Chapter Ten

I parked my truck up outside the old-brick building which seemed to loom over me like a vision from a nightmare. No matter how long it had been since I left those walls, I'd always feel the same sense of dread whenever I came close. I walked past the metal fencing of the courtyard and tried my best to look anywhere but at the prisoners completing their yard duty. I felt their eyes on me, but they won't react unless I look back. However that didn't exactly work when I reached the end of my long walk, and one of them actually spoke out to me

"Couldn't stay away, Cullen?" I would have recognized that gravely voice anyway. Newton and I were never friends, so the only reason I reacted was to rub in the fact that I was free and he was still behind those damn fucking bars. Childish maybe, but still fun.

"Still serving time, Newton? I guess that's what you get for attempted murder."

Mike dropped the rake he had held and stepped closer to the fence; his tattooed fingers curled through the metal hoops. "Mark my fucking words, Cullen, if you don't keep your hands off of my family..."

I tuned out of his words when I saw the letters that marked the knuckles on his left hand. N-O-A-H. I moved my eyes back up to meet his anger-filled ones. I hoped that it was just a major coincidence that he had that particular name on his hand, yet I couldn't stop my brain from thinking it over and over, and that caused me far too much discomfort.

"Inmate," a guard stormed over - he must have been new, because I didn't recognize him. "Back to work. You, follow me."

I seemed to be on auto-pilot as I followed the guard past security and down the many hallways that lead to Rosalie's office. I was too busy trying to work everything out. Noah said that his dad was a bad man, who had tattoos like me and whatever he had done had made Bella too scared to have Noah out of her sight for the smallest moment.

I was serving my time when Newton arrived, and I thought back to when I over-heard inmates talking about the new arrival - how he had a life imprisonment for attempting to murder his wife and son...

Surely fucking not.

I felt the bile rise in my throat and my hands shook from the anger that raced through my blood. I barely remembered Rosalie opening her office door and greeting me with open arms.

"Edward! Good to see ya!"

"Is Mike Newton Noah's father?" I demanded as steadily as I could.

She closed her eyes for a brief second before turning into the room and holding her arm out for me to take a seat. "Whoever is, or is not, his father has got nothing to do with you. C'mon, sit down."

But I refused her offer and remained standing. "Rosalie. I need to know." It turned out that she didn't have to tell me anything, because I knew from her expression alone what the answer was.

"Fucks sake!" I spat as I stomped back and forth around the room. I had to use all my energy to keep my fists from swinging - I hadn't felt anger like that in such a long time. "I'm going to fucking kill him."

"Edward!" I stopped pacing to see Rosalie was shooting me her own daggers. "I may be your friend, but if I ever hear you threatening that to anybody I will personally throw you back in that cell. Do you understand me? What happened to them is none of your business, and I will not have you messing up your freedom because of that. Now, sit down."

Rosalie tried her best to start a neutral conversation, but with my anger at the level that it was, it didn't go very well.

"So when are you next seeing Corin?"

"I can't fucking believe it..." My head was full of murderous thoughts, I thought of ways that I could torture Mike - give him a dose of his own medicine, y'know? As I pondered, my mind drifted back to the last thing he had said; 'if you don't keep your hands off of my family...'

Oh holy crap.

Shit, shit, shit.

"He knows." I blurted out, I met her confused eyes. "He knows I work with Bella."

"How would he know that?"

I fell back into the leather seat and let out a loud groan, "I don't know! Alistair is his cousin, it wouldn't surprise me if they had been talking."

We were quiet for a moment, the only noise came from the clock tacked to her wall. Tick...tock...tick...tock. Suddenly Rosalie became alive her in seat, which made me jump slightly. She found a folder and flicked through all the various papers filed inside it, apparently that folder was not the right one, so she found another and repeated the process.

"I think it would be best if I found you an alternative place to work."

"What?" I sat up straight, "no! Why? Am I in danger? Are they in danger?"

