Stephanie grabbed a bath towel and draped it over Carlos' shoulders. Looking at him through tears, she said, "Carlos, you're finally back. I was so worried."
Carlos nodded without responding to her. He looked in Debbie's direction instead. Debbie was surrounded by all her friends, who were grateful she was happy and healthy. "Debbie," he called out.
Everyone's head turned in his direction. Even Debbie was surprised.
The other people from the rescue team had already left, so there were no outsiders around. Without taking his eyes off Debbie, Carlos declared bluntly, "Divorce Ivan. I'll marry you."
Dumbstruck, everyone lapsed into silence.
While everyone else was reeling from the shock, Debbie's mind was racing. 'Oh my God! In front of your fiancee? What were you thinking?'
That was not what everyone else was thinking, however.
Kinsley thought, 'Nice move, bud!'
Ivan complained, 'Wow, what about me?'
Kasie sighed, 'Oh man, poor Ivan!'
Niles marveled, 'She's so amazing! Especially if Carlos fell for her!'
Wesley snorted, 'She's got him hooked good.'
Blair exclaimed, 'Good for you, Debbie!'
Stephanie cursed, 'You backstabbing bitch! You'll pay for that!'
After the harrowing experience Debbie and Carlos went through, nobody was in the mood for a vacation. So, they canceled the rest of their plans and made arrangements to go home.
Debbie took a nice, hot bath after she returned home. Then, she slept the whole day in her own bed, too exhausted to do anything else.
However, compared to Debbie's relaxing day, Carlos was running around like a chicken with its head cut off. He needed to, as work had piled up while he was gone.
Without taking any time to de-stress, he asked Wesley, Damon and Frankie to come to his study in the manor. They had a long meeting. In the end, Carlos ordered Frankie in a serious tone, "I need comprehensive background checks. One, on James, and… Evelyn."
'Evelyn?' Confused, Frankie looked at his boss, whose deep, dark eyes betrayed nothing. Carlos explained calmly, "Debbie's child. James claimed she had an abortion three years ago. Find out if that's true."
Frankie finally understood. "Yes sir."
Carlos lit a cigarette and continued slowly, "Besides, I need to do a paternity test on Evelyn. And understand—discretion is required."
Damon's jaw dropped, his mouth open in shock. Sitting uneasily, he murmured in disbelief, "So, could Evelyn be the child that she supposedly aborted?"
Carlos shot him a cold glance and said nothing.
Carefully thinking about what had happened all these years, Wesley frowned and finally spoke. "I can see it."
Damon got flustered. In a panic, he looked at Carlos and said, "Oh shit. If that's true, then all those things I said to her… about her…All this time she was innocent?"
Damon's voice trailed off, but Carlos already understood what he wanted to say.
If James lied about everything, then she suffered for nothing. For three years, she had only herself to rely on. Thinking of it, he silently massaged his aching temples. It was getting to be too much to bear.
Damon used to hate Debbie so much, but now even he was panicking, not to mention Carlos—Debbie's ex-husband.
All of a sudden, Damon sprang up from his seat. "I can't sit around here doing nothing. I'll talk to Jared about it. He'll know."
The more he thought about it, the uneasier he became.
He cast a sidelong glance at the calm Wesley. "Mr. Li, I remember you were pretty hard on Debbie. You can't tell me you don't feel the slightest pang of guilt?"
Wesley sat still in his chair. After a while, the righteous officer replied stubbornly, "Whatever, she's not my wife…"
Damon thought his words made sense. He shifted his gaze to the smoking man—he had already lit a second cigarette.
"Whatever you do, man, just be sure. I hope Evelyn really is your daughter. You with a kid. That would be awesome!" he joked. "Get lost!" Carlos yelled, puffing out a cloud of smoke. He felt even more annoyed.
Debbie woke up to many missed calls on her phone. The first call was from her detective, so she called back the detective first. "Hi, it's Debbie. You called?"
"Miss Nian, we just uncovered a bombshell. James had an affair with Stephanie's mother, Glenda Shi."
"Ugh…" Debbie coughed, choking on her own saliva.
'What a philandering asshole! The man's fooled around with so many women.
And even Stephanie's mom? Unbelievable! That's definitely a bombshell, ' she thought, shocked.
Suddenly, in a flash of insight, she thought of a possible link between James and Stephanie. 'James tried everything in his power to get Stephanie and Carlos to tie the knot, and even bought her a house. So if James had an affair with her mom, then maybe she's…' Debbie had a wild guess as she tried to piece everything together.
Coming back to her senses, she told the person on the phone, "Dig into Stephanie's background. Check for anything suspicious."
"Yes ma'am."
The arrogant Stephanie was a goddess in many people's eyes. If it turned out that she was just an illegitimate child of her mother and another man, then things would really heat up.
After ending the phone call with the detective, Debbie then called Jared back. "Hi Jared, how's Sasha? Set a date yet?"
"Hey Tomboy! Damon came by," Jared said slyly as soon as he picked up the phone, ignoring Debbie's questions.
"Okay. And?" Debbie asked in confusion. They were brothers. It would weird if they cut contact.
"We've been on the outs for three years. Know why he dropped in?" Jared asked in a mysterious tone. He sounded happy though. He was on cloud nine, whenever he thought of his brother's face, and the fact that he had to eat crow.
"No. Why?" Debbie asked as she walked into the wardrobe and began putting together her outfit. She felt wonderfully refreshed, so she volunteered to pick up Evelyn and Justus and take them on a play-date at Carlos' manor.
She promised Carlos. What was more, he sent her a message this morning to make sure she remembered.
She had just texted him back, telling him that she was up now. But she hadn't gotten a reply. He was probably busy.
"Mr. Huo is doing a serious investigation on his dad, leaving no stone unturned. He'll know everything by the time that's done. Damon also asked me about all the rumors. Did you abort your kid? Is Piggy Carlos' daughter? He had a lot of questions."
Debbie was surprised. So Carlos did keep his promise. He was just the most wonderful man. But she really wondered about something else. Eyes brimming with tears, she asked, "So what did you tell him?"
"That he was an idiot. Those rumors were all lies. I said you never cheated on Carlos! I wish you could have seen the look on his face. He looked like he had just eaten shit. He didn't know if he could face you anymore. Ha-ha…" Jared burst into a fit of laughter.
Debbie laughed too. But then she let out a long sigh. "Don't count James out yet. He's a sly old fox. I've done my own investigations, too. And when he found out he was being looked into, he was able to have info hidden and cover his tracks. He laughed it all off when he was confronted with it.
