Capitolo Diciassette

A/N: Y'all got me to 1k reviews so hope you enjoy this extra chapter ;)

We often ask for advice when we already know the answer but hope that we are wrong.

EPOV

I was incredibly pissed off at Dem and Bella for being so stupid. I may have married Bella to protect her and it was a marriage of convenience, but I was not prepared for losing her, or having something happening to her. The fact that I got to kill every motherfucker that came after her made me feel better, but none of them had even gotten close to her. This guy touched her, grabbed her, and nicked her skin. It was too close of a call. I was still worried that she and Dem had gotten too friendly for him to be effective. But I knew Bella well enough to know that she probably wouldn't listen to someone else.

As promised, I dropped Rose off at home and then headed to my uncle's house. I had tried to discuss what had been going on with Bella with my dad, but he seemed unconcerned though he did tell me that none of this probably would have happened if I hadn't moved out. His cryptic words sat weird with me—they almost sounded like threats. His words along with what the last guy had told me, how he was sent to either kill Bella or cut the bitch's tongue out to silence her, left me feeling suspicious. The only guy I knew that wasn't impressed with loud mouthy women was my dad. After the whole Royce thing, I started to see him in a different light. His facade was starting to slip, showing me some of his true colors and just how duplicitous he could be.

He wasn't happy that Rose hadn't stayed silent on her abuse, and he saw it as Bella's fault. I also knew he suspected that Em and I had ended Royce, but he would never know for sure without a body and he would never find one. No one would. He knew better than to suspect that I would leave a body behind. I'd learned from the best after all.

As I walked to the door to my uncle's house, I pushed all these thoughts out of my mind. I had come here on a mission and the rest would just have to wait. When Esme answered, she smiled at me as always, pulling me in for the standard hug. "Edward. It's so great to see you. Where is Bella?" she asked, looking over my shoulder to see where my wife was.

"She's not with me, Es. I'm sorry but this isn't a social call. I need to talk to Carl."

She nodded and ushered me inside, walking with me as we went to the kitchen, where Carlisle was eating a sandwich. He looked between Esme and me, his sandwich lifted halfway to his mouth. "Hey, Edward," he said, setting the sandwich back down on the plate and wiping his hands on a napkin.

"Carl, we need to talk," I said, my frown coming back as I thought about what had been happening lately.

He nodded, rose from his chair, and walked toward me. He pressed a kiss to Esme's temple as he passed her and she smiled softly at her husband. I was happy for them, but seeing their blatant love and affection toward one another kind of felt like a punch to the gut. Bella and I had the sexual attraction and we had an emotional connection, but our first thoughts weren't of each other. She would tell Rose things before she would tell me. Hell, Demetri probably knew more about her than I did. That was why I was so upset about this whole thing. Bella needed to have someone she trusted that was in charge of her safety, and I was glad that she and Demetri respected each other, but he followed her orders above mine. That shit couldn't fly. One thing I loved about Bella was she hadn't let the shit in this life change her. It hadn't jaded and tainted her, but it also made her innocent and naive.

I was broken out of my musing by Carlisle grabbing my arm. I shook myself out of my trance and followed him to his office. Once we were seated and I had gathered my thoughts, I told him why I was here. "I'm concerned that my dad may be involved in the attacks on Bella."

Carlisle sat forward, his eyes wide and worried. "What? I know your dad can be intense and an asshole, but why would he try to hurt the woman he pushed you to marry?"

"Bella doesn't hold her tongue. She is opinionated, and she believes in doing the right thing. She is protective over Rose, and she was instrumental in getting her out of the Royce situation. You know my dad. Women are supposed to be seen but not heard, and do as they are told. I believe that he thought she would be that type of woman, given that she was young and would easily fall in line, but when he found out she wasn't—" I sighed and raked my hand through my hair. "He hit on Bella the night of her first dinner with the family. Since then he has switched between being hostile and neutral toward her."

Carlisle sat back in his chair, looking concerned, and scrubbed a hand over his mouth. "So, you think that he was personally offended by her rejection of him?"

"Well, yes, but it's more than that. When I told him about these attacks on Bella, the first thing he said to me was that I shouldn't have moved out of their house and put Bella in harm's way. Then the last person who broke onto our property said that he was sent to kill or cut the bitch's tongue out, in reference to Bella."

"Okay, first of all, you haven't told Bella of your suspicions, have you?"

I frowned and shook my head. I hated the thought of keeping something this big from Bella, but I knew that there needed to be more proof because something like this had the possibility of becoming something even bigger.

