"Can we go shopping this afternoon? I want to go back to sleep," Debbie asked Kasie.
"No, we can't. Even Jared, who is the laziest among us, has gotten up. Dixon 'Doctor' and Kristina are already on their way to the Shining International Plaza. You hurry up,"
Kasie urged. "Fine. I'm getting up. Wait for me. By the way, usually, you get up later than me. Why are you so early today?" Debbie mumbled as she sat up.
Kasie giggled shyly. "My boyfriend got a promotion at work. He is coming to Y City tonight. I want to buy him a present to celebrate this milestone."
Speaking of Kasie's boyfriend, Debbie knew little about that guy. The other day Kasie had gotten into a fight with Portia because of him. Debbie had wanted to inquire more about the man, but then she had been too sloshed to even make sense of it.
"When did you get a boyfriend? Why did Portia accuse you of being the other woman? What's the matter?" Debbie put her phone on speaker and started brushing her teeth.
For a while, Kasie was silent before asking, "Can we not talk about it?"
"You know, we're BFFs and BFFs have no secrets. I told you guys about Carlos a long time ago, but none of you believed me. You even thought I was crazy. I had no choice but to stop mentioning it again. So you have to tell me everything too. We can't be friends while using double standards on each other," Debbie declared firmly.
Defeated, Kasie began explaining, "I fell in love with someone at the same time as Portia. It sucks. That day at the club a friend of mine was holding a birthday party. To my surprise, Portia went to the party too."
A friend of Kasie's at the party wanted to see her new boyfriend's picture and jokingly, everyone at their table echoed the idea. So Kasie agreed to show them her boyfriend's picture on her phone.
A proud woman like Portia didn't care who Kasie's boyfriend was, until a mutual friend of theirs exclaimed that Kasie's boyfriend and Portia's looked alike.
Portia's face fell. She snatched Kasie's phone and looked at the picture. Then she glared at Kasie and demanded when she had started to fool around with her boyfriend behind her back.
Born into a rich family too, Kasie rarely feared anyone. She always hated Portia for bullying Debbie. Thus, at that moment, Portia's hostile attitude worked like an ignition. Kasie instantly exploded with rage. Things escalated quickly. When it got ugly, Portia called some men in and Kasie countered by turning to Jared.
Debbie knew the rest of the story.
In the bathroom, she applied some cleanser to her face and muttered, "Well, are the two of you still seeing the same boyfriend as we speak?"
"Of course not. I asked my boyfriend about it. He told me that he knew Portia, but that was all. There was nothing romantic going on between them. I wonder why you had protected that evil woman Portia for two years. She is always so mean to you." Kasie's anger increased as she spoke.
Debbie laughed. "To think about it, I feel stupid too. But luckily, I'm done with the Gu family. Those two years is water under the bridge now." Back then, she had tried her best to protect Portia, yet Portia always looked down on her. But even so, Debbie had chosen to ignore all of it and flatter her instead just because she loved Hayden and Portia was his sister.
Memories of it drained Debbie. She didn't hate Portia for looking down on her, though. It was her fault—she shouldn't have sold herself short in front of that wicked woman.
"I heard that Portia's parents and Carlos' parents once had a meal together, at which Portia's parents tried to hook her up with Carlos. Although back then Carlos was 23, Portia was only a teenager. How gross that was! I wonder what her parents were thinking. At the time, Carlos had just joined the ZL Group and wasn't as successful as he is now, but he knew Portia was not good enough for him. He gave her parents a tongue-lashing and left the table. How cool your husband was!"
Debbie wiped her face and wondered, "How come I never heard any of this?" That was five years ago when she and Hayden had just started dating. She had never heard about it from anyone before.
"It was so humiliating, of course the Gu family buried it deep. But Debbie, imagine the Gu family's faces when they find out that you married Carlos. I swear, it will be fun." Kasie couldn't stop laughing out loud on the phone. She was looking forward to the day when the Gu family would make fools of themselves. It would be payback time for the unfair treatment they had given Debbie.
Debbie disagreed, however. "I don't think Portia will care who Carlos married. She doesn't like him after all."
"You can't be more wrong! Your husband is a magnet. Show me a woman who wouldn't want to be with him. It's not that Portia doesn't like Carlos but that she knows she isn't Carlos' type, so she finds it pointless to aim above her cut. Portia is always sticking her nose up in the air. Why is she always so arrogant? Even as Mrs. Huo, you are not that arrogant. On the contrary, you have kept your marriage secret."
Hearing Kasie's angry remarks, Debbie explained resignedly, "The fact that we're married will come out sooner or later. In the beginning, I kept it secret because I didn't realize I liked Carlos and I wasn't sure how long our marriage was going to last. Now I don't want it to be in the limelight. I'm not ready for drama. You can see for yourself how influential he can be. I bet some international movie star's sudden marriage wouldn't even be so sensational as his."
Kasie didn't understand what Debbie was thinking. But she was sure that if people knew she was Mrs. Huo, no one anywhere would dare touch her. "Do you intend to keep it a secret for the rest of your life?"
"Nope, of course not. I'm also worried that many women will pursue Carlos since they think he is single. Carlos and I have agreed to announce our marriage as soon as I graduate from university." Too many women drooled over Carlos. On several occasions, while she was with Carlos, she had seen his many curious SMS notifications from Emmett, who as a PA manned two of Carlos' other phones. Constantly, Emmett kept blocking other women's phone calls and texting to put Carlos in the loop.
Kasie was relieved when she heard Debbie's response. "Are you done dressing yet? It feels like forever. I've gotten to the Shining International Plaza. Are you out of your house yet, my dear Mrs. Huo?"
"Almost. Let me just put on some lipstick. Today, I want to step out looking fabulous." Everyone loves beauty. Debbie was no exception. Taking her sweet time, she put on some foundation primer, BB cushion, and lipstick, before finally she was good to go.
Right out the house, she went to the garage, where more than ten fancy cars were parked. Looking around a few times, she was dazzled.
Carlos had bought her a red Porsche Cayman, but she had never driven that car once.
One night, she had told a joke in bed, but Carlos had taken it seriously and gone ahead to buy another car.
Actually, she had read that joke online and casually shared it to Carlos. "Although I've made a lot of money, I'm also good at saving. Only that today, I was tempted to splash cash on a Maserati. Thank God I didn't buy it. Otherwise, I'd have parted with a cool eight million dollars."