Disclaimer: I neither own Twilight nor Autumn of the Witch.
Chapter Seven
Bella was having breakfast with her father and step-mother in the dining room when Millie entered. "Mr. Swan, there is a caller on the phone for you." Millie announced as she entered the room.
"Oh? Did you inquire who it was?" Charlie asked, he could not remember expecting a call.
"I did, it is Mr. Clearwater, and he said it was business related." Millie replied.
"Oh, yes I forgot I have to attend to business with Harry and the financial advisor that Edward is sending over from one of his companies to temporarily assist us." Charlie recalled. "Thank you Millie, I'll take the call in the library." He said to the maid. Turning to his wife and daughter, "Ladies if you'll just excuse me, business calls." He said as he got up from the table and excused himself to take the call.
Once Charlie was gone from the room Renee turned her judgmental and accusatory gaze on her step-daughter. "So Isabella, have you started making wedding arrangements yet? After all your wedding is in just a few weeks."
"No, I have not started make any definitive plans yet. But I can assure you that everything is under control and you need not concern yourself with that." Bella said to her step-mother.
"Oh, I am not concerned about that. I know with enough money any one can pull off an amazing wedding in no time, even you. And I do not know anyone with more money than Edward Cullen. What I am concerned about is what people will think of me." Renee replied as she took a delicate sip of her coffee.
"What do you mean?" Bella asked completely confused, she knew that Renee was always very self centered but Bella could not fathom, how her step-mother would manage to make Bella's nuptials about her.
"Well, how do you think people would perceive me when they hear that my young daughter is having a shotgun wedding to a wealthy man twice her age? Sure you see how this will put into question my abilities as a mother." Renee said as if the implications were quite obvious.
"Ok, let's get a few facts straight here," Bella began, as she fought to keep calm. "You are not my mother, nor did you raise me. Therefore no one can ever question your abilities as a mother because you are not one, and whatever I do has nothing to do with you. Also, I will say this for the last time and let this be the end of it; I am not pregnant, so ergo this is not a shotgun wedding. I am sick and tired of your snippy little comments about my marriage, I know you are pissed because you feel that I cheated you out of a lot of money you would have gotten from the deal, but it's not happening, so get over it and move the fuck on Renee and stop acting like a petulant child." Bella said as she got up from the table storming from the room, and leaving her step-mother and her half eaten breakfast behind, having lost her appetite.
Bella sat on her bed picking up her cell phone from the night stand, scrolling through her contacts until she found the one she was looking for. She sat there staring at the phone for several minutes before finally hitting call and holding the phone to her ear while it rang.
"Hello?" answered the woman on the other end of the line.
"Hey, Angela it's me Bella." Bella said into the phone.
"Oh hey Bella how have you been? I was just about to call you to tell you I that I'm back from Cali."
"How was your time on the west coast?" Bella asked.
"It was amazing!" Angela exclaimed excitedly into the phone.
"By the sound of your voice I can tell you had a great time." Bella said as she allowed a smile to spread across her face, Angela was her closest friend and she really missed her while she was away in California.
"I can't wait to tell you all about it."
"I can't wait to hear all about it. How about you come over, I actually have some news I'd like to share with you." Bella told her friend.
"Yea sure, I'll be there in about an hour or so, I just have to take care of some things first." Angela said.
"Ok, see you soon." Bella said as she hung up the phone.
Bella was sitting in the living room flicking through channels, trying to find something good on TV to watch while she waited for Angela to arrive, when she heard the door bell ringing. "I'll get it." She call out as she got up and made her way to the front door.
"Bella!" Angela exclaimed excitedly when Bella opened the door to let her in.
"Ang, it so good to see you, you have no idea how much I've missed you." Bella said as she allowed her friend to enter before pulling her into a warm embrace.
"I've missed you too. I have so much to tell you." Angela said when they pulled apart from their hug.
Bella lead her friend into the house as she asked; "Would you like something to eat or drink?"
"Do you have any of those heavenly cookies that Millie makes?" Angela asked.
"I think so wait here let me go check." Bella replied as she made her way to the kitchen. A few minutes later she returned with a tray with chocolate chip cookies and two glasses of milk. "Let's take this up to my room and talk there, so we won't be disturbed." Bella said as she led the way up the stairs to her bedroom, with Angela following her.
Once they were in her room Bella put down the tray of snack and she and Angela climbed onto her big soft bed to get comfortable and started nibbling on the cookies. "So tell me all about your internship in California." Bella said.
