I could see that the chapter is a bit short so I've decided to update the next chapter if not this weekend then on Monday- not sure what time though.

I would also like to give a shout out to lilianyas who seriously made me laugh after she had reviewed EVERY chapter of "Reasons Why He Drives Me Crazy." I believe she's also planning to put the story in her blog.

Anyway, on with Chapter Two…

Chapter Two- A Love Once Strong, Now Fragile

Absence

"…Come to me, my love, I die without you.

Each day is eternity, waiting for your touch.

Remove the tears from my eyes and the ache in my heart,

Be closer than my breath, all my days, all my nights…"

I was wrong.

Four hours later (it appeared that Bella was late), I could hear Bella's raised voice inside the family room. She was furious; and who wouldn't be? I'd been furious myself when I learned about this engagement but for different reasons. I was angry that I'd been engaged to someone because I'd still been with Bella that time.

It was ironic to think about it but the thing is… I didn't find it funny to begin with.

Minutes later it seemed, we were ushered in by the maid. I was vaguely aware that the parents were greeting each other again but I was barely noticing the conversation, I was focused on the chair near me; the chair that held her.

It must have been hours later when Charlie finally said, "Let me introduce you to my daughter, this is Isabella."

Bella, my mind immediately corrected as I remembered how she hated to be called her full name. And sure enough, she snapped out her retort as she extended her left hand to me.

What was that about? Her left hand?

"Bella," she retorted as she inspected me.

I watched the emotions play in her eyes as she made her "first" impression of me. She was satisfied, that much I could see but I still felt myself tensing as I waited for her to finally realize that she was not only shaking the hand of some guy.

I felt it before I saw it; the slightest widening of her eyes, the fury beginning to start, the anger…

She stopped shaking my hand a second after her recognition. "Edward Cullen, is that you?" She asked, the venom evident in her voice.

"Oh you two know each other?" Charlie questioned, oblivious to his daughter's rising distress.

"Yes, we do 'know' each other in the typical sense of the word but I can't marry him. You can't force me. I mean, who makes arranged marriages in the 21st century for crying out loud? And why do you have to marry me off to him- of all people, dad?" Tears fell down from her cheeks in her annoyance.

I saw her lips thinned as she realized she was crying and she wiped those tears away before I could make a move to comfort her.

How could I even comfort her without adding more to her distress?

"What's the matter, dear?" Esme asked her concernedly.

Now why didn't I think of that? I thought to myself wryly.

That's right; I already know what the matter was.

"Carlisle, Esme," she began, "I'm sorry but I can't marry your son. We just have too many differences and… it would be better for him as well."

Wait a minute, she had to stop this or the engagement might not continue. This was the only way I could I have my connection with her right now. I have to stop her… but how?

"Trust me. I didn't know that I was engaged to you as well until tonight-" Which was partly true. "What happened to your hand?" I spotted a scar on her right hand- the hand she didn't use to shake my hand –and felt curious as to how she got that because she never had that before.

"It's nothing. Forget it," she insisted, trying to hide her hand from me but it was a futile effort.

Did she really think I was going to give up when I already saw it?

I drew near her, grabbed the hand she hid and brought the hand to my face to inspect it more closely.

This was no ordinary scar that much I could gather. The skin was still puckered out and it was on the faces of her hand which meant that the thing that had caused this scar- whatever it was –had gone through but I wasn't interested in what caused this, I only needed to know who.

"How did you get it?" I managed to get out through my clenched teeth.

"It was nothing. It was an accident. It was-"

"A souvenir of her accident from a party eight years ago," Renee interrupted her.

What?

I clenched my fists at the thought of Bella being in an accident. When was this? How come I never knew this if it was eight years ago? The only accident I knew Bella had eight years ago was when… but that was impossible, wasn't it?

The thoughts I was having must have shown on my face because Bella was quick to add some excuse about her clumsiness.

"Then why can you barely move it?"

She frowned in displeasure at the way I was acting. "Some of the muscles that control motor movement were destroyed."

There was something niggling at the back of my mind though. Something important that I was forgetting, something that had to do with the hand…

Then it clicked.

"But you slapped me with that hand. I remember that morning…" That was the morning when she found me with- never mind that. I tried not to think about that day since it happened because that was the one of the major mistake I've made. "I'm sorry-" I wanted to apologize for that morning but then I remembered that we weren't alone in the room so I changed what I was going to say at the last minute. "Your hand must have hurt when you slapped me."

"I barely felt the pain there. Yes, my hand did hurt when I slapped you that morning but I mostly felt hurt here." She gestured towards her chest and I understood where she was trying to point at.

