I know I missed updating Sunday, but my goal is (with the way my life has been going) to update at least one day a week but it'll be random. My life is all over the place right now! Again, please excuse the grammar and mistakes, I don't have a lot of time to recheck what I write. I'm not going to go on for too much longer because I know you want to read this new chapter. Please enjoy! Oh, and don't hate me too much!
Chapter Forty-Two
The sun woke me up this morning. I stretched out under my covers for a few moments before reaching out to grab my phone. The first thing I saw was a text from Edward.
Good morning sweetheart. I hope you have a fantastic day today. I'll see you tonight. I can't wait to taste the cake you pick. – Edward
I smiled and texted him back.
Don't worry, I'll pick something great. I can't wait to see you. – Bella
I waited a few moments for him to reply, but after about five minutes, I decided to just get up and shower. Edward told me he would be very busy and probably wouldn't have the time to text me. I knew Alice would be gone. She had told me yesterday that she needed to go to her school to make up the time she missed. Edward wouldn't be here for a while, so I had some time to kill.
My morning had been going very slowly until someone knocked on my door. I was just finishing up washing my dishes from breakfast. I sighed softly and walked to the door to answer it.
Before I answered it, I looked at the camera. Aro was standing outside of my door. My brows furrowed and a little bit of fear raced through me as I opened the door.
"Good morning, Aro," I smiled softly.
He nodded his head very slowly. "Good morning, Isabella."
I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat. "Uh, would you like to come in?"
"Yes, that would be good," He said deceptively soft as he side-stepped me to get into the apartment.
"Is everything okay?" I asked as I followed him into the apartment.
"We need to talk about something," He said as he walked past the kitchen and the living room and into the study.
The mountain of presents had been taken out of the apartment after the infamous 'head-in-the-box,' trick.
Aro walked around to sit behind the desk. I took a seat in the big white chair in front of the desk. I felt nervous as I sat. My stomach was churning like I was going to throw up. Why was he being so serious? He was never like this. He was always so funny and sweet. Oh god, what have I done wrong?
"You know, since I've met you, there's been this feeling I've had. One that I can't shake." He said as he fiddled with the decorative items on the desk. "You've kept me in the dark and I really don't appreciate it."
I started to shake. "I-I—,"
"I understand why you hid this," He said. "The relationship is extremely unsettling. But I should've known."
"W-what relationship?" I asked in a very low tone.
His eyes narrowed. "The relationship between you and Caius."
My eyes widened. "I don't have any sort of relationship with him."
My clear voice made his eyes widened. It took me a moment to realize that I hadn't stuttered. I wasn't sure where my ability to clearly speak when I was nervous came from, but I guess I just felt strongly about this.
"I don't have a relationship with Caius," I said firmly.
"All of the evidence that has been brought to my attention says otherwise." He said.
"What e-evidence?" I asked nervously, my stutter coming back.
"The letters, the pictures, the text messages… The money that's disappeared from your trust fund only to reappeared in Caius's private offshore account then taken from several ATMs in Italy. The villa he's built and didn't tell me. I have my people going there tomorrow morning to completely search it."
I felt tears well up in my eyes. I looked down at my hands; they were trembling.
"W-what pictures are you talking about?" I asked softly as tears fell down my cheeks.
He pulled out his phone and handed it to me. I looked up at him before looking down at the screen.
The picture was of me, and Caius and we were both very naked. We were in the shower pressed together. I blushed and my eyes widened. I was about to say that the picture wasn't real, but then I saw the three diagonally placed moles on my lower stomach above my hip and I instantly knew that this was my body.
"I-I—," I was at a loss for words. The picture was so disturbing. I was completely embarrassed.
"When this picture was brought to my attention, I thought it was faked. But your distinct birthmarks are hard to miss." He said. "So let me ask this, how long have you been romantically involved with your uncle? I assume it's what happened to Marcus. I went to his house, and he had been keeping tabs on you for years. I found all of his work. And now he's disappeared? I'm assuming he found out about the relationship between the two of you and Caius threatened him."
I slowly shook my head. "T-that's not w-what happened."
His eyebrows raised quickly as if he didn't expect me to say that.
"Well please, enlighten me." He said, nostrils flared. "Because I'm about five seconds from pulling my gun out and blowing your head off."
