Thank you to Team Harpy.

That cliffie should be the last in this story. Not gonna lie, I had fun with them but some of y'all don't have any sense of adventure. Looking at you GRs.

Chapter 39

*E*

"Happy Birthday, Mrs. Edward Cullen from the other Mrs. Edward Cullen!"

My ears are blasted with a chorus of shock waves, the loudest being my family. I see Alice fall to her seat and Jasper look confused. Rosalie has a shrewd look on her face as she glances from me to Bella.

"Is this some kind of joke?" Angela asks me.

"I wish it was." I groan, rubbing my hand over my face

Bella gets help getting out of the cake and smugly approaches us, a familiar looking document in her hand.

"Here ya go." She hands Angela the document who takes it listlessly, her eyes still boring into me. "A momento for the occasion. My marriage license. And for many happy returns, try this one on for size. Not only am I Mrs. Edward Cullen but Mr. Edward Cullen is none other than Mr. Masen Whitlock!"

Another vocal shock wave goes through Mac's.

"You tell them, Masen."

I look helplessly at her.

"What does this mean?" Angela is asking me, but my ability to speak has disappeared

as my eyes plead with Bella.

"Oh, it means that Edward and Masen's double life is over. Just like Masen promised me. You're not Mrs. Edward Cullen and I'm not Mrs. Masen Whitlock. And Edward Carlisle Cullen the 3rd is the biggest liar on the face of the earth. Celebrate that one, Angela." To everyone else, she says, 'Have a great party, folks." My heart breaks as her voice does.

"Bella." She stalks away. "Bella!"

I'm stopped by a hand gripping my arm. "Is this true? Is this true?!"

I shake Angela off. "Yes!" Then I push her aside as I chase after Bella.

I catch her outside and I grab her arm which she tries to shake off.

"Not a word. Not another word from your lyin' mouth! Not ever again!"

"Bella, listen to me." I struggle to keep a hold on her. "Bella, please! Listen to me. I love you."

"You love me? I don't even know who you are! I don't even think you know who you are."

"I'm Edward Cullen who fell in love with a woman who changed my life. Who made me love her and need her in a way I have never loved or needed anyone."

"You lied to me from day one. You let me give my heart to a lie and center everything I am around it. And while I was busy doing that, you were busy having an affair with another woman! Then for some reason I will never be able to understand, you married me and then you married her. So this is your idea of love?"

"Blackmail." I blurt desperately.

"What?"

"Angela blackmailed my family and marriage to me was part of the deal. But I'm not married to her because I married you first."

"What kind of family lets a person get blackmailed into marriage?"

"The kind of family I was trying to protect you from."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yes."

"I thought you were trying to protect them . From someone with a Brooklyn accent, half a college education who manages a rock band."

"That is the farthest thing from the truth. You gotta believe me."

"Then why didn't you tell me who you were? And why didn't you tell them about me?" She sobs.

"Because by the time I knew I loved you, I knew the person you loved was Masen. And I didnt want to lose you and I didn't know how to get out of it."

"Well, you're out of it now, Pal." She walks away and I pull her to me again.

"Let go of me, Masen, Edward, whoever you are!" She screamed. I let go and place my hands up in surrender.

"I was just trying to hold on to Angela long enough to get the evidence I needed to neutralize this threat to the family. But I have it now. Mac gave it to me last week and I was planning to give it to Angela tomorrow then I was going to come straight to you and tell you the whole truth. You can ask Alice. She knows all about what I've been through."

"Alice is another matter and I will deal with her. Both of you are liars but your lies are worse and I am never going to forgive you. Never." Then she backs away with a look daring me to come near her then turns to run down the stairs and out of my view.

All I can do is helplessly watch her go.

I walk back into the bar and hear Angela threatening loudly to Grandfather that she will get me for bigamy. That's the least of my worries.

"How angry is she?" Alice asks me as I watch Angela rant and rave.

"Too angry to listen."

"Alice, out of my way." Angela fumes as she approaches me.

"With pleasure." Alice moves away to talk to Rosalie and Jasper who doesn't seem to be in any mood to hear what she has to say.

"You are in more trouble than you can even imagine. I am going to sue you for bigamy and then I'm going to have the shirt off your back, the shoes off your feet and every Cullen, Inc share and every dollar that the court will allow me."

