Hey ! Just so you know I only update a chapter when I finished the one after and thanks to your kind reviews and me skipping school a lot, I'm working faster than usual so here it is already the 3rd chapter when we learn a bit about other characters.

Enjoy, read and review!

Lilly.

Chapter Three: Resolutions and Promises

"So how are you sweetie?" Jia Penhallow asked as her daughter made her way to the coffee machine, her eyes squinting because of the sunlight shining through the light white curtains of her parents' kitchen. Aline poured herself a mug and sat down in front of her mom.

"I'm fine," she said, almost moaning as the warm dark liquid ran down in her throat. I had another sex dream about Jace, she wanted to add but she knew her mother, who was even nosier than she was, would never let that go, and the consequence of that short sentence would result in a never ending interrogation. Lately, Jace was all she could dream about, day and night.

"You seemed kind of blue yesterday," Jia explained. "You usually only visit on the weekends."

"I just needed some air," Aline muttered, her head in her hands, staring absentmindedly at the room in which she had spent most of her afternoon, watching her mother bake.

"Is this about your work?" Jia inquired. "I thought you loved working at Alicante?"

"I do," she answered. "It's not work." She didn't want to have to lie some more about working for the Alicante Banking Group & Corporation instead of the Agency.

"Are you still thinking about Jordan?" her mother guessed. Aline didn't reply. "Honey, it was almost two years ago, you need to move on. He's not coming back. He loves hm – what's her name again?"

"Maia Roberts," she said through gritted teeth. The bitch who stole my ex-husband-to-be.

"Yeah. Maia. I think it's for the best," Jia continued.

"Yeah, you're right. I got dumped by my fucking fiancé so he could screw the ex who he forgot he had feelings for," Aline groaned. "Everything is fucking awesome!"

"Sweetie! That's not what I meant. I'm sorry," Jia apologized. "I just think it's better that Jordan realized he loved Maia before you two got married rather than after. You know, there's nothing worse than to be married to someone who doesn't love you back. At least now you're free to look for the one who's right for you. The one who will love you as much as you'll love him."

"What if there's no such person?" Aline asked.

"Don't be ridiculous." Jia smiled kindly, extending a hand across the table, a hand she put on her daughter's cheek. "Aline, you're 24 years old; you have your life ahead of you and I know that you will find the right guy."

"I know," she sighed. "I'm just sick of waiting."

"That's your father's side. Patrick has always been impatient," Jia chuckled.

"And what if I've already found him, but he's - " She seemed to consider how she could explain her situation to her mom. " – married to someone else and that girl doesn't deserve him at all, would it be ok to take my chances?"

"Aline Sylvia Penhallow, are you having an affair with a married man?" Jia's face hardened. "Because that's not how your father and I raised you."

"No, I'm not, mom. Calm down." Aline rolled her eyes. I wish I was.

"You know what I think you should do?"

Aline shook her head.

"Go back out there, find something sexy to wear and have a girls' night out with your friends!" Jia exclaimed.

"I think I'm going to call Jordan," Aline replied. "Tell him what I think of him."

"You've already done that," Jia retorted. "Listen to me sweetie pie: you'll never move on if you don't let it go. Just let it go and find yourself a tall and gorgeous man. Have sex with models and hot business men –protected sex of course. Live. You'll never find him if you stay stuck in your apartment lamenting on what could have been."

Aline sighed and looked at her mother. She was right. Jordan Kyle was in her past and she didn't even want him back. As for Jace, she would just have to take the next step herself. She suddenly stood up, startling her mother and put her empty mug in the sink before racing up the stairs.

"Thanks mom. I know exactly what I have to do."

xXx

When Simon had first met Isabelle Lightwood, three years ago, he would have never thought she'd be interested in someone like him. She looked like a princess with her raven black hair, braided in a waist-long plait falling over her shoulder, her dark blue eyes peering into the crowd at the coffee shop's entrance, and the way her lips shone a golden pink in the sunlight. He, on the other hand, looked like a giant nerd – just having graduated from Columbia – with his glasses and ill-fitted suits. It had taken all of his courage to ask her out and, after all this time, he still couldn't believe she had agreed to go on a date with him in the first place, and the fact that she was now his girlfriend and pregnant with his baby girl seemed too foreign to hold any kind of truth.

