CHAPTER 57BELLA So much has happened over the past few days, but thankfully, all good stuff. I had started my therapy sessions, which surprisingly, I enjoy. My visitors continued to shower my baby girl and I with so much love and affection and spoiled us with tons of goodies. The nursing staff had been absolutely wonderful and helped me out so much with my baby girl. I asked Gabriel to please get them appreciation gifts, which he did, and they were over the moon. My man doesn’t do cheap, so their gifts were expensive and exquisite. Kaiya and Bethany also came over with their parents to visit. They looked so beautiful and happy. Their parents expressed their gratitude for all that I did for the girls and said that they would forever be indebted to me. Seeing them looking so good, healthy, and happy was more than enough for me. The Safe Haven project was going really well, and Gabriel was so looking forward to opening its doors. He asked me to remind him about getting a couple of fur
CHAPTER 58BELLA “Lillian, Gabriel won’t hurt Geoffrey. He was only trying to help. He knows how good we were together and how happy Gabriel was with me. He just wants Gabriel to be happy again! Even you know that I made Gabriel very happy. I made one stupid mistake, surely if you speak to him he will forgive me for it.” Crystal continued pleading, and then Mrs Knight let her have it, “So Geoffrey thinks he knows what is best for my son! If he is as concerned about Gabriel’s well-being, as you say he is, I am surprised that he is not aware of current affairs! Another thing, Missy, I have no idea what gave you the impression that I would want to help you get back into my son’s life! I only tolerated you back then for the sake of my son. We never had any form of friendship or familiarity, and I don’t recall giving you permission to call me by my first name! It is Mrs Knight to you!” Well played Mrs Knight, Well played! We were all cheering her on, and Crystal then glanced at our group
CHAPTER 59BELLA After our eventful afternoon, Gabriel surprised us ladies with pamper sessions. A whole crew of spa therapists came over to the mansion and spoiled us with all sorts of treatments. He said we deserved it after putting up with Crystal and her dramas. Honestly, though, the whole Crystal episode wasn’t really a bad thing. It was more like being at a comedy show. After our pamper sessions, we gathered in the living room area and were enjoying some beverages and snacks when Gabriel, his dad, and Neo joined us. Gabriel then asked, “All you beautiful woman seem to have formed a really powerful team. Would you be interested in joining Bella and Erica tomorrow as part of an interview panel?” They all looked so excited, and Amber asked “Would we be allowed to be all stern and serious like those judges in those TV shows?” Her question made everyone laugh, and then Gabriel said, “Yourll can be a little stern, but keep in mind that this is not like those TV shows. We don’t want t
CHAPTER 60BELLA The candidates we interviewed were definitely all professionals in their fields. They appeared so confident and didn’t show a trace of nervousness. Well, if they were nervous, they were really good at covering it up. Amber’s eye candy didn’t make it, though. She said that he was very flirtatious and would probably spend most of his time hitting on the staff than carrying out his tasks. He messed it up when she was playfully flirting with him, and he responded to her in the same manner. Mrs Knight started calling her Cougar after that. Amber laughed it off and said that at least she still had what it took to make the younger ones drool. These older women were hilarious!After much discussion, we finally decided on the candidates best suited for Safe Haven. We informed Gabriel and gave him a summary of why we chose them. He was very impressed and said that he was so glad that he chose us to be the interview panel. He said that he would get his secretary to inform the c
CHAPTER 61BELLA Once the officer explained himself, he looked at the Chief of Police proudly as though expecting to be Congratulated on a job well done! The Chief turned to look at Crystal and asked “Miss, all that the Officer said, is it true?” and she nodded and then pointed at Gabriel and said, “He did this to me!” and started sobbing louder. He offered her a few words of comfort and said that he was going to make sure that Justice was served to the one who was responsible for what happened to her. I didn’t miss the slight smirk on her face after hearing him say that. He then focused on the officer again who was smiling from ear to ear, also after hearing what was said to Crystal, “So let me get this straight, after hearing her out, you took it upon yourself to become the Judge and the Jury and decided there and then that Mr Knight was Guilty! You chose to round up all of the station's men and came here blazing guns and all ready to arrest him without a warrant! Knowing that Mr K
CHAPTER 62BELLA Neo had arrived just as everyone was clearing out. The Chief of Police apologized on behalf of the police officers and Mr Knight said that there was no need for him to apologize for them, we were all grateful to him for being available to come over and help sort everything out. Mr Knight introduced Neo to the Chief. Neo explained that his sister had a history of causing unnecessary problems. He asked for permission to visit her. He wanted to talk things out with her and find out why she did what she did today and also to try and convince her to stop obsessing over Gabriel. The Chief said that he would inform the officers to expect Neo and allow him to visit Crystal and also, after what she did today, an investigation will be conducted and she was not going to be released anytime soon. Unless Gabriel decided that all that happened today be forgotten and requested that Crystal be released. Mrs Knight spoke up before Gabriel could and said that she would not allow Gabri