Rosalie stopped her messing so she could look me straight in the eye. Not going to lie, her look made me slightly nervous. "If he has been informed that you are working along side them, that would explain why Alistair caused you that trouble not so long ago."

"You think he put him up to that?"

"I wouldn't put it past him." She settled back on the desk. "Listen Edward, you may not believe me when I say this, but Mike cares deeply for her in a -."

"You're right." I interrupted her sharply, "I don't believe you, 'cause any man that 'cares deeply' for his family doesn't try to fucking kill them!"

"I am trying to make you see and understand that he will do whatever it takes to keep people away from her."

"Oh!" Once again, I stood from my seat and paced back and forth, "now it does make sense! He doesn't care for her, he's just too fucking selfish to let her and Noah live their own lives!"

"Listen I am not spending our valuable time working through the ins and outs of Mike Newton, however it is my job to keep you away from any trouble, and right now that means leaving Swan's Stables."

I kept quiet, not knowing exactly what to say or how to word the tumbled mess inside my head. I couldn't work out what to do; there didn't seem to be any easy option or way out of the sudden fuck up I had landed myself in.

"Are you working today?" She had a pen between two fingers which hit off the wooden desk rhythmically.

I looked from her pen up to her emotionless face. That was what annoyed me the most, not being able to read her. "No," I answered, "I took today off to come and meet with you, but I will be going up there with Corin later for her lesson."

"Right..." Without another word, Rosalie brought her sleek white iPhone from her jacket pocket and held it against her ear. Just like with the pen, her finger tapped at the red case that covered said phone. Must be an irritation thing. "Bella..." she smiled, "are you free to talk for a minute?"

I wanted the answer to be no, because I had this need to save her from anymore additional pain.

"Yes, I'm with Edward now and something has been brought to our attention that we strongly need to discuss with you..." From the silence in the room, I could hear Bella's faint voice from the other end of the phone. She sounded panicked; her words came out quickly. "Now calm down, honey - please don't jump to conclusions until we have spoken. I understand Corin has a lesson with you later, so would it be possible for the three of us to speak then?... Okay, excellent, if Jasper could cover the lesson that would be great... four o'clock?" Rosalie stole at look at her diary, "I can do four o'clock... That is all I ask, honey. Thank you, see you then."

"So..."

Rosalie put away her phone and then crossed her arms in front of her, "as you can possibly tell, she is slightly worried about what is we need need to discuss, but I will join you later when you take Corin. Now, when you leave, if Newton is still in the yard, don't even look in his direction. You are very angry right now, and the last thing we need is for you to act without thinking, got it?"

With a deep sigh I lifted myself off of the seat, "got it," and that was the end of that. Thankfully someone was on my side, and Newton had been removed from the yard by the time I left and I managed to keep my murderous thoughts at bay. For the few hours before I had to meet Corin, I completed the usual housewife stuff - shopped for food, cleaned the apartment and moved all empty pizza boxes from my counters to the recycle bin outside. For the remaining half an hour I ate cold pizza and watched some shit show on the TV that barely tuned channels 1-5, but this is freedom - I cannot complain.

0-0

"Dad!" I stepped out of my truck the second I saw Corin racing over to me, her pink backpack lifted higher than her shoulders as she ran. "I love it when you pick me up, Dad," her little arms squeezed one of mine.

"Good day?" I asked, whilst taking the backpack and helping her into the front of my truck.

"Yep! But now we go for my lesson, then we're going out for dinner?"

"We sure are, where ever you want to go." That was a last minute decision - usually if I had a day off, I would join Corin and my parents for dinner but I had some spare cash left over from my most recent pay check, so I decided to treat her. I wished that I could provide more for her, more than just the occasional trip to Olive Garden, but the majority of my earnings were going towards a house for us both - my apartment was barely big enough for me, and I wanted Corin to have a house with a back yard and a large bedroom full with everything she wanted.

I gave my parents all the money I could spare, but they never accepted it. They knew my plans, and they didn't have the heart to cripple me further financially.