I inwardly cringed at the picture my mind was giving me at the moment.

She instantly dropped the subject as though it was boring her. "It's part of the past anyway, we shouldn't talk about it anymore. What's present now and what we do need to talk about is the engagement because I can't get married to you."

"Why can't you marry him?" Charlie queried.

"I can't marry him because-"

"Because Bella doesn't like me," I broke in before I could hear the reason why she thought she shouldn't marry me.

It was better to do the damage before another person does; that was always my philosophy from growing up. If you do the injury, you don't need to use defense because when your shield is vulnerable at the first place, what choice do you have but to use a spear?

"Why does everyone keep interrupting me?" She was getting more irritated each passing moment.

More of a fighter than a peacemaker once provoked, I remembered that from the folder. And from what I could see, I think she's finally going to 'fighter' mode.

"Why can't you tell all of us the truth?" I countered, still feeling my earlier ire when she hesitated to answer my questions and breezed through the answers.

"Why are you all teaming up on me?" She argued.

Hot-tempered and impatient…

It looked like the folder was more accurate in its description of Bella than I was of mine.

"Enough with these mindless questions!" Charlie thundered out in a loud voice. "We're going to give you two weeks to prepare. After those two weeks, you'll have to get married or else!"

Thank you, Charlie, you don't know how happy that made me!

"Two weeks? But Christmas celebration is during that week!"

Does that mean…?

"You're not going to wed on Christmas day obviously; you're going to get married before that."

This just keeps getting better.

I had a hard time keeping my face straight but Bella didn't have trouble showing what she was feeling at the moment.

She turned to me with a frown on her face and a wrinkle on her brow. "Why aren't you helping me with this? Don't you want to marry someone who's better suited for you?"

On the contrary, I don't think there's anyone better suited to me than you…

I didn't say those out loud though because it might make Bella awkward while the parents are here. Maybe later though…

"To tell you the truth, I'm fine with this arrangement." I gave a nonsense shrug like I had just thought about my answer when I already had my answer months, even years, ago.

"Arrgh, you're all confusing me! Why did we get arranged at birth in the first place anyway? I didn't even know that all of you know each other. No offense to anyone present here but I didn't see you guys at my parents' wedding picture or any family events." She turned to my parents. "In fact, I'm pretty sure I've only seen you guys at the television news before aside from your son, but of course he's another topic and do we really need to discuss that particular topic? Because as far as I remember, the 'Edward Cullen' topic inside my brain has long been closed and I have no more reasons to talk- or think -about him anymore."

"That's because we lost contact with each other. We used to go to the same college together and all four of us were friends. We were young and we wanted to be one big family to strengthen our bond and since Renee was already my girlfriend and Carlisle and Esme were together, we figured our future children could do that for us. We made a contract and contacted a lawyer to make it legal. That's how it happened. We'll show the contract this week so that both of you could sign it. And as for that 'Edward Cullen' topic you have closed inside your head, I'm afraid you'll just have to find the lock and open it because the contract is stable enough to get the both of you married whether you want it or not," Charlie answered.

I was thinking that enough was enough. I needed to talk to Bella and there could be no other time than this.

"Could I talk to your daughter privately for a second, sir?"

"Sure, son," the parents agreed.

I was thinking how I should start the conversation when Bella walked away from me and turned to face me with her arms crossed over her chest.

"You want to talk. Now talk. Why are you even agreeing to this? Is this some kind of joke you're all playing on me? Well sorry but April Fools isn't until three months from now."

A joke? She thought this was a joke? Didn't she realize that this was anything but a joke? Marriage is anything but a joke.

"This isn't a joke! All I want is a chance for us to be together again, dammit!"

She blinked once whether it was because she was shocked or uninterested I wasn't sure but I continued what I wanted to say. I needed to get it out of my system.

"I've had eight years without you… eight years without my life. Since you've been gone, I wake up each morning and find that I had to do tedious things over and over again; I ate without savoring the taste of the food and breathing became something I had to do just to continue living which is ironic when you think about it because I don't know… how to live since my life left me."

I could see some hidden emotion in her eyes but I soon forgot about it at her next words. "You almost had me in tears, Edward but you'll just have to save it for the next person who's naïve enough to believe you because I'm not going to fall for your words again. What was once between us… it's over. Now since this agreement seemed to have been well-thought out and it would be difficult for me to leave, I'll accept the two weeks."

Two weeks might seem impossible to change her mind but I was willing to try for the sake of our relationship.

It couldn't end with one mistake.

Yeah, yeah I get it. It was a bit close to the original but the objective of OMC is to make known Edward's whole POV from RWHDMC so that's that.

Tell me your thoughts!

jumarxie