Chapter 31

Song:

"Bulletproof Heart," My Chemical Romance

"Rain," Breaking Benjamin

**Last minute tweaks and fiddles. All mistakes are mine.

**Posting schedule note at the bottom.

When we leave the courtroom this time, I'm reminded by Liam—not too subtly—to steer clear of Riley.

He grabs me by the shoulder and nudges me back. "Don't borrow trouble. Right now, it sounds like you guys are on the judge's good side. Don't fuck it up."

I jerk away from him, slightly irritated he feels he needs to remind me. "I know that. I'm not stupid."

"Edward," Mom calls from the other side of the hall.

"Yeah?" With my arm around Bella's waist, we walk toward my mother and aunt and uncle.

"We were just talking about going back to your house. I thought we could spend the rest of the day together. Maybe we could celebrate your birthday since we missed doing anything last weekend?"

She's right. We spent my actual birthday waiting outside the visitation center. I hadn't felt much like celebrating that day.

I look down into Bella's eyes and raise a brow. "You feel up to it?"

"That would be nice," she says softly. "It feels like a good day to celebrate."

I turn back to Mom. "Yeah, we can just meet you at home, then?"

She reaches for my hand and squeezes. "We'll give you a couple of hours to get settled."

"Thanks."

Coming home this time is a lot less morose, a lot less hopeless than when we got back from the first custody hearing. While Zoe still has to see her bastard sperm donor, it isn't the unsupervised or overnight visits they could have been.

I'm still holding out hope he'll stop showing up.

Zoe is sound asleep in her bed when we walk into our room. She's rolled over onto her stomach, her little butt stuck up in the air. She looks so peaceful, so content … so blissfully unaware of the bullet we dodged today.

Bella walks toward the baby's bed, and I'm right behind her. She's as drawn to our girl as I am.

"I was so worried he'd get what he wanted today," she whispers, reaching out and running a hand over Zoe's back, unable to hold back from touching her.

I press my chest to her back and wrap my arms around her, resting my chin on her shoulder. "But he didn't."

We stand together, just watching our baby sleep. But even though the moment seems peaceful, I can feel the tension radiating from Bella. "You okay?" I whisper.

She exhales a heavy breath and laces her fingers through mine, tugging on my hand as she pulls away. "Come on. I don't want to wake her."

I follow her, closing the bathroom door behind me as she hops up onto the vanity. I watch as she idly plays with the tiny silver tray holding all my jewelry.

"Can I help?" she asks, holding up the barbel that goes in my brow.

I nod and stand quietly as she works to help put me back together, waiting for her to gather her thoughts.

Her eyes flash to mine before she speaks, and when she does, her voice is soft … unsure. "I know I shouldn't be, but I'm worried about what happens when he does get unsupervised time with her. Because at some point it will happen." Her eyes fill with tears. "Just the thought of him—"

"Hey, shh." I gently grab her shaking hands away from my face and pull her into my arms. "Remember what Jenks said, baby. We need to give the process time. Riley's going to fuck this up all on his own, and all we need to do is let him." I press a kiss to her forehead. "I swear to you, everything is going to be okay. You'll see."

When Mom and my aunt and uncle get to the house, it's with a cake in hand and a few wrapped presents. I watch as she slides the cake box onto the kitchen counter. "You didn't have to go to any trouble, Mom."

She turns to face me, and I see a hint of hurt in her eyes. "I've missed the last four of your birthdays. You can let me make a fuss this once."

I walk over and wrap an arm around her shoulders, kissing the top of her head. "Sorry. You're right."

She nods once, sharply. "That's what I thought. And today is a happy day, isn't it? Happy days deserve cake."

As usual, Carlisle mans the grill, and the rest of us guys hang out while he cooks. And, as I'm learning is par for the course with my family, the conversation turns south.

"Admit you've used a ruler," Emmett says to his brother. He looks around at all of us. "Come on. We've all done it."

"What are you talking about?" Jasper asks, his face screwed up in confusion as he reaches into the cooler for a beer. "Of course, I've used a ruler. Lots of times. I did go to school, ya oaf."

Emmett gives his brother a pointed stare, waggling his eyebrows. "No, have you ever used a ruler."

Jasper pauses before cracking open his beer, nodding in acquiescence. "Of course."

