A/N: I'm really, honestly, sorry. All I can say to you is that this school year has been nothing like what I might have imagined. I chose to write an Honors Thesis and 117 pages later I realize now what a huge commitment that was – it took up all of my creative energy so that even when I would sit down to write all I could think about was my thesis subject. But the good news is, I have 2 months free before I start work in August, and I plan to make sure that this story is as close to finished as possible by then. I'm sorry for going MIA, because I hate when people do that, too. But I'm committed to finishing this and hopefully you're all still in it with me to get to the end.
Sam was not happy with me when I arrived, but not for the reasons I suspected. When he ushered me into the station the next morning Edward was nowhere to be seen, but I didn't have time to dwell on that as Sam sat me down and started questioning me about what I wanted to say.
We spent over 3 hours with Sam asking me different questions about my childhood, my adulthood, strange, obscure things about my life. He was typing away as I spoke, and every so often he would ask me to slow down, or repeat things, so that he could type them. By the time we were done, I was sure Sam had to know almost as much about my life as I did. Then, he told me that he had emailed me everything that we had discussed, and I had the next 24 hours to turn it into one statement, no longer than ten pages single spaced. At the incredulous look on my face he apologized, but told me that since I had decided to testify after the beginning of the case, my statement had to be submitted as quickly as possible. He told me that Renee, who had agreed to testify after I agreed to testify, was going through the same process.
The next afternoon, exhausted, I brought him my statement. He read through it while I sat looking at him, both of us in complete silence. When he was done reading, he looked to me.
"This is really everything you want to say? You know you cannot change this, once I send it in."
"It is." I said, and that was that. He told me to hold on, that the lawyers would be in contact with me on both sides to speak to me and seek clarification on my statement. He told me that the judge would have to decide whether to admit my testimony, and that of the Swans, and then once that was settled if we were admitted we could be given a court date.
The next morning, I got a call at 5 AM. I assumed it was one of the lawyers, so I picked up immediately.
"This is Isabella" I mumbled.
"Hello? Isabella? This is Della from MajorHouse publishing? We are a romance publishing firm and we wondered if you were open to selling the rights to your story for a romance novel?"
"Excuse me?" I was still half awake.
"We don't need a decision now, but if you ever did want to see your story come to life in a novel, you know that you can trust us. Call us back and let us know."
"Alright I will, thank you," I said, before hanging up. I put my phone on silent, and went back to sleep.
I woke up at nine, to seven missed calls. All of them were from various companies asking to buy the rights to my story. One was a magazine, three more books, two movie studios, and a comic book company. I was confused, until I turned on the news.
"I mean, I've had a few classes with Vanessa and she and her sister look so similar. I just think it's so tragic, and romantic. I would love to meet Isabella and Edward." The girl looked perky, with curly hair and a huge smile. The newscaster nodded at her, before turning to face the camera.
"Miss Makenna Nutley is just one of several women across the country who are desperate to learn more about kidnap victim Isabella. In light of the new information coming out about her romantic relationship with investigator Edward Cullen, some are calling this the romance to end all romances. Back to you Dale." I turned the volume up, as I heard footsteps behind me. I turned to see Esme coming down the stairs, but she didn't say anything, just sat down.
"From tragic victim to romantic heroine? Many women seem to be convinced that this has turned into some sort of fairytale for Miss Isabella. Brielle, what do you think?"
"Oh, don't get me into any trouble Dale. But I do have to say, it's kind of romantic, isn't it? I mean, can we replay that clip."
I watched as Edward and I came outside. I hadn't even realized someone had been filming us. But even though it was upsetting, it was fascinating to see. Edward and I just looked so happy. He looked dashing, of course, in his suit. And I looked good on camera, not great but not ugly either, and I looked so much happier than I had realized. And then the first shout, and him literally pushing me behind his back, then the clip stopped.
"Ok, tell me that's not sweet. You can tell they care a lot about each other. I mean, I'm not sure if I look at my husband that way anymore, but young love is just so sweet. And the idea that she found that because of this case, it is such an amazing love story." I flipped the channel at that point, still aware of Esme sitting near me and not saying anything. It was a morning talk show, and they were in the middle of discussing the exact same thing.
"I mean, you can see that clearly something was going on. Look at how protective he is of her." They were just running a bunch of short pictures and clips of us – Edward escorting us into the station, to my car, and then us outside the symphony.
"I wish I could find a man like that. That has to be a silver lining for sure." I reached to turn off the TV, but the next thing one of the hosts said made me pause.
"Do you think there's any truth to the rumors of a movie or a book coming out?"
"Oh, don't be bad. You know I'm not supposed to blab. But I will say this. I know that she has been approached by several companies at this point, and many of them are claiming to already be in first stage negotiations. We'll have to see if –" I turned the TV off and looked to Esme.
"I'm not. In negotiations to sell my story, I mean." Esme shook her head.
