Two headlights shine through the sleepless night and I will get you a, get you alone. Your name has echoed through my mind and I just, think you should, think you should know. That nothing safe is worth the drive and I would, follow you, follow you home. I'll follow you, follow you home. This hope is treacherous, this daydream is dangerous. ~ Taylor Swift, Treacherous

EPOV

It had been my mission from the minute Bella got released from jail to keep her as far away from any reminders of that time. We ran into people from the past, mainly Biers and Call, from time to time and I always kept the interactions as short as possible.

I could have gotten rid of them years ago. After an appropriate amount of time passed from the trial it wouldn't have looked too suspicious. There were plenty of people I wanted dead after the whole ordeal; Call, Biers, every fucking officer in the CPD, the list was endless.

Bella, however, was vehemently against the idea of me taking out anyone associated with the case. I wasn't sure if it was because she didn't want people hurt because of her, or because she didn't want me getting in trouble over it, but I respected her wishes. No matter how many times I longed to see the life leave Call's eyes.

I had abided by her wishes for a long time. Technically, I still was doing as she asked. I had no intention of killing Call tonight, but that didn't mean I couldn't fuck with him.

His home was anything but modest, but I couldn't judge that considering my home was three times as big. It was, however, bigger than most state prosecutors could have hoped for. Thanks in large part to the case that should have ended his career, but instead got him book deals and talk show appearances and a level of respect in his industry that he was entirely undeserving of.

I took a sip of the whisky that his wife poured me when I showed up. She was a smart woman who immediately tried to tell me to leave, but I was far from a kind man where she was concerned. I wouldn't hurt her, or the twins they had sleeping down the hall. They were my leverage to keep his wife quiet.

I sat at their dining room table, swirling my drink and looking around. There were sparkly things… everywhere, dolls in poses along their furniture, and a bucket full of stuffed animals in the corner. There was also sports equipment in the laundry room I scoped out doing a quick sweep of the house, and an impressive gaming system in a side room.

Perhaps I should have been thinking about what I wanted to talk to Embry about, but the scenery was distracting. I wondered if my home would have looked like this room had we had a girl instead of a boy. As it was, there was about a seven-year span where legos were everywhere and baseballs were constantly tripped over. All very classic boy things, a stark contrast to this place.

"Do you think a girl is harder to raise than a boy?" I asked, trying my best to hide my smirk when she jumped a little at my voice.

"W-what?"

"Your twins, you have a boy and a girl, correct?" She tensed when I mentioned her children. "I told you, I won't hurt you or them if you cooperate."

"You want to talk about parenting?"

I shrugged. "When my wife was pregnant, I couldn't decide what I wanted it to be. A boy would have been more… beneficial to me, as I'm sure you know. But, a girl with her mother's eyes and charisma… she would have been fucking adorable. I just don't know if I could have dealt with the princesses and sparkles."

Even as I said it, I knew that was probably a lie. I was sure any girl with Bella's genes would have been able to get me to sit for hours while she covered me in sparkly shit.

"Most of that stuff is my son's. My daughter plays soccer at school."

Huh. It didn't matter, I supposed. Aiden had naturally gravitated toward the more traditional, boy side of things. We let him pick out his own toys and clothes when he was old enough and that was what he wanted. If he wanted dolls and sparkles, that was what he would have gotten.

"It all depends on the kid, not the gender. Some girls are angels and others are a handful. Some boys destroy everything and some keep the entire house spotless."

It was all beside the point now. Aiden had turned into a solid, dependable young man. He went through more shit than most kids ever did and picked himself up. It didn't matter if he grew up playing sports or playing with dolls, or if he liked sparkles or not.

I didn't have time to think much more about it, because the sound of a key turning in the front door interrupted us.

I heard the nearly silent gasp from behind me as Call walked in. As expected, he went for the small table in the entryway, the one where I found a gun stashed earlier.

"Interesting," I pondered, spinning the gun he was looking for on the table in front of me. "Your first reaction when you see an intruder in your house is to go for a gun you had stashed away. Sound familiar?" The fucker tore into my wife time and time again for doing the same thing.

He ignored me and looked at his wife. "Are the kids –"

I rolled my eyes. "Your kids and wife are fine. I'm not a monster," I said with a chuckle that proved the opposite. "Take a seat."

