Summary: Isabella lived a perfect life with her husband until the abuse started. With the death of her mother, she may have just been given life changing gift: a way out. But with it comes a whole new world that she may not be ready to face. Maybe with the help of her green-eyed savior. Mafia, Crime, Abuse, Hurt/Comfort.

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight. Stephanie Meyers owns characters but the plot is of my original work.

Enjoy!

Chapter 4: Leaving

"Pseudocide is the act of leaving clues to give the impression you have killed yourself," Eleazar said. "It's the easiest way people have faked their deaths, like pretending to jump off a bridge. The most effective way is death by drowning, which explains why bodies may or may not turn up."

"Is that illegal?" I asked.

"Technically, if you're simply going to escape because you hate your life, no. It's only illegal when you're faking your death because you want to collect life insurance or you want to avoid paying taxes, mortgages, or loans. Then that counts as fraud. Obtaining any type of identification after your so-called death will be illegal thereon. Using a social security that doesn't belong to you is also illegal."

"You never have to worry about any of that, Marie," Jason reassured me.

"It's only illegal when you get caught. If you're found alive, you may have to pay for search teams and any other expenses that happened because of your fake death."

"But what about the inheritance? Is it fraud if I gain access to that account? Because if that's the case, I don't want the inheritance." I'd take not receiving any money over staying with James.

"No," Eleazar shook his head and looked at Jason. "From my understanding, the inheritance is in an offshore account. Correct?"

"Correct," Jason confirmed. "It was under the table and under a false name. It's not anything like a life insurance and you're not cashing a check in."

"Of course, we can't just claim you're dead. I'm well aware of who James Witherdale is, as well what he can do," Eleazar said gravely. "Normally, people just drop everything they have and start over. But in your case, the last thing you want is James sweeping the nation in search of his alive run-away bride."

"I know James," I said in a whisper. "He'll turn every rock on the planet until he finds me. He won't give up—I have to die."

"Leaving behind a suicide note is one of the important things you're going to need. That way, the authorities won't have to go searching CCTV footages to see if you've been kidnapped or murdered. When writing the letter, openly talk about your life with your husband. It will help convince authorities you went through with the suicide because you couldn't take it anymore. I hope that I wasn't being too blunt about that."

Yes but no. I shook my head to reassure him. "No, it is true."

"Officially, you disappeared three days go. So officially, you died the second you left Kenilworth. Which means by now, your husband has already pooled all of his resources to gather a search team to look for you. Am I correct?"

Jason nodded. "My own team has been keeping a careful eye on James. I receive updates now and then from them. This morning, her picture was on the front page of the Tribune. Considering his family graciously funds a majority of the police force within the 50-mile radius of Chicago, they have been happily obliging his requests. Search teams have been busy looking for the past 36 hours."

Fuck.

"Then the more urgent we need to kill Marie," Eleazar said bluntly. He turned to me and said, "Write a note. Say that you plan to jump off a cliff and drown yourself. Talk about what happens behind closed doors. Put the clothes you wore the day you left, in a bag along with any jewelry, phone, or other items that you have."

I nodded my head.

"Eleazar," Charlie finally spoke up. The moment Eleazar came to the safe house Charlie didn't say a word. He stood facing away from us and stared out the window. He had such a concentrated look on his face that I wondered what was going through his head. He turned and looked at Eleazar. "Do everything you can. If you need people, I have people. If you need money, I will give it. Whatever you need to make her safe, do it at any cost. I want a clean and untraceable job."

Eleazar nodded his head firmly. "Mr. Swan, you have my word."

And with that, Jason and Eleazar stood up and headed to the office. Both were hastily typing on their phones and discussing plans with each other. Their voices faded as they went down the hall. Then it was complete silence when it was only the two of us in the room.

"What do you want to do after this?" Charlie asked after a minute.

"What do you mean?"

"After 'Marie' dies, what do you plan to do? Where do you want to go?"

"As far away as I can from James. I want to travel. I want to see the places I have dreamed about and make friends along the way. I want to eat—I want to eat whatever the hell I want. I've been imprisoned and in between then, I've lost myself. As cheesy as it sounds, I want to discover the Marie before this Marie." I pointed to myself.

"I want to look at myself in the mirror and not see bruises in different healing stages. I want to nurse myself back to health and put that smile back on my face because before this Charlie, I was the happiest person on the planet. My mom and I didn't live the extravagant life you clearly have, but we had each other and we were happy. I want to be the person she would have been proud of."

Charlie nodded his head and finally sat down across from me.

"Not a single day has passed since your mother left that I haven't thought about either of you. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't kept tabs on you both every now and then. I missed your first word and your first step. I wasn't there to scare the living crap out of your first boyfriend. I wasn't there when you graduated high school and college. I didn't walk you down the aisle, for god's sake.

