As she curled up, she got into Kevin’s warm embrace and closed her eyes.
The surroundings quieted down and Kevin turned off the bedside lamp, but then Bella suddenly asked, “Kevin, can I ask you a question?”
“Well? What’s the problem? You ask.”
“Do you like children?”
Kevin suddenly stiffened, and after a few seconds of silence, he asked, “Why do you ask this?”
“It’s just a casual question. Do you like children?”
“I don’t feel annoyed with them.”
“So do you want a baby?”
Bella didn’t have to think about how Kevin would answer. He did want children. He had proposed having children a long time ago, when he wasn’t even attached to her.
“Do you want to hear the truth?”
“Sure.”
“I don’t want to have a child.”
Bella was shocked. She sat up straight in the darkness and asked him, “What did you say?”
“I said I don’t want a child.”
Her astonishment of the moment was beyond description. She shakily questioned, “Why?”
“Because if you have a child, your mind won’t be on me, whether it’s in reality or in those dramas that Lena watches. Once a woman has a child, she’ll be indifferent to her husband and focus all her energy on the child.”
“Are you serious?”
Bella’s voice choked, but she tried to suppress herself from crying out. It would be too abnormal for her to cry in such a normal conversation.
“It’s true.”
He angrily pulled her back into his arms, hugged her and said, “I just need to have you. I don’t want anything else.”
Bella bit her lip so hard, tearful, and finally, she tried not to cry.
“I thought that you wanted a child of your own like all successful men.”
“I’ve never felt successful, so I’m not like successful men. Whether you think me selfish or ruthless, I really don’t want a child right now.”
Bella’s tears finally fell down, just not noticed by Kevin.
Even though his words were cruel, Bella felt much better in her heart.
It was as if there was a burden on her heart, but Kevin suddenly moved the burden elsewhere, giving her a brief chance to breathe.
This night, she slept very soundly. After dawn, the moment she opened her eyes, she saw the sunlight reflecting in from the window, thin and long, glinting on her body directly.
She stretched out her palms, and the sunlight traveled through her fingers, and with a fistful of palms, the sunlight seemed to be clutched into her hands. She climbed up, deciding to start to be positive from today and to be the indestructible person again.
After eating breakfast, she went to school energetically. Alice had been discharged from the hospital. They met and had a lot to chat about. Looking at the residual scars on the back of her friend’s hand, Bella was very distressed. But Alice does not think so, she cheerfully said, “It was fortunate that the scar isn’t on the face. I should all open champagne to celebrate.”
After two classes in the morning, during the lunch break at noon, Alice suddenly came to her in a hurry and said in a low voice, “Bella, you should turn on the computer.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Just open it quickly and see.”
Bella felt a bad premonition, and quickly turned the computer on. Alice clicked on the local news, and suddenly, a big headline flashed into Bella’s eyes – “Gold Digger to Marry a Gentry, Abandoning a Ten-Year Fool Fiancé
She was shocked and nearly fainted. With anger and shock in her mind, she quickly scanned the contents of the report. Bella didn’t know who did that. But they fumbled the agreement between her and Richard clearly, and even a lot of the language was against the facts, saying that she had been promised a daughter-in-law to the Li family’s foolish son by the Cotton family’s grace. But when she became an adult, she didn’t keep her promise in order to attach herself to the rich and powerful, to step into high society by ignoring the marriage contract. The report content described the Cotton family as innocent and pitiful, and described her more shameless than the slut Madame Bovary. Bella was angry and smashed the mouse, running out of the office.
Alice worried behind her, and followed her to a secluded place. Bella was bawling. She decided to fight to her own ruthless fate today, but now such a thing happened to make her collapse. When should her life stop being in a mess? She was really going crazy, and she was really really close to not being able to hold on…”
“Bella, don’t feel bad. A clean hand wants no washing. I know better than anyone that you’re not like what’s circulating on the internet!”
Alice was anxious to reassure her, and she was very angry and sad.
“What’s the use of you being clear? What will people think of me? From now on, I’m just a gold digger despising the poor and currying favor with the rich in their eyes!”
