I don't own twilight. What I own is my character's behavior, personality, background, and plot of my story.
Author's Note at the end.
Thuds echo in Edward's mind. Continuous insistent thuds. Like nails being hammered into his head, the sound threatens to end his sanity. He opens his eyes and closes them immediately. With the windows open, and the curtains drawn, only lunacy would make him open his eyes.
A thud echoes again. It finally downs on Edward that it's knocking. He will never understand why some choose to knock when they could ring the bell. He makes a sound between a growl, and a cry out of frustration before he struggles off the couch with his hand over his eyes to protect them from the sun as he stumbles toward the open windows to shut them and close the curtain. Only then does he realize how cold it has been in the living room, and how messy said living room is.
The blanket he just shoved off himself is on the couch he was sleeping on. There are bottles of beer everywhere. The only other couch in the living room is turned upside down, and the chaise that Bella sat on yesterday is turned on its side.
Nothing short of a tornado would do such damage. The tornado mentioned is Edward.
Nothing is as it should be, and the God damn knocking won't stop. He stomps towards the door and yanks it open before he sees through the peephole who it is first.
Once he sees that it's Tanya, he shuts the door before she can even open her mouth, "Edward just please hear me out first," Tanya pleads from the other side of the door.
He ignores her and goes to his bedroom on the other side of the apartment knowing that he won't hear her knocking there. Then he remembers the doorbell. Not interested in figuring out how to cut the electricity off the doorbell, he turns the electricity off the entire apartment and then drags his blanket behind him to the bedroom. He goes into the bathroom and takes out of the medicine cabinet pain killers and swallows them dry before he throws himself on the bed and wraps the blanket around him.
He neither sees, nor hears as Tanya's knocks on the door and begs for him to listen to her. He doesn't see as she breaks out in tears and slides down the door and weeps by it. He doesn't see the wistful look she gives the door for the last time before she gets up and walks away.
The living room looks neater. After three hours of sleep, Edward has been up for the last five hours. First, he cleaned and tidied the living room, and then he made himself a late lunch.
Now, he is venting to Seth on the phone, "Can you believe the nerve of her!" he cries out.
He hears a sigh on the other end of the call followed by brief silence before Seth finally says, "I don't know what to tell you man. All of what you just said sounds extremely bizarre and nonsensical. There has to be something you don't know."
Edward rolls his eyes at his friend that always tries to see the best in everyone even when what he is looking at is a mirage before he utters, "This is all there is: she wanted to punish me for not being the perfect boyfriend, so when Eleazar's offer came she accepted it and left even though she was pregnant with my child."
"Come on Edward, you can't tell me that you think Bella is that cruel or even one dimensional. There has to be something else that factored into her decision. Cut her some slack man, and try to see things from her perspective," Seth urges Edward. He can't understand how despite years of dating her, Edward is reaching such conclusion. It's as if he never truly knew her.
Edward stays silent for a minute pondering over Seth's words before he theorizes, "Do you think that maybe she was also angry that I didn't propose to her?"
A resounding face palm is heard from the other side of the phone, "I swear to God that you are a lost cause and deserve everything that has happened to you so far. Out of every shitty thing you did while dating Bella, do you think this caused her to hold a grudge against you? You know what? I am not going to help you. If you lose Bella and your daughter forever, it will be because you didn't take accountability for your action and examine your behavior, not because she is holding a grudge against you."
He hangs up on him and Edward pulls the phone away from his ear to look at it before muttering to himself, "Is he in the doghouse? But he is not even in a relationship."
Whatever other thoughts he has left are shelved as the doorbell rings. He gets up and checks through the peephole and finds Eleazer staring back at him. He is tempted to ignore him, but he knows that, unlike Tanya, Eleazar isn't a pesky fly, he is a stinging bee.
He opens the door and then turns his back on him and goes to sit on a couch in the living room. Just because he is a bee, doesn't mean that Edward will salute him and treat him as if he is an army general.
