If you walk into a doughnut shop in California, the chances are it's owned by a Cambodian family. That's because of a refugee who built up an empire, and became known as the Donut King, only to lose it all. Ted Ngoy was a high school student in Phnom Penh when he first set eyes on Suganthini Khoeun, the daughter of a high-ranking government official. "She was so beautiful," he remembers. "You can't find any prettier woman besides her." All the boys at his school were in love with her, and as a poor half-Chinese boy from a village near the Thai border he had no chance. "She was powerful, like your royal princess," says Ted. And she was heavily chaperoned. But then Ted discovered that the tiny room where he lodged, on the fourth floor of a walk-up apartment block, overlooked Suganthini's villa. And he saw an opportunity. Every evening, he sat by his open window and played the flute. On hearing the music float across the quiet city, Suganthini's mother remarked that whoever was playing must be in love. One night, he saw Suganthini on her balcony, and decided it was time to make his move. He wrote a note, telling her that he lived in the building opposite and was the flute player. He wrapped the note around a stone, and threw it down. His gesture went unreciprocated for days. But then one of Suganthini's servants appeared at his door with a reply. "The note said, 'I appreciate you blowing the flute. It's so amazing, so touching.' And then we started communicating, bringing back and forth the messages," Ted says. "What happens if I decide to jump into your room?" Ted wrote one day. Suganthini replied, "Well be careful, if you don't jump into my room, you'll jump into my mum's room." She thought Ted was joking, but he was serious. Despite the villa's armed security guards and guard dogs, one rainy night Ted climbed up a coconut tree and over the barbed wire and made his way in through a bathroom window. He took a chance and opened a bedroom door - and there was Suganthini, fast asleep. He woke her up and she was about to scream for help, when she realised it was her classmate. "What are you doing here?" she asked. "Well, it is because I've fallen in love with you," Ted replied. "But what shall we do in the morning? I have to go to school." "Don't worry, I will hide under your bed," said Ted. And that's what he did. Suganthini smuggled him food at night, and after many days she said she loved him too. They made a blood pact, promising to be forever faithful. He says he hid in her room for 45 days until he was discovered. Suganthini's family insisted Ted break it off by telling her he didn't love her. He did as he was told, but then pulled out a knife and stabbed himself, declaring he would rather die than live without her. While he was recovering in hospital, Suganthini also made an attempt on her life. Faced with such determination, her family allowed the young lovers to be together. "It's a crazy story, but it's true," says Ted, now 78. "I had true love for her." But he admits he was also aware that conquering Suganthini's heart held out the promise of a better life.