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Chapter One: Where It All Began.

The world knew him as Edward Anthony Masen Cullen, success story.

His parents knew him as the eldest of their three children and the one who had never once disappointed them.

His siblings knew him as their protective older brother who never allowed one bit of harm to befall them.

His sisters-in-law knew him as the man who had threatened to destroy them with the many secrets buried in their past.

His children, as well as his step-children, knew him as the best father that they could have prayed for.

His wife, though, knew him as the man who had hurt her the most.

Little did she know that she was the one that he would come to love the most.


It was a little after nine on a wet Saturday morning in May and Edward had already locked himself away from the rest of his family in hopes of getting some very important work done before his brother's wedding rehearsal dinner that evening.

His eyes kept flickering from document to document, trying desperately to drown out the sound of the wedding preparations going on just a floor below, a wedding which was costing him a pretty penny.

Emmett, the groom-to-be, had been very shocked when Edward had informed him that he was going to be paying for his wedding and had, at first, refused his brother. However, he crumbled shortly after when Edward told him he was paying for the wedding and that it was considered to be Edward and his children's wedding gift.

In actuality, though, Edward was only paying for the wedding because he knew that there was a very unlikely chance of the marriage actually standing up to the test of time and he did not want his parents spending any money on a marriage that was doomed to fail. If he could, Edward would have, very early on, thrown Rosalie out, but his brother was so in love that he did not have the heart to hurt his brother. So, he did what he always did. He protected him.

It took Edward's investigators a little over six months to piece together the very complex puzzle that was Rosalie Swan's past and when it was finally laid out for him in black and white, Edward was livid. Not only had the scheme concocted by Rosalie going to hurt Emmett, but it was also going to hurt his other brother, Jasper, who had fallen for Alice Swan's charms.

Even with hard, irrefutable evidence of the Swan sisters' conniving ways, Edward still did not say anything. He simply bit his lip and decided to bid his time, but now the time had come and he needed to have a few words with his future sister-in-law.

"You wanted to see me, Edward?" Rosalie smiled warmly as she entered his office.

"Oh, Rose! Yes, of course. Come on in and have a seat," Edward said, walking around his desk to embrace Rosalie and place a soft kiss on her cheek.

"Why thank you, kind sir!" Rosalie giggled.

Smiling, at least he hoped he was smiling, he politely asked for Alice. "And where is Alice? I wanted to meet her as well and I thought I could meet the both of you at once since I know that Alice will soon be my other sister-in-law."

"She's right outside. Do you want me to get her?" Rosalie asked.

"No, I'll call her." Quickly, he walked to the door and quickly called out for Alice to join him.

When everyone was seated, Edward started to speak.

"I know you may be wondering why I have call you here and really I just want to welcome you both to the family," Edward started off with a smile. "You see, when Emmett and then later Jasper told me that they had found the love of their lives, I was hesitant. You both know that I don't trust people easily, but when I met you all, I could see that you were perfect for my brothers. It was like you were made for them. You never fought, never had a disagreement. You accepted all their quirks, as though you knew they had them. So I started to get suspicious. Very suspicious," Edward drawled, loving how Alice and Rosalie started to look a bit pale.

"I asked one of my guys to look into your pasts and, after a couple of months, I could not believe what my guys presented me with; do you know what that was? You two may love my brothers, but you love their money more. You love the money in their trust funds more. You love the lavish and luxurious lifestyle they could give you more than you could ever love them and that, my dears, is not sitting well with me," Edward said in a very cold voice, not even the hint of a smile on his face.

"Edward, we can explain…" Alice started to say in a panicked voice before raised a hand to stop her.

"There is no explanation for what you both were trying to do. Emmett and Jasper are my brothers…..my younger brothers and I should destroy the both of you for these plans of yours but I won't," Edward confessed. "Because I know that you have indeed fallen in love with them, and, in that regard, I am willing to keep your secrets."

"Thank you, Edward…."Rosalie started to say but was once again stopped by Edward.

"I'm not finished. Another secret of yours that my men discovered was that you both have children. Two boys to be exact. Rosalie, your son is named Chase, while Alice's boy is named Theo. Both are under the age of four. So, I asked myself, how is it that you have children and my family and I have never seen them? But before I could get an answer for that question, my brothers were the ones who came with an answer. It was quite the tragic tale you two spun. Forced to give your children up for adoption by your alcoholic father and abusive mother. And then my brothers begged for my help so that I could help you both find ways to be reunited with your children. On my dime, the search for these boys started and ended quite abruptly when I found them in the care of your sister, Ms. Isabella Swan, and then the questions began to form yet again. How did Alice and Rose not know that their sister had custody of their children?

"The answer for that came from Ms. Isabella Swan herself, who came to see me just a week ago after she was served with court papers showing your intent to regain custody of your children."

"What?" Rosalie gasped, turning her wide fear filled eyes to look at Alice.

"Oh yes. Isabella, who is all of twenty-three years old, came to my office, begging me to stop the legal proceedings and not take the children away from her. After I got her to calm down, she spoke with me and told me every bit of truth. She was the one who filled in the missing pieces of the puzzle for me," Edward nodded, leaning back against his chair.

"Edward, you can't believe her!" Alice protested with a shake of her head. "She took our babies. She…"

"Don't lie, Alice," Edward sneered coldly. "There are legal documents, filed and signed by judges, giving merit to what she said and it sickens me to know that you both were so wrapped up in your own lives to discard your children on her doorstep in the middle of the night. I was even more disgusted when she showed me pictures of the children's thin bodies and tattered clothing. It was evident that you did not care for them. After all, they were hindering in your plans to get to the money you so desperately sought and now that you both had such wealth in your sights, you knew that bringing children back into your lives would act as a deterrent, should Emmett or Jasper ever decide to leave you."

"So, are you going to call off the wedding?" Rosalie asked in a small voice, desperately trying to hold her tears at bay.

"No. I already told you that the wedding will go on and for the rest of my brothers' lives, you will both treat them like gods. If they want ten kids, they will have them. If they want you to work and let them stay home with a beer gut, you will buy them the beer. If they have five love children with the maid, you will grin and bear it, but above all that, after you leave this room, you will find you significant other and tell them that I found your children. You will tell them that your sister, the angel that she is, adopted your boys and took them into her home. You will tell them that you have also spoken to your parents and you have made amends with them and you are so happy that they will be here tomorrow for the wedding.

"You will tell them that, after speaking briefly to both your sister and me, you have decided that it will be the best interest of the children that they are raised by your sister and that you are content with simply being the children's aunts. Have I made myself clear?"

"Yes," Alice stuttered out, one of her hands holding on tightly to Rosalie's.

"Very good. You can leave now," Edward dismissed them with a causal nod of his head.

"Why not just give us back the children? Why go this route?" Alice asked almost hesitantly.

"Oh how foolish of me for forgetting to tell you this!" Edward said in insincere exasperation. "I always said that my wife would get the world, regardless if I carried for her or not."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Alice murmured with a frowned brow.

"Everything. It has to do with everything," Edward said as he stood from his chair and made his way over to a side door in his office. Alice and Rosalie were left for several minutes to exchange puzzled glances before Edward returned with his arm wrapped around the tiny waist of a very beautiful young woman.

"Alice, Rosalie, please let me be the one to introduce you to my wife who I know you are both familiar with," Edward smirked.

"It can't be," Alice shook her head in denial while Rosalie's jaw dropped in shock.

"But it is," Edward continued. "This is my wife. She is the Mrs. Edward Anthony Masen Cullen. She is Mrs. Isabella Marie Swan Cullen."