Novel Palace
Chapter 132
Chapter 132
Chapter 1 32
The room was cloaked in shadows as Gabriel entered, his eyes adjusting to the dim lighting.
“Bella, what’s this supposed to mean? You explicitly said you don’t want to and wouldn’t meet with me
any longer, didn’t you?” Gabriel questioned. His question was met with silence.
Bella who was usually against him visiting her or meeting him had suddenly asked to meet with him
there. In the dimness, he squinted, attempting to make out Bella’s figure.
“Did you bring the money?” he asked her.
“Oh yes, I brought the money,” a male voice replied, walking out from the shadows.
“What’s the meaning of this?!” Gabriel hissed, attempting to back out of the room, but he was roughly
shoved back inside.
“You,” he spat when he saw Ethan, receiving a sudden blow to the guts that sent him sprawling to the
ground.
“Boss, is this him?” Ethan’s subordinate asked, stepping over Gabriel.
“Yes, he was definitely here to meet with Bella,” Ethan confirmed.
After searching through Bella’s drawers at her office, they’d found a broken phone tossed into the
trash, the number they were able to retrieve was Gabriel.
So they’d lured him out.
“Ethan,” Gabriel scoffed through his bleeding lips. “You lured me out?” he laughed lightly.
“You’ll talk, what’s your business with Bella?” Ethan interrogated.
“What do you think?” Gabriel retorted carelessly, seemingly unfazed.
“She’s been making transactions to your account for several days, months now, under some fake
company name.”
It wasn’t ordinary. Gabriel looked away with an irritated expression, clearly harboring disdain for the
man in front of him.
“You won’t talk?” Ethan pressed.
“Fine.” Ethan said with a sigh, anticipating that he would soon reveal everything under the mounting
pressure.
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“Ethan!” Gabriel called, halting him in his tracks. “How’s your health?” he asked with a knowing smirk.
Ethan, his features transforming into a deep scowl, stopped.
“I know about it, she was buying it from me,” Gabriel admitted. He sought to save his own neck,
showing indifference toward Bella.
“I only supplied her the vial! That’s all I did. I don’t know anything,” he denied eagerly.
“And she’s been sending money continually? Millions,” Ethan stated incredulously, suspecting there
was more to the story.
“The fact is, you know the truth about Bella, and you are going to tell me.”
“I don’t know anything!” the man yelled defensively. “I only sold her the potions; that’s the truth!” Gabriel
insisted.
********
“Where is Ethan?” Bella inquired upon waking up, having been knocked out by a sudden blow to the
head. Those women had proven to be ruthless.
“Get him here; I need to talk to him,” she ordered the maid attending to her wounds. Although she was
being treated, the person tending to her was harsh.
Anna tightened her grip on Bella’s wrist, causing her to hiss in pain.
“How dare you?” Bella snapped at Anna. “I am your Luna!”
“Shut up,” Anna yelled, slapping her face, making Bella go numb and ballistic.
“It felt good all those times you hit us, right?” she sneered.
“I don’t have much time for this. What have you been giving my Alpha?” Anna interrogated angrily.
“I know you’ve been poisoning him. You always acted sneakily; you’ve been poisoning him all this
while, haven’t you?” she accused.
“Ethan! Ethan!” Bella yelled, backing off into a corner in fright. “She’s trying to kill me! Help!” she cried
in fear. The door opened, and Ethan walked in.
“We need to talk, Ethan,” she pleaded, her entire body in pain, her head throbbing as if split in two.
Ethan, seemingly oblivious to what he knew for sure, was torturing her. The thought left her feeling sad
and furious. She vowed not to talk, no matter what.
“Are you awake, Bella?” Ethan asked, staring down at her with a face hardened and
Chapter 13 2
impenetrable. “Ethan, why are you doing this?” Bella started crying. “I hurt all over; I didn’t do anything.
I didn’t even know Hazel’s kids are yours. I don’t even…”
“Enough with your lies, Bella!” Ethan interrupted angrily. “Who exactly are you?” he demanded,
frustration evident. “Your mate!” she yelled, groaning from the pain of her injuries.
“You aren’t. You’ve fooled me all this while, but you aren’t Bella. If you really were, you wouldn’t have
been poisoning my wolf. You’re a fake Bella,” he accused outrightly. “That’s if Bella is actually your
name. It’s Annabelle, isn’t it?” he asked, referencing Naomi’s revelation.
“Naomi recognized you, didn’t she?” he questioned, stepping closer. Amidst carefully orchestrated
plans, Ethan struggled to comprehend the motive behind everything.
“The bottle I found in your room contained Silvershade Elixir. It’s extremely rare, almost impossible to
find. But somehow, you got your hands on it. You have help, some kind, some partners, and this is all
some carefully orchestrated plot, isn’t it? You suddenly showing up as my mate and everything till now,”
he stated in disbelief.
“I’ve actually been so stu pid,” he muttered. “It’s a lie, Ethan; I’m being framed!” she cried out in pain. “I
don’t know how that vial got there, Ethan, I swear,” she yelled. She was- still standing on her lies and
being difficult. Ethan sighed; at this rate, he wouldn’t be able to figure anything out from her.
“It seems you weren’t tortured enough,” Ethan muttered with a sigh. Gabriel had asked him how his
health was; they were both connected with it in some way.
“Gabriel,” he said the word calmly. Acting impulsively for the first time turned out to be the best
decision. He was uncovering more things about her.
“I met with your partner, Gabriel,” he broke to her. “Gabriel is your supplier of the Elixir, right?” he asked
her. “What are you talking about, Ethan?” Bella asked, completely scared now. He watched how her
denial slowly morphed into alarm and fear.
