PETE'S POV:

The test results were back and my mind was reflexively chanting prayers as I was opening the folder.
I opened the test report and to my utter relief, they had come out to be negetive.
Vegas and I weren't related and since phaw had once ran a paternity test during my infant years to make sure that I was indeed his son, Vegas clearly wasn't related to him either.

A small hope shone in my heart that maybe phaw had not actually cheated on mae and the letters were maybe just one-sided but I still needed proof to support the theory. Right at the moment the thought of the cup that I had seen in the secret room popped up in my mind making me curious again.

"I have definitely seen it somewhere.  Must examine it soon. " I thought.

The cup gave me a strong sense of déjà vu and no matter how hard I tried to, I just couldn't brush off the feeling.

Hence, I gave the picture that I had clicked earlier of the cup to have an exact replica be made of the cup.

A few hours later:

Vegas was out of the house due to some urgent issue that had emerged out of nowhere and was supposed to be out for a couple of hours more. Macau was also in his college and hence ironically enough, I was left all alone in the people filled house.

"Should I go to Grandma's?" I thought. Even though the place brought a lot of pain to me, it was also a place where I had the happiest memories of my life. I didn't want to go there since the place always seemed to haunt me with the fact that grandma was still not out of the coma but no matter what it was still better than staying in the Saengtham house that seemed to be repulsing me with every bit of it's energy.

The house looked pretty old and torn down. And it wasn't really a surprise given to how long it had been since it was last opened. Dust had made the place it's own nest and spiders seemed to be really enjoying such a spacious house with their rapidly growing generations.

"It's been so long" I whispered.

The place looked exactly the same as it was in my memories. The good times were preserved in the place even though the times had become polar opposite to what they were. 

Grandma's hand woven shawl, her hand-made baskets, our wall doodles everything was frozen in time. My eyes welled up upon seeing those things but I wiped those tears not letting them fall.

Enough tears had already been shed from my eyes for experiences really worse and there was no way that I was going to let the good memories be tainted by my tears.
I roamed around the place feeling nostalgic as I reminisced the passed memories.

"I miss her" I whispered.

A photo album caught my eye. It was mae's maternity album but also had a few of my newborn days photos. A smile dawned upon my lips when I saw those photos.
As I was looking through those photos, I came across the same cup.

"What-" My body jolted up to take a closer look and fragmented memories started flowing into my mind as I kept taking in the details.

It used to be one of my favourite photos for, it was one of phaw feeding mae with his own hands. He was holding a spoon near her mouth and the cup was in the background.

"Does that mean...phaw actually cared for mae? Has he really kept it as a memorial?" I thought. A part of me felt happy that atleast mae was important to him.
A part of my anger subsided a little but a major part of it still remained.

A few hours later:

As I was thinking about all the events that had been happening recently, my phone ringed all of a sudden shocking me a little.

"Hello?" I said. There was dead silence for a second before the caller finally decided to speak.

"Pete?"

"Yes? Who's this?" I asked.

A deep sigh came from the other side followed by soft sniffs.

"Hello?" I said again.

"I-am-sorry-" The soft sniffs turned into full blown bawling.

"What-why?-Who are you?" I kept asking continuously.

"I-am-sorry-I-am-sorry-I-" The feminine voice kept saying without a break.

"I-I am a sinner. I-I have wronged both you and the Teerapanyakul family" The voice finally said.

"What do you mean? And WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?" I asked agitatedly. The repeated questions and lack of an answer had made me anxious and I wasn't being able to stop the stream of unfortunate thoughts that were cascading freely into my mind.

"I-I can't say all of it over phone...I will tell you when we meet...at the school again...I couldn't muster up my courage but I can't live with this guilt, can't continue to act like a coward and can't continue to deny my wrongdoings. So please...meet me once...please let me atone for my sins...let me be free of my guilt...I have a few of your answers...meet me a week later at your father's old school...I will tell you everything I know."
She said before her voice broke off and the call disconnected.

