His innocent wife is a dangerous hacker.

Chapter 744 Working together

Bella’s heart skipped a beat, but she recovered quickly. She had seen them before, at the restaurant, sitting with Miss J, laughing and talking like family. It shouldn’t have surprised her that they were here. And yet, it did.

She turned to Miss J first, offering a warm smile. "Hello, Miss J."

Miss J looked beautiful today. She was wearing a coffee-colored dress that fell to her knees with long sleeves and a simple belt at the waist that cinched just right. Her brown hair was loose, falling in soft waves around her shoulders, catching the light like silk. Her face was bare of makeup, but it didn’t matter. She glowed from within.

Miss J’s eyes crinkled. "Hello, sweet girl."

Bella turned to Theo and Freya. "Hi. I didn’t know you’d be here."

Freya shook her head, her ponytail swaying. "Neither did we." She was holding a swatch of deep blue fabric, her fingers pinching the edge like she was testing its weight, holding it up to the light. "Aunt didn’t mention she was expecting company."

Aunt, Bella thought. So she is their aunt.

Miss J smiled, a little mysterious, a little amused. "I like surprises."

Freya shook her head, but she was smiling too. "So you know each other?"

Miss J nodded and smiled, her eyes warm.

Theo folded his arms across his chest, his biceps flexing slightly beneath his rolled-up sleeves. "I used to teach Bella guitar." He turned to Bella, his expression suddenly stern, his eyebrows drawn together in mock disapproval. "I hope you haven’t stopped practicing."

Bella’s cheeks flushed pink. "Oh no, I practice," she said quickly. Then, quieter, "Only sometimes."

Theo raised an eyebrow, waiting, his foot tapping on the wooden floor.

Bella’s voice dropped to a mumble. "Mostly sometimes."

Theo sighed, a long, dramatic exhale that suggested great disappointment. "We’ll have to fix that."

Freya laughed, the sound bright and warm, bouncing off the walls of the sunlit studio. "I met Bella when I was working for Alexa," she said, gesturing toward Bella.

Bella nodded, then started thinking about how strange Alexa had been when she met her last time. Her change in behavior was strange, but she thought that maybe motherhood had changed her. People grew softer after having children, didn’t they?

Miss J clapped her hands together, the sound bright and sudden in the sunlit room, cutting through the chatter. "Well, now that introductions are out of the way, let’s get to work. Bella, come here. I want to show you what I’ve sketched."

Bella walked toward the table, her heart fluttering with excitement, her palms slightly sweaty. The wooden surface was covered in papers, sketches, fabric samples, and scattered pins. Miss J picked up one of the papers and handed it to Bella.

Miss J’s voice was soft but proud. "This is my design. We don’t have much time to prepare the dress, so I asked for my nephew and niece’s help. They’re wonderful help."

She gestured toward Theo and Freya, who were already sorting through fabric swatches and spools of thread, moving with practiced efficiency. Theo held up a piece of fabric, letting it catch the light, the color shifting from pale gold to deep amber.

Freya beamed at Bella. "We’ve done this before."

Bella gave her a smile back, grateful and a little overwhelmed.

Theo added, but he was smiling, "Too many times."

Bella looked down at the sketch. She couldn’t stop smiling. Her cheeks ached. Her eyes stung. The lines on the paper were clean, elegant, flowing. The dress looked like it was already moving, even on the page.

"It’s perfect," she whispered.

Miss J’s eyes crinkled. "I’m glad you like it."

They got to work.

⊹₊˚‧︵‿₊୨୧₊‿︵‧˚₊⊹

The next hour was a blur of measurements and fabric choices and small, careful decisions. Bella stood on a small platform while Freya took her measurements, the measuring tape cool against her skin. Freya called out numbers, and Theo wrote them down on a notepad, his handwriting neat and precise. Miss J circled them, watching, adjusting, sometimes shaking her head and making them do it again.

And then they were looking through fabric all together. Bolts of cloth in every color imaginable were spread across the table. Bella ran her fingers over silk and cotton and velvet, feeling the textures, the weights, the way each one caught the light differently. Theo held up a bolt of deep burgundy and said it would bring out the warmth in Bella’s skin. Freya argued for a soft champagne color that would make her look like she was glowing. Miss J listened to both of them, then chose something entirely different, something none of them had considered.

As they worked, Bella looked around the studio. The walls were covered in paintings, some finished, some still in progress. A landscape of a stormy sea with waves crashing against rocks. A portrait of a woman laughing, her head thrown back, her eyes crinkled with joy. A still life of flowers that looked so real she wanted to lean in and smell them.

"How old is this place?" she asked, because the structure really looked old. The wooden beams overhead were dark with age, carved with patterns that had been worn smooth by time. The floorboards creaked in certain spots, singing under their feet. The windows had a wavy quality to them, the kind that came from glass that had been poured centuries ago, when craftsmanship meant something different than it did now.

Miss J paused, her hands still on a spool of thread, her fingers frozen mid-motion. "Almost twenty-five years," she said, her voice far away, like she was looking at a different time, a different version of herself. "I bought it when I was young. It was falling apart then. Leaky roof, cracked windows, dust everywhere. Piles of old boxes. Cobwebs in every corner." She smiled at the memory, her eyes soft and distant. "But I loved it. I could see what it could become."

Bella tilted her head. "What was it before?"

Miss J set down the spool and walked to the window, running her fingers along the wooden frame. "A storage warehouse. Very old. Abandoned. The neighbors thought I was crazy for buying it. They told me I was wasting my money. They told me to tear it down and start over." She laughed. "But I didn’t listen."