I stood, rolling up my sleeves and enjoying the thick tension in the room. I was already tired of being around him and decided to forgo any pleasantries. "I watched the trial, you know, from my private island when you thought I was dead."

"It was decades ago, Cullen. Move on."

"Like you have? Milking the whole thing for every fucking penny you can get?"

"I –"

"You questioned my wife like she was a common criminal, throwing my death in her face until she was sick." Sometimes, at the most random moments, I would remember watching the trial, seeing her so broken and fragile while she fought to defend herself. It was something I would never be able to forget.

"She is a criminal."

I stood behind him now, and didn't hesitate to slam his face into the hardwood table he sat at beside his wife. There was a satisfying snap that told me his nose was most definitely broken.

"You and Biers and every other fucker that tried to take her down are lucky to still be breathing," I hissed, ignoring his wife's silent sobs beside him. I started pacing behind them, enjoying listening to him moan in pain. "Then, you write books and go on talk shows to make a few bucks off of the whole thing. Obviously more than a few, considering the size of your home. Now, you're going to my son's school to tell him and all of his classmates that my wife belongs behind bars?"

"I'm going there to talk about one of the most controversial criminal trials in the city. It's nothing fucking personal, Cullen."

"No, what's personal is deciding to just now start doing it when my son is there."

He was silent, which was all the answer I needed. I stopped behind him again and slammed him into the table one last time, for good measure. "You're going to back out. I don't care if you say you're sick or if you blow the whole thing off, you will not be going to that lecture, do you understand?"

He nodded slightly.

I sighed, downing the last of my drink and putting my suit coat back on. "Lovely to meet you, Samantha," I told his wife, who would no longer look me in the eyes.

Dark…

The next afternoon I ended up in a small coffee shop in the middle of downtown, surrounded by college students. It was a well-known spot on campus, and not too far of a walk from Aiden's dorm. We'd planned to meet here once he got the message saying his lecture with Embry Call had been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances.

A girl at least half my age sat down across from me and smiled. "Is this seat taken?"

I stared at her, frowning. My conversation with Samantha, Call's wife, floated back into my mind. While I would have loved any child we had, I was suddenly eternally grateful we never had a girl. It would have been a hell of a lot of work keeping men away from her, and I sure as hell would have made sure she wasn't going around coffee shops flirting with men old enough to be her father.

"You can leave, now," Aiden said, appearing behind her. He held himself differently, taller, more confident these days. The girl turned around to argue, but the way Aiden glared at her, his voice and his stature made her change her mind. It was all too familiar of a way of intimidation.

Ever since his graduation party he'd made every not-so-subtle hint possible that he wanted in on the family business, and I was still trying to decide what to do. Moments like this, though, showed me he was turning into just the right person for the job.

My instinct as his father was to tell him to shut it down, get a normal job and life and stay as far away from this one as possible, but my instinct as a Cullen told me everything was falling into place.

"I can't take either of you anywhere," Aiden grumbled, sitting down opposite of me. "Do you know how many guys come up to me, drunk off their asses, and ask me to tell them next time Mom is coming to visit me?"

Typically, when I heard of men trying to get to my wife, a shot of jealousy would shoot through me. Not because I ever thought she would want someone else, but because I didn't like her in anyone else's mind. The thought of drunk college kids thinking they had a chance with her was slightly funny, though.

"Your mother is…" I tried to find a word that wouldn't be mortifying to him, but I came up empty. "Honestly, hot as hell."

His face scrunched up, his nose wrinkling the same way Bella's did. "This isn't what we're here to talk about."

"No, it's not. Do you have your part ready?"

"Of course. Finished it four days ago."

"Always the over achiever," I said with a smirk, thanking God the days of him yelling at me in my office, shouting names at Bella and high as hell were long gone.

"Ma thinks we're just going out to dinner, right?"

"Yeah, come by the house around seven and we'll drive together."

Bella was under the impression we were going out to a simple family dinner downtown. When I got home later that night she was coming down the stairs, fastening a pair of earrings in. She was in a pretty little peach sundress, and I made a note to enjoy the sight because it was probably the last one I would see for a while. It was unseasonably warm right now, but another harsh Chicago winter was right around the corner.

