AN: welcome to my newest story.
Warning - there will be cheating
Hope you like it and I'd love to hear from you
My thanks to MeteorOnAMoonlessNight who has a fabulous sequel out today, for her stellar work, to Midnight Cougar for her encouragement and ideas, and to ghostreader24 for her ideas and feedback. I Heart you all massively because I couldn't do this without you.
I'll be posting on Tuesdays with this one - just to change it up a bit from Saturdays, and I'm hoping to provide a teaser every Monday
Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight and all the character, I just love Edward so much I can't leave him alone
Deceit and Destiny Chapter 1
For the first time in years, I felt free of my responsibilities even if it was only for one week. Not that I didn't love my son; quite the opposite. Connor was the best thing about my marriage to Jake, but I always felt so restricted and tied down.
While I wasn't exactly unhappy being married to Jacob, I also couldn't say the opposite was true, either. However, I was determined to enjoy this break since this was the first vacation I'd had on my own since Jacob and I got married six years ago.
Nevertheless, despite my intention to leave everything behind, thoughts of Connor and Jake, and how we got here, pushed themselves into my mind.
My dad, God love him, had always wanted the best for me. So, when I got pregnant, he more or less insisted Jacob and I do the right thing, and that was to get married, to provide a stable home for our baby. My mom always had my back, though, and felt marriage wasn't necessary. She said she would see that I still had choices and would support my decision. But, in the end, when Jake asked me, I said yes.
We'd had a three-day honeymoon following our Thursday quick civil ceremony at the local courthouse on a wet day at the end of January. At the time, I'd thought it was terribly romantic, but that was the one and only time Jake had ever done anything romantic for me. In my heart, I knew it was probably someone else's suggestion and their money that made it happen.
I met Jake the summer before my seventeenth birthday. Some of the girls from school had snuck out to a party held at La Push beach. He was a year older than I was, and like all teenage girls, I had stars in my eyes and believed myself in love with him. He was of Native American descent, Quileute, and was very tall, well over six feet, with russet-colored skin, almost black eyes, and long black hair, which he tied back with a leather cord.
Things had progressed very quickly between us, and a month later, I gave him my virginity, convinced that he loved me, too. I was pissed when the first time I had sex, I got pregnant. It wasn't that I hadn't known the consequences of having sex, I just never believed it could happen to me.
We never really knew if it was our inexperience with condoms or something faulty with the one we used. Jake was a virgin, too, but when my pregnancy was confirmed, it was a shock for us both.
I knew that Jake wasn't happy when I found out I was pregnant, and although neither he nor his father ever said anything, I knew they would have preferred he marry within the tribe. It was never discussed, and I never wanted to broach the subject of a termination, but I didn't even want to think Jake may have preferred that. I loved my baby from the moment I knew I was expecting. It did sort of muck up my plans to leave Forks and go to college, but I couldn't find it in me to resent my son.
Connor was born the following summer, a few months before my eighteenth birthday. Even with the upheaval of being pregnant and giving birth, I managed to complete high school and graduate along with the rest of my class; my mom made that possible. She'd stepped in to help without a thought and looked after Connor for the whole of my final year, while I spent most of my time studying. I had really wanted to be there for him, while he was still a baby.
Jake never wanted to go to college, and I believed him when he said it was because he had to stay back and look after his father. Billy Black had been wheelchair-bound for as long as I could remember, and Jake's two sisters, Rachel and Rebecca, had fled Forks the moment they were able and had never come back for longer than brief visits.
In reality, Jacob proved he was simply not committed to us as a family. When he wasn't looking after his dad or drinking away his pay—not that his earnings were much, working a few hours at a local garage—he was at the beach with the guys playing football.
Around that time, Dad retired, and he and Mom moved closer to the lake at Maple Grove. They insisted on helping us purchase a house. Sam Uley, who'd been a couple of years ahead of Jake in school, bought into an auto repair shop in Port Angeles. I pushed Jake to take the job Sam offered, and we followed him and Emily, his wife, to our new home.
That was just over five years ago, and although I loved my son to the ends of the earth and back, there were times when I did feel there had to be more to this than a life with someone who was, at best, indifferent to me and our son.
~ oOo ~
Didi and Aro Volturi owned a real estate office, named Volturi Realty. Instead of pursuing a four-year college degree in Seattle, as I'd originally planned, I took a part-time summer job with Volturi's as a receptionist. Although Mom and Dad helped us buy our house, Jake's earnings weren't enough to cover the mortgage as well as the household bills so while I worked, Mom looked after Connor. I found that not only did I love the business, but I was also good at it, and Didi encouraged me to take real estate agent classes both online and at the local college. When Didi insisted that I shadow her while I continued with my second year of classes, she hired Jessica Stanley, my best friend, and almost sister, to cover my old job as the receptionist.
