How to be loved

80 - Enough To Walk Away

How to be loved

80 – Enough To Walk Away

Freen's POV

It's been a week since Becky and I told my mom and Nam that we were engaged.

A week.

Seven days.

It still sounded impossible when I counted it like that.

For years, the future had been something I couldn't look at directly. Every time I imagined marriage, every time I imagined a ring, every time I imagined forever, the image always broke apart before it could become whole. It was like trying to hold water in my hands.

Now there was a diamond resting on my finger. And somehow, that changed everything.

The first person to make sure the entire world knew about it was, unsurprisingly, my mother.

She possessed a supernatural ability to spread news faster than the internet. I was convinced she had an invisible network of aunties stationed across Thailand, waiting beside their phones like emergency responders.

I should have known better than to think, "Let's keep it quiet for a while."

Quiet lasted approximately twenty four hours.

By morning relatives from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Khon Kaen, Phuket, and provinces I hadn't visited since I was twelve were already sending congratulations.

By the second day, relatives living abroad were commenting on photos they'd somehow obtained. By the fifth day, I was convinced that if my ancestors had Wi-Fi, they'd have joined the family chat too.

I couldn't stop smiling whenever I thought about it.

Not because of the congratulations.

Not even because everyone was excited.

I kept replaying Becky's face during the group video call. Correction. The interrogation.

It was one thing to see her command a boardroom filled with executives twice her age, negotiating contracts worth millions with the calm confidence that had built their family business into one of the fastest-growing luxury brands. I'd watched investors fold under her gaze. I'd watched magazine editors fight for her approval during Fashion Week. I'd watched journalists stumble over their own questions because Becky had mastered the art of answering without revealing more than she wanted.

Then my family happened.

Suddenly the woman who intimidated CEOs looked like she'd accidentally wandered into an ambush.

We'd been home that evening, curled up on our living room sofa after dinner. The television was playing quietly in the background, though neither of us was really watching. Becky had her laptop open, reviewing next month's campaign presentations between emails from Paris and Milan, while I lazily scrolled through tomorrow's modeling schedule that my manager had forwarded earlier that afternoon. Life had settled into a rhythm that still amazed me sometimes. We'd learned how to exist beside each other while working—comfortable enough that silence never needed filling.

Then my phone rang.

I glanced at the screen and laughed before answering.

"What?"

"My mother."

Becky looked up with a smile. "Tell her I said hi."

"I don't think you'll get away with just saying hi."

"What does that mean?"

"It means I think you're about to become everyone's business." She frowned, amused more than worried.