"It'd be weird if you haven't, right?" Emmett looks at my uncle. "Right?"

Carlisle turns around and gives his son the look. "Really, Emmett?"

I chuckle and bring my glass to my lips, shaking my head. I'm not sure if it's the sun or misplaced embarrassment making my face heat up, but I can feel my cheeks burning.

"What? It's an honest question. We're all guys here, and I know we've all busted out a ruler before." He looks at each of us. "Fine, I'll go first. With a wooden ruler, I'm a solid eight from underneath."

"From underneath?" Jasper asks, laughing.

"Well, yeah. Only a dumbass would measure from the top. There's nothing but disappointment up there, man."

We all get a good laugh out of my cousin and his ridiculous topic of conversation, but Carlisle quickly steers it to safer territory.

"I know you didn't do anything for your birthday last week, Edward, but did you at least do something that day for Father's Day?"

I shrug. "Not really. Zoe's visitations are every Sunday." I rub at my chest, the thought of Zoe spending any part of that day with him making it ache. "When we got home, we just hung out in the pool." The corner of my mouth turns up, thinking about the good parts of that day. "But Bella made cupcakes and cooked us dinner. It was a low-key afternoon. Oh, and she sketched a new piece for me. I'm going to have Liam ink it this week."

Carlisle gives me a sad smile. "Well, with any hope, you'll have a lifetime of busy Father's Days. One day you may look back and wish for the lazy afternoons."

Dinner is served, and just like my actual birthday, it's a laid-back affair. But my favorite part is when my mother walks out with the cake, singing "Happy Birthday."

Everyone joins in singing, but I only have eyes for Zoe as she takes it all in. Her beautiful browns bounce around the table, watching everyone and their excitement and trying to "sing" along. But eventually, her gaze lands on the cake, and her eager, curious eyes get huge.

"What is that?" Bella asks our baby girl. "Is that Daddy's cake?"

"Da!" Zoe squeals and claps in return, her excitement bubbling over more than likely because everyone else is.

"Make a wish," Mom urges me. "And make it a good one."

Looking over at my smiling girls, I know there's only one thing I want. I close my eyes and make my wish.

Please make Riley motherfucking Biers disappear from our lives … for good.

My eyes flutter open, and I blow, putting out all the candles as everyone claps and cheers. Zoe sits in the middle of all the excitement, soaking it all up.

Without a second thought, I swipe a finger through the icing and hold it up to Zoe's lips. "Does baby girl want a taste?"

Bella pulls her back a little. "Edward, I don't know if—"

"Come on. It's just a little taste. And it's my birthday." I give her my best pout and bat my lashes. "Please?"

I get exactly the reaction I'm hoping for.

"Okay. Fine. But just a taste."

As long as I live, I'll never forget the look of wide-eyed wonder on Zoe's face with that little taste. I'm hit with a brief flash of the years to come … all the amazing things Bella and I will get to show her.

I can't fucking wait.

Once everything is cleaned up, my cousins and I decide we should all jump in the pool. But just as I get up to follow Bella to our room to change into my trunks, Mom pulls me aside.

"Can we talk for a minute?"

"Yeah." I send Bella off with a quick kiss and a pat on her ass and follow my mother into the family room. "What's up?"

She sits on the sofa and pats the cushion beside her. "Sit." The way she sits ramrod straight, fidgeting with a large envelope now on her lap has me nervous.

"What's wrong? Is it Dad? Did he—"

"No. It has nothing to do with your ass of a father."

"What's going on?"

She takes a deep breath and blows it out. "You know I just got back from Chicago last week."

"Yeah …"

"And you knew I was meeting with my attorney about the divorce?"

"Yeah, I remember."

"Well, he's been my attorney for … a very long time. Since before you were born, actually." She breathes a laugh. "I'm honestly a little surprised he hasn't retired by now. Anyway, he's handled everything for me for close to twenty-five years."

"Why are you telling me this?"

She reaches for my hand and smiles. "I'm getting there. When I went to see him, we started talking, and naturally, you came up. I was telling him about you being out in California and that you'd just gotten married. I gushed over your wife and daughter. And well, he had some interesting information for me."

