Chapter 22 He Was Fated To Lose. My heart skipped a beat when I realized that there was something more to what Derek said. To be honest, I had no idea what kind of man he was. My preliminary evaluation of his character was solely based on my intuition. Seeing that I fell silent, he leaned forward and filled my glass again. “Show me how thankful you are by how much you can drink,” he said with a smirk. It was then that I realized that I thought too much of his statement. I felt so embarrassed of myself. “That’s right, Miss! ‘Thank you’ is a very hypocritical statement. You need to do something more concrete. Show us your sincerity through drinking!”. As Felix echoed Derek’s sentiment, he opened several bottles of beer and lined them up in front of me. Frightened by their proposal, I waved my hands in dismissal. “I rarely ever drink on normal days. I won’t be able to drink that much!”. “Oh, but this is no normal day! Don’t you want to show my friend how sincere you are?” Felix responded. “I really can’t drink that much. Louise knows about my alcohol tolerance. ” I signaled to Louise for help. But she just smiled at me and tried to persuade me. “You know, they’re right. If you want to thank someone, you should show your sincerity. Alcohol isn’t a poison. Drinking has nothing to do with your drinking capacity!”. I never thought that the day would come when my best friend in the world would betray me. In fact, I had a vague idea of what she had in mind. She was probably thinking that Derek was an excellent man and she. wanted me to ensnare him. But both Derek and I knew that he did all those intimate things just so he could humiliate Shane for my sake. Derek was excellent in all aspects. If I were to divorce Shane, I would be branded as a divorced woman. That title alone would create a gigantic gap between me and Derek

But I really felt gra teful to him, so I had to give in and drink. I picked up the glass of beer that Derek had poured for me, a nd drank it down in one sitting . While filling my glass again, Felix shouted, “W hoa! You’re incredible. He was quite good at riling people up to drink. He kept on pour ing beer for me and Louise. To show just how sincere I was, I d idn’t hesitate to drink all of the beer Felix had poured for me. During the entire endeavor, he was c hatting with Derek. “By the way, that guy wa s incredibly . pathetic. Why the fuck did he enter our casi no without any money?” . I noticed something w ith his statement. “Y our casino?” I asked. “It’s his,” Derek replied, po inting at Felix. Felix glance d at him, his cheeks twitching . “So, you teamed up to play tric ks on him, huh?” . “Nah. He was fated to lo se,” Derek said while li ghting another cigarette. “Fated to lose?” I frowned. Derek puffed out a smoke ring, leaning against the sofa. As the smoke rose from his fingertips, he said, “I’m not God. I didn’t make that situation happen. Truthfully, I wasn’t sure I would win. But if I had lost, I would lose money, yet it meant that I’d have fun. However, he was different. He cared too much about winning or losing, because once he had lost too much, his fate changed. I’m sure you know that those who can’t afford to lose will definitely lose!” . The sound of his voice was so forceful that it stunned me for a while. “Then, how on earth did you settle the debt?” . Derek looked at me for a time, and chuckled. “I wasn’t interested in sleeping with his mistress. Dazed yet again, I scratche d my head in embarrassment. “That’s not what I meant

“Do you r eally want to know?” . he asked just w hen I didn’t wa nt to ask again. “Yeah,” I answered honestly . After all, three million dollars was not a small amo unt of money. How would Shane ever solve that kind o f problem? It was natural for me to be this curious. Derek filled my glass with more bee r. “Well, then, show me your sincer ity and I’ll tell you. Drink this. Later on, several men suddenly came to greet Derek one after another. They sat down and poured themselves a glass of. beer. Perhaps due to the fact tha t they saw me sitting next to him, they also proposed a toast to me. While the other men kept on drinking a nd playing boisterously, Derek was qui etly smoking on the sofa, cross legged. He didn’t stop them from persuading me t o drink. I could tell in that moment tha t he was observing my show of sincerity. Not once did I refuse a drink. In the end, I poured myself another glass and drank it down. I had no idea why I suddenly wanted to get drunk at the time. Perhaps it was because I finally found a way to vent all my grievances that had been repressed these past few days. Maybe I was banking on the chance that I might be able to forget everything after getting drunk. Soon enough, I became very intoxicated. My vision was so blurred that it was like I was looking through a layer of frosted glass. But it was wonderful to feel this dizzy. As if going c razy, I sudde nly sprang up, . pointing at the empty bottl es of beer in front of me wi th a sense of accomplishment . I turned to the man at my side and asked, “Derek, have I been sincere enough for you? Come on! Tell me the answer already!”. Sadly, I could barely keep myself standing. It took only a few seconds be fore I fell back down. Fortunately, a pair of arms held me in time. Gradu ally, the blistering music faded away as I began to lose my consciousness