Capitolo Ventidue

Never underestimate the power you have to take your life in a new direction

EPOV

Having his hands chopped off didn't kill my dad, but it almost did. That was the end of the experience for Bella though because she needed to get rest and not stress herself more, so Dem and I took her home. The rest of the guys stayed to try and find out who was hired to kill Bella's parents and then get rid of my dad's body. We all already had alibis, and he would just become a missing person after we conveniently found information about some very shady business deals he had made. There were already murmurings and suspicions that my family was involved in organized crime, so his disappearance would be investigated for a little bit until all leads dried up and the case would go cold. No one would look at it too closely. My mom and the rest of the family not in on the truth would think he died mysteriously. I didn't want to give him a hero's death, but my family deserved some type of closure. .

My most important tasks were to take my wife home and lay low for a few days. Then I needed to sit down with Aro and the Volturi to make sure that our alliance was solid. Now would be the perfect time for others to come sniffing around to try and find our weaknesses. The transfer of power from my dad to me needed to happen as quietly as possible. There was also some reorganizing that had to happen. Since I was moving into the boss role, Jasper would be promoted to underboss, Emmett would become my advisor once he found someone to promote as capos in his and Jasper's places, and Carlisle would help me ease into my role. He wanted to retire, but he could wait a few weeks or months if needed.

Bella had nightmares for several nights after the confrontation with my dad. I knew that everything had been resolved, but her mind was continuing to try and wrap itself around it all and still protect itself at the same time. I was there to hold her and soothe her back to sleep every time. It killed me to see her like that. Bella was and had been strong from day one, taking everything that came with building our lives together and barely batting an eye. She rarely broke down, so with all this truth and betrayal to hit her at once, on top of pregnancy hormones, well, she was having a hard time dealing with it all.

Rose had told my mom about her being pregnant after my dad had been classified as missing. He wouldn't be declared dead without a body for seven years, but my mom could survive on the money she had without getting insurance or anything else. My mom was glad to hear it, but then she realized that Rose would be an unwed mom. To her, this was a huge scandal. She tried to scramble and find eligible single men for her to marry, but Rose told her that she was going to be with Emmett, the father, and I fully backed and supported her in this decision. My mom wanted to argue with this choice, but she didn't dare speak against me, especially when it came to me protecting my sister. She knew that I wasn't my father, and I wouldn't budge when it came to her well-being and happiness.

Tonight, Bella and I were spending some time alone. It was getting harder to come by with how busy I was dealing with my dad's businesses, mine, and also the more illegal dealings we had, but I made sure that we had time together, no matter what I had to drop or who I had to delegate to.

"I think that you will enjoy the movie I chose. You are still forbidden for the next two turns, so you better pretend to like it anyway." She gave me a pointed look, before smiling.

I rolled my eyes and groaned. "Man, I pick a porno once and I am ostracized. You would think that you didn't like sex." I smirked and winked at her.

She straddled my lap. It had gotten a lot easier for her to move around, but she hadn't been cleared to have sex, and I didnt want her to be in pain, so we had held off, even though she had been feeling better and enjoyed testing my limits. "You know that's not true, cucciolone. I enjoy it very much when you make love to me. Even more when you fuck me. It's just hard to do right now."

I chuckled and gripped her hair tight. "La mia sporca bambina." Her moan and the way she let me pull her head back spurred me on. "I like when you come all over my fingers, tongue, or cock." I loosened my hold on her hair.

"Well I like that too." She smiled and leaned her head against my chest, snuggling into my warmth and inhaling my scent. "I love this too. Just being with you and feeling you."

I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into me, embracing her. "Yeah, this is pretty nice."

Bella pulled back a little to look up into my eyes. The light and warmth shined in her brown orbs. "I love you, Edward. All the information I have found out lately has just been so overwhelming. I don't think I could have dealt with it if I hadn't had you by my side. The night I lost my parents, I honestly never thought that I would have anyone I wanted or needed the way I do you. Then when I got here, I thought I could trust your family, even when your mom was being passive aggressive. But the real danger the whole time was your dad. I'm just glad that you were on my side the entire time."

I shook my head. "I had no disillusions about who my dad was. I never would have thought he would be capable of all this stuff, but his descent into madness should have been obvious."

Bella touched my face, causing me to look down at her. She smiled sadly. "We want to believe the best of our parents. I would never have guessed that my mom would have been involved with a married man or that my dad would be best friends with a monster. They are human, just like us."

Bella crawled out of my lap to sit a foot away from me on the couch. We were quiet for a few minutes, so Bella turned the movie on and we paid attention to it for a bit. It was kinda surreal—with everything that had been happening lately we were sitting home alone, watching a movie, and we didn't have to worry that someone would try to break in to get to Bella. My dad had been behind all that, and he was no longer an issue, or around to cause problems.

"So," Bella said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "What happens now?" She turned towards me and looked up at me.

"What do you mean?" I asked. I had a feeling I knew where she was heading, but I didn't want to jump to conclusions.

"What is our life going to be like now? You're the boss. We're going to have a baby. Life isn't just going to continue on the same as it has been."

