AN: I must be honest, I haven't had time to read this chapter through, so you all just have to take it as it is.
A second thing I have to be honest about is that this story is slowly becoming something I dislike. I don't like my characters because no matter how hard I try to make them strong, kind and everything one need in a good lead role, I create weak ones. I will finish this story because I really wish to do it. Then, when it's all wrapped up, I will take my time to build up a much better story that I will share with you all.
DevilsWriter
Chapter sixteen
"So, are you ever going to tell me the whole truth about Edward and you?" the question came from Rose over a cup of tea in the end of May. The sun was bright in the sky, the temperature high and everyone was wearing shorts, sundresses and skimpy outfits to show off their toned bodies as they wished for a tan as well.
"I've told you everything," Bella mumbled into her cup of tea as a tiny woman walked past the window of the café they were sitting, her shorts so short they almost counted as underwear, her tones thighs on display along with her six pack of a stomach.
Placing a hand on her stomach, Bella smiled slightly as Charlie kicked her palm, reminding Bella of what a gift she was carrying around with her.
"And I'm Queen Elizabeth II of England: I know you're keeping something from me," Rose gave Bella her stern look and before Bella could even think about it, she caved under Rose's stare.
"He bought sex from me!" Bella blurred out, clasping a hand over her mouth and glancing anxiously around, afraid someone may have heard her.
"Did you just say that Edward paid you for sex? When?"
"I was on a date with a guy the day I turned my Bachelor paper in, helping him out with a girl, when Edward walked up to me in the bar we were at. Loud and clear, he told me that prostitution is illegal and so on, and before I knew it, we were back at my place, him taking me from behind in the window."
"I know I'm supposed to be disturbed here, but it sounded kind of hot, being taken against a window where anyone can see you," Rose confessed before shaking her head, bringing herself back on track. "So you were paid for sex that night, but that doesn't explain how you ended up fucking him later, unless the sex was so mind blowing you couldn't get enough of him."
"He's ridiculously skilled, so it would have been reason enough to go back for seconds, thirds and so on, but he kind of started to blackmail me. It lasted through June and July but when I moved out, we just stopped."
"And then you learned that he was your boss, right?" Rose asked.
"Yeah, and then he tried to blackmail me again but somehow, I managed to stand up for myself. He was, and still is, a fucking cocky bastard, because he promised me that I would come begging to him sooner or later."
"Please tell me you didn't beg!" Rose begged and the irony wasn't lost to Bella, who fought a smile from breaking out.
"Neither of us really begged, it just kind of happened, built up tension and frustration, which exploded at the same time while we were in the same room, alone, with the door closed."
"You know, your story is both interesting and boring at the same time," Rose said as they gathered their things. "You meet a guy who blackmails you into having sex with him, a super-hot guy with sexy tattoos, and your story doesn't even end perfectly. Think about it, a sex filled summer that would have put the Kamasutra to shame, followed by hot hookups in his office even after you learned he was your boss, a sexual affair. A perfect story that would have ended with the two of you turning the erotic reality into a romance when you both learned that you have feelings for each other. You would have shared the story at your wedding, leaving out the blackmail of course, and everyone would have been a little envious. Instead, you end up pregnant and the two of you will have shared custody of the little girl because neither of you have feelings for the other or even want to have a relationship."
"I never said my story isn't fucked up," Bella pointed out as they left the café. "So I'm not ending up with the dad and the, so far, only man who have been able to make me come in matter of seconds, but that doesn't mean I won't get my perfect ending, with some other guy who will love Charlie as if she were his own daughter."
"Ok, you still have your chance, just like I've had mine, but tell me, 100% honestly, that you didn't at one point during your arrangement, or whatever you can call it, feel something different for Edward."
"At one point, I did hope for something else, a relationship based on love and respect, but it was during Charlie's funeral: I was sad, vulnerable, staying with Helen on top of it all, and Edward just showed up and took care of me. I felt something for him that night when he instead of fucking me hard against a wall, door or desk, took me slowly in a comfortable bed. For your information, that was the night this happened," Bella tapped her fingers against her stomach with a smile. "However, I don't feel those things anymore."
"Just wait until he tells you that he has a date."
"He already has a date, with Tanya, my doctor. He's taking her out tonight and you know what, I didn't care one bit when he told me." Walking like a duck, Bella sped up and headed in the direction of the her building.
"With Tanya?" Rose called out as she hurried after Bella. "But she's your doctor."
"My doctor, yes, not Edward's. And besides, they have a history: he made it very clear that all he wanted was to catch up with her, and learn why she so brutally broke up with him, twice."
"I don't understand how you cope with this, everything that has happened for the last year."
"I have a way but you have to promise that Edward won't know about."
"Oh, please tell me it's something juicy that will eat me up inside simply because I want to share it with everyone," Rose clapped her hands and jumped a few times, reminding Bella of Alice, whom they still hadn't heard from, which was making Bella worry.
"Up in the apartment," said as they reached the front door of the building.
Her own apartment was finally done, the painting jobs done and the airing out over. All she needed was to fill the place with her own furniture and she would be able to call it her home.
