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All characters belong to Stephanie Meyers.
Bella's PoV
As much as I didn't communicate with my parents, I still missed them. They didn't talk to each other at all, so it was a tug of war while I was growing up. That's what I didn't want for my marriage. If Aro hadn't forced my hand, I probably would never have gotten married.
Still, that didn't change the fact that I missed them. I knew everyone here would not be happy if I contacted them, since this was a new life and I left the old one behind. No one had my information, not even Rose.
Rose! I hadn't thought about her for so long and it made me feel like such a horrible friend. I wondered what she was doing. Was she still dating Emmett or did she get the same old relationship nerves? She always refused to get serious in a relationship. If I thought I was bad at marital outlook, Rose was worse. Still, perhaps Emmett might have been what she'd needed all along.
Back to my parents. Rules were made to be broken. Someone famous and intelligent said that, since everyone knew the phrase. I waited until everyone trusted me and left me, since I never ventured away from the rules. The computer, luckily, had internet access. It probably monitored my activities, but by the time I wrote and sent it, it would be too late!
Dear Mom (forward to Dad, please),
I hope you're doing well. I know I haven't been in touch. I've moved and established a new life. It's time for me to put myself ahead and do what I want. Please don't look for me, I like where I am and am enjoying myself. Eventually, I may contact you. I'm not sure when, though. I just want you to know I am safe and well.
I love you both.
Bella
I hit send with a sad heart. I wanted to say so many more things, but my alone time was limited. Trusted or not, I was still not left alone for too long. Alice was my constant shadow and it was good she had human needs, like a bathroom break.
Aro offered to have Alice arrange everything but I didn't trust her, although I wasn't sure why. I booked us a trip to go to DisneyWorld. We didn't have any kids because of my body impediment, but we could have fun there as a couple.
I did give him an out and told him we could run away from mob life and hide in a little town in Spain, but he wouldn't hear it. He was an honorable man and if he gave someone his word, then it would be done. Plus, neither of us spoke Spanish. He told Aro he would work for him for life, which left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Aro was strange, eccentric, even, but not as creepy as CC. That guy gave me the chills.
The irony was not lost on me. Edward "worked" for Aro but essentially did nothing except learn what Aro does, in case Aro is unable to. Like, if he's behind bars. The men who worked under Aro and did his dirty work all respected Edward, due to family relation. I could be wrong.
We went to all the theme parks and watched the fireworks all 4 nights. Edward bought me a book and we got signatures from all the characters walking around. He bought us special meals with Cinderella and Snow White, because I couldn't find their signatures while walking around. It was so sweet!
We even went to seaworld but that turned out to be lame and the cab ride made me so nauseous. I didn't even want to talk about it. It was just that bad. The only memorable thing was the giant buffet that had almost nothing I liked besides the hot dog. So, Edward paid $35 for a single hot dog. We'll probably laugh about it in a few years.
Edward was so relaxed by the end of the trip. I was sad it came to an end, but happy that we were progressing and strengthening our marital bond.
As we collected our luggage from the baggage claim, I noticed there was no car to pick us up, which was very strange. Edward was confused, as well.
We hailed a taxi to bring us all the way home. Again, I was so nauseous from the ride. I hated to be in the back. I loved driving and the sense of freedom it provided me.
When we arrived, the house was silent and wrecked. Our hellos were met with silence. This was even more troubling. As creepy as CC was, he was always there to greet everyone in front. Where was everyone?
We walked throughout the entire main house and couldn't find anyone, anywhere. We went into the elevator after walking in Aro's closet, which turned out to be a panic room! Edward punched a few buttons on a keypad I had missed seeing and the door flew open. Hiding in there was our dear old friend, CC. Why the hell was he here and everyone else gone?
Edward grabbed him by his shirt collar and pulled him closer. "What happened? Where is Aro? Where is everyone?" CC just started laughing with this cackling sound.
"They took him away! They'll take you, too!" He went on, making no sense at all.
Edward and I looked at each other, agreeing he had gone mad. It was good to know we were on the same page. He dropped CC back to the floor, disgusted with his bad breath, I was sure.
