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.
When Marco pokes his head through the door Bella smiles at him and gets off her chair. He is here to pick her up from her office for their weekly lunch. She picks up her clutch and coat, and then walks toward him.
She pauses in front of him and kisses his cheek as she hangs her coat on her shoulder, "Hello babe."
She doesn't bother sticking her arms into the sleeves of the jacket. It's not her thing.
He locks the door behind her and puts his arm around her shoulder as they walk to the elevator only to be stopped by her assistant, "Miss Denali has requested the attendance of all of the heads of departments in the meeting room."
Bella huffs in frustration. The last thing she wants to do is see Tanya. She has some guts to demand her presence out of the blue after what she did. She should be crying in a corner somewhere over Edward dumping her, instead, here she is, making demands she has no business making.
Sensing her stress and frustration, Marco states, "You will have to apologize on Bella's behalf to Miss Denali as Bella already left her office before she found out about the meeting."
The assistant shakes her head anxiously as she states, "sadly I can't. There are consequences for me if you do not attend. She stressed the importance of you attending."
Bella rolls her eyes silently because of course Tanya stressed the importance of her attending. She has to do her little Peacock dance in which she throws her weight around for a bit to remind everyone that daddy is the boss.
"Come on, let's get this shit over with, so we can leave," she tells him as she takes his hand in her's and pulls him toward the meeting room.
"But you aren't a kid she can boss around Bella," Marco whispers as he follows her.
"Sadly she the boss's daughter, so I have to play nice," she whispers back sounding as unhappy as he is with the meeting.
"Fuck playing nice, Eleazar himself doesn't try to boss you around. I say you go to him and give him a piece of your mind. If you don't I will."
"Patience, it's three more weeks and we will be rid of both of them. We're playing the long term game here," Bella whispers as they reach the board meeting.
"Play nice," she tells him as she passes by the other heads of departments and leads him to the back of the meeting room.
"I always play nice," he whispers winking at her.
She rolls her eyes at him and looks around the room and finds Tanya talking to one of the people in the room. She doesn't know him, but she is pretty sure that he is not one of the head of departments. Come to think of it, many people in the room definitely don't hold a title like hers. Though all of the heads of departments are in the room, and her team is small and new which is probably why most of the other departments have had more than one person invited while her's doesn't.
Tanya catches her eyes, and makes a point to glare at her before she turns around and goes back to talking to whoever she is talking to.
"Did you just see that?" Marco whispers furiously.
"Miss chicken shit is really growing up," Bella replies as she tilts her head backward to look at him while smiling.
"Darling, everyone is here why won't you tell us what this huge announcement is?" Eleazar states loudly.
Tanya spins around to face him and tells him while walking to him, "You have got to have patience dad. There is still one person left."
"Fine, if I must, but I will have you know that I am not enjoying this," he tells her then kisses her head.
She rolls her eyes, smiles at him, and pats his cheek before she says, "I know better than to expect that daddy."
He laughs boisterously and pulls her into a hug which prompts Marco to say, "Is this some sort of daddy kink foreplay?"
Bella turns sharply towards him her face a mixture of shock, bewilderment, and disgust then repreminds him and mutters, "Please behave yourself."
"I always behave myself," he whispers his breath tickling her neck, "Although when you are involved that is difficult," he continues finishing off by kissing the junction between her neck and shoulders which makes her relax back against him and look at her feet.
His lips are still on her when she feels him stiffen and stand tall behind her.
She looks up and her lazy smile is dropped as she is meet with the hard gaze of Edward as she hears Marco whisper harshly, "What the fuck is he doing here?"
She shrugs her shoulder the moment Edward breaks eye contact with her as she watches him turn toward Tanya and plaster a wide smile on his face and say, "My love, I hope I wasn't late."
They meet half way and then hug in front of everyone and then Tanya states loud enough for everyone to hear, "It doesn't matter darling. Daddy pays everyone in this room to be at our beck and call."
Bella blindly searches for Marco's arm and clutches it the moment it meets her. It is the only thing she can think of to give her enough strength to not scream, break down, cry, and kill everyone in the room. She lies to herself and says in her head that she is bothered by what Tanya just stated. It was obviously a direct jab at her, but that is a failed endivour. She knows that nothing in the history of her life has prepared her for the embrace she just witnessed in front of her. After everything that happened, he took her back?
"Well regardless of that, thank you for waiting for me," Edward states after pulls away from his hug to Tanya and settles his arms around her waist.
"What is going on?" Eleazar states. While his voice and tone aren't rough around the edges, there's is no mistaking the edge to it if you know him well.
