"We should be the ones asking," Jao Pat said coolly. "What are you doing at our dad's house?"
That was just his normal tone—flat and serious. He's always been like that. Stone-faced and intense. You could tell exactly where he got it from.
"Is your salary not enough?" Jao Peem added. "Why else would you end up marrying our dad?"
"I have no interest in answering either of you," she snapped through clenched teeth. "Get your little monster out of here before I lose my temper."
Her face was burning with anger—the same look she gets in class when no one listens and she starts raising her voice.
"If you're so capable, then catch it yourself," I shot back. "Come on, bro. Let's go. Let the teacher enjoy her wedding night with the cobra. She's probably trembling with excitement, missing her groom."
I raised an eyebrow at the pretty teacher. She pointed a finger at us, her eyes saying we were definitely going to regret this. We slammed the door shut and locked it from the outside.
Fine. I'll wait until she begs for her life.
"I'm hungry," Jao Peem said, so I hooked an arm around his neck and headed for the kitchen.
"What's for dinner, P'Pin?" "Aren't you waiting to eat with Khun Nin and Khun Tim?" "Just serve it up already. Your Khun Nin won't be back until way later—ten or eleven." "What about Khun Tim? Just a moment ago, you were still asking where she was." "Dad's wife? She probably ran back home already. So many questions! Just go get the food yourself, bro." I nodded, and the two of us dug into dinner before anyone else.
Whoever made the food today—it tasted better than usual. No... there's no one in this house with skills like this. They must have ordered it from a restaurant to welcome the new lady of the house.
"Khun Jao Peem, Khun Jao Pat, have you really not seen Khun Tim? I've looked everywhere. She's not in the library, and I don't know who locked it from the outside." P'Pin asked as we were rubbing our bulging bellies in satisfaction.
"We're screwed," I muttered.
We bolted back to the room where it all started. We had been so distracted by the food that we completely forgot we'd locked someone in there.
The room was empty. No cobra. No bride.
The window was wide open. It wasn't hard to guess which way she'd escaped.
"I hope she already went home," Jao Peem said, clearly uneasy. "I hope so too, bro. I really do," I groaned. "Damn it. We should've known better. Everyone knows her nickname."
Beautiful but deadly.
I pressed a hand to my forehead, feeling a massive headache coming on. Tomorrow at school, we were definitely going to be dead meat.
We went around asking every housekeeper, "Have you seen Dad's wife?" Every single one of them gave the same answer—no.
She must've gone home, just like Jao Peem said.