Marie Cullen.
I felt peaceful, at ease, as I sat here looking out onto the lake. It was as if a sense of calm had washed over me and for this brief moment in time, I had forgotten everyone and everything even Michael who sat beside me.
Everything here was forgotten. Everything slipped my mind. I cannot begin to explain the joy that brought me.
"Hey there," Michael said, waving his hand in front of my eyes. "Are you still with me?" He asked.
"I'm sorry, I spaced out again, didn't I," I said, shaking myself off.
"That's alright love. You look like you have a lot on your mind," he said, tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear. His action, as small as it was, felt good yet wrong at the same time. "Want to tell me what's bothering you?"
"It's...Nothing really," I said. There was no one I could talk to about Edward, not even Michael. What was I supposed to tell him?
"You said your husband did something. What did he do?" Michael asked, shifting closer to me. He took my hand in his and rubbed small circles on the back of my palm with his thumb.
"It's a…" I sighed, trying to think of the best excuse I could use to get Michael to drop it. "It's a long and complicated story, Michael."
"We have nothing but time, love. I don't want to push you I just want to make sure that you are okay."
I hated that he was being sweet. I hated that he was gentle and caring because it made turning him down hard.
But maybe this is exactly what I needed. Maybe I just needed to speak to someone about my life, about Edward and everyone else around me.
"I saw something I wasn't suppose to," I said.
"Like what?" Michael asked.
"Like seeing my husband with a woman on his lap, naked."
The truth was, I was shocked by my own reaction to what I had seen. Who was Edward to me really, other than my kidnapper, my abuser? He was no one, no one that I should care about, no one that should interest me. So why was it that what he did bothered me so?
"Oh love. He is an idiot then, if he cannot see what he has right in front of him, then he doesn't deserve you."
"I don't even know why it bothers me so much," I admitted.
"He is your husband. It would bother anyone in your situation to be cheated on."
"My situation." I laughed. If only Michael knew…
"How about you?" I asked. I wanted to change the subject. I needed the distraction. It was easy to forget with Michael and I knew that there might be a chance that I may slip up and tell him the truth.
"What about me?"
"Where are you from? What do you do? Family? Friends? Wife? Husband?" I asked.
He threw his head back laughing. He finally let go of my hand and leaned down on the grass popping himself up on his elbows as he stared ahead at the water.
"I am not a very interesting man. I have no family left and the people I once thought were my friends, betrayed me. I am all by myself in this world, Marie," he said. There were many emotions that crossed his face as he spoke. Anger, bitterness, hurt. I wondered what his story was and if he would ever tell me the details or continue to be cryptic?
"What happened?" I asked.
"It's a long and complicated story," he said, repeating my own words.
"We have nothing but time." I smiled.
"Marie." He sighed. "My past is not something I want to open up about, at least not right now. There is too much hurt and pain and right now all I want to do is enjoy your company."
I watched him as he continued to stare out at the water. I took in all his features from the profile and I wondered who or what had hurt him so bad in this life?
Maybe he and I weren't that different. Maybe he and I had more in common than I first thought.
We have both been hurt. Taken advantage of by those close to us. Used by the people that were supposed to care and protect us.
Or maybe I was reading too much into it.
Although I didn't know all of Michael's story, the brief of what he had told me and the emotion he told it with spoke louder than his voice ever could. Sometimes it's our silence that gives us away.
"Do you fancy a swim in the lake?" He asked, as he jumped to his feet.
"I don't have anything to swim in," I said.
"You have your underwear, love, that is more than enough. Unless you would like to skinny dip." He winked.
He slipped his shoes and socks off and pulled his shirt over his head. I looked the other way. I felt weird watching him undress.
When I turned back around, he was walking into the water in nothing but his briefs. But what caught my eye was the tattoo on his back and neck.
From where I sat, it looked like he had a small black clover on his neck and a family tree on his back.
The tree started at the small of his back and the branches stopped just below his shoulders. Each branch had a name on the end written in elegant script in a language I could not make out.
But perhaps the most unusual feature was the oddly shaped crest in the center or the trunk.
"Are you going to come and join me? Or are you going to sit there and stare at my rear all day?" He asked, smirking at me with those dimples of his on display.
I bit my lip to stop my own nervous chuckle from escaping. I didn't need to look in a mirror to know that my face was bright red.
"I was actually admiring your tattoo," I told him, as I pushed myself up off the ground and sipping my shoes off.
"There is nothing to admire about it, love."
"I disagree. It is very unique."
"I suppose it is," he mused. "Are you going to let me entertain myself or are you going to join me?"
Not giving it any more thought, I slipped my clothes off and folded them in a neat pile by my shoes.
"Your husband," Michael said, as he looked me up and down.
"What about him?" I asked, looking all around us alarmed that somehow Edward had managed to track us back here.
What if someone had followed us here? I was certain that no one had seen us, but now I wasn't so sure.
"He is a fool if he cannot see what he has right in front of him. Look at you," he said, in admiration.
I swallowed the lump in my throat as I stepped into the warm water.
Somewhere in the back of my mind there were alarm bells ringing, shouting at me to turn around, to not get into the water with Michael, to put my clothes on and run away from him as fast as I could.
But it was a fruitless effort because I ignored all the warnings. I didn't care because for the first time I felt something that I never felt before. I felt safe and wanted. Michael made me feel those things and as wrong as I knew this was right now, there was no way I could stop it.