We held hands, to comfort each other and kept walking from room to room. It was terrible. Desks were loitered, the couches overturned, and I even saw scratches on the wall. Who did that?
I didn't want to stay there, in case CC was right, so I pulled Edward toward our house to start packing.
Crazy as it sounded, the flowers in the garden had been trampled on and it looked crushed. Devastating. Edward looked at me and knew how much I loved to garden. He shook his head, as if to acknowledge my insanity.
I went inside and nervously threw as much as I would need. It was so difficult to think straight when all I wanted to do was leave right away.
He pulled out his suitcase and did the same. I noticed he grabbed a box of money from the top shelf of our closet that I had no idea was there. So much for secrets. I was going to give him a piece of my mind when we got far away from here!
It didn't take very long to gather what we wanted to take. We loaded up the car and backed out of the driveway. I was sure we had everything we needed.
"Wait!" I screamed. "I left my blue backpack! I need to go get it!" I was hyperventilating at the thought I may have left it behind.
"Bella, we don't have time. Forget it! It's just a freaking backpack. I'll buy you a new one." Edward looked annoyed and didn't see the importance. I crossed my arms against my chest and gave him the stink eye with a raised brow. "Seriously, you want the backpack? Fine." He pulled back up the driveway, furious I was delaying our departure.
I shrugged. It was important to me. I quickly ran out of the car, flying into the house and grabbing it from my well-kept hiding place, under the mattress. Edward never slept on my lumpy side, so no one knew it was there.
Aro let me keep the pictures in my wallet and I printed the ones from my cell phone before he destroyed it. It was all I had of my old life. My writing was in there, too. I was determined that all the stories I wrote would not be lost. The only thing that may it lumpy was the stuffed batman I bought online. It was awesome and cute.
I ran back to the car and, once again, he backed up toward the street. Only, there was an agent there. She was holding up her badge.
Fudge. It was Alice. I knew I didn't trust her. I was close to telling him to just run her over, but figured we shouldn't add murder to the whole mob illegality charges they were probably going to throw at us.
She held up a megaphone and yelled into it. "Get out of the car! Put your hands where I can see you and lean against the car." After we did as she demanded, she continued talking. "You leaving so soon? I don't think so. It was a good idea I stuck around. I will take you into questioning. Based on your answers, we'll see if you can take a nice, extended vacation into witness protection. Let's go." She put handcuffs on us and led us toward an unmarked car. There was a grill between the front and back seats. Why did she handcuff us? She didn't say we were under arrest.
She drove to the police station, where a hunk of muscle greeted us. "No surprises," he said, in a deep, commanding voice.
Luckily, Edward and I had a silent agreement to not talk at all, as we made eye contact and nodded at each other. He probably had a lawyer. Didn't all mobsters have crooked lawyers?
They took us into holding rooms. I waited for some time, probably around 20 minutes before they asked me if I wanted a beverage. I knew better than to take one, though. They were using psychology on me for the long waiting and to take a DNA sample with a beverage cup. Not gonna fool me! I watched way too many crime shows.
Two FBI agents eventually came in. They introduced themselves as Jacob and Sam, but I wasn't interested. Both were average height and Sam had a really bad combover. We all knew his hair was gone. He was in serious denial. They had deep, dark tan lines, too.
I bet they went to the $5 tanning salon. Who knew the salary of an FBI agent? Apparently, it was not enough to go to a quality tanning salon.
They began questioning every facet of my living there. After answering none of their questions and looking down at a crack in the floor the whole time, a man with very slick black hair in a suit came walking in, a brown briefcase at his side. I wondered what caused that crack in the floor. Was it something exciting, like a criminal defying arrest? Or, what is it-
"Is my client done or do you have anything to arrest her with?" He was met with silence, so I stood up and smiled at the agents, annoyed I was even brought in. I knew this had to do with putting the mobsters in jail, but I wanted to stay married and this would surely cause a fight between us. Married people had more important things to fight about, like chores and hidden musicals.
