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LadySharkey1 rocks my world by being the most amazing, kick-ass beta I could ever imagine.

Chapter 19

Shock, horror and maybe a little step forward.

"Jesus Christ, what an idiot!" Liam sat back, and the disgusted look on his face reminded me of what Rose had looked like two days ago when she had found out what had happened between me and Edward. Although, her reaction had been less tame than his.

A lot less.

I chuckled wryly; the confirmation of what I already knew strengthening my resolve even more. "You get no argument from me! The trouble is that I'm right in the middle of this pile of shit!"

"No." he shook his head, his eyes shining with a trust and confidence I had been sorely missing in my life. "The question is: how are you gonna get yourself out of it?"

"I wish I knew." I sighed, scooping up some of the leftover sauce from my spaghetti and meatballs with a piece of bread. "If I'd have known this would happen, I would have hired a lawyer nine years ago, when we split up. Being as it is, I have to figure this shit out right now. And quickly, too…if I want to make sure Charlie isn't hurt any more than she already has been."

"How is she doing?" He asked, the genuine interest speaking from his eyes made me wonder, for the first time, if and when I was going to introduce the two of them. Not soon, probably, since I had a feeling my girl had her belly full of 'possible parental figures' for the foreseeable future.

"She's hanging in there," I answered truthfully. "She's so incredibly strong! However, at the same time, I can see how much this has affected her. She's disappointed in her dad—who was her whole world before he betrayed her trust—but most of all she's scared Angela is going to walk back into her life again."

Liam smiled encouragingly. "Somehow I have a feeling you're going to do everything you can to prevent that."

"Hell yeah!" I snorted. "If I had my way, that bitch wouldn't be allowed within twenty miles from my daughter. Being as it is, I have Jenks looking into way to protect her that can't come back to bite me in the ass should all this turn into a full blown, dirty fighting custody case."

"You still think you can keep that from happening?" Liam nodded, sipping pensively from his drink.

"I still wish it with all my heart," I replied, maybe against my better knowledge. "It's not so much that I'm afraid of going through with this, because I'd do anything to protect my daughter. It's just that deep down I still can't believe it has come to this…that he could change so much in such a short amount of time. I keep believing he will one day wake up and come to his senses…that he will show up on our doorstep and apologize for being such a dick."

"And what will you do when he does?" Liam was a bit more apprehensive as he looked at me and after revealing I still loved my ex during our last dinner, I couldn't really blame him.

"Right now the only thing I want is for Charlie to be able to see her dad again without having to worry about who she might bump into while she's there. If he can promise me that and works his ass off to win back her trust, I'd be happy." I sighed, the big fat hole in my chest still throbbing as I voiced the answer to that other, unspoken question. "That's all I really want from him."

At least that was one thing Edward had succeeded in the last time we'd spoken; he'd finally freed my heart of the chokehold he'd had on it for so, so long.

With the way things were between us, and the anger I felt towards him, I wouldn't even want him back if he came begging, with Angela's severed head in one hand and a sparkling wedding ring that would make the three of us a family in the other.

"If the asshole knew what he was throwing away…" Liam shook his head, his hand reaching out for mine over the pristine damask of the tablecloth. "But then again, he does, and he still messed up the best thing he could have had in his life. I mean, seriously! Is he some kind of closet masochist or something?"

I shrugged, trying to act more nonchalant in the hope the feeling would stick. "I'm beyond caring about what he feels at this moment. I'm so sick of being the only one who's concerned about what the other is feeling. Because it's becoming more and more clear to me that he really doesn't give a shit."

"I can only imagine." Liam nodded, flagging down the waiter to refill our drinks as we finished our dinner. "Now, let's change the subject before he succeeds in ruining our date, as well. I mean, that's what you called me for, wasn't it?"

I grinned, nodding enthusiastically at the escape he offered. "So how are things in the wood chopping business?"

From that point on, the evening was saved again, just as I knew it would be. It was why I'd called him, after my usual go-to form of therapy—kneading dough and baking the hardest, most intricate cakes known to man—had failed to lift my spirits. Liam kept his word; his jokes about how he'd managed to gain the respect of some of the manliest men around with him being a 'suit' and all, set the tone for the rest of our date.

But most of all, it was the fact that he always succeeded in making me feel appreciated again that brought me back to life. In the midst of the storm that was raging around me, it was so hard sometime to keep believing that I was someone who was worthy of being in a relationship and found the affection and, in due time, the love of a good man.

