Carlos suddenly remembered the moment he finally regained consciousness after being in a coma for so long. All of the people around him told him that he had gotten involved in a tragic car accident and had been in a vegetative state for over two years. And they also let him know that Stephanie, his childhood friend, was the one who had been staying right by his side and taking care of him in those two years.
James had told him about how he and Stephanie had been deeply in love with each other, and given that he had already woken up, he should then be responsible for her.
From that moment onwards, Stephanie had started reducing the workload she had and devoted most of her time to looking after him as his girlfriend. Regarding the issue of whether he truly loved Stephanie or not, for some reason, it had never really crossed his mind.
There would be times where deep down his heart, he would feel that she wasn't the woman he longed to be with. And it was not like he hated her or anything. In fact, it was quite the opposite. He never really felt sick of her. Because if that had been the case, then there was no way they could've stayed friends since childhood.
He would always tend to reflect about who on earth could the woman he desired possibly be. Where could he find her? What was going on with her life? To be precise, he had second thoughts whether such a woman even existed in the first place. It was also possible that he was just getting so worked up over nothing.
Debbie was so pleased to see how Carlos had been at such a loss for words after hearing her question. Were he to have flatly answered that he loved Stephanie, then she probably would have been left with no choice but to give up on trying to win him back. But fortunately, he didn't say anything like that. He had been reluctant to give her an answer for about two minutes now, and still, she was yet to receive any response out of him. That period of silence helped her keep her hopes up.
Debbie's eyes became bloodshot and began welling up with tears. Leaning over and resting her cheek over his shoulder, she told him, "Mr. Handsome, I know you won't fall in love with her, because you promised me that you would love me for the rest of your life. And even though you might be suffering from memory loss at this moment, I can feel that I'm still there somewhere deep inside your heart. After all, I'm the one you love the most…" It should go without saying that she loved him just as much. Despite the fact that she had been deceived into thinking that he was already dead, the love she had for him never faltered one bit even after the past three years.
As time passed by, the love she had been keeping within never faded away, and rather, it actually even became much stronger than it ever was. She sincerely loved Carlos with her heart and soul.
Pursing his lips intensely, Carlos had been so astounded by the way her words kindled his heart. He had been so deeply moved.
At that moment, he realized that she might've been telling the truth when she said that they had been so in love with each other in the past.
The car then pulled over close to one of the most well-known places in Z Country, always brimming with activity due to its breathtaking views. And as soon as Carlos made sure that the car was locked, Debbie went closer to him, hooking her arms around his.
He tried to refuse her, but Debbie wasn't budging at all, not wanting to take no for an answer. "Back when we were still together, every time we would argue about something, I wouldn't let you touch me but you still wouldn't listen. There were even times where you just went ahead and hugged me and kissed me. And right now, all I'm doing is holding onto your arm. I'm not asking for a lot. So, please let me do at least this much," she asked him earnestly.
"We should keep a safe distance between us," he said coldly.
'Keep a distance?' Having a bit of a hard time believing what he just said, Debbie furrowed her eyebrows a little. 'You've already asked me out. Why should there be a need for us to keep some distance?'
"The truth is that we have never really visited Z Country together before. I actually enjoyed going on trips back then, but sadly, you've always had your hands full with lots of other things. At one point, you planned a trip to Maldives with just the two of us, but we got in a fight so the trip had to be cancelled. Later after that, I had to go to England, and we lost any opportunities to go traveling…"
As they took a stroll by the lake, Debbie gave him an account of all the things that happened in the past before the accident. The handsome man was attracting a couple of stares from the women they passed by. Be that as it may, as soon as they saw the woman walking right beside him and holding his arm, they got frustrated and lost any interest they might have had in trying to approach him.
"England? What business did you have there?" Carlos asked, giving her a baffled look.
A smile crept onto Debbie's face. She began to reminisce about all those memorable moments that they had been through as if it were just yesterday. "If I may say so, you've treated me quite well back then. In all honesty, you did all of that for my sake. That's what pushes me to keep going after you right now. Would you believe that you even wanted me to stop practicing taekwondo, saying that you would be the one who would protect me? You had me learn how to dance, practice yoga, and you were the one who personally taught me how to speak English. You had everything laid out for me and had me all set to study abroad. But for a number of different reasons, I had to go to England and study there before the intended schedule you had arranged."
Carlos didn't feel a hint of doubt as he listened to this bit of her story. All the things that were coming out of her mouth sounded and felt so very real. Everything seemed to be making complete sense that there was no way she could have just been making things up.
