Take My Breath Away

Feeling a headache coming on, Matthew rubbed his eyebrows. "I'm not—"

Before he could finish saying, "afraid," Erica had closed in. "Oh, Matthew, it's all right! I know you're a man, but there's nothing shameful in being afraid of snakes. Rest assured, there's no danger at all. In any case, I'm not scared, so I can protect you!" As she said this, she hugged him, patted his chest, adjusted his tie, and fussed over his lapels, thus leaving a copious amount of wet dirt smudged across the front of his suit.

Matthew looked down at her hands, his face hardening with disgust. "Erica," he asked dryly, "did you think of washing your hands after handling those snakes?"

Her face was stricken with what appeared to be genuine shock. "Oh! No!" she stammered, backing off a step.

Meanwhile, one of the two snakes she had dropped was creeping aimlessly about the meeting room. Its companion, apparently unsociable, had withdrawn to a corner and coiled itself up there.

As for the members of the Su family, they were huddled together atop the conference table, looking quite ridiculous and pitiable. The security guard they had brought was made of sterner stuff and remained as calm as Matthew. However, since there seemed to be no actual danger, he simply claimed his own corner of the room and waited at attention there.

After taking in the scene, Erica went to one of the snakes and gingerly gathered it up from the floor. She made a show of inspecting the creature; by contrast, the snake seemed uninterested in any of the humans present. "It's so cute, isn't it?" asked Erica innocently. "What are you all so afraid of?" She'd been careful to get ahold of snakes that were not poisonous. Naturally, nobody else in the room knew that.

With a casual air, she approached Phoebe, gently pointing the head of the complacent reptile toward her.

'How dare Phoebe tell on me to Matthew! Seems like she hasn't learned her lesson yet!' Erica thought. In recent days, Matthew had been sometimes warm and sometimes cold to her.

Erica had begun to fear, what if he dumped her because of the Su family? Her best chance of preventing that was to scare them all away!

And she seemed to be off to a good start; as Erica neared the desk, Phoebe was already screaming at the top of her lungs. At the last second the poor woman leaped from the conference table and took refuge behind Matthew, who stood like a statue, observing the madness. "Matthew...Matthew, help me! Please..." Phoebe cried hoarsely.

"Honey, don't help her! There's no need for that at all!" Erica countered, trotting after her.

White as a ghost now, Phoebe gave another scream and bolted from the room.

The door closed with a bang.

After a moment of dead

Drugged one night by her ex-boyfriend, a mysterious man took advantage of her in an ecstatic night filled with sex.

To take her revenge, she married the man, and used him.

"As long as I'm alive, I'm still his legal wife, while all of you are just his mistresses."

She remained adamant even when he was involved in scandals with other women.

Eventually she stormed off after she learned that he had betrayed her again.But life brought her back to him a few years later, to his astonishment.

rry. I just want to ask you if you were scared," she said quickly.

"No, thank you for your concern. I'm fine." Paige was still smiling, but the smile was as brittle as glass.

She knew that the young woman in front of her had no malice, but that didn't make the box of snakes any less creepy.

Erica's face brightened, and she displayed the box again. "Oh, that's good! In fact, these snakes are all nontoxic; they're not dangerous at all. Anyway, don't be afraid. I'll have them released now."

"Okay, okay..." Paige wanted very much to cry. Why did this crazy woman have to show them the box again?

Off to the side, Matthew stood watching the scene. Despite the pain in his skull and the spectacle Erica had caused, he was impressed with her. In fact, he was ready to admit that she was quite brave; all women were scared witless by snakes, but his wife could catch them with her bare hands.

Presently, the elevator doors opened again, admitting a security guard who trotted up to them. "Mr. Huo, Mrs. Huo!" he said respectfully. "I'm Raymond Li from the logistics department. What can I do for you?"

Matthew indicated the box. "I'd like you to take these snakes and release them. They don't belong in the office."

Raymond Li nodded. "Yes. Please leave it to me."

Erica hesitated, feeling a bit reluctant to hand over the box. Finally she said, "Listen, I bought one of these snakes at the pet market, so you'd better return it there. If you set it free out in nature, it won't last long. But the red one and the green one, those were caught in the Great Mountain. You can leave them there."

The snake that Erica had put on Phoebe's bed was indeed from the pet market. It had been nontoxic and its fangs had been treated, so she had known it was harmless. The worst it could do was scare somebody.