A/N: A quick thank you to everyone who added this story in their alerts and/or added it to their favorite list. It truly means a lot to me.

Chapter 10-

Bella's POV-

"Open the door, brother. I know she is in there. I can scent her presence. I can't believe you hid this from me, but now I know the truth."

Shit.

It was Aro.

I turned to look at Marcus, a frown on my face and worry evident in my eyes. What unexpected twist in the tale was this now?

What was Aro doing here?

Who invited him? And more importantly, where could I find this person who invited him so that he can be shot dead in the head?

That was of utmost necessary, you know?

Marcus sighed audibly, his hand coming to intertwine in me, for the purpose of offering him or me support, I did not know, but still it felt good, I had to admit that.

"We will have to admit to the truth." Marcus whispered to me, shaking his head and letting lose an unneeded breath.

What? No?

That was so not needed….or wanted.

It was not supposed to happen this way.

I did not trust Aro, not at all; not even a tiny bit the size of a small boat stuck in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Needless to point out, I would rather trust my proclaimed enemy than tell Aro any of my secrets.

Heck, I would rather blurt out all my secrets to Tanya- the obvious snake- than be in this situation.

So maybe, I needed to tone down on the hatred that I felt for my step-mother- Yuck, I almost spat in my mouth on that forced acceptance- but seriously, have you even looked at her?

She is just so damn fake, smiling widely when she was uncomfortable…. The more uncomfortable she is, the wider her smile.

In fact, by the end of my stay with the two of them, I had started to treat this as a game, checking to see of how very uncomfortable I could make Tanya- the assessment being done through how wide her smile was.

Yeah…so maybe I was a horrible step- daughter for treating her so.

But, in my defense…

Wait.

Let me think.

Yeah…..I have nothing to state in my defense.

It was fun, which is all I can say.

Anyhow, I can never forget the time when she walked into my room- a week after she married daddy dearest, stating to me proudly that I now had a mother in her and could go to her with any and every problem of mine. Okay, so I could appreciate the gesture. She simply wanted to extend that olive branch, but come on, she looked twenty and I was eighteen. Do you really expect me to not laugh out loud at her words?

I had sobered up though, when I realized how damn wide her smile was.

And if that conversation was not punishment enough, Charlie had scowled at me for a week straight every time I came in front of him.

Yeah…so…anyway…coming back to the topic at hand, I really did not trust Aro. I really did not want him to know any of my secrets- all of them being a far throw away.

But it did not seem like I had much of an option in the matter.

Ready or not, Aro was here, banging on my front door like it was his damn home and he could break whatever furniture he deemed unnecessary, without even blinking an eyelid; which in hindsight, was absolutely true.

This was his home.

I was the guest here….unwanted and unneeded.

The feeling was completely mutual, though.

"Don't worry," Marcus pulled me out of my thoughts. "We can handle this. Sooner or later, this was going to happen, either way."

I sighed, meeting his eyes. "But…this soon…."

He shrugged it off. "Unexpected indeed, but we now have no choice but to deal with the consequences."

I frowned, nodding my head, recognizing the truth in his words.

We would have to face the aftermath.

There was simply no other choice but to.

He took a step ahead, in the direction of the door, turning to look at me one last time before opening the door and letting his brother enter- his very enraged brother, I must mention, who had a firmly placed scowl on his face.

"Where is she?" he demanded to know, looking up and realizing that I was right in front of him- less than three seconds later.

This is exactly why it was said; think before you speak something out loud.

It saves you from looking like an idiot…that is for sure.

"Sister," he gasped, grinning evilly at me, all his sharp teeth out and pointed.

I took a step back in fear and hesitance, my eyes wide and cautious; Marcus understanding my unspoken fear and coming to stand in front of me, his hand grabbing mine and soothingly running circles over it.

I let out a sigh of relief. I was glad to have him around. He had come to mean something to me in this short a while…almost like we had started to become friends.

I was thankful for that development, indeed.

"Brother," Marcus sighed, taking the lead in the situation. "What do you mean?"

Too late for that tactic, Marcus, I rolled my eyes internally.

I am pretty sure the cat was already out of the bag.

Aro scowled at his words, looking terribly offended for some unknown reason. "Don't take me for a fool, brother. I know the truth. Sulpicia tried to hide it from me, but when has she ever been successful in hiding anything from me? With just one look at her face, I can tell that she knows something she does not want me to know about."

He looked exceptionally proud of this fact, for some incomprehensible reason, but okay.

Anyhow, I now knew with a hundred percent surety that we, or rather Marcus, should never have told Sulpicia the truth….not even a mere version of the truth.

I could feel it in my bones…that it would have come biting us in the ass in the future, and look here it was.