When she got to me I grabbed her arm and made her do a little twirl. "Beautiful," I murmured, not ashamed to let my eyes slowly travel from the tips of her toes to her eyes.

I pulled her over to the couch, stalling because she didn't know Aiden was coming here first. If she had it her way, we'd leave immediately and be there twenty minutes before anyone else.

With little protest from Bella I pulled her into my lap, rubbing her calves with my hands while she tugged at my hair with hers. She opened her mouth to say something, closing it quickly. She had been on the verge of telling me… something the last few days. I had a feeling it was about retirement, but I wasn't sure.

Tonight, hopefully we'd get everything out in the air.

There was a perk to her reluctance, though, and that was that whenever she chickened out on telling me whatever it was her fall back was to distract me with sex. I wasn't complaining.

She kissed me and her lips were soft and smooth and perfect. Thoughts and plans flooded out of my mind, just like she wanted. A good make-out session was often disregarded when you got older; there were much more fun things to get to when you had more freedom than your parents' couch. But, right here with my girl in my lap and her taste saturating my senses was damn near perfect.

I was ready to call the whole evening off when her hand slid between us, running along my cock that was begging for her attention. She started to pull away, and I was positive I was about eight seconds from having her lips, pink and swollen from our kiss, wrapped around my cock when the front door opened.

"Damnit," I muttered, scrubbing my hands over my face.

"Are you guys ready to – seriously? I go to school and you guys decide to just… lose all sense of boundaries?"

"What are you doing here?" Bella asked, standing and straightening her dress with shaky hands. It'd be adorable if I wasn't so frustrated now.

"We're going to dinner," Aiden replied, obviously lying. He hadn't inherited an ounce of Bella's acting ability.

"You drove all the way out here to go with us to dinner… four blocks from your dorm?"

"Well, I… I thought – "

I stood and grabbed Bella's hand. "There's a slight change in plans. Come."

Bella asked question after question in the car, grumbling every time we refused to answer. She was persistent, but it didn't get her very far in this case. I watched her as I parked, knowing she would recognize the place. It was a large warehouse, one that was actually kept up. The place she used to rent out for her tour rehearsals.

"Edward, what are we – "

I didn't let her finish, getting out of the car and opening her door for her. It was almost comical, watching her eyes dart around like she was waiting for someone to jump out at her. When we got inside, everything was set up as I had requested.

The stage was there, lighting up the room with the white backdrop and reputation written across it in black. The entire thing had been put in storage after her tour, and it took some repairs to get everything working right again, but it was just as it had been the last time she stepped on to it in front of a sold-out crowd at Soldier Field.

"What did you do?" Bella hissed under her breath.

I squeezed her hand and walked us over to the chairs set up in the middle of the room. The rest of the family was already there, but they kept to themselves. It was a delicate situation, but they all wanted to be here.

Aiden was in the corner, talking to one of the tech guys I hired to restore the stage. A few seconds later the screen went black and the video he put together started.

The video was all him. I was going to set up the stage and bring Bella here alone, give her a taste of what I knew she was craving. Then, Aiden told me what he was working on and I figured it would make for a perfect moment with the ideas combined. The stage consisted of two video walls, perfect for what we had planned.

Bella didn't talk about it often, but I knew she missed the connection her music brought her with people across the world. It wasn't something I understood very well, but she genuinely loved every person who listened to her music or watched her movies, even though she had never met most of them.

When people stopped her on the street for a picture she never got upset at the intrusion. If she saw someone across a restaurant wearing a shirt with her lyrics written on it she paid for their meal. When she was having a bad day, she scrolled through posts online of people still talking about how, after twenty years, they still wanted new music from her, new anything.

Bella squeezed my hand as Aiden's video started. The footage was blurry, probably because it was a couple decades old, but it started with Bella being interviewed at the premiere of her first movie. It was a video I had a vague memory of watching once. She was young and nervous and sweet. The video progressed with her career; her winning her first Oscar, going on her first tour, all of the things she's accomplished through pure willpower and drive.

Aiden thankfully left out the downfalls, the trial and the backlash we got for getting married. Through it all he made a point to focus on the fans, the people that lined up for blocks to stand beside a red carpet or the ones going all out with costumes for her shows.

