Chapter 14 - A Woman Scorned

Jacob's POV

"Oh shit!" I exclaimed, turning my room upside down.

I can't find my phone.

I had searched everywhere, I had flipped everything in my room and I still had not found it. I was supposed to see what time I was meeting Edward tonight, what was I going to do?

It looked as though a tornado had hit my room and I proceeded to tear it apart even more. I had to find my phone.

Where could it be?

Edward's POV

I pulled out my phone and sent a text to Jacob.

8:30

I pressed send and was about to walk back to the house when I received a reply. My second phone vibrated silently and I pulled it from my pocket.

Where?

I was shocked, we had been at the hotel all week, he should have known to go there. I quickly typed the reply.

The hotel in Phoenix, as usual.

The reply was instantaneous.

I know that. What is the room number, my memory is shit.

I didn't understand why he couldn't just follow my scent to the door but I sent the text anyway to remind him it was room number 2.

I'll see you there.

I turned the phone off and stuffed it in my pocket, wondering why Jacob was so insistent upon talking so much, that conversation could have been so much shorter if he had just gotten straight to the point.

He was late.

Jacob was never late, he always showed up exactly when I told him to. So what was keeping him? I was running through everything that could have happened from the pack finding out to him simply forgetting. I was so focussed on my own thoughts I did not notice a familiar engine approaching until the door burst open and Bella stood in the doorway looking furious.

"W-wha-" was all I managed to get out before she slapped me.

"You bastard!" Bella all but growled at me in anger. I brought my hand up to my cheek in shock, the slap itself caused no pain but she had actually hit me.

I was still sitting on the bed so I had too look up to see her face. She was livid. "What the hell is wrong with you Edward?" Bella demanded, her voice filled with rage. "I thought I told you not to run away!"

I stood immediately with my hands up in surrender in an effort to placate her. "Bella I'm not running away, I'm just in Phoenix for a few hours and then I'll be back in Forks." I assured her.

Bella pushed me back onto the bed. I could have resisted, but co-operating seemed the smartest thing to do at the moment, also I was still shocked by what was happening. Hell I didn't even know what was happening. "You are running away!" Bella contradicted me harshly.

"You are still here but you're still leaving!" She seethed. I just sat there unsure of what to do, she had stopped making sense so I had no idea what to do. "You are running away emotionally and you're taking it out on Jacob!" And now she seemed close to sense. "You are scared," Bella was no longer yelling, instead she was speaking through gritted teeth and barely containing her anger. "You are running away in the only way you can without breaking your promise to me, you are pulling away and your hurting Jacob in the process." I could hear the sadness enter her voice and see it make itself present on her face.

"Jacob is my best friend," anger again, "my brother. I will not just sit back and let you use him like that." The sadness overcame her again yet it did not remove the ever present anger. "Regardless of what he has done, he will always be my brother, and I will not let anyone hurt him," Bella vowed.

"You are hurting him by using him like this," she told me what on some level I knew to be true. I didn't want to accept it but how could I deny it when it was staring me in the face? I had been using him and trying to ignore that it hurt him but... It hurt me too.

I wanted to be with Jacob. I wanted to talk, I wanted to hold him, I wanted to be with him even when we weren't in the throes of passion. That is the thing though, there was passion between Jacob and I, and, I liked it. I enjoyed being with him and, it terrified me. Maybe I was running away.

"Maybe you just want us to get together so you can say we are madly in love and that our love is so strong not even you and I could withstand it," I countered, unwilling to admit what inside I was accepting. "That way none of this can damage your fragile self esteem." I looked up at her angry face which had softened into annoyance.

"I will admit," Bella began, her eyes narrowing in a dare to accuse her again. "It would make things easier, and I have been temped to do many things out of spite, sabotaging you and Jacob's relationship, outing you both, and those are just the more lenient things, I can be creative. But I have decided I don't want to be that kind of person and I am trying to let this go. So far I have forgiven Jacob, he's my brother and I want him to be happy, but I am going to be angry at you a while longer." She let out a deep breath and calmed considerably. "But you need to make a choice Edward," Bella went on, "and you need to make it tonight. You either let Jacob down easy so he and I can eat chocolate ice-cream and talk about how much we hate you, or you can damn well treat him with some respect and have a relationship with him." She narrowed her eyes threateningly this time. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned Edward," Bella warned me. "You don't want to know the fury she has if you break her brother's heart too." And with that she threw Jacob's phone at the bed and left.

What the hell am I going to do?

Authors Note: Well this one took longer than expected, I hope you all enjoy it.

lytebrytehybrid88 - Did you see this coming? You may have as it was a little too obvious.

Guest - I suppose technically that was an oxymoron but it is true. Bella was willing to commit a selfless act of giving her life to her child, although she did hope to survive she was prepared to die, which is selfless, however she wanted her child to live, without her if necessary, so badly that she put aside everyone elses wellbeing and risked things that were not hers to risk, that was selfish; Ergo, she was both selfless and selfish at the same time. She did acknowledge others, she simply decided that her child was more important and if all turned out well she could deal with the ramifications after.

Yes, Bella hit Jacob after he sexually assaulted her. Who in their right mind would blame her for that? I do not recall her hitting him again in the books however in the movie she did throw him but that is irrelevant as we go by book logic in my stories. In the movie I do not know of her ever hitting Seth, although she did slap Paul, but once again, movies. In the book she did attempt to attack Jacob when Seth hit her in his defence, the force of the impact causing a broken arm, although that part was not well described. And she was irrational, gained her senses immediately after, felt horribly guilty, and apologised so much they were starting to get sick of it. And did I not mention, very irrational at the time, withing good reason, she had decent excuses to be far more irrational than she was. And now you are saying it is Bella's fault that the Volturi wanted to fight, even though they didn't. Jacob had no choice as Nessie was his imprint, the pack had a choice but in there mind they didn't because Jacob was in the fight and they saw no other option. Bella had no choice as she was Renesmee's mother, and Edward as her father. And naturally the rest of the family because the Volturi was already targeting them. She had no idea they would use Renesmee as an excuse for a fight, and if she did not have Renesmee then Jacob would have been suffering from a broken heart and would have gotten himself killed trying to kill the Cullen's in revenge of her being turned. And don't say she had no knowledge that it would help the Jacob situation, because she had no knowledge it would give the Volturi an excuse to fight, you cannot use an excuse to place blame and then ignore that same excuse to clear blame.

I never once said anything about flaming. I said that I sincerely hoped you truly are a guest reader who will return to continue this debate because if you are just logging out of an account to post your review anonymously (which I do not believe you are doing) then that is both cowardly and pathetic, and to post such a rude review and not attempt to come to a peaceful conclusion is almost as bad. You are not doing these things however so that does not apply to you, but some people do. You never commented on the quality of my story no, but you did very rudely attack my opinion, as all I did was express my opinion of a character which you clearly hate. And seeing as you are reading an Edward/Jacob story, that would suggest that you enjoy that coupling, which makes Bella an inconvenient complication, and Renesmee irrelevant. So it would not be illogical to assume that you dislike both characters for that reason, therefore making your opinion of them biased, and you therefore refuse to see them as anything other than the image you have invented for them. This theory is strengthened by your not completely accepting reason and pointing out flaws I have already explained without acknowledging my explanation and pointing out what you believe to be a flaw. Of course this is all speculation and may be dead wrong, but that is the impression I have received so far. I apologise if the cowardly and pathetic comment insulted you as you have clearly proven that it does not apply to you and you are better than that. I think you are a stubborn yet reasonable person who simply does not wish to let go of your ideas, not completely unlike me.

~SophieAngel69