2brown-eyes prereads all the words
Mistakes are imagined ;)
I'm not sure how long I wait, or even when he arrived, but I open my eyes and peer at the face of an unfamiliar man. He's studying me curiously as I take in my surroundings. We're in an elevator, headed up, judging by the steadily climbing numbers on the screen. It takes me a second more to realize I'm in his arms, and I start struggling, but he only tightens his hold.
"It's best you stay here for now, Isabella," the dark-haired man says, offering me a shrug. "I promise not to harm you."
"I can walk." I struggle a little more, but even I admit my efforts are weak at best. "Are you taking me to Cullen?"
He huffs a laugh. "What if I told you I am Cullen?"
My brows draw down in the center of my forehead. "Maybe so, but you're not the right Cullen."
"Are you sure about that, Miss Swan?" He chuckles, exiting into a long hallway when the doors open on the twenty-fifth floor. "You'll probably miss me once you find the right one."
I don't understand what he means, but I opt not to respond as he raps twice on a set of double doors. I'm not positive, but I believe us to be on the top floor of the building or very close to it, and these doors look like a grand entrance to a penthouse.
A young woman pulls them open. She smiles at the dark-haired stud before shifting her gaze to me, and it's much more guarded, but I don't miss when her eyes shift to my bruise. "Bring her to the sofa," she says softly, moving so the wrong Cullen can pass her to bring me inside. "I didn't expect her to be abused."
He snorts, gently laying me on the sofa. "Our beloved brother is responsible for that."
I hastily sit up, but my head spins, so I lie back down just as quickly. "So that explains it," I say, rubbing my temples. "More than one Cullen."
The girl moves over in my sightline. "Five of us to be exact, and I'm the baby of the bunch." She holds out her hand. "Angela Cullen."
I take it, leery of how nice everyone is being so far. "Isabella Swan, and the abuse you see on my face is nothing compared to what you can't see."
Her smile falls. "Is your own father responsible?"
I pause, thinking through the answer carefully. "In a roundabout way, I suppose so."
"Can I get you anything?" She picks up a gold bell on the end table and rings it. A maid appears from thin air. "Maria, please have Heidi prepare Isabella a glass of milk, and some eggs, bacon, and toast."
"I'd refuse if I weren't starving," I say, closing my eyes to keep the room from spinning. "So I'll say thank you, instead."
This is all so surreal. I'm in the home of my family's enemy, surrounded by people I've never met, and I'm being treated decently. They have so many reasons to not trust me, or to use me, and so far, they've only offered to feed me. It's almost too good to be true.
"What brings you here, Isabella?" the dark-haired Cullen asks, hands resting in his suit pant pockets.
"Jake," Angela admonishes. "Can't you see the poor girl has been through something? Let's get her fed and bathed and changed out of this dreadful dress and then you can interrogate her."
"You know he's going to want some information, Ang."
"He'll live."
"Have it your way," Jake replies, taking a seat in a nearby chair.
"I'm with Angela," I add in case anyone cares. "I'm too nauseous to carry on a real conversation right now."
The door slams, causing my eyes to jump open. My head spins, but it isn't too befuddled to recognize the correct Cullen strutting his way toward us. His jaw is tight, his eyes are set on me, and they're definitely not sparking with the kindness the rest of his siblings have shown.
"What in the fuck is going on here?" He looks as if he's speaking directly to me, so I sit up, but I grab my head to stop it from spinning. "Lie back, Isabella." He's beside me in an instant, prodding me back down. "You rest, Jake can talk."
"Not really," Jake says, sighing. "I don't know much."
"Tell me what you do know." The correct Cullen is still eyeing me closely, his eyes running from his yellowing bruise on my cheek to the cut on my knuckles from the lamp I broke over Eleazar's head.
"Amun called and said Isabella Swan was downstairs asking for me, so I went down." Jake tosses a hand my way. "It was obviously her and she was out of it, so I brought her up. It isn't me she's here to see, though."