Eleazar follows him into the living room and sits opposite him then watches him silently for a minute before he states, "Aren't you the slightest bit interested in knowing why I am here?"
Edward looks around the living room then he starts patting off some non-existing dust from his jeans before he turns to Eleazar and replies, " Not in particular."
Eleazar nods feigning understanding before he asks another question, "Do you ever wonder what your life would be like if your loved ones made different choices?"
Shrugging his shoulders he replies, "What's the point? Things aren't changing for me anytime soon." He thinks the question is stupid, and if he knows Eleazar well, and he does, then it's safe to assume that this is him building up to his real point.
Eleazar leans back and looks Edward over before he replies, "That's where you are wrong Edward. Everything you have today is because of the actions of your loved ones. If your grandpa didn't start his business, you wouldn't have the trust fund or the apartment. You wouldn't have attended Northwestern, if your parents didn't place an emphasis on Education when you were a kid. You could be a different person if your mum didn't devote her time to you and your siblings by quitting her job. You wouldn't be talking to me, if Bella didn't take my work offer and dump you," he ends with a smirk.
"What do you want?" Edward demands while scowling at Eleazar. This is his real point. Gloating, demanding that he take Tanya back, or both.
Ignoring Edward's statement, Eleazar continues, "You wouldn't have your current social standing if, say, one of your dad's patients were to file a lawsuit."
"You wouldn't dare," he mutters his face full of rage. His parents are the only ones Edward hasn't lost. They are the only ones who forgave him for his shitty behavior. He isn't going to pay them back by throwing them under the bus, and Eleazar knows that. Somehow in the years of knowing Eleazar, he managed to get under Edward's skin without him noticing.
Eleazar rolls his eyes and replies while his face contours into a half smirk. "Your first problem is that you perceive yourself to be bigger than you are. You are stupid if you think that you can stop me from doing anything I want. Your second problem is that you always assume the worst in me. Who said I have anything to do with an extremely credible lawsuit against your dad?"
Leaning forward Edward demands, "What do you want?"
Sounding like he is thinking out loud, Eleazar replies, "At the moment? A massage."
Edward huffs in frustration and bounces his knees as he looks at Eleazar and states slowly, "What do you want me to do for you Eleazar?"
"Now we are talking," Eleazar replies then leans forward and states, "You will remove from your mind any remnants of the idea of suing for custody." It doesn't take a genius to know exactly what custody he is talking about.
Edward is silent for a moment before he replies, "You can't make me do that. You can't stop me from seeing my daughter."
"Of course I can't my dear. After all, I am not going to gauge your eyes out. I am not a fan of violence, but what I can do is set your family in shambles and put you and them under an immense amount of stress that anything you do aside from damage control will be devoid of its ability to provide you any pleasure."
Shaking his head from side to side Edward mutters, "Why are you even doing this?"
Eleazar replies simply, "I don't want my daughter's name dragged in the mud."
"We are broken up. It shouldn't matter." He always thought of his relationship with Tanya as a noose wrapped around his neck that he gets to take off once he breaks up with her. it turns out that breaking up with her means that he let go of the end of the rope, and now it's in the hands of someone who can pull the it and hang him.
"Doesn't matter. I won't have my daughter's reputation marred by its association with a custody case." Edward knows all too well the games people in high society like to play; he grew up watching his family play them. He should have known better than to assume that just because they are done, he can move on.
"The allegations won't stick," Edward replies shaking his head from side to side. Whom he is trying to persuade is debatable.
Eleazar leans back before he states, "I think I have found your third problem. You assume that if you pay a high price, you will get what you want. You won't get custody with the evidence against you."
"What evidence?" Edward replies not sure of what Eleazar is speaking off.
