Evelyn let go of Debbie and hugged Ivan. "Daddy Ivan, I missed you," she said sweetly.
At first, Ivan was surprised to hear her call him "Daddy Ivan." But after a moment's consideration, he got it. She called Carlos
"Daddy" now. "You have your real daddy now. Daddy Ivan is sad."
Shaking her head, Evelyn consoled him, "No, I like Daddy Ivan. Won't forget Daddy Ivan."
Ivan was amused. He kissed her and said, "I'm happy. Go play."
Jus, Evelyn and Sean left their parents and they scampered off to play their own games. After mingling with the other guests,
Debbie, hand in hand with Ivan, walked over to Carlos and handed him the birthday present. "Happy birthday, Mr. Huo," she said, standing over the couch where he sat.
Carlos glanced at the gift but didn't take it. "Who is it from?" he asked
"Both of us," Debbie said purposefully.
"Oh." Carlos motioned Frankie to accept the gift and put it over on a table. Far from him.
Stephanie was sitting next to Carlos, and watched the whole exchange, smug and amused.
Ivan smiled, paying no heed to Carlos' cold attitude. He put his arm around Debbie's waist and pulled her into his arms. "Happy 32nd, Mr. Huo!" he said provocatively.
At the sight of the two in each other's arms, Carlos' face grew gloomy. "You doing this on purpose?"
"Doing what, Mr. Huo?" Ivan played dumb.
Carlos got up from the couch and walked over to Debbie and Ivan. "Mr. Wen, It looks like Kasie is here." A simple sentence, but you could tell by his tone it had tons of meaning.
Ivan looked where Carlos was gesturing, and finally saw Kasie, sitting in a corner playing games on her phone. Debbie was also surprised to see her here. She was thinking of calling her to ask where she was.
She wrenched her hand out of Ivan's grasp, walked over to Kasie and asked, "Hey girl! When did you get here? I called you a couple of times on the way, but the line was busy the whole time."
Kasie swayed her phone before Debbie's eyes. "Fifty minutes on the phone. A fussy client. I almost had a meltdown. I just now finished."
The two friends talked and bantered for a while. When the party was about to begin, someone opened the door to the booth.
"Gregory!" Debbie exclaimed when she saw the newcomer.
Gregory had just come back to the city. He'd been out of the country.
When he heard Debbie, he instantly met her gaze. When their eyes met, Debbie found the shy, reserved boy had grown up a lot in three years.
Instead of casual clothes, he wore an expensive, tailored suit. Above a white shirt was a navy blue vest, matching his suit pants of the same color. He looked masculine and dashing.
On the way here, Colleen let him know Debbie would be at the party too. When he laid his eyes on her, he couldn't help striding towards her excitedly and hugged her tightly. "It's been too long, Debbie."
Immediately, the room went quiet.
Everyone looked at Carlos. They knew what was coming. Some of the guests were smirking;
others showed sympathy.
Carlos was silently timing their embrace. If the two didn't separate within ten seconds, there'd be trouble.
Debbie was oblivious to this. She returned the hug and patted Gregory's back. "I heard you left the country 3 years ago. How are you?" she asked, thrill and concern evident in her voice.
Holding her, Gregory nodded and said quietly, "I'm a new man, Debbie. I head up a successful business. Back in school, I vowed to be worthy of your love and tell you when the time was right. Now, I'm back, and you and Mr. Huo are divorced. Debbie, will you go out with me? I'm in this for the long haul, and want to marry you."
His hug, his words—all of this was angering Carlos more and more. His face was so dark it looked as if a storm was on the way.
"Um…" That was when Debbie sensed something was wrong. She realized how long Gregory had his arms around her. "Um, Gregory? Let me go," she urged quietly.
But Gregory was no longer the timid schoolboy. Rather than let her go, he continued to prattle on. "I missed you so much. The only thing I knew about you was what I heard on the news. Apparently, you got famous. Am I too late?"
"Um… no…" Debbie was stumped. What should she say? What could she say? Yes? No? Neither sounded right. His timing wasn't right, that was for certain.
"Gregory, let me go. People are staring at us." She tried to squirm free.
Overjoyed to see her again, Gregory wouldn't take the hint, nor did he remove his arms from her.
Colleen knew how things were between Carlos and Debbie. She decided to get involved, separate the two before Carlos blew a fuse.
But Carlos beat her to it.
He grabbed Debbie by the wrist and roughly yanked her out of Gregory's arms.
Suddenly, the room was so quiet. No one dared breathe, for fear the sound would break the silence.
Adriana figured out what was going on, and herded the kids to another room.
And a stunned Gregory finally got the message. Even though Debbie and Carlos were divorced, they still loved each other.
Carlos looked Debbie in the eye and was about to say something, but then an acute pain shot through his brain. He closed his eyes and bowed his head. His eyes scrunched in agony. It was as if a white hot knife sliced through his thoughts.
But the pain was gone a few seconds later, like it had never been there.
Then he looked up at Debbie without talking.
And nobody else dared make a sound. The atmosphere of dread was palpable.
Kinsley and Niles exchanged glances. They wanted to laugh, crack a joke, do something, but the killer look in Carlos' eyes made them lose their nerve.
The silence lasted ten minutes. Carlos changed expressions at the drop of a hat. No one knew what was going on, but the atmosphere of danger he radiated kept them from trying to see if he was okay.
For the first time, Debbie saw so many expressions on his face.
When everybody was trying to figure out what was going through his mind, he suddenly lunged at Debbie, wrapping her in his arms. "How could you marry Ivan!" he said through gritted teeth. "Damn you! Did you just pretend I was dead? Was it easier that way?"
His abrupt rage astonished her. It was like a storm surge ravaging a coastline. "You…you… you were going to marry Stephanie. Why do you get to be angry at me?" She was confused. She and Ivan had been married for a while. Why was Carlos angry at her now?
Her backtalk made Carlos furious. "Then why didn't you stop me? Or yell at me? Why didn't you beat me up and knock some sense into me? Why didn't you chase her off? Why did you give up easily on me? That's not like you."
Everyone was so shocked they were paralyzed into inaction.