My eyes widened and I started shaking uncontrollably.
Edward's POV
It seemed as though everyone in the financial office was going out of their way to make us happy. Especially my father. Several of their most attractive receptionists came up to my father and offered to get whatever he wanted.
We didn't wait in the lobby like the others. As soon as we arrived, we were guided to the financial officer we had trusted over the years. I could tell that as soon as we walked into his office, he was sweating bullets.
"Mr. Cullen, it's so good to see you again!" David said in an overly cheerful voice.
Dad snorted. "I'm sure."
"How can I help you today—,"
"Cut the bullshit." Dad said. "I want to know why the fuck money has been taken out of Isabella Swan's trust fund over the past fifteen years."
David's brows furrowed. "What are you talking about?"
"Pull up her account and see for yourself. Someone has been stealing from her trust fund."
David turned to his computer, his fingers typing away furiously. A moment later he turned the computer monitor to us.
"All of her money is there. It's completely untouched."
Dad leaned forward before huffing in agitation. He reached over and grabbed the folder from Jasper.
"Please explain what I am looking at here. The information here shows that someone has been stealing Isabella's trust fund. The accounts numbers are exactly the same."
David looked through the paperwork. "Mr. Cullen, I don't know what this is, but Isabella's trust fund has not been tampered with in the slightest. All of her money is still in her account."
I looked to my dad to see the corner of his lips turn downward. I licked my teeth before speaking.
"The notary that signed this, he works for you, correct?" I asked.
"Yes, he does."
"Is he here? I'd love to speak with him." I said.
"Of course," David leaned over and pressed the button on his phone, asking his receptionist to bring the notary in. Within a few seconds, a small, nervous man walked into the office.
"This is Mike," David said. "Mike, you've always been the notary on Isabella Swan's documentations, correct?"
"Yes sir." Mike nodded.
"Can you explain this then, please?" Dad asked.
Mike took a quick look at the paperwork we brought. After a moment of looking through it, he nodded.
"Oh yeah, I remember this. I signed it a week ago. But it's not actually being taken out of her account yet. It's more of like an insurance policy. Should Isabella Swan die, then her money would go to the beneficiary listed here, until then, the beneficiary gets a monthly stipend. And if Isabella dies, then her trust fund can be completely transferred. The transactions here were just a practice run and then the monthly stipend. The money has only been dispersed this month."
"Wait, what? An insurance policy? I never signed any sort of insurance policy. And I am the beneficiary should something happen to Isabella." Dad said firmly.
I had to swallow the hard lump that formed in my throat. My fists tightened as I had to control myself.
Without looking, dad reached over and grabbed my hand tightly. He was silently telling me to calm down.
"Well, you don't qualify as her beneficiary anymore." Mike said.
"Who the fuck qualifies now, then?" Dad demanded as he got to his feet and took a step towards Mike.
Mike's eyes widened. "T-that would now be her mother."
Bella's POV
Aro sat back in the seat, nodding very slowly as he absorbed everything I had told him. I pulled my knees to my chest and placed my chin on top of them.
"I see," He said again, for the fourth time. "I-I don't… I'm sorry, I just don't know what to say."
"I s-swear I'm t-telling the t-truth." I whispered.
He nodded again. "I believe you. I just wish you or Carlisle, or Edward, had told me before this."
"They were a-afraid you wouldn't believe t-them. They wanted to build e-evidence."
"I understand," Aro said. "I guess over the years I have been overly protective of Caius. It's just been my job to look after my brothers." He let his head fall slightly. "God damn it."
"I'm sorry." I whispered as I looked down at my feet.
"I appreciate that, but it really doesn't make what I have to do any better," Aro got to his feet. "I can't keep making excuses for Caius. And with the evidence I have, I'm going to have to put him in the ground."
I closed my eyes and nodded before resting my chin on top of my knees. Aro walked around the desk to me. He leaned down and pressed a long kiss on the top of my head.
"Caius will no longer be an issue."
"What about F-Felix?" I asked.
"As far as I'm concerned, Felix doesn't have a significant enough involvement."
"Oh."
He looked down at his watch. "You have a cake tasting to get to. Don't trouble yourself with anymore of this."