But recently, Aro hadn't been well, and Didi had spent more time at home with him than usual, allowing me to work a lot of hours and take over management of the business at the same time as taking viewings and keeping up with the paperwork.
Despite my original protest, I was glad Didi insisted I had earned a bonus and had booked a room and bought a non-refundable ticket to L.A. as a birthday present. I rolled my eyes at the fact that my twenty-third birthday was still almost three months away, but in the end, I had to accept the gift, especially after Aro's phone call.
"Bella, my sweet." I knew when he called I didn't stand a chance of dissuading him; it looked like I was definitely going on vacation. "Listen, my dear. While my Didi has been looking after me, you have worked many extra hours for which you have neither been paid nor taken any time off. For the last six months, you have made sure that my lovely wife was able to be there for me, leaving our business in your capable hands. We love you as a granddaughter and I know that you've done this out of love, but, please, let us do something nice for you. You deserve it."
It was true that I loved and treated Aro and Didi like the grandparents I had never known, and they fit the part perfectly. They doted on Connor and treated him, Jess, and me as if we were family. Jess and I had been best friends from the first moment we met at kindergarten, and we had become like sisters over the years. Working together at Volturi's meant we probably spent more time with each other than our respective partners, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
Not wanting to go on my own, I asked Jess if she would come along, too. Her husband, Mike, had encouraged her to accompany me. We arrived here in L.A. on Wednesday for seven days—me, Jess, and a couple of my other friends, Alice and Angela. Jess and I were sharing a two-bedroom suite at a luxury hotel in Venice Beach that Didi had reserved for me—it was one of the best hotels on the waterfront, while Alice and Angela shared a room on the floor below us.
It had originally been only Jess and me, but of course, when Alice had heard about us going, she and Angela asked to come along, and we decided to make it a girls' vacation. Right now, we were getting ready for our long-awaited visit to the newest club, Eclipse.
Angela was lucky her husband, Ben, was able to work from home and was happy to send her off for a week with us, while he looked after their three-year-old, Sophie. Alice and Jasper, her childhood sweetheart and now husband had no children yet, and although they wanted them, she was too busy getting her business up and running to contemplate a family for a while.
Feeling a little guilty for abandoning Connor, I'd already called him today just after the girls left to get ready to check on him. He sounded as if he was having the time of his life staying with my mom and dad. I was sure Jake loved Connor, but Jacob was—well, just Jacob. It wasn't as if he couldn't be responsible enough to take care of our son for a week, he was simply prone to forgetting where he needed to be at what time, and he certainly didn't want to be tied to the house every evening.
"What did you decide on wearing, Bella?" Jess's voice called, pulling me back to the present. She was in the bathroom where she was putting the finishing touches to her makeup.
"Well, I did consider jeans—" I stopped, waiting for the predictable screech. I wasn't disappointed and had to grin.
"Bella! No fucking way!"
"Ha, Jess. Got you." I giggled, feeling carefree and excited. "It's so easy to get a rise out of you."
Jess appeared in the doorway, scowling lightly. As usual, she looked gorgeous—her blonde hair straightened into a shiny golden river and held back from her face with diamanté combs. Never one to overdo it, she had her eyes made-up with a dark, smoky gray shadow, and a little eye-liner, flicking up into cat's eyes at the upper corners.
Her skin needed no foundation, glowing with a faint tan from the two days we'd spent at the beach since arriving. The only thing Jess ever spent real money on was lipstick. She claimed that the more you paid, the better it stayed. Tonight was no exception, and the deep rose-pink she'd purchased a couple of weeks ago accentuated her lips into a pretty rosebud. I was able to admit that my friend was stunning.
Coming into the bedroom in just her underwear and a strapless bra, she headed for the closet and stepped into a silver, sequined sheath dress, sliding it up her body to avoid messing up her hair or makeup. Slipping her feet into four-inch heels the same shade as her dress, she twirled in front of me.
"Well, how do I look?"
"Absolutely gorgeous, Jess. Is that dress new?"
"It is. I found it in Alice's boutique and Mike bought it for me as a surprise for this week. He's great, isn't he?"
"That he is, Jess. You're so lucky." I was envious of her relationship with Mike. He loved her and showed it every day, always buying her things just because. I wished Jake was like that, but, feeling disloyal, I reminded myself that he wasn't a bad husband, just thoughtless. I stopped my thoughts right there, refusing to let the situation between Jake and me impinge on this vacation.
