Edited by Stilldreaming85.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Isabella Cullen.
New York City, New York,
United States Of America.
New York was exactly the same as I remembered it, yet at the same time, it was different. Or maybe it was just me who was different. I did not see things in the same light as I had once used to.
I was a different person from the one that had left three years ago,
The city offered me no comfort as Ragusa had. The air was heavily polluted here, no longer crisp and clean. Concrete buildings covered the blue sky. Any beauty this city once held was now depressing.
I had to laugh at myself that I had once thought this to be a beautiful place. There was no beauty here, only painful memories.
I felt as if someone had knocked the breath out of me the moment I stepped off the plane. It was painful, too painful. The Manhattan air that now filled my lungs, also filled my head with painful thoughts that I struggled to push aside.
As I made my way down the stairs and onto the tarmac, a figure caught my eye. Someone I recognised, someone I knew well, someone I was greatful was not dead.
Garrett. He leaned casually against the black SUV with his aviators on and arms folded.
An overwhelming sense of relief washing over me. Seeing Garrett here, now, alive, somehow gave me hope that maybe things weren't going to be that bad, that maybe they might be okay.
I gave no thought to my next action. I untangled my fingers from Edward's and ran towards Garrett. I didn't give him a chance to react. I leapt into his arms. I wrapped my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist. He hesitated, before he hugged me back, his hands on my upper back.
"I thought you were dead," I said. I refused to let go of him. I had spent three years wondering what had happened to him after I left. I knew Edward would somehow blame him and I never trusted that he hadn't killed him.
"I'm going to be if you don't let go of me," he said.
He was right. In my excitement and utter relief of seeing him, I had forgotten of everyone around us, including Edward.
"Sorry," I said, as I untangled my legs from around his waist and settled myself back on the ground. I kissed him on the cheek taking him by surprise.
"You really are trying to have me killed, aren't you," he said, no joke at all in his tone.
"He won't do anything. I won't let him." He didn't buy it and to be honest neither did I. It's not like I would have any power to stop Edward or any of them.
Garrett shook his head as he stepped around me and opened the back doors of the SUV. With complete hesitation, I turned around and looked at Edward. If this were a cartoon, steam would be shooting out of his nose and his ears. Carlisle didn't look any better either.
How could I have been so stupid as not to think before I acted. Edward wouldn't see my reason behind it, I was certain of that. He would only see that I had jumped into another man's arms while he and his family watched on.
Our bags now loaded. Everyone else had already left in another waiting car, it was just the three of us. Garrett was standing by, waiting for us to climb in something that I was putting off doing for as long as I could.
Edward came up behind me and with his hand on the small of my back, gently pushed me in before climbing in himself, Garrett shut his door for him.
As the car roared to life, Edward fiddled with a few buttons on his door panel. Moments later a privacy screen lifted between us and the driver trapping me in here with him and without any witnesses. I knew things were about to go from bad to worse with Edward.
"I wish you would have had that reaction when you saw me after all that time," he said.
"Him, I was excited to see. You, not so much."
"And why was my wife that excited to see another man that she would jump in his arms?" He asked. He was very calm right now and I didn't know what to make of it. Was this the calm before the storm? Was he trying to trap me with a false hope that everything was okay before taking that all away?
"I thought he was dead. I thought you had killed him."
"Don't ever do that again," he said. The warning was there clear as day in his voice.
"You're not going to hurt him, are you?"
"That's not your concern."
"Yes, it is. He did nothing wrong. You can't punish him because I was happy to see him. It's not fair."
"Life's not fair, dolcezza."
That statement had never been truer. I was living proof of that. My life was not fair. My life, my hopes and my dreams had been taken away from me, murdered by the man beside me and his family. But I held my tongue.
Edward lowered the privacy screen between us and began a conversation with Garrett. I didn't understand a word of their conversation. Although they spoke in English, their conversation was clearly coded.
As I looked at Garrett from behind, there was one thing about him now that I was sure had not been there before. A large scar on his arm, going from under his t-shirt to down and around his elbow. I looked between the scar and Edward, wondering if it was him who had hurt Garrett in that way, although I knew the answer.
~MINY~
Yesterday had all been a blur. After we arrived at Edward's place I must have passed out. I guess I did not realise how tired I was. I remember walking into the apartment but nothing after that.
I had woken up in bed, the jeans and t'shirt I had on yesterday had been replaced with a pair of sleep shorts and singlet. Edward must have changed me. That thought irritated me. How dare he do that. I had not given him permission to touch me, see me in that way.
I saw a door in the bedroom opened leading to a bathroom. I quickly used it before I made my way out. This was a new appartment. It appeared bigger than his last one.
