naphatsorn's emotions to the breaking point.
Naphatsorn pounded her own thighs again and again with full force, then leaned her head back against the seat before screaming at the top of her lungs without restraint.
Rafah sat still and let the scream continue.
She knew that any argument would be useless right now. Only a heavy sigh escaped her from time to time. Not because Rafah was angry with Naphatsorn, but because she was tired of this repetitive chaos and no longer wanted to deal with it.
Several minutes passed. Naphatsorn screamed until her strength ran out, her voice fading into nothing more than ragged breaths.
Rafah merely gave her a brief sidelong glance before speaking in a cold, even voice.
"Are you done screaming? If you are, get out of my car."
"Rafah, you can't do this to me."
"Then tell me, Phat. What exactly can't I do? We agreed from the start that this was just friends with benefits. A sexual arrangement that could end whenever either one of us said the word. Today, I'm saying it... to end this."
Every word that left Rafah's mouth was merciless, without even the smallest trace of attachment.
Naphatsorn stared back at her with eyes full of resentment. Tears gathered in them, but she still refused to let them fall.
"You're gonna regret treating me like this, Rafah."
Rafah merely glanced at her and did not respond. The coldness in her eyes was clear enough to end the conversation without another word.
Naphatsorn threw the car door open at once and slammed it shut with a loud bang. Then she marched to the front of the Jaguar, lifted the expensive designer bag in her hand, and struck the hood with all her strength.
A series of heavy thuds rang out again and again.
Rafah watched the scene in silence. Then she reached out and pressed down on the horn, holding it there on purpose. The blaring sound echoed through the area, meant to force Naphatsorn to stop and feel ashamed of her own behavior.
The horn rang loudly all around them.
And at last, it made Naphatsorn stop her frantic outburst.
She stepped back from the car as if all her strength had left her. Her eyes fixed on Rafah with deep, raw pain.
But Rafah did not care.
She did not even wait for Naphatsorn to move out of sight. She stepped on the accelerator and drove away at once.
Leaving Naphatsorn standing alone...
By the empty roadside.
If Rafah were fire, then she had just burned Naphatsorn's heart to ashes.
But a woman like Naphatsorn never allowed anyone to hurt her without hurting them back.
If she had to suffer, then the person who made her suffer would have to carry the same wound.
Naphatsorn took out her phone, her slender finger immediately dialing her assistant.
"Find out where that Petra bitch is. Right now."
...
Sunlight poured through the clear glass windows of a greenhouse café on Charoen Krung Road. The rich scent of freshly roasted coffee lingered warmly in the air.
Petra sat at a small table by the window, watching people pass beneath the shade of old buildings in the midday light. She lifted her latte and took a sip, her face marked by deep thought. Just moments ago, a senior colleague she was close to had called and asked her to take on an interview project for the Suphakiat Wildlife Foundation, Rafah's foundation. The foundation had even made it clear that they wanted Petra, and Petra alone, for the job. That alone was enough for her to know immediately that this was definitely Rafah's doing.
Petra sat there, pressing her fingers to her temples. She wanted desperately to refuse, but because that senior colleague had personally asked her, she could not bring herself to say no.
Before long, Tharin, her best friend and work partner, appeared at the café with her usual easygoing air. The two ordered more dessert before the conversation began.
"I have to create interview content for the Suphakiat Wildlife Foundation," Petra said.
"Whoa. So you actually got that job? The one Khun Rafah called you to her penthouse about?"
Petra sighed. She did not want to explain how this job had really started, or what she had been through.
"It's a long story. But they want me to do this one alone."
"Oh." Tharin looked slightly disappointed, but only for a brief moment before she smiled at her best friend. "Well, getting the job is still good. If you need help with anything, just tell me, Petra. I'm always happy to help."
"Thanks," Petra said simply.
Tharin gave her a sly smile and joked, "Then you're buying my coffee today. You got a job from a big foundation, after all."
Petra laughed softly.
"Okay. Fine."
A moment later, Tharin changed the subject.
"Anyway, you still haven't spilled anything. So what's Khun Rafah's Black Eden No.4 actually like? And what is it, really? Give me a review. Ever since you went to see her that day, you haven't called to gossip with me at all. My gossip gland is bigger than my brain, you know."
Petra lifted a hand to her temple and let out a soft sigh before answering faintly.
"There wasn't much. It's just some ultra-rich person's luxury penthouse. Besides, I only saw the reception room and the dining room."
"What? That's disappointing. I thought there'd be something more interesting. She named the penthouse like some kind of sex harem. You should've been nosier than that. Seriously, I need to donate about fifty percent of my snooping DNA to you so you can develop a proper nosy instinct."
Tharin spoke while laughing lightly, clearly not thinking much of it.
But Petra, who had been keeping something buried inside for too long, finally decided to let it all out at once.
"Actually, that day when Khun Rafah invited me to her penthouse, it wasn't to talk about work. She invited me to have dinner with her, then kept asking personal questions. Like whether I had a girlfriend, whether my exes were men or women, whether I'd had sex before, what kind of sex I liked. In the end, she told me I was 'fuckable.'"
Tharin's mouth fell open.
Then she said something that left Petra completely unable to continue.
"So did you let her fuck you? Judging by the vibe, she seems insanely hot in bed."
"Tharin!"
"Oh, come on! I'm kidding. But still, if a woman as gorgeous as Khun Rafah invited me to bed, I might open my mind and let her have a little taste. Even though I like men and I've never done anything with a woman, she's beautiful. I kind of want to know what it feels like to be eaten alive by a gorgeous woman. I'd like to run a full hotness test on Khun Rafah, please. Aaaah!"
Petra let out a long sigh, having completely run out of things to say.
Meanwhile, Tharin continued with no sign of stopping.
"But seriously, I couldn't tell Rafah was into women at all. I thought she probably had some handsome high-society businessman boyfriend she was quietly dating or something. Turns out... she eats pussy too? Honestly, you really can't judge people from the outside. No matter how perfect the shell looks, there's always something hidden underneath."
"Khun Rafah probably just wanted to sleep with me once and be done with it. She's probably a player who likes keeping score. She must've thought I was easy."
Petra said it like a criticism, but deep down, she was not even sure whether she was disappointed in Rafah or not.
"Forget it. Don't think too much about her. Besides, honestly, Khun Rafah's life probably isn't that normal anyway. Maybe she's repressed and obsessed with sex or something."
Petra raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"Her life isn't normal? What do you mean?"
"Oh... you don't know?"
Tharin narrowed her eyes.
"Her family isn't actually as perfect as what we see in the news. People gossip about them all the time. Khun Rachen, her father, the diplomat, had two wives. One he married because she was rich and from a good family. That's Khun Rafah's mother. The second was Khun Rafah's kindergarten teacher. Think about it. Her father took his own daughter's kindergarten teacher as his mistress. How do you think his wife and child felt?"
Petra was stunned.
Tharin immediately continued.
"I heard Khun Rafah's mother lost her mind and slashed her own face until she was disfigured, just to spite her husband. After that, she shut herself inside the mansion and never came out to see anyone again. They say Khun Rafah's mother went insane. And Khun Rafah... she grew up in a family like that."
What Tharin had told her left Petra speechless.
She had never known any of it. She had never imagined that Rafah's seemingly perfect life could be filled with such deep family wounds.
All of a sudden, a young woman passing by their table stumbled sharply into Petra.
A full glass of iced coffee spilled all over her outfit, soaking it through.
Petra sprang to her feet in shock.
"Hey!" Tharin shouted across the café.
But instead of apologizing, she slowly let a cold smile appear on her face.
Petra recognized her at once.
"Khun Phat."
.
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