Turning over the large envelope in her lap, she traces over the penned words on its face with her fingertips. "You know there was money for you to go to school. When you were born, your grandmother—my mother—set up a trust for all of that. Part of it was meant to pay for you to go to school, but the rest would sit and gather interest. That and whatever you didn't use for school was to be given to you on your twenty-fifth birthday." She looks up, her eyes meeting mine. "But when I spoke with my attorney, he told me that the year before she passed away, my mother made an addendum to the trust I never knew about. And since the attorney is the trustee, I was never notified."

All of this is familiar. I knew there had been a trust to pay for school way back when. But at the time, I thought that's all it was. And once I dropped out, I just assumed it was all gone … absorbed back into Grandma Jane's estate.

But the way Mom's looking at me, her nervous fidgeting as she tells the story has me thinking there's more to it.

My pulse races, and my mouth goes dry. A million and one things go through my head about what I think she's going to tell me, but only one feels like a possibility. I swallow past the anticipation trying to choke me. "What was in the addendum?"

"The trust was to be disbursed early if you were to marry. It's yours, Edward." She hands over the large envelope. "Happy birthday."

I bend the metal tabs holding the flap down and pull out the small stack of papers. Words I recognize but don't fully comprehend fill the pages, and I'm more than a little shocked. "What is all this?"

"Your grandmother wanted you to have enough to start your life."

"All this time …" I turn to face her. "You've waited this long to tell me about it? Is this how you're paying for Jenks?"

"No," she says adamantly, shaking her head. "What I'm paying Jenks is coming from my pocket. I can't touch this. As I said, as far as I knew, it wasn't supposed to be yours until next year. I had no idea Mom changed it." Again, she reaches for my hand, splaying her own over the papers in my grasp. "When you reached out and we started talking again, I knew about the rest of the trust being yours after you turned twenty-five. I only didn't tell you then because I was worried you'd think I was trying to buy my way back into your life. This is yours, Edward. It's for your family."

I scan through the documents once more, and when I spot an amount, my eyes nearly bug out of my head. "That's—"

"Enough for you and Bella to buy yourselves a house … to have a home of your own if that's what you want." She flips through the papers in my hand and pulls out a bank statement. "Most of it's tied up in stocks and bonds, but there's enough in this account right now for you to get what you need for Zoe, to get a newer car if that's what you want. Whatever you need."

Disbelief still runs through me, but as I look through all the documents, I start to accept that this is real. "Is this really all mine?" I murmur.

"It is." She pulls me into a hug, swaying us back and forth. "Your grandma would have been so proud of you, Edward. And I know for a fact she would have adored Bella and Zoe."

"You think so?"

"I know so."

"Hey." Bella stands in the doorway. Her bikini top runneth over, and her swimsuit bottoms are, I assume, hidden beneath a pair of shorts. A soft smile lights her face. "You okay?"

"Yeah. I just needed a few minutes."

She walks over and settles in my lap, her arms going around my neck. My hands automatically move toward the soft skin of her bare midsection. "That's what your mom said. She said you needed some time alone, but when you didn't come back outside …"

"I'm fine. I had some stuff I needed to think through."

"Anything I can help you work out?"

I glance at the innocent-looking envelope on the couch cushion beside me. "Not exactly."

Her gaze follows mine, and she tilts her head. "What's that?"

Anxiety gets the best of me, and all of a sudden, I'm nervous about telling her about my inheritance. My hand shakes a little as I pick up the envelope and hand it to her. "Something I'm pretty sure is going to change our lives." I nod toward the package now in her hands. "Go ahead. Open it."

I watch as she pulls out the stack of papers and skims over it all. "What is this?" she finally asks.

"You remember me telling you about my Grandma Jane?"

"The one we named Zoe after?"

"Yeah. I just found out she set up a trust for me before she died. And … and now it's mine."

Her eyes zip back to the paperwork in her hands. "Oh my god. This is … a lot of money." She turns back to me, her eyes huge and her brows raised. Her expression can only be described as full of shock. "What are you going to do with it?"

"The first thing I'm going to do is put this in a joint account." She starts to interrupt me, shaking her head, but I talk over her. "Then we are going to get a family car and put the rest back for a house."

"But—"

"No, no buts. What's mine is yours. It's not even up for discussion."

"Edward, I—"

I pick up her hand and kiss her knuckles. "Please don't fight me on this. I want to use it for our family, Bella. I want to give you and Zoe a real home. Something that's just ours where we can raise our little girl and maybe one day add to our family. Let me do this one thing for us … please?"

