“Bella!”
Kevin berated, “You think I’m that kind of person? I told you there is nothing between us. You know how much I hate her, why did you still say those words to irritate me?”
“You’re irritated? What you are irritated about? My husband secretly met his first love, I didn’t even get angry, what are you so angry about? Do you deserve to be angry?”
Bella went berserk. At the thought that Kevin and Freya had secrets between them, she was exasperated as if swallowing gunpower and even wanted to perish with Kevin together.
On this night, they gave each other silent treatment. And after following three nights, she kept doing the silent treatment. No matter what kind of ideas that Kevin came up with to make his peace with her, she just stuck to her principles: ignore him, keep stonyhearted, not compromise.
After five days of standoff, Freya came to visit them one day.
On that sunny afternoon, Bella was watching a movie in the living room. Bella was still ignoring him, but he was sitting beside her and reading a book as if nothing happened between them.
A beam of light resting on his face flattered his handsome profile with beautiful contour and his high nose.
She then looked away and kept watching the movie. At this time, Freya came. All of a sudden, Bella felt the outside went dark and the sunlight disappeared. Here came a dark heavy cloud that made her hard to breathe.
“Kevin, do you want to continue our conversation from where we left last time?”
Kevin looked away from the book in his opposite direction and remained silent for few seconds. He looked expressionless and later stood up, “Come with me.”
Freya went upstairs at his heel.
Bella turned off the TV and followed them quickly. This was her home, she wanted to see what the two wanted to do on earth.
Seeing Bella came to the study, Kevin said euphemistically, “Bella, please give us a minute, I need to talk to her about private business.”
Bella froze as Kevin asked her out and treated her as an outsider.
She turned around furiously and snapped closed the door.
Downstairs, she comforted herself not to get mad. Why did they need to know each other’s secrets? The darkest place in the world was one’s heart.
With time passing by and waiting anxiously, she finally heard the sound of Freya’s high heel going downstairs. It sounded harsh and unsettling.
“Mrs. Jones-Sharp, I’m leaving.”
Freya cracked a meaningful smile at her. Bella was even angrier as she couldn’t figure out what her smile meant.
“Oh, I forgot to tell you. Men are nostalgic creatures, especially dedicated men. Once they are committed to a person, they would love her more than he hates them regardless of what that person has done to break his heart.”
That stark provocation infuriated Bella. She has been pregnant for six months now and had to put up with Freya flaunting in front of her. How could she tolerate this? After Freya left, she refrained from her anger and went upstairs.
“What do you want to do now? You don’t want to live with me anymore? You want to go back with Freya again?”
Kevin was meditating with his eyes closed, but now Bella’s abrupt query stirred him to stand up with weariness in his eyebrows, “Bella, how many times I have explained to you, I saw Freya just to figure out something. It’s not the kind of relationship that you think of. She doesn’t have a thing for me now.”
“Who do you fooling? She doesn’t have a thing for you? She just showed off to me that you love her more than hating her.”
“She was teasing you deliberately. Just ignore her.”
“Hmm, teasing me, how easy you put it. So you are defending her right now?”
“No, I’m not defending for her, I just don’t’ want you to fret over someone insignificant. There is really nothing between us. Even if I die, there is nothing between us.”
“If there is nothing between you guys, why did you shun me out? What kind of private business that you have to avoid your lawful wife? Haven’t you promised me that you won’t keep any secrets from me anymore?”
Kevin sighed with his eyes registering more tiredness, “Bella, there is no secret, just some…”
“Just some business matter and I shouldn’t ask since I’m pregnant, right?” Bella sneered, “Don’t pull up the same excuse to fob me off, I had enough.”
She walked out of the study and shut the door angrily. She had thought that it was just some problems on business but now it seemed not that easy.
Lying with her face down on the bed, she was drowning in tears, somehow feeling aggrieved.
Not knowing how long she was indulging in her grievance, someone patted her on her back, “Alright, please don’t cry, I feel bad when seeing you crying like this.”
She reached out her hands and shrugged off his arms, “Stop shedding your crocodile tears.”
