Edward's POV:

She was even more beautiful than the last time I saw her.

Her youthful face had become aristocratic, sharper than when I last saw her. But this was her, I could feel it. No cosmetic procedures could change the unique color of her eyes.

Or the wise gleam she held in them.

Her hair was no longer auburn but a shade or two darker with an icy blonde in the front wisps of her hair.

As she turned away, I saw her make a hand gesture to the people around her, so they'd follow her to the car without hesitation.

Jasper, and Emmett stared at her in surprise as she turned and got into the white SUV without looking back.

We exchanged surprised stares before snapping out of it and rushing to climb into the black SUV, with tinted windows.

We followed them to a small restaurant called La Vita Dell'amore.

She got out of the SUV with only the woman, walking towards the restaurant with confidence that radiated from her as she moved.

An older woman was waiting for us by the door as Felix went to park the SUV. We entered the restaurant and were led to a back room.

Bella and two other women were sitting on either side of her. She had removed her coat, and was sipping a glass of wine as she gestured for us to sit down.

Jasper, and Emmett sat down without hesitation. Leaving a seat in between them so I could sit down.

Never uttering a single word she gestured for us to start talking.

"How did you survive?" Jasper asked.

She looked at him for a moment, before sighing, "Not without damage, I'll tell you that. I had a broken leg, concussion, and fractured ribs." She replied, calmly.

I stared at her, trying to see what she was thinking, but her eyes no longer allowed me that privilege, they stared ahead, blankly. No emotion showing within them like they used to.

"The hospital staff told us you were dead. They even showed us your… well you know. How was that possible?" Emmett asked, as he leaned forward.

She looked in his direction, before giving him a secretive smile. "It's a secret." She told him, with a small smile.

"What can you tell us?" Jasper asked, leaning back with a frown.

"About as much as you told me about my family." She replied with a steely edge in her tone as she took a sip from her wine.

We all flinched at her tone, as she scoffed and turned away to answer something one of the women told her something. She nodded before they both stood up and made their way out of the room.

When they left I turned and looked at both Emmett and Jasper, "Why don't you two go and get something to eat?" I suggested giving them a look.

They wordlessly nodded and made their way out of the room.

As soon as they left, I turned to look her in the eye again.

The silence stretched out between us, making the distance between us seen vaster than I thought possible.

As she looked back at me I saw a flicker of her oldself. The love we once held for each other. It was there, somewhere. I knew it.

But as she blinked again, the cold, emotionless look returned and the silence stretched on.

Finally it grew so uncomfortable that I couldn't take it anymore. I had to know.

"How is it you can sit there and look at me like that but refuse to utter a single word?" I demanded as I stood up, rigidly.

She looked up at me, a flicker of emotion flashed through her eyes before she blinked and looked away.

"There's nothing I want to say to you." She finally said.

"Oh no? Maybe you should fucking tell me why you thought it was a good fucking idea to hide my daughter from me for five years?!" I growled.

She looked up at me, her eyes harder than before, as she rose from her seat, throwing it back hard. "You don't fucking get to yell at me when you're the one who put us in danger in the first place! Who the fuck do you think you are? You all lied to me my entire life. The way I see it, you don't get to demand shit." She growled back.

Her eyes turned the color of a seastorm, her chin jutting out in defiance. Her shoulders were stiff as if preparing for battle. Fuck if she didn't look fucking sexy doing it.

"I'm your husband." I told her.

"Correction. You were. The marriage was dissolved after I found out my birthday was changed. I wasn't eighteen in Bora Bora, Edward. I was seventeen. My actual birthday? Is on September twenty third. Making the marriage invalid. You and I? We were never married." She told me, with an unpleasant expression.

I frowned, shaking my head in disbelief.

"No. No. How is that possible?" I asked, as the blood drained from my face.

"As it turns out not all my family was gone. Just hidden. And for good reason too. Just like your family? Mine happens to know a thing or two about this world. I was given the choice a while back to take my rightful place in the Romanian sect. I, however, refused because I wanted my daughter to have a chance at normalcy." She explained.

I frowned in confusion. "Your family? As In Renee Higginbotham and Charles Swan? Them?" I asked, confused.

She nodded, "That's exactly who I am referring to. Except my father wasn't who he said he was. Neither was my mother. See, Charles, or better known as Luca Nicolescu Alexandrescu, was the oldest son of Nicolai Alexandrescu. He refused to take charge over the sect and opted to run away with a woman he met, her name? Renata Moretti. They eloped and moved to New York, where they had a daughter, can you guess where I am going with this, Eduardo?" She asked.

I shook my head, and sat back down, feeling the blood rush to my feet.

"Can you guess where I am going with this?" She repeated as she slowly walked over to me, her face devoid of emotion.

"If this is true…" I began, me head spinning.

"It means your father lied to us all. He knew who was responsible for everything and he hid it. So I ask you one time. Did. You. Know?" She asked coldly as she pulled out a gun.

She clicked the safety off and cocked it, "Answer. Me." She demanded.

I stared at her for a moment standing up, causing the gun to hit my chest. "No, I didn't know any of this." I told her.

"Did you also not know that the people who killed my family were actually a different sect of Romania and I actually took them down with the help of a few friends? Who you got were the rest of the people who infiltrated my grandfather's sect. So, I suppose a 'thank you' is in order." She continued.

Something wasn't adding up. I had to find out.

