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Chapter 4
You know those movies, the sickeningly romantic ones, when the guy stares at the girl with his mouth hanging open and a look of sheer wonder in his eyes?
That was exactly how I looked right now.
Bella Swan amazed me.
I watched her as we sat in Cullen Hale's law library, our bodies surrounded by books and boxes of public case files. We were sitting at one of the large tables, numerous pages and files spread out before us as we flicked through reference books while eating from a mountain of Chinese take out cartons.
Bella's hair was half tied up in a bun, though the other half laid around her shoulders, having fallen from her hair tie every time she threw her head back to laugh.
Yes, Bella Swan laughed.
At my jokes.
Her make up from this morning had long worn off, and even though she barely wore any make up at all, I couldn't help but revel in how beautiful she was.
Although her eyes were tired, she chatted with me non stop.
Now, don't mistake me. It took a lot of effort for me to get us to this stage.
A few nights ago, when I asked for Bella's help with my pro bono case, I saw another side to her I didn't realise existed.
And the next morning, before I met my client, she prepared me in the best way possible.
"Don't roll your sleeves up." She'd instructed me, yanking my shirt sleeves down my arms gently, "You'll look aggressive."
"Unbutton the top of your shirt." She'd reached up to do it for me, fixing my tie to look more casual.
And I couldn't help but wish she was dressing me after a sleepless night full of sex.
"Smile at her." She warned, "She wants you to accept her. Not judge her. Also, remind her you're there to help her. Always repeat that fact."
And it worked. I settled the case.
My clients confidence soared so much that after I met with her she was prepared to go to court. Her rapist ended up pleading guilty that night, and would soon be on his way to jail.
Bella was the first one to congratulate me.
And I was happy I'd made her proud.
Since then, when I came into work the past few mornings, I grabbed her a coffee en route.
At first she just looked at me like I had five heads, but eventually she began to smile.
She said thank you.
And she was grateful.
Soon enough, I was able to go into her office to ask her for any help I needed. And yesterday she offered to buy sushi over lunch so we could work on my case together and get it done quicker.
We got out of Cullen Hale at 7pm.
It was the quickest she's ever finished work.
Tonight though, I'd finished my work early and offered to help her with hers.
Hence why it was past midnight and we were still stuck here.
For the first few hours of our research, Bella's intelligence astounded me. Every lawyer has brains, but Bella's seemed to be capable of running this entire company. And even though I was impressed, it caused a resounding fear in me that she was capable of being the embezzler at Cullen Hale.
All my coffee runs, asking her for help, offering to help her tonight... It was all because Bella Swan was my main point of investigation.
This was my job.
That was it.
And I couldn't help but wonder if I'd met her under different circumstances, would I have asked her out already... Would I have already kissed her?
Because I ached to kiss her now.
It was these thoughts that convinced me that I didn't just spend time with her because of my case... It was because I liked her. I wanted to know her.
And right now I was beyond confused about what was happening in my life.
"Probably Schindler's List." Bella's voice resounded into my thoughts, and I blinked, glancing at her as she ate a large bite of Chow Mein.
I'd been asking her questions about herself for the past two hours, and we'd just gotten onto the topic of favourite movies.
"What?" I gawked at her, laughing a little, "The movie that makes you cry the most is Schindler's List? Not, The Notebook or some girl shit like that?"
"I've never seen The Notebook." She shrugged, "And I'm the type of person that when I cry, I want them to be real tears. Like, real tears."
Ok, note to self: Never make Bella Swan cry, because then you've REALLY done something to fuck up.
"Favourite comedy movie?"
"Tie between Drop Dead Fred and Mrs Doubtfire." She nodded once with conviction. She was very sure of that answer.
"Favourite book?" I asked with a smile.
"Oh." Bella frowned, leaning back in her seat. Her feet were crossed under her, and her heels lay on the floor.
It was the cutest thing I've ever seen.
"Tough question?" I raised an eyebrow.
She nodded, "I love reading. But it's definitely Wuthering Heights."
"Not a bad choice." I smiled, "It's one of my favourites too."
"What's your favourite colour?" She asked suddenly, tilting her head to the side.
"I don't have one." I answered honestly, my mind going blank as I stared into her brown depths.
Perhaps after tonight I would have a favourite colour.
"Tell me about your dad." She asked suddenly, "It must be awesome having a father so successful."
I snorted once and looked away from her face, focusing on my Chinese as I thought of my answer.
"Is that a bad question to ask?"
"No... I just..." I paused.
I didn't want to lie to Bella. At the moment, the only lie I had told her was that my job was a Cullen Hale associate, and not an FBI agent.
Everything else I'd told her was true. Everything about myself, everything about my hobbies, my interests...
And in that moment, I vowed to myself I wouldn't lie to her unless it was directly related to the case.
"I don't get on with my father." I smiled sadly, glancing up at her face, "He used to pressurise me from a young age to do the best, be the best. He was the reason I went to Harvard... I didn't exactly have a choice on my College or my degree course." I laughed a little, watching as her face softened sadly, "The one thing I wanted when I finished Harvard was to get a job anywhere but in a law firm."
"Is that why you travelled for five years?" She whispered gently.
