Chapter 6 - The Truth
The rain came without warning.
One moment, sunlight still clung weakly between Bangkok's towering buildings, warm gold reflecting across the café windows.
The next, dark clouds swallowed the sky whole.
Thunder rolled low in the distance, deep enough to vibrate through the glass panes of Lunaria Café.
Inside, the atmosphere softened instead of darkened. Customers lowered their voices instinctively.
The jazz playlist drifted slower through hidden speakers.
Coffee steamed beneath warm lights while rain tapped steadily against the windows, wrapping the café in something intimate and calm.
Santa stood behind the counter drying ceramic cups one by one.
His sleeves were rolled neatly to his elbows. A loose cream sweater softened his frame, making him look gentler than he already was.
Every few seconds, his eyes flicked toward the front table near the windows.
Toward Luke.
The little boy sat cross legged on the chair, crayons scattered everywhere around him like tiny explosions of color.
His tongue peeked out slightly while he concentrated. One small hand pressed against the paper while the other colored aggressively.
Santa smiled automatically.
"Yes, sweetheart?"
Luke gasped dramatically.
"You knew it was a sun?"
Santa laughed quietly.
"I'm very talented."
Luke nodded seriously as if this was an undeniable fact. "You are."
Thunder rumbled again.
The café lights flickered briefly overhead.
Several customers glanced toward the windows as rain intensified suddenly, water streaking hard against the glass.
Mark emerged from the kitchen carrying fresh pastries.
Santa snorted softly.
"That's one way to describe it."
The bell above the door chimed sharply as a customer hurried outside beneath an umbrella.
The wind swept violently through the open entrance before the door slammed shut again.
Napkins flew off nearby tables.
Luke's drawing slid across the polished floor instantly.
The paper skidded toward the entrance.
Santa looked up immediately.
"Luke, wait..."
Too late.
Luke already jumped down from the chair and ran after it. Everything happened too quickly after that.
His small shoe hit the damp tile near the doorway and he slipped.
Santa's heart stopped.
Luke's body fell backward hard, the crack sound of his head hitting the wooden step echoed through the café like a gunshot.
Santa was already moving.
He fell to his knees beside Luke so hard pain shot through them instantly, but he barely felt it.
There was blood, bright red spread beneath Luke's head, staining the pale wood beneath him.
Santa gathered him up immediately with shaking hands.
Luke's tiny body felt frighteningly limp against his chest.
Luke gasped weakly once, then his eyes fluttered shut.
Santa's entire world collapsed.
"No!"
His voice echoed through the café so broken that even strangers looked devastated.
Blood started to coated his trembling fingers.
Mark was already shouting into the phone. "Ambulance...yes, head injury...he's unconscious..."
Santa couldn't hear properly anymore. Everything sounded distant beneath the violent pounding in his chest.
Rain soaked through his jeans where he knelt near the entrance, cold water spreading across the floor beneath him.
Luke whimpered faintly, and the sound nearly destroyed him.
A customer handed him towels.
Someone else moved chairs aside.
Another person cried quietly near the counter, but Santa only saw Luke.
Only felt terror, because seven years of protecting him, seven years of building a careful life brick by brick, felt meaningless in the face of how fragile one small body truly was.
The ambulance arrived in a storm of red and blue lights.
Paramedics rushed inside immediately. "Sir, we need space..."
Luke looked so small on the stretcher.
Santa climbed into the ambulance beside him without remembering how.
Rain hammered the roof overhead while sirens split through Bangkok traffic violently.
Machines beeped around them.
A paramedic spoke calmly into a radio.
Santa held Luke's tiny hand with both of his. "I'm here," he whispered over and over, tears sliding uncontrollably down his face. "Papa's here."
Luke didn't answer, and Santa had never felt fear like this before.
Not during the pregnancy, not even the night he left Perth behind, because this fear had teeth.
This fear whispered to him.
What if you lose him?