"Let me explain to you why that isn't going to happen." I take her by the arm and steer her outside. The same place I tried to keep one wife is where I will get rid of another. Irony really is a bitch sometimes.

"You've been performing as a rock singer for almost a year?" That's what she wants to lead with?

"During which time I fell in love with and married Bella Swan."

"One week before you dared to marry me."

"Revisionist's history. One week before you dared to blackmail the Cullens."

"You committed bigamy."

"Yeah." I smirk.

"Rosalie is pissed at both of us, not to mention Jasper will never speak to me again. I'm gonna go and try to find Bella." Alice rushed by fuming. Damage control is wearing us both thin.

"Try the cottage." I called out to her.

"Pray for me." She shouts back.

"Alice was in on it, wasn't she?" Angela realizes.

"I couldn't have done it without Alice. She's probably the best friend I have."

"Then she's an accessory."

"Forget it! You are in no good position to threaten me or Alice or James or anyone else."

"You give me one good reason why not?"

"Embezzlement in the amount of one point five million dollars to a man named William Black. He was your former lover and employer. You didn't leave him laughing, Angela. In fact your name isn't really Angela Weber. It's Irina Denali."

"It's not illegal to go by another name as you well know, Masen." She hisses. "And I had it legally changed."

"Yes, I know, right before you arrived in Tacoma. To cover your trail from here to New York. Then you dropped the Weber and changed it to Cullen. You're smart, I'll give you that. I'm just smarter and I have more resources. I'm sure if Mac Molina's file ended up on Black's desk, he'd bring up charges in a millisecond. So now, who's looking at the jail sentence?"

"What if you miscalculated?"

"I'm not too bad with numbers. I think you can count on ten to fifteen for embezzlement alone."

"What if I'm so angry with you for this unspeakable double cross that I decide it's worth fifteen years of my life to collect a fortune and see you in jail too?"

"You'd be less than human and certainly less than Angela if you didn't entertain a few vengeful fantasies such as my head on a pike and the rest of me drawn and quartered."

"That's a start."

"But once you've had some time to collect your thoughts you'll realize that fifteen years in shapeless cotton and brown lace ups may not be worth it."

"Don't bet on it."

"It's your choice." I shrug.

"You are taking a major chance." She hisses.

"Compared to what I may have lost here tonight, it feels like nothing." I hiss.

"You can not love that woman." She asserts as if the mere thought is unbelievable to her.

"More than you or she will ever know. Check yourself into the hotel and I'll talk with you tomorrow." I dismiss her and without another word she leaves with her shoulders squared and her nose in the air. I know it won't be as easy as that but I'll deal with her tomorrow.

First I have to figure out what to do about Bella.

*B*

I'm throwing my bags in a pile in front of the coat closet when the door opens and Alice rushes in. I ignore it and continue gathering my things.

"Bella."

"I got nothing to say to you, Alice."

"I'm so sorry."

"For what?" I feign stupidity.

"For everything. For not knowing what to do."

"Oh like the obvious never occured to you."

"There was no obvious!" She cries.

"Sure." I grab my phone off the coffee table and walk away from her.

"Bella please, you don't understand!"

I stop and turn to her. "You got that right!"

"Edward is my friend, I love you both."

"You were supposed to love me more! You were my best friend. You were my girl friend. You were my woman friend. You were my partner. How could you have lied to me?"

"It was so complicated. Edward was in love with you and he was in love with himself as Masen Whitlock. And he was so afraid he was gonna lose both of you if you found out the truth."

"He was using me, Alice. And you helped him do it."

"No he wasn't, I swear. He was having so much fun with you and he was changing. He was really becoming Masen. But he still had to be Edward Cullen. It was Edward who told you the lie about being a scout because he was undercover in Port Angeles because he was checking out some competitive hotel."

"He was what?" I shake my head in confusion.

"Didn't he tell you any of this?"

"I didn't give him a chance and I don't intend to."

I throw some things in my purse.

"Bella, the night he brought me to meet you in that club, I really knew he was in love with you and I could see how you felt about him and I begged him to tell you the truth."

"Like either of you would have known the truth if it bit you on the leg."

