Chapter Text
Macau looked down at his phone and saw an unknown number calling. He knew in his heart who the caller was, coming from a burner phone.
“Hello.”
“Macau, where is Pete? How is he?”
The voice sounded desperate. But Macau’s anger, frustration, sadness and disappointment was more.
It has been more than a week he had been sitting in the hospital with Venice in tow. It was not that far back when Pete was in this very seat while the caller laid unresponsive in the ICU.
“No Hia. You do not get to know how and where Pete is.”
He was greeted by silence on the other line, but Macau is very sure his message had reached the caller loud and clear. The deep inhale indicated that caller was still on the line.
“Look hia, I love you and you know I do. I even understand that this may be something you needed to do. But you still do not get to know or even ask about Pete. Not when you left him for dead.”
Macau was greeted with another round of silence before the caller finally spoke.
“I’m sorry.”
The call ended, breaking Macau’s heart further.
His heart felt protective over the person who left everything he had to stay by his brother’s side, lovingly caring for the unresponsive Vegas. Yet the same was not done for him when he was near fatally wounded by the very person he gave up his world for.
Macau’s heart bled for the unconscious person, hooked with various medical equipment.
Macau was honestly tired of the whole vengeance saga and all he wanted was to live a quiet and peaceful life with the newly built family which Pete had painstakingly mended.
Macau gritted back the tears forming in his eyes as he soothed Venice to sleep.
Venice had been terribly upset his Papa Pete was not able to soothe him and laid there unresponsive even after crying his little heart out.
All he could do was pray that Pete will pull through.
Like a broken record, the scene kept replaying, each time Pete felt his heart breaking into tinier pieces. He wanted to get out of this nightmare but was powerless to do so.
Please.. please let me forget this pain.
Yet each time he wants to forget, the happy faces of Venice and Macau would appear. The guilt would eat at him.
Please let me forget this pain. I wish I never met this person so I would never have to taste the forbidden love and heartache. It is all too much.
Yet the scene kept replaying while his body sleeps.
Pete woke up a month later, feeling every ache in his body, yet his heart felt clear and unburdened.
“P’Pete! Doctor! P’Top! P’Pete is up!”
Pete watched as this sweet boy Macau rushed to his side with his baby Venice. His face was red and swollen with shed tears, making Pete smile weakly.
“I’m here Macau. Why are you crying?”
“P’Pete, how do you feel? We were so worried.”
Pete smiled warmly at the young man. In his mind it somehow made sense why he felt he love and cared deeply for these younger man and his precious baby but he still couldn’t connect to why he had such endearing thoughts.
He is aware this young man is none other than Khun Macau of the minor family and this precious baby is his and…
Pete clutched his head when he felt a sharp pain ringing.
Each time he tried to recall the other parent of Venice, he would feel a sharp pain in his head.
It was all a blur when doctors came in to make several diagnostic checks on him. Somewhere along the way his master Khun Thankhun came by.
“Macau! Top told me he woke up! How is he?“ He heard the commotion outside the curtains while the doctors ran tests on him.
When the curtains finally opened, Pete flashed his signature smile at the group standing just outside the curtains.
“Khun Nu.”
Typical Thankhun wailed as he hugged his favourite bodyguard.
“Ai’ Pete! You are never to leave me again! I told you not to trust that devil spawn! Don’t worry! I will find you a worthy husband!”
Macau stood silently, not once rebutting the curses on his brother, because for once, the words rang true.
“Khun Nu, what is this husband you speak of? I would much prefer a cute wife.” Pete looked so confused with this fuss about some devil spawn he was accused to have ran off with but could not piece together what Khun Thankhun was blabbering about.
Thankhun looked at him with such sadness before hugging Pete tightly.
“Dear dear Pete! If it is a wife you seek, I shall find you one! Forget that bastard!”
Pete looked at him with confused. “Khun Nu, what bastard are you talking about?”
“Yes! That’s it Pete! Forget him alright!”
Macau watched Pete closely as he held on to Venice. Something didn’t add up in his mind as he watched his beloved brother-in-law.
Pete was genuinely not upset or depressed as he should be being left for dead by the person he very much loved.
“Eldest brother.. I think… I think he genuinely does not remember.”
Thankhun pulled away from the hug and looked at Pete once more.
“Pete, do you remember what happened? Do you remember who shot you?”
Pete was deep in his thoughts. He was shot? All he remembered that there was a scuffle involving a gun but he could not recall who was involved when the gun fired.
His thoughts were disrupted by the sudden cry from his baby Venice.
Venice had woken up and immediately reached his tiny hands to be cradled by his Papa Pete.
Macau reluctantly placed Venice in Pete’s arm when Pete insisted on comforting the child.
“There there Venice. Papa is here.”
Pete inhaled the soft scent of his baby as he gently soothed him.
Thankhun handled all the discharge papers when Pete was finally able to be discharged. The eldest of the Therapanyakun cousins decided that from then on, Macau, Venice and Pete will be residing in the main house before they planned ahead for their future.
He made this arrangement so that the perpetrator would not be able to reach and harm any of them.