Forgotten

Chapter Twenty

Thirty six hours, thirty four minutes and fifty seconds. That's how long it's been since Edward last saw Bella. It was pure torture. He had a plan, though. He hoped to God it would work. And if it doesn't…Well, if it doesn't then he's screwed.

While Edward was contemplating the best way with which he can get his wife back, Bella sat in her parent's living room telling them everything that had happened.

"He did what?" Renee almost shouted, after Bella was done talking. "How could he do that to you? I thought Edward was smarter than that."

"Yeah, well, I thought so too."

"Renee," Charlie spoke up, "Aren't you being too hard on the guy?"

"What?" Renee turned her anger towards Charlie. "How could you say that after what he did to your daughter? You men are all the same." And she stormed out of the room.

Charlie chuckled quietly, "And that, Bells, is where you get your rash behavior from."

"I'm not rash." Bella exclaimed.

"Yeah, you are, sweetheart. Otherwise, you'd understand that your husband was trying to look out for you and give him another chance."

"You think he was looking out for me by lying to me? It's bad enough that I can't remember anything about my life, but for him to intentionally withhold information that could actually help me recover? How can I believe that he even cares about me after that?"

Charlie leaned forward and rested his hands on his knees. His position implied that he was about to say something important.

"You see, Bells," He began, "Men just don't think the way women do. We usually live in the moment and we rarely think about the consequences of our actions, we think on a very basic level, besides the fact that women are far more intelligent, of course."

Bella smiled ruefully, "Dad, are you trying to butter me up?"

"Is it working?" He grinned.

"A little bit." Bella admitted.

"Just give him a second chance, Bells. After everything you both have been through, that's the least you can do, right now."

"Okay, now you're making me feel guilty and I didn't even do anything wrong!"

"I know you didn't, sweetheart. But marriage is about compromise, besides, sometimes you just have to let it go or you won't be able to move forward."

Bella was silent for a minute.

"Okay Bells, let me ask you this. Do you still love him?"

Did she? Bella's heart fluttered as she remembered waking up beside him every morning. The walks they took in the park. Her making her breakfast in bed.

She nodded slowly.

"Good. Can you imagine life without him?"

Life without Edward? Bella's heart tightened and she felt like she couldn't breathe.

"No, I can't" She replied.

"Well then problem solved, isn't it?"

"But dad I can't just go back home and pretend as if nothing happened."

"I don't expect you to. In fact I'm thinking Edward will beat you to it. Knowing him, he'll be here in a few hours begging your forgiveness."

"Really?" Bella asked, hopeful.

"Really. That guy is head over heels in love with you. If he wasn't, I wouldn't be trying to convince you to take him back now, would I?"

"Guess not." Bella smiled.

Renee came back right then looking a bit calmer than before.

"What did he tell you? He convinced you to forgive Edward didn't he?" She asked pointing to Charlie.

Bella nodded, amused at her mother's reaction.

Renee huffed, "Men! They always stick together, don't they?"

Bella and Charlie threw their heads back and laughed.

Bella decided to stay the night at her parents' house, instead of driving back to Alice's. She went up to her room to get ready for bed and started looking around, curiously. The room wasn't very girly, which made sense to Bella. It had a single bed to one side beneath a window, a desk that was littered with a few papers and an ancient computer. It felt so familiar, yet she couldn't remember ever being there before. Feeling a bout of frustration coming on like it always did whenever Bella faced a road block like this one, Bella just got into bed and tried to clear her mind so that she could get some sleep.

An hour passed and Bella was still awake. She kept rolling from side to side, trying to get comfortable, but it seemed impossible at the moment. She'd gotten so used to sleeping next to Edward and now she couldn't even spend one night without him? How pathetic is that? Well, she had brought this on her self by leaving the way she did. She'd just gotten so mad that she couldn't think straight, plus the frustration that had been building up since the moment she opened her eyes in that hospital bed and found out she couldn't even remember who she was. All that had accumulated and she'd blown up in Edward's face. Poor Edward, she'd put him through a lot.

Charlie was right. She'd completely over reacted. She needed to make this right.