Tanya looks at Edward giddily who in turn stares at Bella while stating enthusiastically, "We are engaged."
Everything takes a second seat to the buzzing in Bella's head. She doesn't know what they exactly say, but it registers in her head that their engagement party will be during the annual Denali ball in three weeks.
Once they are done speaking and everyone starts congratulating them Bella mutters in a voice she doesn't recognize, "Come on. Let's go. We don't want to miss our booking."
Marco leads her toward the door with an arm around her back only for them to get accosted by Tanya, "Aren't you going to congratulate me, Bella?"
Bella mentains her smile as Edward leaves whomever he is speaking of and joins Tanya, "Congratulations my dear. You two are perfect for each other."
Tanya smiles at Bella then throws her hands around her while stating, "That is so sweet of you to say."
"Oh no that wasn't a complement."
Tanya pulls back looking offended as she looks at Edward for assurance who in turn puts an arm protectively around her and states, "What is it then? An insult??"
Bella feels the subtle move of Marco entertwining their fingers together as she tells them, "it's neither a complement, nor an insult my dear it's a fact," She pauses to turn to Edward then continues, "I have known Edward for years. I know the exact kind of person he is. I have known you for less but I have seen you in some character-defining moments. You two are a true match, two peas in a pod. It's like a soul that got divided between two bodies."
Edward's adam's apple pope as he swallows and she smile in return having delivered her message to him. He isn't an idiot. If he thought then it was an insult, he is sure now that it is. Being a match to the woman who almost killed his daughter; he can't be stupid enough to think it's not a direct jab at him.
"Guys congrats but you will have to excuse us we a have a restaurant reservation that we can't be more late to," Marco states his voice breaking the staring contest she was having with Edward.
She turns away from Edward to Marco and places the palm of her hand gently on his cheek before she kisses his lips and says against them, "you are right babe."
They both smile at the engaged duo before turning away only to be stopped by Edward, "Wait."
Bella rolls her eyes and fights the urge to mutter a couple of curse words before she turns around and stares at Edward expectingly.
"Would you mind if we join you for lunch? You are going to the same restaurant we ran into each other in, right?"
Bella's stare hardens as she wants to do anything but have them join her and Marco. She wants to think out loud, rant, curse both of them, and collect herself, not do those things once, and not by that order.
"Babe, don't you think that we should celebrate alone? Plus the restaurant is full and their reservation is probably for two people only." Bella lets out the breath she didn't know she was holding.
"Nonsense love, your dad knows the owner, plus we meet there five years ago. That is bound to mean something since we are celebrating our engagement," Edward states looking straight at Bella while subtly smirking at her.
Whatever sign of pain he is searching for in Bella's expression, he doesn't find as his smiles dimes a little. She isn't sure when she reached the point of numbness, whether it was his engagement to Tanya after what Tanya did to Cece, or the look he gave her while kissing Tanya in front of everyone, or maybe it was a power above feeling sorry for her and helping her, but all she knows is that his words were supposed to cause her pain, and they didn't anymore. The admission that he meet Tanya when they were still together doesn't hurt her like it would have once upon a time.
Although the disappointment of not seeing her in pain didn't seem to take much of the wind out of Edward's sail as he claps his hands and states, "I have an idea. We will have an all day party. First lunch and drinks together, then we will go to a club to dance, and then we will end it with dinner together. We will even tell our friends about it. So for the four of us it will be lunch and drinks, and then for the rest of the events we will have more people together. That will be a perfect engagement celebration. What do you think babe?"
Tanya turns to him smiling widely and hugs him tightly before saying, "then it's settled. Let me just go and let daddy know that we are leaving."
She runs to her father and Marco takes this chance for him and Bella to make their escape, "we will meet you there then," he states, and then he pulls Bella with him out of the meeting room.
"God just the idea of what we are about to do sounds exhausting," Marco complains the moment the elevator closes on them both alone.
"An hour, only one hour and then we will get a phone call saying that Cece is in the hospital and leaves," she tells him looking at her feet.
"But then Edward will know that something is up," Marco states being the sound of reason.
Turning to him with fire in her eyes, "I don't fucking care. Let him think what he wants to." He meets her stare through the mirror of the elevator. If looks could kill, Edward better be writhing in pain above them.
So, a lot of you guys had much to say about Edward's proposal to Tanya. I promise that he has a purpose for doing that. You just need to have faith in my writing. Precisely, in my ability to write a character that isn't stupid in all aspects of life.
I hope you had fun reading this chapter. Leave me a review if you can. I am excited to read all of your theories on what will happen next.
Until my next update,
Stay safe.