A/N:

Let us see how Bella will react now, shall we?

Title: The Perfect Partner Program

Author: MarieCarro

Beta: EdwardsFirstKiss

Pre-reader: brwneyedgrl01

Genre: Angst/Hurt&Comfort/Romance

Rating: NC-17

Summary: The summer of 2005 was the summer that changed Bella Swan's life forever. Sent to Ohio by her mother to attend a school for debutante girls not quite up to par, she meets Edward Masen, an apprentice. But is that really all he is? AH

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Chapter Word Count: 2, 709

CHAPTER 14 BROKEN HEARTS AND DREAMS

"Edward, what is going on here?" I asked in a trembling voice.

He sighed exasperatedly. "Bella..."

"You know her?" Chelsea asked, and Edward turned to her with annoyance in his eyes.

"Could you leave us?" he asked, but it sounded more like an order. Chelsea heard it, too, and she narrowed her eyes at him.

"Jerk," she mumbled before walking back inside.

Edward tried again. "Bella—"

"Please tell me that wasn't what it looked like," I begged. "She was the one who initiated it, right? She forced herself on you?" My heart had started to beat again, but every beat hurt more than the last, and I did everything I could to keep my tears at bay. "Please, Edward, just tell me you didn't..."

"I could," he said quietly. "But it would be a lie."

I had to close my eyes and swallow down the onslaught of pain that threatened to drown me. "I-I … don't understand. Why?"

He put his hands in his pockets and shook his head. "You don't want to know."

"You're right. I don't," I agreed with him because I didn't want to know his motivations for hurting me like this. I didn't want to know why he had as late as yesterday been the sweetest guy ever, and now suddenly he was making out with another girl while he was supposed to be with me. I needed to know, though. I needed to know why he was just standing there while my heart was breaking not seven feet away. "But you are going to tell me, anyway."

"You wouldn't understand. You're just a kid."

I recoiled in complete surprise at his words. "What?" I asked, my voice shockingly steady. "A kid? You didn't seem to think I was just a kid yesterday. Or the day before that." I could feel the anger building inside me, and it was unstoppable. "You didn't seem to care about my age when you asked me out, or when you shoved your tongue in my mouth, or when you wanted me to jerk you off!" I finished with a scream.

He looked away from me, but not because he found it hard to look at me out of guilt. There was something else. Just the entire air around Edward was different. He was different. "You're acting childish right now," he said, and the urge to hit and kick and scream some more was so great I was amazed when I was able to restrain myself.

"I believe I am fucking entitled to, don't you?" I gritted out through my clenched jaw. "Wouldn't you if you had just witnessed your girlfriend feeling up another guy where anyone could see them?!"

He smiled, and it sent shivers down my spine. It looked nothing like the beautifully lopsided smiles he'd given me all summer. "I'm positive we never put labels on our relationship."

With each word he uttered, another little piece of my heart was crushed to dust. "Are you serious?" I asked, my voice once again little more than a whisper. "So all that crap about you falling in love and wanting me, that's all it was, right? Just crap? And moving to Seattle so we could be together; that was all a lie?"

"Do you really think I would uproot my own life and just move to a new town for a chick I've only known for two months? Please." He suddenly took a flask out of his jacket pocket and took a generous gulp.

The longer I stood there and looked at Edward, the more I felt that I had no idea who he was. He certainly wasn't the guy I had fallen for or the guy I loved. "Who are you?" I asked, no longer close to tears because they were already falling unrestricted down my cheeks.

He put the flask back into his pocket. "Look, this thing between us was fun, but it's over, okay? Just get over it."

"Get over it? How can I just get over it? I love you, Edward!"

"No, you don't," he said. "You love the disguise. Believe me, if we had met differently, I would be the guy your friends advised you to stay away from. I'm not a good person, Bella."

"Why did you fool me like this? What was your gain?" I demanded, but I could see a few families starting to leave through the front, and we were standing very visibly just around the corner of where the cars were parked. I promptly pointed to the garden to show him we weren't done talking, and after giving me an irritated look, he followed me.

I chose a spot where no one would see us and spun back around toward him with my arms folded across my chest. "Well?"

"You want to know what I gained?" he asked harshly. "Not a whole lot. I hoped to get a little bit more action, but unfortunately, I chose the wrong girl."

Another piece crushed; shattered; ground to dust.

I wiped my tears off my cheeks. "So it was all just a ruse to get inside my pants? Is that what you're saying?"

