The Curse of Destiny

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight. I wish I did, but I don't. I own this plot line (originally it was a short story I wrote for a college class and I decided to turn it into a longer fanfiction story). I hope you all like it.

Description: The doctors threw around the term "Stockholm's Syndrome." All Bella knew was that she missed her kidnapper and wasn't sure how to function without him anymore. She needed him and she had to get back to him…somehow. Could she love Edward, the man who had both abducted her and stolen her heart? Could she live without him? Time will tell…

Author's Note: Hello everyone! I know it has been FOREVER, but my family has been super busy. I will not abandon my stories. I will post as regularly as I can. I am so sorry for the long delay. I hope you are anxious to continue with the story. I will start with a brief summary so that you remember what the story is about.

Summary: Edward saved Bella from Mike Newton's assault and kidnapped her. He took her to his cabin and proceeds to care for her while keeping her imprisoned. He tells Bella that her parents planned to marry her off at the age of eighteen to sexist Jacob Black. Bella doesn't want to marry Jacob. Bella is confused by her developing feelings for her kidnapper. She tries to get away once and hurts her ankle. Edward inherited the little house from his Uncle Carlisle after his death. He sells music compositions to get by. When he turns 21, he will be incredibly wealthy. This chapter takes place after Bella's second escape attempt. Edward saves Bella from a mountain lion and then gets her warm before she gets sick. They share a passionate kiss, but then Edward stops it and she drifts off to sleep in his arms as he whispers, "I love you." Last chapter we saw into Edward's mind a little bit. Please let me know if that is something you would like to see more often.

Chapter 18 – Do I Want to Leave? – Bella's POV

It has been another two month and Edward and I continue our flirtations. He will kiss me softly and at times passionately, but he always stops there. He doesn't want to do anything I might regret.

We talk about his past and about mine. I never realized how little I talked until Edward coaxed it out of me. Only Alice knew about my life, but even she didn't know everything. I told Edward everything and he listened intently.

Edward's twentieth birthday came and went. He baked me a cake for my seventeenth birthday and I was silently thrilled with all the attention to detail that went along with my birthday. My parents never really did anything for me and I didn't even realize I had been missing out until now.

It was on the evening of my seventeenth birthday that Edward turned to me seriously. We had just finished a game of chess, he had beaten me for the fourth time, and he sighed.

"Bella, I am letting you go."

His words are the words I have longed to hear since I was first abducted nearly ten months ago and yet they fill me with another emotion…sadness.

"Edward, I…"

"Don't get me wrong, Bella. I am not going anywhere. I will wait for you and as soon as you turn eighteen I will be waiting for you to…to choose me if you want me…if you'll have me."

I shake my head to clear it. "But, why now?"

Edward looks at me and his piercing green eyes cut me all the way down to my soul. "Because I want to know that you chose me. I don't want you to feel forced into it somehow. I want…I want you to want me for me, I guess."

I don't say anything and stare down at our fingers entwined naturally together. I am not sure what to feel at this moment, nothing seems real.

"I promise you that I won't let Jacob Black harm you. I will still be watching over you."

I fall into his arms and he hugs me tightly. "Don't say anything now, Bella. You have a year to clear your head and decide. I will never be far away and if you need me, I'll be there."

Tears slip down my cheeks and Edward wipes them away tenderly. "I love you, Isabella. I want you to love me back."

Edward helps me to my feet and we walk out to his car. We drive slowly towards civilization and he stops on the outskirts of town. He hands me a slip of paper with a number written on it. "If you need me, please call."

I nod and fold the slip of paper into a tiny square in my palm as I get out of the car on shaky feet. Edward walks around the car and hands me my backpack. I feel like a different person than I was when I had it last year. He touches my face gently with his hand. "Beautiful." He says softly and then I watch him walk around to his side of the car and stare at me with tears in his amazing green eyes.

"If you want to tell the police, then I understand."

I can't say anything and he drives slowly away from me. I watch until his tail lights disappear in the darkness before walking down the road and into town.

I stare at my parents door for a long time before knocking. My father is stunned when he sees me on the porch and my mother folds me in her arms and sobs. I sob too because I long for another pair of arms.

Once we are seated in the living room they tell me everything. Life has been crazy. Mike told everyone that a crazy man attacked us in the alley and stole me away even as he tried to save me. I scoff at that, but keep my mouth shut. They had looked everywhere for me and Jacob had gone on the news to plead for my safe return. I cringed at the sound of his name, but my parents didn't even notice.

They called the police who came to see me. They asked me over and over again who had taken me. I told them the same thing over and over. He never hurt me. He meant me no harm. He saved me from Mike. We were friends.

My parents sent me to four different shrinks who diagnosed me with Stockholm's syndrome. Whatever. I didn't care what they called it. I just knew I wasn't going to turn Edward in and they weren't going to get the satisfaction of locking him up.

Jacob was over at the house all the time, but he kept his distance for now. The doctors examined me to see if I had been raped, but of course I was still a virgin. Jacob was pleased to learn this from my father, and I felt like a prized cow being auctioned to the highest bidder.

Everything was strange now. Everything. My parents put on a good show for the cameras, but in private they didn't really talk to me….they smothered me. They were afraid I would be taken again. Sadly, I was hoping for it.

Alice was with me as much as my parents allowed. I wasn't allowed to go to school. Private tutors came to the house and I was homeschooled for my senior year. It was boring and dreadful. Alice was the only bright point in my life. I tried to explain my captor to her and she was understanding and said it even sounded romantic to her.