"It was great, I loved it! There were twelve of us interns, six guys and six girls and we stayed in company provided housing and everyone was pretty cool so we all got along well. I actually met this really awesome guy and we just kind of hit it off right away." Angela confessed as a big smile spread across her face.
"Oh, Ang that's great. Tell me all about him, where is he from? What is he like? Are you guys an item? I want to know everything." Bella questioned, she could tell by the smile on Angela's face that she was bursting at the seams to talk about her summer romance.
"Oh Bella he is the most amazing person I've ever met. His name is Benjamin Cheney, but he goes by Ben. He is talk and just the cutest thing ever." Angela gushed, "I actually have a picture." Angela said as she pulled out her cell phone and showed Bella a picture of them together. In the picture Angela was standing in front of a handsome guy who had his arms wrapped around her waist from behind and they both have huge smiles on their faces.
"Aww, you guys make such a cute couple." Bella said as she returned the phone to Angela.
"Thank you, I think so too. Anyway, Ben is actually from Boston, Massachusetts and believe it or not he also goes to Harvard. I cannot believe we've never met before, it's crazy. But its works out perfectly because, a few days before I left he said he wants us to be exclusive!" Angela said excitedly.
"Ang, that's wonderful, I'm so happy for you." Bella said as she gave her friend a hug.
"Thanks Bella, I can't wait for you to meet him. He's still in California since he still has two more weeks left in his internship. But when he returns he'll be coming here to New York to visit me and I'm going to introduce him to my parents."
"Meeting the parents? This sounds serious." Bella said, she was happy for her friend, at least one of them had a great relationship going.
"It is, we've both exchanged 'I love you'. I know it may seem fast but he's really special Bella, and I've never felt like this about anyone before, he make me so completely happy."
"I'm so happy for you." Bella told her friend.
The girls continued talking about Angela's new romance and her internship for a while. "Thank you. So what was the new you said you have to tell me?" Angela asked her friend once they were done talking about her time in California.
"Oh yes, I do have so happy new." Bella said as she got up from her bed and made her way over to her night stand where she pulled out the top draw and reached inside and took out her engagement ring from where she had put it last night before she went to bed. Putting on the ring she turned around and climbed back onto her bed. "Well, I'm getting married." Bella said as she held up her left hand displaying her beautiful ring for Angela to see.
"OMG! Bella that is just wow, it's absolutely gorgeous. Congrats!" Angela exclaimed as she pulled Bella into a congratulatory hug.
"Thank you." Bella said as she forced herself to smile a genuine smile.
"This ring is breath taking though, I had no idea Jacob has such good taste. Speaking of which, how on earth can he afford this, it must have cost a fortune?" Angela questioned as she admired the ring on Bella's finger.
"Actually, I'm not marrying him. Jake and I broke up." Bella said as she looked at her friend, who was now looking as her with confusion on her face.
"Wait what? When did you guys break up?" Angela asked.
"Two days ago." Bella replied.
"Ok, now I'm really confused." Angela declared.
"Well it's a really long story one I don't wish to get into right now, but a few months ago I met someone who was doing business with my dad and we started seeing each other in secret. We fell in love and now we're getting married." Bella said, telling her friend the story, Edward had made up. She really wished she could be honest with Angela, but she knew her friend and she would never understand why Bella needed to do this so she decided to give her the public story and not tell her the truth, I was better for everyone involved that way.
"So you were still with Jacob, while also dating this guy behind everyone's back?" Angela asked, she was not being judgmental, she just couldn't picture Bella doing something, but as she was in love herself she knew love could make people do crazy thinks so she assumed that, that's why Bella did what she did.
"I know it sounds bad, but I never meant to hurt anyone and I can tell you I never planned any of this. Life just happened."
"I really missed a lot the two months I was away in California." Angela said, with a smile on her face.
"You have no idea," Bella agreed.
"So, do tell, who exactly is this mystery man that you are marrying? Is he someone I know?" Angela asked, curious for the identity of the many who she believed stole her friend's heart.
"Well you probably know of him, but I doubt you know him personally. It's actually Edward Cullen."
"Edward Cullen? As in the Edward Cullen, head of Cullen Enterprise?" Angela asked, completely surprised.
"The very one," Bella replied, with a smile on her face, it was so funny looking at the surprised look on Angela's face, it was quite hilarious.
