Bella shrugged, “Your brother is on a business trip.”
Lena was very happy, “Are you very sad about it? It turns out that your feelings are so deep! ”
“Lena, do you really not know, or do you fake it?”
“Huh? Do I know what?”
“Your brother’s gay.”
“My brother’s gay? How is that possible!”
She sighed, “Really, that man told me himself, and your brother didn’t deny it.”
He would never allow anyone to denigrate him if it wasn’t true.
“Who is that man?”
“Alvin.”
“Alvin?” Lena giggled, and keeled over with laughter, “Bella, you’ve been tricked. Alvin is not gay. He’s my brother’s best assistant and his best friend. If they were lovers, then I would be angry.”
Bella heard that and was relieved. In fact, it wasn’t that she was gullible, but she was really too sensitive to the issue of Kevin hating women…
“Hey, why are you angry? Do you like Alvin?”
Lena had always been frank and straightforward, nodding, “Yes.”
Bella liked her not being affectedly bashful and pretentious, “What about him? Does he like you too?”
“I don’t know. He didn’t say he liked me. Alvin is an orphan, and I don’t dare tell him I like him for fear of pressure.”
So that was the fact. She comforted Lena, “It’s okay, as long as you don’t give up, the family status is not a problem.”
—
Kevin went on a business trip and Bella really felt good. After working a day, she was back home, and felt free chatting with Blanche and Patrick in the living room. After having dinner, she went upstairs early. Remembering last night bickering with him, she suddenly came up with an idea. Why not taking advantage of his business trip these days and enjoying his room?
It was getting hotter, and the house she lived in had air conditioning. But because it was too closed, she always felt stuffy, and most importantly, she had to go next door to take a bath every night.
She made up her mind, took her pajamas and went into Kevin’s bathroom. It was so luxurious. The spacious, white bathtub was so clean that you couldn’t see any blemishes or dirt. He was worthy of being a man who was a serious clean freak, and everything from the floor to the washbasin was ridiculously clean.
The bathtub was a massage bathtub. She put a tank of hot water, took off her clothes and lay down. Her fatigue in no time dissipated. What was even more amazing was that the bathroom had auto-sensing music. When she lay in the water and closed her eyes, she could hear the manly tune. She couldn’t help but sigh, this guy was really enjoying himself…
Out of the shower, standing beside his bed, thinking about him hyperbolically changing bed, she vindictively lay on the bed and rolled a few times before she was satisfied to get up to review tomorrow’s teaching. At ten o’clock, she closed her book, sat on his bed, annoyed for a moment, picked up her phone and dialed him.
The phone rang for a long time before it was answered, the usual indifferent voice came, “What is it?”
Bella took a deep breath and asked, “You’re here, aren’t you?”
“Crap. Now it’s so late, if I go to Mars, I’ll be there.”
She curled her lip, thinking that if he knew she was on the phone with him right now in his bed, and had just used his bathtub to take a shower, well, he’d be freaking out…
“Oh, and when are you coming back?”
“What business is it of yours when I go back?”
“Don’t think I care about it. It was mother who told me to ask you. You left without a word.”
Once he heard that it was his mother who asked, Kevin’s attitude was only a little better, “Next Wednesday.”
Great, there were five days left.
“Yeah, got it, bye.”
She hung up the phone, turned off the light and prepared to sleep. Before closing her eyes, the phone rang. Looking at Kevin’s calling, she hesitated and immediately answered, “Something else?”
“Don’t ever hang up on me first.”
“Good.”
“And don’t call me if nothing happens.”
“Good.”
“What else would you say besides good?”
“Goodbye.”
“……”
The first two days before Kevin’s return, Bella finished a class at school and walked through the long corridor with her books to her office, but bumped into Alice halfway through.
“Bella, quick, your aunt is here.”
She was nervous, and in the meantime, she asked, “Where is it?”
“Outside the school gates. The doorman called your office, and I answered.”
She stroked her forehead and sighed, already knowing that something must have happened again. Her uncle’s family always wouldn’t come to her if they hadn’t something to ask of her.
The textbooks in her hands were handed over to Alice, and she went straight out of the school gates, seeing from afar her aunt standing in the shade, impatiently holding a newspaper to dissipate hotness.
As soon as Mika saw her, she threw down the newspaper in her hand and ran over, urgently saying, “Bella, your uncle is in trouble. You must think of a way to save him…”
“What’s happened again?”
Bella was not surprised. Her uncle Armand was her only relative other than her father, but was similar with her father, profit-oriented and hypocritical.
These years he often caused her trouble. If not for her mother’s exhortation before death, she really wouldn’t care about them.
“Yesterday, a group of people from the Bureau of Industry and Commerce came to our store, and they wanted to take away our cigarettes. Your uncle refused, and after talking back to them, they arrested him.”
Mika said and got red-eyed, as if she had been greatly wronged.
“Why did the Industrial and Commercial Bureau take your cigarettes? You’re selling fake cigarettes again, aren’t you?”
“Just a few strips mixed in, and not all of them…”
Bella rubbed her forehead in frustration and angrily questioned, “Is it really just a few strips of dope? How many times have I told you not to sell fakes. Why do you never listen? What can I do when something goes wrong now!”
