Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or plotlines of the Twilight Saga and the following is a form of fiction based on the brilliance of Stephanie Meyer's work.
Author: ToryD
Beta: Splendorous Night Unfurled
Title: A Forbidden Forever
Chapter Two
Bella pulled the ear phones from her ears as she entered the back entrance to the downtown Portland bakery where she worked as an assistant baker/server. "Good morning Sam," she called out to her boss as she made her way to her assigned locker.
"Morning," Sam, a burly man in his late fifties, mumbled back as was his customary greeting at three a.m. "You can get started on the cake batter," he called out almost absently as he continued glazing the tray of donuts in front of him.
"Good morning Meg," Bella greeted her fellow co-worker as she placed her oversized tote bag in her locker.
"What's so good about it?" Meg grumbled as she lifted a steaming cup of coffee to her lips in hopes that the brew would awaken her.
Smiling lightly to herself, Bella reached for a hairnet to cover her auburn waist length hair. "Sam wants me to start the batter for the cake orders; do you have the order clipboard?"
"It's over on the counter," Meg replied without lifting her sagging eyes.
Bella began accessing the orders to ascertain how much batter would be needed to fulfill the day's orders.
"How's the new job?" Meg asked as she scooted off her stool in an attempt to begin her day's tasks. Reaching for a hairnet, she pushed her thinning grey hair under the fine webbing as she turned to walk over to the seven trays of unfrosted cupcakes that awaited her attention.
"I can't complain, the hours are just about perfect for me," Bella answered with a grin.
"God Bella! I don't know how you keep to the schedule you punish yourself with," Meg said as she shook her head. "When do you sleep?"
"Oh I grab a few hours here and there," Bella replied with a look of concentration as she calculated the amount of flour she would need for all of the vanilla flavored cake orders.
"Well if I don't get at least eight hours a night I can't function and here you are working three jobs, and going to college," Meg said with a note of disbelief in her tone.
"I do have Sunday to sleep," Bella reminded her as she dumped a fifteen pound bag of flour into the large commercial mixing bowl.
"Yep that you do, but I know that you spend most of your Sundays traveling up to Seattle to see Jacob," Meg stated with a sympathetic tone.
Bella couldn't help the sharp pain that stabbed at her heart as her mind brought up the picture of Jacob sitting behind a wall of thick Plexiglas that served as the Washington State penitentiary's visitation center. "He'd do the same for me," she replied in a quiet voice that failed to hide her pain.
"I know he would honey," Meg said as she walked over to Bella and gave her a slight hug from behind. "So tell me about the new job?" she asked with a more upbeat tone to push away the seriousness of their last few words.
"Well, basically I just clean the first three floors of the Cullen Communications building," Bella replied simply.
"Cullen Communications?" Meg repeated with a frown of concentration upon her wrinkled brow. "Isn't that owned by that billionaire guy?"
"I really don't know," Bella answered without thinking.
"Wait! It is owned by some young hottie named Edward Cullen," Meg announced with a gleam in her blue eyes. "I've seen a picture of him in one of my tabloids."
Bella smiled ruefully as she watched Meg race to her stack of magazines.
After several minutes Meg cried out triumphantly, "Here it is!" Rushing over to Bella's side, she presented the front page picture of an extremely handsome albeit annoyed Edward Cullen. "Isn't he gorgeous?"
Bella tried to hide her amusement at the older woman's dreamy look. Glancing down at the photograph she couldn't stop the quick intake of breath that the sight of the same man whom she had seen only a short time ago. "That's Edward Cullen?" she whispered questioningly.
"Yes! Let me see what the article inside says," Meg said as she pulled Bella by the arm to a table surrounded by high stools. Placing the tabloid on the table Meg began to read aloud,
"Recently caught leaving a fund raiser for his brother's Portland Hospital is eccentric billionaire Edward Cullen, the owner to the privately held Cullen Telecommunications reportedly worth over sixty-five billion dollars. Cullen, age 28, is somewhat of a recluse and not often photographed so you lucky readers of the Expose are one of the only few who have seen this handsome businessman. Cullen resides in a private residence just outside of Portland that is reportedly encompassing over six thousand acres and is heavily secured with fifteen feet tall electric fences. Other members of the Cullen family have also reached great successes in various fields. His sister Rosalie is one of the world's top fashion designers. In addition to the talented Rosalie and Edward is their older brother Dr. Carlisle Cullen who as you may have heard developed a surgical technique that has served to revolutionize the heart bypass procedure and is reported to be saving over six million lives a year. We couldn't dig up much else on this striking bachelor, but he is not reported to be seeing any one woman in particular so you single Expose readers in the Portland area keep an eye out!"