"Oh shit Bella, you aren't messing with me are you?" She asked and when Bella shook her head she continued, "Well congrats, I just have to say, you have got a serious hunk of a fiancé, you will definitely be the envy of ever single woman and her mother in New York, probably the entire country." Angela joked, but she probably was not very far from the truth, Edward was after all named the most eligible bachelor. "I know he's a bit older than us, but he is seriously hot, and if he makes you happy then that's all that matters." Angela told her.
"Thank you Ang."
"So you do you have any idea when the big day will be?" Angela asked as she took a bite of her cookie.
"August tenth." Bella replied.
"Of this year?"
"Yes."
"Oh shit, you're not pregnant are you?" Angela inquired, almost choking on her cookie.
Laughing at her friend, Bella replied, "No I'm not pregnant. Why does everyone keep asking that?"
"Well can you blame us, that's really fast."
"I know but I'll be transferring to Columbia this fall and we wanted to be settled into our home before I started school." Bella explained, once again reciting public story.
"Oh crap, this means you won't be going back to Harvard with me this fall." Angela said with a pout.
"You'll hardly miss me, now that you have Ben."
"Ben will be a nice distraction but I will definitely miss you."
"I know, I'll miss you too." Bella told her friend. "We still have the rest of the summer thought, and I want you to be my maid of honor."
"Of course, it would be my honor." Angela said with a mock serious expression on her face, as she placed a hand over her heart as if she were taking an oat. Both girls burst out in laughter over Angela's antics.
Hanging out with Angela made Bella more relaxed and happier than she had been since the night she went out to dinner with Peter Marshall. She was really glad for her friends company, glancing down at her phone she noticed that it was almost two o'clock and she suddenly remembered that she had made plans with Esme Cullen to meet her at two thirty. "Oh crap, I almost forgot I have to meet with Edward's mother to start making wedding arrangements. You don't mind coming along do you?"
"As long as I won't be in the way," Angela replied.
"Don't be silly, you're going to be my maid of honor. It's practically your job to be present." Bella told her as she stood up from her bed. "Just give me a few minutes and we and then we can head out."
At exactly two thirty Bella pulled up to the Cullen home, and much like she did when she first saw the mansion, she saw that Angela was opening admiring its beauty.
They both got out of the car and made their way to the door and rang the door bell. They did not have to wait long before it was opened by Esme.
"Bella, darling I'm so glad you could make it." Esme greeted as she pulled Bella into a warm hug. "And who is this lovely young lady you've brought with you?" Esme inquired when she saw Angela.
"Esme, this is my best friend and maid of honor Angela. Angela, this is Esme Cullen my future mother-in-law." Bella said introducing the women to each other.
"Pleasure to meet you Mrs. Cullen, and may I say you have a beautiful home."
"Thank you Angela, its lovely meeting you but please call me Esme." Esme said as she gave Angela a hug, before leading them into the sitting room.
"We have a lot of work to do and not much time to do it so we better dive in right now." Esme said once they were settled and sipping on the iced tea that was brought in by the butler. "Bella have you given any thought to what designer you want for your dress for the ceremony? And will you wear a different dress for the reception?" Esme inquired.
"I think one dress will do for both, and I haven't thought about a designer. I was thinking that we could just look at some dresses and go from there."
"Ok, but I spoke to Zafrina and she has sent me some pictures of dresses that she thought we might be interested in looking at, she also offered to design an original piece for you and a suite for Edward if you would preferred and she's also be willing to make dresses and suits for the bridal party as well." Esme told her.
"I'm sorry did you say Zafrina as in Zafrina McQueen, the number one designer in the world?" Angelina asked, awed by the possibility. Angela may not be a fashionista, but everyone knew who Zafrina was and to wear an original piece by her was beyond amazing.
"Yes, she is a very close family friend, and she was very excited when I told her that Edward has finally decided to settle down."
"Oh wow, I absolutely love her work." Bella said, "I can't believe she might actually design the dress I get married in." Bella was completely amazed, and for the first time she was excited about her wedding. She decided in that moment that if she was going to be stuck in an unwanted marriage then she might as well enjoy the wedding, it very well might be the only one she ever has. So while she was less than please with the marriage she was getting quite excited about the wedding.
"Lovely, I am glad that you are not only familiar with her pieces but you like them as well. I think you will absolutely love the pictures she sent over. Before we look at them I wanted to ask if you were ok with us hiring a planner, it would surely make everything easier especially seeing as we don't have a lot of time."
"Yea I think getting a planner is a good idea." Bella agreed.
The three ladies spent the next few hours looking over dresses and discussing wedding arrangements.