“Don’t care what others think. Isn’t there a saying that do not care about others’ judgment, just be yourself? Bella, be strong. Up to now, you have experienced any difficulties, so you can completely ignore these little things.”
Bella squatted to the ground, hands covering her forehead, tears falling down, “Now how can I pretend that nothing has happened? My current identity is not Bella, but the wife of Kevin. Not only I feel ashamed, but also the Jones-Sharp family loses face. How can I face my in-laws, and their friends and relatives frankly?”
She was heartbroken without warning, and she was powerless and desperate for her life once again.
Bella cried for a long time, and Alice stayed with her for a long time and said a lot of comforting words, but those words didn’t work in the slightest.
They returned to the office and were greeted by complicated and despicable eyes, mostly from female colleagues. Bella was not popular at school. There was nothing wrong with her character, but she was too good. The good people were isolated always, and she was naturally no exception.
Louis’s affection for her was already making female colleagues jealous, and she had married the legendary devil into a wealthy family. With those charges, it was hard not to be isolated. In the past she was also indifferent, doing her jobs dutifully, but now, all those female colleagues had seen the news, so naturally, they would not let her go easily.
“Oh my, Mrs. Burne-Brown, what is going on here? Why are you so well off to be engaged to a fool in the first place?”
“Yeah, the news is way over the top, describing the perfect Mrs. Burne-Brown as being morally degraded. You should sue them!”
“It’s the age of free love and everyone has the right to pursue a life of riches, and these people are really busybody to even be in charge of that.”
…
A group of female teachers gathered around Bella’s desk gossiping. Alice was so angry that her face was livid, and she was about to defend her and to go forward to speak for Bella when suddenly a cold growl came from the side of the office door.
“What are you gossiping? The school invited you here to teach students, not to gossip about other people’s private affairs!”
All of them looked at the door, and once they saw that it was Louis, they all took their places and shut up.
Louis gave a meaningful glance to Bella, said nothing, turned around and walked away.
Others may not understand the meaning of his eyes, but Alice can understand. That was the concern and care for Bella.
Bella did not say a word from the beginning to the end. Soon, her mobile phone rang. First some known numbers called, then some unknown numbers came in. Her mobile phone kept ringing. She didn’t want to answer anyone’s phone, so she resolutely turned off her mobile phone.
Turning off her phone didn’t help at all. The office phones started ringing in an endless stream, and even the landlines of other teachers besides hers followed suit.
She closed her eyes in pain, and after a moment of silence, she packed her things and left without returning. The name Bella was not famous, and she knew it very well that if she wasn’t the daughter-in-law of the Jones-Sharp family today, no one would be interested in her affairs, not to mention that she wasn’t that kind of gold digger. Even if she was, that would be perfectly normal. But because she was the wife of Kevin, this matter was no longer normal.
Bad news had wings. In a short afternoon, all the streets and alleys of B city, from 80-year-old people to 10-year-old children, all knew that there was a woman named Bella who abandoned her stupid boyfriend in order to marry into a rich family. The common people shared the same psychology and position. They had a hostile mentality towards the officials and the businessmen and despised and hated those who wanted to marry into a rich family.
Bella came to the Jones-Sharp Group, not surprisingly saw the same eyes as in the school. But these people were more or less afraid of her because of her identity, unlike those female colleagues looking at her boldly.
She came to the ninth floor, pushed open the door of the secretary’s office, and asked with empty eyes, “Is Kevin here?”
“Mr. Jones-Sharp is always in there.”
Alvin wasn’t surprised at all by her arrival, and must have seen the news as well.
Bella walked directly into the CEO’s office without knocking, then she stopped in front of Kevin’s desk, standing while looking down for a moment before she said, “I’m sorry.”
Kevin sighed, got up and walked around to her, pressed her shoulder and asked, “Why are you apologizing?”
She looked up slowly, red-eyed, and said, “Didn’t you see the news?”
“Yes, I saw it.”
He replied with conviction, “But I don’t think you need to apologize to anyone.”
“You’re bothered about me. There should be a lot of people mocking at you now, Kevin.”
“It doesn’t matter. Let them make fun of it. I’ve never been one to care about gossip. Besides, I’m not the only one who has an affair today.”