IN THE RHYTHM OF PASSION

Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Could He Possibly Think I Was A Prostitute?

At that moment, Bella was thinking about leaving the city. She wanted to get away from the treacherous Mateo and her ungrateful Sofia. How could they do that to her? She now had nothing holding her back in this city.

While thinking about that, Bella finished getting ready, and looked for her purse. She found it on a small table, and inside were several bills.

She clutched her chest, the last thing she needed. The man she spent the night with had paid her for her services, she thought. Bella was racking her brain thinking about what that stranger might be imagining about her.

"Could he possibly think I was a prostitute," she murmured under her breath as she finished dressing.

Bella was dying of embarrassment now, but seeing the amount of money inside her purse, she realized it was a lot. Surely losing her virginity was worth it; at least with that money, she could start a new life in another city.

She took the money, even though she didn’t want to—it was the only thing she had at that moment. She didn’t want to go back to the apartment for her belongings and risk encountering those traitors. She left the room and didn’t meet anyone on her way.

Paolo had given explicit orders for no one to make his woman feel bad, so all the employees on the floor couldn’t appear until she had left. The only exception was the girl who brought her clothes, and deliberately withheld the message Paolo had left for Bella.

Bella went down in the elevator. In the lobby, she spotted Sofia and Mateo, those shameless people, who had just come out. It was almost noon, and they had spent the whole night and a large part of the day in their room. Bella had to hide to avoid being seen and waited for the couple to leave the lobby, before she walked out slowly.

She had forgotten the motorcycle she left the day before at the hotel. It was still parked in the same place where she left it. Outside in the parking lot was the motorcycle, but she wouldn’t use it; she didn’t have the strength or the will to do so.

She wanted to get to the apartment before her cousin arrived. Bella stopped a taxi passing in front of the hotel and asked the driver to take her to the address she provided as quickly as possible.

At Milano Enterprises, Paolo was waiting anxiously for news of Bella. He had made it very clear that he wanted to be informed as soon as his wife woke up. The money he had left in her purse was for Bella to go shopping at the stores in his new mall and buy whatever she wanted. A hotel car was supposed to take her and wait for her.

That task was supposed to be given to the girl responsible for bringing her clothes. He had considered leaving her his black card, but then thought she might not accept it, so he decided to leave her cash instead.

He had also called his second cousin Mateo, wanting to make clear to him what had happened the night before with Bella’s cousin. If he wanted Bella to be his alone, he had to ensure Mateo stayed with Sofia. However, what Paolo didn’t expect was that the person who came to work on his floor that morning, after he had left, was Alexa, the daughter of his nanny, Ester.

Alexa, 18 years old, had been in love with Paolo since she was little. She had started doing her professional internships at the hotel, and whenever he arrived, they put her to help with all his tasks. When Alexa found out that Mr. Milano had taken a woman to his suite the night before. She offered to attend to her.

As everyone knew the relationship between Alexa and the boss’s nanny, they allowed her to attend to Bella. Alexa put on a special stewardess uniform and went to Paolo’s suite to meet Bella. She didn’t expect to find her awake, much less that she wouldn’t remember anything from the night before; so she took advantage of that to lie and invent the whole story she told her.

Alexa managed to get Bella to leave the hotel much faster than she had anticipated, unaware that she had been Paolo Milano’s woman, and that he expected her to continue being his woman. Instead, she made Bella believe that she had spent the night with just any other man.

Mateo had left Sofia outside the apartment; he would wait for the call once Sofia sorted everything out with Bella. She would look for a way to convince Bella. Talking to her cousin was her priority.

Mateo and his lust couldn't do it last night, but today they had to ask her to change the name on the business registration. They had talked and decided it would be better if everything was in Sofia's name. With the connections they made the night before at the party, it would be better if the person listed was Sofia and not Bella, since Sofia had been telling people her cousin was a poor orphan and that her parents were helping her out of kindness.

Sofia planned to stop by the apartment first, assuming Bella had already opened up the business for the day and would be working, as they hadn't done it the day before. But she was surprised to open the door and find Bella standing in the living room with her suitcase in hand,

"Bella, you're not at the office, and what's with the suitcase?" she asked, looking at the suitcase Bella was holding tightly.

"I'm leaving," Bella says, walking away, and Sofia starts to panic, as if she were really leaving.

"What do you mean, where to? What are you talking about? Bella, we have a business."

"You're wrong, Sofia, I have a business, and I'm not interested anymore," she says, and Sofia's eyes widen like saucers.

"Bella, are you out of your mind? Last night I threw you a birthday party. You have no idea how much money my parents invested in it, do you...?"

"Money? You want money," Bella says as she opens her bag and throws the bills at Sofia. With that, you could pay for the party. Sofia saw the large amount of bills coming out of Bella's bag, her greedy eyes fixated on the number of zeros on each bill. She wondered where Bella had gotten so much money.

"This is enough to pay you for the whole party, and you also have a bit more for sleeping with Mateo. If you liked my boyfriend so much, you can have him," she says, and leaves the apartment, leaving Sofia stunned.

How did Bella know she had slept with Mateo? Sofia wanted to know more, and when she reacted, she tried to run after her cousin, but Bella was already gone.

Now Bella didn't feel as bad after hearing what Sofia had said to her. Bella never asked her to throw that party. The last thing she wanted was for them to spend money on her, let alone have it thrown back in her face.