Chapter Twenty-Five

Bob started the five minute interview with the usual generic questions about the movie, then he mentioned the press release about the two future movies. Edward confirmed that they were 'in negotiations' and that was all he could say at the moment. Bob was reasonably happy with that.

"And how is the relationship with you and the lovely Tanya developing? Will the on-screen chemistry carry over to your personal life one day?"

"Actually no, Bob. I have a girlfriend who lives here in New York. I believe Tanya has just started seeing someone as well, but you'd better ask her about that."

Bob was absolutely ecstatic that Edward had blessed him with this scoop and he couldn't finish the interview quickly enough so he could get the tape to his editor. He sprinted out of the hotel with the tape in his hand and jumped into a cab throwing notes at the driver while telling him to get to his studio as fast as possible.

The next reporter came in to the interview room warily, having just seen his rival breaking Usain Bolt's world record for the 100 metres, and he knew instinctively, (because he was a reporter), that something was afoot.

Five minutes later, another reporter was flying out of the building with what he hoped was the scoop of the year.

Word finally got back to Tanya's camp what was going on and her agent came storming along the corridor to locate James and tell him to get in there and shut Edward up, but of course it was too late. The cat was out of the bag and the world was already being informed that the Edward/Tanya relationship was a thing of the past.

Earlier in Queens, Mike had been tipped off by his legal team that something was going on and to get to his office as soon as possible. He called Bella's apartment while she was in the shower trying unsuccessfully to wash the tear stains away, then picked her up on the way to the office so she could help him sort out whatever was going wrong. They had only been in the office five minutes when Mike took a call from Jacob who called to say they were pulling out of the deal, "and if they wanted to know why, they should question Edward Cullen." When Mike asked Jacob what he meant, Jacob replied, "It seems Edward isn't committed to this movie anymore and my company doesn't deal with people who don't keep their word," then disconnected the call.

Mike shouted to Bella who was sitting in her office still weeping on and off.

"What's going on, Bella? Why would Jacob pull out of the deal because of something Edward has or hasn't done? Do you know anything about this?"

Bella nodded her head and started crying again.

"Edward's just signed up for two more films with Tanya, Mike. Apparently filming of the fourth one is starting soon so it'll clash with our schedule so he's probably having to either drop out or postpone. If he's not in it, then our director said he didn't want to do it, which is probably why Jacob's pulled out. He said when we met him that he was only interested in our film because it was that particular director and Edward was the star."

"Edward Cullen's a fucking selfish bastard," Mike spat and threw the phone across the office, smashing it to pieces against a filing cabinet then he put his head in his hands as he contemplated the fact that he and Tyler were now financially ruined. He looked over to Bella who had her face buried in her hands, as she realised that not only had she lost the love of her life, but she had lost her job and Empty Productions would soon be in liquidation.

When the junket interviews were finally over, Edward went back to his room and called Alice. She answered on the second ring.

"She doesn't want to talk to you, Edward, but she called me to tell you if you called, to contact Mike or Tyler urgently and explain to them why the financial backer has dropped out of the movie."

"What!"

Edward's knees went from underneath him and he staggered to the nearest chair before he collapsed in shock. Tanya had double-crossed him and had pulled the plug anyway. He knew he shouldn't have trusted her and that bastard, Jacob. But it was too late now; they had won and he guessed that Tanya would be rubbing her hands with glee when she found out she had destroyed his relationship with Bella through securing her own phoney career.

"You mean you didn't know?" Alice hissed scathingly. "Apparently some guy named Jacob phoned Mike this afternoon and told him to ask you why they were pulling out and it's because of your dirty deal with Tanya. You're a shit, Edward, so go fuck up your own life now and leave us alone."

"I want to talk to Bella."

"No, Edward, she doesn't want to talk to you or see you again. You've broken her heart, she's lost her job and you've destroyed Mike and Tyler's company."

"I'm coming over."