I missed out on so much of your life. Don't think for once that I was happy alone. I finally had a family of my own but because of the life I was brought into, I lost you both. I thought about running to Illinois so many goddamn times and dropping to my knees to beg for your mother to come back. But I didn't. I really wish I had, but I respected her wishes to raise you away from the world I live in. If I had given in to my selfishness just once, then this wouldn't have happened.

My daughter wouldn't have to give up her life just to get away from her punk ass no good husband. You're losing your friends, memories, and a home. You killing 'Marie' means you're losing the life Renee created for you. The life she fought so hard for. And that pisses me off. It's taking all of my control to glue myself to this seat and not drive to James and personally kill him myself. When I say that I will do whatever it takes to make you safe and happy, I will do it".

For the first time since I had met Charlie, I was able to look past his glamorous façade to notice the dark circles under his eyes. I saw how tired he looked and I can almost feel the waves of different emotions coming from him.

"Did you love my mother?"

Charlie's head snapped up, and he nodded firmly. "I loved your mother very much. I still did forty-eight hours ago before Jason called me to inform me she had died eight months ago. How could I have not known that? I kept checking in on you both every so often either through Jason or another investigator that I hired. I wanted to make sure that you both had money and were safe. I didn't really take notice for months, I guess. I still respected her wishes."

"Will you tell me why she left?"

Charlie seemed to pause for a moment. "I will," he agreed. "But I don't think this is the right time. I want you to get through this first and then after, if you still want to know, I will tell you anything you want."

I contemplated that for a moment. I wanted to know why my mother left but in some ways, he was right. Everything was still so fresh; I feel like I'm going to wake up from a dream at any moment. In the ended, I conceded.

"There's so much you need to know about me Isabella," Charlie said. I found that I liked being called Isabella—when I was younger that was what my mother called me before I changed it to Marie. "After this whole thing blows over, you'll learn about who I am and what I do. You'll understand why your mother wanted to take you as far away as she could from me."

"You might not even want to stick around after. I won't blame you. But if in the end, you don't know where to go, I will always be here. My home will always be open to you. It was always for your mother—I longed for the day she would come back. I may be a dangerous man to others but I will always take care of you. It's up to you whether you believe that or not."

He stood back up again and walked over to me. He placed a hand on my shoulder and knelt before me. "Right now, what's important is that you write that letter. Make sure you make it sound as convincing as you can. I trust Eleazar and Jason to know what they're doing. You don't ever have to see James again. You won't even need to leave this house until we guarantee James is convinced. He won't find you here, you're safe."

XX

Four days—that's how long it's been now. Every morning, I'd still wake up gasping for air from a nightmare. I'd think I was back in James' home or that he had found me. Every sound coming from inside or outside the house terrified me. Every ship that blew its horn caused me to cower and every car that I'd hear pass made me think they'd pull up outside and take me away.

I still haven't eaten much, maybe two or three sandwiches since I've been here. I couldn't keep anything down because I was so nervous. I wrote the letter yesterday then Jason and Eleazar disappeared. They left late in the evening and I was alone with Charlie in the house. After that, we received word that they placed my items on the beach shore off of Winnetka.

When I left that morning, I didn't take my BMW far from the house. I figured James had some tracking device on it and if I were to get to Lincoln—where Jason's office was—he'd be able to find me right away. So when I left, I only used the car to get past the security guard. I had told him I was going to Winnetka to go to my salon appointment. I really did have an appointment that morning; I had set it up because I needed to tell James what I was doing while he ate breakfast.

I had parked the car at the parking lot of the salon plaza. Then instead of heading to the salon, I went down the street and hailed a cab. I had cash and instructed the cabbie to drive to the nearest greyhound station. After my meeting with Jason, he asked me to retrace my steps so he could send his people out to retrieve CCTV footages. Within that 24-hour period, it was crucial that anything that tied back to my journey to Lincoln be destroyed and it seemed that Jason was successful in doing that.

Charlie said that his own men swept through Winnetka to double-check any traces of me. He informed me that my BMW was no longer at the plaza where I had left it. It was retrieved that same night I "disappeared" which meant that James had already started looking for me as early as then. He would've known at the very latest at 6 o'clock—because that was when he came home every night.

A McDonald's wrapper was placed in front of me and the smell of the food instantly invaded my nose. My stomach grumbled loudly, and I looked up to see Charlie standing there. His mustache twitched, and he took the seat opposite from me at the dining room table. Without a word, he started emptying out the contents of the bag. It looked like he had ordered everything on the menu.