"Is it safe to swim in this lake?" I asked as I approached him, he had swum further out and away from the shore.
"Do you think I would let you in it if it wasn't?"
I swam away from him in the opposite direction. I closed my eyes and just let myself float there above the water with the warm sun on my face. For this moment, everything was alright, everything was great. In this moment there was only a woman enjoying a simple swim with a friend. In this moment I was no one special and yet he made me feel every bit important to him for all the right reasons.
I was so caught up in my own space, in my own world floating here, that I did not see or hear him approach me. I felt him standing over me blocking the warm sun. I opened my eyes and stood up on my feet. The water wasn't very deep.
He brought his hand up to my face. My first instinct was to flinch away. It was an action I regretted when I saw the look on Michael's face. It wasn't something I had meant to do, but it was what I had been used to.
But that didn't stop Michael. With the back of his fingers, he stroked them along the side of my face, along the couture of my lips and under my chin.
"I wish there was a way for me to take away all the hurt that he has caused you. You are too beautiful to frown," he said.
And then he kissed me. He moved so fast that I never saw it coming. But I did nothing to stop him.
He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close to him, deepening our kiss and I let him. I put my own arms around his neck and kissed him back, forgetting where we were, forgetting who I was, forgetting everything.
But my moment was short lived, because the reality of what I was doing flashed before my eyes. I stopped our kiss and pushed him away. What the hell had I done? How could I have let that happen?
"I need to go," I said, as I started making my way towards the shore.
"Marie…"
"I have to go. Please, I have to go," I begged.
"It's okay, I'll take you back," he said. "I'm sorry, Marie, I shouldn't have done that."
"It's not your fault," I said, trying to reassure him because it wasn't all his fault. Yes, he had kissed me knowing that I was a married woman but I hadn't exactly stopped him either. We were both at fault, it wasn't fair for him to take all the blame.
~MINY~
I had begged Michael to stop me around the corner from the studio. I didn't know if there would have been someone waiting for me by Edward's car and I didn't want to risk Michael getting involved. No matter what, I would not have his blood on my hands.
Michael wasn't thrilled with the idea of dropping me off around the corner, even though I assured him I would be fine. It wasn't even that late only a quarter past nine and in Ragusa, the streets were still full of life. But that knowledge hadn't warmed Michael to my decision. But in the end he agreed to do as I had said, which turned out to be a good thing, a very good thing.
As I turned the corner, there stood Carlisle leaning casually against the hood of the car with his arms folded across his chest with a look I have never seen on his face, murderous.
There was one thing I was certain of, and that was, that I was in a lot of trouble. But why was it that he was here? Where was Edward?
I had two options. One, I could make my way over to Carlisle and face my fate. Or two, I could turn around and run back and maybe catch Michael before he drove away.
But I knew better than that. I knew that running away was never going to be an option because I knew that I would never make it far and I knew I could not involve Michael in my messed up life.
Having no other option, I approached Carlisle and awaited my fate.
We stood in front of each other, both of us not saying a word. Moments went by until he moved from his position and approached me.
He was furious and I didn't know why. What had I done to upset him so?
What I hadn't been prepared for was the sharp slap across my face. My head turned to the side from the force of it.
I held onto my face willing myself not to cry. I didn't want to, not in front of him.
"Get in the car," he said.
I did as I was told. I didn't want to further his anger. Carlisle didn't speak a word the entire car ride back. As the gates opened to the property so to did my anxiety. My hands were balled into fists. My nails digging into my palms. I had never been this nervous not even with Anthony. Because with Anthony, he was almost easy to predict. He was always hurting me even when he was smiling and happy. But with Carlisle, I had never seen him mad, never experienced it and the unknown scared me now more than ever. I had this feeling deep in the pit of my stomach. It was an unexplainable feeling, one that I have only felt once before.
Carlisle led me into the house. With his hand on the small of my back, he pushed me through the house. There was not a trace of anyone around and I wondered where they all went. I hoped and prayed someone would come out and take me away from Carlisle, Esme, Carmen, but there was no one.
In the dining room, Edward sat at the head of the table. His hands were a bloodied mess. There was no trail of destruction around him, nothing that could have caused him harm.
He had that unreadable expression on his face, the one that I had become accustomed to.
"You were with him, weren't you." It wasn't a question it was a fact. One that he sounded very certain of.
"Does it matter?" I asked, surprised that I had found my own voice.
The sound of Edward's chair scraping against the hardwood floor pierced through the room. As Edward stood up I took his appearance in from head to toe coming to the realization that the blood on his hands was in fact not his but someone else's.
"Yes, dolcezza, it does matter," he said, walking around the table until we were face to face. Carlisle had made himself disappear, unnoticed. "It matters when my wife disappears for a whole fucking day with another man," he yelled.
"I saw you with Janina today," I said, watching his face drop at my revelation.
"What happened to your face?" He asked, reaching out to touch me but, I moved away from him.
"Ask your father."
"Don't mess with me right now, Isabella," he warned.
"Or what? What are you going to do, Edward?" I challenged, realizing I may have a death wish pushing him like this.
"Why does it matter where I was or who I was with when you were with her?"
"If I ever see or hear that you have been with him again, I will kill him and make sure that you watch," he said, gritting his teeth. "You are my wife, mine," he yelled.