Chapter 19

The simple, clipped word from her lips

—

Yes

—

Nearly caused Edward to stagger back, as if struck by a mortal blow. Even though he'd known the truth from the instant he saw the baby on Bella's hip.

But hearing the word, beads of sweat broke out over his forehead. His entire body felt like ice.

She'd had his baby. And she hadn't told him.

Bella had caused him to unknowingly abandon his son.

His hands tightened as he stared at her across the warmth of the café. A large group of tourists entered the shop behind him with a happy chime of the bell. With a snarl, Edward opened his mouth to speak, to accuse. Grabbing his arm, still holding her baby against her hip, Bella pulled Edward up the flight of stairs behind the counter. At the top of the stairs, he looked grimly at the second-floor apartment around him. It was a small, pretty, feminine home. Anxiously tugging on his arm, Bella pulled him into a bedroom and closed the door behind him.

"Please understand," she said desperately, turning to face him. "You left me no choice!"

He stared around the small room. It contained a single bed, a crib and a changing table. The bed was covered by a handmade quilt. On the wall over the crib, soft fabric letters spelled out M-A-S-E-N beside a framed picture of a giraffe that looked like it was from an old children's book.

There was no lavish luxury here. This apartment wasn't a palace, but it was homey and cozy. It was bright and warm. The bedroom was decorated with warmth and simplicity and kept absolutely clean. Warmth, love, care. Everything Bella had denied Edward for the last year and a half, along with the truth, along with his child.

The rage of betrayal ripped through him.

"Edward, please. Won't you talk to me?"

Slowly he turned back to stare at her. He'd thought Bella Swan was different from any woman he'd known. He'd thought her an intelligent woman with a bright mind and a rare sense of dignity —of loyalty. In the years she'd worked for him, he'd looked forward to seeing her every night after he returned from a date. He'd become accustomed to seeing dark eyes gleam through her glasses as she made him a late-night turkey-and-baguette and listened with some amusement to his latest dating woes, which always involved some woman going to pieces after he dumped her.

"It's your own fault, you know," she'd chided him gently. "You treat them badly."

"I make them no promises," he'd protested. "I tell them our affair cannot last. I am not a man made for marriage."

"You might tell them that, but your eyes say something else," she'd said quietly. "I've seen you.

You look at every woman as if she, and only she, might be the one to make you faithful.

He looked down at the baby. "My son," he whispered. "You are my son."

"His name is Masen, after my father," she said unwillingly behind him. "Masen Swan."

Holding the baby tenderly, he whirled to face her in a swift and decisive motion. "Masen Swan?"

"You did not even give him my name?"

She shook her head stubbornly.

"You lied to me, Bella," he said softly. He looked from his precious young son to the lying woman who had given birth to him. He saw her tremble, but kept himself from touching her from raging at her, from shaking her—by an act of fierce will. "You are a far greater liar than I ever imagined." He gave a low, harsh laugh. "And to think you said you loved me," he sneered. "That's what your love was worth!"

Her cheeks went hot. "I did love you," she said quietly. "It nearly killed me."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "So that is why you lied to me about being on birth control? Because you thought you were in love with me?"

"I didn't lie!"

"Then how did you get pregnant?"

"I was on the Pill in Paris, like I told you," she whispered, then shook her head. "The whole staff ate some bad fish from the market. I threw up for days. I never thought that it might make the Pill useless, but then," her cheeks colored, "I never paid much attention to the birth control aspects of the medication. I never expected you to seduce me!"

Silence fell. Through the sheer curtains at the large sash window, with its brightly painted open shutters, he could see clouds trailing across the blue sky, above the distant turquoise sea. He took a deep breath.

"Perhaps you're not lying," he said quietly. "If you were truly a gold digger, you would have jumped at the chance to marry me. The pregnancy must have been an accident." He set his jaw as he looked down at his son. "But you lied to me for the last year and a half was not."

"You're not being fair!" she cried. "You told me you never wanted a child. If I'd told you I was pregnant, you'd have insisted I was a gold digger who'd purposefully set out to „trap you!"

