Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, the series, or anything affiliated with it. All belongs to Stephanie Meyer.

A/N:

REVIEW.

I kept my focus purely on my folded hands in my lap, refusing to give in to the want, and need, to look up and ask Victoria a thousand more questions. "Quiet much?" Victoria tried to maintain eye contact with my through the rearview mirror, but I only clutched the strap of my Chanel satchel tighter. They could have all of the money in my purse, if that's what they wanted. Did she want my bran new shoes and fitted cap, also? I took their ride because of my irrational fear of ghosts and dimly lit cemeteries. But I was not completely stupid, I knew they would want something in return for their graciousness. I stole a small glance at the driver of the automobile. He was modestly dressed with a coal-colored straight-billed cap and khaki, canvas-material slacks and top. It was odd seeing these modest, humbly-dressed people when I was so used to being surrounded by designer labels and expensive fabrics. It took getting used to, definitely. How would I survive the common world when Edward and I no longer stayed together? Would we really last, or was this merely an arrangement with a deadline? "You know, if I wanted to kill you or steal your current riches, I would have done it back there." The flaming red-haired woman sent me a sarcastic little smile. "So, don't worry yourself about that. We know exactly where you need to get to. Old Mill Road, right?" I nodded in agreement.

"How do you know so much?" It was a question I was dying to ask the first moment I met her. The two people in the front shared a small chuckle together before she simply shrugged, with no further explanation. "You're not going to answer my question?" I pressed lightly, not wanting to push my luck but just dying to know the truth.

Victoria tried to hide her smile behind pursed lips. "How about this- you answer a few of my questions, and I'll answer all of yours. Sound like a deal?" She was a hard bargainer, but what kind of questions could she really stick me with? I had done nothing wrong in this situation, regarding Reynaldo's and Fredrick's death or any of the Cullenciano mafia dealings. I was scot-free, clean as a whistle. So I nodded once more. "Alright, what do you know about Fredrick Dougherty's death?"

I swallowed loudly. "Uh… he was hit by an intoxicated driver, while he himself was under the influence." The lie slipped from my lips so smoothly, I scared myself. Was I really going to grave with someone else's burden upon my shoulders? These people were strangers, but I suddenly wanted to confide in them. Edward thought that there would be less investigation if it was noted that Fredrick was drinking, also, and he was right.

Victoria was not looking directly at me, just a bit sideways, but I knew that she didn't believe that. "Okay. Question number two, how do you know Alice Cullenciano and how long have you been in contact with her?"

"Well, um," I was nervous when talking to strangers, especially if someone like Edward or my father wasn't around, "I am to be married to her oldest brother in a matter of months." But she already knew that. Why was she making me go around in circles? "We met a sum of nine months ago. Our relationship is personal, wherein she visits often and we talk over the telephone frequently." Well, we used to. Recently, she wasn't accepting very many of my calls. Once or twice a week, at the most, but that was it. Her visits did not lessen, but weird things happened when she did visit. Things would go missing, I would notice the horse stables a mess, and sometimes… there would be more food in the refrigerator than before. I tried to write those things off in my head, but the matter always stayed in the forefront of my mind.

I was trying to stay patient and wait my turn. "And is it true that within these nine months of your meeting, both of her fiancés have turned up for dead in what one might call… freak accidents?" Victoria pinned me with a look.

At first, it seemed as if she were framing Alice for the crime… and now it sort of felt like she shifted the attention towards me. "No, they were not freak accidents. Fredrick was in an automobile accident and Reynaldo was murdered in cold blood- there is nothing "freak" about that." I tried to keep my tone in check, but it was hard to control my emotions when Victoria looked at me like that; as if I were some nasty criminal in her civil arrest. I wanted to scream at her, don't you know who my father is? But that would just raise suspicion, as if I were hiding something. Well, I was hiding something- something colossal, which left me sleepless most nights. I needed to hide that away from her, as best as I could. "Miss Kane, why are you interrogating me so?"

The red-head's electric blue eyes met her partners before she pinned them on me once more. "Miss Swan, only criminals are interrogated. You say you are guilty of no crime, is that right? Why would I be interrogating you if you were in fact, not a criminal?" She made my head spin with her loopy phrases and critical ways of twisting my words.

"Okay," I said angrily and sat up to see her more closely, "then whats with the questions?"

