Thanks to all for the lovely, passionate reviews. I appreciate them all. I would answer them all, but I am back in school so I am just sporadically answering ones that have questions, etc.
Wow, if you thought Edward was a douche in that last update then you are in for a REAL treat tonight. Enjoy.
Book Three, Part Six
EPOV
"When you left, you left me with a big part of you. Bigger than even you could imagine. Edward, when you left me, I was pregnant with your child."
No! No. No. No. No. No. No. NoNoNoNoNoNo!
I shook my head frantically at the words, trying to make sense of them. Everything I thought I knew changed when those words spewed forth from her mouth. She had been pregnant? I had left her while she was pregnant. That made what I had done a million times worse. There had been no way she could have moved on while carrying my child. She had to have been so scared. But there was a bigger issue at hand.
I was a father…
Or was I?
I allowed my gaze to finally meet hers. Her eyes challenged me, glittering defiantly. Her mouth was set in a hard line. No, I wouldn't find any sympathy from her.
"Did you…" I trailed off, not wanting to ask the question, not wanting to know.
"Did I what?" She asked. She wasn't going to make this easy for me.
"Did you abort it or give it up for adoption?" I pushed out.
Now her eyes were glittering with dark anger.
"You really are a bastard, aren't you?" She spat.
"Hey, I deserve to know." I shot back.
"You don't deserve shit." She ground out, getting up and making to leave. My hand shot out and grabbed her arm as gently as I could under the circumstances. She wasn't the only one getting angry.
"I have the right to know." I said slowly and deliberately.
She turned to face me fully.
"No, you don't. But this isn't about me. It is about her." She said.
"Her?" I asked hopefully.
"Yes, her."
"I have a daughter?" I breathed.
Her face hardened.
"No, correction. I have a daughter. Or rather, James and I have a daughter. All you are is a sperm donor." She said harshly.
I let go of her and reeled back as if she had physically struck me.
"Then why even tell me?" I shouted.
She looked around frantically.
"Keep your voice down." She demanded. "I don't want everyone in this hospital to know my business."
"Our business." I corrected fiercely.
"Excuse me?" She raised an eyebrow.
"You heard me. Our business. You have my daughter. Mine. Not James'. She is mine."
"How do you figure that? Where were you when she was born? Or when she was up at 3am? Or when she first walked, first talked, the first day of school…Huh? Where were you?" She asked.
I realized this wasn't entirely about our child anymore.
"I was in Connecticut and then New York." I answered.
"That was a rhetorical question." She said, her arms crossed over her chest in a defensive manner.
"I want to meet her." I said.
"No." She said.
I narrowed my eyes at her.
"That wasn't a request." I said. "I will see my daughter and soon. Either we can do this the easy way where we act like the adults we are or we can do the hard way, where there will be DNA tests and a judge. Now, I don't want to do that but I will. The choice is yours." I said simply.
Her eyes were now panicking and were filled with tears. I steeled myself against them. I didn't want her upset but this was something much bigger than my feelings for her. I had a daughter and right now that was more important.
"Do what you want. You left. What judge is going to look kindly on that?" She said with false bravado.
"I didn't feel I had a choice, but you did, didn't you?" I said calculatingly.
"What is that supposed to mean?" She hissed.
"Don't play with me. I am talking about that night in Boston."
Her eyes widened in awareness before her expression turned to stone.
I cursed.
"Yeah, I knew you knew I was there. That is the night I found out about you and James. You could have easily turned around and spoken to me. Things could have been so different."
"No, it wouldn't have changed a thing. I wouldn't have told you about her then either. I still would have left with James. And why the hell should I have turned around. You left me, remember?"
"How could I forget? I have thought of nothing else since I walked away from you that day! I think of you every single second, of every single minute, of every single day. You are always there, everywhere. You are ingrained in my mind, my heart, my soul." I spat.
"Then please, just leave us alone. Leave her be. For me, please." She pleaded.
"I'm sorry, I can't do that. Not even for you. Where is she?" I asked.
"No! No, I won't let you take her away from me." She said.
"I am not going to take her away. I just want to get to know her." I explained as gently as I could. I was trying to keep my temper in check but she was making it impossible.
"You will have to go through me and James first." She threatened.
Okay, that was it.
I got within millimeters of her face.
"If you think for one second I can't go through you, you are sadly mistaken. As for James, old friend or not, he is not her father. I am. And I will take my God given right to be a father to our daughter. As I told you before, I will drag your ass through court and seeing as Tanya and I are married, I think we make a good case, don't you think?" I taunted.
I felt the stinging as her hand slapped my face. I grabbed her wrist.
"I will give you that one because I deserve it, but you won't get another one. I will give you until the end of the day to give me a meeting place one day very soon so that I can meet her. After that, I will do whatever I have to, understood?"
She just glared at me and wrenched her arm away, before walking to the door and struggling with the lock before rushing out.
I dropped into the first chair I saw and buried my face in my hands. This couldn't be happening.
I don't know how long I sat there.
"She means well," a soft voice said.
I glanced up, confused, at the young girl I had met yesterday. Just A.J.
I smiled a little at her.
"I'm sorry, what?" I asked, not catching what she said.
"I just saw her, and she is very upset. She tried to hide it from me, but I always know." She smiled as if remembering something.
I know this was supposed to make sense to me but it really wasn't clicking.
"She has been my rock my whole life and I had a good life but I always felt something was missing, you know?" She looked at me eagerly.
Awareness started to grapple with my brain and I just stared at her as it all came together.
"She did a great job and she is having trouble with this because she doesn't want to lose me. I need to make it clear that I will not be the object of a tug of war with you two and that I have loyalty to James. He helped raise me but I would love to get to know you, if you want?" She finished and sat back looking at me expectantly.
"You." I breathed.
"Me." She nodded.
"You're A.J. My daughter." I said.
She giggled.
"Um…yeah. Kind of slow on the uptake aren't you? I mean I thought I was making it kind of clear…Are you sure you have a medical degree?" She teased.
"Yeah, your old man is very smart, I have you know."
"You are not that old." She said.
"How old are you?" I asked.
"Shouldn't you know that?" She asked.
"Yeah, but my mind isn't clear enough to add right now." I admitted.
"I'm fourteen." She said.
"You're almost grown." I whispered.
"Yeah. My boyfriend says I am an old soul." She said.
"Boyfriend?" I growled.
"Oh God, not you too." She groaned.
"Okay, I will table that discussion for now, but we will be revisiting it." I warned her.
She shrugged.
"Do you think…I mean, do you want to go grab lunch?" I asked.
"Don't you have to work?" She asked, but her expression was hopeful.
"It can wait. Everything can wait for you." I told her honestly.
I saw a tear form in her eyes but she blinked them back quickly, a move that was very much Bella. I searched her face, taking her beauty in. She had my eyes, I realized. My unruly hair though it was the color of chocolate cinnamon. She had her mom's smile and stubborn chin. My dimples. She was breathtaking.
And most importantly, she was mine.
A tear slipped down my face and right then, in that very moment, my world was complete.
I am just gonna leave this here and...go...somewhere.