"I want to go to McDonalds."

"Really? I turned to look at my daughter, my smile grew when I noticed the happy glimmer in her auburn eyes.

"Yes! I have been dreaming of McNuggets all day, and Daddy, I don't think I can last another day without them!"

"In that case, if my girl wants McNuggets, my girl will get McNuggets." I winked with a smirk on my face. She chuckled her sweet laugh.

"And a McFlurry too; you can't forget dessert."

"Of course not - the most important part of the the meal."

And that was us, as we continued to drive to the stables. It almost made me forget about what would happen when we arrived... almost.

0-0

"Miss Bella! Are you teaching me today?"

I wasn't surprised to see that Rosalie had already arrived, but I was surprised to see the two of them waiting on us in the front drive.

"Jasper is going to take the lesson for this afternoon, if that's okay with you, Sweetheart?" Bella accepted the hug that Corin offered, Rosalie too. It was the best feeling to see her so accepted.

"Yep! I don't mind. Will you be watching me, Dad?"

With the tips of my fingers I brushed back that hair that hung down by her face, "I need to talk with Miss Bella and Miss Rose, but I'll just be inside the house."

"Okay!" With a final hug, Corin ran off to get set for her lesson, the atmosphere suddenly grew tense.

"If either of you don't tell me what the hell is going on right now, I'm gonna lose my shit. Big time."

"Okay," Rosalie took control, "let's go into the living room." We clearly caught the attention of the dogs who rose from their space on the ground and followed close behind. The Boston Terrier, Buzz, hopped onto Bella's lap once we had all taken a seat. Zucko, however, was not as energetic as his puppy friend, and chose to lie by Bella's feet instead. One of the cats could be seen curled up by the far-off window ledge, but I couldn't work out whether it was Zula or Duck; that damn kitten had grown so much.

"This is about him isn't it?"

I couldn't bear to look in her direction and see the uncontrollable shake of nerves. Once again it was Rosalie who went first. She sat beside Bella, her body sat slightly to one angle so they faced each other. Even if she hadn't offered to speak, I don't think I could have voiced a single syllable.

"Mike knows that Edward is working here." Telling Bella was like ripping off a band aid, you just had to go for it. Pausing only made the pain more intense.

"No... no... I'm not talking about this... not today."

"Then when? When are we gonna talk about this? Look, I understand that -."

"No. No I don't think you do understand." The quivering Bella had left the room and been replaced by one with a lot more of a backbone. Her tone was sharp - she had a bite to her words. "Every night you get to go home to Emmett who would do anything to make you happy and keep you safe. So I don't think you quite realize what it is like to sleep with one eye open, afraid that you'll become his punching bag and wake up with more bruises patterned over your body. Or wake your son up in the morning and finding new bruises and scars on his tiny, innocent body!"

Yep, I really wanna murder that asshole. I want to make him see what it's like to be at the receiving end of an angry fist.

Unfortunately I knew his actions were much worse than that - nobody would get a life sentence without parole for punching their wife.

"Momma!" All three of us sat up straight to act natural around Noah, Bella was spotted rubbing at her eyes to remove any signs of recent tears. "Momma, I'mma gone go feed the chickens, 'kay?" That was when he turned into the room, Alfie the bunny once again held to his chest. "Inky! I didn't know you were here t'day, Inky!"

I accepted the one-armed hug he offered me. "I'm having a meeting with your Momma and Miss Rose, Lil' Man. I'll come and see you when we are finished."

"Okay. Hey Miss Rose."

"Hey, Sweetie. Who is this?"

"Alfie - he's my best friend, just like Momma and Inky." Oh, my God. That. That is why I can't leave this job. "What you's talking about, Momma? Can I join?"

"Er, no, baby, this is adult stuff. Really boring."

"Eurgh! Inky, if you don't wanna be with the boring adults you can come join me and we'll have some proper fun!"