Like a sullen child, Rose followed Bella to the elevator and they rode it up in silence, Rose staring at Bella childishly.
"Now tell me!" Rose demanded as soon the door to Bella's apartment closed behind them.
"When it all started three years ago, I started to write a diary, to sort through my thoughts, regrets and confusion. With time, I stopped writing because I saw my money helped Charlie and that was more than enough to know that I was doing the right thing and I stopped writing in my diary. However, when Edward came into my life, all those confusing feelings returned, but instead of writing a diary, I started to write down my own story, as a book. And I just finished writing it." Pulling out a well-worn notebook, thick with added sheets of paper, yellow post-its and small notes, Bella handed it over to Rose.
"This notebook contains everything Edward and you have been through?" Rose asked as she leafed through it, stopping down and then to read a line or two.
"Everything," Bella confirmed. "I've been toying with the thought of finding a publisher and pitch my idea of it becoming a book, but I don't think I'll do."
"You need to get a set of balls, or a spine, Bella," Rose said as she closed the book. "This is a story women all over the world would die to read because it's simply so fucked up. Reading this will make them realize that their own lives aren't so bad after all, and if you change the ending some, add a happy ending between Edward and you, this might just become a best seller."
"I don't think it will become a best seller, but it just might become a book that will catch a few eyes and some interest, that's all."
"Tomorrow, we will find a publisher who would like to make this a book," with the notebook in her hand, Rose quickly left the apartment, leaving Bella alone.
*** C R S ***
"Rose, can we stop now?" Bella nagged the next day.
"We won't stop until someone agrees," Rose informed as she stalked across the quiet street, making Bella hurry after her.
"We've already seen five publishers and they all have said no, that my story lacks this and that. Now, please, can we take a break at least? My back is aching and my feet are killing me!"
"You complain too much," Bella heard Rose mutter and it was the last drop Bella needed: while Rose strode to the nearest café, Bella hailed a cab and drove home, her back slowly killing her as the aching only increased.
Her phone started to ring almost immediately after the cab pulled away from the curb but feeling childish Bella ignored the ringing and turned the phone off.
Tanya had called her aches Braxton Hicks, informing her that they were nothing, just small pinching pain in her back now and then. As the 'pinching pain' continued, Bella wanted nothing more than to show Tanya's text books down her throat because the pain was more than just a pinch here and there.
After the cab had dropped her off in front of her building, Bella had to take several breaks just to cross the foyer to the elevator, the pain making her dizzy.
In the elevator, she stood leaning forward, resting her palms against the wall, and when the pain spread from her back to her abdomen, Bella knew that it wasn't just Braxton Hicks but that she was having contracts, real contractions that suddenly hit her with full force, making her moan loudly in pain.
In front of her door, Bella fumbled for her keys when a forceful contraction hit her and she almost fell over as she kept back the scream she wanted to release.
"Bella?" blinking through her tears, Bella could make out Edward and Tanya coming out from the elevator.
"She's coming," Bella moaned and she was grateful when Edward had her lean against him as she was about to collapse from the pain that radiated through her body.
Tanya's hands went to her swollen stomach and with a grim nod to Edward, Bella found herself hoisted into his arms and carried to the elevator. Squeezing her eyes shut as a contraction after the other washed over her, Bella listened to Tanya call for a cab, then call the hospital, informing someone that she was bringing in a pregnant woman who was about to give birth two months too early.
"Just breathe," Edward murmured in her ear, his voice soft and welcoming, and Bella nodded, shakily dragging breath into her lungs.
Down on the street, a cab pulled up to the curb just as they walked through the door and Tanya rushed forward, opening the backdoor for Edward so he could lower Bella into the car. Rushing around, Edward was quickly at her side again and Tanya in the front, instructing the driver to take them to the hospital.
"Have your water broken?" Tanya asked as soon they were on the road, turning in her seat so she was kneeling in it, facing Bella and Edward.
"No," Bella grounded out when the pain between the contractions only continued.
"When did this start?" Edward asked as he brushed away a few stray hairs from her face.
"I was out with Rose when my back started to ache. I thought it was only because we had been walking around for some time and that I was tired and that it was Braxton Hicks, but in the cab on my way home, the pain started to spread."
"Well, it looks like little Charlotte is coming a little earlier than expected, but judging from your steady pulse, I don't think there's any immediate danger for a premature birth."
When they pulled up in front of the hospital and she was helped into a wheelchair, Bella found herself breathing properly for the first time since the first time had started: she was in the hands of those in the hospital, those who knew what to do if anything should happen.
Edward left her only for a brief moment to sign her in, leaving Bella with Tanya and the nurse who wheeled her down to an empty room.
"Let's get you changed and into the bed," the nurse smiled warmly as she and Tanya helped Bella out from the wheelchair, just as Edward entered the room after them.
"Oh," Bella gasped as she stood, a warm feeling traveling down her leg as a pressure lightened in her abdomen.
"Your water just broke," Tanya announced and the three of them, Edward, Tanya and the nurse, helped her out of her clothes and into a hospital johnny before she got comfortable in the hospital bed, just in time for another contraction that rippled through Bella's body as thunder.
