Disclaimer All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. Edited by Sjdavis84 and StillDreaming85
I have never seen the wife this angry. Bella, even when I was at my shittest point, has never been this angry with me. This was a side of her I have never seen, and it was a side of her I didn't like one fucking bit. And to add insult to injury, Antonio had now taken up residence in New York,
Despite Bella constantly ignoring him. She threw him off our stoop when she saw him at the door. The fucker still doesn't get the message, he still insists on showing up day after day after day.
The wife hasn't spoken to me in over a week. Once we left Vegas, that was it. It's as if she had become a fucking mute. Not even Jasper could get a word out of her, maybe that was because she knew he would tell me, or I would be around the corner listening.
She had visited Rose and Esme, and I had asked Carlisle what she had said to them, but that asshole didn't say a thing no matter how many threats I threw his way.
Right now Bella was with Carlisle and the blonde at some baby looking, something.
Even though I knew Bella would be with Carlisle, I had sent Jasper and Emmett to tag behind, no other reason, nothing was going down. Things have been quiet lately and that's the way I liked it. But with Antonio around, I didn't want him getting close to her again, I didn't want him upsetting her again.
"The wife still not talking to you?" Mike asked.
I was at Scorpion doing the books, Mike had come by with some final documents for me to sign. I had a surprise for the wife, one I knew she was going to love, well, I hoped, and who knows maybe she might say a word or two.
"Mind your own damn business," I mumbled.
"That bad?" He chuckled. "She'll come around. She can't stay mad at you forever."
"Wanna bet?" Bella was fucking stubborn and when she set her mind to something, even something as stupid as not talking with me, well she was determined to see it through.
"Everything set?" I asked.
"The place is all yours. All the renovations have been done and everything is ready," he said, handing me a file. "I just need you to sign and initial the last two pages and you're all set."
I had gotten Bella, a patisserie. Well, I didn't exactly get her one, but I had the pizzeria transformed into one. Mike did all the legal documents for me. And Bella was now the proud owner of Dolce Bella.
She loved making all sorts of desserts and shit, and since we have been back, she hasn't stepped out of the kitchen and I'm getting fucking fat.
I hoped she would like it.
"Is he still coming around?" Mike asked, as he gave the paperwork a final once over.
"Yes and no," I sighed. "He stopped coming to the house, but he comes here every night. Victoria always calls, always says he asks for me."
"Come on man, it has to be hard for him having his own daughter react that way towards him. It's gotta hurt," Mike said.
That was Swan's problem and not mine, and it sure as hell shouldn't have to be Bella's. He abandoned her. He knew about her and he still left her.
As far as I was concerned, Swan didn't deserve a second of Bella's time. There was nothing that he could say that could justify his actions over the last twenty-five years.
"So what are you going to do? How are you going to handle him?"
"I don't fucking know," I said.
See that right there was my issue. If this were anyone else, they would have been fitted with their concrete shoes by now.
But the thing with Swan is, I can't take him out without Marco giving the okay, and unless Antonio was going to betray Marco personally, that was never going to happen.
Antonio wasn't exactly a made guy, but he was protected, off limits. Not like my father.
Things still haven't died down and I was stupid for thinking that they would so quickly.
The peanut crew, his crew, still wanted answers and I can't complain, if I were in their shoes I would want the same thing too, after all they were loyal to their Don.
But they also needed to realize that their Don was now rotting under a tonne of cement. They need to realize and to accept that I was here now and I haven't given a single one of those fuckers a reason not to trust me.
"Why did you bring me here?" I heard Bella say.
Carlisle and the blonde had to have finished whatever the fuck it was they were doing.
Although my door was closed, I could hear the wife's voice echo down the small hallway.
"I have business to take care of first, then I'll drop you off, alright?" Carlisle said.
"That's fine, you do your business, I know the way home. Let go of me." As they neared the door, her voice became louder and more clear.
"Sorry, no can do. Don't worry, he's not here," Carlisle lied.