“Did you marry into a rich family? This little thing shouldn’t be too hard for you…”
“Did I marry into someone’s family to make it easier to clean up your messes. Did uncle really just talk back to someone before he got caught?”
Even if her aunt didn’t tell the truth, she knew it by heart.
Mika nodded and shook her head guiltily, knowing that she couldn’t hide it from her niece, so she had to confess truthfully, “He slapped someone twice.”
Bella was simply annoyed. He sold fake cigarettes and also justified it, but also hit law enforcement officers. Who did he think he was?
“Now what should I do? I wanted to go to the police station to see your uncle, but they wouldn’t let me. I was really worried your uncle would get beaten up by them…”
“Is it only now that you’re worried? Why don’t you worry about it when you’re selling fakes? He deserves to be beaten up, and he will have an exaggerated opinion of his abilities if he does not suffer.”
Mika was instantly displeased and said with a glum face, “Bella, what are you saying? No matter how wrong your uncle is, he’s still your uncle. When you and your mother were in the most difficult time, if it wasn’t for me and your uncle giving you a hand, would you be standing here talking to me today? You can’t be ungrateful.”
“I didn’t say I wouldn’t help him. I’m telling you now that you can’t do anything against social morality. If you can’t recognize your own wrongdoing, then I can’t do anything about it. A man can’t be ungrateful, and can’t go against his conscience!”
Mika knew her well and softened her tone, “Okay, I know I was wrong. I promise you it will never happen again. When you save your uncle out, we will immediately remove all the fake goods from the shelves.”
Although it was difficult, Bella could only promise, “You go back first. I’ll think of a way.”
She was muddled and distracted in the afternoon. Her abnormality attracted the attention of the person who had always paid the most attention to her, Louis.
Louis found Alice and inquired about the reason for Bella’s distress, and learned it.
Her in-laws were rich and powerful, and there was nothing that couldn’t be solved, but the sale of fake cigarettes was unspeakable.
The next morning, Bella on her way to school, received a call from her aunt, “Bella, your uncle has come out, thank you. I remember this favor with your uncle……”
She stared in amazement and asked uncertainly, “What, is he out?”
“Yeah, he came out last night. Thanks for your help. I went with your uncle to see you at school at noon.”
“Oh, no…”
She had not finished, but her aunt hung up the phone. Bella was puzzled. She had not even mentioned uncle’s matter to the family. How was he released?
Her doubts were instantly solved after meeting Alice again. It turned out that it was Louis who helped her. Working together for two years, of course she knew Louis’s father was the head of B City’s Public Security Department.
Suddenly knowing the truth, Bella was embarrassed. Since that night in the lake after the separation, they hadn’t talked anymore.
She endured until noon before she knocked on the door of the principal’s office and said in a rushed voice, “Thank you for helping my uncle.”
Louis smiled gently and teased, “Is that all? You’re not insincere.”
“So what do you want?”
Bella was quite apprehensive that he would make any excessive demands.
He thought, “Buy me dinner tomorrow night. Is that okay?”
It really wasn’t too much to ask at all, but she couldn’t readily agree to it. First, she knew Louis liked her, and second, she didn’t forget Kevin’s warning that night.
“No? If you feel embarrassed, forget it.”
Louis felt hurt. She looked at his eyes, and felt that she was being cruel to him, “Okay, no problem.”
Unexpectedly, she agreed.
When she left the principal’s office, Louis didn’t smile, but closed his eyes in pain. It wasn’t that he wasn’t sad, but he just pressed the sadness all into his heart for the time being. He could wait two years, let alone three months.
Now all he could do was to wait for the man who divorced frequently, abandoning the woman he loved so much.
Kevin would be back tomorrow. Bella lay on his bed, and was quite reluctant to leave his perfect room despite of its colder tone.
She really hoped that he could travel for a year and a half, or let her finish this summer as well. It was a small wish, but it was difficult to achieve.
At night, she slept soundly, but suddenly through the window of the moon, saw a figure standing in front of her. She was shocked, turned sober and asked in panic, “Who are you?”
The bedside lamp was switched on, “Who do you think I am?”
Bella drew a breath of cold air. The person standing in front of her was actually Kevin. She began to fear and could already foresee what would happen to her.
“You… why are you back now?” I thought it was Wednesday. Did she remember the wrong date…
“I come back now to find out if you behave yourself while I am away.” Kevin’s eyes revealed a dangerous signal, “Bella, how dare you sleep in my bed…”
“Listen to my explanation. Don’t get angry. Calm down.”
Bella tried her best to calm him down. It was so late now. If he freaked out, he would have to wake up the whole family.
“You don’t need to explain. Your behavior is the best explanation. Since you want to be intimate with me so much, then I’ll make it happen.”
After Kevin said that, he took off the suit he was wearing angrily, threw it on the sofa, and pounced on her.
“What are you doing?!”
Bella just said that, and Kevin kissed her with his cold lips, and she opened her eyes wide in horror, like a petrified statue. He forced a kiss on her, instantly sticking his tongue out, hooking that soft tongue, endlessly obsessing.