I needed all of that and more the following day, when I drove my baby girl to her grandma's house for a sit-down with her father. It was Charlie's idea, actually. Three days ago, my bold, brazen little girl had just walked up to me, as calm as fuck, and said she was ready to have that talk with her dad. Alone, so she could get through everything without having to worry about me.

It felt like it had taken me a solid five minutes to breathe again.

Another ten minutes to actually give her a coherent reply.

In the end, the machinations of orchestrating this sit-down had started to look like planning a military advance; the location being the first and foremost concern as well as the safety of Charlie and the protection of both Charlie and location against infiltration by the enemy. Who, in this case, was Voldemary.

My place was out since I was pretty sure Edward would see that as having to go 'behind enemy lines', which would probably have him as much on edge as he'd been last time. That was also why Charlie and I had decided it would be just her and her dad in that meeting, seeing as my presence would only complicate things. In the end, Esme had been my saving grace, offering up her home as a neutral meeting point and herself as UN Peacekeeper and guardian at the gate.

After what she'd told me during our chat, I knew that there was no way in hell Voldemary would ever get past her again.

"Are you sure you're gonna be okay with me leaving?" I asked again, my hands trembled around the wheel as I threw the car in reverse and backed out of the driveway.

Charlie rolled her eyes theatrically. It wasn't like this was the first time I'd asked her. "I'm sure, mom. I kinda need to talk to dad alone. It's gonna be better this way."

"When did you get so grownup?" I chuckled, tears of pride shimmering in my eyes.

"I'm almost eleven years old mom!" she smartassed. "It's not like I'm still a baby or anything."

"Apparently not!" I had a hard time getting my voice to sound properly chastised with my giggles trying to burst out. She still saw me, though; her eyes scrunching into frustrated little slits as she caught a whiff my humor through the rearview mirror.

Knowing I was in the doghouse, I tried a different approach. "Did you remember to pack the cookies we baked last night?" Over the past couple of days, Charlie and I had started baking simple stuff together in the afterhours. It was a gamble on my part, not quite knowing if she would like it or think it was too girly or anything, but she'd taken to it like a charm. And it had prompted her to talk to me more, instead of having her run off to her room to play with her hamster or become so immersed in books about nature that she'd hardly even noticed there was such a thing as a real world.

The day before we'd spent the hours in between Rose's arrival and Liam picking me up, baking cookies for Grandma Esme and talking about things that had happened during the past few days. I hadn't told her I'd met with a lawyer—it was too soon for that—but what I had pressed into her mind was that I would do everything I could to make sure she wouldn't have to be in the same room as Angela if she didn't want to be.

Charlie had grown more quiet when I told her, in the most veiled possible way, about my meeting with her dad, but I had a feeling hearing about it only strengthened her resolve. She wanted to tell her side of things; make her dad realize just how much Angela had scared and hurt her with her behavior and how, in turn, he had hurt her by allowing it to happen.

I prayed he would at least be open to what she was saying.

It was a minefield and to say I was confident things would go okay would be a lie. It was sad, really, the realization that I was beginning to seriously doubt the safety of my daughter when she was in her father's company. Sad and startling since not half a year ago there had never been a doubt in my mind that she would be happy and cared for whenever she was with him.

How could a man change so much?

A lot was riding on this meeting and not just the relationship between my daughter and her dad. For me, this meeting was Edward's final chance to see reason.

"Call me if anything happens," I pressed as the car rolled to a stop in front of the Cullens' family home; Esme already rushing out with a huge smile on her face, excited to have her granddaughter over.

Charlie nodded. "Are you coming back to pick me up?"

"Grandma will bring you home," I assured her, going over the schedule with her again. "You're going to have your talk with daddy, and afterwards, Grandma Esme has made a special dinner for you, dad and Grandpa Cullen. I'm sure you're going to impress the hell out of them when you give them the cookies you made for dessert! When you're done with dinner, Grandma will drive you back home to me." It had been Esme's idea to have dinner afterwards. Knowing that during the talk the tension would fly high, she wanted to end the day on a lighter note. That was…if Edward would get his head out of his ass and cooperate.

"Okay," she nodded, slightly more tense. "Can we watch a movie tonight?"

"Anything you pick," I agreed. "I'll make the popcorn. Now give me a kiss?"

