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Chapter Four - Like a memory of an amnesiac, she slips away elusively

"She told me some things about you too." I managed to smirk at her even though I was a bit wary. Alice was an important part of Bella's life. If she somehow came to dislike me, that would add as a point against me to Bella so I needed to win.

"Your full name is Edward Anthony Cullen and you don't like anyone to call you, Eddie."

So she wanted to start with the personal stuff? I'll show her personal. "Your full name is Mary Alice Brandon but you prefer to be called Alice. Oh and you hate strangers who make any negative references to your height." Ha, take that, pixie.

She glared at me as though she knew what I just called her in my mind. As far as I knew, Bella's the only person who managed to call her pixie and survived. "You were a womanizer in sophomore and junior year."

"You've never had a boyfriend since birth but someone was obsessed with you when you were thirteen and you had to move the state."

She shuddered and I felt a twinge of guilt. Maybe what I said was below the belt but she should have known what she'd started.

"You own a silver Volvo and you won't let anyone drive it but you taught Bella how to drive in that same Volvo."

Hmm, that one wasn't so bad. My attack must have caught her off guard.

Well, it just so happened that when you were slightly obsessed with your girlfriend back in high school and you somehow wondered about the people who always surrounded her, you would have checked every detail you could have found about them. Like the fact that she had this best friend of hers named Jacob Black and the guy was rumored to like her more than he should. I have my suspicions that this Jacob's feelings were not much of a rumor but the truth.

"You saw a yellow Porsche at a car race when you were ten and you've wanted to have one just like it ever since."

"And I got it for my sixteenth birthday." She grinned before continuing, "You used to call Bella 'love'."

Huh, that sounded almost like a compliment. Was that supposed to scare me out of my socks, hearing someone say, "oooh, Edward Cullen used to call his girlfriend 'love,' isn't that nice?" So what? Did Alice seriously expect me to shrivel up from embarrassment or something? Hell, if I did hear someone say that, I would have stood up more erectly and give them a superior smile. That's right I called her love, something which you can't do obviously, seeing as she's mine.

"Well, you believe in love at first sight." I mean, how old was she? Nine?

"You have a police record for attempted stealing and DWI."

It was a dare! Don't tell me that the pixie hasn't done something idiotic when she was young. In fact, I believe she has…

"You shoplifted a lipstick at an M.A.C. store but you also threw it away the day after."

Shrugging, she answered as though the matter was insignificant. "The color was off." And then she narrowed her eyes at me. "How did you know all these things?"

"From Bella, of course. I got the rest from the internet." No need to tell her that the rest was from a private investigator I hired.

She turned to Bella and winked. So I'm assuming that meant that pixie thought I was a suitable choice for her best friend? Quick as her wink, she managed to change the topic. "Anyway, my client asked me to come here tonight to check her contract and add a few clauses to the contract she feels she should have by agreeing to this engagement."

"What clauses? If this is some way to get out of this marriage…"

I frowned. I agreed with Charlie. I thought the contract was sealed tight; what if the clause she wanted was a sort of reprieve; a way to create a loophole?

"Bella has already come to terms with this engagement and I assure you, she'll try her best for this wedding to push through," Alice assured Charlie- and to a greater degree, me. I saw her peeked at me and when she saw the expression on my face, her lips tightened thoughtfully.

"Then what is she planning to achieve with this added clauses?"

"After the honeymoon, Bella requests a right for a time for herself every Saturday."

A time for herself? What for? To get some rest from being with me throughout the week, is that it? Did she have some new lover now? Has she replaced me because of what I did? Eight years was a long time to move on from someone. Was I just some past for Bella right now; a pest, a nuisance?

While I began having those brooding thoughts, I felt my hands clenched from irrational jealousy. Jealousy happened to be my only weakness when it came to Bella- and then some. "Is this so she could visit a lover of hers?"

"Don't be ridiculous. She simply wants a day for her to relax all by herself."