“I tracked your transactions; those fake companies trailed to him, and I found your old phone,” he
drawled out lightly. Bella’s eyes widened as realization dawned on her. Ethan had caught her.
“Ethan! I’ll confess,” she admitted anxiously. “I’m listening,” Ethan replied, signaling a shift in their tense
interaction. Bella proceeded to confess her association with Gabriel, claiming he blackmailed her for
money. However, Ethan’s skepticism remained.
“Another lie,” Ethan sneered. “Fine. You’ll remain here for a few days. Some days without food or water
would clear your head out.” With that, he stood up and left. Bella was scared; she was completely
doomed now. Nothing she would say would make Ethan change his mind. The only person she could
rely on was Derrick, but he’d turned his
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back on her.
“What you’re doing is illegal! You’re keeping me hostage without any evidence or anything, Ethan! You
have no right!” she yelled, and her words were silenced with a hard hit on her face.
“I don’t want to hear a word from you; you talk when I ask you to, and whatever you say would be
answers to the questions I asked you. Understood?” he asked, holding her hair in a tight grip, pulling at
her scalp. She nodded immediately, tears filling her eyes. Ethan was ruthless.
“Anna, make sure she doesn’t get food, water, or anything for the rest of the week” he ordered.
Bella was smart in cleaning her tracks; if he was going to find out any answers, he would be needing
them from her.
Gabriel sat, heaving in his chair, observing Axel as the man walked in. Despite Axel’s outward
calmness, one could sense the underlying rage, and it was evident he was close to reaching a boiling
point. The air was hot, and Gabriel, covered in bruises, began to break into a cold sweat just from
Axel’s presence. The fact that he, Gabriel had also killed his girlfriend intensified the fear, causing
Gabriel’s heart to palpate in terror.
Gabriel strategized on how to leave that place with his life intact. They hadn’t discovered his connection
to Jasmine’s disappearance and death; Axel would have killed him already if he had found out.
“What do you know about Bella?” Axel calmly asked, taking off his jacket in a slow, calculated manner
fitting for a psychopath.
Gabriel remained silent. Men like Axel were the worst kind, with a deceptively gentle and calm face
concealing a lot of bottled-up anger and rage.
In that moment, Axel was searching for a punching bag; he wasn’t even supposed to be at that
warehouse but needed to vent his anger on someone or something.
He’d failed Jasmine.
Axel had left that night to make arrangements for her. At that moment, he wanted to take care of her for
the rest of his life. He had dreamed of leaving the country, getting a fresh start with her. Leaving her
that day was to round up everything with Ethan, get his things together, and then return back to her.
When he went back, he was too late. She was gone completely, leaving no trace. He rubbed his face
and turned to look at the battered man tied up in the chair.
“I asked you a question, didn’t I?” Axel asked him with a strange calmness.
“Bella, I sold things to her,” he stammered. “I need answers!” Axel yelled.
“What do you know about Bella? I won’t repeat the question I asked,” Axel stated, disposing of his
glasses calmly.
–
Gabriel could see the maniac rage within his eyes. He was different from the other men who had
tortured him; this one could be meaner.
“I’ll say everything I know,” he muttered loudly. Everything, except anything related to Jasmine, wouldn’t
leave his lips. “I had nothing to do with Bella. I accidentally met her one day; we were friends,” he
stuttered out through his teeth.
“Then suddenly she said she’d found her mate, and then she asked for a supply of that poison months
later. That was it,” he said.
Axel looked disappointed. “That’s everything?” he asked. All rights © NôvelDrama.Org.
“That can’t be all. What do you know about Black axe?” He asked him.
“I don’t know, never head of it ” Gabriel admitted.
“You’ve not said everything you know about Bella.” Axel pointed out.
“Have you?” He drawled.
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“No. The truth is I found out something about her, so I started blackmailing her with it,” he admitted.
“What did you find out?” Axel asked eagerly. This was what he had been waiting for. Axel left the room
moments later; Gabriel apparently had nothing to do with the Bella- Jasmine situation. If only he knew,
Gabriel was actually the one who had gotten rid of Jasmine. At the moment, Gabriel was ready to do
whatever it took to save his own neck. “I’ve got information for you, the reason why Bella’s been
sending money in huge sums,” he revealed to Ethan. They found themselves back in the kind of
lifestyle they’d left, but it was all for a real purpose, not for their selfishness, to protect the people they
loved. His mistake was not being honest with his feelings, not telling Jasmine he loved her earlier on
and leaving with her. He sighed.
“Bella wasn’t actually pregnant the first time. It was her way of getting you to marry her,” Axel disclosed
what Gabriel had admitted. “He found out, then started using it to extract money. That was Gabriel’s
role. And also the supplier as well,” Axel explained.
Ethan could feel his head become light and even spin. He stumbled backward in disbelief. Everything,
all lies. She was never pregnant; she never had a miscarriage. He
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had lived several years in guilt. Guilt for what exactly?! For nothing, he did nothing. When he lost
Hazel, when he divorced her, he felt empty, like something wasn’t right. He nearly went mad from
looking for her. Then Bella had that ‘accident’ and lost their supposed child; the guilt gnawing at him
became almost overwhelming. He started doing everything Bella wanted, just to try to make up for
pushing her away from him and alleging pushing their child to death and marrying her. She had played
him several times. Did the lies ever come to an end? Who exactly was she?
She was a complete liar; nothing that ever left her lips was the truth. He felt furious, his blood running
cold. He badly wanted to strangle Bella.