Bella arrived at her uncle’s house, and knocked on the door. When he door opened, standing in front of her was her aunt Mika. Thinking about what her uncle had said during the day, she purposely looked at her a few more times, but found that her look was really a bit unusual.
“Are you okay?”
She asked softly, and really hoped that her uncle was lying to her.
Mika burst out in tears and fell to her knees in front of her and said, “Bella, please save your uncle. This is the last time Auntie will beg you. It’s really the last time…”
Bella was so disappointed.
She looked askance at her uncle, who was crouching at the corner, with his head in his hands, as if he had reached the end of his rope. The not very large house was filled with sadness.
“Is it true? Auntie, do you have liver cancer?”
Only then did Armand get up and handed her a pile of hospital reports. She read them one by one, and suddenly growled hysterically, “Why? Why did you know to call me when you were in trouble before, but not this time? You can tell me if you’re short of money, so why are you blindly embarking on a path of crime?!”
Mika cried, “We’ve caused you too much trouble in the past, so we’re too embarrassed to bother you anymore. Your uncle also wanted to go to you, but I stopped him. It’s already terminal cancer anyway, so I know there is not much time left in life….”
“You won’t let him come to me, you’ll let him deal drugs, won’t you? So now you’re still bothering me. If you had come to me in the first place, it wouldn’t be so complicated now!”
Bella was sad beyond words. Her own life was already messy enough, and her family members caused trouble for her.
“Bella, your aunt didn’t know about the deal with Richard. I couldn’t bear to see her wait for death, now I’ve come to terms with it. It doesn’t matter if you don’t help me. If your aunt dies, it’s meaningless for me to live alone…”
“You shut up!”
Mika turned and growled angrily at her husband, continuing to beg her, “Don’t listen to your uncle’s nonsense. You must save him. He is your mother’s only brother, your only family in the world besides your father. If he suffers, your mother who already passed away will definitely not feel at ease.”
Bella fell into a painful struggle, and became soft-hearted. Her aunt was still begging, “Bella, Bella, please…”
Armand felt upset to see his wife crying sadly, swooped over and hugged her, “Mika, don’t cry, you can’t stand it.”
The couple hugged and cried. Bella blankly felt envious. Although her uncle and aunt were profit-oriented and had many small defects, but this true love between each other was invaluable, at least what she and her mother never had.
“Okay, don’t even cry.”
She took out a bank card Blanche had given her from her bag and shoved it into her aunt’s hand, “Take this, you must cure the disease.”
“What about your uncle?”
Mika asked tearfully.
She hesitated and answered with difficulty, “I won’t leave him alone.”
On the way back, the shadow was sparse and the stars shone shallowly. Walking leisurely alone. The moonlight shone but she did not feel warm.
Thinking about her own messy life, for a while, she really didn’t know how to sort it out.
Passing a 24-hour department store, she walked in and bought a few cans of beer, and was ready to go home and get drunk. A well behaved teacher shouldn’t do this, but she also was a bad woman with a vengeful spirit.
It was exactly eleven o’clock when she got hack home. She crept up upstairs. Kevin Chi’s room was dark. Bella was afraid of waking him up, and didn’t turn on the light. On the halfway, she heard the charming voice, “Stop.”
The lights swished on. Kevin leaned on the bed, and lazily asked her, “What time is it?”
When she didn’t speak, he shifted his attention to the plastic bag she was carrying, “What’s that?”
“Beer.”
He sharply threw back the covers and jumped off the bed, and Bella was startled and thought he was coming to teach her a lesson, instinctively took two steps back. But the plastic in her hand was snatched away.
“How did you know I wanted a drink?”
She stared in amazement, explaining, “It’s not bought for you.”
Kevin didn’t care and sat on the sofa, patted the seat next to him, “It’s okay. We can drink together.”
He neatly opened a bottle and gulped. Bella helplessly shook her head, and really sat over.
“Why do you want a drink?” She asked glumly.
“Then why do you want a drink?” Kevin asked.
“I’m in a bad mood.”
“I’m just the opposite.”
She was startled, “Don’t tell me that the reason you’re in a good mood is because I’m feeling bad.”
“Exactly, when you’re in a bad mood, I’m suddenly feeling good.”
Bella glared at him sadly, “I knew you were lying. You clearly said you would treat me well that day, and now you’re aiming at me again.”
“I’m not aiming at you. I’m aware of the reason why you’re in a bad mood.”
“Do you know?”
Bella was a little incredulous.
“It’s because of him, the man who made out with you downstairs at Alice’s house that day.”
“….” What? How did Louis get involved again?
“Women usually want to drink when they’ve had a breakup. To be honest, did the guy dump you?”
She laughed bitterly, “It’s your wish, but unfortunately it’s not like that.”
“Do you dumped him?”
“Don’t make a wild guess. It has nothing to do with him.”
Kevin shrugged, “Whatever. I’m not interested in those man-woman relationships anyway.”
