"No way. We're not a good match. Emmett is a weird guy when he's not working. What's more, I enjoy being single. I don't need a man. It's my parents. They want me to find a nice guy," Kasie said on the other end.
Debbie pursed her lips and defended Emmett, "So why did you accept the expensive handbag he bought?"
"For the selfies. Those are worth more than the price of a handbag. We took some cute pics to convince his parents we're dating."
Debbie sighed helplessly. "Fine, as long as you guys are okay with it."
"Yeah. Oh! Can you guess who we bumped into at Shining International Plaza?"
"Who?"
"Hayden. By the way, why haven't you told him who your real husband is? He thought you were married to Emmett."
Debbie knew Hayden had mistaken Emmett for her husband. Yet she wasn't interested in explaining anything to him, and he likely wouldn't even believe it. "I don't need to explain anything to him. Anyway, it's not like we're an item," Debbie replied firmly.
"Sounds about right. I'm looking forward to the day Portia finds out you're Mrs. Huo. I can see the look on her face. Aha…ha…" Kasie leaned against the sofa, bursting into wild laughter.
Right then, the door of the empty VIP room was pushed open. A group of businessmen walked in as a man said politely, "Emmett, this is the room we reserved…"
The group of neatly dressed businessmen were shocked to see a woman lying casually on the sofa. When she spotted them, Kasie hastily stood up from the sofa and tidied her clothes.
Emmett asked curiously, "Kasie? Why are you here?"
Kasie swung her phone in front of him. "Too noisy out there, so I wanted a quiet spot to talk on the phone. I'm leaving now," she explained briefly.
Emmett nodded and moved aside to let her out. But the next second, he remembered something and stopped in her tracks. After pulling her out of the room, he said, "Hey, my dad invited you to have a meal at my house."
Kasie widened her eyes in shock. "What did you say? A meal with your parents?"
He nodded casually, confirming her words. "Yeah. I have no choice. Relax, this is a paid gig. When you have some free time, I can buy you a handbag, cosmetics, whatever you want."
'What?' Kasie felt weird. All sorts of thoughts were going through her head right now, none of them good. He was paying her to go out with him? Wouldn't that be like a prostitute? If the comparison was valid, then did that make her a whore? And what did that do to her image? What if someone found out? And was that all she was to him? A paid escort? He seemed friendly enough, but his offer of "a paid gig" just set her on edge.
As Debbie was still on the phone, she could hear Emmett's voice coming from the other end, so she spoke loudly to get Kasie's attention. "Hello, Kasie? Kasie? Put Emmett on the phone. I need to talk to him."
When Emmett took the phone from Kasie's hand, he noticed that the caller ID was "Tomboy" and that they had already been on the phone for 18 minutes. Realizing this, he grinned broadly and said playfully, "Hi, Mrs. Huo. Emmett here. Miss me yet?"
Kasie rolled her eyes at him. "Oh please. What would Mr. Huo think if he heard you?"
Debbie had wanted to get on his case too. Now, hearing Kasie's remark, she couldn't help but burst into laughter. She fought the urge and stopped laughing. She needed to know. "So, what do you think of her?"
He thought carefully. This was her best friend Kasie, after all. "My parents are happy with her after seeing the photo," he answered in an official tone.
Debbie chuckled. "Very polite. But what about turning this lie into reality?"
Emmett paused, shifting his gaze to the girl casually leaning against the wall. "I'd like to give it a shot. But she loves Mr. Lewis Huo…"
His sentence was interrupted abruptly by Kasie's angry shout. "Hey, who loves Lewis Huo? You mean me? Bullshit! I was done with him a long time ago. Cut it out!"
Emmett thrust his arms forward, palms out. "Okay, okay. Mea culpa." Getting back on the phone, he said, "Mrs. Huo, I have a meeting. I'll call Kasie later to talk about her visit to my house, okay?"