“Can we stop fighting over an outsider?” Kevin stooped down to her and held her into his arms, saying, “Nobody is more important than you and our children.”
Bella felt a little better but was irritated by what he said next.
“Let’s move up the trip to Vienna a few days earlier. You set off the day after tomorrow. I have rescheduled the ticket.”
She pushed him away violently and said with her teeth gripped, “You desperately want to send me away? But I’m the one who makes the final call!”
After the quarreling, Kevin found out that Bella ran away from home the next day. She didn’t inform anyone. Util the train started to move did she texted Kevin, “I’m leaving, you can do whatever you want now.”
Kevin was angry and anxious. He arranged people to search for her far and near. And he also went to the airport to look up Bella’s boarding record but in vain. She didn’t go abroad.
He was thinking hard but still couldn’t know where she would possibly go. If Armond and his wife didn’t come to B City, he might have thought that she went to F City. But since there were no relatives of hers there, she wouldn’t go there. Even so, he called Quintin and asked him to keep an eye on her. If Bella went there, he asked Quintin to inform him immediately.
The search in the morning was fruitless, Blanche almost called the police. Her daughter-in-law was bearing her two grandchildren. What if there was anything happened to her? While his mother was nagging, Kevin suddenly remembered that Bella went to bad late the other night. When he woke up and saw her still watching the TV. It was a true story documentary named The 6000-Step-Long Love For 56 Years. What had impressed him most was that Bella couldn’t stop crying.
He didn’t pay attention to what the documentary was about and was just comforting her. But Bella said something that he couldn’t forget. She said I wanted to see whether this love actually existed.
Then Kevin seemed to have a premonition. He opened the computer and typed The 6000-Step-Long Love For 56 Years and there came lots of relevant reports. He browsed through them quickly. It was a true story about a couple with ten years of age difference who fell in love with each other. They retreated to live in the mountain for few decades to escape the worldly gossip about them. What was the most impressive part was that the man who was ten years younger than the woman actually spent 56 years building a love ladder for his beloved one. It was such a moving love story. Kevin was very much impressed by it. No wonder his wife would be so tearful. Even a man like him thought this love was not easy.
He was sure that Bella went to the love ladder. He looked up the route on the internet and started his journey to chase his wife.
Sitting on the train, he looked at the bleak landscape outside the window. It was his first time taking the train. His wife Bella would always bring him some fresh experience. At this moment, had it not been looking for her, how could he sit on this boisterous train.
When thinking about their tepid way of treating each other for the last few days, he felt distressed. He didn’t want his beloved woman to suffer any grievance. But there was something he couldn’t tell her right now. At least, it was not the right time given to her current situation. He even couldn’t accept it, let alone she could take it.
When thinking about certain things, he started feeling cold and couldn’t help shivering.
He took out his phone and called Alvin, “Alvin, I’m leaving B City and heading to L City.”
Though Alvin had changed his name, Kevin was still used to call him Alvin, a name Kevin has been calling for ten years.
“Stay tight with Celeste, I want her to stay down this time forever, to stay in prison and live miserably for the rest of her life.”
“You have collected all the information for the Anti-Corruption Bureau, right? Discuss with your father later, if there are no problems, you can hand in all the material.”
“Ok, call me if anything happens. I’m not sure when I come back.”
…
It took a night for the train to arrive in F City. After getting off, Kevin headed to his destination right away. In the remote mountain area, there were some hotels. He asked one by one whether a woman, named Bella, aged 28, with 6 months pregnancy, checked in.
But his effort was fruitless after inquiring about several hotels. He was frustrated, kicking away the stone near his foot. That woman was always in a fit shape. Other women were exhausted while just bearing one baby, but she bore two babies and didn’t feel tired at all.
Surprisingly, she could still go out traveling, living more freely than a man.
He persisted in searching. Finally, his hard work paid off. At the last hotel, he bumped into Bella head-on.
Bella was first surprised but soon restored her composure, asking coldly, “What are you doing here?”
“This is what I should ask you, what are you doing here?”
“It’s none of your business.”