"It's why I didn't join a law firm straight out of College." I confirmed, not wanting to jumble up any wires.
"What about your mom?" She asked then, smiling at me in what I knew was hope for a better story.
"My mom always wanted me to be happy. She stuck with my father as I grew up... I don't think she wanted me to stress out over their separation... But once I went off to College, she filed for divorce straight away. My father was always married to his job as a lawyer. While she was always married to her job as a mother." I grinned, shrugging as I sat up more in my seat, "She's always there for me. Very supportive. I see her every Sunday."
"That's sweet." She was smiling at me, an open smile that sort of said 'if he treats his mother right, he'll treat his wife right too'.
"What about your family?"
"Oh uh..." She laughed, putting her food down before diverting her attention to the reference book in her lap, "My parents are dead."
Silence hung over us like a blanket, and I watched her face as she flicked through the pages studiously, her familiar wall of defence automatically up again.
It was obvious that even though Bella and I were friendlier than before, we were definitely not as close as I would like.
"I'm sorry." I whispered quietly, hating myself for asking the question.
"It's okay." She smiled, moving her eyes to mine, "They died when I was sixteen. They left me enough money to set myself up with an apartment, to live comfortably, and get myself through College and Law School. Now I make enough money to live for myself."
I nodded, biting my lip as I thought of the one question that had been niggling at me since I started working here.
"Bella? Why didn't you go to Harvard? You're smarter than any of us."
She laughed loudly, throwing her head back in that beautiful manner I was beginning to love so much.
"I got accepted to Harvard." She grinned, "I just declined in favour of Columbia."
"Why?" My eyes widened, shocked and completely dumbfounded by her words.
"From I was a kid my dad used to take me on day trips to Columbia. Just to sit and look at the place, eat lunch on campus, walk through the buildings... He told me he'd love to see me graduate from there one day."
Her voice got thick, and I watched as she lowered her head to her book before she sighed, "I'm tired, I'd better get home."
"Yeah, of course." I coughed lightly, trying to remove the lump in my throat as I looked at my watch.
1am.
Helping her clean up the work and carry it back up to her office, I wished her goodnight before riding the elevator with her to the basement, watching to make sure she got to her car safely before I exited the building and started the walk home.
As I unlocked my apartment door and tiredly pushed myself inside, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket.
Weber calling...
Weber calling...
I hit accept, pressing the phone to my ear as I put my bag by the door and began to walk towards the bedroom.
"Edward?" Weber's voice sounded down the receiver, "You awake?"
"Obviously." I laughed.
"I'm going to be at your apartment in five minutes." He told me, sounding out of breath and flushed, "It's important."
The line went dead a second later, and I made quick work of changing into my pyjamas before I heard my buzzer.
I let him into the building, sitting down in my living room as I waited.
A few minutes later, the door was closed, a Manila folder was dropped onto my coffee table and Weber smiled brilliantly.
"I know it's late, but this document could help you get this case finished by the end of next week."
Next week?
I'd have to leave Cullen Hale so soon?
I should be happy about that.
But I wasn't.
I raised an eyebrow, reaching for the folder as Weber sat down across from me, "It's one of the missing buried documents. It's the only one that remains, they must have missed this one when they were destroying them. It's stamped with a name that I think could be the culprit. $2 million went missing from this company. We're lucky to have found it."
As I stared into Weber's excited eyes, I frowned as felt my stomach churn as I flipped open the folder and looked at the name on the bottom of the page.
SENIOR ASSOCIATE
Isabella Swan
My eyes shut, and I felt my teeth grit together as anger and sadness coursed through me.
She seemed so real, so legitimate.
And now there was even more proof that she was the embezzler.
"Thanks." I nodded towards Weber, keeping my tears at bay as I showed him to the door, "I'll get on it tomorrow."
He was gone seconds later, and I spent my night sitting on the sofa with the document in my lap.
Bella seemed like the perfect suspect on paper: striving for success, hating on Harvard graduates aka the entire population of Cullen Hale...
But in reality... In person... She was the sweetest, realist, nicest and most perfect person... She seemed like she didn't have a bad bone in her body.
And I realised with chagrin that that's probably exactly what she wanted me to believe.
By the time 6am rolled around I was seething with anger. I got showered and ready for the day, placing the document in my bag before I ate a quick breakfast and made my way to Cullen Hale.
I didn't stop to say hello to anyone on the associate floor, I simply threw my bag onto my cubicle desk, taking the document from it before I turned and made my way to Bella's office.
My face was red, my eyes were hard and angry, and as I caught sight of Bella with her head lowered over a sheet of paper as she sat at her desk, my annoyance just grew even more because I actually liked her, and she was nothing but a fraud.
I felt cheated.
I pushed her door open, closing it with a thud as she gasped in surprise at my suddenly appearance.
She looked so innocent.
And I knew that right now I was not handling this professionally... My cover could be blown in seconds.
And so could hers.
I walked to her desk, staring at her for a long moment with what felt like fire within my eyes, before I slammed the document down onto her desk.
Her eyes flicked to it quickly, wide and shocked at my behaviour before she raised them back to my face.
"Edward?" She whispered, unsure.
"Explain this." I seethed, "Right now."
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