"She's not here; she left about two hours ago with a backpack."

"Do you know where she's gone?"

"Yes, but I'm not telling you."

"Alice, I want you to listen to me for thirty seconds and then you can hang up and never speak to me again for the rest of your life if that's what you decide."

"Your time's running out, Edward."

"It's not what you think. I've been set up, big time. Everything I've done in the last thirty six hours was for Bella and Mike, and it's come back on me and kicked me in the balls."

"Ten seconds."

"Tell Bella I love her and I'll sort this out."

"Bye, Edward."

The phone went silent.

Edward tried to call Mike but the line was dead as though it had been disconnected. He sat on the bed with his head in his hands not knowing what to do next. He could go over to Bella's just in case Alice was lying, but he had no evidence to show Bella that he had in effect been blackmailed and right at this moment he couldn't have borne to see contempt on her face if she didn't believe him.

Tanya! Whatever happened he was going to have a showdown with Tanya. She was staying in the same hotel and he could guess where her suite was as there were only two large penthouses in this hotel. He stormed out of the room and banged on her door until Jacob opened it with a smug expression on his face.

Edward pushed past him, almost knocking him off his feet. Tanya was sitting by an open window, smoking, looking like the cat who had got the cream.

"You fucking bitch. You just had to do it, you jealous, evil witch!"

Tanya put on a forced laugh then got up and advanced towards Edward, pointing her finger in his face. He wanted to snap it off and shove it in her eye.

"I was prepared to honour the deal," Tanya hissed menacingly, "but you went and blabbed to the press that you had a girlfriend, so it was tit for tat as far as I was concerned. You fucked me over, so I've done the same to you and your friends and your fucking whore."

"What do you mean I've fucked you over, you deluded bitch? We've never, ever had a fucking relationship in the first place. It was all in your messed up head."

Tanya's voice moved up the decibel range as she responded.

"Go on YouTube you idiot and watch your interviews and then watch my interviews. In your interviews you've told the world and his wife that you're screwing a Yankee. In my interviews I've said our relationship is going strong, making me look like a pathetic ex-girlfriend. You fucked me over to make me look stupid, Edward. That's why I pulled the plug on your tramp's movie."

Tanya was screaming now and Edward realized that the fallout from this was going to be epic. They had a premiere to attend that evening and then the London interviews and the premiere after that. The press would be having a field-day and he could imagine what the repercussions were going to be.

Edward turned away from her without saying anymore and walked out of the room defeated. He knew he had been impulsive and stupid, telling the press about Bella, and now Mike and Tyler were ruined. Life couldn't get any worse.

He went back to his room and saw that he had a two-word message from Jasper.

"Fuck You."

Edward had never felt so alone in his life as at that moment.

Kate poured out another apple juice for Edward and watched him gulp it down in one; he hadn't stopped talking for the last hour. The anger at the injustice of the situation had poured out of him and Kate didn't attempt to stop him.

"Did you try to contact Bella or Mike again while you were in New York?

"No, I knew it wasn't worth it. I had no evidence to prove that I'd been blackmailed, and I was too exhausted to think clearly."

"How was the New York premiere?"

"I just got through it; the whole day was a blur. I drank practically every shot that was in the cooler in my suite before I went, so I was three sheets to the wind when I walked down the red carpet. Nobody seemed to notice, thank goodness. I fell asleep in the theatre and went back to the hotel once the after-show party had started, blaming a headache.

"So what happened in London?" Kate was pressing him now to finish the story. He was still angry, but had related this part quite calmly, that is he hadn't cried again. It was almost as though he was looking back at the events philosophically rather than personally, which was a step forward.

Before continuing though, Edward stood up and stretched. Sitting on the ground was uncomfortable, even in this idyllic meadow, so he walked around a bit waving his arms like a windmill.

After a few minutes of exercise and a couple of sandwiches from the picnic basket, he sat cross-legged on the blanket and related the events leading up to when he collided with Kate nearly two days ago.