"That is exactly what I'm saying," he replied with a degrading smirk. "Deal with it. Accept it. Move on."

I shook my head. "I don't believe you," I said. "I think you're lying."

"Oh, really? So what do you think all of this was, then? A game? What is your theory about my behavior, Miss Swan?"

"I believe you freaked out when you realized how serious our relationship had become, and now you're looking for an out by acting like an asshole and pushing me away."

"Wow, thanks for the psychoanalysis," he said with a humorless laugh that caused me to feel nauseous. He sounded so evil when he laughed like that. "You know, you should do this professionally."

I stepped closer to him which caused me to have to tilt my head back to continue looking into his eyes. Despite his behavior of pushing me away, he didn't appear uncomfortable with my proximity. "Why are you doing this? Just tell me the truth, please. Don't you think I deserve it?"

"The truth is that I am a selfish, greedy, and cruel bastard. Do you think I'm lying about that? Or that I exaggerate? I'm not, and what's worse is that I like who I am, but I knew the minute I saw you that you wouldn't, so I did what I had to do to make you want me." He turned around as if he was about to walk away, but I grabbed a hold of his wrist.

"No!" I exclaimed. "You don't get to do that. You don't get to destroy me like this and then walk away!"

He threw his hands out exasperatedly. "What else do you want me to say?"

"I want you to look into my eyes, and without blinking, tell me that you don't have feelings for me. If you can do that, I will get my parents, and get out of here, and then you'll never hear from me again."

He determinedly stepped close to me again and looked straight into my eyes. "I don't have feelings for you," he said steadily, and that was it.

My heart was officially obliterated, and I felt so stupid.

How could he have fooled me so? Was I really that credulous? Was I so desperate for someone to want me that I tricked myself into seeing things that weren't there?

Because I had been so convinced that he loved me back.

I walked past him without another word, honoring my promise that he would never hear from me again.

{=A=}

Edward wanted to tear his hair out by the roots when he watched Bella get into the car with her parents and drive away. His succeeded mission didn't mean anything to him because the only thing he could see was Bella's tear-filled eyes as he told her the words that destroyed everything that had been between them.

He wanted her. Not another experience on his resume. He wanted her in a way he had never wanted a woman before. She was everything he could ever have hoped to find, and now it was lost forever. He knew he wouldn't encounter anyone like her again in his lifetime.

With his hands, he scrubbed his face and exhaled sharply. He couldn't think like that. He was only fooling himself because he wasn't really in love with the girl that had permanently driven out of his life. He wasn't the guy who fell in love. He had just been affected by the con. He had spent more time with Bella, and therefore been in character more, than with the previous girls, so it was expected for him to feel traces of it lingering in his mind.

He had completed a paying job. It had been a success, and his compensation was always generous. He should be pleased with himself. He should be happy that he had finished another case.

So why did he feel so guilty, and why was it rising like sour bile in his throat?

Later in the afternoon, Edward sat on the couch in Esme's office as she praised him, but he wasn't listening to a single word she said, and completely ignored everything in his surroundings.

"Renée called me from the airport. She is very pleased with your work, Edward. Even though she's not sure it will help George Carter get Isabella back, she could see that you did a thorough job."

"Okay," he mumbled indifferently in response, but Esme heard him just fine.

"Why aren't you happier? Aren't you listening? It was a success. The client is happy. You'll get your money, and you can go back to your extravagant life in Chicago until next summer because I will surely need you next year as well."

"No," Edward suddenly said in a stronger voice.

Esme blinked at him in confusion. "What?"

"I'm not helping you again."

"You can't do that," she said in shock because the eyes directed toward her were not her nephew's. They weren't arrogant or confident. They were hard and furious.

Edward stood up from the couch. "Try to stop me," he said and started for the door.

Esme finally regained her wits. "What are you going to do instead? How are you supposed to fund your lifestyle when the trust fund runs dry?" she asked sarcastically to conceal the fear she felt growing inside her.

She needed her nephew here. He was the cogwheel that kept her side-business going. Without him, the school would be exactly what Carlisle wanted it to be: a simple school for young female debutantes to learn what they couldn't learn at home.

That was not Esme's vision.