Our laughter died the second Noah left the room and we returned to our original conversation.

"You said, Rosalie, you said they didn't know each other. I thought it was safe to hire him, because you said Mike wouldn't be linked back to us."

"And it was!" I blurted out before I could stop myself. "I only found out this morning, Bella, I swear."

She gnawed away at her fingernails, her hands shook. "I knew I shouldn't have done it. I shouldn't have agreed to hiring you." That was something I never wanted to hear, but I knew exactly why she thought it. "I could have kept Noah away from all of this and left Mike to rot in hell."

"That is why we think it would be best for Edward to find a new place to work. So you can keep yourselves safe."

"Noah will be devastated..."

"Bella," I leaned forward in my seat, "I could still see Noah when Corin has her lessons."

"No you won't. I'm sorry Edward, you are brilliant with him and I couldn't be more grateful, but if I'm keeping him away from everything to do with Mike, I cannot allow little things to slip through."

Noting the awkward silence, Rosalie mentioned something else. "I also think you need to consider Alistair's job too. Now I know you think he's different from his cousin and all that bullshit, but I still believe otherwise."

"I know... God I don't know what to do!" She groaned into her hands.

No-one spoke a word for at least ten minutes. I found myself staring out the window that looked into the front yard, Noah was spotted occasionally running back and forth playing a game of some sort.

"Alright..." Rosalie and I turned to Bella, she gnawed at her nails again. "I've thought over it all, and I think I've made my decision." Her large, glazed eyes looked up to meet mine. "Edward I'm really sorry - you have been amazing and, despite what I may have said, I am so glad you got to work here. But I hope you understand why I made this decision."

I felt heavy, yet empty at the same time. I wanted to fight for my job and demand that she re-thought it all, but deep down I knew why, and I had to accept that. I could get hurt if I stayed here much longer, but I was more concerned of that backlash that it could have on Bella and Noah. I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to them because of me.

I stood slowly taking deep breaths in attempt to cool me. "I do - I do understand and I appreciate it. Thank you for this opportunity and I'm sorry that it had to end this way."

The tears in her eyes became clearer and began to drip down her cheeks, she nodded at my words, but never voiced a response.

"Can I say goodbye to Noah before I leave?" He just said I was one of his best friends, and that boy has been through too much in his life; I couldn't walk away without saying anything first.

"Absolutely."

I tried my best to control myself before I walked out to the yard to find him, but that became much harder when I was spotted and he was so damn happy to see me.

"You left the boring talk, Inky? We gonna go play now?"

"Er... I'm afraid I can't, Lil' Man."

"Why not?"

I wouldn't say I was a crying kinda guy, but it was a challenge to keep the tears back at that moment. "I'm taking Corin out for dinner, so we have to go now."

"Oh. But you're gonna be here tomorrow, yeah?"

"Um... I don't, um..." Like I said earlier, it's just like ripping off a band aid. "I don't think I'll be working here anymore, buddy."

"But... why? We always have so much fun a'gether..." His eyes welled up and it broke my fucking heart.

"I know, and I'm really sorry, Noah."

"But... we can still be best friends?"

"That's something you'll need to discuss with your Momma. But can you promise me something?" He was too quick to agree. "Can you promise me that you'll look after your Momma - you are the man of the house, and so it's your job to protect her."

"Protect her from what?" Noah cocked his head to one side.

"... Things that scare her."

"Uh... My Momma doesn't like big horrible spiders."

I couldn't stop the smile that took over my face, "perfect! In that case you need to protect her from the spiders, okay?"

"Okay, I can do that."

"Good boy. Can I get a hug?" I had knelt down on the ground so he could lie his head on my shoulder when his arms were flung around me. I knew from experience that prolonging a goodbye always made it worse, so I chose to cut it short for his sake... and mine.

"I'll see you later, Lil' Man."

After a long pause he whispered: "Bye Inky."

0-0

TRUST ME. That is all I can ask of you right now.

Thoughts...?