Morning! Thanks to Fran, Dani, Ariel, and Gemma for all their beta and prereading work. I always keep them on their toes. All my love and thanks to you for sticking with me 64 chapters later!
People can say she is a lot of things, but Rosalie Swan is no fool.
Not today. Not any day.
Anyone else who thinks otherwise can fuck right the fuck off.
She is smart about taking different routes here, abandoning her car in front of one busy location to mingle with the pedestrians as they make their way into work. She blends in easily and has perfected the way to hold her emotions from showing on her face.
If anyone were to see her face right now, a hard mask takes the forefront of her features, hiding the anger and fear that bubbles beneath the surface. But she ignores it and presses on, tugging her jacket more tightly across her chest as she walks on the sidewalk in the early Rhode Island fall. Leaves crunch beneath her feet as she makes her way towards the police station, and on any other day, she would stop and smile as the fall reminds her tremendously of her father. But today, she's on a mission that offers no time for anything other than accuracy and efficiency.
She can't put it past him to hire someone to capture her every move.
Rosalie knows it's just another way for him to feel in control of his wife, who vanished before his eyes. On some level, even though he had brainwashed Bella into alienating her family and friends, Rosalie feels he knows the sisters would somehow always remain close, even though they had purposefully lost contact over the years because of his influence over Bella's life and safety.
She wonders if he knows which Swan he's dealing with now.
Because it's not the one who was powerless under his tyranny and physicality; it's not the one who had to disappear across the country in order to salvage some type of peaceful life.
No. On the surface, Rosalie did exactly what was asked of her. She stayed silent. She stayed out of it. But she didn't stay away.
How could she?
Without a look behind her, she takes the concrete steps towards the Police Station with an ease as effortless as breathing. If she is to be on camera, she needs to act undisturbed. Like she's here to address unpaid parking tickets - which she has accumulated, purposely, if he ever were to dig around in hopes of finding her reason for visiting the station, to begin with.
Ahh, yes. This is the Swan he's never seen coming.
She listens to the sound of her heels against the marble tiles of the station, the sound announcing her arrival long before anyone is within distance to greet her personally. Bypassing the bullshit, she asks to speak with a Detective Paul Lahote - whether he's ready for her or not.
For a moment, she feels bad for the guy who is clearly unprepared to deal with her today. He's a bumbling, sweaty mess when he leads her back to his desk, muttering apologies for the swamp of papers spilling from its surface.
Instead of torturing him, she reaches into her bag and produces a folder. One name, Isabella Swan, is written on the tab. Nothing else.
"Four years' worth of evidence," Rosalie says evenly as Detective Lahote takes the folder in his shaking hands. "She'll remain hidden until he is where he belongs."
He opens the folder now, and the first picture staring back at them makes her divert her eyes back into her purse. She's seen enough. She hopes Detective Lahote, the son of one of her father's friends on the force, is equipped for the task she's given him.
"Contact me at this number when you have something to tell me."
She leaves him then, making sure to stop and pay her unpaid parking tickets on the way out. She's tempted to smile for the camera he undoubtedly pays to follow her, but she holds back.
Rosalie Swan is no fool.
GOD, I love a no-bullshitter Rose.
See you tomorrow!