It is probably why she was surprised when she saw Linus for what he was and what he was doing.

Bella had the first good year she ever experienced in her adult life. That motherfucker had sniffed it out like a goddamn bloodhound.

This time, thankfully she was not caught up in the rose coloured world that Linus provided, with his smirks and looks from actoss the room.

Instead od butterflies, it was nothing except the flashing sign “trouble” over his head. Her ability to catch the subtleness of fuckery had returned with her good year

Still, for a moment Bella had thought that they were going to be in a good place. For a second she also thought she was in a good place to be around him. The past was the past afterall.

For a moment.

It was that he was behaving just as he had when they had met.

EXACTLY like when they had first met.

This slimy little fuck hadn’t changed, he’d just put on an old mask now that he could see that Bella was doing well. She would never be sure if he had been genuine, but she knew that if he bolted last time, he would again. Most importantly, she knew that she herself didn’t want him in her life.

At all.

Ever.

This was going to be a fucken trip. She just didn’t know it yet.

With that, one of the last remaining strings in the disentanglement of Bella and Linus disentagrated into oblivion