Bella completely believed that. He wasn’t just uninterested in her man-woman relationships, and he was uninterested in anything about her.
“But until we end this marriage, you’re not allowed to behave out of line with other men, and you’re not allowed to eat together with men occasionally. I won’t treat you rationally if I see you.”
“Can you do the same?”
Kevin raised his eyebrows, “So far, have you ever seen I have any real chemistry with other women?”
It was true that he didn’t behave out of line except for that time with Gillian. He didn’t explain, but she knew that it was Gillian who seduced him. Bella knew Gillian better than anyone else.
“Did Freya like getting some fun?”
She asked an off-topic question without warning, and Kevin felt the wine in mouth suddenly bitter and astringent.
He pretended not to hear and swigged. Bella looked at him and thought that this woman must be very important to him. Otherwise he wouldn’t look upset every time she was mentioned. It seemed that he was stuck in pain.
“Can you tell me about the love story between you? Actually, compared with your ex-wives, what I’m really interested in is this woman who’s making your life hell.”
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
Kevin tossed the empty bottle in his hand, got up and said, “It’s late, get rest.”
Every time she mentioned a sensitive topic, he deliberately avoided it, and it seemed that there was still a long distance between them.
Due to sleeping late and drinking, the next day, Bella got up very late. When she left the room, she found that there was someone who got up even later than her. She walked over and pushed Kevin on the bed, “Hey, don’t you have to go to the office today?”
He ignored her and she continued to push, “It’s almost noon. Get up and go to work.”
“You’re a grown man. Are you dispirited because of something I said last night?”
Kevin finally couldn’t stand her any longer and sat up in frustration and asked, “Why don’t you go to work?”
She replied woodenly, “I’m on summer vacation.”
“What? Civil servants can get a break. Can’t those of us who pay taxes get a break?”
“That’s not true.”
She curled her lip and turned to go downstairs with an angry expression.
At lunch, after a night of deep thought, Bella announced solemnly, “Mom and Dad, I’m going on a long trip later.”
“A long trip?”
They were all surprised and naturally looked askance at the Kevin. Kevin met the scrutinizing eyes and said, “Why are you all looking at me? It doesn’t have anything to do with me.”
“Yes, it’s nothing to do with him. My college friend is getting married and invites me over to be a bridesmaid.”
“Where are you going? When will you be back?”
“T City. I will be back in three or two days.”
“So are you okay on your own? Do you want someone to keep you company?”
“No, I’ll be fine on my own.”
After Bella informed the whole family, she went upstairs and started packing her luggage. In a while, Kevin languidly came in.
“Your classmate is getting married on such a hot day. Has she never married before? She is longing to marry, right?”
She rolled her eyes, “Do you think everyone gets married frequently like you? How can someone who has been married seven times understand the joy-filled and happy feeling of marrying the person you love for the first time.”
“Are you implying that I didn’t let you have that feeling, so you want to satisfy yourself from someone else?”
“So what if it is the case?”
“It’s not much, but unfortunately I’m just a bridesmaid. And the groom’s eyes will only remain on the bride.”
“That’s not necessarily true. Haven’t you heard that before? Happiness is contagious, when the people around you are happy and you will also be happy. Likewise when the people around you are unhappy and you will also be unhappy. I’m always surrounding with unfortunate you and it makes me feel unhappy too. So now I’m going to join the people who make me feel happy. Goodbye.”
Bella took the three o’clock flight that afternoon to fly to T City. Unexpectedly, she arrived at the Cottons before dark, only to be told that Braxton had run away from home.
As soon as Richard’s wife saw her, she was so anxious and said, “This boy was likely to look for you. You never came back to see him. He’s been missing you for a long time.”
Bella was also quite worried, “When did he disappear?”
Richard smoked his cigar, “In this afternoon. I was careless. At noon he pestered me to bring him to you, but I didn’t agree. I thought that he was just on a whim, but he really took it serious.”
“So what are you going to do now?”
Jennifer sobbed quietly, “I was discussing with Richard, but you came.” She looked at Bella with a rather grumbling look, “Why didn’t you come earlier? If it had been half a day earlier, Braxton wouldn’t have run away from home.”
Bella looked down and said apologetically, “I’m sorry. I didn’t expect this to happen.”
“Didn’t you think Braxton would be sad if he couldn’t wait for you? I see that you’ve been educated, and you don’t care about Braxton.”
Richard impatiently reprimanded, “It is not the time to argue about this. Let’s find the child first.”
“You guys stay at home. I’ll go back to find it alone.”
“It does not work. B City is so big. It’s hard for you to find him by yourself.”
“It’s okay. I have a friend whose father is from the Ministry of Public Security. I can ask him for help.”
After some deliberation, Richard agreed to her proposal. Bella non-stop returned to the airport to prepare to take the night flight back. But on the halfway back to the airport, it rained heavily. After arriving at the airport, staff regretfully told her that the last flight back to B city was canceled because of the rain.