"No, life will change, but isn't that the natural way of things? Not much is gonna change for you in reference to what my title is or isn't in the family. You're still my wife, and your safety is my top priority. One change is that even if I am with you, Dem will still need to be with you anytime you step outside these doors. As for our child, what are your thoughts on a nanny?"

As I knew she would, she shook her head vehemently. "No. No way in hell am I hiring some other person to take care of our kid when we are perfectly capable."

"That's what I figured you would say." I grabbed the belt loop on her pants and dragged her closer to me. "So, which room do you want to make the nursery?"

Bella smiled and jumped up from the couch, wincing a little bit, but then she grabbed my hand and pulled me in the direction of the room closest to ours upstairs. When I stepped inside, I saw some baby items already in there. I knew that Esme had given her some things when she finally allowed me to tell the rest of the family about our upcoming child. "I figured that maybe we could set some of this up, but I want to wait to paint and pick out the big stuff until we know whether or not it's a girl or boy."

"Well, it's gonna be a boy of course." I replied.

"What makes you say that?"

I looked at her like it was obvious, but she gestured for me to explain. "Because the oldest child needs to be a boy."

She smirked and rolled her eyes. "So, you're saying that if you have a girl the first time, or hell if all our kids are girls, you will be disappointed?"

Oh, I was onto her now. She was trying to trap me into putting my foot in my mouth. "Well no, of course not, but Bella, the eldest male is groomed to take over the family. We will keep trying until we have a boy." I said as if it was just that simple.

She scoffed and shook her head. "Um, no we will not. Everyone has their limits, and I'm not just gonna keep popping out kids until you get what you want."

"A girl can't take over."

She held my hands up as if to stop me. "Whatever. Fine, I'm glad a girl isn't allowed in this all-boys club because she would probably do the job better than a man, making you all feel inferior." She said, clearly agitated and getting worked up.

I frowned and stepped closer to her. I loved her sass but I didn't want her mad at me. "Principessa, I'm not saying that. There is just a certain way things are done in this world. I'm sorry."

"But you're the boss. Change comes from within, and that starts with you." She sighed and seemed to be calming herself down. "Look, it's a completely hypothetical situation, but didn't you ever want to be anything other than this, Edward?"

"I never had a choice."

Bella threw her hands up in exasperation and then fisted her hand in her hair. "I don't want to talk about this anymore. When we find out the gender of the baby, then we will pick colors and theme, okay?"

I nodded, at a complete loss for words. Growing up, I didn't have a choice. I never got to wonder or try to find something that I would enjoy doing as a career. Rose didn't get to either. She was raised to be the beautiful jewel in my parents' crown, and she was expected to marry well and have a family. Becoming a socialite like our mom and nothing more. I knew that Rose wouldn't raise her kid like that, and Bella wouldn't allow our child to set the bar so low. She would teach our children to dream big and achieve those goals.

Even though I loved her, I suddenly was overcome with a surge of affection for her. Our children would know true love and happiness, instead of forced loyalty and a sense of pressure Rose and I did. I grabbed Bella and lifted her, spinning her around. She squealed and laughed, locking her arms around my neck. When I set her back down on her feet, my lips crashed to hers. She moaned into the kiss and responded immediately. She popped up on her tippy toes, and I lifted her, letting her wind her legs around my waist. "I'm glad that you are going to be the mother of my children," I murmured against her lips. I felt her lips curve up into a smile, and she pressed her lips against mine again.

"Ditto, cucciolone. You're gonna be a great father."

We eventually made our way back to the living room to finish our movie. I made some popcorn at her request, and we ended up just talking after the movie was over. She told me some stories about her childhood, what kind of kid she was, and I shared my own tales. As we sat there, I couldn't help but imagine a little baby girl with my hair and her eyes, or a baby boy with her dark hair and my eyes. Whatever the baby looked like, I would love and protect it because it was part Bella, and even though I was terrified that it was part me, I still knew it would be pure and innocent.

"What are you thinking about so hard over there?" Bella asked, breaking my concentration.

I gave her my cocky smirk. "Just thinking how hard I'm gonna make you come when you let me have sex with you again."

She laughed and playfully punched my arm. "Well, then it looks like it's gonna become a competition because I was thinking the same thing."

"I'm gonna win for sure," I teased.

She smiled and shook her head. "Oh, okay, bet me."

"What does the winner get?" I asked. I really didn't care, but I loved when she got like this.

She tapped her lips with her finger, like she was thinking. "Bragging rights."

"Good enough for me," I conceded and shook her hand.

"We will see the doctor in three days. Then it's on like Donkey Kong," she said, winking at me exaggeratedly. We both ended up laughing.

We worked together to get the doors locked and the lights off, then I lifted her bridal style and carried her to our bedroom, gently depositing her in the middle of our bed. She still had to get up to brush her teeth and change into her pajamas, so I went through my nightly routine as well. I finished in the bathroom before her and folded the comforter down on both sides. When she joined me in bed, I turned the lights off and she lay on her side so that she was facing me. She kissed me softly, and when I closed my eyes, I knew that we were safe and the biggest threat had been extinguished.

A/N: There is only the epilogue left. Things are slowing down for our Edward and Bella, and we will have a time jump for the epilogue. Thanks so much for your support, love, and reviews. Until later lovelies.