His tone was still full of banter and Bella hatefully shook off his hand, and after cutting her teeth and cursing him as an asshole, she went into the apartment without looking back.
Lying in bed at night, the more she thought about it, the more abnormal she felt. The next day was the weekend and she wasn’t required to go to the office, so she sent a text message to Alice and asked her to meet her at a coffee shop.
Alice didn’t have Bella’s new phone number, so she didn’t know who the texter was, but Alice still showed up on time for her appointment.
Bella wore a white hat with a white scarf and a pair of black glasses, and when she stood in front of Alice, Alice didn’t recognize who was in front of her for a minute.
She slowly took off her sunglasses and pulled the ruff down a bit, revealing most of her face, and Alice got up in shock, “Bella-”
Bella made a motion to hush, using her eyes to indicate that she didn’t want her to be noticed.
But Alice couldn’t restrain herself, pulling her to sit down beside her and asking in surprise and delight, “How can it be you? I can’t believe my eyes. Am I dreaming?!”
“You’re not dreaming.”
Bella pinched her cheek, “It hurts, right? I am your good friend Bella.”
Alice was so excited that she hugged her and said with a choked voice, “Bella, I miss you. You’re so heartless. Where have you been for the past two years!!!”
“It’s a long story. You untie me, and I’ll tell you slowly.”
Bella recounted her recent situation in the past two years. Alice was surprised to raise her eyebrows after hearing it, “So, you’ve actually been living with your uncle and aunt, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Are they treating you well?”
In Alice’s impression, Armand and his wife only saw their niece as an ATM or a crisis resolution expert.
“It’s good. They’ve changed a lot, unlike in the past when they would only cause me trouble, so I’ve actually had a really good time these past two years.”
Alice had mixed feelings, holding her hand and nodding, “It is good. I’m happy for you that you’re doing well. You do look better now than before.”
“Right, I have a question I want to ask you.”
This was the main purpose of Bella asking Alice out today.
“What kind of question?”
“Is Kevin … he’s married?”
“Who’s he marrying?” Alice was surprised by the question.
“Freya.”
“Well, they broke up long ago.”
Bella’s heart thudded, “Why?”
“You don’t know that woman has messed their family up. Since you left Kevin, he drowned his sorrows with wine every day but also entangled with many women. Freya couldn’t bear her anger and caused trouble for the family every day. Finally, she lost the child. So she had no amulet, but she didn’t want to leave the Jones-Sharp family. Thus, she set a trap in which she fell down the stairs herself but falsely accused your mother-in-law of pushing her down the stairs by mistake, and then the scheme was broken up and she was thrown out.”
“Who did you hear that from?”
“I met your mother-in-law on the street once, so I talked to her for a while and heard it from her.”
Bella glumly shifted her gaze out of the window and was speechless for a long time. It was again unexpected. She thought that Kevin and Freya were already married and had a lovely child, but she had never thought that that child was miscarried and they didn’t get together. She might be happy, but why was she so hopelessly sad?
She couldn’t help but ask herself were you really happy to see that he didn’t have a better life than you?
The answer was no. In fact, she wanted him to have a good life, even if he wasn’t with her.
“Kevin has changed a lot in the past two years. I saw him a few times on different occasions, but he just nodded to me and didn’t even say a word to me. By the way, he also moved out of his house after driving out Freya. It was a while ago that he moved back. I heard that he had a problem with his father and he also created his own new company.”
“I know.”
Bella nodded in dismay.
“Do you know? How do you know?”
“I’m working in his company right now.”
“What?”
Alice stared incredulously.
It was only after listening to Bella’s explanation that she suddenly realized what was going on. She cautiously probed, “Then you heard that he’s still single, do you plan to be with him now?”
“No.”
Bella answered almost without thinking.
“Why?”
“He didn’t get together with Freya, but it doesn’t mean we can go back to the past. I was just tired when Freya didn’t get involved before. His family wanted grandchildren, but I couldn’t satisfy their wishes, so I’ll face the same problem when I go back now. I gritted my teeth and got on with it because I really couldn’t give up that relationship, but now that I’m out. There’s no need to go back or else I just ask for troubles.”
