Chapter 28

Inquisitions

Edward's POV

"Nice to meet you, Chief. So I hear your daughter is going to be the heiress to the Volturi fortune now that she's married." Carlisle gave the chief a calculating smile.

"Well…that remains to be seen," Charlie said in a gruff voice. It was evident that he was not happy with this turn of events either. He gave me a look full of significance, and I nodded slightly to let the Chief know that I understood.

"So anyway, as I was saying, you are to become an heiress, Bella. Congratulations." Carlisle beamed at Bella and kissed her on the cheek. To my surprise, he even kissed Alice.

"I hope both of you will continue to work for Cullen Enterprises."

"Of course we will, won't we, Alice?" Bella asked as she gave Alice a mischievous look.

The pixie nodded her head in agreement.

"We love the work environment." Bella looked at me and Jazz as she said this. Of course you love me, Bella.

"And the work is so…fulfilling," Alice said in a voice full of innuendo. I saw Jazz swallow hard.

"Don't forget satisfying," Bella added in a sultry voice, and I nearly fainted.

"Ahem, I'm glad you like to work…with us," Carlisle said in a voice full of bemusement. I could tell he was puzzled. Bella and Alice had always been very professional and serious with him. Even Bella's date with him had not been very personal. Well…I didn't let it get personal, so Carlisle had not witnessed this playful side.

"But work comes first. No big lunch breaks." I couldn't help teasing the girls. I also didn't want to give Carlisle time to analyse things more closely. He was a shrewd man and it wouldn't take much for him to figure things out if he was left to his own devices for too long.

"Oh, boss, we are not even going on a proper honeymoon till Bella gets more leave. Can't we take a tiny bit longer?" The pixie pouted.

"Nope." I shook my head negatively, ruffling the pixie's hair. I didn't give a damn what my father thought of that. He already seemed to know about the close relationship I had with Alice. The pixie made pleading puppy dog eyes at me.

"Edward!" my father admonished me.

"Of course you can, Alice. And you too, Bella," Carlisle said. So the mighty Carlisle Cullen fell for Ally's puppy dog eyes.

"Oh, thank you so much, Mr. Cullen," the pixie said in a sweet voice.

"Call me Carlisle, Alice," Carlisle replied, giving her his signature charming smile.

A Cheshire cat smile spread right across the pixie's face as she winked at me and gave Jazz a look that made him shudder. Holy shit! If the girls kept this up, we were likely to end up giving our secrets away.

"What about lunch? I'm starving," Em said, giving me a look full of warning.

"Let's go for lunch. Bells, I want an extra serving of the chocolate mousse." Jacob pulled my hand, trying to get me to move along with him.

"You won't get any if you don't stop harassing Edward, Jake." Bella used Jacob as an excuse to grab hold of my other hand, pushing Jacob away.

"Aww…Bells, you can't stop me from eating at least one portion. The Chief wouldn't let you do that to me."

"Oh, I'm sure the Chief wouldn't—but remember what I told you about that new karate move I've been practising." Jacob quickly let go of my other hand as a look of fear crossed his face.

I heard a chuckle and saw my father valiantly trying to hold in his laughter.

"They are quite a pair, aren't they?" he whispered in my ear, looking at both Bella and Jacob who were still arguing. My girl was still holding on to my hand, but Carlisle barely noticed it as he was too busy watching their exchange.

"I thought you two got married on Friday. What's going on?" Rosalie suddenly asked out of the blue right in front of Carlisle. Everything stood still while everyone around processed her question. I could have strangled Rosalie for her damning inquisitiveness. How could she? She knew we were doing something secretive that we didn't want Carlisle to know about.

"That was my dream wedding. This is Bella's dream wedding," Alice suddenly spoke. Everyone turned towards her.

"Excuse me—who the hell has two weddings? And you didn't invite me to even one." There was the crucial question. Rosalie was getting back at us for not inviting her.

"Come on! Seriously? You want to know why two girls had two dream weddings?" Alice asked. She was now standing in what I recognised as the "pixie stance." No one messed with the tiny creature when she stood like that. Jasper and I had learned it the hard way. She had both her arms on her hips with her legs wide apart. And one foot tapped the battle hymn of the republic. Yes, we knew that too.