Jacob the big, important FBI agent just had to get the last word in. "Stay in the country. You are now mandated not to leave, pending the investigation." Yeah, right. If we wanted to go the moon, Edward would make it happen. The only reason I'd want to go was to see if it was made of swiss cheese. It could happen.
Edward and he nodded at each other, careful not to say anything incriminating 1) in front of the police station and 2) in front of me. Edward did his best to shield me.
When we walked out, Edward grabbed me and checked me over, as if I had gotten into a fight. Why would I have picked a fight? After he found nothing out of the usual, we walked to our slimy lawyer's car. He drove us back to our house, where we unpacked. Edward found out my hiding place. He laughed at me and said he knew it was there the whole time.
Really? The only link to my past, a few pictures, and he knew. It was sweet how he didn't push for me to talk about my divorced parents or isolated upbringing in suburbia.
Aro was indicted for multiple counts of selling of illegal arms and extortion. Luckily, Edward was not a part of that mess, since Aro tried to keep his real name out of any dealings. His face was never shown and it was a relief to us.
No one knew what happened to CC. I doubted Alice would bother with a deal and witness protection. The guy's mind was gone and certainly not credible enough for a testimony. Not like I would know that from watching crime shows or anything.
Edward and I moved to Hawaii under fake names for the flight. I refused to keep a fake name, though. Bella and Edward Cullen were hidden from the world, anyways. I was sad I wouldn't ever be able to contact my parents again, but staying in this marriage was a life choice I had to make and keep.
We bought a existing farm on one of the surrounding islands and lived off the land. No one was going to find us there. Thank goodness for YouTube! It taught us everything from milking a cow to making our own soap. I got really good at sewing together clothes for us, too. My designs needed improvement, but we were good otherwise.
Edward's PoV
Bella was the perfect alibi and she didn't even know it. I was tired of Aro and his games. I knew Bella didn't want the mob life and I was wrapped around her little finger. The way she wanted to leave wasn't conducive, so I had to plan it just right.
I knew about Alice being an agent, but I wanted to have everything ready to go instead of relying on our government to help us. After Aro was arrested, I made a deal with the prosecutor to be completely off the record and I gave a full testimony of his dealing anonymously. Their end of the bargain was to never look for us or arrest us for anything. CC was to disappear in whatever way they wanted. He was an illegal alien from Italy, so he was totally undocumented. As far as the US government was concerned, he could lose his memory and be deported to an uninhabited island by the Philippines. That was my guess, anyways.
If Bella ever found out, she would remove my genitals, of that I was sure. But, the less she knew about my illegal and criminal dealings, the better. What she didn't know, couldn't hurt her.
I should probably tell her that her design skills should be put to rest. They had proven clothing designs online! My clothing sizes were mismatched and the pockets never held anything. They must've been stitched extremely loosely. She needed to start writing again. Perhaps I could take up the clothing chore. She kept throwing out my "old life" clothes and there was only so much a man could handle.
Bella's PoV
After we got settled in, a miracle happened. We were pregnant! Maybe Aro was right and it was the stress. Whatever. I was betting it was the flu shot. I always ended up getting sick, anyways, so no point in taking medicine that didn't help.
I spent the whole pregnancy sewing blankets and clothes, since I knew I wouldn't have much time later on. Edward smiled and told me I did a great job. He was such a sweet husband. An absolute liar, since his smile was strained when he said that, but it was still sweet of him to say. He had plenty to do on the farm and he cooked and cleaned, too. The least I could do was sew for him! I knew he felt guilty for all the sewing projects I was doing. He kept telling me I needed to rest more.
Edward was great with all my cravings. We couldn't really leave the island, so we had things delivered to our boat when Edward ordered supplies that we couldn't make ourselves. He would meet them on the water, away from the island, and wait until they were completely out of sight through his binoculars before heading back to us. We didn't take any chances at all.
That was how he fed my tiramisu addiction.
I hope you liked it. Reviews make my day... :)
Add note: I made a mistake and said that this was the last chapter. Sorry, it's not...!