I nodded and got to my feet as if I were going to get ready, but the truth was, I didn't feel like it anymore. I felt very sick to my stomach and all I could think of was forcing myself to vomit the breakfast I had and then lay in bed.
"Walk me to the door, my dear." Aro said as he held out his arm.
I nodded and looped my arm through his to walk him to the door. I wished he would hurry along because I was just dying to race into my bedroom and do something to make the hard feelings go away.
"It'll all be alright," Aro said, more to himself than me.
I nodded in agreement. Aro leaned down and kissed my cheek gently.
"Enjoy the rest of your day. I apologize for my harshness earlier. Hopefully it won't damage our relationship too much."
I shook my head. "No, it'll be fine."
He smiled softly before turning and heading down the hall. I only watched until he reached the elevator before I shut the door.
Edward's POV
This conversation was going to be tough. My stomach was in horrible knots as I did my best to not strangle the bouquet of flowers in my hand. I really hoped Bella had a fantastic day, because the news I was about to deliver her would possibly make her spiral.
I had sent Alice on a long date with Jasper then instructed her to stay at our parent's house. She protested, but once dad laid down the law, she quit bitching.
My dad had let me come home early so I could surprise Bella and have plenty of time to deliver the news. She should be home from cake tasting, her appointment was over an hour ago. And I knew Bella wasn't a big shopper.
I knocked on her door and waited… And waited… And waited.
I knocked again, harder, and louder this time. When she didn't answer, I pulled my key out and opened the door. I didn't like using the key because it was her apartment, but I had to admit I was a little worried. I hoped I hadn't put too much pressure on Bella picking a cake. She can get overwhelmed sometimes.
All of the lights were off, and the apartment was freezing. I shuddered from the cold and reached over to the thermostat that said the temperature was sixty-one degrees.
"Bella?" I called out. When she didn't answer, I started to become very uneasy.
Something wasn't right. Even if Bella was overwhelmed with the whole cake testing thing, she would still come out to greet me. She always did.
I knocked tentatively on her bedroom door. "Bella, are you in here?"
I looked around the dark room for a moment before spotting the lump on the bed under the small decorative blanket. I smiled.
"Are you hot, Bella?" I asked as I walked over to the small bedroom window and shut it.
I walked over to the bed. "Hey, are you awake?"
She didn't respond to me, but she did roll over and curled up tightly under the blanket.
I chuckled in hopes of easing the obvious tension she was feeling. I grabbed the large, thicker blanket and covered her with it. Then I sat on the edge of the bed and kicked my shoes off so I could lay down beside her.
"Hey, Bella," I whispered as I started gently tugging at the blanket she had bunched around her face. "Did you pick a cake?"
A minute passed before she shook her head.
"You didn't pick a cake?" I chuckled. "Not even a raspberry vanilla one just to mess with me?"
She shook her head again.
"Did you go?" I asked when she remained quiet.
"No," She whispered so softly I almost doubted that she had said it. I moved close enough to her that my forehead was almost pressed against hers. Her eyes were closed, and I was just wishing she would open them.
"What's wrong, Bella?" I asked. "Did something happen?"
After a very long, intense moment, she opened her eyes. The usual curious, lively brown was now dulled and almost dead looking. Seeing Bella's eyes in such a state was startling. I knew right then and there; something was very wrong.
"I did something bad." She whispered quietly. I had to admit, her nervous stutter not being there was alarming. Like something so traumatic had happened to her that it made her stutter go away.
"What did you do?" I whispered back to her.
She stared at me for a moment. "Aro knows."
My gut became cold. "Aro knows what, sweetheart?"
"Everything."
I nodded slowly. "You told him?"
"He said I had a relationship with Caius." Her dead eyes watered slightly. "He showed me the pictures."
Fuck. God damn Aro! I can't believe he showed her the pictures!
"Those pictures were fake," I said. "Don't worry about—,"
"It was my body." she said.
I inhaled deeply. "It's not a big deal. No one knows that."
She curled up tightly in a ball. "Aro knows everything."
That must've been bothering her more than the pictures. I placed my hand around her back and pulled her closer to me.
"Look, it's not a big deal, okay?" I told her as I kissed her forehead.
"He…he said he was going to blow my brains out."
I paused. "He said that to you?"
