Ella didn’t want to leave her home, scared of meeting Tim and Dan again. But what could she do? She cannot hide in here forever, as others might get confused about her strange behavior. She needed to get herself together, make things seem normal. Dan and Tim both knew her well. They might already be suspicious about her current job. She would have to make some kind of excuse.

Her daughter broke her train of thought. Ella got Lilly ready and left her to Tinsley.

She was driving around to the cafe which was an almost thirty-minute ride. After she left Lilly, she needed to run some errands, so now she had to drive for half an hour to reach her final destination. Suddenly, on the sideway, she saw two figures arguing, and she stopped impulsively in front of them.

Dan was shooting daggers at Tim and was yelling at him for his careless attitude when some car stopped in front of them. The window rolled down and both of them were surprised to see Ella.

“Ella! You are my savior. My knight in shining Armour.” Tim exclaimed dramatically.

“Umm is everything ok? I didn’t know you two were arguing.” She said confusion clearly written on her face.

“Well, you see, we kind of forgot to book a car...” But Dan interrupted him.

“Not we. It was you, Tim. Only you.” He glared at him.

“Ok, ok. I forgot to rent a car so that we could drive around and now we are here helplessly standing on the streets waiting for a cab.”

“Well, I can give you two a ride if you want?” Ella asked them hesitantly.

“You are best,” Tim said will shoving Dan in the passenger seat and he took a back seat.

“Um, so where to?” Ella asked after both the guys were sitting comfortably in her car. She was nervous with Dan sitting beside her.

Tim told her the address. “It is not out of your way, is it?”

“No, don’t worry. It is on the way to the cafe,” She said while hitting on the gas.

“Cafe reminds me, why are you working there?” Tim asked.

Ella was expecting this sooner or later, but she hoped for later. She pursed her lips and said, “Well, it is an amazing place and I love working there.” She tried to answer diplomatically.

“You wanted to be a doctor, Ella. We know that. You even got accepted to your desire hospital for residency, then why?” Dan pointed out. He was sitting there quietly listening to her and Tim’s conversation intently, but he knew that Ella was beating around the bush.

“Well, how did you know if I got accepted or not?” She asked in confusion.

“Your mother told us. She told us that you left the states to study there.” Tim answered her.

‘That bitch’ she murmured hoping no one heard her but Dan did. 

Ella was furious. She knew that her step-mom knew she got the acceptance letter from her dream college and chose to hide it from her. If it weren’t for the call that she got from the institute, she would have never known about it as it is. It wouldn’t have mattered as she left the aspiration of becoming a doctor when she got to know that she was pregnant. 

“This is not you, Ella. You couldn’t have given up your ambition

“Well, I did. But then I had a change of heart. I wasn’t willing to fulfill my dream for anything. Heck, you even left everyone telling no one anything. If it weren’t for your mom, we would have never known to begin with. In fact, we even went there to talk to you, but then we heard you canceled your admission. We were worried. You left without a word and you even changed your god damn number.” There was a hint of anger in Dan’s voice, and she couldn’t exactly blame him.

Damn! Tim and Dan were smart. But it also overwhelmed her that both of them tried to talk to her by contacting her.

“With time people change and their priorities also change. That’s what happened to me.”

After that, Ella was glad that she was cut off by her phone call. She immediately picked up but kept it on the loudspeaker as it was safer.

“Sup Ella,” Ron asked from the other side of the phone.

“On my way to work.” She spoke.

“Cool, by the way, I got a call from some girl named Candice,”

“What the, you kidding me, right?” Ella groaned. How the hell she got his number.

“She was warning me from marrying you. I mean, why the hell she would do that... unless you guys had something to do with it.”

“Nope, not me, it was all your sister and Kristy’s doing.”

“Explain please.” He demanded curiously.

“Let’s just say we three were having a peaceful afternoon until my dearest sister called me, informing me about her wonderful date with my ex-boyfriend in the same place where he actually asked me to be his girlfriend. Let’s just say the phone was on the loudspeaker and those two girls heard it and they started gushing about my soon-to-be-a-wedding. How you proposed to me and all. Well, she didn’t take it well and told me that she was marrying my ex, which pissed Rosey, so she and Kristy started stating about our so-called wedding in Venice.” Ella explained to him.

“OH god! You kidding me. Rosey, I can imagine; but even Kristy played along. You didn’t stop them.”

“Well, I tried. But thinking about the look on the doll’s face was making me happy. So after a while, I gave up. But I can’t believe she called you. But she deserved it. God knows how the hell she got my number, let alone yours.”

“God, is she the same one who tried to sabotage your chance in university?”

“Yup, the same one.”

“She is supposed to be your sister,”

“Correction, she is my stepsister. What else can you expect from her?”

“True. By the way, what’s the deal with Rosey? She kind of looked pissed off about some guy name Timmy and was using cohesive words against him all day long.” Ron asked. Ella looked at him from the review mirror and saw him blushing.

“Don’t worry, your sister is safe with him.”

“Well, I am more worried about that guy. Rosey is a handful. Poor guy, if he decided to date her.” Ron’s answer made Ella roll her eyes.

“Stop being mean to her.”

“From dating, I remember Blaze is in town for a while.”

“Who, Blaze?” Ella asked in confusion.

“Your hot doctor whom you were dreaming about sitting in my cabin.”

“Oh, that Blaze. You are exaggerating way out of proportion. He was just telling me about his residency days. Plus, he also me about your so-called desire with Kristy.”

“Imagine Kristy in doctor coats.”

After not getting an answer for a few seconds, Ella said, “Figured.”

“You know you should only think of me as a desirable person and not Blaze as I am your future husband.” Ella could imagine him smirking.

“Ok, so don’t forget you are having lunch with me. So Chinese or Italian?”

“You even need to ask.” She asked with sarcasm.

“Oki, so see you then, babe.”

“Ya bye” she chuckled at their stupid conversation.

“Who’s Blaze and Ron?” Tim asked her immediately after the call ended.

“Ron is Rosey’s brother and my best friend, who is also a doctor. And as for Blaze, he is one of Ron’s colleagues and his best friend. He has temporary visits here once in a while.”

Before Tim could ask any more questions, their stop came and both Tim and Dan got out, but not before telling, “I am not dating Candice. Never had, never have, and never will.”

Ella was relieved that her sister and Dan were not together. At first, she was furious to learn that when she left, Dan started going out with her, but then she made herself accept the truth. She sometimes had her doubts, but let it slide as she knew how Candice was plus after she found out about her pregnancy, she knew that she needs to get away as Dan deserves someone far better than her.

Dan was disheartened. Ella never denied getting married to that Ron guy. He hoped that it was a joke that she played with her friends against Candice, but it wasn’t the case. So, she did move on and on top of it, Ron is a doctor. Just great!

Another shocker, Ella was not a Bellatrix kid. No wonder she and Candice never treated her right. But why did he not know about it? Why did Ella hide it from him?

Life is getting more complicated for him. Questions were increasing, and he had no answers to them.

As for Tim, he found something fishy. There was more to the story than Ella let out. And he didn’t believe for a bit Ella was marrying a guy name, Ron. Their talk looked more like a joke which no one would understand except for Ella and Ron.