"What do you think? Do you feel comfortable in this one?" I bounce a wiggly Zoe in my arms as she fights the wide-brimmed sunhat on her head.

It's ninety-two degrees, and all I want to do is go home and jump in the pool before our shift starts in a few hours. We've been car shopping all morning, and after looking at several cars in our price range, this is the only one that's caught Bella's eye.

But then I spot her chewing on her lip, a sure sign of indecision. "I'm not sure."

"I thought you liked it."

She turns to the salesman and gives him a curt smile. "Can you give us a few minutes?"

"Sure thing. You know where to find me when you've made up your mind." We watch as he walks back toward the office, ducking inside the air-conditioning to cool off.

I turn back to Bella. "What is it? Is it too big?"

She shakes her head. "No. I've been driving your beast of a truck for over a year. This is nothing," she says, motioning to the small SUV. "I just … it's a lot of money."

"Babe, I told you we could do this, and I meant it. It's even under our budget."

"But what happens if we spend everything in the liquid account and something comes up and we need the money?"

"That's what you're worried about?" Zoe lurches out of my arms toward Bella, and I hand her over. "Look, this won't even tap a quarter of what's in the account right now. We'll be fine. It's a used car. It's not like we're driving out of here with brand new wheels."

"I know … I just …" Her voice lowers as she looks down and reaches for the hem of my shirt, twisting it in her fingers. "Shouldn't we be buying you a new car?"

"That's what this is about? You don't want me spending it on you?"

She shrugs, releasing my shirt to pat Zoe on the back and bounce her.

"Bella, hey." I nudge her chin up so she'll meet my eyes. "This is for us. For our family. Does it really matter who's gonna drive it? I'm sure we'll both drive it. It's gonna be a fuck ton easier to get Zoe in and out of, especially as she gets bigger.

When she's all out of rebuttals, she finally mutters, "Okay," and we go search out the salesman. It's my first experience at buying a car on my own—my truck was a high school graduation gift from my parents—and I have no idea how much paperwork there is until the finance guy hands over paper after paper for us to sign. But when we walk out of there with the keys and Bella slips behind the wheel to drive it home with a grin on her face, I know we've made the right decision.

Now I just need to convince her to start looking at houses in the area.

Our therapy sessions every other Monday, fresh off Zoe's visitations, are always emotionally charged. And today's session is no different. While Chelsea looks unassuming and approachable, she's persistent and can be fucking ruthless when it comes to asking the deep, probing questions she's been asking lately.

We passed the easy stuff weeks ago.

And she's decided today is the day to dive into our families' backgrounds. So far, I've answered questions about my childhood, even told her about my mother and the relationship we're rebuilding, but when the subject of my father comes up, I shut down.

She folds her hands over her lap and leans forward. "Tell me about him."

"He's an asshole."

"How so?"

"He decided I was only worthy of his presence if I led the life he had picked out for me."

She writes a note in our file and looks up. "I assume the life of a tattoo artist wasn't what he had in mind for you?"

"You could say that."

"That had to have been difficult."

I shrug.

Chelsea tilts her head. "Do you have any intention of trying to rebuild your relationship with him?"

A sardonic laugh rumbles in my chest. "No, he burned that bridge. Torched it and dumped a bucket of water on the ashes. I found out the fucker's helping Zoe's sperm donor get custody of her."

"What did the judge have to say about that?"

"Nothing, because there's no proof. Only Riley shooting off his mouth, which I know isn't admissible in court. Even if we could prove it, our lawyer said it wouldn't make much difference because footing the bill for someone isn't against the law."

"Did Riley willingly give you that information?"

"More like he enjoyed taunting me with it. I guess my father doesn't like the idea of having a non-biological granddaughter." Bella squeezes my hand in support, and I turn to her. "But I won't give up fighting for my girls. They mean everything to me."

"I can see that. But it can't make it any easier to know how your father feels."

I turn back to Chelsea. "He made his choice."

She nods and jots another note in our file before turning her attention to my wife. "And what about you, Bella? You've told me about your mother abandoning you when you were small, but we didn't talk much about your father. How long has it been since you were in contact with him?"

