After the heart-to-heart in the hotel parking lot, Rafah's black Jaguar slowly pulled up in front of Petra's condominium. The engine shut off smoothly, leaving behind only silence and the sound of two hearts still pounding too hard in their chests.
"Thank you for driving me home."
Petra said it while unfastening her seat belt. Rafah smiled in response, but her eyes did not leave Petra's face, not even for a fraction of a second.
"Then... I'll go now."
Petra reached for the door handle, but Rafah's voice stopped her first.
"Wait, Petra."
Rafah spoke quickly, as if afraid Petra would escape before she could finish.
"I have to go to the foundation's wildlife rehabilitation island in Trat tomorrow.* I'd like you to come with me. You might get more ideas for content. Are you available?"
[*Trat is a coastal province in eastern Thailand.]
Petra paused for a moment.
"How many days..."
Hesitation showed in her eyes, and her thoughts had already begun wandering toward certain possibilities. Deep down, she still did not entirely trust Rafah.
"Khun Rafah, you're not planning anything, are you?"
Rafah laughed at once.
"Come on, Petra. What kind of person do you think I am? I'm taking you there for work. Besides, it's just a day trip. We'll go in the morning and come back in the evening."
Petra pouted slightly, looking as if she did not quite believe her.
Seeing that, Rafah only wanted to tease her more.
"If I wanted to do something to you, I wouldn't need to go through the trouble of taking you all the way to an island. One or two winks would be enough, and you'd already be falling for me."
Petra's face flushed at once.
"Khun Rafah, I don't find that funny."
Rafah gave a small, smiling shrug.
"All right. Not funny, then. So... you're coming?"
"I haven't said that yet."
Rafah leaned a little closer to Petra, her voice softening.
"There are so many animals being rehabilitated on that island, Petra... They've been through so much cruelty from humans. I think they might want to meet a human who's kind to them for once. Don't you want to go see them?"
Petra went still at once.
Rafah had found exactly the right spot.
"Then send me a message tonight and let me know what time you'll pick me up."
Rafah nodded immediately.
But just as Petra was about to get out of the car, Rafah stopped her again.
"Wait, Petra. I forgot something in the trunk. Could you get it for me?"
Petra frowned slightly.
"What is it?"
"It's nothing big. Just grab it for me, will you?"
Petra felt a faint suspicion, but she did as Rafah asked anyway. She walked around to the back of the car. The trunk slowly opened automatically.
The moment the lid lifted, the first thing that appeared before her made her freeze.
A large bouquet of white tulips had been arranged beautifully in front of her.
Petra stood still for a moment. She truly had not been prepared for something like this.
Then the soft sound of footsteps came from behind her. Rafah walked over and stopped beside her, then reached out, picked up the bouquet, and handed it to her.
"These tulips... I want them to be a symbol of a new beginning for us."
Rafah's slender fingers lightly touched one of the white tulips at the center of the bouquet.
"Tulips symbolize the beginning of spring. I thought they suited us... I hope you'll accept them."
Petra accepted the bouquet into her arms, her heart beating so hard she could almost hear it. Not because the flowers were beautiful, or because those words were sweet, but because she had never expected a woman like Rafah to offer anyone this kind of tenderness.
"You prepared all of this?"
Rafah smiled, though there was still a trace of playful arrogance in it.
"Mhm... I already figured I'd be able to win you over. I knew the flowers would definitely come in handy."
"Khun Rafah!"
That answer annoyed Petra so much that she instinctively smacked Rafah hard on the shoulder. Even so, she did not forget to murmur a soft thank you, her arms still holding the bouquet tightly.
"Then I'll go in now."
Rafah smiled in response, her gaze still fixed only on Petra.
Petra found herself smiling without realizing it. She turned to meet Rafah's eyes once more and smiled at her before turning around and walking back toward the building entrance, leaving Rafah leaning against the same car, watching her until she disappeared from sight.
But in one corner some distance away, a man stood leaning against a pillar, his figure swallowed by the darkness. In his hand was a phone, its camera already open. Several photos had been taken of Petra standing there with the bouquet in her arms while Rafah stood beside her.
They looked like perfectly ordinary photos.
But they were enough for the man to know at once that the woman he worked for would not like this at all.
A moment later, his fingertips quickly sent all the photos through the LINE application to a contact saved under the short name "Khun Phat."
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[3 image files sent]
"After dinner, Khun Rafah drove that woman back to her condominium."
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The man looked at the screen once more to make sure the photos and message had been sent. Then he slipped the phone into his shirt pocket, drew in a short breath, and quietly disappeared into the darkness.
.
Elsewhere.
At a luxury penthouse in the heart of the city.
A LINE notification rang out in the middle of the living room.
Ding!
Napassorn, dressed in a sexy nightgown, sat on the sofa. Her hand reached for the phone without much interest. But the moment she saw the photos and the message on the screen, her expression changed at once.
Because they were photos of Rafah and Petra.