"I see," the correct Cullen responds, his eyes still roving over me. It's like I'm a puzzle he's trying to solve. He reaches down and grabs the hem of my dress, pulling it upward. "What is this?"
I lift my head, and a stripe of dried blood runs down my leg. I try to shift away, but it's no use. My body is as weak as my will. I cower from his demanding stare. "My fiancé and I had sex before I left."
"Left?" His perfectly arched brow is high on his strong forehead. "I find it hard to believe Charles Swan allowed you to leave just after you'd given yourself to Eleazar Denali."
"Given myself." I laugh at the absurdity. "And I didn't ask permission to leave."
The maid appears at that moment with a tray, and the smell of the bacon wafting toward me makes my mouth water. "Thank you, Maria," Angela says, grabbing the tray and bringing it over. She places it over my lap and looks at the correct Cullen. "Edward, let me get her fed and cleaned up, and then you can ask more questions."
I hum as I shovel bacon into my mouth. Everyone in the room stops talking to look at me, and I shrug. "Sorry. I'm starving."
"Heidi will appreciate that you enjoyed her meal." Angela looks to her brother as if to say "see."
"Fine." The correct Cullen, Edward apparently, steps back, motioning down the hall. "Everything you need should be in the guest bathroom, and you can find her something else to wear?"
"Not a problem." Angela smiles condescendingly at her older brother. "You two should give us some privacy."
"Of course." Edward looks at his brother. "Let's retire to the office to wait on Garrett and Alice."
"Garrett and Alice?" I look to Angela once the two Cullens have disappeared up a grand staircase.
"The missing Cullens," she says, taking a seat on the large wooden coffee table. "We're a very tight-knit family, so as you can imagine, something as monumental as Isabella Swan showing up prompted a message in our group chat."
"I don't know about monumental," I hedge, chewing thoughtfully on a bite of eggs. "It's very possible I'll be put out on my ass in no time."
"Possible? Yes," she says with a laugh. "Likely? Absolutely not. Contrary to what you might think, we aren't savages."
"You may be surprised by this," I say, lifting the tray off my legs so I can sit upright. My stomach is full, and I'm no longer faint from starvation. "But I don't know anything about you."
"You're right." She takes the tray and sets it on the coffee table as she stands. "I am surprised by it." She takes my hand. "Come on, let's get you into the bath."
It's a weird feeling to be dependent on people you don't know to do the most basic of things, but somehow, I've gotten lucky. For whatever the Cullens are, they're much kinder than my family has ever been. Charles and Emmett Swan would've surely imprisoned one of the Cullen sisters had she found herself in the lion's den.
Angela leads me down a long hall to the last door on the left, and we enter a large bedroom that screams impersonal. All the colors are muted, but the furnishings are impeccable with the centerpiece being a plush king-sized bed with an oversized, pale gray upholstered leather headboard.
She continues to a set of double doors on the far wall and pushes them open to reveal a luxurious en suite. Gray-veined, white marble covers the floor and spacious shower walls, while a gray double vanity floats on the side wall.
The large freestanding tub is what beckons me forward. "Can I use this?"
"Sure." Angela shrugs. "I don't think it's ever seen any action before. You get the water started and climb in while I run upstairs and borrow a robe from Edward."
I look at her curiously. "Are you sure?"
"Of course." She waves me off. "It's not like you're going anywhere."
She says it so casually that it takes a second to hit me. "Are you saying I can't go anywhere?"
She'd already started for the door, but she pauses, turning to me. "For now? No. But you're not our prisoner, Isabella."
I could get nervous and freak out at her response, but I don't. I haven't figured it out just yet, but for some strange reason, I know this is where I'm supposed to be.
Teensy little introduction to the Cullens.
I'm posting w/out writing another, but I intend to catch up now that Christmas Ink is done.
So, expect to see me here again next Monday :)
