My Man

Chapter 11

Arthit's POV

Betrayal.

The Satan of all evils that formulate as a single crack in a sturdy wall of a relationship built with love and trust for a long time and shatter it to the ground to be left with nothing but a pile of broken pieces of hearts as debris.

Betrayal.

It hurts more than death.

Makes you wish you were dead. Or someone would shoot you in the face and make you bleed to death instead of inflicting an eternal pain that would torment you every time you look at them.

I knew very well how betrayal felt and how it could fry your brain every single day until you go completely crazy to do something that you wouldn't have imagined you might do in all your life.

I didn't know how long Sarah and I sat there in the park bench, with her crying her eyes out and I trying to come up with some sort of advice to console her. Eventually, her tears died down and we sat there silently, both of us occupied in our own world of thoughts.

My mind had wandered back to six years ago in my life when everything had started to go astray. I have fought hard to keep those memories locked away for a long time. Tried ignoring it every freaking way possible. Even after Kongpob showed his face into my life recently, I have willed myself so hard to stay strong and completely mute out the flashbacks from playing again in my mind's eye. I didn't want to relive some of the painful moments of my life ever again. Some of the distressing memories where I was required to make some excruciatingly hard decisions that had left me in tears for endless nights.

But they came back. Sarah's revelation was just the catalyst needed to dig up those rusting memories, dust them off, and play it without a single scene missing from the whole story.

It had been six years into our relationship and Kong and I were going steady by far without any major fights or clashes that shook our relationship. Even Kongpob's parents were accepting of us without batting an eyelash. Things were good at my workplace where I was assured that I would get a promotion by the next quarter. Kongpob was steadily making progress by learning things over at his dad's company after completing his higher studies overseas. That was a pretty difficult time for me to be away from him. But he had made up for those missing times with frequent visits and vacations. Everything was going too good to sound true until the bloody merger came up.

It was the start of a new year and we were supposed to meet Kongpob's parents in their home where his father had arranged for a party on New Year's Eve. I was never a big fan of these office parties that claimed they were gonna be so much fun away from all the stressful work environment. But in reality, it was nothing but a bunch of rich boring people strutting around in their expensive suits talking money or scheming up evil plans to bankrupt each other's company, all behind their revolting smiles. I know Kong's father had earned some true and loyal connections over the years, who genuinely admired his intelligence and respected him. But the bitter truth was that the number of people who wanted to see his business empire fall to rubbles was greater than the ones who wanted to see him rise to heights. Those were the ones I was talking about earlier. They irritated me to no end that I would rather peel my skin off my bones than making small talk with them. But I had no such luck as I saw one of those pricey suits lone out from the flock and make its way towards me. I have no idea how he even managed to locate me as I had isolated myself from the rest of the crowd by finding myself a corner and sipping the unimaginably costly wine, which by the way tasted like shit. I would rather have a cold beer than some fermented grape juice that had been sitting in a cellar longer than I have lived in this world.

Back to the man in the suit. I had been avoiding talking to anyone at the party all evening and had a poker face that didn't have a trace of smile whatsoever. People had been taking the hint that I didn't want to socialize by the aura surrounding me and stayed a safe distance away from me. Either that or they didn't want to mingle with a face that hadn't popped up in their billionaires and heirs of billionaires journal. I don't care what the reason might be. As far as they left me alone I am fine with spending the evening gawking at a particularly handsome man at the center of the room, who was surrounded by rich snobs that were friends with his father. They were all smiles praising the young heir of Sutthiluck industries proclaiming that they were really impressed with how good of a businessman Kong was evolving to be.  They were doing it to win favors from one of the most successful business empires in Thailand. It would really do them good to be in the good books of Kong's father. Either that or they are really impressed by Kong and his potential. Though I really doubt the latter. Not that I have any doubts about things Kong was capable of, it's just that I don't believe people around him. They were interested in nothing but bagging money no matter how many friends they had to pull through dirt to earn it. I doubt they really had it in them to actually appreciate someone's hard work and potential out of the goodness of their heart.