Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

So, not all of you enjoyed the last chapter so I hope this will be an improvement. It explains a little about Tanya, and hints towards the drama to come. Can any of you guess what it is? Sorry it is a little short, I just wanted to get something out to you all.

Thanks for all the story alerts and favourites. Thanks again to the amazing people who are: Twilight-ObsessedDiva, Night Orchid, CharmLightLove, darkwildrose, dbmncgreen, SuperSumer, girlfrakes, p, chewycui, jerseyhalliwell, makki, klcivinski, TearsInTheDust, TexasTwilight77, Lizzie, Akaalias, vampgirl138, winternow, Wicked Wordsmith, Troyis, queenyus, eva wilson, sober alcoholic, TrinityIsis, krazzy hopeless romantic, mommytwilight, OnyxTwilight, hooker81, Tess, beans and cornbread, livvi84, cullengirl08, ConfusionPixie, BonesnBooth4ever, tidyKat, tbonemom0512, twilightlover1710, gabzCoatz, Shadowdragon13, cademan24, elliemay101287, dbmncgreen, IssyBell91, sambois, cgarland1900 and frankfart101.

Hope you enjoy!


Forever Bound

Chapter Thirteen – Meet Me Halfway

As evening fell Edward returned home from spending the day with Jasper. While they had been out riding, Jasper sprung it on him that he wished Edward to be his best man. Edward was shocked but agreed instantly.

He walked into the living room and found a forlorn looking Bella knitting. Taking a look at what she was doing, Edward noticed that she was knitting a pair of impossibly small booties. He smiled at the thought that in seven short months their child would be filling them.

"Good evening Bella," Edward smiled at his wife.

"Good evening Edward," Bella replied in a flat voice.

Edward was a little confused. "Did you have an enjoyable day with Alice and Rose?"

"Very enjoyable thank you. I am to be Alice's Maid of Honour." Bella informed her husband.

"I am to be Jasper's best man. He asked me today," Edward told Bella, trying to start a conversation.

Bella simply nodded, continuing with her work.

Edward finally gave up and asked, "Bella what is wrong? You were happy this morning, what has changed?" Bella did not answer, "Tell me Bella." Edward ordered.

"Perhaps the fact that Tanya came to visit the house earlier this afternoon has upset me a little," Bella replied, with no emotion in her voice.

Edward was shocked; he was not expecting Tanya back until the New Year. "Tanya was here?" Edward pressed his wife for details, "How long was she here for? What did he want?" Edward felt terrible. The first opportunity they had to see each other in over two months and he had not been home to receive her.

"She did not stay long, she only wished to deliver a message," Bella stated coolly, not facing her husband.

"What was the message she left?" Perhaps she wished he would visit her at her home.

"Her parents invited the family to dinner on the evening prior to Christmas Eve," Bella relayed to her husband.

"And you assured her that we would attend I presume?"

"No. In fact I told her the opposite." Bella told Edward calmly.

"What?" Edward could not believe his ears.

"I told her that we would not be able to attend. That the Yule holidays are a time for family."

"How could you do that? How dare you do that without even consulting me first! I thought you agreed that I would be able to continue my relationship with Tanya!" Edward yelled at his wife.

"Once the child is born! I said that it was not my right to take you away from love, but I told you that I would not accept it! I do not accept that you expect me to spend an evening in the presence of the woman who is going to take my husband away from me and my child!" Bella yelled right back at him.

"Take me away? No one will take me away from my child!" Edward cried.

"Yes she will. You may not think it now, but I know she will. You will get fed up of waking every other hour during the night, annoyed with the crying, annoyed with the soiled nappies soon enough and you will resort to spending the night with her and leave me to care for our child!" Bella shouted at him.

"How dare you assume that! I wish to care for our child as much as my father did for me; my relationship with Tanya will not prevent that. I am going to write to the Denali family immediately and accept their invitation." Edward stated to his now angered wife.

"If you do that, do not expect me to attend with you."

"You will attend with the rest of the family," Edward informed Bella, quickly losing his patience.

"I WILL NOT!" Bella screamed.

"I SAY YOU WILL! YOU ARE MY WIFE AND I AM ORDERING YOU TO ATTEND THAT DINNER. Do I make myself clear?" Edward yelled at his wife.