"Wow! So soon?" Debbie exclaimed. She was taken aback. 'Seeing parents? Are they talking marriage?'
After returning the phone to Kasie, Emmett drew close to her and whispered in a mysterious voice, "The contract tonight is important to the company. If I can't seal the deal, half of my bonus goes bye-bye. I'll call you when I'm done."
His closeness made Kasie nervous. With a stiff smile on her face, she stuttered, "I-It's… none of my business."
He tried to get her on board by saying, "There will be a lot of new and fashionable products at the plaza after the Spring Festival. I'll buy you two things and you come to my house to have a meal, okay? Just one meal. That's it!"
'I get two things and I get fed…' Kasie hesitated. This was tempting because her mother had tightened her purse strings recently. 'Fine, just one meal. I'm not marrying him. There's nothing to worry about.' With that thought in mind, she nodded, "Deal!"
Emmett smiled happily, showing his white teeth. Before entering the room, he patted her on her shoulder and promised, "If I get this contract, I'll buy you dinner."
Kasie wondered, 'Buy me dinner? Since when did we get so close? Why would he buy me things, invite me to his home and treat me to a meal?'
Lost in deep thought for a moment, she finally came back to her senses, realizing that the call was still connected. "Tomboy, hear me?"
"Yeah. I heard everything. Look, Emmett's a nice guy. Think about it, okay?" Debbie persuaded.
Kasie paused. After a while, she said, "I… Let me think about it."
As Debbie was chatting fervently with Kasie over the phone, a knock at the door interrupted her. It was a housemaid, informing her that Carlos' grandmother wanted to see her. The old lady was waiting for her downstairs. It seemed that Debbie had been too naive. She thought that as long as she stayed in her room, nobody would mess with her.
'What does she want?' she thought. Ending the call quickly, she asked the housemaid curiously, "Did she say why she wanted to see me?"
"Sorry Mrs. Huo. But Mrs. Valerie Huo didn't tell me," the housemaid replied.
Despite her reluctance, she had no choice but to follow the housemaid downstairs. It would be impolite for her to keep an elder waiting.
In the living room, Valerie and Megan sat on the sofa while a few housemaids were busy with housework.
Valerie was sulking silently. Seeing Debbie come downstairs, Megan asked, "Aunt Debbie, have you seen a string of Buddhist prayer beads made of lobular red sandalwood?" The main feature of lobular red sandalwood was the wood grain which looked like stars on each bead.
'A string of Buddhist prayer beads?' Debbie frowned. "No, I haven't seen it. I've been in my room the whole time. Why do you ask?"
Megan gave Debbie a meaningful glance before answering in a regretful voice, "Grandma's string of Buddhist prayer beads is gone. It was here yesterday, but we can't find it now. We've been looking for it for a while."
Debbie nodded and comforted Valerie, "Grandma, please take it easy. In my experience, the more you try to look for something, the less likely it is you'll find it. But if you stop worrying about it, it will show up one day, out of the blue!"
Valerie sneered and gave her a cold glance. "Did you mean to say I shouldn't look for it?"
Under Valerie's cold glare, Debbie felt utterly speechless. 'Fine! Everything I say is wrong. Better zip my mouth.'
A loud yawn broke the awkward silence in the living room. Debbie turned around and saw Lewis coming downstairs.
Lewis' eyes lit up with excitement at the sight of Debbie. He picked up his pace and ran up to her. "Debbie, you're home today?"
"Yeah." The contempt was obvious in her voice.
But Lewis didn't care a bit even if he had sensed it. Instead, he tried to butter her up. "I can show you the hottest spots in town. How about I take you out for a drive? Or do you want to go shopping? I can buy you anything you want."
'Doesn't he know I'm his cousin's wife? How can he be so blatantly obvious?' "No way!" Debbie refused bluntly.
"Now wait. Don't be so quick to turn me down. You know I'm a hottie, right?" Lewis said as he ran his fingers through his hair. A confident smile appeared on his bratty face.