"Oh, right!" Something came to her mind, so Debbie suddenly stopped in her tracks. Peering straight into his eyes, she intently said, "There was something I forgot to tell you. As a matter of fact, I'm actually your ex-wife."
'Ex-wife?' Carlos was caught completely off-guard; a trace of astonishment visibly glimmered through his deep eyes. All this while, he had been wondering what his relationship with Debbie could have really been. He had an idea that they might've been dating in the past or maybe they used to live together as lovers. But he never would've thought that they had ever gotten married at all.
"Are you interested in finding out the reason why we had to get divorced?" she frankly asked.
Without delay, Carlos nodded his head along. Indeed, his curiosity got piqued even more.
With a bit of playful look in her eyes, she teased him, "If you give me a kiss, I will gladly tell you all about it!"
All Carlos could do was roll his eyes at her as he felt so irritated. Rather than kiss her as she requested, he tugged his arm away from her grasp and walked ahead of her.
Looking at her empty hand, Debbie felt a tinge of pain in her heart. But she was able to instantly shake away the heartache and scurried to catch up with him. Swiftly getting a hold of his hand once more, she told him, "Alright, alright. That was just a joke. Please don't get upset."
Carlos glared at her with his eyebrows deeply knitted. And in a somber tone, he gave her a warning, "Until I regain my memories, it would be best for you to get your act together."
"Gotcha! I understand how you feel, but Mr. Huo, you shouldn't be so harsh with me. You might end up scaring your lovely ex-wife away. Once before, you told that if I were to leave and go someplace far away, you wouldn't be able to find someone as charming as me no matter how hard you looked," Debbie remarked while swinging his arm around, like such a spoiled girlfriend.
The way she was being so intrepid and daring made Carlos wonder whether he had truly been treating Debbie like she was his queen in the past. Any person around him would be scared to death once they saw him starting to get upset. But she wasn't like that in any way. The look on her face was telling him that she wasn't afraid of him at all.
Prior to telling him what caused them to get a divorce, Debbie had to ask him one vital piece of information. "Tell me. How are you… getting along with your dad now?"
'How am I getting along with my dad? Why would she be interested in that?' Carlos was a bit perplexed after being asked such a weird question out of the blue. But in spite of that, he still gave her a straightforward answer. "We've been on good terms from the moment I regained consciousness."
'The two of them are actually on good terms right now?' Debbie wasn't really expecting to hear something like that. But she immediately realized that James might have done a good job acting like such a good father in front of Carlos while he suffered from an amnesia.
If that was how things had been recently, she knew that right now probably wouldn't be the best time to unveil the truth to him. "The main cause of our divorce was that a bad guy actually got me backed into a corner and pressured me into doing it while you were still in a coma. And because he knew my weakness, he got in the palm of his hands… I have one big weakness…and it's something I hold quite dear, so I had been left with no choice but to make a deal with him. After that, the bad guy informed me that you didn't make it. That shattered my heart into a million pieces, and I even went to your supposed 'funeral.'" A contemptuous smile slithered onto her face as she recalled that so-called funeral. She couldn't stop herself and ended up asking, "Was I really that foolish? It's just now that I realize how foolish I had been back then. I was the most stupid person in the world. He managed to deceive me."
"And who might that guy be?" Carlos' heart began pounding quite hard the moment he came up with a possible answer.
Debbie didn't have it in her to tell him the bad guy was James, because in his eyes, James had been such a good father to him now after the accident. If she said something that could displease him, Carlos might take it the wrong way and think that she intended to drive a wedge between the father and son. For that reason, she just casually said, "For now, it doesn't really matter who that guy is. It wouldn't make a difference if you find out about it or not. I'll just tell you some other time."
Given that it seemed as though she really had no intentions of spilling the beans, Carlos decided to just let it go for the time being. That being said, he asked her a different question, "So what was that weakness you mentioned?"
"I was…" 'No, no. that's not right. I shouldn't be telling him anything about that now. If Carlos doesn't get his memory back and finds out that Piggy is actually his daughter, we will probably end up having a battle for her custody. What am I going to do if that happens?' Debbie panicked, feeling so anxious.
"Why are you suddenly so hesitant to give me an answer?" Carlos had his keen eyes deeply fixated on her face, looking closely at every little shift in her expression.
"No, it's not like that. I'm just worried because you're suffering from memory loss right now. So, you might have a hard time taking all of this information in. Once you finally get better, I'm going to tell you all about the truth. Alright? I promise you, I won't be keeping anything from you by then! Okay?" Loosening her grip, Debbie intently looked right into his eyes.
Recognizing the sincerity and truthfulness written in her eyes, Carlos decided to just let go of the topic for now and simply continued walking forward.
