Title: Your Kisses Were Punishment.
Chapter One: An Ending that Started at the Beginning.
Rating: M (for adult themes and future lemons)
Category: Romance, Family
Pairing: Edward/Bella
Summary: It was a marriage neither wanted but she stuck by her decision. She worked day in and day out to make it work but his family members made it impossible. Two years passes and when a secret surfaces that she hoped would remain hidden, she finally decides to leave but he wouldn't let her. After living in the background of the illustrious Cullen Family, Isabella must fight for the one thing she desires…FREEDOM.
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.
Author's Note: Read, review and enjoy. Links to my blog and facebook page on profile.
Isabella felt the unwelcomed tears spill from her tired eyes. She had spent the last five hours dutifully standing at her husband's side, hugging the wives of her husband's business partners and allowing strange men to dance with her throughout the night. She smiled when needed, laughed when necessary and gasped when appropriate but it still was not enough. It was never enough.
She was a young girl; only nineteen years of age when she met Edward Cullen who was not only eleven years her senior but also one of the most powerful men she had ever met. She foolishly believed that he cared for her. She even went so far as to believe that he loved her but in her naivety she failed to realise that men like Edward Cullen cared for no one but themselves.
She slipped her shoes off and winced as blood rushed back into her very tortured toes and then struggled to remove the dress she had chosen to wear. When she was finally comfortable in a pair of old and torn pyjamas, she settled down into her bed as she thought about the day.
It had been like all the others. She got up, showered, met her husband for breakfast all the while trying to ignore the smell of Tanya's perfume wafting around him and then he would leave and she would lock herself back into her room simply to avoid Tanya and his family members who seemed to visit daily.
She was at the point where she was willing to admit that she had had enough. She wanted out. She also knew that to get a divorce from Edward would be near to impossible because even though he treated her horribly and somehow believed that he was entitled to treat her so, he would not let her go. He had her trapped and they both knew it.
She had been offered a way out many times in fact. However, she had refused hoping that she would never be faced with having to leave but now she was simply just tired.
Just as she was about to go to sleep, her phone rang. For a second, she contemplated not answering but she willed herself to pick her phone up.
"Hello." Isabella answered in her soft, sweet voice.
"Hey, Bella. It's me, Angela." Her one and only friend smiled even though tears where streaming down her face as she steered at the article in front of her.
"Ang, is everything ok? It's so late." Isabella said, concern colouring her voice.
"I'm fine. Just…Bella, I don't know how to tell you this." Angela said breaking down into sobs; drawing her husband's attention.
"What is it?" Isabella urged; her blood growing cold with each passing second.
"They found out." Angela openly sobbed. "They found out about your babies. Why didn't you tell me?" Angela pleaded.
"What?" Isabella choked out, her own tears beginning to fall.
"Your babies, Bella. Charles and …." Angela cried
"Aurora." Isabella finished her sentence. "How?"
"Esme hired detectives to dig up anything and they found out about it a couple of hours ago. They sold it to the company I work for. They story is breaking in the morning."
"Angela. I can't deal with this backlash."
"Then get out." Angela demanded.
"I know. I won't be in contact for a while." Isabella sighed as she quickly made her decisions.
"Go. Just get out." Angela sighed.
As soon as she disconnected the call, she dialled the one person who would help her.
"Hello?" He whispered as he shuffled out of the room.
"I need to get out." She told him.
"About time." He responded. "Call Jacob and tell him it's time. He'll know what to do."
"Thank you." Isabella said softly.
"If only I had met you first Bella, I would have made you my wife." He murmured. "You deserve much better than this."
"I'll call Jacob now." She sobbed feeling the weight of the words he had just spoken.
At one in the morning, Jacob Black left his office and made his way over to his team who were all involved in a very loud game of poker.
"Gentlemen," he boomed over their playful noise, "it is now time for Mrs Cullen to disappear. Let's go men."
Without pausing, all the members in Jacob's team ran to do the task they had waited so long to do and when Isabella Cullen made it to the garage, it was clear to all of them that she was not coming back.
Edward groaned as he woke up the next day. Tanya was still cuddled against his chest, her once sleek hair now a tangled mess but he loved it. He smirked as he took in the many love bites he had littered her neck with during their many love making sessions that night. Quietly, he slipped out of his bed and made his way to his shower; chuckling softly at his own dishevelled appearance. He quickly cleaned up and made his way into the dining room waiting for Isabella to join him for breakfast like he demanded of her. He was most surprised to see that she was not already there but seeing that they had a long night, he simply assumed that she was still asleep and he decided to wait for her.
Five minutes passed and then ten.
Finally after waiting more than an hour, his patience had run out.