There was a montage of people crying in stadiums, simply because they were in the same room with my wife and it was a little surreal. She had always been Bella to me, talented, gorgeous, my reason for existing most days… but to these people she was Bella, the woman with the awards and the songs and the one who wrote about her life because people related to it.

Maybe it had been too long since I thought about it, or maybe I just forgot how big of a spectacle she once was, but the shots of the seas of people she once performed for sent a surge of pride through me.

Everyone, myself included, held their breath when the video ended and the lights floated back on.

Bella cleared her throat, eyes still on the stage. "Can I… have a minute alone?"
Everyone stood and left, some stopping to give her a hug or an encouraging word. I pressed a lingering kiss to her cheek before I stood in the doorway, unable to help peeking in on her. She stood there for a minute or two, just pacing and looking at her surroundings. Eventually she got brave enough to walk up to the stage, taking the small stairs up to it one at a time. She walked along, her steps careful until she ended up front and center.

She looked so small, up there all alone. There wasn't a doubt in my mind she could do something like that again, take that stage and make it hers. I wouldn't have been pushing so hard if I didn't know she wanted it.

Bella was quiet the rest of the night. We did end up at dinner eventually, but no one pushed the issue much. There was talk of memories the video brought back, but nothing specifically about what was next.

When we got back home, I knew I was probably in for a fight. Bella wasn't one for surprises, or having people meddle in her career choices. She never let me give up, though. Never asked me to quit my job even though it caused her nothing but pain. I sure as hell wasn't going to let her give up on her dreams either.

She was quiet when we got home though, and went right to bed. Sleep was impossible for me, but I got in beside her and held her close. Bella tossed and turned for an hour or two before she quietly got up, apparently under the assumption I was asleep when she tip-toed out of the room. I would give her a few minutes to herself before I went to her.

Seventeen minutes later I found her in her office. She had a plush couch facing her wall of awards, and was sitting there wrapped in a blanket. From experience, I knew she often sat there to reflect. Those statues meant more to her than I could ever imagine, not just because of the recognition, but because it meant she never gave up. At least, that's how I saw it.

Bella's voice brought me out of my stupor. "I don't…"

I sat beside her, smiling when she lifted her blanket and tucked it around me. "I don't want to retire."

"I know."

"But I don't want to be one of those people that doesn't know when to retire, you know? The people that hold on to something of the past, who think they're still relevant when they're so clearly not."

"That's not you," I told her. I could picture the type of person she was thinking of; someone that started getting plastic surgery the moment they started aging so they looked the same from the moment they were thirty, someone who kept putting out films or music that was subpar at best because they were worn out but still kept trying to stay relevant.

Bella knew when to step back, though. She waited years to have her moment with reputation, and she was careful to never over expose herself to the public. She chose her times to shine carefully, and it was part of the reason she had never filtered out. It was a damn smart business tactic.

"But, what if –"

"You're not done, Bella, and we both know it."

"I know," she sighed. "I had decided a few days ago that I wasn't. But, then –"

"That's what you've been trying to say? You already decided you didn't want to retire?"

"But then, I got worried that no one would care even if I did do something else. That video Aiden put together though…"

"He's very excited about you doing something big, you know."

Bella sighed, resting her head against my shoulder. "I don't want to let anyone down."

"You won't."

We were quiet for a few minutes. Bella grabbed my hand under the blanket, twirling my wedding ring around my finger.

"People have always seen me as… hard or frigid or mean. I used to be fine with it, because it was better than having people walk all over me. But… I'm not, right? I mean, I kind of had to be after the trial and everything, had to put up a wall between everyone and myself, but now…"

"You're not frigid or mean, Bella," I told her, my voice nothing more than a whisper in the quiet, dark house. "You're warm and loving. People like to paint successful women as heartless and cold, but that doesn't mean it's true."

"I wanted people to see me as… intense with reputation. Everything I've ever done has always been very calculated. I don't know if people really ever saw me, you know?"

"So, show them."

Dark…

The next morning Bella was in her office when I went to work, soft melody's flowing from her piano. When I stuck my head in to say goodbye, she was surrounded by papers with scribbles on them.