All that combined made him sweat as he patted the left side pocket of his jeans for the hundredth time to be sure it was still in it. Central Park was beautiful in the summer. As his father had told him and his older sister Rebecca before he abandoned them, it was a magical place, where the outside New York — busy, loud and suffocating — didn't exist. There, the tree branches bowed down under the weight of heavy green leaves and colorful fruits, their large barks serving as the ideal hiding spot for children's hide-and-seek. The whole place was buzzing with the New York preserved wildlife, which after a stubbornly long winter and rainy spring had finally decided to come out of hibernation. The park was filled with kids playing and laughing, masters yelling after their barking dogs, housewives and au pairs gossiping. They were sitting on a blue picnic blanket his grandmother had kitted for him a few years ago.

"What?" Isabelle asked.

Simon shook his head. "Nothing."

"You were kind of staring," she replied, taking another large bite out of the cheeseburger she was having for her second breakfast. "Is there something on my face?"

"Of course not," Simon answered with a half grin.

He loved Pregnant Isabelle, though the first month and a half had been hard. The morning sickness and the hyper sensibility to smell had nearly driven her crazy and despite all of his efforts Simon hadn't managed to ease her discomfort. She would wake up at any hour, call Alec or Clary in the middle of the night, kick him in her sleep and fight with his mother – though Simon had come to realize it was pretty much how they normally communicated.

But after the nausea had passed, she had become another person altogether. She was very sensitive and needed Simon for nothing and everything. The food cravings had settled in and he had found himself wandering the streets of New York from twilight to dawn looking for Chinese food – luckily there was always a restaurant open – or a peanut butter and pineapple pizza which, in the end, he had to bake himself since none of the pizzerias were apparently doing those. But he didn't mind, he would take her to the moon if she had asked.

Especially since lately, Isabelle's libido ran on overdrive. Simon would find himself in tricky situations where he was at a meeting at work and Isabelle would text him or send him a picture that would make him babble a miserable excuse and jump in a cab heading back home.

It wasn't noon and he was already exhausted.

"You're beautiful," he whispered in her ear and felt her shiver. Was she blushing? Isabelle Lightwood didn't blush.

He inhaled deeply. Now was his chance.

"Izzy," he called, immediately catching her attention. She tilted her chin up so that she could look at him. Her hair was falling in a cascade of onyx around her shoulder, her eyes incredibly blue. She was wearing a thin flower dress from WolfsBane – he recognized the style as typical Magnus'.

He was grateful he was sitting because his knees were turning into jelly. He had rehearsed this in front of the mirror for almost two months. He felt nervous and intimidated, and a lump was growing in his throat. Isabelle frowned. He closed his eyes and took another deep breath.

"I – I've tried to think about the best way to say this – the best way to tell you that I wa – that I only leave in the morning because I know that when the night comes I'll be lying next to you. I'm not like Jace, words don't come as easily to me as they come to him. But I know in my heart that I will love you for the rest of my life and I hope that if you feel that way too, you will marry me."

Isabelle's eyes went wide. Simon smiled shyly and shifting from seated to kneeling, he took the small velvet box out of his pocket. He slowly opened it, revealing the ring.

"Isabelle Lightwood, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?" he asked, surprised that his voice didn't shake at all.

Isabelle gasped, her hands flying to her mouth. She stared at the ring and back at Simon. Her face seemed to light up and slowly she lowered her hands, an ear-to-ear smile perking her lips up. She nodded.

"Yes," she said. "Yes, yes, yes yes yes yes yes!" She jumped on him, causing him to lose balance and fall back.

She gave him her left hand and he slid the silver ring around her finger. It was a round brilliant center diamond, accentuated by bead-set diamonds on each side. "I love you so much," she said.

