The Rose Has Its Own Thorns

Nguyen Huy

Description

Ha and Phuong are best friends in high school. But they took different paths in life after college and both are successful. One day, Phuong found out Ha was having an affair with her husband. After the divorce, Phuong tried really hard to move on and she found a new love in her life, Hoa,
but she did not know whether she should be in love with him or not because he was younger than
her. With Ha, she had her own problem with her life where her husband's family was strict with
her and her husband and her mother-in-law hated her. It led her to have an affair with Adam,
Phuong's husband, who Ha truly loved. Two women with different stories, they both had
struggles in their lives and this is their story.

Sujets

• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Archway Publishing
• Date de parution: 07 février 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781665735391
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Rose Has Its Own Thorns
 
 
 
 
HUY NGUYEN
 
 
 
 

 
Copyright © 2023 Huy Nguyen.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
 
Archway Publishing
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Bloomington, IN 47403
www.archwaypublishing.com
844-669-3957
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6657-3538-4 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6657-3539-1 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022923315
 
Archway Publishing rev. date: 12/14/2022
Contents
Part 1
Chapter 1 Phuong
Chapter 2 Ha
Chapter 3 Phuong
Chapter 4 Ha
Chapter 5 Phuong
Chapter 6 Ha
Chapter 7 Phuong
Chapter 8 Ha
Part 2
Chapter 9 Phuong
Chapter 10 Ha
Chapter 11 Phuong And Ha
Chapter 12 Ha And Phuong
Chapter 13 Phuong And Ha
Part 3
Chapter 14 Phuong
Chapter 15 Ha
Chapter 16 Phuong
Chapter 17 Ha
Final The Wedding Day
Dedicated to my mom, my grandparents, my friends, You are my world.
PART 1