Bella gave him the filthiest look and rose to leave the room. Edward grabbed her arm, "I said, do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal." Bella hissed before snatching her arm back and stalking out the room.

A minute later Edward heard her chamber door slam shut. He collapsed into the nearest chair and sighed. "I guess we are back to square one." He muttered.

-o-

The following two days were not pleasant ones in the Cullen household. Bella had gone back to ignoring Edward whenever she saw him, which was not often as Alice had spent every possible moment with her; planning the wedding.

Strangely enough, whenever he walked into the room they were busy planning in, he could never spot Rosalie. He would almost believe she had never come to visit, but somehow he always saw her bid farewell to Bella at the end of the day as she left with Alice.

Edward found it even stranger that Emmett always appeared to be in a good mood. A smile was always gracing his face; it did not even drop when he saw Edward. What was happening?

Luckily, Jacob had gone home last night, adding a little peace into Edward's life. Jacob's wife had written him a letter, ordering him to return home and care for his pregnant wife, that he had been gone long enough. Edward could have kissed her.

The evening of the meal had arrived, and Edward was still not sure what was going to happen with Bella. Although he had told her that she must attend with the rest of the family, nothing had been mentioned since. It was six hours past midday now and the gathering started at seven, yet Edward had seen Bella not five minutes earlier and she was nowhere near ready. What happened to girls taking all day to prepare?

Edward walked into his own chamber and thought what he should do first. He wanted to blow Tanya away; after all it had been two months. First on the agenda was a bath.

Half an hour later, Edward emerged from the steaming bathroom and moved on to picking out a suit. Looking through them all, he settled on a black tux with a silk collar, white shirt and thing black tie. Checking himself in the mirror and giving himself approval, Edward walked out his chamber and knocked on Bella's door.

A few moments later Bella pulled the door open and Edward had to pick his jaw off the floor. Bella was wearing a thin material dress, which was covered in patterns made with black and red thread. It had sleeves just past the elbow and the neck line plunged to the bottom of her bust with a sash of the same material tied underneath. The dress was floor length, though only skimmed the floor due to the gold heel sandals she was wearing. Her hair had been curled into large waves and she had a white ribbon tied behind her ears. She looked breath taking, though for some reason Edward could not open his mouth to tell her so.

He offered her his arm but she refused it and walked down the stair ahead of him. As he walked alongside her to enter the carriage, he noticed a small bump forming at her stomach. If he had not known she was pregnant he would not have noticed it, however now that he had, he had to shove his hands in his pockets to stop himself reaching out and rubbing it.

Thankfully, Bella allowed Edward to assist her into the carriage. Edward knew how clumsy she was and did not wish for her to slip, especially now.

Half an hour later they arrived at Tanya's parents house. It was a large mansion, large than the Cullen's, though too extravagant for Edward. He held Bella's arm to help her down from the carriage before letting it go. He was thoroughly surprised as she placed her arm through his as they walked to the door.

Before Edward could raise his hand to knock, the Denali's butler opened the door. "Good evening Mr Cullen, Mrs Cullen. The Denali's are waiting for you in the living room. Mr Cullen, your parents have arrived not half an hour before you." The butler informed the couple before leading them towards the living room.

"Mr and Mrs Cullen Sir, Madams," the butler introduced them before bowing slightly and taking his leave.

"Thank you Jarvis," Mrs Denali called after him before she moved forward to embrace Edward, "Edward darling," she kissed him on both cheeks, "It has been too long. It was such a shame we were away for your wedding!" she turned and noticed Bella for the first time, "You must introduce me to your lovely wife!"

"Of course. Carmen, this is Isabella, Bella this is Carmen and Eleazar Denali."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Mr and Mrs Denali," Bella spoke quietly.

"You too my dear. Allow me to introduce you to my daughter Tanya, although I believe you have already met," Edward turned his gaze to Tanya. She looked stunning as usual and was smiling largely at Edward. He grinned right back at her, "And this," Carmen began, leading Bella to stand in front of a tall blonde man Edward had only just noticed, "is James Hunter; Tanya's fiancé."

The grin dropped right off Edward's face.