I left her to her work, making the promise not to tell anyone about her decision until she had a solid plan, and started on a plan of my own.

My first stop was to Maggie's practice. She was a well-known therapist in the area, and had a thriving practice. She worked with her husband, a man who tolerated the Cullen family, but tended to avoid us most of the time. It was fine, Connor was a good enough man, and he never made Maggie choose between him and her family. He just didn't want anything to do with us, and no one in the family could really blame him. He showed up at dinner from time to time, wished everyone happy birthday or congratulated them on big accomplishments, but that was typically it.

Of course, he also knew that if he ever hurt Maggie or fucked any of us over, he was in for a hell of a lot of trouble. Maybe that was why he stayed away.

I rarely visited Maggie at work, but the receptionist seemed to recognize me. Her eyes bugged out when I made no attempt to wait, instead walking right to the back toward the offices.

"Sir, you can't – "

Maggie's office door was open. She was going over something at her desk, Connor sitting opposite of her.

"I need to talk to you."

"I'm sorry, Doctor Whitlock, he wouldn't – "

"That's okay, Alissa. You can go back to the front," Maggie sighed.

"She has patients waiting," Connor said, standing from his spot.

"I just need a couple minutes."

"You could have –"

"It's fine, Connor. Tell Alissa I'm running a few minutes behind."

Once he was gone, I sat across from Maggie with a smirk.

"You know you get under his skin," she told me.

"I know."

It was the little things that I enjoyed about my life, knowing most of the people in the city hated me but they had to respect me. Nothing better than a good power play.

"Is everything okay?"

"I wanted to talk to you about Aiden."

Maggie shook her head. "You know I can't talk about –"

"I don't need specifics." Aiden had been talking to her once a week, when time permitted, since getting clean and sober. It had been over a year, but I still did random drug tests and had him watched like a fucking hawk. "I just need to know if you think he's… stable enough to work with me."

"By work with you, you mean…"

"Work with me."

Maggie sighed, tapping her pen for a minute before continuing. "He still has a lot of guilt, especially where you and Bella are involved. He's grown a lot, even in just the last six months. He's more confident in who he wants to be, what he wants to do with his life. Definitely more determined and focused than the average eighteen-year-old college freshman."

I had seen the same thing for myself. He was focused and never shied away from wandering up when I was meeting with Emmett and Jasper or Alec.

"You would need to handle it carefully. Watching you… with Jacob Black is what pushed him over the edge last time, I think. If he understands more of the motive behind what you do, I think it would be easier for him."

All of this was what I was expecting. I knew he was itching to start working with me already, but I'd avoided it for months. I needed to be completely sure he wasn't getting into it too soon or for the wrong reasons. I had one more test for him this afternoon, then it was time to make my final decision.

"You've helped him a lot, Maggie. Thank you," I told her sincerely. I didn't give my thanks out all too often, but I wasn't sure what we would have done with Aiden had she not been there.

"He's a good kid, he just had a lot to deal with and took it out in the worst way possible."

When I stood to leave, I heard one last sigh from her. "Try not to provoke Connor anymore on your way out, okay?"

"I can't make any promises."

Dark…

Later that afternoon I was in a conference room, surrounded by people talking to me, but I wasn't listening. Bella's voice was in the back of my mind, telling me it was a stupid trick to play on our son, but I had to know what his reaction would be.

If he couldn't be around the shit I dealt with on a daily basis, my decision was made and I would call Daniel to see who he thought would want to move here.

The bag was sitting on my desk, peeking out from underneath my wallet. Easily visible, but not overly so. I purposefully told Aiden to get her ten minutes before my meeting would be over, knowing he'd have time to sit in my office and find it. He was a clever kid, maybe he would know it was a test, but it would still give me what I needed to know.

My secretary told me Aiden was in my office when I got back, and I took a deep breath before opening the door. Bella would, quite literally, kill me if I ruined his recovery just now.

When I walked in Aiden was sitting across from my desk, and didn't turn to look when I walked in. As I approached the desk, I saw the small bag of fine, white powder sitting in the middle of it.

"Are you using again?" Aiden asked, frowning up at me. It was the last fucking thing I expected him to ask me.

"The last time I used something like that your mother was about to go on trial for murder," I answered honestly.

