Update two today! Thanks to my team and my readers!
-67-
"What? No, you can't do that. I have to know what happens to her," I stutter, tripping over my words with the reality Weber is raining down on me.
Angela turns and falls back on my couch, sighing loudly with frustration. "Edward, she's not a damn murderer. Not only that but fucking look at you. As happy as I am to see you actually interested in someone for once, you're doing this all wrong, and it's going to ruin everything. Your career, your sanity, your growing relationship with her, all of it."
"There's no growing relationship," I grumble, rolling my eyes. But even as I say it, I know I'm full of shit. I don't need the chastising look Angela is shooting me to figure that out. "And how do you know she's not a murderer?"
"Um, years in the force? The fact that we've both been watching her for months and she has absolutely zero time not accounted for? She works, she volunteers, she helps old ladies cross the street. She meets with friends every now and again, but we've found absolutely nothing to point to there being any validity in her writings."
"So why would she write those things, then? Why wouldn't her characters have names? Why would there be so many similarities between her potential new victim and me?" Some part of me knows what Angela is saying is true, but there's still that part of me that doubts. Even if I'm drawn to Bella in ways I can't ignore.
"Writers draw from real-life circumstances, and you have to admit, the way you two 'met,'" she puts air quotes around the term. "Is unique and compelling. If I were a writer, I'd use it too. As for the names, maybe she just hasn't picked them out yet. Everyone has their own process."
Angela throws her head back on the couch, groaning, then rolls her head to look at me.
"You've done this for so long; you automatically pick out all the bad things. Look, if it makes you feel better, I'll pop in on her every now and again. But from what I can tell, she's just a girl with a dark sense of humor, a lot of fire in her veins, and a big, dumb crush on you. And you like her too, so...go for it. But you can't be on the case anymore."
"I have to protect her," I state fiercely.
"From what, Edward?"
The question makes me pause, realization that Angela is right seeping into my brain. I've always been a "glass half empty" kind of guy, but the real Bella, the one that's given me no cause to think she's capable of any of the things my mind has accused her of...she's always so happy. Always smiling. Fun, carefree, and kind; why wouldn't my brain have an issue wrapping around that?
Why wouldn't I fight against something good coming into my life for once?
"Okay," I sigh, leaning back in my chair and feeling the springs relax back with me. "Okay, I'm off the case."
Angela nods then walks to my computer and does everything she needs to do to uninstall Isabella Swan from my professional life.
So what does this mean for him and Bella? ;)