Before he left New York, Edward sent two e-mails and hand-wrote two letters and arranged for a courier to deliver them. One was to Bella and the other to Mike. He explained to both of them what had happened in James's office and that he had only agreed to stay with the franchise to save Empty Productions. However he had since worked out from what Alice had said, that Jacob had pulled the plug on the movie at least half an hour before Edward said anything to Bob from CBS News about having a girlfriend, so it was Tanya's intention all along to scupper the movie and Mike and Tyler along with it, all to get back at him and Bella.

He told Bella that he would love her until the day he died and he promised Mike he would do anything he asked to help him and Tyler out of this mess and that he was sorry his company had become caught up in Tanya's vendetta against him.

He didn't know where either Bella or Mike were, so the letters were delivered to her apartment and his office respectively in the hope that one of them would read either the e-mail or the letter sooner rather than later.

He flew to Heathrow overnight and after an uncomfortable and restless journey he was driven to his hotel in London. Before he went to his room, he asked the desk to arrange a courier to take a letter he had written on the plane to Jasper's address and he told the receptionists that he didn't want to be disturbed between now and the meeting with the press that evening.

He needed to sleep because he wasn't able to on the plane, even though he travelled first class. He lay down on the bed and closed his eyes, but sleep didn't come to him though as the events of the past few days churned over and over in his mind. Also, he was on the same bed where he'd made love to Bella for the first time and the memory of that night brought tears to his eyes.

The reality of the situation he was in finally hit him:

He had lost Bella

Mike and Tyler had lost their business and were massively in debt

His only close friend didn't want to speak to him anymore

Professionally he was fucked

He had no other close friends to speak of

He had no family to turn to

"What was the point of living anymore?" he asked himself as he stared at the ceiling. He could walk out of this hotel straight into the path of a London bus and that would be it. Only his fans would care for him as a person. His parents would no doubt get their hands on his grandmother's house and would be rubbing their hands with glee with no regrets about losing their son. The producers of the franchise would only think of the money they'd lost through his passing. Tanya would have to find a new leading man then he thought!

What would happen if he went missing? He could orchestrate his disappearance; take on a new identity, grow a beard and live in a cottage in the Lake District tending sheep all day, or something like that. Or go and live on an island, somewhere where he wasn't known.

He lay there for several hours trying to make sense of his life when his cell phone rang. He picked it up, hoping it was Bella, but it was James giving him details of the press conference being held that evening. Rather than individual junket interviews, Emmett, Tanya and James were holding a 'Meet the Press' event in the hotel. James needed him downstairs by a quarter to seven and they would go on stage at seven.

"So, what do I say about the girlfriend in New York, who is not my girlfriend any more by the way?" Edward spat at James.

"I'm sorry about Bella, genuinely I am," James replied "but a press release was issued when you were over the Atlantic to say you were joking about having a New York girlfriend, as you were fed up being asked about your personal life. You'll be sending apologies to all the reporters you 'lied' to by the way."

Edward grunted his response to that ending with a "Fuck You" as he ended the call. He didn't think James heard, but frankly he couldn't care if he did. He got up and poured himself a brandy from the drinks cabinet and downed it in one go. "Dutch courage" he muttered to himself then helped himself to another one.

He should really have a shower he thought and took his watch off in anticipation, putting it next to his cell phone on the nightstand. He picked the phone up and called Alice but she didn't respond. He tried Mike's number again, but it was still dead. Out of desperation he tried Bella's number, hoping she had got a new phone by now and had transferred the number. It rang, but no-one answered. He heard a knock on his door but he ignored it. "It's probably Jane," he thought.

Then he thought about the hotel's phone. Maybe if Bella or Alice didn't recognize the number they might answer it. He picked the receiver up and got an outside line. Firstly he called Bella, nothing; then he tried Alice. The phone rang for a moment and then success, Alice picked up!