I hugged her close before releasing her into Esme's care. The determination on Esme's usually-so-kind-and-genteel woman assured me that my daughter would come to no harm under her watch.

But it wasn't Esme I was so worried about; it was her son.

Knowing Emmett would be okay with the cleanup after Saturday's business, I made a quick stop at the supermarket getting some of Charlie's favorite snacks for our movie night before heading over to the drug store to do some shopping for myself.

Condoms, for one, because if things would progress the way they had progressed against the back door of my home last night, me and Liam were definitely headed there. In all honesty, I didn't quite know what to think of it. On the one hand, Liam was a great guy who seemed to like me enough to not be scared away by all my baggage. The more time I spent with him, the more my conviction grew that building a life with him wouldn't be so bad.

But that was just it. Even with all my hard work to make it happen, I was still waiting for that elusive spark the alight and I was beginning to suspect that the happiness and relief I felt whenever I was around him wasn't caused by the beginning stages of love for the guy, but more by the fact that a man was showing interest in me in the first place.

Hell, I might even have felt the same if that fucker Mike Newton had spent a few evenings with me. No, yuck! That's taking it a few steps too far!

All in all, I just couldn't see anything happening long term between me and Liam but I was too addicted to the reprieve from the drama in my life that he offered to let him go. Even if it made me feel guilty every time I watched him drive away after our dates because he had made it no secret that he was definitely in this.

Was I taking advantage of him?

Was it fair?

Could I really be a good enough partner for him just because I wanted to be?

By the time I made it back to my place again, my head was throbbing with that all too familiar tension headache; the mixture of relationship angst and worries over how the conversation between Charlie and her dad was going, almost made me see cross-eyed from the stinging pain.

At least they invented Tylenol!

The urge to call Esme and find out how things were going was getting stronger and stronger with every step I took towards the back door, my hands awkwardly strained around the shopping bags as I single-handedly tried to open the door with the other.

The hallway was dark, just as I expected at this hour but what I didn't expect was the loud noise coming out of the bakery as something—probably a mixing bowl—crashed onto the floor with a loud, metallic clang. Dropping my bags, I was already halfway to the door when the sound of muffled curses clued me in on what the heck was going on in my shop.

"Was that the door?" Emmett's voice sounded strained as a rumble of things being shifted around made it harder to hear if anything else was being said.

"Fuck!" Rose voice hissed, her voice barely audible over the noise. "Quick! Pick it up before Bella hears us!"

Throwing open the door, I tried to look sufficiently pissed off as I watched the carnage in front of me with my two half-dressed employees running around in the middle of it like two chickens with their heads cut off. "Too late!"

Rose shrieked as she jumped into Emmett's unsuspecting hold, his hulking frame barely able to remain standing with the force of the collision. "Bella! You're home!"

"Happy to see me?" I smirked, trying not to pay attention to parts of bodies that should remain covered as I took in the damage to my workplace.

"Not really," she pouted, the drool almost dripping from her mouth as her eyes followed a topless Emmett as he ran around collecting the bowls that had fallen from the stack. "We thought you wouldn't be back for another half hour."

"And that would give you the time to finish what you started and thoroughly disinfect the place?" I arched my brow, my sternness more convincing since the comedy of the situation had given way to the more practical aspects of it. "Seriously! I have to work in this place and so do the two of you! Or do you think the good people of Forks would have no objection to having their cakes rolled out on the same surface the two of you have done the nasty on?"

"We never touched the workbenches," Emmett assured me, his voice a whole lot more serious than Rose's had been.

"He's right, Bella," she chimed in, adjusting her boobs in the tight t-shirt she was wearing. "No ass has ever been near your work surfaces."

"Then at least that's one thing," I grumbled, trusting Emmett's word more than my friend's. "So how long has this been going on?"

"About a week?" Rose looked to Emmett for confirmation and it might have been me but, at that moment, I thought she may have been blushing. "It happened that day my car broke down and he drove me home after work."

I remembered that day, and most of all the morning after, when both of them had seemed 'off' somehow. At least now I knew why. "So, what? You guys are dating now, right?"

Emmett grinned as he looked at her and to my surprise I saw his happiness reflected in her smile as he confirmed it with a simple, "Yeah."

Wow.

"I know! I know!" Rose giggled, "but it just kind of happened and it's…great."

They shared a look that made me equal parts happy for them and sad for myself, because once again I knew that feeling; the one I saw in such abundance in the two of them, had been absent in my life for well over a decade.

