Hello Sister, Goodbye Life

Disclaimer: I do not own the twilight saga. All recognisable characters, contents or locations belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.

Chapter Nineteen

If someone had asked me, a week after my parents had died, if they could be given custody of my then fifteen month old sister, I probably would've said yes, take her, no questions asked. But then I grew to love my sister, as if she were my own child, and now, as my parental role in my baby sister's life was threatened, I would fight the proverbial (and, if it came down to it, literal) tooth and claw to keep what was mine - the custody of my sister, my daughter. Not only had it been my parents final wish for me to raise Madeleine, but it had, sometime between when they'd died and now, become mine as well.

The air was humid as I walked the path through the cemetery until I found the tombstone I was looking for. After dropping the bouquet of flowers into the flower-holding-thing, I knelt down in front of the single marble palette, staring at the names carved there. Renee Lauréna Dwyer and Charles Montague Swan.

"Well, it's been a while, hasn't it?" I looked around – no one was there but for a middle aged couple a few rows down. "Maddie's grown so much; she's such a blabbermouth these days." The thought made me smile. "Edward adores her, as if she were his own." I sighed. "I'm in love with him, you know. I think you'd have approved of him, daddy. He's the sweetest person I've ever met. He's had a rough time of it these past years, but he's persevered through it all. I'm in wonder by him." I paused again, sucking in a shakey breath. "I'm gonna marry him one day, mom. Like you promised; 'one day you'll meet the man of your dreams and he'll sweep you off your feet. You'll get married and he'll carry you off into the sunset.'" The rain began to fall lightly and so I opened my umbrella, still looking at the tombstone.

"We're going to win this; I know it. I can feel it." No, that totally was not my stomach growling, thank you very much. It's a woman's intuition. Huffing, I got to my feet. "I'd better get going. I have to call up Geeney and make an appointment."

Sweeping my hair over my shoulders, I hurried to my car and headed for the nearest department store. After buying an outfit that would have to do and a pair of underwear, I took my purchases into the shopping centre's public bathroom and changed. Damnit – I hated not being able to go home. Okay, so it had only been two nights, but my lack of Edward smelling pillows, or Edward, was killing me. What was killing me more than that was that I couldn't see any of my children, either.

After brushing my hair and applying my makeup, I was back in my car and dialling Regina's number. After considering my every option, I thought it would be best to take precautionary measures.

"Hey Bella, what can I do for you?"

"Hey, how friendly are you with the District Attorney?"

"Bella, you know it's unethical to-"

"I know, I know," I rolled my eyes, "I was just wanting to know if you were friendly enough to ask him about the family court judges."

As I slowed at a red light, I checked my rearview mirror – no, I wasn't being followed today.

"What do you need to know?"

"Are there any shadey judges and, if so, would he be able to influence a trustworthy judge to take both my trials if shady judges happen to be the ones taking them?"

Regina sighed."I'll see what I can do, B, and let you know."

Seeing as I didn't have to be into the office until afternoon and I hadn't seen or spoken to Rosalie in a few days, I decided to head to the car garage she'd opened up that was already incredibly successful, only to find that Ryan was lurking around the front.

"Ry?"

He looked up and grinned, ruffling his hair awkwardly with one hand, the other shoved into his pocket. "Sup, Bellsy?"

"Nothing much, what about you?"

"Rosalie said that if I cleaned up my act, she'd hire me here."

"And how, prey tell, is lurking around a car garage, scaring off potential clients, helping you clean up your act?"

"It's reminding me what I'm doing this whole cleaning up thing for," he replied absently, scratching at his head again. I figured that he was going through withdrawl, given that he had been looking increasingly agitated in the time I'd spent talking with him.

"Alright, Ry," I said, pulling out a water bottle and an apple from my bag. "Here; you look like you could use them."

I entered the garage and easily found Rosalie under the hood of a 67 Mustang, a classic. She specialised in the classic cars.

"Hey blondie, are you aware that your brother is lurking around your shop like a lost puppy?"

"Yes," Rosalie replied, not looking up from whatever she was tinkering with. After a moment, "I spoke to Geeney last night. Thanks for encouraging her to call me up. We spoke for hours."