"Bella! Don't you understand that he was scared? He told me that a woman like you could never love Edward Cullen and he said Bella Swan wouldnt understand why he had to lie to her in the first place. Don't you see, he told me he had to keep this whole thing going because he had never been so happy in his whole life and that is the truth."

"So that was before I knew you. That was back when I was just some chick Cullen kept on the side. Okay but what about later? What about partners?"

"I know. Remember he tried to keep us from starting the company in the first place?"

"Yeah but you didn't."

"Because, I was hoping it would force him to have to tell you because I couldn't hurt you."

"As opposed to me pulling him up on that damn computer."

"Oh my god. I can't believe that's how you found out."

"Yeah who would have thought I'd be triggered by Google." I laugh but there's no humor behind it. "What did he think? What did you think? That he could go on like this forever?"

"No! He was gonna tell you. He said he was gonna tell you. He just got the information on Angela and he was gonna let her have her stupid party and then he was gonna tell you tomorrow."

"Yeah well, I heard that stupid blackmail story and I don't believe it either."

"It's true. Ask the Cullens. Ask Elizabeth. Ask Riley."

"They all knew about this?" I whisper.

"No, not about you. None of them about you until tonight."

"Did Rose know? Jasper?" I gasp.

"They found out along with everyone else when you jumped out that cake. And they're furious with me."

"Good. You deserve it."

"Bella, pease." Her face crumples.

"What did you think was gonna happen when Edward… when Masen… when Cullen finally came clean, huh?"

"I don't know! I guess I just thought you two loved each other so much that you would find a way to work it out."

"Wrong."

I grab my bags and head for the door.

"Bella, plase!" She is clawing at me desperately to stop and listen to her. "What about BAR, what about Jasper and his band, what about all our plans?"

"How could you ask me that?!" I scream at the top of my lungs. "Is that why you're so upset, Alice? You're afraid you won't be able to play record company anymore?"

"Don't do that."

"Tell the truth for heaven's sake."

" BAR is very important to me because it's us. You're the first true friend I've ever had, Bella, you know that."

"Yeah, well, how do you treat your enemies?"

"Well I certainly don't stay up at night worried sick about them."

"You wanna know about sleepless nights, Alice. Let me tell you. When you know the one man who you trusted and believed in, the man you loved like wildfire, who you gave her heart to and your dreams to, who promised to love you as his wife til death do you part. And you know that that man is a quarter of a mile down the road in bed with another woman who somehow happens to be his other wife and then you know that was your so called best friend knows this and hasn't even bothered to tell you the truth? That, Ms, Brandon, is a sleepless night."

"Bella I don't know what to say to you."

I grab all my bags back up.

"How about 'so long Bella, it's been real'."

"Where are you going?" She shrieks as I walk away.

"To sanity!" I call back to her ignoring her desperate wailing.

I throw my stuff into my car, start it up, shift it in gear and throw rocks on my way out of the drive.

I head towards US-101N and blare my car radio loud trying to drown my thoughts. Too happy. Too sad. Too rap-y.

I'm going under and this time I fear there's no one to turn to

This all or nothing way of lovin got me sleeping without you

Now, I need somebody to know

Somebody to heal

Somebody to have

Just to know how it feels

It's easy to say but it's never the same

I guess I kinda liked the way you helped me escape

Now the day bleeds

Into nightfall

And you're not here

To get me through it all

I let my guard down

And then you pulled the rug

I was getting kinda used to being someone you loved

Of course the local station is playing the Idle Rich. Of course it is.

It's too much. I turn the radio off and reach for my phone to call my Ma to tell her I'm on my way. I push at the buttons and nothing happens.

It's dead. The phone -this old relic of a phone- that never dies is dead. Talk about a life metaphor. I pull over to the shoulder of the road and start beating on anything I can reach and I scream until my arms, hands and throat are raw. Then I take a deep breath, wash off my face and straighten my metaphorical crown.

I ease back onto the road and head to the place I never should have left- home.

Playlist:

With Every Heartbeat- performed by Janina Vogt (originally by Robyn).

Highway Don't Care- performed by Tim McGraw, Taylor Swift and Keith Urban.

Bad Blood - performed by Taylor Swift

Red- Everyone Loves An Outlaw

Before You Go- Lewis Capaldi

In Ends Tonight- All American Rejects

See you Wednesday.