"Well, I'll leave you to your cleanup then." I shrugged, needing to get out of the bakery before my own self-pity swallowed me. "Oh, and the next time I catch you both fucking in my shop, you're fired."

"Aye, aye, Captain!" Emmett saluted, his huge hands already wrapped around a bottle of disinfectant while Rose was donning a pair of latex gloves for what must have been the first time in her life. Well, at least the first time in this context. I shuddered to think of other activities they might have been used for.

As squicked out as I was by the thought of both of them having sex in the middle of my bakery, I had to admit that walking in on them had been a welcome distraction from the many worries in my life. From there on out, I only had to kill about three hours—which meant three hours of anxiety-cleaning just about every surface of the house—before my ears picked up on the tell-tale sounds of a car scrunching to a stop along the gravel driveway.

I was at the back door before they'd even exited the car; the calm look on Charlie's face told me that no further disasters had taken place. "Did you have fun?" I had a hard time keeping my voice neutral as I stealthily checked her over for signs of harm. The reassuring smile Esme gave me made my heart pound a little less erratically, though there was something in her eyes that worried me.

She nodded enthusiastically. "They liked the cookies! Grandpa even asked me if we could bake some for the hospital!"

"That would be such a great thing to do!" I replied, faking enthusiasm while my anxiety had only diminished slightly. "It was so nice of your granddad to suggest it. So do you wanna go feed Humphrey and pick out a DVD while to talk to Grandma for a bit?"

"Okay!" she smiled, her tiny footsteps thundering up the stairs as she called out her hamster's name.

As soon as she was out of sight, I dropped all pretenses of cheerfulness as I focused on Esme. "So how did it really go?"

"Good," she was quick to reply. "I didn't sit in on all of their conversation but from what I heard, she talked and he listened."

"And?" I pressed.

"When he came out of the room, he looked like a man who'd just seen his life crumble to dust." Esme sighed and I could see that something in her eyes that had worried me so, but didn't believe it had anything to do with my daughter. It was her son she was worried about.

"I tried to get him to talk to me but he didn't want to stay, coming up with some crap excuse about having to work before he hightailed it out of the house. I think that what Charlie told him really got to him…though from the way she was acting at dinner, he had managed to keep it very well hidden. I don't think his reactions really scared her or hurt her feelings."

"At least he's doing something right for once," I muttered, sighing as my eyes found Esme's again. "Thank you for everything you're doing. This can't be easy for you…"

"It's nothing," she tried to shrug it away, though I could see the lie in her eyes. "And at least now he knows—beyond a shadow of a doubt. He won't be able to wave it away this time."

I found Charlie engrossed by the many titles in our DVD collection by the time I made it back; the rest of the evening spent watching movies and having fun as I became more and more sure of the fact that everything had gone as smoothly as Esme told me.

At least, there was no new worry in Charlie's eyes. In fact, some of the weight that had been lingering in the slight frown between her eyes seemed to have been lifted after her talk with her dad.

Talk about progress.

"Daddy asked if he could take me to see the show jumping contest in Port Angeles next weekend," she spoke, stifling a yawn as I tucked her into bed that night. "Can I go?"

"Do you want to go?" I asked, trying to stop myself from making decisions before I'd stopped to take her feelings into account.

She nodded. "But I told him I only wanted to go if you came with us."

Part of me wanted to scream that there was no way in hell I was ever going to spend a whole day in the presence of Edward but then I checked myself. He was still her dad and she loved him. If she wanted to rebuild her bond with him, but needed my reassurance to do so, then I'd just have to grin and bear it. "I'll have to see if I can work something out with Emmett and Rose, but if they are okay with watching the shop, then sure. I'll tag along if you want me to."

The smile that lit up her face made me realize how unimportant my own feelings were in this matter. Everything for her. As long as she was happy, then so would I be.

Walking out of the room, though, I felt that everything was going in the right direction for once, but that knowledge was overshadowed by the impending doom of one whole day of having to be nice to Edward when all I wanted was to wring his neck.

Well, at least I have one week to prepare myself, right?

Well, no.

It turned out I only had hours before I got to see Edward again because, just as I was getting ready for bed, the sound of the doorbell made me rush down the stairs to see who was disturbing my peace and quiet.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I hissed, my anger multiplying like rabbits as I opened the door to reveal the last person in the world I wanted to see.

Edward.

And from the looks of him, a very drunk Edward.

Thoughts?