"No. What's up?" Ivan asked from the other end.
"Well, you have a lot of business connections. Could you help me get Carlos' phone number?" Debbie asked, embarrassed by her own request. She had asked Carlos for his number when she had met him in Y City, but he had refused to tell her.
'Unbelievable, ' Ivan thought. "Are you telling me that you don't have his number?" She had moved back to Y City to reclaim her ex-husband, yet she didn't even have his contact number.
"Um... He changed his number," she said, her voice feeble. Debbie had tried to contact him through his old number, but it was answered by a worker in ZL Group.
"Okay, I'm sending you his number."
"What?! You have his number?" Debbie was shocked. She wasn't expecting that.
"Yes. Our branch company is doing a project in co-operation with ZL Group. His phone number is on the company contract," Ivan replied, hiding from her that he had met Carlos just that night. He had never met Carlos before that night. Now that his company had become bigger, he finally had the chance to meet him face-to-face.
"Thank you, Ivan!" Debbie said, excitement clear in her tone. She was truly grateful to him.
In no time, she received a WeChat message from Ivan. It was Carlos' number.
She looked at the time. It was about ten o'clock at night. 'Is Carlos holding his soon-to-be fiancee in his arms right now?' she wondered with an ache in her heart.
It pained her to imagine him being intimate with Stephanie that way. She couldn't breathe at the thought of it. On an impulse, she dialed the number which Ivan had sent her.
The call got through very soon. "Hello?"
Her heart missed a beat when she heard his husky voice.
She smiled and glanced at her daughter, who was sleeping beside her. 'Baby, I'm gonna get your daddy back, ' she said in her mind. She touched her daughter's forehead gently and then walked out to the balcony. As she overlooked the night sky of Z Country, she said in a chirpy voice, "Hey, Mr. Handsome."
Carlos was a little taken aback. He removed the phone from his ear and looked at the number. 'So, this is that woman's number.'
He memorized it so that he wouldn't accidentally answer her call the next time.
"What do you want?" he asked coldly.
Debbie was hurt by how much he hated hearing her voice. But she cheered herself up and asked, "Are you in bed?"
"I'm busy. If you don't have anything important to—"
"Yes, I do!" she interrupted him quickly to stop him from hanging up. "I haven't been pestering you for the past few days and you haven't seen me walk the dog either. Are you curious about what I am doing now?"
"No," he replied bluntly, refusing to admit that he had indeed wondered about it.
"Oh, okay..." she said, sounding disappointed. "I came back to Z Country. I can't fall asleep. I miss you so much. What should I do?"
'She's in Z Country? No wonder I haven't seen her in a while, ' Carlos thought. "What does this have to do with me?"
"It has everything to do with you, Carlos. I really miss you. I miss the times when we were together. I miss your hugs, your kisses and—"
"Debbie Nian!" Carlos roared.
"Yes! That's my name, all right. But you'd better keep your voice down or your soon-to-be fiancee might not like it," she joked casually even though her insides hurt as she said it.
Carlos managed to suppress his anger and spat out, "She's not here—" He stopped mid-sentence. 'Why am I telling her this?' he sulked, touching the frown on his forehead. He quickly corrected himself, "I'm on a business trip."
'Hold on! What am I doing? Why am I telling her all this?' Carlos felt annoyed by how much his words were contradicting his thoughts.
Carlos lit a cigarette. He couldn't understand his behavior tonight. He had a mountain of unfinished work, but he was wasting his time talking to this woman. Moreover, he would be engaged to Stephanie soon. It wouldn't be proper for him to keep in touch with this woman. He wondered if he had become a philandering man because of Damon's bad influence on him.
After exhaling a mouthful of smoke, he refused her ruthlessly, "No need to do that, Miss Nian. I believe I have always kept a high standard. I'm sure that I wouldn't have chosen to be with such a shameless woman like you in the past."
Debbie's heart constricted in her chest. She felt hot tears running down her cheeks. She was realizing just how much Carlos really hated her now.
But she kept pressing him without giving up. "Let me make this clear to you. You were much more brazen than me in the past. You know why I have the courage to keep pestering you now? It's because you did the same to me in the past. You taught me to never give up!" Debbie retorted. More importantly, he had treated her so well. That was why she wouldn't give up on him that easily even if she had to act shamelessly and swallow all her pride.
'I did the same to her?' Carlos knitted his brows. He couldn't even imagine himself pestering a woman. Why would he ever do that?
"You don't believe it, right? It doesn't matter. Just don't stop me from approaching you. I will surely make you love me again, Carlos." Whether he had lost his memory or not, she would make him fall for her all over again.
"Done?" he asked coldly.
"Yes," Debbie nodded helplessly. 'Ugh! This man is such a handful," she thought to herself.
"Then go to bed."
'No!' she exclaimed in her mind. She had managed to keep him talking for a while somehow. She didn't want her effort to go in vain.
However, before she could utter one more word, the call was disconnected.
Debbie sighed when she heard the beep sound on the phone.
Nonetheless, she couldn't give up. She copied his phone number into the WeChat app and found the WeChat account named CH. The profile photo was the logo of ZL Group. Debbie laughed lightly. This had to be Carlos' WeChat account. He was so easy for her to understand.
She sent him a friend request.
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