CHAPTER 1 Phuong
P huong comes home after her shift at the hospital. She is so exhausted and wants to sleep immediately, but she can’t. Recently, she got a sleep disorder. She can not sleep even if she is super tired. Today is her son’s birthday. So she must try her best not to show the tiredness on her face. Her son does not like it.
She enters the kitchen, opens the fridge, and takes out a bottle of orange juice. She closes the fridge, not too strong, but it makes one of the photos attached to the fridge door fall. Phuong sighs. She hates to bend down because it makes her hips a little pain. She frowns and picks the photo up. She tends to put it back, but after looking at the picture, she holds it in her hand and sits down to watch it again. She takes a sip of orange juice, lays back, and all the memories from that photo come back like waves from tides. It was the photo of herself, her son Michael and her husband, Adam, two years ago. No, not a husband. Ex-husband. It was taken in Disneyland, and no one could believe that after that trip one week, they got divorced.
Phuong is an immigrant from Vietnam who fled away on the sea with her mother, Mrs. Nhu, after her father was killed in the communist concentration camp. Phuong’s mother had planned to cross the border for a long time, but it had consistently failed. Finally, in 1989, when Phuong was 15 years old, they successfully disguised themselves as Chinese people and returned to their country. In the refugee camp in Malaysia for one year, they finally came to the U.S. and have lived in California until now.
Like many refugees who first came to freedom land like the U.S., the barrier between the cultures and languages was so vast and so challenging. Phuong had so many troubles when she spoke English, made friends with other people, and of course, had racism too. Remember when she first came to the swap meet to work for a Vietnamese family who sold cosmetics there? A white American lady came from nowhere, pointed into her face, and said. “You do not belong here. Get back to the boat where you came from”. And she used so many racial slurs against Phuong. She did not understand some of what the lady said, but the Vietnamese owner saw the situation, and she defended Phuong. “Hey you,” she said. “get the fuck out of my store. I am the owner here, ok? You have no right to talk to my employee like that. She risked her life with her mother like every Vietnamese wanted to find freedom after our country fell into the hands of communists. You should respect us and feel sympathy for us instead of hating us. Get out before I call security!”
The American lady left after what the Vietnamese owner said. Then she turned to Phuong, who was crying. The lady put her hands on Phuong’s shoulders, looked straight into her eyes, and said. “Look at me!”. Phuong looked up. “There is nothing to be afraid of. This is a free country, and you have all the right to speak what’s in your mind. If someone says things racist about you based on your skin color, stand up for yourself. Be strong.”
Phuong was an outcast in high school. She always had lunch alone when she first came in. Then, even though there were more Vietnamese kids in school, Phuong could not befriend them. When she got into college, it was the time she met Adam.
Adam was born in the U.S. to a Vietnamese family. His father was working for the U.S. government in Vietnam, and after Vietcong came to Saigon, he and his wife were on the helicopter on the roof of the U.S. Embassy. At that time, Adam was in her belly. They settled in Seattle, and Adam was born there. Then they moved to California when Adam was five years old to get him closer to the Vietnamese community and people there, even though Adam’s parents loved to live in Seattle more. So when Adam was fully grown up and had a career, his parents moved back to Seattle. Adam was a very energetic boy when he was a kid. He loved playing sports, especially baseball. He was the type of guy that every girl in school must love and wanted to lose their virginity under him. Even though Adam was the idol of every girl, a good friend, and a perfect child that every family wanted to have, he was not like what he seemed to be. Adam was a jerk and a bad kid.
When Adam was in 11 th grade, he dated a girl named Casey. Casey was a cheerleader and a typical white American girl with blonde hair. Casey and Adam met in American history class. Casey was good at social subjects, and history was her favorite. She wanted to be a history professor when she grew up. Adam sat next to her, and she had helped him a lot, and they hooked up. Casey thought that Adam loved her but then realized Adam was only using her for goods. Adam made her do his final English essay and history project, even reading books for him. One day, Casey caught Adam kissing another girl outside the school, and she cried a lot. But Adam did not care about it because Casey was out of order to him. The rumor about Adam and Casey was spreading out over the school. Thought that everyone must understand Casey and hate Adam, but they believed that Casey was lying and Adam was being blamed.
Casey had left school.
Mark was a good friend of Adam. They had known each other since kindergarten. Mark’s cousin, J.B., was a weed dealer. He supplied all the weed to the kids and people in the neighborhood where Adam and Mark lived. One day, Mark invited Adam to his house to play some video games. After that, Adam, for the first time, was high up in the sky. From that moment, Adam started to fall into the road of perdition.
On Thanksgiving 1993, Adam was in his senior year of high school, and the whole family gathered for dinner. His uncle, who was a police officer, told Adam’s father about the problem in the neighborhood where there were so many teenagers who started to fall into drugs and weeds. He reminded Adam to be more careful. Adam nodded. Adam never liked his uncle because he arrested many of Adam’s suppliers and could not find anyone who could sell for him. But it did not mean he stopped smoking weed and debauched playing until he went to college, where he needed to change. And that person was Phuong.
Phuong decided to study the medical field, surgeon, more specifically because she loved to help people around her. She remembered that when she visited the hospital once to visit her sick friend who had leukemia, Phuong was so emotional seeing the pain and the suffering that her friend had to bear every day, and her family cried a lot. Her friend passed away at 16, leaving her dreams, family, and passions behind her. At that time, becoming a doctor was only her goal.
Adam, on the other hand, did not know what the future would lie ahead of him. He did not know what to do. His parents expected a lot in him; at least, they had guided him to be a lawyer, but they had to give up because they pushed him too hard, so he left his house for months which scared the shit out of Adam’s parents. They finally let him do what he had to do when he came back. The real reason was that he had no money left in his pocket.
On the first day in the English 101 class, Adam sat in front of Phuong. Phuong was still shy. When the professor told every student to start to get to know each other, Adam turned back and said hello to Phuong. Phuong just kept her head low and said hello before. Adam felt a little annoyed.
“Put your head up!” He growled. “I am talking to you.”
Phuong put her head up. Immediately, Adam was struck by the beauty on Phuong’s face. Adam was frozen.
“My name is Phuong Nguyen,” Phuong said.
It took Adam a moment for his soul to return to his body. “Uhm...My name is Adam Le. This is my first year in college.”
“Me too.”
“Woah, ok,” Adam said. “Nice to meet you, anyway.”
From that day, Phuong and Adam became friends. The