"Good. Does anyone else know about it?" he asked.

"Only Dem. He has been around every time someone has come for her. Someone tried to attack her this afternoon at a restaurant."

"Why aren't you with her, Edward?" he asked, looking upset and surprised that I wasn't with Bella after what happened.

"Because I can't be Good Guy Edward, right now, Carl," I burst out. I knew that I should have comforted Bella, been there for her, but like always, I had to trust that she was okay and then go take care of business. "Someone is after my wife. She is right up there with my sister. No one touches her without catching a bullet. If it's my dad, I need a plan because he's—god, this is so messed up that I have to consider that my dad might be trying to kill my wife and I…"

"Might have to use force to stop him?" he finished for me, his expressions solemn. We both knew that in this life, family and loyalty meant everything. If family betrayed you, then it was up to us, not the law, to dole out punishment and judgment. I nodded. "Can you be sure that Demetri is trustworthy?"

"Yes, regardless of the fact that he has been loyal to the family forever, I've seen the way he interacts with Bella. He cares about her. He very literally would take a bullet for her, and she'd probably scold him for scaring her after." I chuckled, just imagining the scenario.

Carlisle nodded and chuckled with me because I'm sure he would imagine it too. With all honesty, my dad was probably the only person in the family who didn't like Bella. Even Heidi had told me that Kate had nothing but nice things to say about Bella.

"Okay, well we need to keep these suspicions quiet for now. With the Volturi circling, we cannot seem anything but unified right now," he said calmly.

I breathed a deep sigh. Carlisle was always a very calming presence to me. "I am meeting with Aro in a little bit, this evening actually. He refuses to play ball with my dad anymore. Not like he's willing to budge or listen to Aro anyway."

"How are you going to handle that?" he asked, getting me to sort out my thoughts aloud.

"I'm going to hear him out and see what he wants," I explained. "I think being allies with them is a much better move for us, even if it means giving them a little more territory than they have now. A war with them would cause too much loss on both sides, and then we would both be vulnerable and get easily wiped out by another family. Dad won't listen though because all he wants is more power, more money, and more territory." I shook my head, frustrated at my dad's close mindedness.

He nodded and gave me a soft smile. "I think that is smart, Edward. Just know that if you need any more advice, you can come to me. If you get more evidence of Ted being behind this, we need to discuss it before you take action."

"I agree, Carlisle. I trust you and I don't want to go outside of you on this for right now."

We talked for a short while about how things were going in our personal lives. I was always closer with Esme and my uncle because they were less judgmental than my parents, and Carlisle gave great advice. His ability to be impartial and fair was the reason he was the perfect advisor for my dad. Soon I had to wrap things up so that I could make my dinner meeting with Aro. He and I had a tentative alliance for now, and being late wouldn't warm him to me any more. For both of our comforts, we had chosen a public restaurant to meet for now. It was risky if anyone saw us, but there was no way either of us was prepared to give the other an opportunity to be caught off guard. I steeled myself for this meeting and tried to shove thoughts of Bella out of my head.

~NDMN~

When I returned home, I wasn't surprised to find Bella fast asleep. She had seemed pretty tired lately, and I hoped that it would pass soon. It made me worry about her more than I already did. After putting my things away and kissing her on the head, I made my way back downstairs, deciding to get some more work done. I was in the kitchen, grabbing some water, when Demetri came and found me, which was good because I was about to go track him down.

"Mrs. Cullen left a plate for you in the oven. I told her that you had a dinner meeting, but she still made you one."

I chuckled and pulled the plate out. She was smart and knew me well. Even when I had a dinner meeting, I never really ate much or enough because I was too keyed up and on guard to enjoy anything. I groaned when I saw it was chicken cutlets and angel hair pasta with some fucking delicious sauce she learned how to make from my Nonnie. I put the dish in the microwave and set it to heat up. "Thanks, Dem. How was she when she got home?"

"I'm not too sure. When we got home, I went and checked the cameras. I came in a while later and she seemed like she had been crying. You know her though—she brushed it off and then acted like she was fine," he said, frowning. I was concerned over why Bella had been crying and hoped it wasn't because of me. "Mr. Cullen, I understand your reservations with our relationship. If you would like me to keep my distance, I can do that and I won't follow her orders if they contradict what you have already told me to do."

