Then, Kevin accompanied Bella to Vienna, a country with delightful temperature all year round and beautiful environments.
The apartment by the Danube was much prettier than the photo. Once entering it, two Philippine maids heartily welcome her, “Mrs. Jones-Sharp, welcome to Vienna.”
“They can speak Chinese?”
Bella asked Kevin in surprise. He nodded, “Philippine maids are the best nanny in the world. It’s reasonable that they are multilingual.”
Kevin showed her around the new home. Bella was amazed at Kevin’s thoughtfulness. Though she was in a foreign country, this house’s decoration was the same as their home in China.
“You take some rest today and I’ll show you around tomorrow.”
Kevin gave their luggage to the maids and helped Bella take off her heavy coat.
“Are you familiar with this country?”
“So so. I came here for vacation when I was still in school.”
“With Freya?” Bella asked jealously.
“Of course not, I didn’t know her yet.”
“Ok.” She pretended not to care and nodded.
The next morning, Kevin and Bella came downtown. There was melodious music everywhere in Vienna, Austria’s capital. With clean brooks flowing imperturbably and plants thriving, musicians drew lots of inspiration here.
“I heard that many musical virtuosos came from here, didn’t they?”
“Yeah, Mozart and Strauss were born here.”
“It’s such a nice place, I don’t feel cold at all.”
“That’s why I picked here out of the other seven or eight countries. It’s warm in winter and cool in summer, the champion of the most suitable place for people to live.”
“I kind of fall in love with here.”
“Within my expectation.” Kevin laughed lovingly, “Do you want a bike ride?”
Her eyes were sparkling with surprise, “Can I ?’
“Of course you can’t, I’ll ride the bike and you sit in front of me.”
Kevin just somehow got a dazzling two-seat bike. Bella sat in the front while he was in the back. With his hard push on the paddle, the bike started to move and galloped on the running track with the breeze blowing by. They were cycling from the downtown to the suburb with appealing landscapes along the way: narrow streets in downtown, pebbles-paved roads crossing with each other with Baroque, Gothic, and Romanesque architectures alongside. In the middle of the city stood commercial districts and residential buildings with churches and palaces scattered here and there. The suburb road extended to the fringe of the forest. The Danube was flowing around downtown. In the Danube park, there was a soaring Danube tower of 252 meters high with two lifts inside of it. It only took 45 seconds for the tourists to get to the top from the bottom. Overlooking the surrounding from the top, one could drink in the magnificent views of the distant Alps and the bank of the Danube.
“When I was a child, I loved the Alps candy, but never dreamed that I would see the Alps one day.”
Standing on the top of the tower, Bella exclaimed with reminiscence.
“Do you want to go to the Alps?”
“Is that ok?”‘
He laughed, “You got your own legs, why isn’t ok, you can go there as long as you want to.”
“I thought you wouldn’t allow me to walk around as I’m pregnant.”
“This time is different than the last time. When I’m with you, you can go anywhere you want; without me, then you shouldn’t go anywhere.’
“Ok, understood.”
She said yes smilingly.
“I guess we don’t have enough time to go there today, so we go there tomorrow.”
“Great.”
The next day, Bella followed Kevin to the Alps. Considering that she has been pregnant for six months and shouldn’t get too tired, he didn’t take her to climb the mountain but just went sightseeing at the foot of the mountain on the bike.
Tired from riding, they found a place to take a break. Kevin conjured up a handful of candy from his pocket. She took them surprisingly, “Ah, why you have candy? And its strawberry flavor!”
This was her favorite flavor when she was a kid and he just miraculously knew it.
“How could we not have the Alps candy when we are here.”
He teasingly flirted with her.
“How did you know that I love this flavor?”
“You prefer strawberry yogurt, so I thought I’d take my chances.”
Bella was grateful for his thoughtfulness and kissed him on the cheek, “Thank you. You got great luck.”
She put one in her mouth. It tasted very sweet, sweeter than what she had eaten as a child, “That’s weird, why is it so sweet?”
Kevin took one into his mouth, “It’s not that sweet.”
“No, mines is very sweet.” She crunched it, “Hmm, it must have Kevin’s sweetener in it.”
Haha, Kevin was amused by her, “It is just for you, no one else can have it.”
“Even those who buy it with money?”
“Of course.”
Bella laughed in happiness. She held his arms and put another candy in her mouth.
