Chapter Twenty

BPOV – From the morning Bella goes missing

I woke up this morning feeling sick to my stomach. I barely made it to the bathroom before I expended the contents of last night's dinner. It was a shame; Edward's beef tenderloin was exquisite. I had left him after a heavy make out session as I had to attend an early breakfast meeting. I cancelled the meeting and called Tami and told her I was sick and that I would be working on some depo's from home today.

Edward had healed well, but my guilt did not fade. I had so many times decided to just go to Jacob myself to stop him hurting anyone else, but I always knocked that thought from my mind. It wouldn't work. Jacob wouldn't stop now. He was too far gone and I knew his temper; I had left it too late to appease him with my appearance by his side and a promise of leaving Edward for good. He would see right through me anyway. He always had. He still didn't know me as well as Edward did, but he knew me well enough to know that my promise would simply be so that he would leave Edward unharmed and that would only fuel his anger and possibly cause him to do opposite of what I would intend from my sacrifice. I couldn't allow that to happen and so, here I was seven weeks later and still wracking my brains for an idea.

Edward text me at 11am to check that we were still meeting for lunch. I felt better so I text him and said I was busy right now but would meet him for 12.30pm at my office. I felt well enough.

I worked in my lounge area, my laptop and files spread around me, for an hour. When I finally looked up at the time, the clock read 12pm so I packed up and headed towards my bedroom to get ready to head downtown to my office. I had just passed my front door when a knock sounded. I doubled back and flung open the door without looking in the peephole. I gasped as I laid eyes on the person who was stood before me. Jacob stood framing my doorway with his large body breathing heavily. His chest heaving with the force of his breaths, his eyes were slate black and narrowed. I took two steps back, my hand on my heart to stop it from pounding out of my chest

"I warned you to come to me soon and you didn't. Our wedding is in four days time so I am here to get you myself" Jacob growled

It wasn't the same growl that would come from Edward. That growl turned me on; this one incited pure fear in me

"Jacob, we can't get married; I love Edward. Please, Jake, please let me be" I pleaded softly

Instead of replying he raised his hand and slapped me across the face. My head snapped to the side with the force of his slap and I saw spots

"You are mine, Isabella. Pack your shit and let's go" he demanded

"Jacob, I-"

I didn't get to finish my sentence as he slapped me again on the other side of my face, causing my head to snap to the other side. I thought about begging and pleading with him, but one look at his face told me that it wouldn't do a blind bit of good. His next words confirmed my thoughts

"You will come with me now, or I kill him; your choice. Make it quick. I have plans to finalize"

At his threat my decision was made. There was no decision to make; Edward's life meant more to me than my own. I nodded slowly and then an idea struck

"I can't just leave. I have work and Edward will know that I've gone missing when I don't meet him for lunch"

Jacob stared at me for a moment; contemplating this and then he grinned evilly

"Write him a note. Tell him you're leaving and you need space"

My heart dropped into my stomach. Shit. If I wrote that note, Edward would believe it. He would be devastated, but I had no choice. I would rather he be alive and angry at me than be hurt or dead and after the accident last month, I had no qualms that Jacob was capable of carrying out his threat. No I had to write the note and pray that someone would know that it was a lie. So I crossed to the chest of drawers where my landline phone was housed and retrieved a piece of paper and a pen and wrote something half-way believable. I taped it to my fridge with a magnet and headed into my bedroom, ignoring Jacob. I had just pulled out a duffle bag when Jacob walked in

"You're going too slowly. Move, I'll do it"

With that he pushed me out of the way and opened my wardrobe and started flinging my clothing hapzardly into the bag. He then crossed to my dresser and gave the items in there the same treatment, leaving some of my clothing hanging out and my drawers open. Once he had zipped up my bag he hauled it onto his shoulder and gestured for me to take the lead.

We left the apartment and took the stairs down. I knew there were cameras in the lobby area so I purposely manoeuvred us into a position where both Jacob and I would be visible. I turned my face towards the camera and silently mouthed 'Help me'. Jacob thankfully did not notice my movement and continued out of the front doors. I followed him out and into his car. A Volkswagen Rabbit he had restored from scarp three years ago. I climbed in as he slid into the driver seat after storing my bag in the trunk.

He headed out of the city, towards Manhattan. I knew he had a cabin by the lake there and judging by the direction he was driving, that was where he was headed. I pulled my legs up and wrapped my arms around my knees, curling into myself. My heart was breaking with every mile Jacob took me away from Edward. The feeling of loss surrounded me as tears fell from my eyes silently. I saw Jacob glance over to me several times before his sighed and spoke

"Bella, you have to know that I had to do this because I love you, right? I won't hurt you. I won't ever hurt you, I promise"

I snorted but said nothing. Did he not realise that he was hurting me right now? Did he not recognise how much he had been hurting me for the last four months since our split? This, this taking me from my one true love, my Edward was the worst kind of pain he could inflict upon me. Edward held my heart and my soul in his hands; without him, I was nothing which meant that, although Jacob though he had won right now, he hadn't. All he had managed to win was my empty, emotionless shell. Without Edward, I was back to what I had been for the last eight years. Empty. Dead.

We arrived at his cabin in the late afternoon and he parked up. He turned off the car and went to the trunk to retrieve our bags, leaving me to get out of the car myself. He had never opened doors for me, not like Edward did. Even back in high school, Edward was always the gentleman. He always opened doors for me, Alice and Rose. Jacob was…not. He had never been a gentleman now that I thought about it, in the years we had been friends before we started 'dating', Jacob had never once been the gentleman. At the time, I was thankful as I thought he was treating me like an equal and now…now I realised how rude it actually was. I had been so wrong about him. How the hell could I have been so wrong?

Jacob showed me into the bedroom I would occupying, telling me that we would not be sharing a bed until our wedding night. The thought nearly made me hurl. There was no way I could allow him to touch me. The mere thought of it made me sick. My heart and soul were not the only things that belonged to Edward. My body did too.

I placed my bag on the bed and gazed around. It was the guest room and it was a nice room. But even the pretty room didn't detract from my misery. The pain in my heart had grown to epic proportions and I missed Edward to an excruciating degree. I sank down on the bed as my tears started again. I searched my pockets for my phone hoping against hope that I could at least call Edward and reassure him, even if I couldn't tell him where I was. But my pockets were empty and it wasn't until Jacob walked in did I realise that he had picked up my phone from the coffee table. He was holding it

"Looking for this?" he sneered

I sat silent. I didn't want to raise his ire anymore, especially if we were here alone together with no hope of escape. The cabin was surrounded by trees and the nearest road was a 5 mile walk

"I figured you would try to call Cullen so I took the liberty of removing it from your bag"

I felt my shoulders slump in defeat and Jacob chuckled darkly before leaving the room, shutting the door behind him as he went. As soon as the door clicked shut I threw myself backwards onto the bed and blew out a large breath as my tears fell again. I rolled over onto my side and curled into a fetal position as my silent tears turned into quiet sobs making my body shake. My mind was bombarded with images of my Edward and that alone made my tears run in torrents and my sobs to grow louder, no matter how much I buried my face into the pillow.