Bella turned back and gazed at Louis. She was sorry but couldn’t say anything.
“For me, seeing you being happy is the only reason for me to live on.”
They gazed at each other for a long time, and finally, Bella silently walked away. She had always been very clear with Louis’s feelings for her. Unfortunately, she could not treat him with the same feelings.
There were not many guests in the wedding banquet hall. Louis might have the same mind as Kevin. Both of them didn’t want too many people to attend a loveless marriage ceremony.
When Bella found Kevin, he was drinking red wine by himself.
“What are you thinking about?”
She reached out and patted him on the shoulder and he shook his head, his eye blinking, “Nothing.”
“Don’t you ask me where I was?”
“You should be off to see the bride.”
Bella smiled, “You’re about to outguess me.”
She also poured a glass of red wine, lifted it up to toast with Kevin, and then took a small sip. The wedding has officially started. Looking at Alice taking the groom’s arm and trying to smile happily, Bella said with emotion, “Alice today is like me a year ago, who was actually nervous but still had to try to pretend to be happy.”
Kevin looked askance at her, “Louis is the same, right? He is obviously unhappy, yet he has to pretend to be happy.”
When Bella didn’t respond, Kevin continued, “Did he tell you the reason he married Alice?”
She just reacted, blinking a few times in a daze, “Did you see that we were just talking together?”
“Yes.”
Kevin looked down and took a sip of red wine, his expression unnatural, “I saw you guys gazing at each other for a long time …”
Bella giggled and asked incredulously, “Are you jealous?”
“Why am I jealous? Why would I be like that?”
“That’s why I’m asking you. Why did you do that? People who can’t be together will be jealous and you don’t fit the bill, do you?”
Kevin was stunned and suddenly grinned.
It was her first night as a newlywed. Alice was sitting on the sofa in Louis’s apartment, trembling. Yes, she was scared. She was very scared. She didn’t know how to face Louis or how to adapt to this new and unfamiliar environment.
She had her suitcase at her feet. There weren’t many things inside. In fact, most of her belongings were left in her house because she didn’t know how long this marriage that wasn’t based on love would last. So she wouldn’t move all of her things in to save herself the trouble of moving them all out in the future.
“Over there is the bedroom. Hang your clothes in there.”
Louis took a bottle of red wine and sat across from her, pouring a glass with an indifferent expression and drinking it.
After he finished a glass of red wine. Alice was still sitting in the same place and didn’t move. He raised his eyebrows, “What’s wrong?”
Alice shook her head nervously, “It’s fine. I’m still not quite used to it.”
“Then get used to it as soon as possible. From now on, you need to get used to our life as soon as possible.”
Hearing him say that, Alice mustered up the courage to carry her suitcase into the bedroom. It was spacious and clean, full of masculine atmosphere. She skimmed the bed he had slept on in the middle of the bedroom, her heart suddenly jumping. She actually had a little bit of anticipation for the wedding night, though she knew that it was impossible.
After tidying up, she walked out of the bedroom and came to Louis, embarrassed, “How long do you want to drink? Are you not going to rest?”
Louis looked up at her. He seemed to have been drunk, saying, “Come over and have a drink with me.”
Alice was hesitated, but still took a step to go to sit down in front of him, received his poured red wine. She gritted her teeth and drank it in one breath, though she was a light weight. She was dizzy now after drinking. Looking at Louis lovingly, through drinking stimulation, she suddenly reached out and held his neck, took the initiative to kiss his lips.
Louis stared at her in shock, and shook her off with force in the next second.
Alice was thrown to the ground, heartbroken. She bit her lip and silently got up and went into the bedroom.
She didn’t say anything. Louis wouldn’t know what kind of setback her pride had suffered. She hadn’t even dared to say the words ‘I like you’. Only she knew best how much courage it would take to take the initiative to kiss the man she liked.
She had been sitting on the edge of the bed like a fool for a long time. But suddenly the bedroom door was slammed open and Louis rushed in.
Before she could react, she had been pushed down on the bed by him, and then his kisses fell on her, very ungentle, even very rude.
He kissed her neck, kissed her chin, kissed her cheek, kissed her forehead, and alone, did not kiss her lips.
Alice knew that only they who loved each other would kiss each other’s lips lovingly, and she and Louis seemed far away from that.
“You’re drunk.”
She reached out to push him away, but he stopped her with a backhand, “I’m not drunk. Stop talking, it’s our wedding night.”
If he knew it was the wedding night, yet why did he say it sorrowfully.
Louis started to take off Alice’s clothes. Alice struggled hard, but slowly she stopped struggling and slowly closed her eyes to accept the reality that it was their wedding night. Whether she would feel aggrieved or not, she would have to experience it.
