Chapter 89 – Duck and Cover

Elsa's house was found at the back of the main villa, and the walls of the white house were spotless. When you opened the door, you could see the blue walls, the blue spiral staircase, the crystal chandelier that hung down from the top of the second floor which was made up of hundreds of blue crystal dolphins in a series, even the decorations on the wall were blue.

She didn't expect the white-haired old lady to have such a lovely child's heart to decorate the whole house with an ocean theme.

“Hello?” Bella knocked at the door, she waited outside for a minute, yet no one answered.

As she was about to knock again, she heard a gentle voice behind her “Milady.”

She turned around and saw Elsa who held a basket of flowers.

“Are you looking for me, Milady?” Elsa put the basket on the table, looked at Bella and kindly asked.

Bella knew Elsa’s loyalty was to Charles and not her, so she kept her voice down, “The Lord wanted me to come to you to get some medication for menstruation.”

Elsa smiled, “It seems that the Lord can't help it. Milady, please take a seat.” she went into the other room. When she came back, there was a pink bottle in her hand.

“It doesn't hurt if you take it sometimes, but it cannot be used too frequently. Up to four times a year. Milady, keep it well.” put the bottle in her hand, and checked her pulse. “Let me see if you’ve recovered.” She came to realize that someone who was this good at Chinese medicine could judge whether she was menstruating or not. As soon as she withdrew her hand, Elsa gasped, She looked at her in shock, “Milady, you are not on your period. How dare you lie to the Lord?”

No one in the world could deceive him, let alone a woman.

She withdrew her hand quickly, and asked nervously, “I didn't mean to. Could you please not tell him the truth?”

Elsa replied, “The Lord doesn't like when anyone tries to deceive him.”

Bella lowered her head, “I'm not avoiding it. I'm just not ready yet.”

“You're his wife, what do you need to prepare for? It’s commonplace to have sex with your husband.” Elsa was angry. Offspring are related to the survival of the family line, she could not forgive Bella for lying to not have a baby yet.

Bella suddenly looked up this grey-haired old woman who had confronted her, but she could only feel a chill in her heart. Everyone knew that she was just a tool to make Charles’s baby, if she didn’t, she must be to blame.

She felt so helpless as if she stood in an extremely dark world, surrounded by enemies. She tightened her grip on the pink bottle with a deep breath and looked at Elsa, “I am not prepared for MY child to call someone else Mum. I'm not ready to go to bed with an engaged man even though I am technically his wife. I'm not ready to leave him on the day my child is born. I'm not ready. I just want to make myself ready. Why are you trying to force me to do it?”

There were no tears in her eyes, only loss and helplessness. It seemed like she lost sight of the direction she was going, trapped on a cliff.

Elsa looked at her and sighed, “Katherine is a kind girl, and she'll take good care of your child. Please don’t worry, Milady.”

Bella smiled, but tears came down, “From the beginning, you all knew he had someone, a fiancée. From the beginning you knew that I would be evicted sooner or later but forced me to have a child in spite of my free will.” she looked at this kind-hearted old woman, with a mild smile, she could not blame this old lady, “Why, are you all so cruel to me?”

During this time, apart from Charles, the person who pressured her the most to have a child was Elsa. She always talked about the baby. She really wanted to know why this old lady would do this to her.

Elsa felt terrible for a second but changed that feeling quickly, “Milady, your blood type has determined that you would conceive the perfect heir for the Lord. Please don't deceive the Lord again. Next time I won't hide it.”

Bella smiled, “It doesn't matter what you're going to say. I will just be thrown into the sea to feed the shark or run ten thousand meters. All in all, just the average corporal punishment.” she smiled softly, “You said I can't have a baby if I don’t stay healthy. Maybe I wouldn't have to have a baby then. Right?”

Elsa was surprised to think of Charles’s punishments.

Bella smiled, and it seemed that her words worked. She held tight the bottle, nodded and went out.

The sun dazzled as Bella squinted and moved towards the main house step-by-step.

It was really tough and depressing.

These days, though she didn’t have to worry about her livelihood, Bella would have been much happier making a living by herself.

As she came back to her room depressed, she saw that tall figure in front of her desk looking as if he was trying to find something.

She immediately felt like something was wrong and rushed forward.

Sure enough, Charles saw the sketch of the menu she drew last night.

She instinctively grabbed it, “How dare you flip through my stuff? Why don't you try to respect someone’s privacy?”

He dropped the sketchbook on the table, and grabbed ahold of her chin firmly, “Respect? You use my portrait as the menu cover, I don’t blame you. But how dare you talk to me about respect?”

He was fuming, she felt that her face was being crushed and that all the bones in her face were pressed together.

It was hard to speak, “It's not you. It's a mermaid.”

She just used a likeness of his face for he was attractive.

He loosened her chin and pushed her neck down to the table, her face just above the picture on the table, “Do you think I am blind?”

In fact, the picture was beautiful in which there was a very rare merman, with silver-gray eyes, silver long white hair pulled in half bun, almost hipster-like but not quite. The bare chest and abs, beautifully chiselled with a shark’s tooth hanging around his neck and a walking stick in his hand.

If there were not the word ‘Menu’ next to it, everything would have looked perfect.