"You're a Goddamn liar. You parked right next to his car."
Carlisle, you fucking moron.
"You'll survive, and besides, I want to celebrate, I don't give a fuck that you two ain't talking to each other," Carlisle said, opening the office door wide.
The wife was an angry hot mess and Carlisle gave her a small push into the room and closed the door behind himself. Mike sat quietly in front of me, trying his best to hide his smile, although I had no idea what the hell he found so funny here.
"What the fuck are you so happy about?" I asked Carlisle. He had a shit eating grin on his face like he won the fucking lotto.
"I," he pointed very proudly to himself. "Am going to have a boy." There was no wiping the smile of his face and shit, I was happy for him.
"Congrats man," Mike said, standing up and shaking his hand, giving him a pat on the back.
"Whoopty-fucking-do," I said. I was an ass, I didn't need anyone to point that out for me. I was happy for him, but Bella's face, the fact that she was trying with everything in her to avoid something as simple as eye contact with me, well that shit was pissing me off and I didn't give a fuck about Carlisle's feeling or his happy mood. Maybe if I was an asshole, maybe if I didn't give a fuck it might cause some reaction out of her. She might talk to me, yell at me, hell, right now I would happily let her beat my ass if it meant she was communicating with me again.
"Ed, I don't give a fuck what you say, there is nothing that is going to bring me down today. I'm gonna have a fucking son," he beamed. "Get a fucking bottle of champagne," he demanded.
"This thing, is someone's father," Mike said, shaking his head.
"Hey, hey, hey, fuck you," Carlisle said, pointing at Mike but still holding onto that shit eating grin.
Looking at him, at how fucking happy he was, had me staring at Bella and it made my thoughts wander off.
What would that feel like? What would it feel like to find out you have created another person? Another life that is solely yours and the one you love?
Would I ever have that?
Would the wife and I ever experience that feeling together?
Even though the thought of those tiny creatures scared the shit out of me, I can't deny that there was a longing somewhere deep inside me that wanted that. I wanted to feel what Carlisle was feeling right now, I wanted that experience and I wanted it with Bella.
She avoid all eye contact with me right now. No matter how intense my gaze had to have been, she didn't give in and she stayed as close to Carlisle as possible, that fucker even had his arm draped over her shoulder.
Fuck this. If this whole mess between the wife and I was ever going to get straightened out, I would have to be the one to play the cards. Funny how the tables turn isn't it?
"You and I have to go," I said, looking directly at her. "And don't pretend you can't fucking hear me. I know you know I'm fucking talking to you."
She looked at me for the first time since….Fuck, I can't even remember.
But there was nothing on her face I could read, she was void of all expression. Maybe she did have a right to be mad at me? But the way that I see it, I'm not the only one at fault here.
"Hey, where the fuck do you think you are going? We are celebrating here," Carlisle said.
"I've got something I have to show my wife."
"I'm not going anywhere with you," she said. It's a miracle, she finally speaks, even if what she was saying wasn't what I wanted to hear, but the fact that she spoke was progress.
"Tough luck," I shrugged.
"You are unbelievable you know that. First, you don't talk to me, and now when you do you expect to drag me around like I'm your damn puppy," she spat.
"Back the fuck up. I'm the one not speaking here?"
Has she lost her fucking mind? Or was this one of those female things, thinking they are not at fault with anything?
"How is this my fault?" I threw my hands up in the air, frustrated.
"This is all your fault. You caused this whole mess. I asked you not to do something and you went right along and did it anyways."
"Fuck you," I said, flipping her off. Even though there was truth in what she said.
"This isn't my fault, Edward. Hell, this isn't even Antonio's fault. This is all on you."
Alright, I'll give her that. She had me there, this shit was all on me.
I was the one that opened my mouth and told Swan about his daughter. He would have never known, and Bella wouldn't have either if I would have kept my damn mouth shut.
But it was too late to go back now.
