call out my name [2gether]

CH 24

THE FAMILY TIES THAT BIND US (II).

The documents crumbled in Sarawat's hands with a crinkly noise as the young man clenched his fists, knuckles going white. He was furious. He was beyond livid as his eyes flashed in the gloomy study room of his family home, stacks of documents spread on the dark green, carpeted floor around him. These fucking bills and transactions statements were undoubtedly proof of his mother's guilt from where she had been trying to cover things up. Sarawat squinted harshly at the bold, Latin letters littering the document clutched in his hands. That had to be German.

God, he was so stupid, ignoring these documents the last time he had seen them. He should have at least run them through Google Translate or something, so much for his fucking eye for details. Had he had done that, then he would have stumbled on another manila folder innocently tucked away in the shelves, containing the two versions of the accident report, a correct one and a falsified one. It seemed that he was too blind to things he did not want to see, tired of all the corporate bullshit that his mother was incessantly pushing on to him. Tired of trying to fit in when all he ever wanted was to live his own life freely, unbound by outer expectations.

Ever since their family had stepped into the spotlight of top ten upcoming corporations, all eyes had been on Sarawat as the eldest heir to his mother's empire and she had not been too shy to exploit that and thus Sarawat had done everything to get out of the unwanted limelight, leaving Phukong behind. Leaving his little brother to fend for himself.

Sarawat raked a shaky hand though his messy hair, a heavy, labored breath escaping his lungs and hollowing his chest as his fluffy bangs flopped back over his forehead. His resolve was slowly crumbling. There was just so much emotional stress one could take, mind plagued by worry and body taut with tension. Would there ever be a silver lining to these stormy clouds?

His life had never been a shiny one, since Sarawat had a rather gloomy personality to start with but it had certainly taken a skydive for the worse. From going to having what he assumed was basically nothing, he was now about to lose everything, both his love and his family. Irrelevant of how unsatisfactory their relationship actually was, a family was still a family. However, the thought of helping his mother to cover the incident did not even filter through his mind, it was not even an option in Sarawat's eyes. Tine's current wellbeing was the only important thing on his mind right now and Sarawat would do everything possible to help his case, even if it meant revealing all these dirty, little secrets that his family might harbor.

Besides, fucking Type held the visiting rights to Tine over Sarawat's head until he could hand over some actual proof that the details of Tine's accident had been tampered with. The air ambulance from Germany was scheduled to land this evening and due to Tine's severe condition the city hospital where he would be set up at, wanted to keep him in intensive care where only family members were allowed. So the older man had proposed a deal to Sarawat. He had to find the incriminating proof of Tine being in the accident with Phukong and bring it to him, only then would he help Sarawat get an authorization slip to visit Tine. Sarawat hoped that Man knew what he was in for with his boyfriend being this cunning.

Arg. This whole situation was just so fucked up, except at the same time something pleasant but also dark curled in the pit of Sarawat's stomach at the fact that Tine had such a good brother. Sarawat could not blame Type for trying to protect Tine, if only he had felt as strong of a bond with Phukong then maybe none of this would have happened. A cold hand gripped at his heart mercilessly, almost making his knees buckle. Shit. But was it not a little too late to blame himself for everything now? It would certainly not help him with the current situation.

Type must had felt benevolent or something since he had proceeded to reveal that after Tine's accident and the plethora of neurosurgical procedures that soon followed, when the doctors had once again come out with somber looks on their faces, stating that Tine's condition was a though case, their parents had decided to seek for neurosurgical treatments abroad. A hospital in Germany had been interested to take on Tine's case and alleged that they would partially fund some of the medical expenses if they could use it as a study for research of a new treatment. Their family was nowhere near rich but they were well off enough to make the final decision of moving the four of them to another country, having some well sorted connections from all the traveling that they did in their jobs.