"Jacob!" He bellowed. "Jacob!" He shouted again; his fist banging against the table, rattling the fine china placed there by his cook, Susan.
"Yes, Mr Cullen." Jacob responded in his monotone voice; walking calmly into the room.
"Do you mind telling me where my wife is?" The billionaire demanded, his face turning red indicating that he was just moments away from exploding.
"Mrs Cullen left this morning." Jacob responded.
"What?" Edward bellowed jumping to his feet as Tanya made her way into the room having heard the commotion.
"Edward." Tanya tried to calm him down.
"Don't!" Edward spat at Tanya before turning back to his head of security, who was clearly not disturbed by the childish tantrum he was witnessing. "Where is my wife, Black?"
"At four-thirty this morning Mrs Cullen called me and asked to be dropped off at the airport and that is all I know." The former Marine informed his boss.
"What? Why?" Edward roared blindly reaching for his coat intending to find his wife.
"You will not be able to find her." Jacob said as he followed his boss.
"And why is that Black?"
"Because I helped her escape." He shrugged.
"Why did you do that?" Edward lunged blindly at him.
"At twelve thirty this morning while you were busy with Ms Denali, a friend of Mrs Cullen called to give her a heads up of sorts. As you already know, your mother has never been fond of your wife and by your poor treatment of Mrs Cullen, you mother, sister and sister-in-law took that as your permission to do was what they pleased in destroying the young woman. So by that non-verbal permission, your mother hired a detective to dig up every single piece of dirty in Isabella's past and then have it sold to media houses for them to do what they want with it. Two years ago when your very open and very public affair with Ms Denali started, Mrs Cullen was pregnant. Due to the stress of dealing with your family, the media and Ms Denali, Mrs Cullen had a miscarriage just after her fourth month in the pregnancy and needed to have the child removed from her womb. She flew to Forks under the disguise of visiting her father but truly she was experiencing the single most painful experience in her life with only me for support. Another shocking discovery was made at the time. Mrs Cullen was pregnant with twins and both had been lost due to your family's cruelty. She held a private ceremony with only me standing at her side."
As he pulled a in a harsh breath, Jacob Black reached into his suit jacket and pulled out the only picture that existed of the children of Edward and Isabella Cullen.
"Meet your children Mr Cullen: your son Charles Ethan Cullen and your daughter Aurora Elizabeth Cullen born on August 13th 2008."
Edward fell to the ground with a sicken thud. Tanya gasped as she saw the picture flutter to the floor. With trembling hands, she quickly snapped a picture of the picture and sent it to her allies in a war where the collateral damage was now an obvious price that no one was willing to pay.
In a very posh restaurant, Esme Cullen was having a pleasant brunch with her daughter Alice Whitlock and her daughter-in-law Rosalie Cullen, when simultaneously all three phones alerted them to a message.
"Oh, it's from Tanya." Alice giggled. "Wonder how Isabella reacted to Tanya this morning." She smirked evilly as she reached for her phone.
Rosalie however had already opened the message and the scream that left her lips startled everyone within hearing range of the three women.
"Rosalie, control yourself." Esme scolded while maintaining a pleasant smile plastered on her face.
"Mom." Alice said in a broken whisper as she now reacted to the picture Tanya had sent.
"What is wrong with you two?" Esme scoffed, tossing her caramel coloured hair over her shoulder.
"Check your phone, Mother." Alice responded, discreetly wiping her own tears.
Sighing, Esme Cullen reached for her phone and opened the message Tanya sent to her. When Esme enlarged the picture and she felt her heart constrict painfully. It was a pain she knew all too well and as much as she disliked Isabella Swan, she never meant for this to happen. Within seconds of opening the message, the phone slipped from Esme's fingers sending various phone parts skating across the floor.
"No." The matriarch of the Cullen family whimpered. "She was never pregnant. Irina told me every detail of every appointment. She would not have lied about this."
"What do we do?" Rosalie whispered making no attempt to hide her tears.
"Give me your phone, Alice." Esme demanded, dabbing her tears away.
Following her mother's instruction, Alice handed her phone over to her mother who quickly dialled her 'friend's' number.
"Hello." A broken voice answered.
"I take it that Tanya sent you the picture too." Esme said coldly.
"Yes." Tanya's mother, Irina answered softly.
"Did you know?" Esme asked; her voice growing colder with each word.
"Not until it was too late."
"Too late for what?" Esme sighed, tears spilling from her eyes.
"Too late to save the babies."
"Goodbye, Irina."
"Esme, please don't. Don't shut my family out because of this. Remember you were the one who wanted Tanya to be with your son." Irina pleaded.
"My son lost his son. I have nothing more to say." With that Esme Cullen ended her call and called for the bill.