CHAPTER 63 BELLA Gabriel was anxiously waiting for us. He grew even more concerned when he saw the looks on our faces. Once we were in the vehicle, I gave Gabriel a gist of our visit with Crystal, and now Neo would have to explain the rest. Erica linked her one hand with mine, I could feel her trembling. She was very scared of what we were going to hear. I then reached out and gave her a side hug and held onto her like that as I encouraged Neo to go ahead. Gabriel asked if we didn’t want to maybe go home and talk instead of sitting in the vehicle outside of the station. Erica suggested we go to a Café or Diner. She desperately needed some coffee in her system. As Gabriel drove to the nearest Café, I noticed how nervous Neo was. We chose a very isolated area of the Café for privacy reasons. There were two tables not that far off from us, and Gabriel asked the manager if they could mark those as reserved as we were having a private meeting and didn’t want to be disturbed. He made an o
CHAPTER 64ERICA Most of my childhood and right up to early adulthood memories were not so pleasant, and I wished I could totally wipe them out of my mind. My mum and dad were like oil and water and fought all the time. I used to wonder how they ended up married. They never shared that tale. Long story short, when they finally decided to divorce, I thought it was the best thing ever! One would say that I was crazy to have been happy that my parents were splitting up, but trust me, they were HELL together! Having witnessed what they went through, I had lost faith in relationships. I needed to get away from my parents, and as soon as I could, I moved out of Honeyville and headed for the city, and started to rebuild my life. My mum and I kept in contact, but my dad distanced himself from me. He seemed to have divorced his daughter, too! I was so angry at first, but I decided that I was never going to force anyone to love me and especially not my so-called father! Once I settled in the c
CHAPTER 72BELLA We all stopped what we were doing when we heard the excited voices of the children as they returned from the tour of the place, and turned our attention to them.The words, 'totally awesome', 'so cool', 'so pretty', and many more positive comments could be heard. That meant they really liked what they had seen, and that put smiles on our dials. They looked ecstatic, and I heard someone ask, “I saw all that, right? Please tell me it wasn’t a dream” and another voice answered, “You definitely saw it, Tina, we all did. Our rooms are super awesome! Did you see how much clothing and shoes there were in each of our cupboards? Even the door signs with our names on it are so cool. Like our sign is in the shape of a butterfly and says ‘Welcome to Kira’s and Tina’s room.’ We both love butterflies! I think that those aunts who asked us so many questions had something to do with it cos look around, all over are the stuff we and the others told them we liked” I know, I should not
CHAPTER 71BELLA It’s finally here! The day we had all been eagerly planning and waiting for! Last night, after Gabriel and I checked up on my baby girl and Jacob, we joined the rest of the family in the living room and chatted till late hours of the night.When we left the bakery, the plan was to have an early night so that we would be well rested for the next day, however when we got home, we were all so excited and anxious and could not sleep.We wished the hands of time could move faster. After turning off the alarm and fully awake, I could hear the shower running. Gabriel was up early.I wondered if he managed to even fall asleep. He was so nervous about today. Last night, he seemed so stressed out when we got into bed, and I got worried and asked him what was going on. He then asked me, "What if all we did at Safe Haven were just to our liking and will not be that of the children’s?" I reassured him that I was confident that they were going to love everything about the place and t
CHAPTER 70NEOBeing amongst loved ones was just what I needed to get my mind off everything that happened with Crystal. The Knight family and our friends are phenomenal beings. Throughout the evening, they kept checking up on me without making it too obvious, though. Every time I caught Mrs. Knight watching me, she had a look of concern on her face, but she quickly changed to a smiling one as soon as she realized I was looking back at her. She is truly an earth angel. Ever since the first time Gabriel had introduced me to her, I was treated as her own son. Even though Gabriel and I had our fallout, I should have maintained contact with her. She had told me that she never believed that I was guilty of any of those things I was accused of but at the time I didn’t think of those who believed in me and whom would be hurt by me taking off. I was too busy drowning in self-pity. I am just glad to have sorted all our issues out now, and we can all move forward. But before I can completely do
