A/N: Here's my second story I ever wrote. I hope to see y'all through this one, as well. Everything is written, so there won't be much waiting at all for any updates. My son is getting married today, so I might be able to add at least five chapters before I head off to the venue. There are 30 chapters total including two epilogues.
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. All mistakes are my own.
ENJOY!
10/08/2022
Chapter 1
BPOV
Once upon a time isn't the way my story should start. I didn't have an ordinary upbringing for the first twelve years of my life.
I'm not one to place judgment on any one person, considering the way I grew up. My life, as a child, was something I would never wish upon anyone. Living with an alcoholic father who beat their mother constantly, was something any child or adult would consider a nightmare.
There's days I can go without any memories surfacing, and the others, I'm plagued with a picture book of horrible thoughts. I've dealt with all of it and made peace within myself to move on.
My mom, on the other hand, thanks her lucky stars everyday. She believes that everything in life happens for a reason. Even the bad parts. She endured physical and verbal abuse far longer than she should had. It was nearly an everyday occurrence.
I was used to the angry screams coming from downstairs. No amount of pillows or blankets wrapped around my head could keep me from hearing mothers cries. If there ever was a quiet night, it was because my father wasn't home. Up until I turned 12 years old, I was always subjected to witness these beatings. There were times when my father made me sit and watch him beat my mother.
He said it was my training. He told me I'd be lucky to ever find anyone who would love me enough to marry me. That's something you never want to tell a young child. In my opinion, physical wounds heal, but emotional damage is the worst kind there is where a child is concerned.
On the eve of my 12th birthday, my mother was being beat, yet again. I wasn't sure what forced his hand this time, but I knew it didn't matter what she did. He never needed an excuse ; most alcoholics felt that their way was the right way. All I knew was, I was over it; done with watching my mother being treated like a slave.
I had made my way downstairs as quietly as I could. I spotted my mom laying on the kitchen floor. Her left eye was swollen shut, and blood covered her face. That's when I made the decision to sneak out of the window in bathroom. There was only once place I could go.
Mr. and Mrs. Landers were our closest neighbor's. They were nearly a half a mile away from where we lived in Florida. We were in a very rural, quiet area of Jacksonville and that half mile, felt like it was hundreds of miles away.
As soon as my feet hit the ground after climbing out of the bathroom window, I realized I was barefoot. I didn't care, though and started running as fast as I could. I didn't feel the pain from the tiny, sharp rocks that I was running across. Getting to the Landers' house was the only thing I was worried about.
It was about two in the morning when I arrived at their house, and as I scaled the stairs to their front door, I began to ring their doorbell and banging on the door. I hoped and prayed that they were home. I was completely out of breath from running, but I continued to pound on their door as if my life depended on it.
Mr. Landers answered the door. "Isabella, what's wrong?" He asked, looking at me quizzically and concerned.
"My mom… needs help," I said as I gasped for air between words.
"Isn't your dad home, sweetie?" Mr. Landers asked. It was obvious he didn't know what went on in our home. Not all of it, of course.
"He's beating her," I replied, bent over gasping. Mr. Landers looked at me with shock.
Without more questions, he took my hand, "Come with me," he said, leading me into the living room and stopping at the bottom of the stairs to turn on the light.
"Camille, I need you please," he called up to his wife. She immediately appeared at that top of the stairs and gasped when she spotted me.
"What going on?" she asked, holding the lapels of her robe together.
"There's a situation. I need you to stay with Isabella; it's her mother," he explained. Mrs. Landers made her way downstairs and guided me into the kitchen where she proceeded to get me a drink. I later found out that they knew something was amiss at our house, but they never stuck their nose in others peoples business. They had offered help numerous times, but mom declined.
After that night, I didn't know exactly what went on at my house. Mr. Landers had called the police before he left to go see what was happening. He insisted that I stay with his wife until I could go home. That didn't happen until the next day when Mr. and Mrs. Landers drove me to the hospital where my mother was being treated for injuries caused by my father. They drove us home the moment my mom was released. They were a God send to us.
Also, that night, was the last night I saw my father alive.
I'm 24 now, and from the day I turned 12 years old, I would say life had been great and eventful. My whole world completely changed that day. All for the better, I might add. I couldn't be more happy for the way my life has turned out. And after that one horrifying night in Florida, mom packed us up and moved us across the country to Forks, Washington where my grandparents live.
She eventually got reacquainted with an old high school friend. Charlie treated her like a queen from day one. Even though they've only been married for 10 years, they still act as if they were still newlyweds. It made me happy to think of the smile on my mother's face, especially since the birth of my baby brother, Alex. He was a honeymoon baby.