Ridiculous. If she wanted a day by herself, she'd stay at home and loll around. Something's going on…

"Bella didn't pursue any type of relationship with anyone after what happened in high school," Alice reported.

I knew that. I knew a lot of things about Bella that I wasn't supposed to know. I was about to defend myself when Jasper interrupted me, "I understand this now."

I glared at him inconspicuously. He must have some inkling of what I was supposed to do and deliberately interceded before I could start. Jasper doesn't interrupt unless it was necessary- so it's either he's telling me that the contract has something that I needed to pay particular attention to or he's telling me to shut up. I had a feeling that he was doing the latter.

I saw Alice eyeing my lawyer and Bella noticed this as well because she started introducing them and before I could sense what was going to happen, it happened. Jasper and Alice stared at each other like the way I saw those people at TV when they're trying to portray two lovers but that was impossible.

These two lawyers are supposed to be working against each other and now they're… what? I heard Jasper whispering something to Alice that made her giggle.

Geez, didn't they even care about the public that was looking at them expectantly?

Thankfully, Bella seemed to realize this and she broke them off by clearing her throat. I saw their hands lingering before they let go. It was weird. I've never seen Jasper act like this before.

They must have said something about announcing the contract at the same time because I saw Jasper waiting for Alice to finish checking the contract. I didn't linger on that detail. I was more interested in Jasper's thoughts as he stared at Alice with a… soft emotion? It took everything I had not to say anything about it because let's face it, I don't have the right to even think about how he looked like because I was also whipped when it came to Bella.

Speaking of which, Bella began to tap her foot anxiously while she waited for the pixie to finish.

"What does it say?" She asked.

The contract I read earlier pretty much summed up the whole thing of what they said. However, the only difference was that I liked the sound of how Alice had said when she told us that the marriage was legally binding, "It's like they say, he's yours and you're his forever." Now I would never get tired of hearing that especially after I caught the look on Bella's face. Classic.

"So you didn't tell them- or even Bella -about Selene. You had the chance and you blew it," Rosalie remarked as we entered the coffee shop she discovered a week ago, claiming that the hot chocolates were to die for. "Why didn't you tell them?"

"I couldn't tell them under the circumstances. Can you imagine what I would like- a desperate guy on the edge of his rope? That's too pathetic for words."

It would be like I was begging for Bella to take me back.

I didn't want to win Bella by begging, I want to earn her back.

"You won't be pathetic!" Rosalie disagreed. "If you don't tell them, you're going to look foolish when they found out that-"

Emmett interrupted Rosalie when he laughed. "Eddie wouldn't look stupid because he already made himself look foolish years ago and a small thing like this would only seem tiny compared to the other mess-ups he had."

"Tiny? This isn't a tiny thing! It's-"

Emmett cleared his throat, already knowing what his wife was going to say after she had continually repeated it to me since the time they learned about Selene. He leaned forward and muttered, "I just saw Bella with her friend at the table across from us."

I checked the direction and saw that Bella was indeed seating nearby and she was looking at us with an expression that could only be described as curiosity.

"Thank you. Come on, I'm going to tell her about the date I've arranged for the two of us."

Bella noticed us walking towards them and folded her arms defensively.

"Bella, I've already arranged our dinner for Monday evening. Do you want me to pick you up or shall I?" I informed her.

"I could drive there by myself."

"Aren't you going to introduce us?" Rosalie asked.

Giving Rosalie a look that she better not tell Bella anything that I wasn't ready to tell her, I introduced Bella to my friends.

Fortunately, Rosalie obeyed my silent message. For once. "It's nice to meet you, Bella."

"Yeah, I've been asking to be introduced to you since Eddie here-"

He better not remind Bella about that night!

"Em, shut up!" I warned.

I wasn't sure what possessed Rosalie to ask Bella how she felt about marrying me. It might be her way of revenge because I forbade her to tell anything to Bella or she might be plain curious. Whatever her reason may be, I still couldn't help but flinched inwardly when Bella bluntly told her that she didn't like both the arrangement and me.