"Hello?! Hello!? HELLO!!? THE HELL?!" I voiced my annoyance. I didn't like being the suspense and the lady had just managed to bring my mood to a ruin with her exaggerated and extended suspence. The one for which I had to wait for a whole damn week to find out.

"But why the hell was she crying? Ahh!! FUCK IT!" I threw my phone onto the bed and flopped on it thinking about what possibly could be the lady's story.

I had no investigating work on my hands at the moment since I had already replaced the real cup with a replica and had sent the real one for examination. I was positive that I was not going to find anything from the cup but still didn't want to leave out any possible clues.

Meanwhile:

"All you have to do is choose me..." Vegas said.

"But are you sure about this?" The doubtful man expressed.

"You don't seen to be realising the person that you are doubting Khun Mok." His eyes turned commanding to let the man infront of him know that he wasn't someone that could be doubted or tried.

"Who else can give you inner information about the Teerapanyakul family if not me?" He presented himself confidently. The air around him screamed authority and power which was enough to convince the already agitated Khun Mok.

"To think that Khun Kinn would choose to betray the family that his ancestors shed blood and sweat to build. It's such a shame!" The man expressed his displeasure. He had not expected Kinn out of everyone, to be the family's traitor.

"They say, humans never change. They work by their first instinct, their mindset, who they are barely ever changes. And Kinn has never been a faithful man you know. It's not even that big of a surprise." Vegas said. His eyes looked as if they were filled with hatred and as if he wanted to chew Kinn down right at the moment for betraying the family and shaking hands with the enemies.

"Indeed...the most trusted people often turn out to be the most distrustful b*stards." Vegas flinched a little at Khun Mok's sentence but regained his composure before anyone could notice the change.

"But what will I get from getting involved in all this. Fairly speaking...I have good relations with both of you so Sentianal family will not be much affected no matter who out of you two comes in power." He said. The part which Vegas had so long waited for had finally arrived.

"Share in the Assassin's world special gun market." Vegas threw his ace, effective enough to lure Khun Mok in.

Assassin's world was a type of disneyland operated by Teerapanyakul family but instead of the fairy tale characters, it had a mafia world setting where players could get to be any characters and either defend themselves or try their best to kill the mafia boss. Toy guns were used in the setting but on the pretext of toy guns, real guns were smuggled largely to different parts in the country and overseas.
Their were a few reports of this but all of them were silenced with the power of money and due to the closely resembling designs of both the real guns and fake ones, normal people had no way to tell the difference between the two. Only the owners and a few people knew how to distinguish between the two. The real guns could be operated only when fired in a particular way. They had a fake bullet port present in a visible area to work like toy guns but when pressed on a particular spot, a small hard cover would come off revealing the small button that was to be pressed to make the gun work like a real one. It's precision and lethality had caused quite a stir in the market making it one of the most demanded guns. The bullets were specially spiked with Teerapanyakul secret poison potions that had been created by Porsche back in the day which caused the gun to have such high mortality rate. The bullets upon hitting a target, pushed fast spreading lethal poison into the body causing the  person to die within seconds even if not hit in crucial areas.

"How can I refuse if you give such an offer?" Khun Mok smirked as he inched forward to shake hands with Vegas thus sealing the deal.

After a few more exchanges Vegas finally got up to leave and was accompanied by Khun Mok who escorted him personally to his car.

At Khun Mok's residence:

"Yes, he was here today" Khun Mok gave out a deep laugh as he reported about the events that had occured to someone over the phone.

"You really should have seen the way he flinched when I talked about trusted people turning out to be the most distrustful ones. He really felt called out I believe." The voice on the other side chuckled upon hearing that.

"He really has some audacity, to act like a saint while committing treason against his own brother." He said before diverting the topic and disconnecting the call after informing the person whatever he needed to.

"Relationships really hold no meaning in our world." He said as he kept staring at the ceiling. It was indeed worthless to think that relationships were going to stay the same forever in their world that was so full of constant betrayals and struggle for existence.