Carlisle Cullen was fighting the urge to throw his youngest child threw a window when a news report caught his attention.
"Monica, I am standing outside Forks Cemetery where it is believed that the twins that were created from the marriage between Edward and Isabella Cullen were said to be buried about two years ago. From what we know from information given to us by an anonymous source, Isabella Cullen was in fourth month of her first pregnancy when she tragically miscarried. Now that is all we know at this time but the real question is; how were the Cullens to keep this hidden."
Emmett watched in horror as the reporter carried on point out a very grim timeline. Carlisle Cullen was already on the phone calling on his PR division to immediately do damage control and keep his company safe.
"A miscarriage!" Carlisle screamed in outrage. "And Edward didn't tell me anything?"
"I don't think he even knew she was pregnant." Emmett whispered softly but it was loud enough to catch his father's attention.
"What do you mean, Emmett? The timeline they just showed, dad. If the one they just showed is true then Isabella miscarried around the time Edward went public with his affair."
"Oh God!" Carlisle groaned as he reached for his phone once again and quickly dialled his eldest child.
"Father." He answered in a broken voice.
"Tell me these are all lies." Carlisle pleaded; pressing the palm of his hand against his eyes hoping that the coldness lingering in his fingertips would sooth the throbbing head ache he felt building.
"I can't. I didn't know until just now." His favoured son said so softly that he had to strain to hear it.
"Where is she?" Carlisle asked as he unbuttoned his suit jacket and unceremoniously dropped himself onto his seat.
"She left this morning when she got a tip off that this was coming. I have no idea where she is." Edward sighed. "She was pregnant, dad, with my babies and I allowed the family to treat her so poorly she miscarried. I treated her so poorly."
"Is that regret I hear in your voice? I warned you about this. I, for the life of me, can't figure out why you allowed your mother, sister and sister-in-law to manipulate you this way." Carlisle sighed.
"Manipulate? Dad, they never manipulated me." Edward frowned.
"Edward, Tanya has been Rosalie's closest friend since they went to boarding school together in England. It was never coincident that you and Tanya met when you did."
"What?" Edward growled out.
"Oh, don't sound so shocked. You know very well that the women in our family were never fond of Isabella." Carlisle chastised the now anger man. "Now we need to concentrate on finding Isabella."
"Jacob dropped her off at the airport. She booked a flight to Montana so I thought that she was going to the vacation house but she never arrived there. In fact, she never made it to Montana. Airport records show she boarded the flight but she never made it to Montana. It's like she fell of the face of the earth. I tried calling but she switched her phone off. Dad, I'm worried." Edward sighed.
"We'll find her. Your brother and I are on our way." Carlisle signed to Emmett that they were leaving. Quickly, Emmett hurried out the room stopping to inform his father's assistant to cancel all their meetings for the day.
As soon as Carlisle ended his call with his eldest son, he quickly called his son-in-law, Jasper Whitlock the third.
"Hey Carlisle." Jasper answered sounding very tired.
"She called you?' The patriarch of the Cullen family asked in a hushed voice glancing at the door to make sure no one was over-hearing his conversation.
"Yeah. She called around one. I had Seth fly her out there. She landed by half past six this morning. Sam is there with his security team and they took her to the house. No one knows she's there. Peter said he would check on her later but she okay."
"Good. Make sure and play your part. God knows I got a head start on playing mine. Now time to go deal with Edward." Carlisle sighed; feeling like he had aged fifteen years.
Fifty minutes later and Carlisle and Emmett Cullen entered the house where his eldest lived. His wife, daughter and daughter-in-law were already there and all of them were crying.
"What beautiful actresses you are!" Carlisle exclaimed; opening his arms to them.
"Father, please." Alice pleaded, hoping Jasper would arrive soon so that she could just fall into his arms and absorb the comfort he would give all too happily.
"No, Alice. Do not tell me how to react. Are you all happy? Do you feel accomplished? Your hatred for this young girl cost her, the life of her children." Carlisle all but screamed. "And you Esme." Carlisle rounded on his wife. "All that charity work you do, all the lives you boast of enriching…..is it an act to combat all the evil deeds you have done to Isabella?"
"Carlisle!" Esme hissed. "Be quiet."
"Dad, not now." Edward called softly. "My babies, dad. Did I cause this?" he gestured to the picture in his hand.
"What is that, son?" Carlisle made his way over to his son.
"A picture Jacob took at the hospital. The only pictures of my babies." Edward passed it over to Carlisle.
But as Carlisle pulled his son into his arms, he swallowed back the guilt the threatened to surface because sitting in his vault at his home sat another picture; the picture that showed a broken Carlisle Cullen holding onto an equally distraught Isabella Swan-Cullen as they looked down at the angels that had gone to soon.
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