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Chapter 3: Fire In The Hole!
Edward reached for me, and I jerked back. "No! You don't get to touch me!" I hissed. His eye brows furrowed in confusion, and he opened his mouth to speak. "No!" I repeated, "It's my turn to talk now!" He rolled his eyes. He rolled his eyes at me!
"How dare you insult my father like that?" my voice was a low hiss, and it shook with the ferocity of my anger. "I have let you treat me like an invalid child, and I took it because I thought that I loved you enough. I thought that you would eventually start treating me better, especially after I agreed to marry you! But us being engaged hasn't improved our relationship! It seems that now you think you have me; That I'm yours to do with as you please, you've been treating me even worse! With more disrespect, if that's even possible!" I was still breathing heavily, and now my voice was raising into a shout.
"But you do not get to insult my father! He has never wanted anything more than for me to be happy! He loves me, and respects me enough to trust that I know what I want. He has been working so hard to be decent to you, even though we both know he hates you! And I'm starting to see why! It must be devastating for Charlie to see how you treat his only daughter! My father wants what is best for me, and I'm beginning to think he knows it's not you! But he respects me enough to let me make my own mistakes, so that I can learn and grow!" Edward was standing now too, and I was yelling up into his face.
"But," Edward said in a soothing manner, "I don't want you getting hurt. That's why husbands make the decisions, so that their wife's won't make any mistakes and get hurt."
"People change, Edward!" I exclaimed. "People learn, and grow, and adapt! You can't learn if you can't make mistakes! Do you just want me sitting around, catering to your every whim, safe and sound, and board out of my mind? That is not a life! That is not living!"
Edward's eyes narrowed, and he started to look annoyed. "Stop this right now Isabella!" he said sternly. "You are acting like a child, and embarrassing me!"
Charlie had stood up now as well. "You're doing a fine job of that all on your own there, Edward." He said gruffly. His face was getting red, and I could tell he was pissed. "In case you haven't noticed this is the Twenty-first Century, not 1910! I would appreciate it if you would stop treating my daughter like she is a misbehaving animal!"
"Shut up, Old Man!" said Edward. 'Old Man?' Look who's talking asshole! "This is between me, and my fiancé! It is none of your concern, she is MINE! so sit down, and stay out of it!" Charlie's face was so red it looked like he was about to have an aneurism.
Esme jumped to her feet next. "Edward Anthony Mason Cullen! How dare you disrespect Chief Swan, and Bella like that! Apologize to them immediately!" she hissed. I think I saw a little bit of venom spray from her mouth in her anger and outrage.
Edward scoffed, and looked at Carlisle "Can't you control your wife, father?" he said.
Carlisle stayed seated, always the diplomat, and said authoritatively, "No I can't, nor do I wish to. Esme has always been, and always will be, an equal partner in our marriage. I will not admonish her like a child, and neither will you if you know what's good for you." He looked at Edward with disappointment on his face. "Have you forgotten everything I taught you, son? I have never treated you mother in the manner you are treating Isabella. I have never taught you to disrespect women, or your elders. I have shown you the proper way to act in a marriage; to act as a man. How can you love Bella, like you say you do, and treat her with so little respect?"
"I treat her with plenty of respect!" shouted Edward. "I keep her safe, I make sure she eats and sleeps, I teach her how to behave, I make sure she's clean and presentable! I take very good care of her!"
"Edward!" I spat at him, "Are you even hearing yourself? You're making me sound like a bitch at a dog show!"
"Watch you language, Isabella! Swearing is very unbecoming!" Edward reproached me.
"I was using 'bitch' as a technical term you ass!" He opened his mouth to no doubt tell me how 'un-ladylike' I was being again. "No! Shut your mouth, for once Edward, and let me talk!" I continued before he could start scolding me again, "I have never seen your father or your brothers treat their wives in such a discourteous manner. Carlisle loves Esme so much he would never treat her in such a boorish fashion. Jasper would never treat Alice with anything less than love and admiration! If Emmet even thought of treating Rosalie as you have treated me this evening, she would rip him apart, and burn the pieces! My mother left my father, and ran away, and he has never disrespected her in any way! They may have been apart, but I never doubted their love and respect for me, or each other. I know Carlisle and Esme never taught you to act this way! What is wrong with you?"
