In the evening after dinner, Lena suggested, “Bella, let’s play the cards, shall we?”
She readily agreed, “Yeah.”
Turning around, she asked Kevin, “Do you play?”
Kevin glared at her, “Only children play it. Do you think I would play with it?”
“Dad and Mom play it too. Are you saying Dad and Mom are kids?”
He raised his eyebrows, “For me where time is money and a minute is equal to ten million dollars. I’m not going to waste my time playing these silly games with you guys.”
Bella snorted, “Okay then.”
She said to Lena, “He doesn’t join us, so let’s play ourselves.”
Kevin went upstairs. Bella and Lena, as well as the in-laws sat at the marble table in the living room to play poker. She rarely played this, so she was naturally poor at it. After playing for a few hours, she lost a lot of money.
There came a text message. She casually glanced at it, “Have you lost all your money? Come back to bed when you’ve lost all money.”
“How do you know I lost money?”
She quickly replied to him, blaming Kevin. It must be this guy had been cursing her to lose money.
Blanche was more excited. Watching Lena and Bella yawning, she threatened, “All cheer up. I won’t let you guys go to sleep until you will your money back.”
Bella was annoyed. Blanche was an expert poker player. It would be impossible for her to win Blanche’s money.
It didn’t matter to Lena, because she was already fond of playing cards, though she also kept losing again.
“Just because you’re so stupid that you can’t even swim, I’m sure you’re losing money.”
“Am I stupid if I can’t swim? I also have a lot of advantages that you don’t know about.”
Kevin sent a mocking expression, “Besides being able to read and teach, what else do you know? Idiot.”
“Then the only one who loves an idiot is a fool.”
Patrick had long been sleepy. Seeing Bella text message non-stop, can’t help but voice a protest, “Bella, focus on winning your mom’s money. Aren’t you going to let us rest?”
She scratched her head in embarrassment, “Don’t count on me. If you count on me, we aren’t going to sleep tonight.”
When Blanche heard this, she was in even higher spirits and laughed, “It seems that I am invincible in this family. Next time we won’t gamble, we’ll bet on obedience, and whoever loses, she will listen to the winner.”
Lena retorted, “Putting aside gamble, who would dare not listen to you in this house?”
“Does your brother listen to me?”
“He’s not human. He’s from Mars.”
Bella couldn’t help but snicker, texting Kevin, “Your sister said you’re from Mars.”
“Are you guys playing cards or are you bad-mouthing me? You have five minutes, come right back to bed.”
She texted an aggrieved look, “It’s not that I don’t want to go to bed. In fact, I want to sleep, but mom said that anyone who doesn’t win her money won’t leave.”
After a while, the clock on the wall pointed to twelve o’clock. Bella already owed Blanche a large amount of money, and Kevin came down.
He walked up to Bella as if nothing had happened, pulled a chair and sat down. Bella wondered, “A minute of you is equal to ten million dollars. Can you waste your time like this?”
“Concentrate on playing your cards.”
He refuted her in this way, and then looked at Lena, “And you also concentrate on it.”
Bella originally quite concentrated, but Kevin sat to her side, she instead fell distracted. She played the cards haphazardly. Kevin caressed the forehead and sighed, attached to her ear said, “Look at your skill. All of my properties can be lost by you.”
“Then you play it.”
Bella muttered in frustration, and casually played the cards.
“Hey, brat, your wife owes me a lot of money, help her pay it back.”
Blanche had a look at her son, and raised eyebrows in pride.
Kevin pulled out a wad of cash from his wallet, “Is it enough?”
“Almost done.”
As the round ended, Kevin patted Bella’s shoulder, “You, come here.”
“What for?”
Bella was confused, not quite understanding what he meant.
“I’ll show you what it means to be a master.”
She sneered, “A master is just losing your wife to someone else.”
As the in-laws listened to her, they were first stunned, then asked, “When did you lose your wife to someone else?”
Kevin snorted, “Is it okay to do it on purpose?”
“Oh, okay.”
They didn’t dare to ask more questions. Kevin played poker with his parents instead of Bella. Bella didn’t expect that Kevin would win big in the first game.