"Yes, seriously," Rosalie said somewhat belligerently.

"Bella and I both imagined how our dream wedding would be like when we were growing up. Every little girl has her own dream. I'm sure you have had yours as well."

"This is not about me—it's about you two having two weddings."

"That's just it. It is about every little girl. You would want to have your dream wedding when you grow up. The only problem with the two of us was that we had very different ideas of what our dream wedding should look like."

"And you decided to have two weddings because of that?" Rosalie asked incredulously.

"That's exactly what happened."

"Couldn't you have incorporated the two? This is just ridiculous."

"You mean, we should have brought a beach and set it up in my meadow?" Bella asked with her eyebrows raised. Rosalie looked taken aback by this piece of news. I had to hold back my snicker at the thought of a beach in the middle of the meadow. I saw Carlisle trying very hard not to laugh. Bella really made her point clear.

"I always dreamed about getting married on a beach, to the sounds of waves crashing on the shore. The golden rays of a beautiful sunset in the horizon spreading a golden glow all around us," the pixie said in a dreamy voice.

"And I've always imagined myself getting married in this beautiful meadow surrounded by the wildflowers. This has always been my special place, and I wanted the most precious moment of my life to be celebrated here." Bella's eyes held a suspiciously bright shimmer. And she had got her dream today. I was so happy about it.

Rosalie threw up her hands in exasperation.

"So, now do you understand why we had to have two weddings?" Alice asked.

"Let's go and eat. I'm hungry." Rosalie simply walked away.

"Well, I'm glad you two ladies got your dream weddings." Carlisle smiled at the two girls in understanding.

"I'm glad too. We wouldn't have heard the last of it if we hadn't done everything in our power to make it possible," Jazz said, grinning like an idiot. "Hell, I wore that colourful scarf."

"I would sure like to see the pictures. It looks like an interesting beach wedding."

"It was the best, Carlisle. I made all the lovely scarfs to match Alice's rainbow theme." Jake proudly added.

"And the dresses were gorgeous, weren't they, Jake?" Alice asked.

"Yes, Ally, the best." Both of them giggled and continued discussing how successful all the decorating was.

"So, I gather you got roped into helping out with not one but two weddings, and that's why you didn't come back to the office?"

"I wouldn't dare say no to the pixie." I laughed at Carlisle's surprised expression.

"Carlisle, like I told you before, she's like my little sister, and there is nothing I wouldn't do for her."

"I know that now. You would have made a good brother if you had had any siblings. I'm sorry about that. It's just…no one compared to your mother." Carlisle sighed.

"I know, Dad. I understand."

"I'm glad you have Alice. She seems like a nice girl. I should get to know her better." Carlisle had a contemplative look on his face. It wasn't calculating. I also wanted him to know my close friends better.

"You and Jasper should get married soon and start producing a brood of kids!" Carlisle chuckled at his own joke.

"Dad!"

"Fine, I'll let it go for now." He laughed as he patted me on the back.

"Shall we have some lunch? The food is getting cold, and the other guests are waiting. Bells, go take your…" Renee looked at me and hesitated, and then with a look of apology, turned to Alice "…partner and sit at the head table." Alice practically dragged Bella over to the table. I followed slowly hoping to talk to Carlisle in private.

Jacob had arranged a buffet on one side of the meadow. A small head table and several round tables were set close to it. He had tried to drape scarves on the chairs, but Bella had insisted on plain white covers for the seats. Beautiful bunches of wild flowers adorned small vases set in the middle of the tables. It was beautiful. I stood still for a moment to admire the view. Jacob really was good at organising things. He had done a great job with Alice's wedding as well. It was only his taste in colours that concerned me. But then again—for Alice, it had still been perfect. I had to admit that since the tables and chairs were all in white, the splash of colourful wild flowers in the middle looked perfect for the décor.

Oh shit! What was I doing, thinking about colours and décor?

I didn't even dare to let that thought finish. My father thought I was gay, for heaven's sake! This thought reminded me that I had intended to talk to Carlisle in private about Marcus. I quickened my pace and reached his side. He was hesitantly walking towards the buffet. I could understand his hesitation—no one had really invited him to the wedding and here he was about to partake in the buffet. For that matter, how did he know to find us here?