A thorn driven straight into her heart.
"That bitch Petra..."
Napassorn's voice dropped until it was almost a growl in her throat. Her eyes were bloodshot with a mixture of anger and jealousy. She gripped the phone so tightly it was as if she meant to crush it in her hand, before hurling it at the wall with all her strength.
Bang!
Shards of the shattered screen scattered across the floor. Napassorn breathed hard, her eyes blazing. Then she rose, leaving the wreckage of the expensive phone behind like that.
For Napassorn, now...
She no longer even cared whether Rafah came back to her or not.
The only thing she wanted was this.
If she had to suffer like this, then Rafah and Petra would have to suffer with her.
She would never be the only one in pain.
Never.
...
The next morning, Rafah drove to pick Petra up in front of her condominium at the appointed time. After that, she took her to the airport's General Aviation zone, an area for private aircraft separated from the usual commercial passenger terminal.
Rafah had rented a private aircraft apron there. She personally walked around the small four-seater amphibious floatplane, running through the preflight checks in careful detail according to procedure before stepping into the cockpit.
Once everything was ready, the two of them took their seats. Rafah was in control of the aircraft, while Petra sat beside her in the front passenger seat.
After receiving clearance for takeoff, the plane gradually lifted from the runway, heading toward the wildlife rehabilitation island of the Suphakiat Wildlife Foundation. The journey took about an hour and a half.
Throughout the flight, Rafah handled the aircraft with practiced skill. When they neared their destination, she slowly descended over the surface of the water, then touched down smoothly in the bay designated as the takeoff and landing point for seaplanes.
The floatplane skimmed gently across the water, almost like a boat approaching a dock. Rafah guided it toward the mooring buoy by the pier, then safely shut off the engine.
The island was under the care of the Suphakiat Wildlife Foundation. It was not overly large, yet it was spacious enough to hold a rich variety of life. The island was surrounded by lush green forest and a stretch of clean white beach that curved along the shoreline. Inside the facility, there were around a dozen staff members stationed there, each assigned to their own responsibilities.
The wildlife temporarily recovering here included many different species, such as the hornbills in the enclosure. Some of them had been confiscated from wildlife markets near the border. They were among Thailand's protected wildlife under the Wildlife Preservation and Protection Act of 2019.
Hunting even one hornbill does more than take the life of a rare animal. It also shakes the entire forest ecosystem, because hornbills are seed dispersers for large trees that sustain the life cycle of the forest.
Their main diet is fruit. When they eat fruit, the seeds are later expelled with their droppings in other parts of the forest, sometimes several kilometers away from the parent tree. This natural process helps seeds spread in balance, allowing the forest to continually regenerate.
On another side of the rehabilitation center were small wild animals such as civets. They had once been victims of transnational wildlife trafficking. Many were captured simply for their civet musk, used as an ingredient in traditional medicine and perfumes.
Farther along was a brahminy kite with a broken wing from being shot. On another side were slow lorises, protected wildlife often captured by trafficking networks and sold as pets. Their upper and lower front teeth had been pulled out, leaving only the roots buried beneath the gums so they would not bite their owners. Many developed infections afterward and died inside human cages.
Cages their owners thought were cute.
Every living animal in this rehabilitation center was both a victim and a witness to the crimes humans had committed against other living beings they considered lesser than themselves.
And yet humans still dared call themselves the superior species.
During the inspection...
Petra noticed that Rafah did not care only about documents or the organization's public image. She genuinely took part in caring for the animals herself. She helped hold a fledgling while its wound was treated under the supervision of the duty veterinarian, asked about the condition of newly admitted animals, and remembered the names of every animal on that island with striking accuracy.
In that moment, Petra finally understood why the media had called Rafah the wildlife conservation angel.
Because to her...
Rafah truly deserved to be called that.
After they had finished inspecting the work with the staff on the island and discussing the content direction with Petra, Rafah invited her to see the beach on the western side of the island, a beach she had praised again and again as beautiful enough to rival famous tourist destinations.
She took Petra onto an electric golf cart and drove along a narrow path surrounded by dense green trees. Afternoon sunlight slipped through the canopy in glittering shafts along both sides of the road, as if nature itself were holding the path toward a hidden beach in its arms.
When the cart reached its destination, Rafah eased off the speed and came to a complete stop before a clean white sand beach curving along the edge of the deep blue sea. The sand before them was smooth, untouched by footprints or the chaos of people. There was only the sound of waves rolling steadily toward the shore.
"The beach here really is beautiful, Khun Rafah."
Petra said it with a wide smile. She took off her shoes and let her bare feet touch the velvet-soft sand.
Petra gently scooped up a handful of sand, letting it slip through the gaps between her fingers, before she began strolling along the beach.
Rafah leaned against the edge of the golf cart and watched her in silence. A faint smile appeared on her lips without her even realizing it.
Before long, Petra stopped at an open spot by the sea, crouched down, and began gathering sand into a pile.