"Maybe I want my wife to be to me what my real mother was to my real father, instead of letting her walk all over me like the women in my adopted family walk all over their husbands!" Edward exclaimed. There was a simultaneous sharp intake of breath from everyone in the room.
I recovered first saying: "Bullshit!" Everyone turned to look at me again. "I call bullshit! I've heard about your mother from Carlisle! She was a strong loving woman! Why would you paint her, and your father, in such a dim light? Where were you after you left me? Some kind of sparkly mystical opium den? Sucking on drunk and stoned animals? Is your supposedly superior brain completely fried?" I turned to Carlisle, "Is there some kind of nuclear test site in Brazil near where he was staying? Could a massive dose of radiation have done this to him?" I turned back to look up at Edward raising my eyebrow, "And most importantly, is there anyway to fix it?"
Jasper raised his hand, and stood slowly. "I hate to break it to you Bella," he said. "But he's kinda always treated you like this, he's just being more forceful and open about it now." He looked between me and Edward, and then slowly sat back down.
I blinked, and thought about it. Jasper was right. I had just been thinking about this earlier, but he had never been this bad before. And I didn't even realize, before he left, that he was treating me this way. In such a controlling, obsessive manner. He stalked me for Heaven's sake! Snuck into my room to watch me sleep without me knowing about it. Was I so dazzled by him that let him get away with treating me like this? Did I really think so little of myself? Yes, I did. I remember how I thought him so far above me, that I didn't know why he would want me. When he broke up with me, shattered me I should say, I believed every word. Of course I wasn't good enough for him! They were leaving without me? Why shouldn't they? I was nothing compared to them! I had grown some self respect, and a fledgling spine while they were gone. Hell, if I didn't have some kind of spine I would have pissed myself, crawled into a corner muttering nonsense, and rocking myself when we met the Volturi! I didn't even faint!
I looked around the room. Rosalie had a bit of a smirk on her face, but it wasn't aimed at me. No, it was aimed squarely at Edward.
Edward stiffened, "Stop it, Rose! She most certainly will still marry me!" he growled out through his teeth.
"Not now that her eyes are open, Edward," said Rosalie smugly. "You're going to have to find a new little toy to obsess over and play with." She chuckled.
Well, some things never do change! It was good to see Rosie was still such a bitch.
"She made an agreement with me, Rose!" he seethed. "She promised herself to me, and that is not something she can just back out of! She's mine," here he turned back to me, "And she will behave like it!" He yelled this in my face.
Before he left me, I would have broken in to hysterical tears, at having him yell in my face. At having disappointed him. Oh, but now, he had disappointed me beyond the telling of it.
"In case you haven't noticed Edward, it isn't 1918 anymore." I said in an amazingly calm manner. "My honor won't be besmirched, and my reputation won't be ruined if I break off an engagement. Especially an engagement based on false pretenses, and coercion." I grabbed my engagement ring in my right hand, and pulled it off. I slammed it down on the table. "Here is your collar, your brand. You can have it back. I don't want it anymore. I don't belong to you!"
I went to turn away and walk out the door of the private dinning room. Thank heavens none of the servers had come in during the argument! Maybe they heard yelling, and decided to give us a minute. Of coarse, when I spun around on my heel quickly, I tripped over my own feet and started falling towards the floor. I was caught just before I face planted by a pair of cold hands. Just not the pair I was used to. Emmet, who had been sitting at the end of the table, pulled me up and let me go once I was steady on my feet.
"Thank you," I told him softly. I looked down at my feet that were covered in a sparkly abomination that vaguely resembled a shoe. I toed them off, and bent to pick them up. Then I turned to look at Alice. "Alice, I love you, you know that." I took a deep breath, and let it out. "But I can't keep being your Barbie Doll. If you want to shop with me, and help me buy clothes, you're going to have to compromise and meet me in the middle. I can't make myself wear another 'New Year's Eve/ Disco/ Cheap Hooker Barbie!' outfit. I just can't."
Alice's eyebrows scrunched up. She looked confused. I thought she would be hurt. Now I was confused. "You didn't pick that out?" she asked in her high, tinkling voice.