There was only one thing I could do to make this mess all better, and that was to somehow make it up to the wife. Swan could go fuck himself. He was on his own and where Bella was concerned, if he tried to approach her again, Marco's wishes could be damned, if Swan approached Bella again I won't hesitate.
"Get the fuck out," I said to Mike and Carlisle.
"I don't think that's a good idea," Mike said, looking between Bella and myself.
"I don't give a fuck what you think. Get out."
Bella sighed, and turned to both Mike and Carlisle.
"It's alright, he's harmless right now. His bark is a lot louder than his bite."
"We're right out there if you need us," Carlisle said, hugging my wife and kissing her cheek. Mike did the same, hugging and kissing Bella before the both of them took their leave.
That left the wife and I alone in a locked room. She had nowhere to go, nowhere to run. She couldn't avoid me now and I wasn't going to let her. I am putting my foot down on this shit right now.
"I have something for you," I said.
She eyed me suspiciously, standing close to the door, her hand on the knob. What she didn't realize was that I have a little button on my desk that opens and closes that sucker.
She tried the door, and I won't lie, I triumphed in her disappointment.
"Funny, very funny," she said dryly. "Real mature of you to lock me in here."
I shrugged unapologetically. I had her where I wanted her so it was a win-win, for me that is.
"Can you please open the door. I have to go, I have something I need to do," she said.
"What do you have to do that is more important than spending time with me, your husband?"
"That is none of your business."
"You are my damn business Bella, everything you do is my business," I said, coming around the desk. I made my way to her putting my hands on either side of the door next to her head. My body pressed up against hers and my knee nudged her thighs apart, it was safe to say I had her trapped.
But this was my wife, so of course she wasn't going to make anything easy for me.
She didn't put up a fight, didn't even complain about me trapping her. No, she stood frozen like stone, cold and hard and unmoving, and that, that pissed me off even more.
If she fought against me it would mean something, hell, it's interaction on her part.
But her being frozen like this made me feel as if she didn't care whether or not we ever made up. She didn't want to forgive me, and that shit hurt the most.
I have done some pathetic and stupid things since I've been with her, things that are far worse than my recent fuck up.
For fuck sake, I held a gun to her head more times than I care to admit, and she forgave me, and now nothing, absolutely nothing.
I sighed, defeated, almost defeated. I wasn't going to let her get away with this without putting up one hell of a fight first.
"Will you look at me," I said. I grabbed her chin with one hand, maneuvering her face, forcing her to somewhat look at me.
Although her head was up, her eyes were anywhere but on me.
Slowly, very slowly she lowered her eyes to meet mine. They too, just like her posture were stone cold.
"I'm sorry. If I would have known this is how things would have turned out I would have kept my mouth shut, I wouldn't have said a word to Swan."
"You are unbelievable," she laughed, although there was no humor in it.
"Baby, please," I pleaded. I was sick, so sick of this, so sick of the past week, of us drifting apart. If she wanted me, if it would make her see differently, I would get on my hands and knees and beg.
"You're not sorry. Don't give me a half ass apology when you don't even mean it."
"Can you be fucking reasonable for one fucking second," I snapped, bangging my hands on the door next to her head. She didn't even flinch.
"What do you want from me, Edward?" She sighed, sounding defeated, almost as defeated as I was.
"I want you to forgive me. Say it, please,"
"Why should I? You did the one thing I asked you not to do. Although, I suppose you did have something to gain from it," she said.
"What the fuck are you on about now?" I said, sounding a little more harsh than I wanted to.
"I'm not stupid, Edward, I notice things, even heard some stuff back at your uncle's. Antonio…" She said his name through gritted teeth.
"He's someone to your uncle, somewhat important which would make him important to you. And me being connected to him, well, don't pretend you didn't have anything to gain from finding out about him and me."
She managed to catch me off guard. I was stunned. What could I say? She had one hell of an imagination on her.