"I love you too," he repeated, kissing her as if his life depended on it – which, he realized, it did.

xXx

Jace was standing in the tech operation office, slouched against the wall. Three of the walls were covered with screens displaying uninterrupted flows of images, intel and encrypted files. A large glass table stood in the middle where the five tech operatives worked in shifts of sometimes twelve hours. Two had their headphones on and were giving instructions to the field agent they had been assigned to, and were frenetically typing on their keyboards. Aline, tablet in hand, was talking to Jules, and Sebastian was staring at him from across the room.

Alec was looking over the files that had dragged Jace out of a very hot shower with Clary. Valentine and his son Jonathan had been spotted in front of the Tudor Hotel in Midtown East, as had Emil Pangborn and his brother Anson.

"I hate being trapped in here," he grumbled.

"Well you can't go outside without possibly blowing your covert status," Alec said, without taking his eyes off the files.

"You've already said that. Verlac," he called and Sebastian almost ran to him.

At that moment, Jules turned her head to them.

"Aline," she asked and she pulled a passport on one of the screens. "This," Jules continued, "is your new identity. Jace here has been kind enough to help profile your best way in."

"Kind is my middle name," Jace grinned. Alec almost choked.

"Which is?" Sebastian asked.

"Emil's daughter, Tatiana," Jace answered.

"We need to act quickly. There's no telling how fast Valentine will get whatever it is he wants and then we might lose him again. We can't afford that."

"Emil and Tatiana are very close, aren't they?" Sebastian said. "I think I've seen pictures of her during my research. They have brunch every Sunday."

"How sweet," Jace mocked, noticing the slight blushing of Sebastian's cheeks.

"And she knows about her father's business so it'll be even easier," Jules added, ignoring Jace.

"Ok. What do you want me to do?"

"Is he for real?" Jace asked, rolling his eyes and pointing a thumb at him. "What do you think smart guy?"

"She just got out of a relationship," Alec explained. "So it won't be easy, but you need to get her trust so that she can introduce you to her father and his circle."

"We're doing this one step at a time," Jules said. "There's a party tonight. You're going. Alec and Jace will keep an eye on you this once."

"What's my story?"

"You're Declan Carter, age 25, born and raised in Sacramento. You've been arrested for possession, dealing and petty theft and an alleged arm dealer. No family, no girlfriend. "

Sebastian repeated the information in silence. "Okay. Declan Carter. What exactly is the plan here? Once I've approached Tatiana, I mean."

"Let the magic work," Jace said, grinning.

"And?"

"Hopefully you'll be in Pangborn's circle in no time," he continued.

"You need to be indispensable to Pangborn," Alec said.

"How?"

"We'll fry a few of his associates on possession or dealing charges."

"If they could be charged, they'd be in federal prison by now," Sebastian replied.

"We have our ways," Jace grinned.

"What he means is that we'll frame them," Alec said. "The more insecure he feels the more he'll rely on you."

"Why would he trust me if I'm new?" Sebastian retorted. "That doesn't make any sense."

"Hey, what do you know? Newbie does have a brain," Jace exclaimed.

"Jace," Alec warned, shaking his head in exasperation but having a hard time keeping the grin off his face.

"Because in the mess we're going to create, you'll be the only one who'll be able to help. If everyone's in jail, who better than you to take care of what's needed to be taken care of?" Jace said.

"Business can't stop and Pangborn knows that," Jules declared. "The black market is thriving; they would just find someone else to replace him. And he can't afford that."

"The idea is that when the net is tightening around him, he'll go through you for everything: transactions, protection, including the thing that Valentine wants," Alec explained.

"Okay. How are we going to do that?" Sebastian asked.

"First things first. We need to go shopping if you want to look the part," Jace said, giving him a look over. "Alec?"

"I'll call Magnus."

So what do you think? Read and Review please! I want to know everything that went through your mind while you were reading^^! Ideas for the story, thoughts, I'm all ears!

See ya!

Lilly.