"Even if you were, I wouldn't be upset with you Bella. I am aware that you and Edward are dating, and I promise you if either Carlisle or I disapproved you would not be living in this house." She smiled to soften the blow of her words, before looking back at the television.
"Actually, I'm surprised you're not considering it." Esme said, speaking softly. I knew she was trying to be gentle, but her words still caught me off guard.
"Really?"
"I mean, this case took a lot away from you, from the Swans, everyone. It might be, I don't know, cathartic to tell your story your way."
"Oh." She looked at me.
"I'm not saying you should or shouldn't, just giving my opinion. Don't mind me." Esme excused herself, as if she was nervous that she'd overstepped, but I couldn't help pondering her words. I was still thinking about them three days later when I arrived in Kate's office.
"You were early today." She said, with a small smile, once we'd both settled down. I knew she was teasing me because normally I arrived just barely on time.
"I had a lot I wanted to talk about." I shrugged, and she smiled.
"Alright, well, annoying questions first. How was your weekend?"
"Actually, I think I really needed this weekend. I uh, I decided to testify." Kate sat back, looking at me with wide eyes.
"Really?" It was the first time I had ever gotten such a strong reaction from Kate, who seemed genuinely shocked.
"Yes?" It came out as a question, and I think that's what snapped her back into it.
"I'm sorry, ignore me, I'm just surprised. I wasn't expecting that. Do you want to say why?"
"I want the chance to tell my story how I see it. I know that everyone is going to have an opinion and they're going to try to put words in my mouth. But I want to get the chance to put everything on the record."
"Bella, what will you do if they ask you about Jane and Tanya? About the kidnapping?" I paused. I hadn't thought they would have any reason to ask me, so I hadn't even considered it. But I knew what I had to do. This was about me telling the truth, the way I remembered it.
"If they ask me point blank if Jane was the one who physically kidnapped me, I won't lie." I said, and that was it. I had no idea what I would say, or how. But I knew that I didn't want to lie on the stand. I wasn't willing to do that. Kate was silent for a bit, writing some things down, before looking back up at me.
"What else did you want to talk about?" She asked. So I told her about my weekend with my friends more in depth, and then I told her about the book and movie companies that had called me.
Kate was surprisingly open to the idea. Part of me had expected her to tell me it was a bad idea, but she said if I wanted her opinion, she thought it might be cathartic – just like Esme had said. She reminded me to keep in mind that they would probably be most interested in the romance aspect of the story, and to have a clear idea of what I would want to get out of a project before signing my name on the dotted line. Then, we both discussed how it would be good for me to wait until the trial was over to decide, and she reminded me that I didn't have to commit to anything right away.
Later, Edward and I were hiding in the library again. Though the news presence still wasn't as much as it had been in the beginning, it had definitely picked up. The library was discreet, and had free wifi, so the two of us sat towards the back: him doing research into new leads and me working on a new account. Except, it was more like him looking for new leads and me watching him use the computer.
"Don't you have to be done with that paperwork by the end of the day so you can email it to Mary?" He spoke without looking away from the computer.
"You're very distracting." I said, though I did glance back at my own screen.
"I offered to work at another table." He sounded so serious, but when I looked up he was smiling.
"What did you do while I was with Kate?" I asked. He shrugged.
"This, but in my office. I found a case that Masen wants to work on, about a woman who went missing but was last seen with her ex-boyfriend. Friends say they may have been planning to flee the state together, and the man hasn't turned up to work for a week. Now we're investigating leads for me to work on."
"Anything interesting?" I asked, but Edward just shrugged again.
"What did you and Kate talk about?"
"A lot of things. Me testifying. My weekend the girls. Uh, all of the companies that have been calling me."
"Yeah, Dad and I were talking about that yesterday. He said that I should hold out on a movie until they get someone famous like Brad Pitt to play me."
"Brad Pitt is ancient. You can do better than that. And there's no guarantee I would do a movie, or a book, or anything else."
"But do you want to?" He looked away from the screen then, his eyes smiling as we made eye contact.
"I don't know, I don't have to decide right now."
"But?"
"But if I did do something, I think I'd want to do a movie." When I said that, his eyebrows rose nearly to his hairline.
"Really? Why a movie?" I had his full attention.
"This is going to sound dumb."
"I still want to hear it." I couldn't look at him, so I looked back to my screen as I started talking.
"Movies have happy endings. And I think that's what I want. There's no guarantee that this will have a happy ending in real life – I don't think that any ending would make me happy at this point. But movies always have happy endings." I looked back over at him, just in time for him to lean in and kiss me. It was a sweet kiss, and when he pulled back he pulled me into a hug.
"That's not dumb at all, Bella." He said, and just like that I felt a little bit better.
A/N: Yeah, another one. To everyone who messaged me or reviewed asking if I was continuing this, I also owe all of you an apology for not responding. I wanted to be 100% sure that I could re-commit before giving anyone false hope in an answer. But thank you for reaching out – I saved all of those in my email inbox as motivation to keep working on this story.