We were supposed to keep it a damn secret, but it didn't look like that was happening anytime soon.

Now that Aro knew the truth, everyone in this castle would know the truth in mere minutes.

I could simply look at his face and know that.

Sigh.

Marcus, what have you done?

I turned to glare at the person in question, shaking my head with a frown firmly placed when he refused to look up and meet my eyes.

I knew we should have discussed over this.

I knew we should have thought over it…finally deciding that it was really not that very important to discuss over.

Like come on, I simply shared a soul with her.

We were not the same person.

I was not her.

I did not even want to be her.

This was just not important enough to bother ourselves with.

Sure, Marcus had once had a soul-mate named Didyme, but she was long dead and that story was over. I was Isabella Marie Swan, the only child of Charles Swan and Renee Dywer, who had nothing to do with one Didyme Volturi- and that was the only fact in this whole matter.

Aro was not my brother- yuck!

This castle was not my home, thankfully.

And I was not a vampire, once again, fortunately.

Of course, one look at Marcus and I knew that that last status would soon come to change.

I could see it in his very eyes- and he himself had spoken about this before- that he refused to see me go away from him. He would not let me die, and neither would he let me go anywhere away from him.

I was his forever, and that was a definite in his eyes.

So maybe, I was still not on complete terms of how to come to acceptance with this news, but seriously, not everyone goes through such stuff in their normal life, you know?

A tremendously good looking and delicious…um… immortal vampire was promising forever to me, telling me that he had been waiting more than millennia for me to arrive, his heart and soul solely mine since the beginning of time.

Sounds romantic, I know.

But since when did such stuff begin to happen in real life?

This is story book stuff; the plotlines on which movies are made and appreciated by the audience.

This is not reality.

This was never reality.

It should never be reality.

Real life and fiction were poles apart, just the way it should have been. Fiction was for the purpose of entertaining when you wanted to escape the turmoil that reality brought with it.

That was the sole purpose for fiction to exist- a distraction from reality for the curious mind.

Vampires should never have existed.

The supernatural genre- in whole- should never have existed.

Mating bonds should never have existed.

Neither would they have existed and nor would I have been here- see, win-win for all.

There was simply no escaping from reality….as I had always come to believe and accept.

Apparently though, my destiny had not received that memo, as everything which was supposed to be fiction, was now in my reality, while I was forced to deal the aftermath of this ridiculousness.

I almost wondered if I was the lead character of some novel, stuck in this world of supernatural.

It would make sense if I were, you know.

The amount of twists and turns that my life was suddenly taking, it seemed fit to fill a page of a notebook.

Alas.

There was no exit for me at the moment.

Trust me, I had tried finding one.

Marcus sighed, bringing me back to the world of present. "Look Aro…."

Aro waved a hand in the air, his eyes never straying from mine. "Is that really her? I can't believe this."

I rolled my eyes at him, annoyed by whatever bullshit was now occurring in my life.

I simply wanted to go home.

Was that too much to ask for?

"She is right here, you know?" I referred to myself in third person. "And to answer your question, yes, I am Bella Swan, a nomad of sorts, working for a travel magazine and residing in The United States of America. I would say it is a pleasure to meet you, but I really don't want to lie, you know."

I was not a fool.

I knew exactly what he was referring to, but yeah, I was not going to admit it.

I could pretend to be clueless.

That seemed to satisfy my ego better.

And frankly, I was simply exhausted of clarifying that I was not some dead woman whose soul had reincarnated in me.

I was my own self- and I was glad to be that.

I was glad to be Bella Swan.

I did not wish to be Didyme Volturi, no matter how good or beautiful she had been, but I simply had no idea of how many times I would have to keep repeating this same one fact over and over again.

It was annoying after a point to continuously do so.

"Aro," Marcus sighed, giving me a brief glance. "This is Bella- my mate." There was no hesitance in his tone. I gave him a small smile at that gesture. Even though I didn't exactly know what all this mate business entailed, the word mate coming out of his mouth was enough to cause warm butterflies in me.

I was seriously confused, I know.

"But….Didyme was your mate?" He protested. "Is this not her?"

I raised an eyebrow in question, resisting the heavy urge to just mutter- do I look like her, you complete fool?

Of course, I had a hunch that that would not go so very well.

Marcus sighed, frowning. "Didyme's soul has been reincarnated. It is the same soul, but different person. Of course, we bond with the soul and hence, Bella is my mate."

Thank you, Marcus, for clarifying that out.

Now we only needed to clarify it nine hundred and ninety nine times more to the rest of this Castle and all the vampires who had once known Didyme.

Seems like a piece of cake, right?