"Was your father truly a gambling drunk or was that a lie too?" I asked.

"No, he did like gambling, maybe a little too much, but not to the extent we were all made to believe. Stephen Stoica and his little gang took out my parents. What your father doesn't know is that when the Romanians were looking for me, it was to protect me. Those people were family." She told me.

"Who was the one who helped you leave the hospital?" I finally asked.

"Shelly Cope, my great aunt, and Henry Turner." She told me. "They helped me through my pregnancy and helped me when I wanted to get the cosmetic surgery." She informed me.

"Why did you stay away for so long? And if you wanted normalcy, why become a musician of all things?" I asked her, shaking my head.

She sighed, dropping the gun, before taking a step back. "It wasn't planned, I used to work at a coffee shop, and enjoyed being independent, paying my own bills and all that stuff. But normalcy has never been in the cards for me. I knew immediately after my paternal grandfather showed up a year ago, and asked to speak to me. He is the one who told me everything, showed me the proof. I saw everything with my own eyes, and there was no denying it." She told me.

"I didn't know this." I told her, honestly, hoping to God she believes me.

"I know. I knew the moment I saw you. But that doesn't change anything. I can't go back there. Olivia can't go either, not if she is risking her life. I won't allow her to be in danger. Not if I can help it." She finally told me.

"I understand that, I do. But me and my family deserve to meet her." I told her.

"See that's where you're wrong, il mio lui. Until you get to the bottom of this, none of them can come near her." She said firmly.

"How do you know it's my father who is responsible for all of this?" I asked her.

"Oh, he isn't responsible, he didn't pay Stephen to do it, he didn't pull the trigger either but he did hide the fact that I had family out there. I need you to find out why he did it." She told me.

I sighed, this was a fucking clusterfuck of a situation. "You realize this is ludicrous, right?" I finally told her.

She shrugged, " I don't have anything left to lose, Edward. You do. Take your pick, you either help me, or you go on living your life like this day never happened." She told me.

I stood up, and made my way over to her, this caused her to raise her the gun and poke me in the chest with it, hard.

"Where does this leave you and me?" I asked her.

She looked away, "There is no 'you and me' anymore. You made sure of that." She finally whispered, unwilling to look me in the eye.

"If that's true, then I need you to shoot me, because not having you in my life, not seeing you everyday, if a fate worse than death. I've missed you like you wouldn't believe. I can't go back to that… I simple can't." I told her, refusing to believe what she telling me.

A gasp left her lips, as she blinked away tears, her bottom lip trembling as she looked down.

"At least look me in the eye, and tell me that it's over, and I'll—" I began, swallowing hard as I tried to push the words out. "I'll leave you and our daughter alone." I told her.

She shook her head, swallowing hard, before she put the safety on, her shoulders slumping "Why can't I shoot you?" She growled, wiping at her face fiercely.

"Because you still feel the same way I do. Because you still love me." I told her as I swiped the gun away from her hold and pulled her into me.

"I hate you." She sobbed, as she wrapped her arms around me.

"I love you too, mio amore. Non riesco a immaginare un mondo senza di te. Sei il mio tutto e il pensiero di perderti è troppo. Non mi lasciare mai." I whispered into her hair. (I can't imagine a world without you. You are my everything and the thought of losing you is too much. Never leave me.)

She nodded her head, still sniffling as she clung tighter to me.

We stood there holding each other for a long time, both of us in tears as we finally held each other after so long.

When we were finally able to let go, I guided her back to a chair and pulled one next to her, both of us knew this conversation wasn't over. Far from it.

"Who were all those people with gun earlier?" I asked her.

"Oh. They're the body guards my grandfather, and Henry got for me." She finally said.

I nodded, thar fact made me feel better. I knew she and our daughter were protected. "The women from earlier?" I asked.

"That was Kate, her sister Irina, and Carmen was the woman by the door. They were all trained in some form of the combat and carry guns. Even Angela, Olivia's babysitter, carries. We're perfectly safe." She told me, licking her lips.

"Why become a singer if you were hiding from my family and I?" I asked her.

She shrugged, "Like I told you earlier, this wasn't planned, I was wiping down tables, while I sang to Olivia, who was in her stroller, and Heath heard me, he's the one who signed me to the label, he asked if I could go in to record a song and the rest as they say is history. Besides that, the money was a little better so I was able to move to a different, much safer, place." She told me.

"Where do you have to go next?" I asked her.

"Rome, then it'll be Madrid, and after that I'll be heading to New York, and then Brazil." She told me.

I sighed, nodding in response. I couldn't just follow her, as much as I wanted to, I needed to head back to New York and settled some business, I also had to find out what my dad really knows.

"New York." She said, pulling me out of my thoughts.

I looked up at her, with a frown. "What?"

"We'll meet you in New York. It's in three weeks. It'll give you enough time to find out what I told you. Can you do it?" She asked.

I thought for a second. "Yeah." I sighed.

"Good. So, I'll see you then." She whispered as she began to get up.

I pulled her to a stop. "Promise me you'll be safe?" I asked.

She gave me a genuine smile before extending her pinky towards me.

I smiled and wrapped mine around hers.

"Promise." She told me, before standing up.

Before she left she pulled out a cellphone and offered it to me. I quickly input my number, watching as she saved it before calling me.

I save it, before standing up and walking out of the room with her.

Nothing else was said as my brothers and I left that night and headed back to New York.

Author's Note:

One More Chapter!