Alice understood her feelings, and it was not good to say anything more. They talked about their respective lives for a whole afternoon, and when they parted, Bella asked her, “Don’t tell anyone about what I did in B City, okay? I’ll be out of here by the end of the job, and I probably won’t be back later, so you just pretend I never returned.”
“Yeah!”
Alice nodded heavily, “But no more losing contact with me, we’re best friends for life.”
“Alright.”
After hugging, they reluctantly said goodbyes and each left lonely in the opposite direction …
Knowing the outcome of Kevin and Freya, Bella didn’t express it to him directly, still pretending to be unaware of it.
On Wednesday, Bella was menstruating. When she was about to finish work, her stomach ached and she felt a wet patch on her lower body. She sat on the seat and did not dare to move, forcibly endure the discomfort.
It was very tragic that she wore a pair of white pants this morning and they weren’t asked to work overtime today. At five o’clock, colleagues began to pack things to get ready to leave work when she sat in her seat motionless. The team leader of R&D asked, “Do you not leave work?”
“I’m leaving soon.”
She was about to call out to the only female colleague in the office to come over and help, but that girl was rushing out so quickly, and before she could open her mouth, her colleague was gone in a flash.
Forget it, it was better to stick to it until dark. After all the staffs of the whole building were off work, no one would find her in a mess.
But she felt her stomach more and more painful and her face was pale, cold sweat flowing non-stop. Somehow her menstrual pain was particularly severe, just like being strangled by a knife in the stomach.
Time passed minute by minute. Suddenly, the office door was pushed open. Kevin probed and asked, “Why didn’t you get off work?”
The R&D team’s office was in front of the president’s office, and every time they finished work, they had to pass by the president’s office door, and the wall adjacent to the president’s office and the door was all transparent glass, so no matter which person passed by, the man sitting inside could see clearly.
And Kevin just didn’t see Bella pass by. So only after finishing work, he would stop by to have a look but didn’t expect that she really didn’t leave.
Bella looked up and glanced at him said nothing, and her head rested on her arm again, continuing to lie down.
Kevin saw that she was pale, approached, and asked, “Are you uncomfortable?”
She still didn’t speak because it was something that was really awkward to talk about.
“If you don’t feel well, go to the hospital. What are you doing sitting here?”
He forcefully tried to pull her up, and when he saw that she had one hand over her stomach and was wearing white pants, he understood everything.
Quickly taking off his suit and then tying it around her waist, he said, “Okay, let’s go.”
Bella surprised to look up to measure him, and looked down to skim the clothes on her waist, having contradictory feelings. She felt uneasy to tie the president’s clothes on her out, but the stomach was so painful she couldn’t hold on. If she was concerned for reputation, she was likely to faint here, and then Kevin would definitely carry her out. Compared with these, she still chose to tie his clothes out.
Kevin drove her to the apartment, and when she got off, she said softly, “Thank you, the clothes will be returned to you when I wash them clean.”
Seeing that she couldn’t even stand still, Kevin got out of the car, assisted her, and said, “Let’s walk you in.”
He kept sending her to the front door of the apartment, and Bella broke away from his hand and said weakly, “Just stop here.”
Kevin nodded, said nothing, and drove away.
Bella stared at his car disappeared with a sad sigh, took out the key, and opened the door entering the room. She took a hot shower and changed into clean laundry clothes before lying tiredly on the bed.
Her stomach still hurt, so she curled up under the covers and after ten minutes or so she heard the sound of the doorbell ringing.
Bracing herself to get out of bed and open the door in the living room, she froze as the door opened, “Why aren’t you gone?”
Kevin was carrying a shopping bag in his hand, but she didn’t know what was in it. He walked straight into the living room and took out a warm heating pad from the shopping bag, “Go lie down on the bed.”
Bella was helped by him in a daze and walked into the bedroom, covering the blanket for her. He plugged in the warm heating pad, then he turned around and went to the living room again.