"Good, that's good," I smiled, glad that things were finally going well for Rosalie, in regards to her family. "And how are things with Emmett?" I felt weird, talking to Rosalie now. Like there wasn't much for us to talk about. It was a sad thing to realise, given that Rosalie and I had been best friends forever, but the epiphany did strike me and I didn't even shed a tear. Rosalie and I were growing apart – our lives were taking us in different directions.

"It's great, Bella. And things with Edward?" Rosalie seemed to have realised the same thing because she stood up and smiled sadly at me. "So, how's bossing Tanya Denali around?"

But for this moment, in a car garage with my long time best friend - for she'd always be my best friend, no matter how far apart we grew – we were the same best friends from before our livse changed.

"Amazing," I replied, grinning. "Though truthfully, I do miss Leah."

"I figured as much." She scrubbed her hands on a wash cloth before gesturing to go outside to chat with Ryan.

"If he sticks to staying clean, then I'm going to give him the garage when our parents hand me the company," Rosalie confided as my cell phone began to ring.

"Hello?"

"Hey Bella, it's Geeney."

"Hey, how'd it go?"

"Well, what I've learnt is that the judge taking both cases is Simon O'Malley and, unfortunately, he's a rather flakey judge."

"Fuck."

"On the bright side, I've managed to persuade the DA to change the judge to Margaret Lakestone; she's been in the business for eons and is a stickler for the rules."

I breathed out a sigh of relief. "Thank you so much, Geeney. You have no idea how much you've helped me today."

"Don't sweat it, B, what are sisters for?"

I laughed. "Alright, I owe you a night out. Let me know when you are free and Edward and I will take you to dinner."

"Oooo! Yes please, I can't wait."

I said goodbye to Regina and hung up, slipping my phone into my jacket pocket, Rosalie giving me a curious look. "She just pulled some strings for me today that'll help with the trials," I explained, "She literally just saved my ass."

Rosalie grinned. "It pays to have a sister working in the District Attorney's office when you're a lawyer, huh?"

We had reached Ryan at that point and he was listening in to our conversation, the apple core in one hand and the bottle of water almost empty.

"Definitely," I affirmed, grinning. "God, I can't wait for this all to be over; it's driving me up the wall not being able to go home."

Rosalie furrowed her brow. "Why can't you go home? Did Edward kick you out?"

"No way," I replied, "Why the hell would he do that? No, I'm just being followed. Honestly, the amount of times I've seen James Manod following me, it makes me wonder how he's getting his work done."

"Bella; that's stalking," Rosalie exclaimed. "Call the police."

"I'm not feeling threatened by it, Rose, which is why I'm not actually being stalked. I'm not feeling threatened because if he hurts me, he'll lose his license. Being a lawyer is too valuable for him to lose his license."

Rosalie furrowed her brow, worried. "Bell…."

"Really, I'm fine."

"The criminal code says that a third party can report the stalking, right?"

"Rose…."

"Rosalie's right, Bella; what he's doing is wrong."

I eyed him, incredulous. That statement was rich coming from Ryan, who'd been doing the 'wrong' thing for the past ten or so years. He must of picked up on my incredulity because he thought over his words and rolled his eyes. "It's wrong because it's putting you and your family at risk. We just don't want to see you get hurt. Your our sis and we love you but we don't wanna see you hurt. You deserve happiness, Bell, and Edward and your three children give you that happiness. Please, let us call the cops?"

This is why I hated the Hales sometimes – master manipulation was a genetic trait and they were particularly skilled in the department of guilt tripping, the motherfuckers.

"Give it another day; if I'm still being followed, I'll call them up myself."

I bid them farewell and hurried back to the Mercedes. Ducking to get in, I waved them a good day and headed to my office. After parking and gathering up my coat, handbag and jacket, I walked quickly towards the building, looking over my shoulder every so often, a nervous habit I'd seemed to gather over the past two days. Tanya was on the phone with a client when I entered the office reception and Billy was walking out of his office, leaning heavily on his cane. "Hey Bells," he greeted me kindly and I smiled in return.

