Chapter 197 The Lord’s Busy

“How can I make her understand?” said Carl turning to the others.

“It's pointless,” muttered Charles.

Upon hearing those words, Dora opened her eyes but her broken collarbone could not permit her to turn around.

“Who is it?” she asked. “Bella, who are you talking with? He must be a very handsome man. Please let me look at him.”

“Might as well do her the favor,” said Charles and stepped forward to reveal himself.

“He has blue eyes!” uttered Dora. “Bella, never let go of this man. If I were you I would spend most of the day in his arms. Does he know that he has such wonderful eyes?”

“Yeah, I noticed,” muttered Charles who didn’t like being the object of scrutiny.

“Is there anyone else here?” asked Dora. “I’m certain there is someone else.”

“Well, I’m here too,” said Beck and revealed himself.

“Why are you here?”

“I came here with Carl. We all care about you.”

Dora gazed at Carl.

“I’m not sure Carl does.”

“What are you talking about? I care about you more than anything else.”

“Then why don’t you want to marry me?”

“Maybe one day I will be able to marry you. Until then I will take care of you every day.”

As a merman, he could live up to two hundred years. The initial reason he didn’t want to tell her how much he loved her was that one day she would be gone and he would still be alive. Now he realized his mistake. It didn’t matter whether life was short or long. One day of true love was worth hundreds of years of pointless existence. That’s why he owed it to himself to tell her how he felt about her.

“I love you more than you can imagine,” he said to her. “If you wish we can get married once you’re out of this hospital.”

Witnessing such a scene made Bella’s eyes fill with tears. This was even better than her favorite soap opera.

“Dora, he just said he loves you and wants to marry you. Aren’t you going to give him a yes or a no?”

“I will give him my reply only when I’m sure I will not die.”

“Stop thinking like that,” said Carl.

“I think it’s time for us to go,” said Charles. “We don’t need to worry about them any longer.”

“I want to spend the night here and take care of Dora,” said Bella.

She shot a side-glance towards Beck who quickly looked away. His eyes were full of the pain of his unfulfilled love.

“I don’t think you will be allowed to stay here all night,” said Charles.

“But who will take care of Dora?”

“I think the night nurses can manage that.”

“Bella, have you ever read a book titled The Little Prince?”

This unexpected question came out of Beck’s mouth. Dora rolled her eyes and gazed at him while Charles made a frown.

“I had that book but Charles threw it away.”

“Never liked it,” commented Charles, “However, now that you mentioned the little prince, I just received a photo of Brandon on my phone. Would you like to see it?”

Bella’s eyes opened wide. With all these unexpected events, she had completely forgotten about Brandon.

“All right,” she said. “Show it to me.”

“Problem is, the phone’s in the study.”

While he said those words, Charles put his hand into his pocket and switched off the phone without Bella noticing.

“All right,” said Bella. “When we return home you can show it to me.”

“How about returning now? It’s been a very hard day for everyone and there is nothing more we can do for Dora. She is in very good hands.”

“I would suggest that all of you leave the room,” said Dora.

Beck shrugged his shoulders.

“All right, I'll go first. Anyone want to have dinner with me?”

“Leave it for next time,” said Charles.

“I’ll write that down,” said Beck and left the room. He didn’t mention that he would like to have a word or two with Nick about Dora’s abduction. He could not shrug off the feeling that Nick was somehow involved.

A few minutes later Bella and Charles were off, leaving Carl alone with Dora. Every time she tried to smile, she could feel pain, however, that didn’t stop her from doing so.

“Stop doing that,” said Carl. “It only makes you worse.”

“I can’t help it,” she said. “You make me feel so good.”

“You must be content with my smile and stop trying to do it yourself. For the moment, at least.”

“All right,” she said.

Bella had not forgotten what Charles said at the hospital. The first thing she mentioned when they were back home was Brandon’s photo. She wanted to see it right away.

“All right,” said Charles. “I’ll need to find it first.”

Bella stared at him as he walked away. She couldn’t understand why he hadn’t asked her to follow him to the study.

“How can he do this to me?” she whispered to herself.

“Do you have the impression that anyone can go to his study?” said a familiar voice from behind.

Bella turned around and there was Katherine, wearing a seductive red skirt and stiletto heels. She had just seen Bella enter the mansion with Charles.

They were holding hands!

Meanwhile, Charles locked himself into the study and transformed into a little boy in the presence of Roy.

The boy pointed to the mobile phone on the shelf.

“I need you to use that and take some photos of me,” he ordered the docile servant.

Roy gave a nod and picked up the phone.

Brandon gave his best smile for Bella. He wanted her to be happy when seeing the photo.