Aro looked confused for a moment before he suddenly grinned- looking almost relieved, I would say.

What secrets was this man hiding, huh?

"Wonderful," he clapped his hands in glee. "I am so happy that Marcus finally has his mate with him. He has been alone for a rather long time now."

His smile was bright- almost genuine, but his words felt sort of stifled and fake…like Tanya's always did.

Marcus gave him a brief nod, a small smile accompanying the gesture.

"This calls for a celebration." He cheered, looking way too satisfied at the moment. There was something definitely fishy about him. "I will tell Heidi to make the preparations- an unlimited buffet for all of us tomorrow night. Sure, we have all recently fed, but it can be like dessert. You never say no to dessert. Anyway, she can leave this very moment to begin the fishing process….."

"Aro," Marcus cut him off, thankfully. "My mate is human. I am definite this kind of a celebration would make her severely uncomfortable."

That being the understatement of the year!

He wrapped his arms around me, and I simply nodded my head in agreement, an obvious like smile on my face.

I definitely did not wish to attend such a celebration….a celebration in which the guest of honor and the food are one and the same. I shuddered at that thought.

Aro pouted, crossing his arms over his chest like a troubled toddler.

"Okay then," he spoke. "We can have a celebration without food tomorrow night."

He looked tremendously upset by this statement.

Now, I could completely understand the need for food in a party. What kind of a party was it that had no food…right?

But, why the hell did I need to be invited in said party?

I was perfectly happy to stay far out of the guest list, you know?

"Brother," Marcus raised an eyebrow at him. "I don't think we need a celebration…."

"Oh, come on," Aro waved him off, grinning. "You have finally found your mate. This is a big deal. We need to announce it to the vampire world, beginning with our very own guard members. The celebration is simply non- negotiable."

I sighed, shutting my eyes.

Was Aro always this damn stubborn?

I turned to look at Marcus- who simply shrugged in response, accepting his defeat on said matter.

I guess we were having a party, yay me!

Surrounded by hungry vampires on all of my sides, my ultimate fantasy coming to life!

Cue the sarcasm!

Aro looked immensely pleased by this development, offering me his hand…waiting for me to take it…for some- difficult to recognize- reason.

I frowned in confusion. I really did not want to take his hand, no matter what he was trying to do with said gesture. He was just weird. It was high time everyone accepted it.

Marcus let lose a breath, refusing to comment out loud on any of this. I shook my head in annoyance. Someday the fact that he refused to speak against his 'brothers', was going to cause severe arguments between the two of us.

I don't care who Aro was.

He is not my brother that I should care about his feelings and shit.

I will call a spade a spade, thank you very much.

I could try to understand Marcus's point of view. Aro was family to him, and often we refuse to speak against family…even if we know that what they are doing is wrong….or simply weird.

That is just the way it is.

I could understand it.

I could even accept it.

But, once in a while, I did want my side to be taken.

I did want to be the one he chose over his brothers.

I was not being selfish.

I was not the kind to demand that I be the only important person to exist in my ma….someone's life- let's not go there; at least not yet- but yes, I did want to be placed first in someone's list of priorities at times.

But still, it was too new between Marcus and me to really take offense on such a gesture.

He did not even know me enough, and neither did I.

We had just become friends. It was not like we were aware of what irritated the other and what the other liked.

He probably did not even mean anything by his silence.

It may not have even crossed his mind that I would not appreciate it.

Yes, that had to be it.

"Mio Caro," Aro smiled, waiting for me to keep my hand ahead, placing it in his.

I gave him a small smile in response, frowning internally, but doing as was asked.

He shut his eyes- weirdly enough; pouting when apparently he did not get the answer he was searching for.

Marcus looked to me in curiosity, confused by whatever was happening here.

Join the club, buddy.

Finally, Aro opened his eyes, a look of complete offense on his face. "Why can't I read your mind?"

"What," I questioned; ignoring the fact that Marcus had gasped at this revelation.

What did he even mean by that?

"I can't read her mind. It is completely blank to me." Aro waved his hands in air, turning to look at Marcus, desperation evident in his tone.

"Wow," Marcus almost laughed, covering his laugh with a cough at the last moment. I turned to give him a confused stare, waiting for some answers myself.

"That is Aro's power." He sighed, whispering in my ear. "He can read a person's mind by touching their hand."

Oh.

Wow.

Vampires could have such crazy powers, too.

That was unexpected.

Anyhow, he could not read my mind.

This is what he had meant.

I hid my smile, way too happy by this sudden revelation.

Aro pouted, frowning one last time, turning away and storming out of the room, probably to pout in some corner.

Thank God for small mercies, I would say.