Chapter 111 Weakness
When Bella turned her head, she saw Jenny's grinning face emerging from the car window. Jenny waved her hand at her, opened the door, and slid into the front passenger seat.
"Hey, darling. I hope I didn't keep you waiting for too long," she said, touching Bella on the shoulder.
Bella rolled her eyes at her and let out a sigh of relief, "Oh my god, you almost scared me to death! I thought you were someone else!"
"Someone else? Are you waiting for someone else?" Bella shook her head and Jenny inquired, "What's wrong? I saw your car parked across the street, so I ran to meet you. You know what? I wondered what you were looking at so closely a few minutes ago! What was it?" Jenny asked suspiciously; her eyes fell on the cup of coffee in front of her. Without waiting for Bella's reply, she pointed at it and asked, "Oh, dear, is this for me?"
"Who else but you, darling? Drink up. We've got a long day ahead of us!" Bella replied casually. She turned around and stuck her head out of the window, her eyes searching for the figure of the strange man. "Hmm, looks like he's gone," she murmured.
"Who?" Jenny asked suspiciously with wide eyes.
"A man. And not just any man, a very strange man," Bella replied with a frown. Her face was grim.
"Huh? What are you talking about?" Jenny asked, peering at her, one eyebrow raised.
"He was about six feet tall, with a slender body, wearing a black sweatshirt and a peaked cap with a low brim that covered the upper half of his face," she explained. She recalled the man's appearance with explicit details.
"Hmm, and how is his appearance strange? Sounds pretty normal to me," Jenny said with a shrug.
"Yes, he looked very ordinary, but just the way he was behaving... I don't know; something about him was off. But of course, it could be just me. I'm telling you, though, throughout those fifteen minutes I was waiting for you, he seemed to be circling me, running around and whatnot! And I'm not exaggerating when I say he passed my car no less than ten times. A few times, I noticed that he was looking straight at me, and when we made eye contact, he immediately lowered his head and continued to run," she recounted the past incident in great detail.
"Yes, I agree. That seemed like a stalker and crazy person," Jenny remarked, though her tone was quite casual. She didn't seem to be concerned in the least. "Don't be so nervous. There are so many people on this street that a pervert like him wouldn't dare to approach and harm you. I wanted to ask, though, you seem to be in such a hurry to buy gifts for Edward's aunt. I mean, why not buy them in England? It's more convenient that way."
"Well, I've thought about that, and the reason is simple. You see, I've never been to London before, it's a completely foreign city to me; I don't have any friends there. It's going to take me days to get acclimated to the surroundings. I'm going to have to get a map to figure out the city routes a bit, the best places to shop and eat, and so on. Considering the fact that I don't have anyone to accompany me to purchase gifts, not to mention that it's hard for me to make decisions by myself, adding to that several hours of traveling, I can't guarantee that I will have the energy to buy gifts after I get off the plane," Bella explained.
"Sounds reasonable," Jenny said with a smile.
"All righty, then. Ready? Let's go! Oh, wait--" When Bella was about exit the car, a diamond necklace on Jenny's neck suddenly caught her eye. She leaned close to Jenny and looked at the necklace carefully. The necklace's pendant was a golden leopard head, and its eyes were inlaid with green onyx, glittering in the sunlight. "That is one beautiful pendant! I've never seen you wearing this before. Can I touch it?"
"Of course!" Jenny looked very proud, and a smug smile spread across her face. Bella's response was exactly what she wanted, "This is Cartier, and as you can imagine, it's crazy expensive." Jenny picked up the pendant with her hand and let Bella admire it.
"Gosh, I love it! It's so gorgeous!" Bella exclaimed. "When did you buy it?"
Hearing this question, a sly light flashed in Jenny's eyes. She coughed twice, cleared her throat, and said in a proud voice, "Actually, I didn't buy it."
Bella leaned back and looked at her with a knowing smile. "Fernando gave it to you, didn't he? You're so lucky!"
Jenny raised her eyebrows and gave Bella a you-know look. "He-he. I didn't expect him to give me such an expensive gift on our second date. Guess what happened last night? After you went home, we went to a bar. As you may know, I can hold my liquor and I drank only one glass of brandy. But I pretended to be drunk and fell into his arms. Oh my, what can I tell you? His scent was so... sensual, making me feel dizzy. Next, he took me to the hotel, and that was where, you know, the magic happened. The next morning, when I opened my eyes, I saw him looking at me tenderly. He kissed me and put the necklace around my neck. His fingers were so gentle, so soft...." The smile in Jenny's eyes deepened as if the aftertaste of last night's lovemaking still lingered in her mouth and mind. As she spoke, her right hand gently stroked the pendant.
"Oh, I'm so happy for you, darling. You deserve it." Bella looked at the woman beside her, full of pride and happiness.
"You're so kind!" Jenny held the coffee cup in both hands; her cheeks flushed slightly.
"Ha-ha. Now, forget about him, and let's get out of here. You can sip on your coffee on the way. We have to hurry up and buy gifts!" Bella urged her. Bella pulled Jenny out of the car and walked towards the Macy's department store at the next intersection.
What they didn't know was that on the not far corner, a black Cadillac was parked on the side of the road. There were two men in the car, a dark-haired man wearing sunglasses, and the man beside him was none other than what Bella had seen earlier. The strange man in the sports attire. They sat in the car, listening attentively to Bella and Jenny's conversation.
"Boss, they've walked into the mall. There are too many people here, and it's inconvenient to do. When they leave the mall, I will lead them to another less frequented road," the man in sportswear reported to Fernando on the walkie-talkie.
At this time, Fernando was sitting by the window of a café on the second floor, leisurely observing everything around him. He was confident about his plan. He had installed a miniature monitor in the necklace he had gifted Jenny the previous night. Bella and Jenny were like two fish put into a fish tank, and they were firmly in his grasp. He wanted to catch Bella and use her as bait to lure Edward into the trap.
'You can't blame me, Edward for exploiting the weakness of human nature,' he thought triumphantly.