She used this opportunity to push past me, but she wasn't going to walk away, no, not that easily.
I grabbed her by her upper arm and more or less forced her to stay in her place.
"You've got one hell of an imagination on you. How long have you been sitting at home stewing that up?" I said.
"Really? Am I thinking too much into this whole thing? You mean to tell me you have nothing, nothing at all to gain from Antonio, your uncle's very close friend, Antonio?"
"You've fucking lost it, Bella. Fuck, Mike knows a guy at NBC, maybe we could get your ass working on some drama series," I said, finally letting go of her.
"Tell me the truth," she demanded.
"The truth Bella, the fucking truth? What the fuck could I have to gain from you or from Antonio for that fact?" I said, no fuck that, I yelled.
"I don't know, you tell me," she said, folding her arms across her chest, stubbornly standing her ground, refusing to let go of the idiotic notion she had in her head.
"I don't have anything to gain from this Bella, nothing at all, in fact, I have more to lose," I admitted.
Antonio did not like me, fact.
Antonio loathed me, fact.
Antonio was a professional hit man, someone who, regardless of who I was, could make my ass disappear, fact.
How could I tell the wife that?
"What do you mean?" She asked, of course she asked.
"You, I don't want to lose you," I admitted. "I fucked up, I'm sorry. Believe me, I had nothing to gain from this. None of this is in my favor, your connection to him, the fact that he is your father, that's worse. I didn't know who he was Bella. I didn't know of his connection to my uncle, I didn't know anything."
She regarded me closely for a moment, trying to decide if I was telling the truth or not.
I guess she was happy with what she heard, because the next thing I knew she had her arms wrapped around my neck.
I held her close to me, as close as I possibly could. I had missed this, missed this closeness, the feel of her, fucking hell, even her smell.
Would you listen to me sounding like a fucking pussy talking about his wife's scent. But I didn't care, if Bella was forgiving me then that's all that mattered, and maybe she would forgive me more after she see's her surprise.
"I have something to show you," I said, pulling away.
"Show me."
"No, it's not here, come on, the car's out front," I said, taking the keys for the car and the set for the cafe and pocketing both.
It would have almost been too easy to make a clean break, to exit this place without anyone noticing. He wasn't supposed to be here at this time. He never showed up this early. It was just after six. Maybe he had followed Bella from home, but Jasper would have noticed, or maybe he changed his car and we hadn't noticed?
How could he know that Bella would be here at all, and at this time?
I tucked her under my arm and turned us back around. We'll have to go out the back way. Carlisle and Mike were chatting it up by the bar, they hadn't noticed us and I wasn't going to draw any attention to us either.
"What are you doing? I thought we were leaving?" The wife asked.
"We are, but we need to go out the back."
"Why? What's going on?" She asked, panicked.
"Calm down, nothing is going on," I said.
"Then why are we going out the back?"
"Would you prefer to face Swan? Because we can go right ahead and do that."
"He's here?" She almost yelled.
"Yes he is and I am trying to get us out unnoticed, keep your fucking mouth down."
We made it out through the back and down the wet alleyway that took us out to the front of the club, and managed to climb inside the car and drive off without Swan noticing us.
"Can I ask you a question?" Bella said.
"Ok."
"Why did you name your club Scorpion?" That's it? That's what she wanted to know? She wasn't going to press me about Swan's appearance there? Hell, I'm not complaining.
"The stripper I was fucking at the time." I paused.
She groaned, closing her eyes tightly, she turned her head around to look out the window.
"She had a tattoo of a scorpion on her lower back," I finished.
"Were you in love with her?" She blurted out. Where the fuck had that come from?
"Fuck no," I said, chuckling. "Diane was a phase in my younger days."
"She had to have meant something to you for you to name your club after her tattoo?"
"It was a nice tattoo," I shrugged. "And she was a fucking good dancer, I'll give her that. But that was it. Her and I, there was no love or any fucking feelings involved. We used each other. I used her as an easy fuck and she used me for money."
