Crushed Affections (Dominic and Bella)
Chapter 122

Chapter 122 The Third Wheel

Dominic's voice shot through the line like a whip. "You didn't want to come with me, but you had no problem tagging along with Lia and Oscar to be their third wheel?

Bella trove indisbelled. "How did you replace out?"

La posted a photo on her social media," Dominic said.

Bella wanted to strangle Lia. She hadn't expected her friend to have Dominic as her friend on social media. Taking a deep breath, she scrambled for an excuse. "It was a last-minute thing, and Lia dragged me along. Next time, okay? I really need some sleep now. I'm exhausted."

Dominic didn't respond and just ended the call. He then sent her a friend request on Facebook moments later.

The moment she accepted it. Dominic called her again. She reluctantly answered."

"Now what?"

Dominic's voice sounded distant like he was busy. His phone must have been held away from his ear. "Leave the line open. You can sleep. But if you hang up, you're dead

was terrifying, so she left the call running. She quietly switched off the mic,

Bella wanted to refuse badly. However, the thought of him showing up unannounced was terrify figuring at least he wouldn't hear anything on her end.

Curiosity got the better of her. She opened his profile and checked his posts. Surprisingly, he hadn't blocked her from viewing them.

His feed was sparse with just a few random photos posted at long intervals. There wasn't much to see.

Bella easily scrolled back to a post from three years ago that caught her attention. It was a photo of a broken-winged butterfly, captioned with, "No one ever asked me what I wanted. They just threw their burdens at me. I'm tired."

The timestamp was from the night Richard passed away. Was the "burden" the weight of taking over the Miller family business? Or was it her, the person who should have never entered his life?

Huh. Wait, are you calling someone?"

She was deep in the thought when Lia sneaked up beside her. "What are you looking at? Huh... Wait Bellaquickly forlod her phone and squeezed her eyes shut. "I'm going to sleep

Lia flopped onto the bed beside her and threw a leg over Bella's waist "I saw Domine's profile picture just now. You're on a call with him, aren't you? What's this? Sleeping with each other on the phone now? You guys need to hear each other's breathing to fall asleep?" Bella dug her fingers into Lia's leg and tickled her "Your leg is heavy, get it off me. And no, I didn't call him. He made me stay on the line. He's weird like that. What can I do? I'm small helpless, and pitiful. I've been living at his merry since I was a kid. It's not like I can fight back. Now, shut up. I'm trying to sleep."

Lislet herbe, and the room fell into silence. Fatigue from the day's travel hit Bella all at once, and she drifted off to sleep.

La's excitement y

yanked Bella out of bed at the crack of dawn.

Bella sat up, her hair a tangled mess with her eyes barely opened "Why are we up this early? Can't I sleep a bit more?"

Lia tugged her toward the bathroom. The weather is hot lately. You'll melt halfway through the day if we don't get going soon. Then, we can forget about enjoying the trip. Oscar's already up and heading out to rent a car for our convenience. Let's not slow him down After washing up, Bella lelt more awake. She grabbed her phone and checked it, only to replace that the call with Dominic was still connected.

Since Bella was heading out soon, she didn't want to drain her battery by keeping it uning. She reached to hang up the call when Dominic's voice came through the speaker. "You can hang up now if you're heading out. Listening to your stoting all night was punishing enough."

Bella's heart shopped a brat. "What? I don't "

As the spoke, she noticed the mic she thought she had turned off was somehow back on. Her cheeks flushed with heat while embarrassment wave. She mustered a hasty goodbye and ended the call. It washed over her like a