Victoria sent me a daring smirk and leaned in even closer, making our faces nearly touch. "They're pure curiosity, Miss Swan, nothing more. But I must ask, why does it bother you so much?"

I sent her the first glare of the day at being as evasive as this witch was. "Stop!" My resolve broke, seeing as she chose to spin me in a million small circles full of lies and exaggerations, and there was no turning back. "I have no answers that you so badly want, Miss Kane, you are dully beating a dead horse here! Thank you but no thank you for this ride, you can let me out now!" I wanted out of that damn car and I quite frankly didn't give a damn if I were to be wandering listlessly along these country roads alone, it was better than trying with my last breath to keep somebody else's secrets. When she only chuckled at me, I bit down on my lip harshly and fisted my hands into the thin fabric of my Donaghela black dress. "I am trying to keep my composure here-"

Victoria laughed harder at my statement. "Something has you all worked up, doesn't it? Lies do that to pretty little naïve things like you, Isabella."

"Oh, shut up already!" Yes, it was unladylike of me to be so rude to a near stranger… or anyone, that is. This woman was intentionally asking for it, though! "A man just died days ago and was settled into the ground this afternoon, Miss Kane, find it within your trashy customs and ill-ridden drive to harass those you find to be guilty of no crime… find some decency." I bit out at long last. Her face went from amused to angered to impassive within seconds.

Finally, she nodded solemnly to her partner driving in the front. "Alright, I see." Her male companion turned a slow corner and the front of the house suddenly appeared- every doubt I had about Edward and Alice and the Cullencianos all seemed to disappear. Victoria Kane was obviously the one I needed to worry about, no one else. How quickly my mind turned on near family really did disgust me, but to be completely fair I thought I had good reasoning. We pulled over on the next dusty block, seeing as this was mostly country (where the rich dwelled, obviously), before they both turned towards me. I waited patiently as she scribbled something down on a piece of paper and handed it to me before stepping out and helping me leave the back seat of her car. "Good day, Miss Swan."

I only nodded in her direction before straightening out my now wrinkled gown and fixing my purse to my side. My eyes were trained forward and I was ready to cross the solemn street until her voice halted me in my steps. "Oh, one last thing!" I shut my eyes closed tight and took a deep breath to calm myself. Just entertain her this last moment, Bella, and you'll never have to see her awful self again, I reminded myself. So I did what was best and swiveled around to meet her gaze.

"Yes?" I did my Lord awful best to keep my tone in check.

Her arm and head was hanging out of the window of the Ford, a smug little smile playing her orange lips. "Make sure you relay the message that Limousine 202B5E underwent some heavy repairs this noon- it seemed there was a piece of machine attached in an undercarriage." My brown eyes widened dramatically at her small (or perhaps quite large) tidbit of new information. Piece of machinery on the bottom of the car? What in the world did that have to do with me? Victoria settled her top visor precisely before smiling once more, this time much more serious. "A ticking piece of machinery, might I clarify. You are quite lucky the gentleman found it before anyone had the chance to get hurt by it." She gave me the memo as if it were the most common thing, but there was an all-knowing glint in her blue irises that I began to be able to read. She knew that car was for me, and she knew Alice made those arrangements. They drove off in the distance without another word before I even had the courage to try and stop them.

If what she said was even true, it didn't automatically mean anything. One, Victoria could possibly be lying to get me riled up. Two, anyone could have put that thing there to get to Edward Cullenciano's soon-to-be wife. Thirdly, I may not have even been the main target… it could have been a random act of inter-terrorism. Now I truly felt as though my head was spinning so fast it was deemed to fly right off of my shoulders. Honestly, I wanted to be in Edward's arm where he would reassure me everything was fine and I was safe. He made me feel safe, no matter all of the other less-than-pleasant emotions he called forth. I rushed across the street and ran through the acre of bright green grass until I revealed the new-looking door of the Victorian style house. My light knocks seemed to go unnoticed until finally I degraded myself to banging on the hardwood piece.

The door insistently swung open, a flushed Alice at the entrance. Her hazel opals considerably darkened as she took my well and normal state of dress, as if she were expecting me to greet her in a million little pieces. "Well, hello there." Why did I feel like she was greeting a guest, rather than welcoming her sister-in-law in her home? I mentally shook my head, trying to dispel all of my negtive afore thoughts. This is the same old Alice that you know, you just have Victoria Kane in your head and shes poiening your thoughts! If there is any aloofness coming from Ali, it is only because she just lost her fiance. Act normal, Bella, Edward will notice any difference right off. After my inner dialogue was finished, I pushed forward and enveloped her in a loving hug.

