Prologue: March 31st, 2009: Music Or The Misery?
It's true--romance is dead. I shot it in the chest, then in the head.
If you wanna go down in history, then I'm your prince
'Cause they got me in a bad way, I've never seen a heart I couldn't break.
-Music Or The Misery by Fall Out Boy
The 26 year old woman looked at herself in the mirror in the lawyer's office bathroom and decided she looked like she was going to attend a funeral. Her usually long, brown, wavy locks were pinned up under a black hat with a black fishnet veil. The hat sat jauntily perched to the side of her head which was the opposite of her mood.
She wore smoky makeup with bright red lips and a pearl choker. Her outfit was a black button up dress that she had unbuttoned to her cleavage, slightly revealing the top of a lacy black bra. Her feet were covered in dramatic four inch black stilettos.
In other words, she looked every bit the jaded divorcee she was about to be. She left the bathroom and strolled into the office where her soon-to-be ex-husband and lawyers had been waiting for her for ten minutes. She wanted to give her lousy, cheating husband one last chance to apologize.
She had been raised a good Catholic girl which meant she was to never get divorced. The guilt of letting down her mother and brother was the only thing making her try to save her marriage. She was me unfortunately.
I entered the room with a certain confidence embodied in me, I was not about to let him stomp on her heart again. I could not afford to ever show my real feelings around him again.
Speaking of the devil, he sat at the head of the table, smirking his terrible little crooked typically wild and messy bronze hair was even more so today. I scoffed, he had probably came to the lawyer's right after a romp with his mistress. His green eyes shone with the light of victory as he drank in the sight of his wife for the last time. I knew my facade was not working as well as I wanted it to.
I took my seat at the opposite end of the table from that swarmy bastard.
"Heading to a funeral, Mrs Cullen?", he questioned, raising one bronze eyebrow. He looks too good in that black suit, I thought.
"Yours. Are you excited about this all, Mr Cullen?", I retorted. His grin only grew. I rolled my eyes internally. I knew I shouldn't have tempted him. He could not resist these little battles with me. It was what attracted us to each other in the first place.
"Very much. I can't wait to see you cry as I sign these papers and rid you of my life." I frowned slightly, he was playing hardball today.
"Au contraire. I look forward to seeing Jacob after this, you do remember my darling Jacob, do you not?" I was raising the stakes and playing a bluff. I had never had any such affair with Jacob but my husband preferred to believe that if he were having numerous affairs, then his loving and loyal wife was every bit as capable to do the same to him. I hoped he couldn't read my poker face today.
My bluff worked because his eyes narrowed. "Ah, yes, I remember him well", he grunted out. The lawyer, Mr. Jenks, cleared his throat.
"You two are all ready to sign these divorce papers but we were just informed of a stipulation from your record company and I do believe their own lawyer is here to explain that to you. Aro?" The man in the gray suit next to Jenks nodded his head.
"You see, Edward and Bella, you are still in a very binding contract with our label, Decaydance, and when you were signed, you agreed that if any of the band members went into a consenting relationship with any of the other band members and then ended that relationship for any reason that the band would still be together no matter what.
In other words, even though you two are divorcing, you are both required to still make music for Decaydance with your band, Jack's Skeletons, for at least three more years and providing the label with at least four more Billboard Top Ten hits while continuing to tour for at least another year and a half."
Edward and I both jumped up simultaneously, enraged. We began shouting about how I wouldn't dare get a stage again with that cheating whore if I had a twenty foot pole and how he refused to make music with a lying harlot of an ex-wife. Jenks stood up.
"SHUT UP BOTH OF YOU!" We both flinched. In our dealings with him, he usually was rather meek and shy. We resumed our seats gingerly and turned to face him. Flustered, he straightened his tie and adjusted his jacket.