The hospital smelled like antiseptic and cold air. Bright lights hurt Santa's eyes as doctors rushed Luke through emergency doors.
Santa stood frozen in the hallway with blood drying across his palms.
Someone asked if he wanted water, but he didn't answer.
A nurse gently suggested cleaning the blood off his skin, but he couldn't move, because if he washed it away, this would become real.
Time dissolved strangely after that.
Minutes stretched endlessly or maybe hours passed.
Santa sat hunched forward in the waiting area chair, elbows on knees, fingers tangled in his hair while panic hollowed him from the inside out.
Then, footsteps echoed softly down the corridor. Santa looked up slowly, and there he was.
Perth Tanapon stood beneath the fluorescent lights with rain still clinging to his dark coat.
His hair was damp and his chest rose unevenly like he'd been running, but it was his expression that shattered Santa completely.
Fear.
Real fear, raw enough to strip every layer of control away.
Santa broke instantly.
He stood too fast and stumbled forward, fingers clutching desperately at Perth's sleeve.
The words came out wrecked.
Perth caught him immediately.
Strong arms wrapped around him without hesitation, pulling Santa tightly against his chest.
That did it.
Santa collapsed completely.
Years of loneliness cracked apart inside him all at once. He cried against Perth's chest like something wounded beyond repair.
Perth held him through every shaking breath. One hand pressed protectively against the back of Santa's head while the other anchored around his waist.
Nobody in the hallway mattered.
Nothing mattered except this.
Eventually Santa pulled back slightly, eyes swollen red and exhausted.
Perth looked wrecked too.
"What happened?" he asked softly.
Santa glanced toward the hospital room doors. "He fell."
His voice shook violently.
"There was blood and he wouldn't wake up and I..."
Perth squeezed his shoulder gently.
"He's alive."
Santa nodded weakly.
"Yes."
Silence settled between them.
The question landed softly, but it changed everything.
Santa looked toward the hospital room again where machines hummed faintly behind closed doors.
And suddenly...
He was tired, too tired to run anymore.
Santa laughed bitterly under his breath. "I found out I was pregnant three weeks before I left."
The hallway disappeared into silence.
Perth stared at him confusedly.
Santa's hands shook harder now.
"Everyone kept talking about you," he admitted quietly.
Perth looked devastated already, but Santa kept going anyway.
Perth inhaled sharply like the words physically hurt him.
His gaze drifted toward Luke's room.
Perth's eyes filled instantly.
"...He's mine?" he asked hoarsely.
Santa nodded once.
"Yes."
Something inside Perth shattered visibly. His hand covered his mouth while emotion hit him too hard all at once.
Seven years.
Seven years stolen.
Santa cried harder.
Santa grabbed his sleeve again desperately. "I chose you," he cried. "That's why I left."
Perth stared at him for one unbearable second before pulling him back into his arms.
His voice cracked.
"Because losing you was the only thing that ever did."
Santa broke all over again.
Then, a soft voice drifted weakly from the hospital room.
Santa's head snapped up instantly, he rushed into the room immediately.
Machines beeped softly around the hospital bed where Luke blinked awake groggily beneath dim lights.
Relief hit Santa so hard his knees nearly gave out.
Luke frowned sleepily.
"My head hurts."
Perth stepped carefully into the room, like he was afraid the moment might disappear.
Luke looked at him for several long seconds. Then blinked slowly.
"You came back."
Perth's throat closed instantly.
"...Yes," he answered softly.
Luke studied him with sleepy seriousness. "Are you the missing person from my drawings?" He asked quietly.
Santa laughed helplessly through tears.
Perth looked completely undone.
He moved closer to the bed and slowly knelt beside it. "Can I stay?" he asked gently.
Luke considered carefully, then nodded once. "Okay."
A pause.
Perth smiled shakily for the first time that night. "I'll help you with that."
Outside the hospital windows, rain softened into a quiet drizzle.
Some truths arrive softly.
Others split your life open first, but once spoken aloud...
they refuse to disappear again.