As I unlocked my office door and swung it open, I stared. It was a pig sty, a complete and utter pig sty. The empty manilla folders and legal forms that had sat on my desk were strewn all over the floor, the photo frames were overturned, the filing cabinets were lying on the floor, still locked and dear god, it was awful.

"Tanya, have you been in my office today?"

She looked up from where she was writing on a post it note, shaking her head. "I tried to go in this morning to put some files on your desk, but the door was locked so I just left them here." She held up two files. "Two more custody battles."

"Can I please use your computer, Tanya?"

She nodded dumbly and pushed away her swivel chair from the desk, leaving me access to the keyboard. After bringing up the security camera tape and typing in the passcode, I quickly found the tape from last night and set it on fast forward until two in the morning when the main door was swung open and in strode James Manod. Numbly, I reached for the reception phone and dialled 911. "911, what's your emergency?"

"I'm being stalked."

Fifteen minutes later, two police officers were viewing the tape of Manod entering the offices and trashing mine before leaving again, annoyed for some reason. He seemed to be looking for something and I could only guess at one thing. I reached for my briefcase and clutched it to my chest.

"Is there a reason why Mr Manod would be following you, MS Swan?"

"I thought it was intimidation until I saw the security tape," I told them honestly, "He's a lawyer I'm going up against in two upcoming trials."

"Did you know Mr Manod before he began to stalk you?"

"Yes," I replied, "We dated about five years ago."

"And would you have expected something like this from Mr Manod?"

"No," I replied forlornly, "Before he left for Portland, he was very passionate about what he did. I don't even know that person anymore," I gestured to the video recording, still holding my briefcase close to my chest. After a paranoid instance, I opened up my briefcase, checked to see if my Macbook and the two cases were still in there and closed it again, making sure the locks were in place.

They had suggested an escort to take me to and from places and so I immediately called up Emmett. Big and beefy and so incredibly intimidating, I figure he was the best bodyguard to have.

Emmett arrived at five o'clock and, after he helped me clear up my office and after I locked everything up, ensuring to use the deadbolt on the main office door, he led me to my car. After giving him an enquireing look, he explained, "Rose came home early and dropped me off."

He helped me into the car before climbing into the driver seat and revving the engine. "Wanna know a secret?"

"Alright," I replied, shrugging as he pulled out of the parking space.

"When I was fourteen, Edward twelve and Alice ten, when our parents were asleep, we took our dad's Merc out for a joyride. I think, to this day, they still don't know."

"I think they just let you get away with it," I laughed, hugging my briefcase to my chest, though the doors were locked and Emmett could properly beat the shit out of someone, had he wanted to.

"As if they'd let us get away with joy rideing. One, we were underaged, two, none of us really knew how to drive, three, what if we were pulled over by the cops?"

I looked over my shoulder and swore – he was following us. Fucking hell.

"Emmett, take a left turn here." Emmett followed my directions to my flat and typed in the keycode to get into the garage. The trials were only in a few days and tensions were running high for everyone involved. Emmett came in with me and, together, we locked all the windows and the door onto the balcony. Manod was really beginning to scare me, which was why Emmett was going to spend the night on the couch while I slept in my old room.

Sitting on the couch across from Emmett as he watched the news, I called up Edward. "Hi, are you staying with your parents still?"

"Yeah, the kids are missing you."

"I miss you all, too. I wish I could come home."

"How's it going?"

I sighed. "He broke into my office last night so I called the cops. They suggested a bodyguard and so Emmett, because most of his days and nights are free, has become my driver until this all blows over."

"Good," Edward said, sounding reassured, "If anyone can keep you safe, it's Emmett."

I sniffled.

"Hey, hey, no sniffling, love."

After I hung up on Edward, Emmett plonked down beside me. "I got a question to ask you."

"Okay, ask away."

"Okay, well, because you mean the world to Rosalie and she kind of hates her parents, I was thinking that you're the one I should ask. So, Bella, I was wondering, would you please allow me to ask your best friend, Rosalie Lillian Hale, whom I love more than anything else in this world, for her hand in marriage."

"You didn't need my consent, Em, but if you need it, by all means, propose to Rosalie. You have my blessing. And Ryan's. He likes you." I grinned – at least something good was coming out of this massive ass clusterfuck.