Take My Breath Away

Joshua understood. "Well, I'm at Orchid Private Club. I gotta go. Talk to you later," he said to Sheffield.

"All right."

When Joshua arrived at Room 888 of the Orchid Private Club, Carlos had just opened a bottle of red wine.

Joshua's heart caught in his throat. Carlos was way too intimidating, even in pleasant surroundings like this. But right now, he had to face him. He greeted Carlos respectfully, "Hello, Uncle Carlos."

Carlos poured a glass of wine and handed it to him. "Hello, Joshua," he said, betraying no hint of emotion.

"Thank you, Uncle Carlos," Joshua said as he took the glass.

Carlos sat down on the leather couch. "Have a seat," he said to Joshua.

"Thank you, Uncle Carlos." His responses were measured and polite. He knew a lot was riding on this meeting. Joshua sat opposite Carlos.

Carlos was never a man to beat around the bush. As soon as they sat down, he went straight to the point. "You need to marry Evelyn."

After a short pause, Joshua refused, "I'm sorry, Uncle Carlos. I can't—"

"Or tomorrow," Carlos interrupted. "Tomorrow everyone will know you were the one who chased Evelyn and went back to her apartment with her."

"Does Evelyn even know about this?" Joshua asked anxiously.

"She doesn't need to know. You just need to tell me yes or no."

"I'm sorry, Uncle Carlos. There's no way," he apologized.

He promised Sheffield he would break up with Evelyn. If he got engaged to her, Sheffield would kill him.

Surprisingly, Carlos wasn't upset. Instead, he asked, "Is it because you like Terilynn?"

He didn't expect that Carlos would know anything about that. Was it that obvious? So he decided honesty was the best policy. "Sorry, Uncle Carlos. I meant to talk to you about this later, but I guess there's no time like the present. Yeah, I like Terilynn. Evelyn and I aren't good together. We were looking for a reason to break up."

Carlos stared into his glass, swirled the wine around the goblet instead of taking a sip. "Get engaged to Evelyn, and then I'll give you the green light to woo

gled but was eventually overtaken by vertigo. At last, he fell unconscious.

Sheffield could tell his friend was upset. Panicked, even. He took in his surroundings and saw suspicious-looking men at different points. He darted into the shadows and seemed to lose them—for now.

After making sure he was safe, he called Joshua again, but he got a message saying that the subscriber was not accepting calls at this time. He must have turned his phone off. But why?

Worried Joshua was in danger, Sheffield went back home and opened an app on his phone. He entered his friend's details and tried to figure out his friend's last location. It wouldn't tell him where he was now, because the phone was off.

Amazingly, the app managed to find him. He was at a large hotel. While he was pondering this, his phone rang. It was Dollie. He wasn't in the mood to talk to her, but she kept calling again and again. Finally, about the fifth time, he picked up.

He answered the phone impatiently. "God, finally!" she said. "You need to hear this! I just saw Joshua. He rented a room with Evelyn."

"What are you talking about, Dollie?" Sheffield got even more upset when he heard what she said.

"I knew you wouldn't believe me. There's a large hotel next to Orchid Private Club, Room 909, 9th floor. Just go there and see for yourself." Once she said that, Dollie hung up the phone.