Thanks to you all for your reviews. I've been on the edge of my seat too, wondering if I could pull this off and if anyone would hate me for it LOL. But seriously, no one wants to hear from me. (There will be a longer a/n at the end for those wanting to hear my ramblings!) Thanks to my team!
Yes, we've gotten to the prologue but I've put in names and extended it - so I wouldn't skip through (wink wink)
"He's out there. I know it's him!"
My whispered words come out fierce in the dark, and the man standing next to me, the one I swore to myself I would never need, pulls me down to the dingy carpet that feels harsh against my knees. He presses a sturdy hand against my mouth, silencing us both as he listens to the sounds coming from outside. Knowing the two men in my life are only feet away from each other, panic tightens my chest and I'm afraid I'm going to pass out. I squeeze Edward's hand to anchor me - he's become the confidence I didn't know I needed, the safety I never again wanted to rely on.
I stare at him in the darkness of the room, watch as his eyes flit back and forth through the tiny space between the window and the curtain, and I know he hears it, too.
Silence. A rustle. An uneasiness.
It settles into my bones, a chill so cold I want to hide beneath the crumpled sheets on the bed behind us. I pray the heat we had just made in the bed still lingers.
Another sound outside the window echoes through the stillness of the room, and I worry the frantic beating of my heart will give me away.
We hear it outside again. Tentative steps. Contemplative. Calculating.
It's the sound that tells me it's him. It's the sound that tells me he's found me.
Except he doesn't find me dead like I wanted him to a year ago when I left him.
I'm very much alive, and the hand currently squeezing my own reminds me of that fact. Thanks to him, I've spent the last year living a life I hadn't thought I was worthy of.
It doesn't matter now.
I'm no longer missing.
I'm found.
And now, I'm as good as dead.
"It's him," I whisper to Edward, closing my eyes as I say the words that I've been training for. "Jasper's here."
So, why Jasper? (This may be kind of long??)
First, awesome job to those of you who have figured it out - there were several. The clues were subtle, but they're there!
Two, it's always been Jasper. I "casted" the role of The Husband long before actually writing any words to this story.
Third: If you've read any of my other stories, you should know by now that for each fic, I have a writing challenge I set for myself to overcome to make me a stronger writer. For Pursuing the Proposition, it was to become more comfortable writing lemons. For The Muse in the Shadows, it was to write a twist. For this story, my personal challenge was to take a character I love (I seriously looooveeee Jasper!) and turn him/her into someone I hate.
Other notes: he wasn't always supposed to remain unnamed. Maybe I had written it that way subconsciously - I was so focused on Bella's character development that I dismissed any idea of giving him a platform, because we all know he doesn't deserve one. I eventually kept him unnamed because you all had such amazing guesses and theories. Dropping random clues ended up being a challenge as well!
Okay, so. Here's here. We've come full circle. I hope you all feel my hand virtually holding yours!
Also, since we're SO CLOSE to 3k (holy fuck!), and a lot of you want more than one chapter a day, I'll post two chapters on the day we hit 3k. This whole story is prewritten, so I can easily make the post happen.
Okay, okay, okay. I'm done talking. SEE YOU TOMORROW!