"I spoke to him … it's been more than a year ago, I think. I called him a month or two after I moved here."

"And how did that call go?"

Her eyes fall to our joined hands. "Not well. He wanted me to come home. He thought I could work out my problems with Riley and we could go back to the way things were before I left."

"How were things before you left?"

"I took care of him. I cooked and cleaned, did what I was told and kept my mouth shut."

"Did he mistreat you? Was there ever any abuse in your home?"

"Abuse? No. He never hit me. It was more like … not neglect, but he was indifferent in a lot of ways. He kept me under his thumb, though."

"How so?"

She fidgets beside me, and much like she did for me, I try to show my support by squeezing her hand.

"He was controlling," Bella finally says. "He was the 'man of the house,' and his word was final. It was … oppressive. It's why I ended up with Riley. He—" She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. "I thought he was my way out of a bad situation but dating him only made things worse."

"Did you ever try to tell your father what Riley did? How he treated you?"

Bella nods.

"And what did he do about it?"

"Nothing," she says softly. "On good days, he didn't believe me, and on others he said I probably did something to deserve it."

"What did you discuss the last time you spoke?"

"I called to check on him. He may not have been the greatest father in the world, but he was still my dad. I wanted to make sure he was taking care of himself. But he started asking me about when I was coming back." Her voice lowers, and she lays her head on my shoulder. "When I reminded him of what I went through, reminded him of how Riley hurt me, he kept saying it was a misunderstanding."

"You began therapy shortly after you arrived in L.A., yes?"

"More like a support group, but yes, there was a therapist who ran it."

"What kind of strategies did she give you for dealing with how your father treated you?"

"Not many. Most of my time with the group was spent dealing with what Riley did to me."

Chelsea places her notepad on the table beside her and gives Bella her full attention. "So, you still haven't truly processed the way things were left with your father?"

"Not really."

"If you could say anything to him today, what would it be?"

Bella thinks it over, her blank stare falling to the floor. Several moments pass, and just when I'm about to ask if she's okay, she looks up. "I'd ask him why. I'd want to know why he didn't believe me when I told him what happened. I'd ask him why he didn't support me like a father should."

"I have some homework for you, if you're willing to do it." Chelsea looks my way. "For both of you. I want you both to write letters to your fathers. Bella, you could even write one to your mother if you feel there are any unresolved feelings you have about her."

"Write letters about what?" Bella asks for both of us.

"Whatever you feel you need to say. To pour your heart out, to vent about how you were treated, about how you were neglected. Tell them anything that might help you move past whatever residual hurt they've left you with."

I lean forward, scowling. "And then what? I seriously doubt either one of those assholes give two shits about how they treated us. Hell, my father would probably keel over laughing at me expressing my feelings."

"You do with them what you want to. If you want to send them to their intended recipients, or you can shred and burn them. Your fathers reading them isn't the important part; it's getting those thoughts and feelings out, expressing how you feel about the ways you were treated. It's meant to be cathartic. I've seen time and time again how freeing it is to let those feelings go out into the universe."

Bella and I exchange a wary glance, unsure if this woman knows what she's talking about. With raised brows and mutual shrugs, we seem to be on the same page.

My wife turns to our therapist. "Yeah, we can do that."

I go through probably half a notepad in my pathetic attempt at writing out my feelings. By the fourth attempt, it starts to feel like an exercise in futility. Our last interaction was so recent, the experience so fresh, it feels like there's very little left to say. We both made our feelings known, and after finding out he's writing a check to Riley for attempting to destroy my life, well, repeating everything already said is more like absolute and utter bullshit meant to torment me.

In the end, my profound statement to my father is a few lines that summarizes everything I'm feeling.

You failed me. You're trying to rip my family apart, and I fucking hate you for it. I willnever forgive you.

When I step out onto the patio, Bella is staring up at the night sky, an envelope slipping back and forth between her hands.

"Hey," I say, closing the door behind me.

"Hey."

"Was that as awful for you as it was for me?" I carefully lower myself to the edge of the pool and sit beside her. "Because that was fucking painful."

The corner of her mouth turns up. "It wasn't so bad. I was able to say a lot of what I needed to say." She shrugs. "We'll see what happens when he reads it."

"You're sending yours?"

"Yeah. I … I need him to know how I feel, even if there's no chance of patching things up between us." She turns to face me. "You aren't sending yours?"