*** C R S ***
"She's so tiny," Rose whispered as she looked down at little Charlotte Renee lying in the incubator. Behind her was Bella, in a wheelchair and Edward, both staring at their little daughter and her tiny body.
From the moment the first contraction had hit Bella to the present, it had taken thirty-two hours. At first, it had taken hours, ten hours, for Bella to fully dilate, then another ten for little Charlie to actually enter the birth canal.
For Bella, it was the most terrifying moment in her life when her little baby girl slipped out and the room was just silent. A cry from her little girl didn't fill the room immediately but as she thought the worst, clutching Edward close as he held her, a whimper, followed by a cry, reached her ears.
Twelve hours later, their little girl was in an incubator but breathing by herself.
"How long does she have to stay in this thing?" Rose wondered as she reached her hand inside and stroked Charlie's small hand with a finger.
"Tanya said it can be everything from days to even weeks, all depending on how the results are when they come back," Edward answered grimly and Bella patted his hand, which rested on her shoulder.
Tests had been run quickly after the birth, to make sure that she was fully developed and that she wouldn't bump into any health problems in the nearest future. Her heartbeat was strong, so was her lungs as she could breathe on her own without any problems, and there were no questioning on her strength: she had gripped Edward's finger tightly when they had first seen her after she had been placed in the incubator.
"I should take you back so you can rest," Edward murmured and Bella didn't protest, no matter how much it pained her to leave Charlie.
"I can take her back," Rose offered and Edward gratefully smiled at her before turning his attention to Charlie, taking a seat next to her incubator so he could his hand inside.
Back in her room, Bella groaned as she moved the chair and to the bed, sore after being in labor for hours.
"I found a publisher," Rose informed in a soft voice as she helped Bella get comfortable in the bed. "She said that the story had great potential as it is, but that it will be even greater if you change a few things."
"She really want to publish my story?" Bella couldn't believe: she didn't have faith in her own story, her own writing, why should anyone else have it?
"Yes, and she says that the sooner it can be done, the better. After that BDSM series that came not long ago, women want books where the female character is meek, submissive and lacks a backbone."
"What kind of change does she want?"
"For the main characters to end up together in the end: it will hold an appeal to a much wider group of readers as everyone graves a happy ending. However, the more difficult you can make it, the two of them ending up together."
"I have some ideas written down," Bella murmured as she imagined her ending. "When Charlie and I are out of here, will you help me write it all down, a final draft, and give it to the publisher?"
"Of course," Rose smiled. "Her name is Angela Webber, by the way, and she's been publishing mainly women throughout her career. She's brilliant from what I've heard and I really believe that she will be able to make this a best seller."
"Let's hope so," Bella smiled tiredly, "I will need the money when I don't have a job."
"Everything will be fine," Rose murmured softly as Bella's eyes closed, "Just remember that you're not alone."
Three days later, Edward and Bella stood in front of their front doors, unsure where to start: daddy or mommy's place first?
"Does it really matter?" Emmett, who had driven Edward to the hospital to pick up Bella, with Rose, said from behind them.
"Why don't you start at your place, Edward, and when you're finished there, go over to Bella's, put Charlie down for a nap and have lunch?" Rose suggest as she leaned into Emmett, his arm protectively around her waist.
Looking at each other, Bella and Edward nodded and gave Charlie a quick tour of her dad's apartment. When finished, they locked up the place and brought her into Bella's giving her the same quick tour there before putting her down for a nap in her beautiful buttercup bedroom.
"Let's eat!" Emmett called from the living room when Bella and Edward took too long putting Charlie down, both of them needing time to gaze at her sleeping form.
Rose had set the coffee table with plates and glasses, making room for one of the two pizza boxes in the middle.
"I've heard from Alice," Rose said the second Bella bit into her piece of pizza, making her almost choke. "She sent me an email yesterday, explaining why we haven't heard from her."
"What did she say?" Bella croaked before sipping some water.
"She got married almost the second she set foot in Luang Prabang. Apparently, she felt helplessly in love with a Texan named Jasper and they've been traveling together from the very beginning."
"She's married?"
"We Skyped for a short time yesterday and I talked with him: he seems nice and he's 100% in love with our Alice, thinking the world of her and worshiping the earth she walks upon."
"It doesn't explain why we haven't been able to get hold of her, though
"She's been in prison, in Tibet, jailed because of indecent behavior. From what I understood, she and Jasper got a little carried away on a hike and decided to have sex right there, just a few feet from the trail. Someone saw them, contacted a guard of some kind who reported them and brought them to the prison in a town I don't remember the name of. They're out now, been out for months, but she lost her phone, her money was stolen and Jasper had less than she had when she took off. Her parents have agreed to help the two of them out and she thinks they'll be back in Boston somewhere between today and Christmas."
"Somewhere between today and Christmas?" Bella questioned in distaste.
"She wants to explore Nepal, and parts of India, before she returns. There were also talk of some desert, but again, I can't for the life of me pronounce it."
"Well, I'm glad Alice is happy," Bella murmured with a hint of jealousy.