My two so-called friends chose that time to embarrass the hell out of me; Emmett by laughing about Bella's answer to his wife's question and Rosalie by telling Bella about my reaction to the whole engagement. Then, Bella abruptly stood up and announced that she was leaving. I couldn't do anything but remind Bella about our dinner on Monday.

"I need one more puzzle piece, Daddy," Selene said with a pout. "I can't complete my humpty dumpty puzzle without it."

On top of the carpet of the living room was the Humpty Dumpty puzzle I gave her before I was to leave for my date with Bella.

"Aw, that's too bad. Have you looked under the couch?" I asked but I already know where the piece was, inside my hand. I've decided to play a practical joke on my daughter when I saw the puzzle piece away from its companions.

"I've already checked under the couch and everywhere but it's not there." Her blue eyes brightened but she refused to let her tears fall. Selene believed that crying for any matter was unacceptable; that was hammered into her when she was only four years old. Back then, every time Tanya left to go shopping, Selene would cry for fear that her mother would leave her permanently. Tanya would rage at her daughter and threaten her that she would really leave if she didn't stop crying.

I was too late when I found out what Tanya did. She had kept it from me for two whole years that Selene wouldn't believe me when I said that sometimes we have to cry so we don't bottle up our emotions.

It was depressing to see my little girl trying to act like the adult she wasn't yet. She was only a child once and Tanya- with reasons I couldn't understand –succeeded in forcing her to be her own self when she was only seven years old.

I've been encouraging her to play with her toys and so far, Selene only wanted to play when I'm around.

"I'm sorry that I lost your gift, Daddy." She sniffled.

Realizing that the prank had gone too far, I gave in. "Wait, I think I could see it." I reached behind her ear like I've seen people do in the television. "Is it this puzzle piece?"

"It is!" She smiled and held out her hand to get it but I held it out of her reach.

"Won't you kiss Daddy first for being able to find the piece and for good luck on my date for tonight?" I pointed at my cheek.

"Of course, Daddy." She leaned and planted a kiss on my left cheek. Once she'd attached the piece to her puzzle, she suddenly turned to me with a frown. "Who's your date? Is it Mommy?"

"No, Mommy's out tonight but she's not meeting with me," I lightly replied. The woman's probably out on a date of her own tonight. The housekeeper had told me that Tanya had left sporting a red low-cut dress so that gave me the idea that she's with some guy doing who-knows-what. I've been used to it after living with her for eight years.

"Then who are you going to meet tonight?"

As I gaze into Selene's eyes of a child but with an expression an adult would wear (so serious for her age!), I felt myself sigh. Selene would need a mother that could teach her to have fun and though I've tried my best, what I've done was only a fraction of what she needed. Selene still has trouble socializing with children of her age and opted to stay with the company of adults. She admitted to me one day that the other kids scare her. I chose to let her study at home while I helped her with her problem and she's been doing great. I may be able to get her back to her regular school by next year as long as Tanya didn't do something that would mess all my hard work up.

I may have built my child's confidence up for a year but it could only take one word from Tanya to ruin a year's worth of effort.

"I'm going to introduce her to you some time later on. You'll love her. She's sweet and loveable," At least, she used to be with me. "and she'll be your new playmate."

Selene's eye widened. "She won't get mad at me when I asked her to play with me?"

"Of course not! Who wouldn't want to play with you?"

Her eyes darkened at that. "Mommy doesn't. She told me that it's a waste of her time."

Mentally hitting myself at the head for impulsively blurting out the sentence without thinking about it, I gave her a hug. "You're going to find other playmates. I promise."

It was no use trying to convince Selene that her mother wanted to play with her but was too busy to do it when I myself didn't believe it. Besides, Selene was too perceptive and would realize that I wasn't telling her the truth.

"All right," she whispered. "Good luck, Daddy."

"I'd better get going. I'll be back later tonight."

"I know."

"Take care, munchkin."

"I will."