Before Dawn

Chapter 19

Fighter calls Mr. Thananan and informs him Tutor is returning from the hospital. Tutor exits the hotel building and he boards a taxi back home. When he arrives home, he must continue to act totally normal to avoid suspicions from the father and son.
    He arrives back home and sees only Mr. Thananan in the living room.
"You're back early." He drops the office documents on his lap and looks at Tutor.
"Yeah," Tutor smiles, "It wasn't anything serious."
"How's she doing?"
"She's fine. She didn't want to worry any of us. She's extending her greetings to you." Tutor goes upstairs heading back to the bedroom.
"That's nice. Hope she gets better soon." Mr. Thananan says.
   As he walks down the corridor, he passes his father's in law office and pauses. He looks around and hears no sound nearby then he gently opens the door to the office and walks in closing it slowly. He takes in the mahogany table with documents and books on it. There are two large windows bringing in the sunshine into the office. Shelves of books are placed neatly near the walls. He sees five portrait of abstract drawings but the one that catches his attention is the woman in red dress. The woman is seated on a white chair looking up to the light blue sky.
"Tutor?"
Tutor panics when he hears his name called by Tharn. But he tries to calm himself. He turns to Tharn with a smiling face.
"Isn't the drawing beautiful?" Tutor turns back to the drawing.
Tharn looks at the corridor before going back into the room.
"What are you doing here?" Tharn asks.
"Is something wrong?" Tutor feigns innocence.
"This is father's office and we can't just come in here. We have leave before he sees us." Tharn says grabbing Tutor's wrist and dragging him out of the room. Tutor doesn't even struggle because this is the only way he can deceive Tharn of what he was doing in the office.

        A grand celebration is to be held in the reunited family. Madam Ahn is throwing the party to present her returned son to everyone. Decorations are going on both in the house and around the small field around their house. Miss Cheer is the one inspecting everything from the invitations to the decorations and dishes.
"Cheer, have you sent out invitations to Tutor and his husband?" Madam Ahn smirks.
Miss Cheer smiles, "Of course madam."
"That ungrateful brat can finally be kicked out of our family. I can't wait to see the shock written all over his face." Madam Ahn and Miss Cheer giggle together as they can't wait to see the events unfold tomorrow.
    Type is in his bedroom trying on all the clothes he got from shopping with his mother, Mai. Different styles of shirts, trousers and shoes with different colours. He has had his hair done now. He dyed it brown and gelled it backward revealing his perfect face shape the more. He looks at himself in the mirror, he is wearing a red and white stripe long sleeve shirt and a white trousers and black shiny shoes. He smiles for he has never dreamt of living such a life. Then he remembers Fighter, the man he loved with all his heart only for hin to be betrayed. Now that he is the rightful son to this family, he can finally get Fighter back and teach Tutor a lesson. He wanted to invite Tutor to the celebration but his grandmother had already done so. He can't wait to see Tutor and treat him the way he deserves especially after he stole his lover from him.
        Tutor has stayed awake on the bed for almost two hours trying not to fall asleep. He turns to face Tharn and shakes him gently but he doesn't respond. Realizing that Tharn has gone to sleep, he slowly stands up from the bed and tiptoes out of the room making sure to close the door silently. He heads straight for Mr. Thananan's office. He slowly opens the door and leaves it open a little so he can hear movement and know what to do. He rushes towards the painting of the woman in red dress and unhooks the drawing from the wall, gently dropping it on the floor. He sees a safe box with keypad and a small display screen where the inputted numbers show. He first presses "9", "8", "1" on the keypad and stops because he doesn't know the last one. He presses "2" but it declines. He exhales in frustration and turns to look at the door for a while but he doesn't hear anything. He presses the first three correct numbers and stops again thinking for a while then he presses "3" but it also declines. Then he hears a voice which startles him coming from the machine.
  "You have one last trial before security is notified." The robotic voice says.
Tutor eyes widen as his heart rate increases. With shaking fingers, he types the right correct numbers and stops again. He looks at rhe numbers displayed on the screen; "9", "8", "1". Then he recognises if it is rearranged, it becomes "1", "9", "8" meaning it must be a birthday year, hopefully Tharn's birthday but he doesn't know Tharn's birthday. His fingers touches the "5" on the keypad then hovers to "6". His finger moves between "5" and "6" before he presses "6". Then it accepts. Tutor breathes out in relief. He holds the doorknob and pushes it downward which opens the door. He sees white envelopes stocked inside the safe. Quickly he collects them and closes the safe back. He hangs the picture back and exits the office closing the door silently.
  "What are you doing?"
Tutor gasps in fear and the documents fall out of his hand onto the ground. He turns around sharply and sees Mr. Thananan standing behind him a bit far away. He looks down and sees the documents on the floor then he smirks at Tutor.
"You thought you could steal from me without me finding out?" Mr. Thananan starts approaching Tutor slowly. Tutor quickly picks the documents from the floor and enters the room opposite the office making sure to lock it. He hears the door unlock.
         Tutor gasps in fear as he clenches onto the documents tightly. The door opens revealing Mr. Thananan with a snarl face.
"You can't hide Tutor. Just give me back those documents and everything will be alright." Mr. Thananan says as he approaches Tutor. Tutor looks behind him and sees the balcony. He slides the door open and rushes to the balcony. He looks down and sees the height is too high up for him. He will definitely die or break his leg if he takes such a risk. As he turns Mr. Thananan's hand grasps around his neck nearly choking him to death. He leaves the document to fall to the ground and holds onto the muscular hands trying to choke him to death. He tries removing them but instead they get tighter. The man pushes him onto the rail. Tutor moans in pain when the rail hit his waist. He tries screaming for help but nothing comes out.
"I liked you Tutor. I'm sorry it had to come to this." Mr. Thananan pushes Tutor over the rail.
   Henia's alarm rings and she quickly turns it off. She says a short prayer and leaves the bedroom heading straight to the living room to sweep. She is about to turn on the vacuum cleaner then she hears something splutter just outside the house. She goes to the door and opens it. She wails loudly seeing Tutor in a blood pool with his eyes wide open.