Roommates - Not in Bangkok anymore [completed]

Chapter 40

Can's POV

They were sitting in the back of Mr. Yaxley's car. Can was looking at the lights of the cars passing them on the motorway, while darkness slowly descended onto the land around them.

Tin was sitting next to him, discreetly holding his hand behind the backpack they had put on the middle seat. They technically didn't need to hide anything, but it had just ended up that way.

Mr. Yaxley was on the passenger's seat, busily working on his laptop, while an old man called Mr. Abigail was driving them. When Can had asked who he was, the man had explained that he used to be the butler of the Yaxley family way back even before current Mr. Yaxley had been born. Mr. Abigail and his wife were now happily retired, living in the Yaxley's town house in London and only providing basic housekeeping. Mr. Yaxley had been quick to add that they really didn't need to work as much as they did anymore.

Weirdly, hearing the old man's tale about his long ties to the Yaxley family helped Can finally understand why Mr. Yaxley and Coach Lavinia had had no problem keeping their exes around even after their divorces and why Jonathan treated Jessie McNeil like a sister.

In this kind of traditional old money circles, family had never been just parents and their offspring, there had always been complicated structures of relatives, servants, tenants and other people tied to their fates. Like the Abigails, who had not been abandoned by Mr. Yaxley despite his falling out with his father and them getting old.

Can wondered whether it would be the same for the Medthanan family... and if he would get dragged into this kind of family web, too, if Tin somehow ended up reconciling with them.

He didn't know how he would cope with this, but it remained Tin's choice to make first.

He already didn't know what was expecting them in London.

They had finally had news from Tin's family when Mr. Yaxley had come to meet them.

Both of Tin's parents, as well as his brother, would arrive in London on Friday. In the meantime, the crisis team at Medthanan Real Estate would try to contain the scandal in Thai media. If Tin had really been Tul's only target, he might have overplayed his hand – the mere suggestion that the heir of Medthanan Real Estate might be involved in something as unsavoury as human trafficking had seriously panicked Tin's parents.

However, surprisingly, they had believed the story that Tin had been framed.

Maybe it had been the severity of the accusation. Maybe it had been the fact that they had spoken to Mr. Yaxley and not Tin himself.

In any case, they were willing to speak to their son in person and clear the misunderstanding. If only Tul didn't poison their minds until they arrived, they might have a real chance here.

Can knew that this wasn't the development Tin had expected and even though they hadn't had time to talk about it, it was palpable how conflicted he was about it.

"Mr. Yaxley, can I ask you something?" Tin asked into the silence, after they had left the school well behind them.

"Of course."

To show his willingness to listen, Mr. Yaxley even closed the laptop and put it back into his briefcase.

"Do you regret what happened to your father? What you did?"

"No," he replied calmly, "it was the only realistic way for us to break free. Do I wish there had been another option? I do. I think most estranged children do, but sadly... he was too far gone."

"What do you mean?"

"My father was a tyrant. If you had had the opportunity to ask him, though, he would probably have disagreed with me. He would have told you he was a benevolent head of the family, who only wanted the best for me – and of course, if I dared to want something else, I was wrong. He was demanding absolute authority over everyone he deemed below him, and he confidently saw himself above the law. None of the scandals that brought him down were fabricated. All we did was make sure they became known and didn't hit the wrong people. The only difference between him and his brother was what type of law he believed didn't apply to him."