Edward glanced absently at the papers, eyes running over the fine print in a second. Looking up at Bella, his oynx eyes flashed in worry.
"We have to hurry." Bella said softly, frightened. "She's our daughter too."
Edward turned his face away from her so that she wouldn't see the accusation in his face. Because she was right- she was their daughter. But she was Jacob's too. And if she wasn't, none of this would have happened.
Breanna came quietly, slipping into the room like a sliver of glass through a door crack.
He heard her anyway.
"Where have you been?" he asked lightly, but Breanna knew the question was as dangerous and double sided as he was.
"Busy- I was visiting with the wolf." she said the word scornfully, but it was hard not to add a loving note to it. The lie was believable enough- she was spending time with him nearly constantly.
"Someone new, already?" he asked softly, the insult stinging like a slap to her face.
She froze, turning to him slowly. "I have no idea," she said slowly, "What you're talking about."
He gazed back at her with a cold expressionlessness that was more frightening than a raging fury.
"Don't think I don't know," he replied quietly.
"I am faithful."
"Breanna," He shook his head, "You truly do believe I am innocent to your little trifles. It's amusing really, the way you think you get past me."
"That's right," her tone was beyond freezing- it was glacial. "I'm just so very amusing to you."
He smiled cruelly. "That you are."
"I sit for hundreds of years, letting you show me off like a pleasant addition. I'm supposed to sit here, being your entertaining little wife, for my entire existence. To be frank, Ashareth, I'm bored. Amusing indeed- my ultimate role. No wonder I have my "trifles." Breanna replied bitterly, no longer denying it.
His smile slipped. "BORED? I do everything for you. I give you everything."
"You give me everything I want. Do you think that satisfies me? I'm showed off like a trophy- with your artificial love supposed to keep me satisfied. Things don't satisfy me anymore. I love anything that's new, Ashareth, anything that will keep me amused. Jacob amuses me."
"Art. Ificial." he repeated it like two words, pronouncing it loathingly.
"Yes, ARTIFICIAL. You feel nothing for me, Ashareth, nor I for you. Nothing anyway, behind my face."
"You have never doubted this before I accused you of YOUR wrongs."
"Doubted? No. I have always KNOWN that your attraction is only to my body."
"As is everyone's attraction to you. If you were homely, you'd be regarded quite rudely for your attitude." Ashareth snapped.
"And if you weren't so powerful you'd be locked up as a lunatic!"
His cold, slicing gold eyes were razor sharp. "You are despicable. I'm going to leave you, Breanna, to yourself. I am done with you, and your games. In a month, you will be begging on your knees for me to reaccept you. Only on your knees will I reconsider." Ashareth spoke slowly before he strode from the room.
Breanna stared after him in disbelief. On her knees? He was as insane as she'd accused him of being!
Sara laughed, throwing back her head. Jacob watched her, black eyes laughing with her.
"Is there nothing you WON'T eat?" she giggled.
"Not when I'm hungry." Jacob shrugged.
"Mmm," She pressed her full lips together in a contented smile, and they looked at eachother a moment before her smile slipped from her face, and she stared at her feet.
"Why do you do that?" He wondered.
"What?" She looked up, surprised.
He shrugged. "Is it a crime here to look at eachanother?"
"No." Her fair brows flew together. "Why?"
"You always act like you're breaking a rule when our eyes meet."
She looked away. "You're perceptive."
"It's a rule?" he asked in surprise.
"Of a sort I suppose." she said softly.
His set jaw demanded she explain.
"Breanna really does like you," she shrugged.
The realization dawned on him.
There was silence.
"She's punishing you isn't she?" He asked at last, furious.
"It's really not -- "
"Burn it Sara! It's ridiculous. Breanna's nuts."
She looked afraid. "Jacob - "
"She is! Breanna is simply INSA -- "
"Shut up!" She whispered fiercely.
He blinked. "Why?"
"Did you ever think- that with Ashareth's power, he could have spies around here? Last week, Andrea was killed for complaining." Sara murmured in anxious worry.
"Oh."
"I'm sorry," She sighed, "But it's too dangerous."
"Why don't you just leave this place?"
"I can't." She said slowly, regretfully, "I was born here, raised here, taught to serve here, just like my mother and her mother, and hers, and hers. Besides, I don't have the option of leaving."
He grinned bitterly, "Seems we all have that problem."