"He's going to kill Caius." She said expressionless; internally, I sighed with content as she ever so slightly leaned towards me. I pressed my arm against the back of her head to pull her closer to me.
"Well, that's good. That saves us a step."
"I'm…I'm not good." She said, her dead voice shaking just a tad.
"Not good at what?"
"Any of this." She ducked her head into my chest. "I'm not good like your mom or Alice or Rosalie."
"Who cares. They've had a lifetime of practice. You're still really new at this." I told her. "Why are you so upset? It's going to be alright, I don't blame you at all."
She shuddered but remained silent. My hand started to lazily rub her back in a slow, smoothing motion. My goal was to hopefully pull her out of this weird mood. I'm not quite sure what was keeping her in it, but I definitely knew I couldn't tell her about her mother now.
"Bella, why are you so upset, sweetheart? You know none of this is your fault right." I told her.
She remained quiet for a solid five minutes, and the only reason she spoke was because someone had rung the doorbell.
"Those are the cakes." She said softly.
"The cakes?" I asked.
"I called the bakery last night and told them to have all of the cakes I was going to taste today to be delivered before you got here. But you're early."
I smiled and grabbed her chin so I could look down into her eyes. "You did that for me?"
She nodded before pulled away from my grasp and curling in a ball again. I was slightly frustrated by her lack of response, but Bella was a foster kid and the research I've done on them said they lack a lot of emotional control and tend to have what experts call shut down moments. Bella was shutting down and it was hard to pull people who had these moments out of it.
"Aw you're so romantic," I said as I pulled us upright to a seated position. "Let's go try some cake since you went to all the trouble of arranging the cakes to come here."
Finally, an emotion flickered across her face. Sadness. It wasn't the emotion I wanted but at least it wasn't this autopilot shutdown. Tears welled up in her eyes as she sniffled.
"It was supposed to be a surprise," She whimpered softly, her eyes finally flickering to life. "I was going to lay them out before you got here so you would be surprised."
"I'm still surprised," I told her. "It was a great surprise! I love it so much. I'm excited to try a bunch of cakes and pick the perfect one."
I kissed her forehead. "It was so sweet of you to think of—,"
Bella cut me off by crawling into my lap. She turned herself to the side and placed my arms around her to cradle her. Once she was satisfied with the position, she tucked her head under my chin and pressed hard against me.
"Do you want to go try the cakes?" I asked her.
"No." She simply said as her fingers dug into the skin on my arm to make sure I stayed in place.
"Have you eaten today?"
"Ye—No… Yes," She stuttered in a confused manner.
"Did you eat?"
"Technically." She said.
"Technically? What does that mean?" I asked.
"I had breakfast, but I got sick after."
I placed my hand on her forehead. "Are you sick?"
"No."
"Then why did you get sick after breakfast?"
"Aro talked to me after I had breakfast."
"Oh." I nodded.
I noticed how her eyes glazed over again and she started staring off into the distance. Shit, I had just pulled her out of it and now she fell right back in. I shouldn't have pushed on the whole sick thing. God damn it. All of the research said not to push when foster kids were coming out of the shut down because it'll put them right back into it and it was harder to pull them back out.
"Let's go try some cake." I said quickly. "You did something very romantic for me and I don't want to ruin the night with what Aro said or did right now. I really want to enjoy the cake testing you set up for me. And I'm starved."
A spark flickered behind those dead eyes. I knew it was wrong to guilt her, but I needed to do something to pull her out because I'm guessing her 'I'm not sick but I got sick,' after breakfast was her way of telling me that she forcibly purged her stomach. Something that was normal for foster kids to do, especially the girls.
"Let's taste some delicious cakes and pick out a good one for our wedding." I said before placing a gentle kiss on her cheek.
She smiled softly, something I was more than grateful to see. Bella was so beautiful when she smiled.
I pulled her to her feet and grabbed her hand before leading her to the front door. I continuously threw smiles at her in hopes to cheer her up.
"This was really thoughtful Bella," I said as I moved to open the door. My head stayed looking at her though for any signs of panic or shut down.
As I opened the door, I noticed her eyes flickered to the side and her soft smile, fell into a panic. I had the door open before my brain could register her mood shift and look where she was looking.
BANG!