"Like the devil, you twist my own words against me," he said, then gave a low laugh. "You are the most cold, heartless woman I have ever known. This is a high mark indeed."

"I'm not," she whisper

"You looked into my face and lied to me.

I'm not pregnant, you said." He nearly choked on the words. "When were you planning to tell me the truth, Bella? After he was a grown man? Or did you mean to punish our son as well as me," he said harshly, "by only telling him the truth after I was dead?"

She went pale. "I would never do that to you."

"You already have."

Pain racked his body. Bella had hurt him in the most devastating way possible.

And when he thought of how, just a half hour ago, they'd walked along the beach, he'd humbly held his heart in his hands and asked her to be his lover…

He shuddered with humiliation and fury. Then, still holding the baby, he turned without a word.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm taking my son home."

"No!" she shrieked. Racing ahead of them, she blocked the door. "You can't take my baby away from me—you can't!"

"We'll come to a custody arrangement." He had the satisfaction of seeing her shoulders sag with relief before he mercilessly continued, "You've had Masen for the last eight months. I will take him for the next eight months." Cradling his baby son against his shirt, he turned to go. "You will hear from my lawyers sometime before next Christmas."

"No!" she screamed, pulling on his arm. "You can't take him from me— his mother! Not for eight months!"

He glanced back at her coldly. "Can I not? But that is what you have done to me. You've had your time. I will have mine. Is that not ,fair enough for you?" he said mockingly.

"No," she wept freely. "Please. It would kill me."

Edward looked down at her. Somehow, in her abject grief and surrender, even with her nose red and tears streaking down her cheeks, she was still beautiful. He still wanted her. It infuriated him.

He heard the baby start to cry, his loud wailing mingling with Bella's. Edward awkwardly tried to comfort the baby, but could not. He had no experience with babies and no idea how to comfort Masen. He did not know his own son. The injustice of it raged in his heart as, setting his jaw, he gently handed the baby to Bella.

"Masen. Oh, Masen." Bella's weeping only intensified as she cradled her baby against her, whispering words of love, kissing his chubby cheeks again and again. "Oh, my sweet baby."

Edward stared down at them. He took a deep breath. And came to a sudden decision.

"D'accord," he said through clenched teeth. "I will not separate you."

"Thank you," Bella whispered.

He stared at her coldly. "It's for my son's sake. Not yours."

She rocked the baby in her arms, her breath still uneven between sobs and hiccups. Edward looked at her, and then looked slowly around the room, from the sheer curtains over the window to the giraffe on the wall above the crib. She was, he thought grudgingly, a decent mother. What she would not be what she could never be again was a woman he could trust.

But that didn't stop Edward from wanting her.

There is someone else,

She'd said.

Who was the man? Edward's hands clenched. How many lovers had been in Bella's bed over the last year, while he'd tossed and turned, tormented by longing for his fantasy of her as he'd believed her to be honest, loving, chaste?

For all these years, Bella Swan was the one woman he'd never been able to completely possess. Now, he wanted to punish her. To break down her elusiveness. To own her.

Then discard her like the rest.

An idea occurred to him. A cruel, perfect idea. It would be a neat, tidy, perfect revenge. He smiled grimly. Walking across the nursery, he placed his hand on her shoulder.

"There is just one condition," he said brutally.

"Anything," she whispered. "Just don't separate me from my son."

Lowering his head, Edward gave her a seductive kiss. He possessed her mouth with his, luring her with his tongue. He felt her shiver in his arms. He felt her sigh, then surrender.

When he pulled away, he saw the haze of longing in her eyes, and hid a smile.

She thought she'd beaten him, but he would make her pay. He was the master of the coldhearted seduction. Soon, his possession of her would be complete.

"You will be completely mine," he whispered. He stroked her cheek as he looked down at her, his eyes glittering in the shadowy room. "You will marry me Bella."

its 1:16 am and if there is any mistake im sorry i could barely keep my eyes open im at the library right now studying and i wanted to thnk you guys for the reviews good and bad so i had to update im going to sleep now have a good night or day wateva