"Nah. I'll probably set a match to it next time we have a fire out here."

"We could do it now."

I raise a brow. "Now?"

"Why wait? You said what you needed to say, and if you're not sending it, you can be done with it and put it behind you."

As we sit beside the fire pit and watch the single slip of paper curl up and burn, the wind carrying away the tiny bits of ash, it doesn't lessen the pain my father's caused me. No, I think I'll always carry that. But it feels like permission to, as Bella said, put it behind me.

The next morning, as we walk into the shop, Bella tosses her envelope to her father into the outgoing mail basket and doesn't look back.

It's then I realize it's time to take a cue from my wife and focus on what's ahead.

"Are you sure you put it in here? She won't be happy without that damn toy, and we're already late."

I snatch the backpack out of Bella's hands and dig through it. "I could have sworn I— here it is." I turn around and hand our little ankle biter the elephant stuffie she's gotten so attached to in the last couple weeks. "Here he is, Zoe girl."

"Dadadada." Her squeals get louder as she pulls herself up by grabbing the hem of my shorts. She's so excited, she lets go and plops down on her diapered butt.

"We need to go," Bella reminds me as she repacks the backpack.

I scoop up the baby and give her squishy cheek a smooch. "Come on, Zo. Maybe this time you can do me a favor and have a blowout or something while you're with the douche."

Like we always do, we arrive early. Mom is in the front seat, and Bella and I are in the back with Zoe between us. The separation at the door has evolved into kisses in the car, and we watch as Mom walks the baby into the visitation center. But this time, waiting for Riley to show goes on far longer than it should. So much time passes that Bella and I end up walking into the center to find out what's going on.

We step into the waiting room, and when Zoe sees us, she lurches from Mom's arms toward us. I swoop in to catch her. "Hey, you." I turn to my mother. "What's up?"

"I don't know. He should have been here by now. The last I heard they were going to call him. But they only allow thirty minutes before they call it a no-show, and it's already been twenty-five."

"What? Then we can just leave?" Bella slips her arm around my waist.

"That's what they said."

He's canceled twice in the past, but both times he's called to let the center know he was sick. This time there's no call. When the thirty minutes are up, we're free to go. The feeling of walking out of there knowing Riley missed one of his visits without even a call is fucking euphoric.

"Edward," Bella whispers as we walk through the doors and out into the sunshine. "What if—"

With an arm around her shoulders, I pull her toward me and kiss the side of her head. "I know, babe. I know."

The rest of the day is almost celebratory. Instead of the usual melancholy we feel every Sunday after Zoe's visits, Bella and I are both riding some kind of high. We take our girl out to brunch and she gets to demolish an entire pancake by herself. Her victorious grin as she smashes it in her vise grip is worth cleaning up the mess it leaves behind. We debate driving to the beach, but instead we decide to play in the pool after Zoe's first nap of the day.

I know today was a fluke. I know it's only a temporary reprieve from the weekly hell we've had to endure, but I'll fucking take it.

By the end of the day, Zoe is worn out. Bella gives her a quick wipe down and changes her into a clean onesie to sleep in, and she hardly puts up a fight. As soon as her tiny head hits the mattress, her thumb goes straight to her mouth and she's out like a light.

Not ready to let go of the intoxicating happiness of the day, I pull Bella along with me as we step around the room divider—a recent addition to our room. My hands are at her waist and my lips are at her nearly bare shoulder. "Think tonight is a 'sleep all night' night?"

"God, I hope so," she breathes as my lips make their way up her neck. When she pulls away, it's her turn to lead me, this time toward our bed.

She lowers herself to the mattress and I follow, my arms and knees caging her in as she inches her way up toward the pillows. Slowly, I peel off her clothes, and she helps me out of mine. What feels like months of built-up stress melted away today, and it's more than evident in the ways we're touching each other. There's no rushing, no pent-up frustration or anger, and for the first time in a long time, it feels like we're both able to completely let go.

I expect her to push at my shoulder and roll us over like she always does, but she does something unexpected. Bella's legs part and her hand moves to the back of my neck, tugging me closer, our lips a whisper apart.

"I want to feel you everywhere," she murmurs.