Soon there was the sound of gas igniting in the kitchen …
Five minutes later, Kevin came in with a bowl of bubbling hot brown sugar water, “Drink this.”
Bella was startled and looked at him for a few seconds, got up, and took the bowl of brown sugar water, and drank it in small gulps. She felt a warmth flow through her body whether it was because she drank the brown sugar water or because of the person who boiled it for her.
The warm heating pad was already fully charged. Kevin found a towel and wrapped it around her, then lifted the blanket, and placed it on her belly.
His thoughtfulness made her feel strange and familiar, and even the taste of the brown sugar water became sweet and astringent.
“What did you cook it with?”
“Ginger, wormwood, and brown sugar.”
Well, she grinned, “You really know how to take care of a woman now.”
She drank it all in one go and handed him the bowl, “Thanks.”
After taking the bowl to the kitchen, Kevin went back to the bedroom and said to her, “I’m leaving. You can call me if you feel uncomfortable.”
When he turned to leave, Bella suddenly grabbed his hand and said in a pitiful voice, “Wait. Wait until I fall asleep before you leave, okay?”
Kevin looked at her in a condescending manner, and nodded for a while, “Okay.”
He sat on the sofa and took a magazine and looked at it seriously, and Bella was lying on the bed looking at him, feeling very sad.
“How long will it take you to fall asleep if you keep looking at me like this?”
Kevin didn’t look up but he knew that Bella was looking at him as if he had eyes growing above his head.
Bella rolled over and closed her eyes, a glistening tear slipped down …
Half an hour later, her stomach stopped hurting, and Kevin still sat on the couch without leaving, so she lifted the covers and got out of bed.
“What are you doing?” He was surprised.
“My stomach doesn’t hurt anymore, but I’m a little hungry, so I guess you’re hungry too, I’ll make something we can eat together.”
Kevin didn’t stop her. Bella went to the kitchen, didn’t make anything else, but two bowls of tomato egg noodles.
She got the effect she wanted when Kevin came to the living room and saw the tomato egg noodles she had already cooked, with a flash of pain in his eyes.
He would never forget that winter when she said that the happiest thing was to eat tomato egg noodles late at night with the man she loved.
“There wasn’t any food in the fridge, so I simply cooked two bowls of noodles. Make do with it.”
“Alright.”
They sat down facing each other, and Kevin took a bite of the noodles, still tasting the same as he remembered as her.
“I know.” Bella paused, “About you and Freya.”
Then, suddenly, Kevin’s hand froze, and the noodles to his mouth were put back into the bowl, “So what?”
“Why didn’t you tell me when I asked you?”
“Because I’m not going to get back together with you. Why are I telling you this?”
Bella was sulky and said stubbornly, “Same here. I have no intention of getting back together with you. I can’t have children. Even if you had that idea, I’ve had enough of living like your family.”
“That’s fine. Let’s live our own lives from now on.”
He got up and said with a sidelong glance, “Quintin is a nice man, and his family has two brothers, if you’re interested in him as well, you shouldn’t get bored with their family life.”
“Don’t bother. I’m considering it!”
The tears welled up in her eyes but she stubbornly refused to shed tears. On what grounds should she shed tears for this heartless man again and again!
“I’m leaving. You rest early.”
Watching him step out of her line of sight, Bella suddenly lost control and cried out, “Why? Why did you name your company LoveBella?”
Kevin stopped his pace but didn’t look back, “Maybe I loved you then, but I don’t love you now. I don’t look back but move on. I’m used to hanging around with different women now, so I don’t want to be restrained by anyone.”
“Why do you care about me if you don’t love me anymore?!”
“I would be sympathetic even to an ordinary employee, not to mention that you are a representative sent by the partner, and I have an obligation to take care of you on my turf.”
Bella was furious. She strode up to Kevin and grabbed his arm and roared, “Look me in the eye and tell me that you only care about me because I’m a representative of the cooperative, not because I’m Bella!”