After we moved to Washington, and even though mom wasn't planning on having any more kids, just being with Charlie made her change her mind. He didn't care either way. If they had babies, he was okay with it and if they didn't, he'd still love her just the same.
From the moment I met Charlie, I knew he was meant to be in our lives. As far as I was concerned, Charlie is and always will be my dad. They say blood is thicker than water, and that may be true, but when a man accepts and cares for a kid that isn't his own, that says something about the person he is.
On the day he purposed, down on one knee, in front of mom and me, he asked her to marry him and asked me to be his daughter. We both said yes immediately. He said he had always wanted children, and the day they made it official, he was an instant dad.
Now, he has me, Alex and Gracie. Gracie, of course, is the baby. She arrived 16 months after Alex. Mom knew she wasn't getting younger and they started to try for another baby right after Alex. It took a little time, but it finally happened.
Mom had to have a hysterectomy due to complications during Gracie's birth; she started hemorrhaging. The doctors couldn't get the bleeding to stop without taking her uterus out. She went through a hard time for a while when all she thought about was being unable to give my dad more babies; it broke her heart. Dad finally convinced her he had three healthy children and a wife, whom he loved more than anything. We made his life complete.
Mom said it was for the best anyway because she didn't want to be old and decrepit running around the yard with her kids. She also wanted to keep some of her energy for when I decided to give her grandchildren.
I knew mom was halfway joking with me. She knew how much I wanted to be a mom. My career was established and I was financially stable, so all I needed was to find my one true love. Before mom and Charlie even reconnected, I was absolutely against bringing children into this world. I was very young and knew that there was a possibility that I would change my mind one day and watching my mom and dad over the last ten years, has completely changed my views about marriage and babies.
After seeing how something so horrible turn into something so beautiful, as long as it's with the right person, life can be the best thing to experience. And now, marriage and children were something I looked forward to.
I liked hearing my dad tell us stories from when he first fell for my mom when they were in high school. Phil had set his eyes on her, leaving him with no chance with my mom. He always felt it was wrong, and wished now that he had done something sooner.
Mom ended up pregnant and marrying Phil at the persistence of my grandparents. They were old school catholic and that was how it was supposed to be. Babies couldn't be born out of wedlock.
As soon as my mom turned 18, Phil made her pack their things and moved to Florida. He wanted my mother away from her parents for all the wrong reasons. Mom had refused at first, but Phil had his claws so deep inside her back that saying no to him wasn't an option.
I know nothing can be changed now, but if there was ever an opportunity, I wished Phil had never gotten into trouble in Florida. That was the only reason why he was in Forks living with his aunt, his dad's sister.
After knowing his parents, especially Phil's mother, I eventually knew where all his trouble came from.
My mom told me the story of when Phil started Forks High School during their second semester. He was the new, handsome baseball player that my mom met during her junior year. He was a senior and all the girls swooned over him.
They had been inseparable from the moment they said hello to each other. That was the main reason why Charlie never told mom his true feelings for her. They remained acquaintances because Phil kept her on a short leash.
Nearly six months after they became boyfriend and girlfriend, Phil had graduated, but spent most of his time at the batting cages. He'd come home frustrated and take it out on her. He would punch her on the arm or leg and slap her across the face. He told her women needed to know their place in this world, so he was going to teach her. The more violent abuse came later.
He believed that women were created to bear children. That's why my mom ended up pregnant with me at the age of 17. Mom was so in love with him that she didn't care if she got pregnant, so when he told her he was going to get her pregnant, she agreed.
And being from an Italian Catholic family, my Grandpa Georgino insisted that they be married, so four months before graduation, they married. My mom wasn't quite 18 yet, so as per my grandfather's rule, Phil had to live with my mother, as her husband, in their home until her birthday.
Mom ended up giving birth to me in Florida 5 weeks before her due date. I was supposed to be a Halloween baby, but Phil had backhanded her causing her to fall down a flight of stairs. Once I was born, my Grandma and Grandpa Georgino flew to Florida to meet me and to make sure Phil was properly providing for us. Phil had since began his baseball career. He bought a house a few miles from his parents, staying close to his mothers rule. With a cleanly kept home and food in our pantry, there wasn't much my grandparents could do.
So, as I got older, I often wondered why my mom never had more children. She told me that she secretly had an IUD implanted. After she had me, she requested, in private, from her doctor, to have the implant put in upon her six week check-up. Her doctor wholeheartedly agreed after she witnessed the type of person my father was.
Phil didn't deserve to have any more children, so my mom made sure of that. Not that she didn't love me, but if she could have done things over, she would have made sure she was on birth control before her first time. She had always told me that I was meant to be her daughter no matter who my father was. So, after numerous times of Phil trying to get my mom pregnant, she simply told him it wasn't in God's plan for them.