As Meg finished reading the article she mock fanned herself. "Oh if I were only fifteen years younger, she said with a sassy wink to Bella.
Bella failed to laugh at her co-worker's joke as she continued to stare unblinkingly at the photograph of her new boss. It seemed as if his eyes, a strange bronze color were calling to her in some bizarre fashion. What was it about this man that was causing her to lose her mind? She questioned herself silently.
"Earth to Bella," Meg called as she watched her friend's dazed expression.
Shaking her head as if to clear her thoughts Bella smiled sheepishly. "Sorry Meg, I was a thousand miles away."
"I just bet you were," Meg said with a mockingly raised eyebrow. "I just bet you were a million miles away on some deserted beach with Mr. Billionaire bucks."
"Meg!" Bella admonished sharply but failed to hide the immediate blush to her pale cheeks.
Meg chuckled at the reaction she achieved. "Oh come on Bella, live a little! Who knows, stranger things have happened."
"Right Meg," Bella said with a roll of her eyes as she turned back to her cake batter.
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
"Dad," Edward called softly as he entered his father's study.
"Edward," Carlisle responded gently as he motioned for his son to enter.
Crossing the intricately designed, hand inlaid wooden floor with an unconscious air of defeat to his gait, Edward slowly entered the room. "I need some advice," he said with a raw weariness that attested to the internal struggle he was facing.
Closing the latest copy of the Journal of American Medicine, Carlisle raised his eyes to meet his son's anguished gaze. "Alice filled us in on the details," he began the conversation feeling that he needed to offer his son some assistance.
Edward turned from his father's concerned face to look out the line of windows that ran from floor to ceiling. As he gazed at the rising of the new day's sun hidden behind the ever present overcast of clouds he wondered what this day would bring. "I'm not sure I know what I need to do here," he began with a lost feeling to his words. "I'm kind of out of my depth on this one."
Carlisle rose to breach the short distance to stand behind his son. 'Son', he thought to himself ruefully, for there was only a ten year marked difference in their human ages. "Edward," he said gently as he reached out his hand to place it upon his son's shoulder. "I'm not sure what the future will bring, but this I do know," he paused as he looked deep into his son's troubled eyes. "You would never harm where you loved Edward, this I know with everything that I am."
Edward couldn't suppress the shutter of helplessness. "But what if you're wrong, what if…" his voice trailed off as if the words that he wanted to say were just to dire to utter.
Taking his son's face within his hands, Carlisle looked deeply into his eyes. "Listen to me," he coaxed with a firmness that he accentuated with a firm shake. "Whatever you decide we will support you. If you want to turn and walk away we will go with you." He paused as he drew in an unneeded breath. "But if you want to follow your heart Edward, we will be there to help you in any way we can. You have never once slipped in the past eighty years so why would it be now that you would fail to meet your commitment to preserve a human life; especially when the human life is the one that has been shown to be the love that has been missing for all of these years? No Edward, you are not the type of man who would turn your back on your destiny, no matter how hard a sacrifice you must face in order for you to achieve it."
Edward swallowed past a lump in his throat, knowing that what his father's words had a ring of truth to them; he would always have his family's support no matter what the outcome. Nodding his head, Edward pulled his gaze away from his father's, unable to face the strong look of conviction that his father held in his belief that he would not harm a human life. "Alright then," He whispered with a sense of purpose. "I guess I had better find out a little more about this woman who is about to steal my heart."
Carlisle smiled with a sense of hope filling his eyes. "Let's go find Emmett."
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
"He's ready," Alice announced with a bright smile alighting her pale features.
"Alice," Jasper admonished her slightly as he tugged her down upon his lap.
