Chapter One Hundred and sixteen

By the time they had finished talking, Jonathan could tell she was feeling better. Actually, Bella had listened to him for sometime and began thinking. Here she was, beating herself over someone who did not care one bit about her or how she felt, when she could have easily been moving on with her life. Jonathan was right, it was high time she let go of whatever she was feeling in her heart for Jay Martins. He was probably out there, feeling happy with his wife and life, and here she was sulking and hurting the people around her whom had nothing but love, excess of love to give to her. She was really happy that he cared enough to talk to her about what he noticed was becoming a huge burden to her. She felt the strong need to let go of everything, and let go she would. 

That evening, Jonathan dropped her home. She had requested for some leftover ingredients from the days work and he gave her plenty. She knew he had added but then, she was not going to reject it anymore. She was in a beautiful mood when she got home and happily bid him goodnight. Bella could tell that he was feeling in love with her, but somehow, she did not want something intimate with him. At first, she had thought it was as a result of her love for Jay, but then, she would actually prefer that she and Jonathan remained as good friends. Anyways, it was actually too early to decide as she had just made the decision to get rid of Jay from her thoughts. She was going to test carefully to determine just what it was that Jonathan would be to her. Going inside, her family waited and welcomed her with smiles. She felt sad that she had made them uncomfortable with her earlier sulking. She was going to spend time henceforth making it up to them and would return all that love she had kept away from them. She informed them that she was going to prepare steak and sauce for their dinner as she had perfected her skills. They told her they were going to constructively criticize her cooking. 

Clarkson could not help but smile heavily, his daughter was back from whatever pit she had been plunged into, he could not help but thank whatever it was that had brought her back. She was so lively and free spirited that evening that she reminded him of Ella, her soul rest in peace. He hoped that she remained this way and that nothing changed. Bella needed to be happy, she deserved to be happy, he told himself and so did his son. He was going to be that father he had not been to them. He was going to protect them and love them, shielding them from whatever adversities that would come their way. He was already doing a secret background search on the suspicious Diego and Jay Martins. He had been aware of the latter's current predicament and somehow, he wanted to keep it away from Bella. He could not release her after being away from her all these years, so he needed to understand just whom he was dealing with. Something told him that these men were dangerous, with the kind of power they wielded, but then, he wanted to know, just how dangerous they were. He was not ready to loose her to anyone and was not going to struggle to get her attention. He was her father after all. 

Jay Martins had woken up with a start, he was in his study and had been going through some documents he had hoped would help him with running his empire since he obviously was not remembering when he dozed off. He had dreamt of a woman, her gestures were familiar and the scenes familiar, yet he could not see her face. It was blurry around that part of her, he was saying something to her at a point when he heard her name echoing, "BELLA ",

He obviously knew her and somehow, he could tell she was not just a maid whom Stella had claimed she had been. There was more to this Bella and he needed to find out just what that was. He needed to talk to someone. 

Someone like Charlie.