I sighed and ran my hand through my hair. "I don't think that you need to keep your distance, Dem. I understand that you two have formed a friendship, and that is good for you to be effective in your job. I only need you to follow what I tell you, and it seems that you have thought about that. I hope we never have to test that promise, but I'm glad that you are willing to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Dem smiled at the fact that I was back to calling him by his nickname and not his full name. He hated his full name and I knew it. Which is why I was an ass earlier and called him by it. He nodded in understanding. "Yes, sir. If you don't need anything from me, I'm going to retire for the night. Hopefully I won't have to wake you up because some asshole is trying to break in."

I nodded and bid him goodnight. When I finished my meal, I cleaned up and then went to the bedroom to get ready for bed, deciding that work could wait. Once I was done with my nightly routine, I stripped down to my boxers and climbed into bed with Bella. I realized in the quiet that she was awake, and I heard the sound of her muffled crying. Since I was spooning her, I pulled her closer to me and kissed her shoulder. "I know you're awake. What's wrong?"

She turned in my arms and burrowed her head into my chest. She sighed, shaking her head, and then turned her brown eyes to me, tears still swimming in them. "I have something to tell you, and I don't know how you're going to react. And to be honest, I'm a little scared."

I sighed and kissed her forehead then forced her to look at me. "Principessa, nothing you tell me should scare you. We are in this together." I was being completely sincere.

She nodded and huffed out a large breath. "I'm pregnant," she said simply.

I was a little shocked because I wasn't expecting that at all. I tried to go through in my mind when we hadn't used protection and immediately our honeymoon came to mind. We had sex more than once, and we didn't have condoms. We both thought that she couldn't get pregnant, But since she was no longer on the shot, it was a stupid assumption. Even though I had hoped to wait a little bit before we had kids, I wanted kids, so I wasn't upset. I was actually happy. As I started to think about the future, I couldn't help but smile. "Really? Why would you be scared to tell me that, principessa? We both said we wanted kids. Are you having second thoughts?"

"No, Edward, god no." She sniffed and wiped the tears from her eyes. I was so confused. "I know that you wanted to wait to have kids for a little bit, so I was worried that you wouldn't be happy about it. I'm scared, but it's more of an anxious type of scared. I want to be a good mom, but I'm still fairly young. I don't wanna screw this up."

"Hey, we'll learn together. I didn't have the best role models in my mom and dad, but Carlisle and Esme had a hand in raising me too. From what you told me, your parents were really great, so I think we can take the good things we learned and apply them, yeah?"

She smiled and gave a little laugh. She nodded and threw her arms around my neck, and I pulled her close to me, reveling in the warmth and smell of her. She kissed my neck and burrowed her face into me. Her voice was muffled, but I could still hear her when she spoke. "I'm glad you're my husband, Edward. Thank you…for everything."

I smiled in response to her almost shy tone, and I pulled back to look at her again. I smoothed back the hair that had escaped her ponytail, placed a kiss on her cheek, then I captured her lips with mine. Rolling us so that I was on top, I hovered above her. "I already told you that you don't need to thank me, Bella. We're married, part of a team. Your happiness and well-being means everything to me. I will spend the rest of my life making sure of that. We just may add some crazy ass kids into the mix, right?"

Bella laughed and nodded. "Our kids are definitely going to be crazy, especially with you as their dad."

"Yeah, but they'll be cute enough that they can get away with all the crazy stuff."

"Definitely," she agreed.

Once the silence fell over us, I rolled to my side and she scooched back into me so that we were spooning again. When I put my arm around her, she threaded our fingers together. I started to think about how far along she might be. It had been about six weeks since we got married. We were still in the very early stages of her pregnancy. "Do you want to wait to tell people?"

"You and Rose are the only ones I want to know for right now."

"I can agree to that, but I was wondering if we might tell Dem. He will need to know."

"You're calling him Dem again," she said, sounding happy that things seemed better between us.

"Yeah, I talked to him. Everything is fine, but if my orders to him contradict your orders, he will follow what I told him over you, okay?"

"Okay. Telling him not to follow me and expecting him to listen was stupid. I know that and it won't happen again. We can tell him."

We talked for a little more until she started yawning, and the moments of silence between us grew. I kissed her shoulder again and then finally closed my eyes to fall asleep, hoping like Dem said that we weren't woken up by another person sent to take out my wife—and child.

A/N: So, Edward took the news well and he has been trying to get answers from the people sent for Bella. We just don't see everything cause we are mostly in Bella's POV. Alright, leave a review and let me know what you think. Later lovelies!