"No," I said in confusion. "I'd have to be pretty stoned to pick out something like this, Alice."
Alice turned to glare at Edward. "You are one sick monkey you know that?" she asked him. Up till this point Edward had been standing there with a stunned and pissed off look on his face, staring at the ring I had put on the table. He didn't move, or acknowledge Alice in any way. Alice huffed, and stood to come over to me. She stood in front of me and took my hands in hers.
"Bella," she said softly, "Edward told me you wanted this dress. After Italy, he brought me a whole bunch of magazine clippings, and pictures, and said you showed them to him. He said you were to embarrassed to tell me what you liked. That you would feel more comfortable if he told me, and I got what you wanted." I was shocked to say the least! My eyebrows had disappeared into my frizzy bangs. "Ever since we got back, I thought I had been compromising with you! I thought this is what you wanted! He showed me clippings and picture of clothes, shoes, makeup, hairstyles," Here she shuddered, and her voice sounded morally offended, like he had been showing her dirty pictures, "I was horrified, but I just wanted to make you happy! He even had some collages and dioramas with pictures of you dressed up in the ghastly, vile, foul, evil stuff! I figured after a few decades with us, you would absorb some fashion sense. You know, through osmosis or something!"
Holy mother of cocoa beans! That bastard! I had been humoring Alice all this time in the name of sisterly love! The horror! The things I had worn! I had a horrible flashback to the outfit she had me wear to go to the movies a couple weeks ago. It was a pseudo school girl ensemble, with a long skirt and a hair bow! It was in pink and purple plaid! "Oh, Alice!" I cried out, "Thank Vintage Chanél that you didn't pick out all that horrible stuff! I was worried you were starting to lose it! You had never put me in plaid before! Oh, I should have seen it sooner! I'm so sorry!" I threw myself at her in an enthusiastic hug.
"Oh, Bella!" she cried back to me, "I thought I had lost you! Your fashion sense had regressed past anything I have ever seen before on a sane, sober person! I didn't know what to do!" she sobbed. "I couldn't believe my sister could commit such horrid fashion atrocities!" We held each other in relief and joy for a moment, and then Alice pulled back and took my hand.
"Come with me," she said. "We're going to the ladies to see what we can do to fix this," she looked at my dress and hair and shuddered again, "Disaster!"
BANG!
There was a huge crash from behind me. We both whipped around, and Alice stood slightly in front of me in a protective manner. Edward had slammed his fist into the table. Several glasses had spilled, and a candle had fallen over. Luckily Jasper was right in front of it, and he grabbed it and blew it out before it could hit the table and set it on fire.
"You will do NO SUCH THING ALICE!" Edward roared. "Isabella, you will put your ring back on, and sit down right now," he gritted out through clinched teeth, "Or, so help me God!"
Emmett, Jasper, Carlisle, and Charlie ( How in the hell had he moved so fast?) were suddenly in front of Alice and I. Carlisle was on point just a little in front of my dad, and they were both flanked by Emmett and Jasper. Alice was pushing me backwards toward the door.
"What Edward?" asked Charlie. "What are you going to do?" He had this evil little smile on his face that I have never seen before, and he was fingering his obscenely large service revolver. That was new, and a whole lot bigger than his last one. "Just give me a reason to shoot you, boy. Please."
"Alice, Bella, please go on. We'll take it from here." said Carlisle. I had never heard him sound so angry before. Esme was crying, and shaking. Rose had her hand on her mother's shoulder while she glared fire and brimstone at Edward.
Usually I would argue, but I wanted out of there. I had never been scared of Edward before. But, as I thought through everything that had been said, I was terrified. The controlling, domineering behavior was bad enough, but he had been dressing me up like some kind of Stepford Wife / Blow up doll. On crack. I walked slowly backwards with Alice to the door, and exited the room. Alice shut the door behind/ in front of us.
She looked up at me. "Don't worry Bella," she said softly, "Everything will work out."
"Do you really know that? Have you seen something?" I asked sadly.
"No, I haven't. My visions of you and Edward have been very erratic since we got back from Italy. I still see you happy, and as a vampire, though the rest is very blurry." She started leading us towards the ladies room, and I followed her, deep in thought.
