Chapter 6: Behind the Angel

The next morning, the soft chime of the private elevator from Rafah’s penthouse echoed through the hall. The glossy doors slid open to reveal Rafah in a perfectly tailored black suit. She stepped out with her phone pressed to her ear.

“I want Petra working with our foundation, Anya. Do whatever it takes.”

There was a response on the other end, but Rafah cut her off without hesitation.

“No. I don’t care how you do it. Use connections, money, or any offer that makes it impossible for Petra to refuse. I want her close to me.”

Her intention was unmistakable. Petra was different from every woman Rafah had ever met. Not because of beauty or intelligence, but because Petra had dared to refuse her, something no one else ever had.

For the first time, Rafah had not gotten what she wanted. The thought irritated her, and only made her want Petra more.

A faint smile curved her lips as an image surfaced in her mind, Petra lying in her bed.

“Make it happen, Anya,” she said, ending the call as she walked out of the private corridor and into the lobby of the ultra-luxury condominium, welcoming the start of a new day.

Rafah headed toward her favorite black Jaguar, already waiting at the entrance. But before she could reach the car, someone stepped directly into her path.

“Rafah. Did you take that woman up to your penthouse yesterday?”

The words struck without warning. Napassorn Siwakarn, her temporary lover, stood there, blocking her way.

Rafah halted, assessing the situation in a split second. She wondered how Napassorn knew, but her expression remained composed as she lifted her gaze.

“And why exactly are you involving yourself in my private affairs?” Her voice was edged with irritation, a clear sign that her patience was thinning.

Napassorn let out a cold smile, mockery flashing in her eyes.

“So that’s why you didn’t answer my calls or reply to my messages. What you did was humiliating, Rafah.”

She emphasized every word, her face flushed with anger, her stare fixed on Rafah without blinking. Rafah felt only annoyance.

“Phat. I don’t want to talk about this here.”

“No. I want to talk, and you’re going to answer me,” Napassorn snapped. “You slept with Petra, didn’t you, Rafah?”

That made Rafah turn sharply. Her eyes turned icy, her words slow and deliberate.

“If you speak to me like that one more time, I will have security drag you out of here immediately.”

It worked. Napassorn froze, her body going rigid.

Rafah did not spare her another glance as she stepped past her.

“We’ll talk in the car.”

Then she walked straight to her Jaguar without looking back.

…

After nearly an hour on the road, Rafah slowed the car and pulled over along a quiet suburban sidewalk. The street ahead was empty, no passing traffic in sight. Inside the car, the silence pressed in so tightly that every breath between her and Napassorn sounded painfully clear.

All this time, Rafah had known that her relationship with Napassorn had crossed a line they had agreed on from the beginning. What had started as a purely physical arrangement, temporary and without strings, had slowly turned into something else. Jealousy had crept in. Napassorn had begun reaching for a place she was never meant to occupy, trying to claim the role of a lover.

A door Rafah had never opened for her. Not even a crack.

The possessiveness, the constant questions, the sulking, the demands for reassurance. All of it made one thing clear. Napassorn no longer saw this relationship the way Rafah did.

Rafah had thought about ending it long before Petra ever entered her life. She had simply never found the right moment to say it plainly.

Until now.

“I’ve been thinking about this for a long time,” Rafah said at last. “I’ve hinted at it more than once. I just never said it directly. But before this goes any further, Phat, I want us to stop being sexual partners.”

Napassorn turned toward her immediately, eyes widening.

“What did you just say?”

“I think you heard me clearly,” Rafah replied.

Her voice was calm, cold, deliberately final. It was meant to end the conversation. Instead, it only fueled the fire burning in Napassorn’s chest.

“So you really slept with her, didn’t you?” Napassorn snapped, barely holding herself back.

Rafah paused, then chose honesty.

“I admit I’m interested in Petra,” she said evenly, each word measured. “But Petra and I have never been intimate. I was the one who approached her. So stop talking like that. I don’t like it.”

The truth did nothing to calm Napassorn. It pushed her straight past the breaking point. She began pounding her fist against her thigh, again and again, before throwing her head back against the seat and screaming without restraint.

Rafah stayed still, letting the screams fill the car. She knew arguing now would achieve nothing.

Only heavy sighs escaped her, not from anger, but from sheer exhaustion over a mess she no longer wanted to deal with.

Several minutes passed. Napassorn screamed until her strength ran out, her voice dissolving into ragged breaths. Rafah glanced at her briefly, then spoke in a flat, icy tone.

“Are you done screaming? If you are, get out of my car.”

“Rafah, you can’t do this to me.”

“Then tell me,” Rafah replied calmly, “what exactly can’t I do? We agreed from the start that this was Friends with Benefits. Either of us could end it at any time by saying so. Today, I’m saying it. I’m ending it.”

Every word was merciless. There was no warmth left in them, no trace of attachment.

Napassorn stared at her with eyes full of resentment, tears pooling but refusing to fall.

“You’ll regret doing this to me, Rafah.”

Rafah did not answer. She only looked at Napassorn, the coldness in her gaze enough to end the conversation without a single word.

Napassorn opened the car door and slammed it shut. She stormed to the front of the Jaguar, lifted her expensive designer handbag, and struck the hood with all her strength.

The dull thudding echoed again and again.

Rafah watched in silence. Then she pressed the horn and held it down, the sharp blare cutting through the quiet street. It was deliberate, meant to force Napassorn to stop and feel the humiliation of her own outburst.

The sound rang across the empty road.

