Chapter 17 — The Inn at the End of the Pass

A week later, when Thao was busy preparing the final documents to send to the travel consulting unit, she received a call from an unfamiliar phone number. On the other end of the line was the familiar voice of the real estate broker who had come to the shop, announcing that Gia Binh had officially signed a contract to transfer his inherited land, just waiting to complete the legal procedures in the next few days.

Thao's hands trembled when she heard the news. It felt like all her efforts over the past few weeks were suddenly doused with cold water. She immediately called Gia Binh, but his phone was turned off. Unable to help herself, she rode her motorbike down town and found the garage where he worked.

Gia Binh was repairing his car when he saw Thao appear with a rare angry expression. He stopped and immediately knew something was up.

"You signed the land sale contract, right?" Thao asked directly, her voice shaking with mixed anger and hurt.

Gia Binh was silent for a moment, then nodded without avoiding it. "Yes, I signed it. I told you I would wait more time, but I also made it clear that if it took too long and there was no result, I would make my own decision. It's been two weeks since I last talked to you, and everything is still just promises."

"The project takes time, you know! Me and Mr. Dang are trying our best, how can you be in such a hurry?" Thao screamed, no longer able to maintain her composure like before.

"Rush?" Gia Binh sneered, his voice bitter. "Do you think I'm in a hurry? I've been waiting all month, waiting all my life to have a real place in this family, but in the end I realized, no matter how hard I try, I will always be an adopted child, a blood-related sibling in everyone's eyes."

"No one has ever thought of you like that!" Thao screamed, tears began to flow uncontrollably.

"So why do you always give priority and more trust to Minh? Why every time something important comes up, you always discuss it with Mr. Dang, with Mr. Bay, but never really ask my opinion seriously?" Gia Binh retorted, his voice full of long-repressed resentment.

The argument escalated quickly, both said words that deep down they knew would hurt the other, but the anger and helplessness that had been pent up for so long swept them out of control.

"You know, there are times when I'm so tired that I wonder, why do I have to shoulder all this, because my younger siblings are not my blood!" Thao shouted, and as soon as her sentence ended, she knew she had just made an irreparable mistake.

The garage was in dead silence. Gia Binh stood still, his face pale, his red eyes looking at his sister with the deepest hurt Thao had ever seen in her life.

"So you finally said it." He spoke, his voice hoarse and trembling. "I thought, at least you are different from your mother, different from my biological father - the people who abandoned me mercilessly. But it turns out, deep down, you just consider me a burden, right?"

"Binh, I don't mean that, I'm just angry—" Thao quickly explained, immediately realizing the seriousness of what she just said, but it was too late.

"No, you said exactly what you thought when you were most angry." Gia Binh interrupted, his voice cold and scary. "People often say that when wine speaks truth, so does anger. Thank you for speaking honestly, instead of always playing the role of a tolerant, self-sacrificing sister."

Having finished speaking, he took off his protective clothing, threw it on the ground, then walked straight out of the garage, not looking back even though Thao called his name in desperation.

The garage owner, who witnessed the entire argument from afar, walked closer to Thao and looked with concern at her standing dumbfounded in the middle of the yard. "Honey, Binh has worked here with me for several years. I know he is a person with high self-esteem and is easily hurt even though he appears tough on the outside. Don't worry too much, he probably just needs time alone to calm down."

"Do you know where he goes when he's sad?" Thao asked, her voice still shaking.

"I don't know very well, but it seems he told me that he once went up to the cliff near the waterfall behind the town, saying it was a quiet place, good for thinking." The garage owner replied, trying to remember the fragmentary stories Gia Binh had shared while working.

That little information, although fragile, was enough for Thao to cling to as a ray of hope amid the surrounding panic. She thanked the garage owner, then quickly called to report this information to Khai Dang as soon as he came to pick her up.

Thao stood rooted to the middle of the deserted garage, feeling like the whole world had just collapsed beneath her feet. She sat down, her hands covering her face, letting her tears flow uncontrollably, both regretting the words that unintentionally caused deep hurt, and panicking because she didn't know where Gia Binh would go or what he would do in such a mentally depressed state.

She called Khai Dang, her voice broken from crying, and told the whole incident. He immediately arranged his work and drove to pick her up immediately.

"I'm sorry, I said something unforgivable." Thao said in tears when Khai Dang arrived and sat down on the stone bench in front of the garage. "I did exactly what I swore I would never do — make a younger sibling feel like he wasn't real family."

Khai Dang sat down next to her, not rushing to reassure her with empty words, just quietly letting her cry to ease the pain, then gently spoke.

"Everyone sometimes says things they don't really want to say, especially when pushed to the limit of their tolerance." He said, his voice was deep. "The important thing now is not torment yourself, but to find a way to fix it, so that Mr. Binh understands that statement does not reflect the truth in her heart."

"But I don't know where she is." Thao said, her voice panicked. "The phone was turned off, and my colleagues at the garage didn't know where I went."

"We will find him." Khai Dang said, his voice firm, holding her hand tightly. "I promise, we'll find it, even if we have to search the whole town."

He helped her stand up, dried the remaining tears on her cheeks with both gentleness and determination, then led her to the car, preparing to begin the search that night. Before starting the car, he turned to look at her one last time, his eyes full of sincere reassurance.

"You are not the only person who has said words that hurt loved ones while losing control. The important thing is whether you have the courage to apologize and make amends. And I believe, you have that courage."

Outside, dark clouds began to gather, signaling that a heavy rain was about to fall, like a bad omen for what was about to happen tonight, when a member of the patchwork family on top of Vuc Suong Pass, carrying the deepest hurt in his heart, decided to disappear from the sight of his closest loved ones.

On the way back to the inn, Thao called Thuy Duong to tell the news, trying to keep her voice calm even though her heart was still confused. On the other end of the line, the girl was silent for a long time before bursting into tears, her voice choking through the phone.

"Why did you say that to Mr. Binh? You know he's the most sensitive about that!" Thuy Duong blamed her, even though she didn't mean it harshly, just because the pain spread from the common wounds that all three sisters shared.

"I know, I was wrong." Thao replied, her voice cracking. "I'm on my way home, let's find Mr. Binh together, okay?"

Returning to the restaurant, the atmosphere was filled with an unusual tension. Nhat Minh, even though he did not fully understand what had happened, still felt the instability in the house, sitting huddled in the corner of the room, clutching the notebook with Khai Dang's signature like a talisman.

"Where did Mr. Binh go?" The boy asked, his voice trembling when he saw Thao walk in with her face red and swollen from crying.

"I don't know yet, but everyone will work together to find him." Thao tried to smile to reassure her younger brother, even though inside her heart the worry was endless.

Khai Dang quickly called a few acquaintances in town, asked to keep an eye on the news about Gia Binh, and at the same time discussed with Mr. Bay Trinh the places he might have gone to - the bus station, the house of a few close friends, or even a familiar pub where young people in the area often gather when bored. The whole family split up to search in the rainy night, each person carrying an endless worry, while the rain became heavier and heavier, as if mixing with the insecurity that was covering the whole small family on the top of Vuc Suong pass.