I often wondered, when I was younger, that if they weren't to my grandparents standards, would they have made my mom go home with them. If Phil wasn't making good money to provide for us, would they have made her go home with them then, as well.
None of it mattered anymore because we were right where we were always meant to be.
This brings me back to the present time, where I was sitting at my desk, in my corner office, with the best view that anyone could ask for. That's the perks of being a senior book editor at Whitlock & Kerns Publishing. My degree in literature was a shoe in for the company. I was already working here as an intern and upon my graduation, I was offered a position as a general editor. That was a year and a half ago.
Believe it or not, I had earned my position at W&K Publishing. A year and a half seemed like a very short time to become a Senior Editor. It was, but I worked my fingers to the bone, night and day, to accomplish what I had, in such a small amount of time.
The former Senior Editor retired and that's where my promotion came in. I proved to myself and the higher ups, that I could do the job. Other people always assumed otherwise. It didn't matter where you worked, there were always rumors. Being best friends with the boss' son would make anyone gossip.
Jasper and I had met one dreary day at the U-Dub library. He was doing research for a paper in his world history class and I was gathering information on Dante's Inferno. We were sitting at the same table when I accidentally knocked one of my books into the floor. He smiled and picked it up for me. He was always such a gentleman.
After a couple of months of getting to know each other, Jasper informed me that his parents owned a publishing company and there was a position opening for an intern, so I took a chance and was accepted. I've been with the company ever since. That was a little over two years ago.
As far as Jasper and me, we have become the best of friends. We've gone out a few times but it never went any further than that. My schooling and job took up a majority of my time, so dating hadn't really been my scene. I did a lot of volunteer work, as well.
From the time I turned 16 and got my driver license, I volunteered at the local battered women's shelter in Forks. In Seattle, there were three that I volunteered at on the weekends. So needless to say, I always kept myself busy.
Being a child that grew up in a domestic violence situation, I had learned the different signs of abuse. At least I hoped I could see the signs. That could also be the cause of my lack of boyfriends and dates. I was putting too much thought into wondering who I could give my heart to.
Don't get me wrong, I dated here and there and I even had a couple of boyfriends when I was in high school. I kind of think Charlie being a United States Marshal and an ex- marine was the main cause of most of the boys in town staying clear of me. It didn't matter, though. I still thought my dad was and will always be my number one guy. He is definitely a bad-ass.
At 16, I got involved in taking self-defense classes, kick-boxing and jujitsu. I had recently received my third degree black belt in Taekwondo. My dad made a huge spectacle out of the occasion and enlisted Jaspers parents into helping him celebrate. They catered a huge dinner and invited a crap ton of people that I didn't even know. It was a good night, regardless.
After mom gave birth to Gracie and healed from her surgery, she started taking classes with me and over time, Charlie taught her quite a few self-defense moves. I was so proud of how far mom had come since we moved to Washington. I knew Grandma and Grandpa Georgino were happy that she came home. Especially, since their grandbabies were close by and she finally went to college. She was now an elementary school teacher at Forks Primary where Alex and Gracie attended.
"Swan?" Jasper called to me as he poked his head into my office.
"Whitlock?" I asked, being sarcastic and quirking a brow. I already knew what he was going to ask me.
"Wanna grab some grub?" He smiled his signature toothy grin at me.
Jasper worked just down the hall from me and was also a Senior Editor. He mainly editing anything that pertained to history. He was the biggest history buff I knew.
Being a senior editor, I took anything placed on my desk, but my favorites were romance, science fiction, and most of all erotica. I lived vicariously through the erotica stories; they protected my virtue.
"Sure. You just wanna hit the cafeteria downstairs? I have a bunch of shit to catch up on." I had only taken the position of Senior Editor two weeks prior and I was trying to get caught up on what was left from the previous editor.
"Sounds good to me." He held his arm out so I could loop mine with his and we made our way downstairs.
After we purchased our lunch and settled into our normal booth, we were approached by none other than Jessica Stanley. Jasper and I rolled our eyes at each other.
She sighed, leaning against our table. "Hi, Jasper." She crossed her arms over her chest. "Rumor has it your cousin is coming into town; is that true?" she asked. I looked at Jasper with an open mouth. I knew of Jasper's cousins. I've seen pictures and seen them on TV. I've also heard stories from Jasper and his parents.
His cousins were the infamous Cullen brothers. They were the other Peyton and Eli Manning of football. Except these two were Emmett and Edward. Emmett played for Green Bay and Edward played for the Patriots although he had sustained a knee injury last season.
