Despite being confused, she immediately picked up the phone when she saw Tristan’s name on the screen.
"Bella, can we talk? I hope I’m not interrupting anything." Tristan asks, worried that she is in the middle of a meeting.
"You’re very fortunate with your timing. You’d have interrupted my meeting if you called five minutes ago. What is it?"
"Really? Thank God for that. Yeah, it’s about this afternoon. I don’t think I can accompany you home, Bella. I’m really sorry for that. I have a last-minute meeting, and I can’t push it back..." he said apologetically.
Bella could sense Tristan’s sincere tone.
Tristan said, "But don’t worry. I’ll send my car and my driver to pick you up. But, Bella, I need your help with something... Would you mind saying something nice to our son about my absence from attending his piano test?"
He would go home with her if he could postpone this sudden meeting for tomorrow. However, this time, he couldn’t avoid it.
"I see. Okay, I’ll tell Dax you’ve tried your best to come, but sometimes work happens," Bella said. But when she heard him let out a long sigh, she continued. "You don’t need to worry. Dax will understand. And you don’t need to send your driver either.
I have Sam. He can drive me home..."
"O yeah. I forgot about Sam," he said, smiling before continuing, "Thank you, Bella. I really appreciate your good words to Dax. I’m sorry I won’t be able to see Dax’s first weekly test."
"It’s fine; Dax would understand. Ugh, Tristan, well..." Bella hesitates to express her thoughts.
"What it’s?" Tristan ask, confused when he notice her reclucant.
"I just want to say that from now on, you don’t have to drive me anymore. Someone has been watching us, taking our pictures, and even trying to blackmail me. If your mother sees that picture... I hate to think what she will do about that. Do you agree??"
Tristan didn’t say anything immediately, but Bella could feel he must be angry and frustrated.
"I hope you didn’t break your promise, Tristan." She continued after Tristan spoke. "You need to stop driving me around. People are watching, and I don’t like the possible consequences."
"Hmm….If you want me to do that, I will force myself to accept it even though it’s really…hard for me to be away from you."
"Thank you..." Bella said, her tone obviously sounding relieved. Her smile slowly appeared from the corner of her lips. She waits for this, stopping Tristan from acting as her driver.
Tristan chuckled softly and asked, "Are you that excited that I didn’t pick you up from work?" His tone was casual, but there was a hint of disappointment.
"No. Of course not. I just feel worried..." She answers quickly while scolding herself inwardly to make it obvious that she is happy. Gosh!
"Alright, we will talk about it later at home."
"Mhm," Bella could only respond that.
After talking a few things, Bella finally ended the call and continued her work.
****
In the afternoon,
After hours of reading files and attending online meetings with her office in another city, Bella tried to rest her eyes on the way to her house. She felt exhausted.
However, soon after she closed her eyes, Sam’s voice suddenly startled her.
"I’m sorry, boss, if I starled you..." Sam meets her gaze in the rearview mirror.
"It’s fine. What is it?" She asked while sitting straight.
"It looks like someone is following our car," Sam said. He rechecked the rearview mirror and saw a black city car following their car. The vehicle discreetly followed them since leaving the Quantum Capital building. However, Sam is too experienced to miss it. He became aware of the stalking car a few minutes after he picked up Bella.
Bella was surprised to hear that. She immediately turned to look behind her, and she saw the car Sam had mentioned.
"What are you going to do, boss?" Sam asked seriously. When he saw her facing forward again, he saw she was thinking about something.
Bella glances at Sam in her calm expression. Still, inwardly, she feels curious to know the person who has the audacity to follow her.
"Are you sure that person is following us?" Bella asked.
"Yes, I’m positive," Sam answered firmly. "I took an unusual route and turns, but the car still followed us..." He continues.
While turning his attention back to the road ahead, he chose another route with much more traffic to make it harder for the car behind to follow. However, somehow, the car still managed to follow their vehicle. He became more convinced that the car behind was tailing them and that the driver was an experienced one, too.
"I see," Bella’s smile turned sour. She wasn’t sure who the person behind their car was, but she started to guess some names. "Sam, can you stop by the gas station? Let’s check whether the car is still following us or not."
"Oh, you want us to stop and catch the stalking car, Boss? You got it."
Before long,
Their car stopped at one of the nearest gas stations.
While Sam casually filled the car’s tank with gas, Bella glanced behind her for the stalker’s car.
It turns out that what Sam said was true. The stalker’s car also entered the gas station and is now joining the queue even though it is not directly behind their vehicle.
Soon after, Sam returned and drove the car, leaving the gas station.
"Do you want them to follow us?" Sam offered. He planned to deal with them rather than try to avoid them, but he couldn’t do it without Bella’s permission.
"There’s no need for that now. I have to get home soon, Sam..." Bella answered. She had promised Dax that she would come home early and watch his piano performance.
Bella didn’t want to waste time finding out the stalker.
"You were able to escape their tailing, right?" She asked Sam.