My Contracted Cinderella

Chapter 17.

When we got to Lala's house, we were served dinner. A very delicious one at that.

Then after dinner, as we were about to go to bed, Lala said she wanted to have a discussion with us. So, we waited till she was done eating her own food.

When she was done eating, we sat with her in the living room.

"Why I stopped you from going to bed is that, I want to know the full story behind what happened to you today," Lala said.

"But Lala, I told you the full story. We were kidnapped by thugs and they took us to a warehouse and then from there, Jayson received injuries from the beating he received from the thugs. Then, you came with the police. And here we are!" I explained.

"Yes, I know. But the report I got from the police was not pleasing to my ears. The inspector told me that the thugs confessed that they were hired by somebody." Lala said.

"Ohh My God! Who could the person be? And what does the person have with Jayson that he had to go this extra mile to have Jayson beaten up by thugs." I said in a state of shock.

"I knew it! I had a feeling that Leo would want to come after me for what I did to him the other day. Even though I did not apologize to him, he shouldn't have done this. Whereas I wanted to apologize the next day but I forgot." Jayson said with full belief.

I on the other side was totally blank about who the person could be. Just then, Lala s said,

"This matter is related to you Bella!" Lala said in an angry tone.

"What! Me? How?" I said.

"Yes, you Bella! You know what? All I want from you is your honesty. You'll have to answer my questions, one by one. Is that clear?" Lala said. She was not looking happy at all.

"Yes, Ma," I said with a sad face. Because at that point, I didn't understand what was going on.

"But Lala, why are you saying this? What report did the police give to you that you are accusing Bella of being an accomplice in the kidnap case?" Jayson said.

"If she was among them, she wouldn't have called you or helped the police in catching the thugs." He added.

"Dear, that was what I thought. But, when I heard what the police said, I started to doubt her intentions" Lala said.

"Okay. But Lala..." This was Jayson trying to support me.

"It's enough Jayson, I wasn't talking to you in the first place. And to you Bella, my first question is what was your last relationship like? I mean how was your previous relationship with a guy?"Lala asked.

"Umm...It was quite bad." I answered with fear.

"Okay. So, was the person in any cult group? Also, how were you treated in the relationship?" Lala asked again.

"Okay, he was short-tempered. Sometimes, he showed me love, and other times, he poured out his anger and frustration on me." I explained.

"Okay, how did it end, I mean how did you guys break up," Lala asked and I answered and said

"I wanted to end the relationship but he insisted that I should not even try it and that if I do, he was going to teach me a lesson and I told him that I can't continue to stay in a toxic relationship all because you want us to not break up. And I shouted at him and said 'Miles! we are done okay and get the hell out of my life.' And then he said I'm going to regret my actions. That was it, I never saw him again" I said to Lala with confidence and she shouted,

"I knew it!"

"You knew what?" Jayson and I, asked with curiosity, and then she said,

"When I got to the police station, they said that the thugs didn't want to spit out who hired them and I told them that if they don't make them say who hired them, I will have them sacked by their IGP and then, they did their best and only one of the thugs was able to speak. And he said,

"It was! It was, Miles Brown!" The thug said. And they confirmed by asking him again. And he said yes again and I told them to tell me how Miles Brown is connected to Jayson and they said that they found out that the thugs were hired by Bella's ex-boyfriend" Lala explained in detail.

"What!!" I shouted in a state of shock and I said,

"Lala I didn't even know that Miles was going to come back for me and I didn't mean to involve Jayson in this and I don't have a hand in our kidnapping, I'm telling the truth," I said with tears already coming out from my eyes.

And then, I knelt down to plead with Lala and Jayson was so surprised and confused that Lala said,

"Why didn't you tell me that you had a bad relationship in the past? We would have been on the lookout for whoever he is and now my only and loving grandson had to go through all this, just look at him"

"I thought you had never been in a relationship before, but now this" Jayson said looking at me with questioning eyes and I said to him,

"I don't know why I didn't even tell you please forgive me, I didn't mean to hide it from you please I'm sorry." And then, Jayson asked Lala,

"But Lala, have they caught him? And is he already in prison?"

And then Lala said,

"Yes, my dear, he is already in police custody and it may proceed to court if we refuse to withdraw the FIR we registered. And I need both of your consent so that I can tell the Inspector. So, do you guys want to withdraw the FIR?" Lala asked us and we both said,

"No!!" We said it in unison.

And then, she said,

"Okay, I will give the Inspector a call and tell him."

Meanwhile, in my head, I was asking myself why Jayson became so quiet after he heard about my past relationship. So, I had to ask. And I said to myself that I'll ask when Lala was not there. Which I did.

Lala had already gone upstairs when I walked up to Jayson and I sat beside him on the chair he was sitting on.

And then, I said,

"Jay, why were you quiet when I spoke about my ex-boyfriend?"

"I don't want to speak with you on any issue tonight. And as you can see, I'm not really in the mood to have any conversation with you. I'm really tired. I'm going to bed now." Jayson said, giving me a cold response.

"But, Jayson!" I said.

"Bella, please can you excuse me?" He said as he walked passed me.

I was shattered. Because I thought that they were never going to trust me ever again. They, which was Lala and Jayson.

So, I went upstairs to sleep. And then I walked into the room which I slept in, the last time I came to visit Lala.

When I opened the door, I met Jayson on the bed. So, I asked him if he was going to be sleeping there. And he said yes.

So, I didn't bother to say any other thing. I just closed the door on my way out and I went to another room. The mansion was big enough, so there were plenty of rooms to sleep in.

When I got to another room, I entered. The first thing I did was to take a nice bath. And then, when I was done bathing, I had no clothes to put on. So, I wrapped my towel around my body for a while.

Just then, I heard a knock on the door. So, when I opened it was no other person than Jayson. He came and said,

"Umm... I got this for you to put on this night. Because I know we didn't bring anything on our way here."

"Okay. Thank you. But..." Just as I was about to ask him where he got the nightdress from, he walked away.

'He always does this! Well, never mind. At least, I have what to wear this night.' I said to myself after Jayson had left.

So, I got dressed and laid on the bed. Then, I thought to myself of why Miles would come back into my life after all that he did to me. And also, why now that I'm with Jayson. It's not that I and Jayson had fallen deeply in love with each other.

I was really worried. So, to bring down my worries, I decided to give my best friend a phone call.

"Hey, bestie! How have you been?" I said to my best friend on the other end.

"Hi! Bella. And I've been good. How are you?" My best friend replied.

"I'm fine," I said.

"It's been long since I heard from you. What's going on now? And how is your contract marriage going?". She said, sounding really curious.

"Okay. First of all, the person I'm in a contract marriage with, thinks we are legally married. But, I'm not. Why, because I made another contract with his grandmother. Which was to help her grandson believe in love. So, here I am!" I said I yawned out of tiredness.

"What! What do you think you've gotten yourself into? Do you know the risk you're taking?" My friend asked.

"Yes, I know! And I wished it had not taken place from the unset. In fact I made a big mistake by getting myself into this mess." I said.

"It's not really a big deal! you just do your thing and when the guy starts believing in love or whatever, you tell him the truth and then you leave his life and move on with your life! It's as simple as ABC." She said with much confidence in her tongue.

"See, it's not as easy as you think it is," I said.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"Okay. The thing is that I think the guy has started believing in love. In fact, he's in love!" I said.

"Ohh. Really? Then that means show over for you! Right? Like, it's a done deal!" She said while laughing.

"It's not really a done deal. Because I think he has started falling for me! And I done like that to be happening. Because I know that I will not be in his life for long. Infact I think I will tell him very soon." I said.