Happy Day After Thanksgiving to those who celebrate! I am thoroughly stuffed and therefore, incredibly lazy today LOL
Thanks to all of you for sticking with me. We'll be uncovering more and more each chapter.
Enjoy!
Edward leaves not long after, and Isabella tries to fall asleep but finds it is almost impossible. Between the rise in adrenaline from hiding from Marcus at the pub, Edward's revelation about Marcus' plans for her, and Victoria's announcement about the baby, she isn't surprised it evades her.
Rolling over, she can't help but think about Edward's words to her before he left and how everything between them lately has felt sparked by a flame they had unintentionally lit. Nonetheless, the heat of said flame leaves her burned and restless, listening to the rain against the windows as the hours pass on to morning.
What happens next? Will Marcus somehow find a way to get what he wants from her? Will Edward find a way to prevent it from happening? Will all of this get in the way of her true purpose for being here? For finding justice for her brother?
Will she tell Edward that thoughts of him keep her up at night?
She swirls each thought in her head the same way she tosses and turns in her bed.
She must have fallen asleep eventually because her eyes flutter open at the sound of life outside her window. However, last night's late hour makes her sleep past the time she had intended to, and by the time she makes her way down the stairs, everyone in the house has already started their day. The rain has stopped, at least for now, and when she sees Victoria outside through the front window, she quickly makes two cups of coffee and brings them out to the front step.
"He left," Victoria tells her when Isabella opens the front door. Isabella sends her a puzzled look, which makes Victoria roll her eyes with a gentle chuckle. "Edward."
Isabella looks baffled as she hands Victoria a steaming mug. "He was here?"
"He never left," Victoria corrects, thanking Isabella for the coffee. "Until Felix got here at eight." She points towards a large man leaning against the house closer to the corner of the street.
"Oh," Isabella trails off; had he stayed to watch over her until Felix arrived? She looks away before her thoughts have the chance to take over. "I didn't come out here looking for him; I was looking for you, actually."
Victoria laughs ruefully. "So it's your turn to tell me how disappointed you are in me?"
"No," Isabella answers, sitting down on the step with her cup in her hands. "I wanted to see if you wanted to talk about anything."
"To talk," Victoria murmurs, as if she has never heard of such a thing.
"It surely couldn't have been easy for you," Isabella says softly. Victoria, staring out into the street, finally sighs and plops herself down next to her.
"It wasn't." Placing her cup down, she wraps her arms around herself tightly. "Giving her away was one of the hardest things I've ever done. Ever had to do," she corrects herself.
"I'm sorry," Isabella replies. "I wish you didn't have to do it at all."
She tries to imagine raising a child here at the house, and though she's sure Victoria could somehow make it work, she can see the difficulty and danger in doing so.
"I almost got away with it," Victoria muses, thinking of things she isn't ready to share. "Edward got me out of here before anyone even knew."
"What made you come back?"
Victoria looks down at her feet, swallowing hard before answering. "I was a terrible mother. Bringing her back here with me would have only made things worse for everyone."
She stops there, her heart lodged in her throat at how badly she wants to tell Isabella the whole story. How James swept her off her feet, promising to free her from Marcus' clutches so they could raise their baby together with love. How Marcus somehow knew Victoria was days away from leaving town for good — and followed James to The Lost Key to solve the problem the only way he knew how.
End the threat.
Isabella's next question momentarily takes her mind off James. "Do you ever see her? Your daughter?"
"No," she answers with a shake of her head. "I send some money to the woman I left her with every month. It's better that way."
"Is she near here?"
"Not too far," Victoria sighs. "Though some days it feels like a lifetime away."
"I wish things were different for you," Isabella says gently. "I wish there was a way she could be here."
"Here or there, it's me that's the problem. It hurts too much when I look at her and see him."
"Her father?" Isabella asks.
Victoria nods, risking a glance towards Isabella's face. She can see the resemblance in all three of them, James, Isabella, and her child, and an image of the three of them together, looking into the bassinet, makes her heart squeeze tightly in her chest.
It can't ever happen.
"Was he a good man?"
"The best I've ever known," she answers honestly, standing on the step to wave at a group of men on the street. She says nothing more to Isabella as two of them follow her inside, their conversation over for now.
Sighing out loud, Isabella looks over towards Felix before standing and dusting off her skirts. "Come on then," she says, motioning him over with her hand. "I want to go to the shops before my shift later today."
Laughing to herself, she wonders if she shops enough, maybe Felix will collapse from boredom and give her the privacy she wants.
——-TLK——-
Later that night, not far from The Lost Key, Edward approaches Marcus' pub, Dark Shadows. His face is neutral as he nods at the men Marcus keeps at the doors, one disappearing inside quickly. He recognizes them from the last time he was here, and it angers him to know he is here, once again, for similar reasons.
After speaking in depth this morning with Emmett about the events of the night before, they agreed that paying Marcus a visit was in order. Not to drop threats, all Edward plans to do, once again, is to remind Marcus he has been seen at Rosalie's once again, a place he has agreed not to go. He has no intention of mentioning anything regarding Isabella.