Having too much fun driving Edward's nerves to the edge of the cliff and then returning to the side of the street, he pretends to think for a couple of minutes before he states, "Well let's see, for one, you have known for a while and have not shown any interest in having a relationship with her. There is a paper trail of evidence of you ordering a DNA test and finding out her parentage when you donated blood to her. There is even a nurse that you paid hush money. All of this time and you have done nothing to see your kid. Also only two days ago your daughter almost died. You always give the chefs instructions on how to make the food, and Tanya has told them before that your instructions overrides hers, and Tanya found Cece's kit in the bedroom you both share. I wonder who she thinks placed it there."
Edward is too shocked by what he just heard to say anything. It feels like he has been receiving a slap after another since Eleazar enter his house. It feels like he has been receiving one slap after another since Bella returned to his life.
Sounding like he is in a trance, Edward replies, "Lies. They are all lies. You know that."
"Do I?" Eleazar asks out loud, "My sources are very credible."
"How can you be such a monster?"
Eleazar laughs a deep, long laugh before he replies, "My dear you have done your fair of despicable things. Don't sell yourself short."
Edward turns to look at him as he answers, "I don't even know what you are talking about."
He rolls his eyes at Edward before he replies, "Of course you don't. You never know anything. Always going through life with no map or compass and you just happen to find yourself arriving at your destination."
Eleazar slaps his hands on his thigh and gets up to leave only to pause in the doorway and state, "Here is a little advice dear, take responsibility for your action, or at the very least drop the innocent act. You can't have it both ways."
Edward hears the door slam close but doesn't get up to close it. His head is filled with scorpions. His thoughts form many ropes that are so tightly wound that he can't see straight. He is in a state of rage, hate, pain, anguish, disgust, and everything in between. A small voice whispers; You deserve this. You did all of this to yourself. you allowed them, all of them to take advantage of you.
He wants to stay in this state. Maybe this state will protect him from getting hurt.
Both of his knees bounce as he thinks of his next step. He needs to lay low, and patiently extract his revenge. There are too many people he needs to get back at. Tanya, Bella, and Eleazar. Everyone who has crossed him will pay the ultimate price for what they did to him.
The sun rises and sinks as he plots his revenge. He alternates between sitting and pacing the floor of his condo, and after the clock strikes midnight, he gets up and puts on his shoes. He has the first step in the plan to execute.
He rings her doorbell and then waits for two minutes, and when she doesn't open the door, he rings the doorbell again. He doesn't care to the fact that she is sleeping. If he doesn't do this now, come morning he won't have the guts to do it. He rings the doorbell again.
"I am coming. I am coming."
The door swings open and he is met with the rumbled-up sight of her, "Edward? Did something happen? is everything," he cuts her off and states, "Marry me"
Wide-eyed, Tanya stares at him too shocked to speak.
Hello lovely people, I hope you liked this chapter. Tell me your thoughts in the review section.
Fun fact, when I lived with my grandma some people would show up before calling in advance, so she gave me an extra set of keys, and on the days no one called her in advance to visit, she would turn off the electricity of the doorbell. That taught all of the people she knows to never show up before calling in advance again.
First of all, scorpions in my mind was inspired from my recent read of Macbeth by Shakespeare. Just wanted to put that out there because I don't want anyone to assume that I am plagiarising.
I want to comment on one of your guy's reviews. The of Edward has been gradually getting covered since we started to hear Bella's side of events. The most obvious one is in chapter 9. Both his behavior in the party, and the fact that he drove while drunk with her in the car are considered abuse. Most people tend to think of abuse as bruises and burns but abuse is far more nuanced and has more complexity that the average person knows.
If you know all of that and simply forgot the past event, then I hope you didn't take offence in my reply. This isn't directed at you as much as everyone who doesn't fully understand abuse.
Furthermore, by a strict good and bad classification, even Bella is bad for keeping Cece away from Edward. It's the context and the reasoning that don't make her a bad character. In other words, this isn't a morality tale. There aren't many good guys in it.
I don't know if I will be able to update in less than a week, but I will try. Until my next chapter,
Stay safe.