Carlos wore a broad smile as Valerie made comments on Evelyn. 'No matter who she resembles in character, I will love her forever, ' he thought.
After a while, Valerie gave his phone back and said, "Please bring her here to visit me if you have time. I don't know how much longer I will live."
"Grandma, don't say that! Debbie and I will have another baby and you will have to take care of it for us," Carlos said with a soft smile. He gazed at the photo on his phone for a while before locking it and putting it back into his pocket.
"She's pregnant again?"
Valerie asked, eyes wide open.
Carlos shook his head. "Not yet, but it won't be long before she is."
Valerie was a little disappointed, but she still had Evelyn. "If you are too busy, just send her here. I'll take care of her myself."
Carlos stood up, poured a cup of tea for her and said with a sigh, "Grandma, I'm afraid I can't bring her over now."
"Why?" Valerie asked in confusion as she took the cup from his hands. "What happened?"
Carlos paused, wondering what he should address Miranda as. "Mom has been delegating her duties in New York. She will be flying to Y City next week to take care of Evelyn."
It took Valerie a few seconds to realize that Carlos was referring to Miranda, and not Tabitha. She comforted him, "Carlos, it was me who had forced Miranda to give you up to James and Tabitha. Please don't blame her for that. Be nice to her and your dad."
Carlos nodded his head as he stared out the window absent-mindedly.
Before he and Tristan left the Huo family's house, Carlos promised Valerie that he would stay overnight at her place.
He was incredibly busy. After visiting Valerie, he had to go and meet Stephanie's parents.
In Y City
It had been four days since Carlos had left for New York. Debbie stared dejectedly out the window. Not too far away, workers were working. That place used to be a villa which her music studio and yoga room were in, but then James had it demolished and planted a garden instead. Now Carlos hired these workers to build a new villa there.
Debbie turned away from the construction site. 'Ugh! This is so boring, '
she thought and pulled out her phone to call Carlos. The call connected soon, and before the man could speak, she spat, "Carlos Huo, I need to get out of this house today. If you still refuse to let me leave, I will not divorce Ivan!"
"Okay."
She was ready for a retort, not having expected that he would agree so easily. "What?" she asked in disbelief.
"Where are you going today?" he asked, his voice devoid of any emotion.
'Did my threat work?' she wondered. "I need to go to work. And I also want to pick Piggy up from the kindergarten myself," she replied.
"All right."
'Since when has Carlos Huo been so open to persuasion? Is he plotting something?' She scrunched up her eyebrows.
But Carlos said nothing more and hung up on her abruptly.
Confused, Debbie stared at her phone, wondering what he was doing in New York right now.
'Whatever! I can focus on my work now.'
Debbie called Ruby and began to schedule her work. She had many ads to shoot.
One day, when she had just finished a photo shoot for the cover of a magazine, her phone rang. She picked it up from the table and checked the caller ID—it was an unknown number.
'It's probably someone from the Huo family, '
she reckoned. "Hello?" She answered the phone.
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