"What you told me isn't reason enough for her to take revenge on you like this," Carlos said. He could sense that Debbie was way too eager to destroy James. 'She must have some other reason for it, ' he thought.
James was reduced to silence.
Carlos didn't rush him. He watched while the old man worded his reply in his mind.
"Okay. I'll tell you everything. You and Stephanie grew up together. Then, you two fell in love. I had already told the Li family that you would marry Stephanie. But then, you married Debbie. You didn't tell us this until three years later. Our son got married, but as parents, we knew nothing about it for three years. Just put yourself in our shoes. You would get angry too, wouldn't you?" James asked.
Carlos didn't deny it. He waited for him to continue the narrative.
James gulped nervously and went on, "So, I hate her. That year, you brought her to New York to meet us. She talked back to your grandma and made her angry so many times. She picked on Megan and made her cry every day. The most irritating part was that she thought you spoiled her, so she disrespected every member of the family with no regard for our feelings. Think about it. Who would have liked her?
Soon after that, Hayden had come to New York to meet her. They met in a coffee bar; they kissed and hugged shamelessly in public. You knew about it because you were there. You were so mad that you didn't speak to her for days. Unexpectedly, you forgave her.
Just when I thought we could finally have some peace in our family, she seduced Lewis. You beat the hell out of Lewis and moved out with her. Your mother begged you to stay, but you didn't listen.
I hated Debbie even more after that. I wanted you to divorce her. After your accident, I staged your death and told her that you were dead. I wanted to test her loyalty. I wanted to know how much she loved you. And she failed, and then she blamed me for lying to her. Yes, I did force her into signing the divorce agreement, but I did it for your own good. Even though I'm not your biological father, I love you.
It was a shock for me when I found out that she had come back for you when she figured that you were still alive. She arranged a meeting with me after that and swore that she would get back with you and destroy me. To be precise, she would rather I die in the process!" James stopped to wipe his fake tears. It looked as if he had aged ten years overnight.
"I hope you now understand that she is doing everything in her power to get back at me," James proclaimed.
"That has nothing to do with you having an affair with the housemaid and beating Mom," Carlos said coldly.
James burst out crying and lied through his teeth, "Carlos, I beat your mom because she was cheating on me at the time. You know I have a temper. I lost it when I found out about her affair. I had to lock her up to stop her from seeing that man. But I didn't think that she would get sick. As for the housemaid, your mom had secretly sent her into my room to make up to me. With the lights turned off, I thought she was your mom and—"
Carlos stood abruptly and cut his act mid-way. "Enough! I'll send you another copy of the divorce papers. Mom has agreed to leave you for good."
"Carlos, I won't. I won't agree to it!" James shouted desperately.
Carlos ignored his pleas and left without sparing him a second glance.
Silence was restored in the ward. James let out a sigh of relief when he heard Carlos' footsteps fade away. He was not sure if Carlos had believed his story. But he knew that it was time to save his own ass.
'That wretched woman!'
He called his assistant. "Debbie is a singer, isn't she? Which song of hers is a hit?" There was a pause. After a moment, he said into the phone, "Destroy her."
The next day, something huge shook the music circle.
One of Debbie's hits was accused of being a plagiarized song.
The accuser was Tammy, another singer from Star Empire. She had released her copy of the original lyrics in the news.
Tammy had a three-year contract with Star Empire. She had produced many albums, but unfortunately, she never made it big.
When Debbie saw the title of the song in question, she laughed out loud.
'Another opportunity has presented itself, ' she thought with a grin.
She didn't call Carlos. Instead, she and Ruby went straight to Tammy's studio.
However, Tammy refused to see her. Debbie didn't mind. She stood at the entrance of her studio, took a selfie, and uploaded it on Weibo.
It was captioned, "You claim that I plagiarized your song. I'm at your door right now. Why won't you come out and confront me?"
Debbie's tone spoke for itself, indicating that she had nothing to hide. Many of her web friends who had doubted her at first went silent, worried that they might have made a mistake.
When Tammy's fans saw Debbie's post, they commented on Tammy's Weibo, "Tammy, let her in. Confront her! Silence her with proof. Throw Debbie Nian out of the world of music!"
Tammy didn't respond no matter how much her fans appealed to her. To rile her up, Debbie opened a cyber broadcast.
Soon, there were hundreds of thousands of fans in the broadcast room. Everyone was excited to see Debbie in the video. Comments came in one after the other, nonstop.
The traffic was so high that the website almost crashed.
Plagiarism was an embarrassing and serious accusation. However, in the video, Debbie didn't seem embarrassed or nervous. She told her fans with a smile, "Hi everyone, I'm at the entrance of Tammy's studio. I came here to confront her with you people as my witnesses."
Debbie had only met Tammy once or twice. They had never spoken to each other before. But now, she was being accused of plagiarizing Tammy's lyrics. It had to be a joke, she thought. And somehow, she knew that there was more to this accusation.
She gave her phone to Ruby, who directed the camera towards Debbie. A tide of compliments flooded the comments section.
"Wow, look at Debbie's figure! She's perfect!"
"The red and white dress looks gorgeous on her. It goes so well with her skin color."
"Her skin looks too good. She must have done Botox for sure."
Others started following that comment and suspected that Debbie had done Botox.
Since more and more comments started flowing in saying the same thing, Ruby took out her phone and declared as the administrator of the broadcast room, "Debbie has never done Botox or had any cosmetic surgery. Her skin is naturally beautiful. She is only wearing light makeup. So, don't start rumors!"
After Ruby's clarification, the malicious commenters shut up for good.
Unaware of any of this nonsense, Debbie was still waiting for Tammy to let her in while she leaned casually against the door.
When Tammy found out that Debbie was broadcasting the whole thing, she opened the door quickly. She was wearing a long blouse. "I'm so sorry. Since I worked late last night, I was fast asleep and didn't hear the doorbell. Come in."
Debbie wondered if she was telling the truth. Tammy's hair was unbound and was a little dishevelled. She looked a bit muddled as well.