At last, Napassorn stopped. She stepped back from the car as if drained of all strength, her eyes fixed on Rafah with deep, aching pain. Rafah did not react. She did not wait.

She pressed the accelerator and drove away.

Leaving Napassorn standing alone on the empty roadside.

If Rafah were fire, she had just burned Napassorn’s heart to ashes.

But a woman like Napassorn was never one to endure pain alone. If she had to suffer, the person who caused it would suffer the same wound.

She pulled out her phone, slender fingers dialing her assistant without hesitation.

“Find out where that Petra girl is. Right now.”

…

Sunlight streamed through the clear glass windows of the greenhouse-style café along Charoen Krung Road. The rich aroma of freshly roasted coffee lingered in the air.

Petra sat at her usual small table by the window, watching people pass beneath the shadows of old buildings in the midday heat.

She lifted her latte and took a slow sip, her expression distant. Just moments earlier, a senior she trusted had called, pleading with her to accept an interview assignment for the Suphakiet Wildlife Foundation. Rafah’s foundation. The message had been unmistakable. They wanted Petra, and only Petra. That alone told her everything she needed to know. Rafah’s fingerprints were all over this.

Petra pressed her fingers to her temples. Every instinct urged her to refuse, but because the request had come from that senior, she could not bring herself to say no.

Not long after, Tharin arrived at the café with her usual easygoing energy. They ordered dessert to go with their drinks, and the conversation began.

“I’ve been asked to do an interview project for the Suphakiet Wildlife Foundation,” Petra said, getting straight to the point.

“What? So it’s real?” Tharin’s eyes widened. “You actually got the job after Rafah called you up to her penthouse?”

Petra sighed. She had no desire to explain how that job had really come about, or everything she had endured.

“It’s a long story. Let’s just say they negotiated for me to do it alone.”

“Oh.” Tharin looked briefly disappointed, then smiled. “Still, that’s good news. If there’s anything I can help with, just tell me. I’m always in.”

“Thanks,” Petra said softly.

Tharin grinned and added, “Then you’re buying me coffee today. You landed a job with a big foundation, after all.”

Petra let out a quiet laugh. “Okay, deal.”

A moment later, Tharin leaned forward, clearly itching to change the subject.

“So you still haven’t spilled the tea. What’s Black Eden No.4 really like? What even is it? Give me a review. Ever since you went to see Khun Rafah that day, you haven’t called to gossip at all. My curiosity gland is bigger than my brain, so forgive me for being a nosy friend.”

She laughed at her own joke.

Petra rubbed her temple and sighed lightly before answering.

“It’s nothing special. Just a luxury penthouse for billionaires. I only saw the reception lounge and the dining room.”

“What? That’s it?” Tharin frowned. “That’s disappointing. With a name like that, it sounds like some kind of sex harem. You should’ve snooped more. Honestly, I should donate half my nosy DNA to you so you’d be better at it.”

She laughed, clearly not thinking much of it.

Petra, however, had been holding this in for too long. She finally let it all spill out in one breath.

“Actually, the day Khun Rafah invited me to the penthouse, it had nothing to do with work. She invited me to dinner and kept asking personal questions. Whether I had a partner. Whether I liked men or women. Whether I’d ever had sex. What kind of sex I liked. And then she said I was ‘fuckable’. It was incredibly rude.”

Tharin’s mouth fell open.

Then she said something that left Petra completely speechless.

“So… did you let her fuck you? She’s insanely hot.”

“Tharin!”

“Hey, I’m kidding.” Tharin laughed, then shrugged. “But honestly, if a gorgeous woman like Rafah invited me to bed, I might be tempted to keep an open mind. Even though I like men and I’ve never been with a woman, she’s beautiful. I wouldn’t mind finding out what it’s like to be devoured by a stunning woman for once. Tharin would gladly test Khun Rafah’s level of hotness.”

Petra let out a long sigh, utterly at a loss for words.

Tharin, meanwhile, kept talking without pause.

“But seriously, you’d never guess Rafah likes women. I always thought she had some handsome, high-society businessman boyfriend, quietly dating behind the scenes. Turns out she likes women too. It really proves you can’t judge people by appearances. No matter how perfect someone looks on the outside, there’s always something hidden underneath.”

“Khun Rafah probably just wanted to sleep with me for one night and be done with it,” Petra said, her tone edged with criticism. “She’s probably the type who chases women and collects notches. Maybe she thought I’d be easy.”

She sounded as if she were blaming Rafah, yet deep down, she was not even sure whether what she felt was disappointment.

“Forget it. Don’t take it too seriously,” Tharin said casually. “Honestly, Rafah’s life probably isn’t that normal anyway. She might be sexually repressed, and obsessed with sex because of it.”

Petra raised an eyebrow. “Not normal? What do you mean?”

“What, you didn’t know?” Tharin lowered her voice slightly. “Rafah’s family isn’t as perfect as the news makes it seem. People gossip about it all the time. Khun Rachen, her father, the former ambassador, has two wives. One he married because she was wealthy and came from a prestigious family. That’s Rafah’s mother. The other was Rafah’s kindergarten teacher. Just imagine that. A father taking his own child’s teacher as his mistress. How do you think the legal wife and the child would feel?”

Petra froze.

Tharin continued without hesitation.

“They say Rafah’s mother completely lost it. She slashed her own face in protest against her husband until she was disfigured, then shut herself away and never came out to see anyone again. Supposedly she lost her sanity. And Rafah grew up in a family like that.”

…