The open tender was very important to the ZL Group and it was why Carlos had gone out of town in the first place. But after hearing Debbie say that she missed him, he'd squeezed out some time in his schedule and rushed back to Y City.
Silence befell the car. Emmett could tell that Carlos was in a bad mood. Since Carlos didn't respond, Emmett didn't pursue the topic again.
Just then, Emmett's phone rang. With one hand on the wheel, he answered it. "Hello, this is... What?! When? Okay, got it. Thank you. Bye!"
After hanging up, he cast a careful glance at his boss sitting in the back seat, then cleared his throat and said, "Er... Mr. Huo, something has happened to Mrs. Huo."
Carlos' eyes flew open, and his piercing gaze sent a chill running down Emmett's spine. Emmett wanted nothing more than to hit the brakes and ditch the car to get as far away from his boss as possible.
Meanwhile, the local police station was overflowing with young boys and girls, even though it was usually calm and quiet at this hour.
The boys were behaving as arrogantly as ever, as if they feared nothing and no one. The girls, however, looked completely different from half an hour ago. Now, they were sitting quietly in the cell with their heads lowered.
One of the policemen was interrogating Jared, whose face was black and blue. "Why did you start the fight?
Jared raised his chin and pointed at another boy. With innocent eyes, he said, "Sir, you should ask him. I don't know why they hit me. I'm confused too."
The policeman knew how unruly these rich second generation kids could be. He banged the table and said in a serious tone, "If you refuse to answer, you'll have to celebrate New Year behind bars."
New Year was just half a month away.
While Jared was being questioned, Debbie was sound asleep with her head resting on Kasie's shoulder. No matter who spoke to her, she kept her eyes closed. Finally, when one of the policemen pressed her too hard, she yelled, "Why didn't you bring that woman here as well? She's the one who started the fight!" The woman she was referring to was none other than Portia. Portia had made a phone call to Hayden as soon as the policemen arrived at the private booth. As a result, she hadn't been taken to the police station.
Debbie wanted to leave too, but she didn't dare to call Carlos. Besides, she was still mad at him. There was no way she would call him for help.
Anyway, she wasn't worried about herself because she believed that Jared would help her out.
Debbie's stubbornness gave the policeman a headache. He shifted his attention to Kasie instead.
Unfortunately for him, Kasie wasn't a well-behaved girl either and had been brought to the police station before. Like Debbie, she kept insisting that she was innocent and that Portia was the one who had started the fight.
The policeman knew these people were all from prominent families, so he didn't want to waste his time on them anymore. "Just ask one of your family members to come here. You can leave after we get their signature."
Upon hearing that, Debbie instantly sobered up. Her eyes were red because of sleepiness. She cast a warning glance at Jared and firmly said, "Don't call your brother." If Damon found out about this, so would Carlos.
Initially, Jared had been planning to call Damon. He was afraid that his father would beat him up if he found out about this.
But now that Debbie was asking him not to call his brother, his mother was the only person he could call.
Kasie took the telephone receiver away from Jared and said, "This is all my fault. I'll call my dad."
"Don't. It's no big deal." Jared snatched it back.
While the two were arguing about who should make the call, a man walked into the station—it was Emmett. As soon as Debbie saw him, she grabbed her two friends and used them to shield herself from Emmett's line of vision.
Kasie recognized Emmett immediately.
Jared, however, was too preoccupied with his own thoughts to notice Emmett. Shaken out of his thoughts by Debbie's sudden push, he asked in a loud voice, "Tomboy, what are you doing?"
'Shoot! He's such an idiot!' Debbie cursed inwardly and kicked him hard in the shin.
She then stole a glance at the entrance of the station, only to see Emmett approaching her.
"Mrs. Huo, I'm here to bring you home."
'No! It seems that he already knows about what happened. I'm done.' Debbie wanted to cry.
'Now that Emmett knows, then Carlos must know about it as well.'
Swallowing hard to calm herself down, she turned around and asked, "Does your boss know about it?"
A friendly smile crossed Emmett's face. "Yes."
'I'm screwed!' Debbie thought.
After signing some papers, Emmett took Debbie, Jared, and Kasie out of the police station.
Jared had to carry Debbie on his back. After realizing that Carlos knew about the whole mess, Debbie was so nervous that she could barely stand.
At the sight of the Emperor car parked across the street, Jared whispered to Debbie, "Your husband seems to be here as well."
Debbie froze immediately and tightened her grip on his neck. "Take me to your house."
"Please! Please let me go!" Jared pleaded.
"If you don't do as I say, we won't be friends anymore," she threatened.
"I'd rather break off relations with you than offend your husband."
Debbie was left speechless.
Emmett, who was closely following behind, almost burst into laughter.
He trotted toward the car and opened the back door for Debbie. Jared carefully helped Debbie into the back seat. Even after settling down into the back seat, however, Debbie refused to loosen her grip on Jared's neck.
Jared felt like he was suffocating. "Tomboy, your husband's here. Let go of me!" he said through gritted teeth.
"What? My husband?" murmured Debbie, trying to play innocent. Her eyes swept around the car and met Carlos' cold gaze. She shivered in fear and released her arms.
Finally able to breathe again, Jared straightened up, closed the car door, and ran away. He didn't even dare to take one last look behind him.
Through the car window, Debbie watched as Jared ran away from the Emperor car as fast as he could. Fear and disappointment flooded her. 'He's such an ungrateful ass! How could he leave me alone to face a tyrant?' she cried in her mind.
"Er... Bye, Jared. Bye, Kasie. Wow, I'm so sleepy. I need to take a rest," Debbie murmured as if she was talking to herself.
Then, she leaned against the seat and closed her eyes.
She dozed off quickly. When cold wind blew in through the car door and woke her up, she opened her eyes in confusion.
Then, she found herself in familiar arms.
It took her a second to remember everything that had happened. But in order to avoid being punished by Carlos, she decided to play dumb.
"Carlos Huo, it's you... Who am I? Where am I?"
Carlos remained silent.
Her heart sank; her tricks didn't seem to be working. In a fit of desperation, she started to sing. "Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high..." But before she could finish singing the song, she had an urge to vomit. She ran toward a tree and started vomiting.
She felt much better after she was done. A bottle of water was handed to her. Without raising her head to see who it was from, she rinsed her mouth with the water.
Now that her head was clearer, she could feel the cold gust of wind blowing past. She shook her head to clear her vision and found a man staring at her with piercing eyes. She was so frightened that she threw the bottle away. Her legs were shaking. She reached out a hand to steady herself against the tree and stammered, "Carlos..." 'No! Maybe I can calm him down by seducing him.' She put on a sweet smile and said, "Honey, here you are. I missed you so much."
"Are you sober now?" His voice was still cold. Obviously, her plan didn't work. Anger was written all over his face.
'What can I do? God, help me!' But Debbie maintained the smile on her face and said, "Yes, I am. Honey, it's late and freezing outside. Let's go home and go to bed."