"You're not in a hurry to go back, are you? Let me build a sandcastle for a little while, Khun Rafah."
She called out to Rafah while using both hands to shape the sand into a base.
Rafah smiled faintly and let Petra play by herself for a moment before walking closer.
"Khun Rafah, come help me. If we build it together, the sandcastle will turn out prettier."
Rafah slowly shook her head.
"You go ahead. I'm not very good at things like this."
Petra pouted at her on purpose.
"Then I'll do it by myself."
She muttered softly, then turned back and continued building the sandcastle with stubborn focus.
Rafah looked at Petra, watching her use both hands to shape the sand with such concentration. The sea breeze passed gently over them, lifting a few loose strands of Petra's hair into the wind.
"Did you like playing like this when you were a child?"
Rafah asked softly.
Petra paused for a moment, then looked up with a smile.
"Yes. My hometown is in a southern province. Whenever my father had time, he would take me to the nearby beach. We would build sandcastles together, while my mother sat on a mat behind us and prepared food. After we finished building the sandcastle, we would eat together, and then I'd go play in the water."
Petra told the story with a soft laugh, her eyes shining with happiness from the past.
But at the same time...
Rafah went visibly still.
A certain emotion appeared in those sharp eyes, one Petra could not see.
In Rafah's mind, an image from the past slowly rose, becoming clear.
The image of a little girl standing trembling in the corner of a room while her father and mother argued so loudly the room seemed to shake.
She could not remember exactly how old she had been then. She remembered only that her mother had been crying, and that those tears came with her mother's accusations about the "gift" her father had bought for another woman.
Back then, Rafah had not understood.
She had not understood why her mother had to be that angry.
But when she grew older, she knew.
Because a good husband, or a married man like her father, should not have been buying gifts or anything else for another woman in that kind of romantic, adulterous way.
Rafah still remembered it clearly.
The sound of the slap that rang out before her mother's body fell hard to the floor.
Perhaps it was because of the physical difference between their bodies. With a man's strength, just one palm had been enough to send her mother collapsing to the floor like that.
Rafah remembered crying in shock until a housekeeper rushed in and carried her away from there.
Rafah did not know whether her father and mother still remembered that day.
Maybe they had forgotten all of it by now.
Well...
Adults always seemed to think their own problems were greater than a child's.
They probably never even knew...
That Rafah remembered everything from that day.
Even if the images in her mind had blurred with time, strangely enough, that memory had remained buried deep in her heart all along.
"Khun Rafah."
Petra's voice pulled Rafah back.
"Why did you go quiet?"
Rafah was still for a moment. Then she merely smiled before answering in a voice softer than usual.
"I was just thinking that your family sounds lovely."
The answer was brief, as if she did not want to make it any longer. Her sharp eyes shifted toward the sandcastle before them as she thought of her own family.
The Witchakornin family.
A family that looked perfect from the outside, but in truth was fragile and ready to collapse.
Like a sandcastle struck by a single wave.
...
Rafah might think Petra could never understand what it felt like to carry the weight of a broken family.
But in truth, Petra knew.
Perhaps she understood more than Rafah thought.
She had always been observing Rafah, from the smile Rafah tried so hard to keep in place to the way her eyes changed whenever family was mentioned.
Tharin, her best friend, had once told her that Rafah's family was not as perfect as it appeared to outsiders.
.
"Think about it. Her father took his own daughter's kindergarten teacher as his mistress. How do you think his wife and child felt?"
"I heard Khun Rafah's mother lost her mind and slashed her own face until she was disfigured, just to spite her husband."
"And Khun Rafah... she grew up in a family like that."
.
Petra did not know the truth behind those stories.
And she did not want to ask, not if it would hurt Rafah.
Neither of them said anything else.
There was only silence and the soft sound of waves washing gently against the shore.
Rafah, who had been standing quietly for a long while, finally lowered herself to sit beside Petra without saying a word. She began using her hands to help pat the sand into place little by little. Before them, the sandcastle gradually took shape, its beautiful outline slowly emerging.
No words passed between them.
But before long, the clear sky turned dull and gray.
A strong wind began whipping through the treetops, making them whistle sharply. Then the first raindrop fell onto the sand before them, followed by a downpour so heavy it blurred everything in sight.
Rafah lifted her face to look at the sky and said,
"I think we should head back to the center. In rain this heavy, I'm afraid a storm might be coming."
The two of them quickly got up from the sandcastle they had built and ran toward the parked golf cart. But the moment Rafah turned the key, the engine stayed completely silent. She tried two or three more times, but the result remained the same.
Rafah looked up at the sky, now growing darker, and made a decision in a split second.
"From here... if we walk a little farther, there's a staff house. Let's take shelter there first."
Petra nodded without hesitation.
The two of them hurried through the rain along the narrow path that cut through dense trees. The sound of rain striking the ground came in rapid bursts as both of their bodies became soaked through with rainwater.
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Hojicha Writer
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