Trusting her and myself, I settle between her parted thighs, every inch of our bodies touching, our limbs twined together as we move. My cock slips through her wetness, the ball at my tip grazing her clit, making her shudder and moan. When there's no hesitation from her, I brace myself with one hand on the mattress and lace the fingers of the other with hers, resting them on the pillow over her head. Slowly, I ease my way inside her, constantly whispering how much I love her.

No matter how many times I'm inside my wife, it still feels like a religious experience. But it's something else entirely like this, my body caging hers, protectively hovering over hers, her hand slipping from mine, moving down my back to my ass, urging me to move. Her legs are tightly wrapped around me, her hands glide and grasp wherever she can reach, and our faces are buried in the crook of each other's necks. No sounds but our heavy breaths can be heard as we move together.

And when we come, it's together, one feeding off the other. Her whimpers turn breathless as she stiffens around me, my groan disappearing into the delicate skin at her neck and shoulder. She grips me tightly as I continue to pulse inside her, until finally, we loosen our grip on each other. When I pull back and meet her eyes, they're glassy and sated, and so fucking happy.

Still connected, we kiss, gently and languidly, neither of us seemingly willing to let the other go. Her hands are in my hair, toying with the ends. Mine are still holding onto her, one at the back of her neck and the other under her ass. We're completely wrapped around each other. If I could, I'd stay like this with her forever. But eventually, nature decides we're done, and I slip from her body.

Deciding a shower and dealing with dirty sheets can wait until morning, we curl up, her back to my chest.

She intertwines our fingers together and brings our joined hands to her lips, kissing my knuckles. "It was a good day, wasn't it?"

I hold her just a little tighter. "It was."

"Maybe …" I can hear the hesitation in her whispered words. Reluctance to give voice to the hopes we're both having. "Maybe this is the beginning of the end." She looks toward the room divider. "I just want her to be only ours, Edward."

"Me, too, baby. Me, too."

The shrill sound of Bella's phone on her nightstand blasts through my unconsciousness, my eyes blinking open to the harsh light of morning. It takes me a second to get my bearings, and when I do, I watch as Bella sits straight up in bed.

"What? When?"

"Who is it?" I whisper, trying to get her attention.

She looks my way, and her eyes are filled with so many emotions, I can't make heads or tails of what's happening.

Before I can press for answers, Zoe's grunts and calls for "Dadadadada" come from the other side of the divider. I pull on a pair of shorts and walk over to her side of the room.

"Good morning, little lady."

"Dadadadada."

"Yeah, Daddy's got you." I pluck her out of her bed, nuzzling her neck and enjoying her half-sleepy cuddles. She's especially soft first thing in the morning, and I fucking love it. "Let's get you changed then we can figure out what's up with Mommy."

We speed through a diaper change and step around the divider. What I see—Bella, staring blankly across the room, completely oblivious to the world around her—makes my steps falter.

"Everything okay?" When she doesn't answer me, I walk around to her side of the bed and sit. "Bella, babe, you're scaring me. Who was that?"

She finally looks up, confusion and pain swimming in her eyes. "It was Jenks."

My brows furrow. "What did he want so early on a Monday morning?"

"He wanted me to know Riley's missing."

A thrill shoots through me, thoughts of never having to see the asshole again flooding my brain. "That's a good thing, right? He's gone."

She shakes her head. "The police are looking for him."

"The police?"

Tears fill her eyes, and if I had to guess, I'd say there's guilt swimming in them, too. "He's wanted for questioning. It's Victoria, Edward." Her voice cracks. "She's in the hospital. He … she was …"

She bursts into tears, incoherently apologizing for something she had nothing to do with. Immediately, I pull her into my arms, Zoe settling between us as her mother cries for a woman we hardly know.

A/N: Lots covered in this chapter. How are we feeling? I'd love to hear your thoughts and theories.

And a shout out to all those who are sticking with me to the end on this. I know it's been a rough read. It's been a rough write, too. Lol.

***Mr. Sunshine and I will be hitting the road early Thursday morning and we won't be back home until late Sunday night. We'll be winding through the back roads of KY on his motorcycle for four days, which I'm really looking forward to. All that said, it's highly unlikely I'll be updating next week. So, if you don't get a chapter next week, don't be surprised.

"See" you soon!

Be kind.
Stay safe.
Stay well.

Lots of love,
~Sunshine