She slowly opened her eyes and saw the man on her body with a sweaty forehead, his body red and shiny from lust. But there was no lust in his eyes with an almost cold woodenness, as if he was performing a task that had to be performed.
Alice closed her eyes again, and after that, never dared to open them again.
At least this way, all she could feel was the pleasure of her body and no longer the pain of her heart.
On the wedding night, there were no regrets, and they became a real married couple in the true sense of the physical relationship.
Although, one of the most important things was missing.
Bella and Kevin did not go home directly after attending the wedding banquet, but went to the King Hills. On the 15th of every month, the King Hills would hold the lion dance. They didn’t go down the mountain until the late night at ten o’clock.
The car drove halfway and suddenly stopped. Bella was surprised and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“It looks like the engine is broken. I’ll go down and take a look.”
Kevin got out of the car. Bella sat in the car and did not move. A moment later, he knocked on the window, “Come down. It looks like we have to walk back.”
Bella got off the car and said decadently, “No way,. We just walked down from that high mountain. We must be exhausted if we walk back.”
“With me here, you won’t be exhausted.”
Kevin smiled dotingly, closed the door of the rear compartment, then squatted down, “Come up.”
Bella stared at him blankly, “Are you carrying me?”
“Why else would I squat down after you?”
She scratched her head, “I’d rather not. You should be tired too.”
“Come on up, I’m a man. It’s okay to be tired.”
Kevin tugged on her arm and pulled her down on his back, shouting, “A pig is carrying his daughter-in-law. Let’s go!”
Bella giggled on his back, just because he said he was a pig.
Kevin carried Bella all the way back home. Halfway she suggested a taxi but he did not agree. To the entrance of the Cloud Mansion, Bella said, “Put me down. We’re back to home. how embarrassed if we’re seen by parents.”
“It’s okay. They’re already asleep at this time.”
“Aren’t you tired? You’re addicted to carrying, right?”
Kevin shook his head, “I’m not tired. I was planning to carry you like this for the rest of my life.”
Bella felt warmed, her hands around Kevin’s neck. He rolled his eyes, “Oh, I can’t breathe. Do you want to murder your own husband?”
“Who’s going to murder you? I just watch you wobble in case you will drop me.”
She twisted him hard, and they went into the living room happily.
Patrick’s car had been following behind them. He went out tonight and came back late, but inadvertently saw his son and daughter-in-law being loving.
Sitting in the car, he looked unusually grave, pondering something seriously.
The next afternoon, Bella received a call from her father-in-law, who asked her to meet him at the tea house on Solomon Street.
To be honest, Bella was confused. She couldn’t figure out why her father-in-law could suddenly ask her to meet outside, but she still went to the appointment on time.
Sitting at the corner edge of the tea house, she asked timidly, “Dad, did you call me out for something?”
Patrick sighed and said, “Bella, don’t be nervous. What happened to Freya three years ago will never happen to you.”
The implication was that he was not asking her out to drive her away.
“Then what was it?”
She felt faintly uneasy.
“It’s about the baby.”
Bella’s hand shook, and the cup of tea that had just reached her hand fell to the floor, cracking and shattering.
“Calm down. Listen to me, I know you’re a good girl, and your mother-in-law and I like you from the bottom of our hearts, not to mention my son. But the matter of having heirs for our family is really important to a family like ours.”
Bella was flurried but on the surface, she still tried to remain calm, “What does Dad mean then?”
“Don’t ask me what I mean yet, but tell me what you think.”
“I … I … I and Kevin …”
She was about to say that she had decided to adopt a child with Kevin when her father-in-law interrupted her, “If you want to say that you have decided to adopt a child, then you don’t have to say anything. I won’t agree to it.”
He cooled Bella’s ardor and she trembled as she asked, “Why?”
“Because I don’t want centennial legacy my father created to fall into the hands of an outsider. I want a child that has the blood of our Jones-Sharps family in its veins. Bella, do you understand? I want a true bloodline of our Jones-Sharps family.”
Bella heard what her father-in-law said. Her heart ached and she shed tears, “So do you want me to leave?”
“No, I told you from the beginning that what happened to Freya would never happen to you. I just …”
Patrick was a bit unable to bear it.
Bella sniffed, “It’s okay. You can just say it.”
“I just want you to let Kevin go outside to have a child. You may feel aggrieved. You can raise this child as your own, and we won’t tell anyone that the child is not your own. Your position in our family will not change in any way.”
That night, she had heard the same words in front of her in-laws’ bedroom door. Thinking that this day was still far away, she didn’t expect that it would come after all, and so quickly.
The cruel reality wasn’t something she could escape from just because she wanted to. Bella knew that she had to face the reality and make a choice that suited both sides now.