I Made my through the place and down the stairs where a large open plan living area awaited.
I saw Garrett in the kitchen making coffee.
"Can you make me one as well, please?" I asked.
"Good morning." He smiled.
I sat on the stool at the kitchen bench trying my best to study every part of Garrett, to see if he had any injuries or bruises that he did not have yesterday. There was nothing on him that I could see.
"Here," he said, putting the cup of coffee in front of me. "Are you hungry?"
"Where's Edward?"
"He had to leave early. But he said he will be back for lunch."
"Right." I nodded. "He didn't...He didn't do anything to you, did he?" I asked. Almost afraid of his answer.
"No."
"Good." I smiled. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that. I wasn't thinking. I was really happy to see you."
"Don't worry about it. If it means anything. It's good to see you."
I picked my coffee cup up and went over to to the balcony in front of the dining room. Although it was late October, the weather was still warm. I sat on the small outdoor setting tucking my legs under myself.
The warm breeze felt nice out here, but I had forgotten how noisy the city could be. Down below cars could be heard blaring their horns, tires screeching and sirens rand loud.
I wondered where Edward was and how much truth there had been in his words. He said I wasn't coming back here to be his prisoner. I wondered if I walked out the door right now, what would Garrett do? Would he follow me or restrain me?
"What has you so deep in thought?" Garrett said. I hadn't heard him come outside after me much less seen him sit down beside me.
"Stuff," I said.
"Like?"
"Is this in your job description now? Find out what I'm thinking? Play detective for him?"
I don't remember Garrett ever being interested in anything that I felt or did or thought. I could not help wonder that maybe Edward had put him up to ask me questions that he knew I would have never answered for him.
"I'm trying to make conversation with you. I have thought about you for the past three years," he said.
"You've thought about me?"
"Yeah, I have. I wondered if Mr Cullen had been true to his word. I won't lie, I thought he took you somewhere to have you killed and I let it happen. I spent three years not knowing if I had let you go with him to your death."
"I guess that makes two of us."
"How so?" He asked, with a frown in his brow.
"I spent the last few years not knowing if Edward had killed you for my disappearance. I'm sorry that I did that. I'm sorry that I left and let you face him. It wasn't fair of me."
"No harm done. I'm still alive," he said.
He wore another t'shirt today, another opportunity for me to see his scar and now that he sat closer to me I was able to see the true extent of the damage that had been done.
"Except your arm," I pointed out. "What did he do to you?" Was I that sick that I wanted to know of the pain he has suffered because of me.
"What makes you think it was him that did this to me?"
"Please, I'm not stupid. What happened."
"Nothing that I didn't deserve," he said, letting out a deep sigh.
"You didn't deserve that."
"I let you go, Isabella. It didn't matter who it was with. My job was to keep you with me at all times and I failed."
"You didn't fail," I said. Not caring, I leaned over and wrapped my arms around him and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you for what you did. I got to have three years of freedom because of you."
"I'm surprised he found you."
"Hey, can you take me that pastry shop on the corner of Bleeker?" I asked.
"Sorry, I can't do that," he said.
"Of course you can't." I should have known better. It should not have come as a surprise to me that Edward had lied. Not his prisoner, yeah right. I threw my coffee cup at the concrete wall. I don't know why I was so angry, I knew this would happen. I knew that every word out of his mouth had been a lie. But still, I held onto that little glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe he was telling me the truth. How stupid could I have been to have any hope even after everything.
"Hey, it's not permanent. Only for today," Garrett said. I laughed at him. Because if believed that, than he was just as stupid as me for even holding onto any hope.
"Things weren't bad only in Sicily. Things were bad here as well."
"What do mean?" I asked.
"Don't worry about it. But he's not going to keep your locked in here. Just today. Tomorrow I can take you wherever you want, but for day you need to let him do what he needs to do."
"What happened here, Garrett. I have a right to know. It now involves me as well."
"Victoria's was targeted," he said.
"What does that mean, targeted? Is she okay?" I asked. Victoria my friend. Victoria had helped me when she had no reason to.
"The place was raided by the feds a few hours after the shooting in Sicily."
"And the two are related how?" What did the shooting at the ball and Eleazar's death have to do with a federal raid on Victoria.
"I don't have that sort of information, but obviously Edward thinks they are connected. The person that orchestrated the shooting also set up the raid."
"Is Victoria okay?"
"She's still in jail. They are working on getting her out."
This was madness. Edward said we had to come to New York because it was safer.
How was it safer if he thought both incidents were set up by the same person? Who ever had tried to kill us in Ragusa was also in New York. He lied to me yet again.