Feeling suddenly invigorated, Bella threw the covers back and got out of bed. She raced down the stairs and grabbed a coat and headed outside to her car, but before she could open the door and get in, a pair of flashlights blinded her for a moment. Another car was coming down the driveway, but Bella couldn't see who it was because of the blinding flashlights. After the car was parked, the driver turned the engine off, hence turning those damn lights off too. For a second they were both shrouded in darkness, until Bella's eyes got accustomed to the dark. She gasped. A silver Volvo!

"Edward?" She called out, hesitantly.

"Yeah, it's me. Thank God you're still awake. I need to talk to you, Bella." He took a step closer and Bella realized he was wearing a tux. Why was he dressed so formally? Was he at a business party? Without her?

"Talk about what?"

"Do you want to talk inside? It's freezing out here."

"Here's fine." She replied curtly. Here she was pining over the guy and he'd been having the time of his life without her. How could she be so stupid?

"Um, okay. What were you doing out here anyway? Did you here my car coming up?" He asked.

"No, I just needed some fresh air." Liar! A voice inside her head screamed. She'd been seconds away from driving back to their house and begging his forgiveness. Thank God she hadn't done that.

"Why are you here?" She asked, impatient to know what it was he wanted to talk to her about that couldn't wait until the next morning.

"I miss you, Bella." He said in a voice so sad and broken that she was tempted to run to him and try to comfort him in any way possible. But she held herself back.

"Okay," She whispered back. She wrapped her arms around her waist, but not to protect herself from the cold, it was to hold herself to together so she would not fall apart right there and then.

"Bella, you're cold let's just go inside."

"Just say whatever you came here to say, Edward."

He took a deep breath, "I love you, Bella. I always have and always will. I need you to give me a second chance, please."

"How do I know that you won't do anything like this ever again?"

"Bella, you need to understand something. I'm used to having control over everything. I'm also used to calling the shots. It's been that way my whole life. Until I met you, ofcoarse. You turned my world upside down. Nothing was ever the same anymore. It took me a while to get used to being in a relationship where I didn't have total control, and when…the accident happened, it threw me in a tail spin all over again. I wanted to have some of that control back. I needed to feel like everything was going to be okay. Right now, it seems like it was the stupidest thing I could've done, but you have to understand that back then I wasn't even thinking clearly, Bella. My only focus was to get you to open your eyes again."

Bella's heart melted at his words. Edward could sense her softening and he immediately took advantage. He stepped closer to Bella and wrapped his arms around her. Bella tensed for a moment and then gradually began to melt into his embrace. She'd missed him so much.

"So, am I forgiven?" Edward asked, impatient for her response.

"Before I answer that I need to ask you something." She mumbled into his jacket.

"Shoot."

She looked up at him, "Why the hell are you wearing a tux?"

Edward grinned, "Well, that brings me to the second reason why I'm here."

"Oh, so you're not just here to grovel and beg for my forgiveness?" Bella teased him.

Edward chuckled, "Actually the second reason is still part of the groveling."

"Okay, then you may proceed." She allowed, grinning.

Edward laughed and leaned down to kiss her lips quickly. "I love it when you're cheeky."

Bella's lips tingled. The man knew how to turn her legs to jelly.

"Go on then, what's the second reason?" Bella prompted him.

"Impatient, are we?"

"Yes." She almost yelled.

Instead of explaining, Edward simply took something out of his pocket. It was too dark for Bella to see, but when he kneeled down on one knee, she got an idea.

"Isabella Cullen, I promise to love you every day of forever. Will you marry me?"

Bella gaped at him, "Um, we kind of already are married, Edward."

"So? Ever heard of renewing your vows? Plus, this way you'll get to remember our wedding." He said softly.

Bella's eyes filled with tears. She couldn't believe that he was doing this for her.

"Bella? You're kind of worrying me over here." He said, nervously when she'd been quiet for a while.

"Yes." She said finally.

"Really?"

"Really." She nodded vigorously.

Edward stood up quickly and crushed Bella into a hug. As though that wasn't enough for him, he picked her up and started twirling her around.

"Edward, put me down." Bella laughed.

"Nope, I like you just where you are." He said as he was holding her a few inches above the ground. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. The man was irresistible.

"So, I guess we're getting married…again" Bella said as they broke up for air.

Edward grinned, "Yes, we are."

(A/N): That's probably my favorite chapter so far, so please let me know what you thought of it!

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