"I did," Charlie responded. I didn't realize I had said that out loud. "I didn't know what you wanted, so I had someone order one of everything on the menu. You said you wanted to eat junk food."

I almost wanted to cry.

"Thank you," I said. Then I reached for the chicken McNuggets and a packet of BBQ sauce and dug in. My eyes almost wanted to roll into the back of my head. I had missed eating this type of food so much. James wanted organic, healthy, homemade food all the time. For a while, it was just the sound of me eating the McNuggets and Charlie eating his burger.

"The note was found," Charlie finally said something.

I stopped chewing for a moment before I asked, "When?"

"Thirty minutes ago," he answered.

"Who found it?"

"KPD," he said. "Eleazar's men had both the note and your clothes semi-buried under sand in a private area of the shore. It gives plausible reason why your body or traces of you haven't been found in four days. The shoes were found first."

"And what's happening now?"

"It's hard to squeeze information without raising suspicion. Luckily, I have my ways to get into their system. Between thirty minutes ago and now, James has been informed of the note. The note has been documented with the police department."

At least people know now what kind of monster James is.

"If I'm being honest, I don't think James would doubt this story. You're in really bad shape, Isabella. If you're worried that he may think the situation has been fabricated, don't. I doubt he's thinking that you have the resources you have now. He thinks you're all alone, remember that."

"That still doesn't stop me from trying to mold myself into the walls," I said.

A knock came from the front door and without thinking; I jumped up to my feet and ran toward the farthest wall. I couldn't help it.

"It's alright," Charlie had also stood up and held out a comforting hand in my direction. "It's just my security team outside. They're checking in."

I nodded my head but my heart rate still raced. I swallowed thickly.

"Is something wrong?"

He shook his head. "Nothing is wrong. I'll check to see what it is they want." Then he walked away from me and opened the door to walk outside.

I knew Charlie had people surrounding the house. Charlie was an important man that much was clear; otherwise he wouldn't have such a high detail security team that followed his every move. Every time I watched Charlie through the window interacting with his men outside, they shadowed him. They constantly patrolled the perimeter of the property and by now I recognized at least two of them; one was pale and blond and the other was dark-skinned and had long hair. When I gathered the courage to walk to the window to see what was going on, it seemed that the suits had doubled from last night.

Two new black SUVs were now parked along the driveway. This could only mean that someone else was here. I couldn't see Charlie anywhere and that worried me greatly. I still see the blond suit but everyone else is new. My hand started to shake as I held the curtain up. I felt myself start to hyperventilate. My vision started to blur, and I felt unstable so I scrambled for a seat.

If Charlie wasn't here anymore, I didn't know who these people were. I didn't know the blond suit and I wouldn't know if he would be able to take care of me. I haven't even spoken a word to him. I clutched at my chest because I couldn't bring myself to breathe normally. This was it; I was going to die. I was alone and no one could help me anymore. Charlie was my last resort.

"Isabella?"

My head snapped up, and I found Charlie standing at the front door. I felt all the air leave my lungs in a whoosh and I closed my eyes in relief. I felt tears fall out the corners of my eyes and the next thing I knew, Charlie was kneeling down before me.

"Honey, what's wrong?"

Nothing was coming out of my mouth. The only sound was a strangled sob.

"I didn't leave," he explained. "You're safe, Isabella. I told you. I know it's going to take some time to get used to that but you're safe now. You'll never see him again."

I nodded my head. I knew that but any reaction coming out of me wasn't something I could control. I couldn't help the way my body reacted to everything.

"I want you to meet some people," Charlie told me.

"Who?" I finally managed to ask.

I heard someone shuffle behind me and I finally noticed the couple standing by the door. The man was tall, blonde, and handsome with blue eyes and a chiseled jaw. His arms were around a woman with caramel colored hair. She was beautiful and everything about her screamed the epitome of a mother. She had delicate features but her face was etched with sadness and worry. I wondered what was wrong. Everything about them both screamed high-society. I knew because I was once a part of that.

I was forced to attend galas and balls with James. He was a key point of the 1% that lived in Chicago and I was the "fortunate" woman to have won his heart. When James and I became engaged, it had made it into the tabloids stating that "Chicago's most eligible bachelor slash knight and shining armor" was now off the market when he saved his damsel in distress.

And trust me, at the time I was very much in love with my knight.

Charlie held out his hand for me as he helped me up from my seat. We walked up to the couple that was standing by the door. They both had the same exact expression on their faces—like they knew me and felt sorry for me. Heck, even I pitied myself.

"Isabella, I want you to meet Carlisle Cullen and his wife, Esme."

This chapter was edited by EdwardsFirstKiss.

4/10/18