"So, you were testing me."

"If you're serious about following me, there are going to be a lot bigger issues you'll have to deal with besides being around some drugs."

"I –"

"If you don't want to do that, if you don't think you can, it's alright, Aiden. I'm not forcing this life on you, I'd decided a long time ago I was going to keep you out of it."

"I want it. I really want it, Dad. I know I still deserve the drug tests and skepticism, but I'll prove it to you. I want to be a Cullen, want to uphold the family legacy."

"There are things you'll have to do, Aiden. Things I don't know if you can understand."

"I know. I know you killed Jacob Black because he hurt Mom. Know you tortured Viktor Petrov because of what he did to me. I don't know what you did to Tony but I'm sure it wasn't fucking pleasant."

I'd told him a few days after it happened that 'Tony' was dead. It was another small test, to see his reaction that his one known dealer was dead. I hadn't expected him to look so relieved. I left out that Bella was the one that finished him off, though. He didn't need to know that.

"I also know it's probably nowhere near what I wanted to do to him."

Damn.

"I think about it all the time. How much I wish I could have been the one to… It goes against everything though, you know? I shouldn't want to hurt him, but he hurt so many of us. I mean, Mom had to go to fucking rehab because of him!"

He had it in him, without a doubt. He had grabbed the small bag in front of him, fidgeting with it while he spoke. I leaned forward and gently took it from him.

Aiden sighed, frowning at it. "Did you really think I'd take it?"

"No. It's ground up sugar anyway," I shrugged, tossing it in the trash beside my desk.

His face went blank and I smirked. "You think I'd just hand you some cocaine?"

"Well, it's not like you don't have access to it."

If he could joke about this, sit across from me and not get furious that I was testing him, then he could do it. I looked over at him, his hair just as unruly as mine, but his face was all Bella. Even eighteen years later I was still taken aback sometimes that we had him. Nothing could compare to the shock of coming home and finding Bella surrounded by pregnancy tests.

"How did you and Mom…"

I waited for him to finish, but his cheeks turned red and he shook his head. "How did we what?"
"How did you make it work? Your lives weren't really compatible."

There was only one reason he would be asking a question like that. "Who's the girl?"

"W-what?"
"The girl whose life you don't think is compatible with yours?"

"She's… I don't…"

"Look," I sat forward, leaning over the desk. "I'm not going to lie and say it was easy. Your mother and I went through hell when people started to find out about us. Part of that was because I tried to hide it from my father, though."

I had a lot of regrets in my life, but being responsible for that bastard's death wasn't one of them. If my relationship with Aiden ever became remotely similar to what mine was with Carlisle though, that I would regret.

"I don't want you to feel like you would have to hide something like that from me, just because of our jobs. If there is a girl, and it gets serious, you can come to me. I can help you tell her, or talk you through it. If you fuck up, and trust me, you will, then come to me."

"You're not going to tell me I have to marry a certain kind of girl or only focus on work for a while?" His tone was joking, but there was a hint of seriousness behind it. He'd only heard horror stories of how Carlisle brought me and Emmett into the life. It was new territory for all of us.

"No. If you find the right girl and want to marry her the next day, I get it. I don't want to micromanage you and your life just because you're part of the business."

There was still one thing he had to understand. While I wouldn't tell him to marry someone from the life, he had to understand how delicate the situation was. "I don't care who you end up with, what she does or who her family is. Make sure she's the right one, though. If you tell someone and things don't work out…"

"I know."

I hated loose ends.

"You're sure about this?" I repeated. I didn't want to become my father, forcing him into the life only after he knew too much, had seen too much to live a normal life.

"Yeah. I want in."

Damn if a surge of pride didn't shoot through me at his conviction.

A/N: Confession: this was about a quarter of what I wanted the final chapter to contain, so I kinda ended up having to go back on my whole "I'm sure there are two chapters left!" thing. There will be 43 chapters total, including the epilogue. Promise.

Also, there are a few days left to vote for me for Newbie Author and Hopeless Kingdom for Undiscovered Gem Fic over at the TwiFicFandom Awards if you wanna head over there :)

Hope you all don't mind the few extra chapters. We're getting to the end, I promise. Thanks for sticking with me!