"Yes, my cousin is coming into town," he retorted snidely, returning to his food.
Jessica perked up, hopped from the table and clapped her hands. "Oh, WOW! I can't wait." I wasn't sure she could sound any more enthusiastic. "Maybe this time I can get that date he promised me a couple of years ago." Jasper rolled his eyes and said something under his breath. It sounded like he was telling her not to count on it.
Jessica was one of those people that always assumed and opened their mouth when it needed to be shut.
"We'll see, Jessica; thanks for stopping by." He smiled at her, waving his hand, hoping she'd go away.
She didn't leave right away, so he spoke up. "Bella and I don't have much time for lunch. Was there anything else you needed?" Jasper asked. He maintained his annoyance the best he could. I was so proud of him.
"Oh, I'm sorry. It was nice to see you Jasper." She turned, giving me a fake smile. "Bella," she said, sneering through my name. There was definitely no love lost between her and me. She walked away swaying her hips seductively. Jasper and I chuckled at her actions.
"So, WOW, this is news to me." I said mocking Jessica and clapping my hands like an airhead. I finally composed myself, "When were you gonna tell me?" I asked, seriously. I really wanted to know; more out of curiosity than anything.
"I was about to tell you before Jessica interrupted," he replied, placing his napkin on the table.
"Oh, um... which cousin?" I was trying not to sound too eager. I picked up my glass of tea, hoping to hide my own anxiousness.
"Edward. My parents wanted me to invite you to dinner on Saturday. He gets into town on Friday and he'll be staying with them until he gets settled," he explained.
My curiosity was turning into a crazed fan situation. "What do you mean settled?" I really wanted to know, now. I had always thought both, Emmett and Edward, were absolutely gorgeous, but Edward was the one that bedazzled me. There was something about him that screamed seduction. Well that, and just looking at him kind of did a little somethin', somethin' to my lady bits.
Emmett was off the market, though. He married his high school sweetheart, Rosalie Hale. Even until this day, they were still so in love. Momma Whitlock always croons over how proud she is of both Emmett and Edward.
Emmett was always used as an example when she lectured Jasper and I on our love lives. We just agreed with her and pretended like we listened, again. Jasper wandered if they were her children and not him.
"Edward's the new coach over at U-Dub." He explained, smiling. "He took early retirement because of his knee injury last season. You remember him getting hurt, right?"
I nodded. "Yeah, I remember. I didn't think it was that serious, though?"
Jasper shrugged, "Yeah, his orthopedic doctor said that even with the surgery, he would always have problems," he explained. "He walks with a little limp but nothing too bad. He still has to do physical therapy for it."
I nodded, letting him know I was listening. "So, what's the real reason your mom wants me at dinner on Saturday? No bullshit, either," I warned, already knowing where all this was going.
He shook his head and looked down at the table. I knew Momma Whitlock was up to something by inviting me over. We usually did family dinners once a month and we just had dinner a couple of weeks ago.
"Speak up, Whitlock. What aren't you telling me?" I asked, giving him a stern look.
"Nothing," he said, shrugging, trying to play innocent. He started shoveling more food into his mouth to keep from talking.
"I call bullshit on you. I know you better than you know yourself so spill!" I demanded. I knew anyone could hear me, but I didn't care, and then it was the way Jasper looked up at me that gave it away. I knew his mom was up to something and there was definitely more to this than just having dinner with family.
"You know how mom is, Bella. She seems to think you would be perfect for Edward," he explained. I loved his mother like she was my own mother, but she hadn't exactly lived up to her matchmaking skills.
I chuckled at him. "Oh, good grief, Jasper. Your mom scares me, sometimes. Remember the last guy she tried to fix me up with? He asked me to marry him when he dropped me off at home. He even had a ring and got down on one knee."
The look on Jasper's face was priceless. "No fuckin' way!" He let out a boisterous laugh. "You didn't tell me he had a ring, too."
I laughed and continued with my story. "Oh, yeah. And when I politely turned him down, he started crying, and grabbed me around my legs. He started begging me, and if Mr. Watson hadn't been leaving the building, he would have never left. He had to physically remove him from me. My doorman, Walter, was ready to call the police if Mr. Watson couldn't get him to leave."
"That's the funniest shit I've ever heard," Jasper said in between breaths from laughing so hard.
"Laugh it up, Whitlock. I can't wait until your mom finds a fruit loop for you. You've been lucky so far," I said. That just made him laugh harder.
I knew there was a reason why Jasper was my best friend. He was the only person I would let pick on me the way he did. Thank goodness I had such a good sense of humor and finding humor in my botched dates, was quite the comedic experience.
Thanks a bunch,
Reason