"Alice, its Edward, don't hang up."

"What do you want?"

"I'm going to ask one thing, did Bella get my letter?"

"No, it's still waiting for her on the kitchen table. She didn't come home last night."

Edward's hand went straight to his groin as the memory of the events on the kitchen table came flooding back into his mind.

"When is she due home?"

"That's two questions."

"Just tell me Alice."

"Later today. Goodbye Edward."

Edward tried Jasper's number, but he wasn't picking up either, so he got off the bed and walked into the bathroom to brush his teeth. It was already a quarter to seven so it was too late to shower, but he didn't care anymore what he looked like. He wasn't even going to change into his suit.

He stood in front of the bathroom mirror and saw an image of himself that he didn't recognize. Who was this stranger looking back at him? He wasn't a man any more, he was a eunuch, a commodity, to be bought and sold at somebody else's whim. "How have I let myself get into this situation for fuck sake?" he asked himself, then tears started rolling down his cheeks as he thought about how futile his life was.

The only reason people wanted to know him was because he made them rich. Without Bella or Jasper he had no-one, and without friends or family, or someone to love, what was the fucking point?

Downstairs in the conference room waiting for him were a hundred journalists who thought they had the right to know everything about him; his career, his future, his private life, even who he was screwing! His world had gone fucking mad.

At that moment, standing in the bathroom of this grand old hotel, Edward screamed out one of the most famous lines in cinema, taken from one of his favourite films:

"I'm mad as hell. I'm not going to take this anymore!"

He knew then what he had to do and as he left the bathroom he carried on speaking aloud to himself.

"Fuck the movie, fuck the contract I've signed; I couldn't care less whether they sue me for every penny in my bank account and more; I'm not setting foot on any set that has Tanya Fucking Denali on it ever again. Should I even go to this farce of a press conference? No! Fuck that as well. I'm off; I'm getting as far away from this place as soon as possible."

He went back to the bed and tried Bella's number again from the hotel telephone and there was no answer, so he threw the phone across the bed and it landed with a crash on the floor out of view. He put his shoes on and walked straight out of the room, not looking back. He had his room key in his pocket; he would come back for his things later on.

He was out in the corridor looking left and right, wondering how he was going to get out of the hotel without being spotted, and then he recalled his previous stay in the hotel with Bella, when they had escaped via the service elevator to the kitchen. He sprinted down the corridor, turned two corners and there was the narrow elevator in front of him. He pressed the call button and heard the cables in the lift shaft grind together indicating it was on its way. The doors opened and he stepped inside and pushed the button with 'K' on it, presuming correctly it was K for kitchen. The elevator gave a little jolt and Edward started on his way down to the kitchen and to freedom.

He tentatively walked through the bright, stainless steel kitchen, where several men and women were working, chopping vegetables and melodramatically throwing ingredients into pans on huge ranges. He was confident he could remember the way out, so he walked silently through the noisy space heading towards the exit. Like before, not a head was turned and no-one bothered him. He turned right and recognized the corridor that led to the door to the courtyard where the white van had been waiting for them almost exactly a year ago. There would be no white van today and he hoped and prayed there would be no paparazzi waiting at the back of the hotel.

Edward cautiously made his way along the corridor towards the door in front of him and placed his fingers on the handle. As he felt the cold metal in his hand, he was aware that if he went out the door he would be walking away from life as he knew it into the unknown. As he rubbed the last tear from his eye he slowly turned the handle which led to the world outside and freedom, and so... from the air-conditioned corridor that served the rear entrance of this famous five-star hotel and through a narrow doorway covered with fluttering tapes, Edward emerged from the cool shadows into the twilight.

As Edward paused for a moment before taking the next step, he knew that once taken there would be no going back, and that step would be the first one that would lead him to altering his life for the better, forever.

Kate was placing everything back in the picnic basket as Edward finished his story.

"And then I met you, Kate."

"And then you met me, Edward, just in time!"