He wants Marcus to show his cards first.
At that point, Edward will decide what to do next.
In the past, Marcus has approached his women in ways that entice them to come to him for more, promising them a better life until they can't say no to anything he wants.
With knowledge of Marcus' motives in advance, Edward hopes they'll be able to outsmart all his plans regarding Isabella. While she may be new to the city, she certainly knows how to stand up for herself and get what she wants.
The day she demanded he give her the job at The Lost Key comes to mind.
The man returns from inside the pub, shutting the door behind him before turning to face Edward. "He's not here," he says. "You'll have to come back later."
Edward nods, looking out onto the street before lighting a cigarette. He blows the smoke behind him with a slight turn of his head. "How long will he be?"
"What's it to you?" The man asks.
"Can't blame the man for being in a rush," the other man chimes in. He nudges the first man in the arm with his elbow. "Not when he has that whore behind his bar waiting for him."
Edward has the man against the door of Dark Shadows before he can stop himself. With both of Edward's hands full of the lapels of the man's tailored suit, he shoves him forward against the door once again, his face close enough to count the freckles on the other man's skin.
This is not part of the plan.
His objective to remain emotionless and tactful has failed.
It is him who has shown his cards first tonight, not Marcus.
Before Edward can respond with words to the man's comment, the other man levels a fist to the side of Edward's cheek, below his eye, that immediately loosens his grip on the man he holds against the door. Edward never loses his footing, but he stumbles a few steps toward the street.
That is where he locks eyes with Marcus as he slowly walks towards them with an intrigued look.
"Gentlemen?" Marcus asks, eyeing the three of them as they remember their surroundings. Several people in the streets amble closer to see what will happen next as if this is the latest attraction in Port Angeles.
Edward spits on the ground, the throbbing of his cheek ringing loudly in his ears. He looks directly at Marcus, ignoring the blood he feels slowly dripping from the cut on his face. "Can I have a word?"
Marcus nods without a word, motioning Edward with his hand inside his pub and then to his private room.
He leaves his men outside.
——-TLK——-
Like clockwork, Isabella watches as Felix vacates the seat he has been sitting in at the bar throughout her shift, leaving a cozy space for Alec to take his place. She has seen them around now and then over the last several months, delivering shipments of various alcohol to the pub, so they are not strangers to her.
She's just not used to being watched.
Back home in Forks, she had free rein of the town, with obvious limitations. She never had to look over her shoulder or question what her next move should be.
In some ways, she laughs to herself; she feels safer here than back home, though the dangers here in the city are far more serious than in Forks. With only a few minutes to closing, Emmett begins to count the drawer, heading to Edward's office with the till in hand to finish in peace. Isabella places the clean glasses and bottles where they belong for tomorrow morning while Alec sits in the chair at the end of the bar, his eyes on the clock.
All of them are caught off guard at the sound of the door being flung open, their eyes wide as saucers as they watch Edward make his way angrily to the bar.
"The fuck happened to you?" Emmett asks sharply, coming out of Edward's office. One look at Edward's face, and he's ready to jump into action, whatever it is.
"I'm fine," Edward replies, ignoring the looks he's getting from all directions. He grabs a bottle of whisky from behind the bar and takes a generous swig.
"Was it Marcus?" Isabella asks tentatively.
"No," he answers. He turns and points to Emmett. "Go to the house. Make sure no one suspicious goes near any of the girls. Rosie, too."
Emmett nods, tossing a towel from around his neck onto the bar. He'll get answers later, focusing now on making sure whatever happened with Edward tonight doesn't spread elsewhere.
Edward turns briskly towards Alec. "Same for you. You follow Victoria." He places both hands on the bar, dropping his head in exhaustion. "I'll stay with Isabella."
Alec, never one to question an order from his boss, rises from his seat and follows a few moments behind Emmett.
Taking another swig of whisky, Edward curses the tension in his body as the silence in the pub becomes almost deafening. It's a sound he welcomes after all the noise in his head today, from his own thoughts or reactions. He places the bottle on the bar after another sip, looking up from the floor for the first time since he sent Emmett and Alec away.
He sees her from afar, watching him as he puts himself back together. Using her shoulder, she leans against the wall, in the same spot they were in last night while Marcus was at the door.
He wonders how so much can change in the span of a day.
But then again, he looks at her and realizes it has always been this way between them. A pull, a constant back and forth between how he wishes he doesn't feel anything towards her, and how he can't deny his feelings any longer.
Nothing, and everything at the same time, has changed.
"Come here," Isabella says to him softly from her place in the hallway. Edward swallows sharply, hesitating only for a moment, before moving from the bar.
He makes his way to her, where the light shines just bright enough for her to see his wounds a little better.
When she turns his head toward the light, her fingers pressing gently on the side of his face is enough for him to justify everything.
Not only for what happened tonight with Marcus.
But for so much of his life leading up to this moment.
For the first time in a long time, he doesn't feel lost anymore.