Chapter Ten-

Court-

Bella POV-

We had woken up exactly how we fell asleep. I hadn't slept that well in, well, forever. I had to wonder if it was because of Edward, or merely a coincidence. We both got up at six, and quickly got ready. Our case was scheduled for eight am, but I knew that it could either be way before that, or way after. You never really knew until you got there. We arrived at the courthouse a little after seven. We worked our way through the courthouse until we got to the divorce court. I laughed at the scene in front of me. It was clearly the males verses females, with the exception of lawyers. I didn't see Jacob yet, and was still hoping that he'd be late.

My hopes sunk as I saw him come in and take a seat, across from Edward and I. He glared at me as he sat there, arms crossed.

"It's nice to see you again, Edward." He sneered.

I gasped. "What? You know him?"

"I wasn't sure, and I wanted to know before I told you. But yes, we graduated in the same class. I'm still defending you, don't worry. He was always the violent kid in school. I see nothing has changed." He whispered in my ear, and I lowered my eyes to the floor, not wanting to see Jacob snicker our way.

"I know. It's just kind of weird, don't you think?" I didn't really feel like I'd been lied to, or betrayed, or anything like that. It just felt awkward, to know that they had known each other before me. To think in a parallel universe we could have all been friends together.

But not in this universe. I would be Isabella Hawthorn for only another hour, at most. And I was glad. Isabella Swan had always sounded better to me.

Swan. My parents, I take it, had no idea that I was about to divorce the dream boy they were so proud of. I honestly wondered whose side I would take, and made a mental reminder to take the copies of the pictures I'd taken with, if I ever went to go see them again. I knew that they wouldn't believe me without proof, which was disappointing, but it was the way I'd grown up. They wouldn't even believe each other if they didn't have evidence. Which made arguments in the family always very interesting. It also made us grow apart from each other. No one wanted to start an argument when they had no plausible 'evidence'.

"Your parents know, Bella." Jacob said, his tone still harsh. I was glad that I had Edward beside me, stopping him from doing whatever it was he obviously wanted to. I could see the restrain in his body language, and hoped that we would be called in soon.

"How did they take it?" I asked softly, looking down once again. I hated to be so weak, but I was completely worn out from this entire ordeal, and just wanted it to be over with.

"They hate you, naturally. I always thought that was a little messed up, don't you? You must have been one troublemaker as a kid. It probably has something to do with what I told them, though." He smiled; clearly he had the upper hand in the parental situation.

"And what did you tell them, Jake?" I sighed; playing along with whatever game he'd decided to play.

"That you had been cheating on me, and ran away to live with him."

"How mature, Jacob. That you had to lie to my parents so you would still be the favorite. You always wanted to be everyone's favorite, didn't you?" I was hoping to get him angry before court, and it was working, now. If he was angry he wouldn't be thinking right, and would admit to the abuse right away, making things all that quicker, and sole custody of Connor that much easier.

"At least I don't run away from every little thing, Bella. I find out other ways to get through it."

"Like beating your wife?" My tone was icy, now.

"Exactly."

Just then we were called in to court, and we all got up and walked in, taking our respective seats. We were sworn in and court started.

"Will the Plaintiff please rise, and state their case." The judge spoke slowly, in monotone. I could tell it was already annoying Jacob.

Edward and I rose together, and then I sat back down, as Edward spoke for me.

"Your honor, Isabella Hawthorn is requesting a divorce, on terms of abuse. She is also requesting sole custody, and a restraining order placed against Mr. Hawthorn."

"Is there evidence of abuse?"

"Yes, your honor." The pictures and my diary were handed over to the judge, who scanned the diary and studied the pictures.

"Mr. Hawthorn, how do you plea?"

"Well, sir, I only hit her a few times, and that was because she didn't do what I said, I didn't really abuse her, and I don't see anything wrong with what was happening in the situation…" Jacob babbled on, and I watched as the Judge rolled his eyes. Clearly he'd seen this before.

"The terms of divorce are true, then. As you know, I'm sure, abuse is a very good reason to get divorced. You will be divorced by the court of law, and Mrs. Hawthorn, you will have to fill out quite a bit of paperwork, after court is adjourned. "

"Yes, your honor." I replied, trying to contain my joy.

"Now, onto the custody of the child. Seeming as how you have been divorced for abuse, there is no question you have anger, Mr. Hawthorn, and you are therefore incapable of caring for a child in your state. Mrs. Hawthorn gets sole custody, and you are sentenced to two years of anger management. Mrs. Hawthorns restraining order request is also granted. Court is adjourned."

I let out a deep sigh, and realized that I'd been holding my breath.

"Come on, Bella, we have some paperwork to fill out, plus I want a copy of the case. Try to relax, it's over now. We got everything that we wanted." He talked in a soothing voice as we walked out of the room and towards the front desk.

"Can I help you?" The lady behind the desk smiled warmly at us.

"Yes, we need to fill out divorce papers, and I was wondering if I could get a copy of the case?"

"Yes, there will be a copy mailed to you. You should get it within a week or so. And these are what you need to fill out. The first three are pretty self explanatory, just make sure that you sign and date it at the bottom of each page. The third page is only for changing your name, it's not mandatory."

"Thank you." I spoke softly, and turned, going to sit at one of the small tables provided. I filled out the paperwork quickly, the first were finalizing the paperwork I'd signed before, saying that I would give the house, and everything left in it to Jacob, as long as I got my car and the things I'd taken before. The second was filling out information on Connor, and finalizing the custody. The third was the restraining order, which was basically that if he was near me, I had to call the cops. I filled out my address, job, and everything else that it asked. I quickly flipped to the fourth, putting my new name as Isabella Swan.

"Swan?"

"Yeah. A little unusual, but it works better than my current one." I sighed, finishing up the paperwork and glancing at my watch. We'd been here longer than I realized. It was past noon.

"Finished?" He stood up, pushing his chair in.

"Yes." I stood up and handed the papers to the lady behind the desk. She smiled and nodded at me.

"Thank you. Have a nice day."

I smiled and walked out to my car, once again sitting in the passenger seat.

"Hungry?" he asked, as he slid into the seat and started the car.

"A little, I guess." I was still tense, waiting for something bad to happen. It was unreal that everything had gone as planned.

"Okay, we'll find someplace to stop. Our plane leaves in three hours. I think that gives us enough time."

We ended up stopping at this little sandwich and soup place. They had delicious sandwiches. It was similar to subway; only it was just a normal sized sandwich. I'd gotten a turkey, and Edward had gotten the same. We both agreed that it was delicious.

We found the airport with ease, and got through security much faster than we had last time. As our plane took off I put the armrest up, and leaned my head against Edwards shoulder. He chuckled.

"I take it you didn't mind last night either?" His voice was soft and he played with my hair.

"Not at all. I've never slept better. I wonder how Connor is." I closed my eyes, trying to rest a little while I could.

"I'm sure he's spoiled rotten by now. I wouldn't be surprised if Rose took him shopping with her."

"Huh. If she did she was definitely in for a surprise. He doesn't like a lot of noise." I said, mumbling.

"I'm sure he's fine. Just relax Bella. I'll wake you up when we're landing."

And with that I closed my eyes and sunk into a deep sleep.

Alice's connections will come in to play in one of the next few chapters. I wanted to tie Jacob and Edward together, but to keep the rivalry between them, somehow. I have both of their cars, along with their songs up on my site, i had forgotten to mention that in the previous chapter. Even though Bella is now divorced, they still won't jump all over each other, i promise. I realize that the case would have taken much longer than that, and that i didn't get all of the legal stuff right, but I've never been to a court case, so i did the best i could. I hope you liked it!