Within a few odd seconds, she hugged me back and then slowly separated herself. There was a bulletproof smile on her face as she ushered me in and closed and locked the door behind me. "Where is Edward?" My words made her lips twitch ever so lightly.

But then the hesitation was gone, just like that! "Oh, Edward? I think he's in the Billiards' Room, having a word with Freddie's father- actually, I don't know where that man is off to." She replied trivially, as if she had no clue who Edward was in the first place. "Would you like me to fix you a drink while I prepare the Hors d'oeuvres?" The thought of Alice, or anyone I did not trust one hundred percent, preparing any food or drink of mine made my skin crawl. Who did I trust these days? I don't suppose I trusted anyone anymore, this lifestyle was just awful.

"No!" I answered a little testily, for she looked at me as if I had just grown three heads. "I mean, thank you, Alice- but I have to decline. My stomach has been unsettled all day, a drink will surely make me ill." Doctoring up my blunder the best I could, I turned on my heel and went to the finger food table to pick at crackers and expensive cheeses. This was an eventful day and I only longed to be back in my hometown of Chicago, where I knew I was safe in mine and Edward's country-city border home. "Goodbye, Atlantic City." I muttered under my breath.

"What was that, dear?" Edward asked playfully into my ear, his body heat pressed against my back.

I gasped at being surprised so vastly. "Edward! You frightened me." I put a hand to my forehead and turned towards him with a ghastly look. But one look at him made my heartbeat go from the wing flutter of a hummingbird to a calm and steady beat, just how I liked to be. My feet went accordingly to him and I hugged his shoulders in an attempt to find some solace for that type of day I had. Looking back ten months ago, I would have never once imagined that Edward would be the one I ran to when I was not feeling safe in my rose-tinted world. Now, he was the only thing that actually seemed to make sense anymore. "I'm not feeling well, where were you?"

Edward sent me an odd look when we finally separated. "You act as if we didn't see one another twenty minutes ago." He must have fed off of my shocked face, because he intertwined our fingers in a loving gesture I wasn't all that interested in. Had it really only been twenty minutes since we last saw one another? It really didn't seem that short of a period. "We are the destined love birds, then? Isabella," the way his Italian accent slid over my name did things to me, "I thought you promised that we weren't going to let our affectionate tendacnies get in the way of daily chores such as driving?" His tone was playful and his beautiful eyes danced across my face, searching for an answer.

I could only muster a small smile. "Sure, Edward, I just cant get enough of your presence."

"But what is this about you not feeling well?" My fiancé's tone got serious at this.

Why had I said that? It was the truth, yes, but I couldn't exactly explain why my stomach felt as if it were doing cartwheels everywhere. "That was nothing, truly." I placed a chaste kiss on his lips before beckoning him to the double French doors that led out to an empty balcony. "Now that you're here, of course, but I thought you would take much longer to console Fredrick's dad." My fiancé wasn't exactly the mushiest man on Earth, but he did have his compassionate moments that made me fall for his charm all over again.

His quirk of lips and twist of his neck confused me. "I wasn't consoling anyone- Mr. Dougherty retired to his Study as soon as we stepped foot in his home. Nearly drove Alice into tears, but I understand the man's need for privacy. Sometimes the best healing one can do is purely alone, not in a room full of people." I nodded accordingly as he idly played with the curly ends of my brown hair. "You should have inquired Alice with my whereabouts, she knew I was with my mother in the dining room."

Edward kissed behind my ear in multiples. "Really?" I pushed aside my attraction for his ministrations long enough to ask.

He pulled away with a drawn-out sigh, resting his elbows on the balcony's balustrades as he looked me over. "Truly, Isabella. Are you positive that you aren't still under the weather? You seem… just plainly frazzled." My mouth opened to spill all of today's blunders, run-ins, and oddities, but the French doors flew open before I even had an inkling of a chance to do so.

"There you two are! Mother thought the new love birds had run off." Alice's steel eyes found us.

End Chapter-

DUN, DUN, DUN…