"Oh leave me alone," she responded as she dodged his kiss. "It's not every day that something changes in this family."
"What's changing?" Esme asked as she walked gracefully into the room with a large vase full of flowers intended for the large antique table in the center of the room.
"Filling everyone in Alice?" Edward asked his sister with a raised accusatory eyebrow.
Smiling sheepishly, Alice disengaged herself from Jasper's embrace and flew across the room to her brother's side. "Well, it's not like it was going to be a secret much longer anyway."
Putting an arm around his sister's shoulders, Edward led her over to Emmett's desk where he was already pulling data on one Isabella Swan.
"There's the file that personnel had on her," Emmett informed as he motioned his head towards the papers on his desk. His finger's continued to fly across the state of the art computer keyboard that produced a multitude of images to the six flat panel monitors above.
Carlisle joined his wife and shared a secret smile with her as they watched Edward read the information.
"Her name is Isabella Swan," Edward said almost reverently as he sank down on the soft leather sofa next to his brother Jasper. "She's twenty-two and is a student at Portland College studying pre-law. Her emergency contact is listed as a Mike Newton."
"Mike Newton of the Seattle Seahawks?" Emmett asked as he turned away from his computer screens.
"It is a Seattle area code but that could just be a coincidence," Edward responded with a frown, not liking the idea of any man named Mike being an emergency contact for Isabella. "She lives on the east side of Portland."
"The east side?" Alice asked as she took a seat on the arm of the couch so she could look over Edward's broad shoulder to see the paper herself. "That's not a very safe neighborhood Edward."
"No it's not," Edward agreed as he tensed at the thought of Isabella living in such a high crime ridden area.
"Oh no," Esme gasped aloud as she stood frozen, staring at one of the images on Emmett's screen.
Edward rose slowly to make his way towards the screen so he could read the article.
Black Convicted of Brewer Murder – March 23, 2003 - Portland Time Herald
Jacob Black, eighteen, was convicted today of second degree murder in the Portland District County Courthouse. Black was convicted by a jury in less than thirty minutes for the murder of Ronald Brewer. The murder took place on June 17th 2002 in Brewer's girlfriend's home on the 43 hundred block of Washington Avenue. Brewer, 44 at the time of his death, was the live-in boyfriend of Black's foster mother Laverne Gartner. Also living in the home was sixteen year old Isabella Swan and seventeen year old Mike Newton who was recently awarded with the Heisman Trophy.
Both Swan and Newton were also foster children that had lived in the Gartner household for over a year. Black, who had only lived in the home for two months, had recently lost his father to cancer and was said by Gartner to be struggling with his father's death. Swan, who had been in the foster care system since she lost both her parents in an automobile accident when she was eight, had been shifted to thirteen different foster families over the last eight years. Mike Newton, whose mother died of a drug overdose when he was fourteen, had also been shuttled amongst several foster families before he settled into the Gartner household.
The Black defense team was unable to sway the jury that Black was only defending Swan when the murder took place as he alleges he walked in on Brewer savagely beating Swan. While Swan did suffer multiple injuries and was admitted to Portland General Hospital for more than a week to recover from the removal of her spleen, the jury remained steadfast in their conviction that Black could have saved Swan without resorting to Brewer's murder. Sentencing for Black will be held on April 2.
Fury vibrated off Edward's tense frame as he pictured a sixteen year old version of Isabella being beaten in a home that was suppose to provide a safe and loving environment. How she must have suffered in losing her parents at such a young age and then to be shuttled from one family to the next with never having a sense of belonging.
"Edward?" Esme's soft voice called out to him gently as she placed a soothing hand upon his back. "Are you alright?"
Edward shook his head at his mother as he turned away from Emmett's computer screens. "No, but I will be," he said as he walked briskly out of the room.
"Where's he going?" Jasper asked as he watched the front door swing shut.
Alice all but beamed in her happiness. "He's going to meet his soul mate."
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Whoa! Where are the reviews? Okay so I guess I'll have to work up a following in the genre. Anyway…in the next chapter Edward and Bella finally meet. Oh and I must say that sparks will fly. Thanks for reading and please feel some pity and post a review.