He began talking in a deadly calm voice. "Now, I realize that you two obviously feel some very hard emotions towards each other but you should have read that portion of your contract very carefully before signing it. If you breach that contract now, you both lose all the rights to the band and the bonus that you have already recieved this year for the next record. I don't think either of you are willing to lose up to three million dollars this year so I suggest, as your lawyer, to stick together in the band and just try to ignore each other on tour. Do I make myself clear?"
Edward and I both nodded automatically. I may hate Edward right now for being such a dick but I was not willing to lose my band. It is the only real comfort I can have after this divorce.
Jenks resumed his seat and read over the divorce agreement once again. "Since you decided to get married in Las Vegas two years ago.." I drowned out the rest of his words for a second as I drowned in memories. It was still so hard to think about what happened two years ago. Edward cleared his throat.
"Jenks, we didn't get married two years ago, it was four years ago. Two years ago.....", Edward trailed off and I knew he remembered what had happened too. I wanted nothing more to go and hug him and comfort him as he cried but I pulled myself back to reality. It wasn't my job anymore, it was his mistress's now. Jenks' eyes misted over and he clasped my hand as he sat next to me.
"I'm so sorry, Bella, I didn't mean to bring that up." He had been our lawyer from the beginning and there had been many tearful phone calls to my lawyer at that time. When Edward had started backing away from me after what had happened, I had spent too many nights crying and not being able to talk to anybody but Jenks because he was the only other person who was aware of our marriage.
He cleared his throat and nervously straightened his tie as I refused to look at Edward. I would not him see me in this pain again. "What I meant is that since you married without consulting me, as your lawyer, you never had a pre-nuptial agreement and currently your assets are shared but I split them in a way that I found appropriate. Bella, you recieve the Malibu house, the smaller LA flat, the Carribbean island house, the Aston Martin Vanquish, and the Ferrari."
I interrupted rudely. "I don't want the Carribbean house." It was where we had our honeymoon, I had added as a mental afterthought. Edward frowned too.
"Sell it. I don't want that shit either." Ah, crude as usual.
Jenks nodded his approval. "Edward, you recieve the New York townhouse, the LA house in the hills, the Volvo and the bigger LA apartment." It was Edward's turn to interrupt.
"I don't want the LA house, she- he gestured at me- can have it." Of course, he didn't want it. We moved there after the event two years ago and Edward had never spent any time there with me. I had spent a lot of the last two years alone or fighting with Edward.
I nodded. Jenks wrote it down and said," Well you two can sign now. Ladies first."
My hand shook with the black inked pen. I couldn't sign it but then I looked up briefly into Edward's jubilant eyes. I quickly signed in all the right places and then Edward did the same.
"It's official now. You are now divorced." I stormed out of the room before my tears come overcome me. Edward yelled my name and chased after me. I got into the elevator just as it was shutting. Unfortunately, man of steel squeaked in too. We stood in an awkward silence as the elevator went down twenty-four floors. I raced out of there only to have my ex-husband pull on my shoulder.
"Band practice is at my place tomorrow. Don't be late. I've been informed that we are to still appear as a couple and there are paps out there." I rolled my eyes and pulled a cigarette out of my purse. I only smoked when I was extremely stressed.
"You gotta be fucking kidding me." He answered by looping his arm through mine. I guess that was a no. As we stepped out into the bright LA sunlight and camera flashes, we appeared to the public every bit of the celebrity we were.
To the rest of the world, we were still America's Suitehearts.
Songs: Music Or The Misery- Fall Out Boy, 'The Takeover, The Break's Over'- Fall Out Boy, & America's Suitehearts- Fall Out Boy.
I own nothing but my precious review god boys & my pretty blue iPod nano. I want to hear your theories on how they got this way. I already know the answers to the following questions but I would like to see what you guys think. How did they end up forming the band? Who's the mistress? What happened two years ago?
So drop me a line. I'll be updating Memories next week. I'm between a rock and a hard place with that story and I needed some relief from it. It would help a bunch if I had a Beta so anyone who is interested please please please please contact me.