A girl didn't just need to know how to walk, talk, and act, she needed to breathe it, live it, and that wasn't possible unless she'd had experiences in her life that made her stronger, harder, and smarter. Those were the women that accomplished things because they never allowed anyone to stand in the way of getting what they wanted. This was what she wanted to teach at the Academy, but since it was a bit too controversial to make a real business out of it, she used her husband's school as a perfect cover-up.

However, unless Edward was a part of it, she didn't know how she would be able to keep the operation going.

Edward stopped a few feet from the door, but he didn't turn around. "I am very much capable of working, and I know that I can use my talent for something far better than what it's been used for here," he replied angrily.

"Such as?"

She was actually interested in hearing what he had planned. Edward had never had the patience for a regular job, and it was one of the reasons why she had offered him to work for her at such an early age.

He shrugged. "I don't know yet, but I refuse to believe that it can't be used for anything but to destroy."

Esme narrowed her eyes at her nephew's back. He didn't sound like himself, and she was just about to open her mouth when the door to the office was thrown open and a red-faced Carlisle came storming inside. He was puffing with anger, and he strode up to his wife with a determined expression.

"No more, Esme! Do you hear me? This ends now!" His accent was heavier in his anger.

Edward had to step to the side as to not get run over by his uncle, and he was startled to hear him raise his voice. Carlisle had never shown any sort of anger toward Esme before in Edward's presence, but the authority that poured from the pores of the older man couldn't be denied.

"Carlisle, why are you angry? The case was a succ—"

"I don't want to hear it! You've dragged this school into the mud with your side business. I started this academy with good intentions, and I refuse to see you destroy it!"

Esme was livid. She didn't like being told off, and especially not by her husband. "We started this school, Carlisle! Don't forget that I was just as big of a part of it as you were."

Suddenly, a small and very satisfied smile stretched over Carlisle's face. "Yes, that is true, Esme, but remember that you weren't nearly as intelligent when we married as you are now." He walked over to her desk and took out a folder.

"Carlisle, what are you doing with our business contract?" Esme asked, and a tiny bit of fear had seeped into her voice.

He opened the folder and held out said contract. "I know you always keep this close, but I also know that you've never felt that there was a reason for you to read it again after you signed it because if you had, I know you would have come to me and opposed."

"What are you talking about?"

Edward was observing the conversation with rapt interest. He was intrigued that Carlisle Cullen had finally decided to grow some balls. Or maybe he'd always had them. Edward thought it was a necessity to handle a woman like his aunt, so he must have had them hidden somewhere.

Carlisle opened the contract and used a pen to circle a particular paragraph that he wanted Esme to read. When she'd done so, she was gaping at her husband and then threw the contract in his face.

"I can't believe you did this to me, Carlisle! Why? Do you really think I deserve this?"

Carlisle shrugged. "I knew from the start that you were a manipulative woman. I needed to ensure my own safety when we got married, and the last thing I was going to lose was this school. And before you say anything, don't even think about finding a loophole, because there is none. Just accept it and move on."

He picked up the contract from the floor and he placed it back on her desk. He then calmly straightened his suit jacket and left the office.

Edward couldn't help his curiosity and reached for the contract.

Esme was fuming and paid no attention to him as she tried to focus on breathing in and out. She just couldn't believe Carlisle had played such a cheap trick on her.

Edward read, and he saw that for someone who hadn't paid attention to the words, the paragraph wouldn't mean much, but it basically said that while Esme stood as a partner to Carlisle, she was essentially employed by him and would remain so as long as they stayed married, and in the event of a divorce, all of her shareholdings would automatically be transferred into his possession as agreed in their prenup.

She would never be able to be the big voice at the school if Carlisle disapproved. He would always have the last word.

A/N:

A few of you said you didn't want Bella to cry in front of Edward, but you have to remember that she doesn't know about the whole plot thing. The only thing she's seeing is that the guy she loves is acting like an asshole.

Of course she's gonna cry! It's an involuntary reaction because the tears don't necessarily have to be because you feel hurt. It's mostly a reaction to being disappointed in oneself. Bella has always believed she's a good judge of character, but now that belief has been crumbled.

As you can see, Edward pretty much regrets all of it, and Bella has now left with the promise of him never seeing her again. A few feel Edward can never be forgiven for what he's done because he's enjoying what he's doing to those girls.

Well, can't the same thing be said about any learned behavior? For the first time, he gets the feel real consequences of his actions, so of course this will have an impact on him.

Are we on the same page so far? :) If not, let me know and I'll see if I can clear it up for you ;-)