I always thought about the little square of paper with Edward's number, but I didn't call him. It wasn't safe for us to communicate, not now. My eighteenth birthday was less than a month away when my father told me of his arrangement. I was to marry Jacob Black the day after my eighteenth birthday. There would be no college for me, even though I had been accepted to many fine schools. I was to be a dutiful wife to Jacob on the reservation and bear his children. Just the thought of such a life filled me with dread and despair. I couldn't live that life. I couldn't. I wouldn't.

My eighteenth birthday was a grand affair. My parents invited half the town to celebrate, basically just to show everyone that I was back and under their control. Alice made it bearable, thank god! Jacob had not left my side the entire night as if marking his territory. I couldn't spend forever with him and I didn't plan to do so.

"Tomorrow, I will show you what a real man is like." He whispers in my ear.

I feel my skin crawl. He is always insinuating that my abductor wasn't a real man because he never touched me. My fiancé is a real creep and I can't wait to escape him.

At the end of the night, I waited until my parents had gone to bed before I crept out of my own. I dress warmly and prepare to go out into the night.

The cold was bitter and the tempestuous wind made me feel numb, a welcome feeling. The deserted street in front of me was dark and oppressive as I hurried along trying to ignore the foreboding emotions trembling throughout my body. Nearly two years ago, I had felt the same way as I was now. I shake my head to clear the unpleasant, relentless thoughts. I am tired of my life not being my own. I am desperate for escape, for control, for…love and fulfillment.

"Bella." A deep voice cuts through the ice cold wind that whips my long dark hair around my face. I turnaround She turns around and decides to face my fate head on knowing I have no other choice. His voice is exactly as I remembered it and just as alluring as it had been to me all those month ago. I knew he would come back for me. I knew he would find me if I snuck out tonight. I also knew that I wanted him to find me and claim me.

"Leave me alone." I whisper fiercely feeling conflicted once again in his presence.

He smiles at me and my body reacts to him in spite of myself. "Did you honestly think that I would let you go that easily?" He asks in a soft voice that melts all my apprehension away, while my mind tries to get a grip on my emotional instability.

"Please leave me alone." I beg softly, even though it won't matter.

He stands before me and tilts my her chin up so I am looking into his brilliant green eyes. His eyes sweep me away instantly. His fingers on my chin cause a tingle to shoot down my spine. He grins at me in victory. "You may be asking for me to walk away, but I know what you truly desire, Isabella. It's written all over your beautiful face."

I take a shaky breath. He is right of course. "Surely there is someone else you would rather…" I begin, but trails off unsure how to finish my thought.

His fingers fall from my chin and pull my hands into his own instead. My hands are icy cold and his are strangely warm – even in the bitter cold. His words fall over my skin and cradle it like velvet. "There has never been anyone for me, but you. You are my destiny and I am your curse."

"My parents will worry." I mutter feebly, no longer caring how they feel after they sold me to the highest bidder.

He sighs softly, but his smile never falters. He knows he has won and he is claiming his prize. "Your parents missed you once before, but you got along just fine without them. Don't you remember, my Isabella? Don't you remember when it was just you and me?"

I remembered the small room I had been confined to for months. The peeling pink wallpaper, the wood floor boards that gave me splinters in the soles of my feet, and the twin sized bed with the soft purple quilt that had comforted me somehow. I remembered how the hatred for my kidnapper had turned into friendship, then wanting, and eventually a twisted form of love. I was drawn to him and didn't know how to survive without him any longer. I called it love, but I'm not completely sure.

My parents had taken me to three different counselors. "Stockholm's Syndrome" was something I had become very familiar with in the past several months. Assigning a name to what my so called "sickness" was didn't change the way I felt.

Bella looked into the eyes of the man who both haunted her and thrilled her. The man who made her feel like they were the only two people in the whole world. No matter how wrong it was, she couldn't deny that she wanted to be with him. Life made some sort of sense when she was with him as screwed up as that sounded. Even though she knew it was wrong, she craved it; she craved him. Edward's look intensified as he spoke again. "When I let you go, I thought the police would come for me quickly. They never came." He stops and his vulnerable expression surprises her. "You never told them who took you."

He did not phrase it as a question. She had not told anyone who he was. She had told everyone that the man who had taken her had let her go and meant her no harm. No matter what everyone else said, she knew it was true. Edward had never beaten her, or forced himself on her. She forgave him for kidnapping her because she understood why he had done it. He had confessed his love for her and after a while she believed it. Bella took a deep breath before looking down at her feet to respond to him. "I told them the person who took me meant no harm, so there was no reason to give them your name."

Edward's eyes filled with emotion. "I would never hurt you, Bella. I love you. We can be together now. You are eighteen." He clears his throat before holding his hand out for her. "Will you come away with me?" He asks her earnestly.

Bella is caught in a whirlwind of emotion. Which path is the right path to take? Which path will lead her to happiness? She closes her eyes and focuses on what she needs to make her happy. Then she smiles, content, and opens her eyes to fulfill her destiny even if it may be a curse.

"Yes," she whispered softly as she accepted his hand and stepped into her future.

I hope you liked this chapter. I wanted Edward and Bella to start their new future together. I had originally planned to end here, but I feel like there is more to this story. Want me to continue? I would love to hear your thoughts! I am so sorry I was gone for so long everyone and I hope you can forgive me. I will try to post the next chapter soon! Please review!

Thanks everyone!

Bookworm722