“I want to ski…”
“After the babies are born.”
“I want to go hiking…”
“After the babies are born.”
“I want to divorce you…”
“After the babies…” What? Kevin was irritated, “What did you say?”
“Nothing, I didn’t say anything. Haha.”
Kevin only stayed in Vienna for two days and received a phone call that urged him to come back.
Hanging up the phone, he guiltily came to Bella who was leaning on the window, watching the river. He held her waist, “Bella, I’m going back tomorrow.”
Bella froze suddenly, “That soon?”
“Yeah, some business emergency, I have to hurry back, I’ll come to see you next time, alright?”
She didn’t speak, staring blankly at a boat passing by.
She really enjoyed the two days, she was truly happy. Actually, not just the two days, she felt happy as long as Kevin was there.
“If you have to go, then go back.”
She was very reluctant to say the words that were against her will. No matter how much she relied on Kevin, she can’t keep pestering him.
The next morning, she walked Kevin to the outside of the door, grabbing his hand, “Please come to see me often, and call me.”
“I will.”
Kevin held her into his arms, leaving reluctantly, “Bella, take care of yourself and don’t make me worry, ok?”
“Yeah, I will.”
The driver arrived. But Bella still held his hand, “If Celeste keeps working against you, you must handle it rationally and don’t do anything extreme.”
Kevin nodded, “Understood. I’m leaving.”
“Honey, please come to see me often. Don’t leave me here alone, I’m scared to be alone.”
Kevin nodded again and got in the cab. Bella followed behind for a few steps and was stopped by the maids, “Madam, sir has left, let’s go inside.”
Her eyes blurred and her heart emptied, she was so reluctant to let Kevin go…
Her day became lonely. Though the Philippine maids could speak Chinese, she didn’t talk to them much. Most of the time, she sat in front of the window alone, watching the clean river outside and missing her family afar.
She started to learn to paint. She didn’t draw the mountain or the river but only draw the person in her heart. She couldn’t paint a satisfying contour for him, but one of the benefits was it was a good way to kill her time. An afternoon and a morning now passed by so quickly for her.
The Philippine maids took good care of her, making everything of her life organized. But gradually, Bella noticed something was wrong. At first, the maid wouldn’t let her read the domestic newspaper. She subscribed to the domestic business newspaper the second day when she got there. She wanted to know how Kevin was doing at any time. But someday the newspaper suddenly disappeared. She asked them in confusion, “Why the newspaper delivery man haven’t come for days?”
“Madam, probably he got caught up by family stuff.”
“‘Then ask someone else to send the newspaper.”
“Ok.”
The maid said yes but didn’t actually do it. Next, Bella found out that the Internet has been cut. Then, her phone went missing. Finally, she couldn’t put up with them anymore. She called them out into the living room, reproaching, “What you have been done? Why you took my phone?”
“Madam, it’s Mr. Jones-Sharp’s idea. He said the phone is radiative, it should be kept around all day.”
Bella didn’t believe them at all, “Give me the phone. I need to call my husband now!”
“Please wait till the weekend. Mr. Jones-Sharp said, he would call you on the weekend, you don’t have to call him most of the time.”
“Impossible!! I don’t believe it, give me my phone.”
The maid shook their head, “Sorry，madam, we only take the order from Mr. Jones-Sharp.”
“You just wouldn’t give it to me? Ok, I‘ll go out to find a shared phone.”
She went upstairs to take her purse but found out that it was missing, too. She was infuriated, roaring, “What on earth do you want? Home detention?!!”
The Philippines maids came upstairs and replied in composure, “For the sake of your children, please don’t get angry, otherwise, you would regret if anything happened to them.”
Bella was mad. How could things turn out like this? What was wrong? She was confined in the house by two maids and had no idea about it. Waiting in anger and anxiety, Bella finally received Kevin’s call on the weekend.
When the maid gave her the phone, she took it as if she stuck at the edge of a cliff and grabbed a life-saving straw, “Honey, I want to go home, I want you to pick me up now. I don’t want to stay here anymore. I want to go home!!”
She then burst into a cry. She felt chagrined for the consecutive days of home detention.
“Bella, what’s wrong?”
“The two Philippine maids are going too far. They don’t let me read the newspaper, cut the Internet, and they even took my phone and wallet. This is an absolute infringement of my privacy. I want you to dismiss them immediately. I don’t need nannies like them!”