CHAPTER 69BELLA We all were even happier after hearing Alex and Arianna’s good news. I silently wished that joyous moments like those could last forever. Aside from the recent drama with Crystal, it's been so amazing having everyone together. If only Aunt Brie, Amber, and Pearl wouldn’t have to leave, but they had their commitments in Honeyville. During their time here, they have helped to bring us all so much closer together and have helped me a lot after being discharged from the hospital. I snapped out of my thoughts when I heard Erica ask who would like to help her out at the bakery to prepare treats for the Welcome Party. Everyone volunteered, Yes, even the guys! They said that they would help with the packaging and other odd jobs we may need them for. Gabriel and I told them that we would go check up on my baby girl and Jacob first and then meet them at the bakery. Thereafter, everyone decided to go home and freshen up and dress more comfortably and return to the bakery at a s
CHAPTER 68ARIANNA My blabber mouth just had to let the cat out of the bag! That’s so not how I wanted everyone to find out about my relationship with Alex, but at least we got positive reactions. Gabriel totally freaked me out at first, though. My brother had always been on my case to stop messing around and commit to a stable relationship. But I was worried about how he would react when he found out that it was Alex I had decided to commit to. I shamelessly flirted with Alex every chance I got for years. He entertained it and flirted right back. We were very similar in not wanting to commit to any relationship at the time. But as time went by, I guess we both realized that there was more to the playful flirting, but we had too much pride to confess it to each other. I noticed that Alex started getting all jealous whenever he found out that I had been out on dates. He had been my brother’s right hand for many years. Being protective over me was part of the job at first, but it soon
CHAPTER 67BELLA We got our fur babies all comfortable in bed baskets and packed up into the vehicle, we then headed off to Safe Haven. After we were screened at the gates, we were allowed in, and saying that I was impressed from the time we entered the place would be an understatement! Gabriel sure went all out. From the security gates, the beautiful gardens and children’s outdoor entertainment facilities, it was clearly visible that a very large sum of money was spent to get it looking the way it did and we had yet to see the inside of the place. Gabriel handed over our fur babies to the carers, who fell in love with them immediately and rushed off to get them all comfortable and settled in. As we entered, the house was filled with so much laughter and joy. Our group of women could be heard amongst the voices of the Safe Haven staff, and everyone sounded so happy and excited. Mrs Knight was on a roll. She had everyone on their toes, rearranging stuff and making sure everything was
CHAPTER 66BELLA Gabriel went with Neo to sort out some paperwork with the doctor. Erica and I remained in the waiting room. I phoned Arianna to check up on my baby girl and Jacob and she told me not to worry, they were both fine and that the house hold staff would be watching over them as all the women were going over to Safe Haven. I am glad they were still going. Then again, Mrs Knight would never put something as important as Safe Haven on hold because of Crystal. After my call to Arianna, I noticed that Erica was lost in deep thought. I gave her a side hug and asked if she was okay. She turned to face me and spoke in a sad tone, “Bell, I know it’s a terrible thing to say right now and will probably make me seem like a cold hearted and selfish person, but I can’t help it, I am glad that Crystal didn’t make it!” I gave her a full hug and told her that I fully understood how she felt, and she had valid reasons to feel all that she was feeling. “Do you think that Neo and I would eve
CHAPTER 65BELLA Even though we got home rather late from the Café, everyone had waited up for us as they were so worried and curious about what had happened at the station house. We didn’t go into too much detail but gave them the gist of it all. Mr Knight said that there was no way they would allow Neo to suffer any consequences because of his sisters wrong doings. He instructed Gabriel to do whatever he could from his side, and he would also see what he could do from his end. Mrs Knight too said sternly, “I don’t care what you both do, but you better protect that boy! He has suffered more than enough because of that ungrateful wretch!” After much discussion till late into the night, we had all decided that we women would head out to Safe Haven the following morning to inspect the place and make sure it was all prepared and ready for the children to move in . The place already got the thumbs up from Building, Health & Safety, and Child welfare Inspectors. Also, all the registration
CHAPTER 64ERICA Most of my childhood and right up to early adulthood memories were not so pleasant, and I wished I could totally wipe them out of my mind. My mum and dad were like oil and water and fought all the time. I used to wonder how they ended up married. They never shared that tale. Long story short, when they finally decided to divorce, I thought it was the best thing ever! One would say that I was crazy to have been happy that my parents were splitting up, but trust me, they were HELL together! Having witnessed what they went through, I had lost faith in relationships. I needed to get away from my parents, and as soon as I could, I moved out of Honeyville and headed for the city, and started to rebuild my life. My mum and I kept in contact, but my dad distanced himself from me. He seemed to have divorced his daughter, too! I was so angry at first, but I decided that I was never going to force anyone to love me and especially not my so-called father! Once I settled in the c