"Mine's from the shop, too. The bonus Didi insisted I earned bought it for me, or I wouldn't have been able to afford it. Give me a few minutes and I'll show you."
Taking her place in the bathroom, I slid a hairband in to keep my long mahogany hair out of the way and added smoky, gold-tinted brown eyeshadow, blush on my cheeks, and pale pink lip gloss. My makeup was always more subdued, not only because I didn't really like it, but also because my milky-white complexion looked better without it. It didn't take long, and I finished up with a quick run over with the hair straightener and clipped my hair back away from my face, almost the same way Jess had done.
Back in the bedroom, in a deep blue matching underwear set, I unzipped the bag hung on the closet door and wriggled into my dress. Stepping in front of the mirror, I called out, "Hey, Jess, can you zip me up, please?"
"Wow, Bella, that is some dress; it's sure to get you laid." Jess's eyes caught mine in the mirror, refusing to be penitent. "I know that husband of yours doesn't push your buttons, Bee, and forgive my blunt assessment, but you should divorce him."
"Not this again, Jess. You know I can't do that. Connor needs his dad in his life all of the time, not just on weekends. Before you say anything else, I'm not looking to get laid. Though God knows it's been way too long, I'm not a cheater. I'd feel awful if it happened to me, so I don't ever want to put someone else in that position." I held up my hand before Jess could say anything. "And I know you think he wouldn't care, but I would. Please, can we leave it alone and just enjoy this vacation? Please, Jess."
She subsided immediately. "I'm sorry, Bella; you know I'm on your side, and I just want you to be happy. I promise I won't say another word for the rest of our stay here." She mimed zipping her lips closed and throwing away the key, grinning at me. "Come on, Swan, let's get out of here and meet Alice and Angela in the lobby, or they'll think we got lost along the way."
Not bothering to correct the fact that I hadn't been "Swan" for more than five years, I slipped on the silver heels identical to those Jess wore and courtesy of Alice. Of course, I was glad Alice had insisted I practice walking in them more over the last few years. I would definitely have broken something wearing them tonight if it hadn't been for her. I was planning to get well and truly drunk because, for the first time in a long time, I didn't have to be a responsible parent or to cook or clean, or play the dutiful wife. There was nothing to get in the way of enjoying every minute of every day.
I couldn't ditch the mom persona entirely and insisted we have something to eat before making our way to Eclipse. I knew that if I drank on an empty stomach, I would be out of it before ten, and that was not how I wanted this evening to go. I wanted to dance into the early hours, so the girls humored me, and we found a nearby Mexican restaurant, filling up on carbs and margaritas to start the evening. It was already almost nine o'clock when we arrived, and the interior was filled with the sounds of voices raised in chatter and laughter.
Almost two hours later, we rocked up to the door of the club, feeling tipsy enough to let our hair down, and begged the tall, handsome doorman to let us in quickly. He laughed, saying that beautiful girls were just what the club needed, and stamped the backs of our hands before lifting the courtesy rope and letting us in.
One step inside and the space opened up into a cavernous room with two floors, with an open central space from the lower floor to the upper ceiling; the lower one lit by flashing lights. We stood at the top of the stairs where a flight led down to the dance floor, full of people gyrating against each other and dancing to the beat thundering throughout the space, pounding around and between the bodies. People were hanging over the glass balustrade watching those on the floor below as the lights flicked and swayed across the disembodied faces of the dancers, highlighting them up one after the other.
We made our way down the backlit stairs; Jess in the lead, pulling me along behind her since it would have been easy to become separated in the mêlée. It was like nothing I'd seen before; the scent of sweaty bodies mixed with dozens of different colognes and perfumes. Every woman I saw was dressed in minuscule skirts and dresses, showing as much skin as possible without being naked. Even those not on the dance floor were moving to the music that drowned out any possible conversations. I was glad Jess had persuaded me to dress up a little, or I would have felt very out-of-place.
Behind the long, curved bar, the rose-tinted mirror reflected the bodies of the dancers behind us while bartenders, dressed in black tanks and jeans, served drinks from the myriad of bottles. Jess squeezed through a gap in the half-dressed bodies of those waiting for drinks, and I turned to look around, the intimate press of bodies much closer than I was used to.
We eventually managed to grab a pitcher of margaritas and Jess pointed at a free booth, where each of us slid into the plush seats. Alice grabbed the pitcher and filled the glasses, immediately raising hers in a toast.
"To us and a fantastic vacation," she yelled as she clinked her glass against mine and everyone else's in turn, then downed the contents in one gulp. We all followed suit, then immediately refilled our glasses before heading for the dance floor.
~ oOo ~