Next, he won the second game, and the third game. Except for Blanche, everyone was quite happy, because soon they could go to sleep.
By the sixth game, Blanche had lost all her money, and she pounded the table in displeasure, “I’m exhausted. Let’s continue tomorrow night.”
Bella carried a pile of banknotes upstairs and said smilingly, “If you go bankrupt in the future, you can rely on gambling to get rich again.”
Kevin snorted disdainfully, “If I go bankrupt, then the Earth is about to extinct.”
“But why haven’t you slept until now?”
“If I fall asleep, who’s going to save you from it?”
“Forget about it. Your mother is amazing.”
Bella was worried remembering Blanche’s smart face, “But you’re even better.”
“Haven’t you ever heard of a saying? There’s no parent in the world who’s ever won their children.”
“That’s true.”
She went to the bathroom to take a shower with her pajamas and when she came out, Kevin was already on the bed. She went to sleep directly. Kevin pushed her, “Hey, are you sleeping like that?”
“What are you doing without sleep?”
“What do you think…”
Bella waved in confusion, “How the hell should I know. All I know is that I’m tired and sleepy.”
“Then what am I waiting for you for now?”
Kevin poked in through her nightgown, and Bella couldn’t help but spill out a moan, “Stop it, I’m really exhausted.”
“Are you so tired of just playing cards?”
“And last night, …”
Kevin wanted to laugh, but looking at her tired look, he finally kissed on her forehead lightly, “Good night, baby.”
Early in the morning, when Bella got up, Kevin had gone out. She called him in a hurry, “Hey, when did you leave? Why don’t you even wake me up?”
“You were sleeping soundly.”
“I’ll meet you at the office later then. There’s something I’d like to discuss with you.”
“What is it?”
“That project about Pueblo. Didn’t you promise to give it to my father? Would it be possible for me to sign a contract with him?”
“Well yes.”
Kevin paused, “The contract is in the middle drawer of my study room. You can just take it.”
“Thank you, then I’ll let him sign it and send it to you to the office.”
“Good.”
Bella hung up the phone and breathed a long sigh of relief. She could destroy the evidence in Gillian’s hands, and it wasn’t too late to confess to Kevin after that.
The evidence against her was simply annoying, and she would never let Gillian easily ruin her happiness.
After tidying up, she went to Kevin’s study room, pulling open the middle drawer. There were many documents. She flipped through them one by one. Suddenly, she saw a photo pressed on the bottom of the drawer. It was a photo of three people. The person on the left was Kevin. The one in the middle was Freya, and the one on the right……
She was suddenly surprised and covered her mouth, staring at the man carrying a guitar. Wasn’t that man the bandleader she had met in Paris a few days ago, Parker?
How could it be him? How could it be him?
Bella suddenly collapsed in Kevin’s office chair, shaking her hand holding the photo. Was it that this person was Kevin’s cousin, Parker who took Freya away?
Conrad was Parker. She was so startled… The world was so big, but why did she meet Kevin’s cousin? She was in a panic. What should she do? Should she tell Kevin about meeting Conrad?
Bella was in a deep struggle and uncertainty. She really never dreamed that she would meet such a person in Paris. So was Freya also in Paris?
What would happen if she told Kevin? Would he go there to find her? He would be bound to go. He was so proud and betrayed by the woman he loved and his closest brother, even if he was to seek justice for himself…
But what about afterwards? What would happen when he saw Freya? Would it be like the last time he washed the tattoo and easily loved her again?
Bella had never been so worried before, and after thinking it over, she decided to confess to Blanche first and see what Blanche would say.
She came downstairs and Blanche was listening to the opera leisurely with her eyes closed, “Mom.” She called out softly.
Blanche opened her eyes and asked gently, “What’s wrong?”
“I have something to say to you.”
“What is it?”
“The last time I was in Paris, I met someone.”
“Who?”
Blanche’s face fell a little, as if she had a hunch of what she would say.
“Your nephew, Conrad.”
“How do you know it’s my nephew? You shouldn’t have seen him before.”
Bella recounted the story of how she met Parker, and then confessed frankly about the photos she had just seen in Kevin’s study, and after hearing her finish, Blanche sighed deeply.