Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author, Della Aarohi. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Calling All Angels
Chapter One
Life had such a funny way of ripping you to shreds after you had veered of the path that it had carved for you and if she was being truly honest with herself, she deserved every bit of the misery that had become her companion.
Their love story was like that of a fairy tale. They met when he was sixteen and she was fifteen. She was the quiet daughter of a pastor and he was the popular son of a doctor. She lived a simple life while he lived a rich one but still remained humble. Their interest were different. Their upbringing was different but their love was strong. He married her months after she had turned eighteen, but his loyalty to his country led him to leave her to fight in a war. If she had known then what she knew now, she would never had let him enlist. She would have fought for him just as he had fought for her when his family was against their marriage. He came back to her though. Every time without fail; maybe a little more scarred and a little more bruised but he came back to her. She never felt his love for her wane. She was treated like a queen, even if miles of desert sand and oceans separated them.
She was the one with the problem though. She was the one whose love had waned. She was the one who had crawled into another man's bed not too long after she had brought her husband's child into the world.
Maybe she had become too spoilt by having a man who was solely devoted to her? Or maybe she just wanted to be touched again? She was the playbook definition of the woman who had everything, but chose to seek comfort in another man. Everything her husband had done had been for her. Every moment he put himself in danger was for her. She knew this. Whatever it was; whatever she had been craving, she had sacrificed her greatest love for nothing.
It was her own brother who called her husband and told him what was going on. She felt her husband's heart shatter the moment he learned about her infidelity and then the place where his love, devotion and desire existed, had faded into nothingness. She compared to her life to a pendulum. Her husband was the pivot and now that he had severed their bond, her life had been left to free fall into an abyss.
Their son had suffered greatly. There was very little she could have done to protect their child; especially when he was blessed with his father's intelligence. He knew every bit of what had occurred from where her lover lived to when they would meet. His quick mind had worked out how many soccer games and piano recitals that she had missed because she had chosen to spend her time with her lover.
Could she blame her husband for how destroyed all of her relationships were? Her parents were greatly ashamed of her so much so that they now spoke very little. Her brother, the one who had exposed her affair to her husband, treated her as if she was a stranger. He never acknowledged her and partook in all of the gossip surrounded her. He made it his point to tell her that he stood with Edward.
When he came back to Forks to settle their divorce, he did not come back as hers. Injured in a war, hardened by betrayal, she knew the moment she saw him that they would never be a family again. There was no forgiveness for her to get but the respect that he had shown her, crippled her greatly. She had expected a ruthless fight especially when it came to their son but there was no fight to have. He had given her everything: the house, the cars, more than half of their money. He had been awarded custody of their son though. As the judge had said to her quite bluntly, "Your son simply does not want to live with you."
"Mrs. Cullen?" The waitress called softly, pulling Angela away from her painful thoughts. "Are you sure you don't want to order something while you wait? You've been waiting for over thirty minutes now."
"No, thank you," Angela said with a sad smile as she gathered her purse and coat. "If he hasn't showed up by now, he won't be coming."
With a heavy heart, she walked out the only diner in Forks, ignoring the whispers that followed her and headed to her car only to be stopped in her tracks by her ex-husband.
"Angela," he said in a toneless voice. "I just spied you in the window of the diner. Were you waiting for someone?"
"Yes, but they were called away at the last minute and we had to cancel," Angela lied with a bright smile plastered on her face.
"You were always a poor liar Angela. If you were waiting on Ben, he was at The Cliffs not too long ago with Lauren as his companion," her husband said bluntly.
"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" Angela whispered in a broken voice, lowering her head in an attempt to hide her tears. "What goes around comes around. Isn't that what you said?"
"Angela, as much you have hurt me and caused me pain, I cannot and will not ever wish pain on you," he said, broadening his stance and holding his hands behind his back, a posture characteristic of his time in the military.
His eyes had always been an open book to her. She could always tell what he felt by just looking at those emerald coloured eyes. Not too long ago, his eyes held only love and adoration for her. She fought against the shiver that threatened to surge through her body as she thought about how his eyes had burned with his lust and desire for her, but now when he looked at her, all she saw was a chilling emptiness that froze her to her core.
"You should be hating me, dragging me through the mud," she sighed still looking at his eyes.
"I cannot hate you. Not when I have benefited so greatly from this," he confessed, his eyes flaring with what Angela could only describe as passion.
"Who is she?" Angela pulled back, stunned at the sudden change in his emotions.
"She is the woman who may just have enough strength to pull me back from the cliff you left me on, Angela," he confessed.
"Do you love her?"
"No, Angela. I do not love her. You showed me not too long ago that a woman cannot love a man hardened or damaged by war like I was so I will not love again. My children will gain it all. I will do everything for my children. They are my only loves," he responded.
"Children? Edward, what children? You only have a son," Angela prattled only to be stopped by the sadistic smirk that flittered across Edward's face. "What have you done, Edward?" Angela whispered hoarsely after a few seconds, panic rushing though her.
"I simply saw an opportunity and took it. Consequences be damned. To the victor goes the spoils."
The chilling, monotone manner that her soon-to-be ex-husband had confirmed one thing in her mind. She had destroyed the heart of a good man and in his place, a beast had surfaced and if her gut was to be trusted, that beast had already taken a beauty as its captive.