"Before the truth surfaced.
Before they realized they could never truly walk away from each other—
There had once been a silent hunt.
Where the hunter wasn't sure he was the predator.
And the prey carried a hidden blade."

Hatred is a powerful fuel.

But the truth—
The truth is what makes people lose control.

Gawin once thought he had it all figured out.

That Joss was the enemy.
That Joss's family had destroyed his father.
That coming back here was only for one purpose:

Revenge.

But buried deep within the layers of numbers,
Within the endless data he spent years digging through—

He began to see something else.

Something wrong.

The Investigation Began Years Ago – Not in Thailand, but in America

This hadn't started when he returned to Thailand.

No.

It had begun long, long before.

Gawin never forgot the day his father lost everything.

Never forgot the image of the man kneeling, thin and broken, blood dripping from clenched fists.

Never forgot the way Joss's father turned away.

At that time, Gawin was only a teenager.

Too young to understand the cruel intricacies of the world.

But when his parents died, when he was left utterly alone on foreign soil—

He swore to himself:

He would find the one who pushed his family into the abyss.

While studying at university in America,
Gawin didn't just study to survive.

He learned how to exist.

He studied finance, learned how to manipulate markets, and how to cover tracks.

He learned to become someone who could step into Joss Wayar's domain—
without ever being suspected.

For years, he silently tracked the Wongthep Group.

Bank transactions.
Investment flows.
Mysterious shell companies.

But every lead hit a wall.

The data was too clean.

The Wongthep Group was too large, too protected, its deals so airtight it was nearly impossible to trace anything from the outside.

Gawin knew—

He needed to infiltrate from within.

He needed to go back.

When He Became Joss's Assistant

This wasn't a plan built in a day.
Or a month.

It took years.

He forged a new identity—
Fluke Wichit Kittiwattanakul.

Fake records.
Perfect background.
A carefully constructed persona:
An exceptional Beta, talented, loyal, with no ties to the past.

And just as he had predicted—

Joss chose him.

With only a single interview.
One handshake.
One fleeting moment of suspicion—

Joss had chosen him.

And thus—

The real game began.

Infiltrating Wongthep Group

Gawin didn't rush.

He couldn't afford any mistakes.

In the first few weeks, he did nothing but observe.

He watched how data was managed, how information flowed internally.

He watched which executives were trustworthy—
And which ones could be manipulated?

The first night, he hacked into the Wongthep systems,

and it took him over five hours to bypass the firewalls.

He couldn't risk using internal networks.
Couldn't risk using personal devices.

All financial data was heavily encrypted.

Almost impossible to breach through normal means.

But Gawin—
Gawin wasn't normal.

He didn't hack the central servers.

He targeted a mid-level accountant.

Someone he had carefully befriended over months.
Someone was demoted after a scandal.
Someone bitter enough to let a tiny crack slip through unnoticed.

From there,
Gawin traced every old transaction.

Followed every trail.

He knew Joss's father wasn't clean.

He knew the Wongthep family had benefited from Thanarath's collapse.

But what he didn't expect—

Was a massive offshore account.

The Anonymous Offshore Account

He found it late one night.

An anonymous account.

No names.

Just a code.

Gawin sat frozen before his screen, heart pounding slowly and heavily.

That account had received funds from Wongthep.

But—

It didn't belong to Joss's father.

It belonged to someone else in the family.

He had always believed Joss's father was the mastermind.

But now—

There was someone else.

Someone who had betrayed not just Thanarath.

But Wongthep itself.

Gawin clenched his fist so tightly that the mouse cracked under his grip.

If he exposed this,
he could destroy Joss.

But if he stayed silent—

Would his revenge ever be complete?

Now he had a choice to make.

Hatred.

Or truth.

What was he supposed to believe in?

His heart hadn't even settled before another storm began brewing quietly in the distance—

A storm of power, manipulation, and betrayal.

The Lerdprasit Group and the New Threat

Wongthep Group had just received a lucrative investment proposal from Lerdprasit Group—

A major player in renewable energy is now expanding into fintech and AI.

On the surface—

It was a golden opportunity:
Millions of dollars were promised to their tech divisions.
Stock prices nudged upward after rumours leaked.

The board celebrated.

Words like "strategic alliance," "global expansion," "restructured liquidity"—
buzzed through the room like a drug.

But Joss sat quietly at the head of the table.

Expressionless.

Staring at a single name on the presentation slides.

Lerdprasit Group.

It wasn't unfamiliar.

Not from the business world.

But from something else—

A file Fluke Wichit had once pulled up late at night.

When he thought no one was watching.

Now, here they were.

Shaking hands.

Offering an alliance.

And Joss's chest grew colder with every breath.

After the meeting,
he called Fluke into his office.

"What do you know about Lerdprasit?"
Joss's voice was soft, measured—deadly sharp.

Gawin didn't blink.

"A conglomerate. Expanding aggressively in Southeast Asia."

"And?"

"Also," Gawin said lightly,
"the hand behind Thanarath's downfall."

His voice was casual.
But his eyes—

Dark.

Joss leaned against his desk.

"Why didn't you report this to me?"

"Because I had no proof," Gawin answered simply.

"Why are you so sure?"

"I'm not."

Gawin met his eyes squarely.

"But I can smell it."

Not pheromones.

But the scent of blood and lies.

The stench of deals inked in claw marks.

The Cracks Beneath Wongthep

That night,
Joss ordered a secret audit of Wongthep's partnerships with Lerdprasit over the past decade.

The results—

Made his blood run cold.

There were deals signed—

Not through him.
Not through the board.

But through someone in his own family.

No names.
No full paper trail.

Only a ghost signature on hidden electronic contracts.

But Joss recognized it.

The way the name was scratched out.
The way the seals were stamped.

He knew who it was.

Someone within Wongthep—

Had been collaborating with Lerdprasit for years.

Someone with power.

Someone with a motive to overthrow him.

Joss gripped the folder tightly.

Outside the windows,
the winds howled as if all of Bangkok was about to be devoured by a coming storm.

He turned back to the young assistant standing silently by the door.

Fluke.

No—

Gawin.

"I need you, Fluke."

The words weren't just an executive order.

They were a silent plea.

From a king about to be dethroned—

To the only one he could still trust.