Chapter 161 Pointless Struggle

“Why do you treat your employees in such a manner?” asked Bella.

Nick glanced at her as if she was green and inexperienced. “They are useless. Look at how they handle such sophisticated equipment. They should consider themselves lucky that I’m not firing them!”

He rushed into the lobby of the two-story building and rushed up the stairs. Bella had to struggle to keep up with his pace. Her lack of speed was enough to irritate him.

“Can’t you hurry up? I got other things to do.”

“Why are you in such a hurry?”

“I didn’t know you were so weak. You can’t even climb the stairs.”  

“Stop talking to me like I’m one of your employees!”

She straightened her back and followed him to a room on the second floor full of colorful household appliances.

Nick patted her on the shoulder and put in her hand a brand new Nikon. “Take your time with the photos. I think the light here is very decent.” 

“Keep in mind that I’m not a professional,” said Bella.

“I have faith in your abilities!” said Nick and walked out of the door.

Bella admired Nick for having his own company at such a young age. The only problem was that he always went to extreme lengths to prove what a pain in the ass he could be.

It took almost two hours for her to take all the photos. When she was done, she saved them in her portable storage device and went downstairs to find Nick. He was sitting in the lobby, staring at the screen of a laptop. 

“I’m done,” she said and handed him the camera.

“Don’t you want to keep it for the photos?”

“I have already saved them.”

“Then how about a laptop? This way you won’t be able to make any excuses about lagging behind.”

“I guess it would be faster and easier to work from home if I had one of those,” she said.

“You can have this one,” he said. “When you’re work is done, you can bring it back.”

“Aren’t you afraid that I will forget to return it to you?” 

To Bella, this kind of trust was such a rare thing. Charles never trusted her although they had such an intimate relationship. Nick on the other hand, whom she had only met once, didn’t think twice about offering her a brand new laptop.

“If you dare to run away with the laptop, I shall post negative feedback on your homepage and deprive you of your chance for further development as a designer. After all, my loss is insignificant compared to your career. Am I right?”

He was right. But why were his words so weird?

“Got to go now. Will bring the laptop back when everything is ready.”

“Why are you in such a hurry? How about having a free check-up?”

Before Bella had any reaction, Nick had dragged her to the queue for the medical examination.

“I don’t think that would be necessary,” she said. 

“I want to express my gratitude for you work,” he insisted.

“If you insist…”

The main reason she decided to do it was that she hadn’t had a checkup in ages and was curious about the results.

What she didn’t know was that the whole thing had been set up for the sole purpose of Nick getting her hands on her blood sample. She was subjected to a variety of tests that lasted almost an hour. At the end the doctor informed her that the results would be sent to the Williams Mansion within a week.

She thanked Nick for the free checkup and the laptop, and returned to the Williams Mansion. Her intention was to start working on the product catalogue right away but it seemed that someone else had different plans for her. 

A servant was waiting to take her to the strange room she had been one month ago. Elsa was there waiting for her. The first thing she did when Bella came in was to offer her a pill.

“Are you going to drawing my blood?” asked Bella.

“Please take a seat,” said Elsa.

Bella sat on the chair and took the pill. Elsa was surprised by the unusual calmness Bella displayed. She was expecting her to put another one of her fights.

Bella notice her puzzled face and smiled slightly. “I know it’s useless to struggle. I have come to realize that I will suffer less if I am well behaved.”

“Lady, you won’t believe how much Our Lord cares about you,” said the old woman.

Just like Ziv and all the others here, she would say good things about Charles to Bella whenever she had the chance. There was a very good reason for this.

Only a child born out of true love could nurture the Tree of Life.