It was as simple as that. There was nothing between us. The wife may not like what she had just heard, but, hey she asked. I wasn't going to sugar coat it for her. I did things before I met her and I wasn't going to apologize for any of that. I've said it before, I'm not going to apologize for the things I did before she came into my life.
"What happened to her?"
"Honestly." I took my eyes off of the road for a second to look at her. "I don't know where she is now. When she left, she said she wanted a better life, a normal life, she wanted to get married and have kids." I shrugged. I never cared to follow up on Diane, she was harmless and always high on some shit. The sad reality is, she's probably dead, overdosed on something.
"Hmm," she sighed and leaned back into the seat. "Where are you taking me?"
"We're almost there." I smiled.
"Why was he there at your club?" She finally asked.
"We are not talking about that right now. We'll deal with that another day, but not right now."
"I...um...I have to tell you something," she said.
"We're here." I smiled as I parked the car out front the cafe. I climbed out and ran around to hold the wife's door.
"Where are we?" She asked.
"Turn around."
Dolce Bella was lit up. From the outside, Mike had done everything I had asked him and more. The place looked even better.
Bella was staring at the building not really sure what to make of it.
"Are we supposed to be having dinner here? I don't think they're opened," she said.
"No, we aren't having dinner here," I said.
"Then what are we doing here?"
"It's yours." I smiled.
"What do you mean it's mine?" Her brow knitting in confusion.
I pulled the key from my front pocket and placed it in the palm of her hand.
"I mean it's all yours."
"Mine?"
I nodded.
"You brought me a cafe?"
She wasn't giving anything away. I couldn't tell if she was angry or happy. Maybe she didn't like it? Maybe this was one of those things I should have asked her about first?
"I don't know what to say," she said again, not giving anything away.
"You don't like it, that's fine, I'll have Mike do something else with it," I said. I tried to not let her see that I was upset, that her rejection affected me. I wanted her to like this place, fuck, I thought she would love it.
"No, don't do that. I love it, I'm just..speechless here Edward, I mean this isn't something little, it's a cafe for crying out loud," she said. She smiled. For the first time in over a week she smiled.
"You love it, really?" I had to make sure.
"Of course I do, why wouldn't I? I can't wait to open it up," she squealed jumping up and down and right into my arms, kissing me at full force.
"If this is your way of distracting me, consider it mission accomplished," she beamed, planting kisses all over my face, wherever she could reach.
This was a nice change. It was fucking incredible to see her this happy again, to know that after all my fuck ups, I've finally done something right.
"I love you," I said, knowing how much it meant to her every time she heard me say those words.
"I love you too."
"You said you had something to tell me?" I asked.
"Huh?"
"In the car, you said you had to tell me something, what was it?"
"Oh, that." She sounded nervous and averted her eyes. "That can wait, I want to go see the kitchen." She ran towards the door.
"Bella," I called out.
She stood still and slowly turned back to face me, chewing on her fingernails. What the fuck has her so nervous?
"Tell me, Bella."
"I told you, it can wait," she said.
"Look at how nervous you are. Tell me."
"Can we not talk about this in the middle of the street," she begged, turned around and putting the key in the lock. She opened the door and stepped inside, the alarm wasn't active yet, I told Mike I would take care of that. I followed after her taking the key she had left in door and locking it from the inside.
"We're not in the street anymore, spit it out," I said.
I watched her, keeping my distance as she walked around the cafe, running her fingers with care over the tables and chairs. She stopped at the furthest one. She had put too much distance between us. Was she afraid of my reaction? What the hell had she done?
"I'm...Edward…" She was so nervous. I'm sure there was nothing left of her fingernails she had chewed them all off.
"You're?" I kept my voice calm, not wanting to show her how impatient I was right now.
"May be…" She mumbled something I couldn't make out, not with her all the way over there.
"What?" I asked.
"Pregnant. I think I'm pregnant."
"Oh."
