Take My Breath Away

"Ask Osmin Feng to come here and drive me back to the office. Stay here and deal with this collision," Carlos ordered coldly.

"But... the other driver is Miss Nian," Frankie replied. Considering their history, he figured he'd better let his boss know.

'Debbie Nian?'

Carlos was surprised. 'Why does she keep popping into my life like this?'

While Frankie was letting Carlos know what was going on, Debbie raised her head to look. It was not until then that she realized she had hit Carlos' Scaldarsi Emperor.

She slapped her forehead remorsefully. 'Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Why couldn't I have been more careful? Carlos hates me so much right now. He'll think I did it for attention.

Ouch! My head!' She forgot she hit the steering wheel.

The front bumper of her car was destroyed while the Emperor only suffered a dent. 'I guess you get what you pay for.

The Emperor is worth nearly ten million. The repairs will probably cost me a mil easy.

Damn! If this had happened a few days ago, I might have gotten off scot free. He hates me now, so who knows how much I'll have to pay?'

When Frankie was conferring with Carlos, Debbie waited nervously and imagined all kinds of possibilities.

A few minutes later, Frankie was back. "Miss Nian, let's pull over first," he suggested.

"Okay," she agreed. It was only logical. They were causing traffic to back up behind them, so the best thing would be to get off the road. Debbie got back in her car, followed the Emperor to a parking lot, and pulled over.

Carlos never left the car. Frankie was the one who talked to Debbie about the accident.

"Miss Nian, the repairs will total more than a million. I'm afraid I need you to accompany me to the garage. While time is money, Mr. Huo will let it go this time," Frankie said, a little embarrassed to mention a price to Debbie, since he knew Debbie and Carlos knew each other.

"More than a million..." Debbie uttered desperately. She didn't have that kind of money.

She had spent most of what she did have on some pretty important things.

"Carlos is in the car, isn't he?" she asked Frankie, pointing at the Emperor.

Unsure what she was up to, Frankie didn't answer.

With a sigh, Debbie approached the Emperor and tapped on the car window.

The window lowered, and Carlos was busy shuffling through some files, his cellphone propped up against the seat. "Speak," he demanded without bothering to look up.

"Mr. Huo, money is tight. Can I give you an IOU?"

Carlos put the files down and turned to her. "Let me guess: Hayden's too poor to afford repairs?" he asked sarcastically.

"Hayden? Who said anything about him?" She was confused.

"Stop wasting my time. Frankie's in charge of this. Talk to him."

Carlos was about to roll up the window when Debbie placed her hands on top of the glass to stop him. "Wait. How about I sleep with you and you let it go?" she said in earnest.

"No!" Carlos retorted with a frown, his face a mask of disgust.

'Do you have to be so harsh?' Debbie rolled her eyes.

"That's a lot of money. Maybe ZL Group can issue me a credit card with a high credit limit. Then I can pay you with it. And afterwards I pay off the card."

'That's no different from an IOU, ' Carlos thought.

Unwilling to talk to her anymore, he pushed the button on the door to roll up the window.

But Debbie stopped him again. He just couldn't bring himself to crush her fingers in the window. "Mr. Huo, please. It was an accident. If I could take it back, I would. How about a grace period? And I promise I won't bother you again."

'Won't bother me? I doubt it! Just go away.'

Carlos didn't believe her. Without a word, he went on doing his work, making notes, turning pages.

Left with no other choice, Debbie took out her phone and called someone. "Hey Ivan, you busy? In a meeting? Oh, nothing serious. Thank you. Bye."

Ivan was in a meeting. His assistant had answered the phone.

Debbie dialed another number. "Hi Yates, it's me. Piggy's mom." Piggy was so adorable everyone liked her. Debbie took advantage of it shamelessly and made friends with Yates Feng from A Country, Xavier Shangguang from M Country, a successful lawyer, and Ivan. All these guys were big shots, and all of them were Piggy's godfathers.

'Yates?' That name got Carlos' attention. Yates Feng was the second most powerful man in a mysterious, foreign organization.

Debbie told Yates on the phone, "I crashed into Carlos Huo's luxurious car. And he insists I pay him for repairs now. But I'm low on cash. Can you lend me some? Piggy's not here. Can we talk about the money first? You want to talk to him? You two know each other?" 'How come I never knew they were friends?' she wondered.

She handed her phone to Carlos and said, "Here, it's Yates."

Carlos took the phone and said, "Hi."

Yates Feng said something on the phone that Debbie couldn't make out. Carlos asked with a frown, "Yates, how much do you know about this gal?"

Yates Feng laughed and said something else Debbie didn't catch. A short while later, Carlos handed her the phone, his face clouding over.

"Frankie," he called.

Frankie walked over to the window, waiting for his boss's orders. "Let's go," Carlos said.

"Yes, Mr. Huo."

The Emperor drove off and was finally out of sight.

Debbie stared at her phone, dumbfounded. 'Yates knows Carlos. How? I was getting nowhere 'til Yates spoke up for me. I wonder why?'

"What did you say to Carlos?" she asked him curiously in a text.

Yates didn't reply for a bit. Finally, he wrote, "I told him that you were husband and wife once, and he should go easy on you for old times' sake. When that didn't work, I tried saying that because you banged each other many times was a good enough reason to forgive the repairs."

Debbie always knew what kind of man Yates was, but his vulgarity still shocked her.

With the problem solved, Debbie was relieved. She drove her car to a nearby 4S shop and then checked into the hospital.

As her concert date approached, she had to do something about the red mark and the swelling of her forehead.

As soon as she registered for the surgical department, Ruby called. "Debbie, great news! Your latest concert is sold out. More than 20, 000 tickets in less than a second!"

she said excitedly, as if seeing money flying into her pockets.

Debbie came to the surgeon's office. There were a few people in front of her. She had to wait in a chair. "I guess I have friends with deep pockets," she said to Ruby. For example, every time Debbie held a concert, Ivan and Irene would buy a lot of tickets and then give them to their friends and ask them to go and support Debbie.

"Nah, you're wrong this time. Mr. Wen didn't buy a single one. You're pretty well-known here, so..." Ruby left out the last part of her sentence.

Debbie understood. She used to be Carlos' wife, the apple of his eye.

Then they all thought she betrayed him. There would probably be plenty of malicious fans at her concert and she had to get ready for whatever the angry fans might do.