Part V

BPOV (Bella)

I was shocked that Edward remained in my home well past dinner. He conversed with my parents and they loved him, they were nervous at first but soon it was as if they were casual friends. Edward paid no mind to the fact that he was far from hom, that were were not people like him. It was not until a few candles burned out that he realized he should be home.

The next morning I was back to the Cullen's home. I served breakfast and did my daily chores after which I was sent to the market.

"Bella you're looking beautiful this morning, what can I get you?" Cyrus, the vendor, always had smile in the morning. He was an old man but very kind.

"Only a few thing." How are you?"

"Fine as fine as an old man like me can be." He said with a chuckle.

I handed him the money purchase after I gathered everything I was going to . "Thank you, I'll see you next time."

"Glad to be at your service."

I turned and my heart very nearly jumped out. I took a double take before I realized who was standing before me. It was Edward's cousin. Emmett. He was very intimidating and I wasn't quite sure what to do. I walked around him. He grabbed my arm to stop me. "What did you do?" He hissed.

"Pardon me."

He smiled cynically. "Did you satisfy Edward to the point you have him begging at your feet?"

"I don't know what you speak of."

"He woke up late and spent the day trying to find you. I'm sure you had to motivate him someway."

I hated that everyone had the same idea of Edward and I. I shook his arm off and continued to walk. I felt him pursuing me. He wanted an answer to a question I didn't know the answer to. "Emmett, leave her." Someone hissed. I turned and stopped dead in my tracks. It was Edward.

"You protect her like you care." Emmett said as Edward approached me.

He reached me and angled himself between me and Emmett. "No one questions your actions so don't question mine."

"As you wish." He replied resentfully.

He turned back to me. "I am sorry."

"It's fine, this is to be expected." I muttered. "I have to go. It was…nice seeing you, I guess." Of course it was nice to see him but I couldn't let him be so sure of it.

He smiled the crooked smile from last night. "I can honestly say it was a pleasure seeing you today."

I fought back a smile. "Goodbye."

I returned to the Cullen's after the incident. I was worried about why Edward was acting that way towards me. It made me imagine things that would never be true. As I was heading out the door that afternoon Alice stopped me. "Bella, I have a proposition."

"Somehow that worries me."

"London, I want to start planning the wedding and it all begins in London and I need a friend to come with me."

I knew where this was leading. "Alice, I can't."

"You can, please I would never ask you if I didn't deem it necessary. We will stay for a couple of weeks and I'll show you around."

"Alice."

"I've asked your parents and they have agreed, we leave at dawn. You will love London, I promise."

Against my better judgment I agreed to go to London. I decided that maybe I needed to get away from town. Away from everything and everyone, everyone including Edward.

A couple days later…..

EPOV (Edward)

One day I see her and the next I don't. It had been days since I had seen her. Bella had literally disappeared off the face of earth. I was reluctant to go to her house because…it was odd. Firstly she'd probably not let me in. I wanted her to know I cared but not to the point where she thought I couldn't live without seeing her a couple days, I didn't want her to think it was desperation though it was beginning to seem that way. I looked down at my food and pushed it around the plate.

Evidently I was helpless, I didn't know what to do with myself. When I came to town it wasn't usually long, I would return to London and not return for months. It had been this way for a couple years. The time I spent here I often had late nights and even later mornings. Now I didn't really go out anywhere, everyone thinks I've gone mad when in fact it's a good thing. I don't crave women and whisky, all I crave is her.

"Edward?" Robert's voice shook me out of thought.

I cleared my throat. "Yes." I answered.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong." I lied because it was most apparent that I was not fine, I was missing something.

Emmett coughed a laugh. He was my 'beloved' cousin but there were moments where I wish I could tear him apart. He was never appropriate. "What was that?" Robert asked.

"His harlot seems to have disappeared." He mocked. If looks could kill, he'd be a dead man. "She's out of town and Edward just about falls apart."

He knew something and I had to ask despite the fact that I was no where near over the altercation he had with Bella. I was mad but I had to know. "Where?"

He laughed. "London, with Alice Cullen. Her best friend is getting married." I wondered how he knew. "People talk." He added.

Robert found humor in this. "You have a harlot, who might that be?"

"Not a harlot." I hissed.

"All the same, who is she?" he pressed.

"The girl from the William brought to the table."

"Charming was she, satisfying?"

"Why would you care? You've never cared."

"You won't let me."

"You do it for yourself. You try to be the caring older brother, it doesn't suit you. Don't be cynical, save us all that trouble."

"Get out." He hissed.

I smiled mockingly. "Yes, your grace. That's what you want, correct? I'm sorry to inform you that neither you nor father will ever gain that sort of control over me."

I could see it in his eyes, he was so close to lashing out on me. This was reason number one I didn't live here. We would always end up in a confrontation quite like this. "Robert." Charlotte whispered cautiously. "You're going to regret this, you always do." Charlotte would always calm him sometimes she could not.

He took a deep breath and scowled at me. "I'll save you the 'regret'" I got up from my seat and exited the dining room. That was my good old family at its finest. Always in arguments and disagreements, we could never agree upon anything. Robert looked upon my life as a joke, as if I had no life at all. His reaction to Bella was mocking, as much as he wanted a woman to settle me down he never believed I would find that woman. Everyone at that table thought that what I saw in Bella was nothing, they didn't believe that she could be the woman they so desired would settle me down. I knew that she was the one, I believed that. Bella was the woman that I had been looking for, the woman who does not subject herself to my every desire. She has the courage to stand up to me the way not many people did.

I went out to a bar and asked for a whisky. Five minutes after my arrival a girl approached me. "Hello."

"Not tonight." Her blue eyes were almost sad. "I don't play."

She took a strand of her strawberry blonde hair in between her fingers. "My name is Emily." She had a distinct birthmark on her collarbone.

"Emily, not tonight, I just want a drink." Just as no one had ever denied me, I had never denied a woman like I had today. Emily was beautiful, she didn't strike me as a common harlot, her beauty was almost elegant but I didn't want to be in her bed or her in mine. It felt wrong.

She left me alone and when she walked away I felt like I had won a battle, a battle with myself. I had begun to change my life and it felt good.