There were so many questions I had for him, but I needed to tread carefully in order to not show my hand. Carlisle was very good at reading between the lines and putting things together. I thought for a moment and decided on a slow approach with some inane questions.

"When did you talk to Marcus Volturi?"

"Just this morning. The shipment that was due from them was late again."

"Oh, I see." That was strange. I had found that the shipments from Volturi Enterprises were starting to get delayed all the time. I had, in fact, instructed Jazz to keep a lead time of at least two weeks with our customers just in case the Volturi didn't deliver on time.

"What did Marcus have to say about it?"

"He checked and reported that the shipment had left the port in Italy on time. There was no way it could have been delayed. He sounded kind of suspicious." That didn't look good.

"Do you think someone is tampering with it?"

"I have already informed Customs that we want them to check the new shipment thoroughly before releasing it. I think it is important that they know of our suspicions. Otherwise, we might get the blame if something illegal gets smuggled through goods sent in our name." Carlisle always had a kind of second sight when it came to things like that. I always trusted his intuition. Something wasn't right.

"That's good."

"Marcus apologised and said that from now on, he will personally handle all our shipments."

"I never trusted Aro with it. I didn't like it when he took over." I saw a shrewd look on Carlisle's face. He was trying to gauge my response.

"I don't trust Aro either. As I recall, the delays started happening a few months after he took over our account." Carlisle nodded his head in agreement.

"Marcus went on to say that he was planning on handing things over to Bella, his granddaughter. I knew about her relationship with Marcus, but was surprised when he told me that she would inherit everything on her birthday. He also said that she was going to marry Caius's adopted son, Alec."

"Yes, that was the plan."

"So I take it Bella and Alice decided to have a hasty wedding, or rather hasty weddings, so that she didn't have to marry Alec." There was a suspicious looking glint in his eye, as he smirked. I could tell Carlisle was pleased that Bella had managed to outsmart the old man.

"Yes, that's right." I decided it was no use trying to cover things up since Carlisle already seemed to know so much.

"I tried calling you right after I heard the news but couldn't reach you." I pulled out my phone and realised that it was still off. I had switched it off that morning, fearing that it might ring during the ceremony. I got loads of calls from business partners all the time.

"I'm sorry, I had switched it off for the ceremony."

"I was a bit worried about you when I couldn't get in touch with you. After hearing that Bella was going to inherit, I worried that you might be here against your will. I know you called me today in the morning but you sounded kind of off. I guess it was all the excitement with the weddings. Emmett had been in touch with me on Friday, but after that, he hadn't called me either. When I contacted Rosalie, she said both of you were still here in Forks, so I just decided to come myself and have a little chat with Bella and Renee. I also wanted to check up on you." I could see genuine concern for me. Carlisle did care for me in his own way, I guess.

"Everything here is fine. It's just that Bella really didn't want to marry Alec."

Carlisle chuckled. "I can understand. He's a bit ostentatious, isn't he? I can't blame her for not wanting to marry him."

"So now she doesn't have to."

"Yes. And she's still planning to work with us. I wonder how that's going to work out…" A thoughtful frown crossed Carlisle's face. I didn't want him to have thoughts about firing her.

"I think we should let her work for us as long as she wants to. She's really been a good employee."

"I know. We'll take things as it comes. Just…just keep an eye on her. I just don't trust her reasons for being with us. Especially with such a big inheritance."

"I don't think she really cares about it, Dad." A contemplative look crossed Carlisle's face. He was silent for a moment.

"You know, Edward, I think you are right about that. Anyway, just be careful until we get to the bottom of this shipment business."

"Yes, Dad."

I could understand his concern. I was worried as well. There was something going on and we had to find out what. I might not be able to trust my father with my marriage, but I knew Carlisle always had the best interest of the company in mind. I also trusted him to keep me safe. I knew that underneath it all he really did care about me.

A/N:Check out my entry for the Happily Ever After Contest, "My dream of forever" in my profile. Please let me know what you think of it:)

Thank you for all the great reviews I got! Wow! We are nearing 700, amazing!

So do you think Edward is right about Carlisle caring about him? What about this business with the delayed shipments?

Thank you Twimarti and Dazzleglo for beta'ing this chapter. Dazzleglo also entered a story "What not to do while spying" to the Happily Ever After Contest. Check it out.