-o-

The four couples sat down to dine. Carmen and Eleazar were each end of the table; Carlisle was placed at Eleazar's right hand with Esme opposite him, who seated next to Bella with Edward opposite her. Edward himself was seated between Tanya and his father with James sitting opposite Tanya, who was at her mother's left hand side. The scowl had not dropped off Edward's face since the bomb had been dropped.

The cooks carried in all the plates, already filled with food and placed them in front of each diner. After they had said grace, Eleazar stood up with his glass in his hands. "Thank you for coming this evening. I would just like to give a toast to Tanya and James. May your life bring you plenty of happiness together. I am extremely glad that my daughter has found such a wonderful man. I am thankful we were able to share the news of your engagement with our closest friends, the Cullens, here tonight. To Tanya and James." Eleazar raised his glass, as did everyone else. Well almost everyone. Edward simply picked up his glass of wine and drained it dry, before motioning to one of the servants to refill it.

Conversation began to flow as the food was consumed. Edward had not said one word to Tanya, and did not plan to until she explained what the hell was going. Looking at his wife, Edward noticed she was in deep conversation with James. As he watched, James said something that caused Bella to fall into a fit of giggles. This caused Edward to hate him even more; Edward had never been able to make Bella laugh. He had never tried but that was not the point.

Finally, halfway through the second course, Tanya leaned over to him. "Are we going to talk about this?"

Edward turned to face her glaring, "Would you like to talk about it right now? Because I have a few things to say that I do not believe your fiancé would like to hear!" Edward spat at her, although keeping his voice down.

"There is more to this than you believe. We'll talk about this in the garden after dinner," Tanya explained calmly.

"Fine," Edward snapped, and continued to finish his meal in silence.

Although he was not taking part in the conversations, he was interested to know what the people around him were saying. Carlisle, Esme and Eleazar were discussing Carlisle's duties as mayor. Bored, Edward tuned out and switched to the next conversation; Bella and James'. He could not hear a word of what they were saying, which angered him. They were sitting with their heads too close together for his liking. James was whispering comments to Bella, making her smile enormously. Edward had to stop himself from jumping over the table and breaking them apart when he saw James touch Bella's stomach. Only he could do that!

Edward spent the rest of the dinner glaring, alternating between aiming it at Tanya or Bella and James.

-o-

Once the dishes had been removed, their parents all entered the conservatory to drink tea and talk politics. This was the chance Edward had to spend with Tanya. He turned to tell Bella that he would be out in the garden if she needed him, though he was sure she would not even tell him if she did, but when he did, Bella and James were nowhere to be seen.

Shrugging it off, Edward moved towards Tanya, who was fixing her hair in a small mirror. "Shall we?" Edward motioned towards the back door.

Tanya stood up and made her way into the garden, leading Edward towards a swinging bench. She spread her dress out carefully before sitting down; not wanting to ruin it of course. Edward sat himself down at the other end of the bench.

"So explain." He was going to give her one chance.

Tanya filled her air with lungs and begun, "Edward, you know I care deeply about you, but I am not going to spend my life as just your mistress. I need someone for myself too. When we went away, James was staying in the villa next door. We spent a lot of time together and one thing led to another and here we are today. I still want to be with you once your heir is born, but if I cannot have you to myself then you cannot have me to yourself."

"So we are going to both have an affair behind our spouse's back?" Edward asked. Bella already knew his plan, but Tanya did not need to know that.

"Yes. Of course James will not be told. He is very possessive and would probably try and kill you if he found out," Tanya shrugged, nonchalant.

Edward gulped but moved closer to Tanya none the less and placed his hand on her knee.

"So we are going to do this?" he asked, wanted some final confirmation.

Tanya placed her hands on each side of his face and pulled her towards him, "Of course we are going to do this," she whispered before she attacked his lips with hers.

Edward responded eagerly, having missed this for the past two months.

But when he pulled away, before opening his eyes, Edward wondered why, for a fleeting second, he had seen Bella's face instead of Tanya's.

---

Like it?

Bella's POV is next so you'll get to see their meeting. Had to keep you hanging for a bit.

Anyone guess what is going to happen next?

Did you notice anything odd about what Tanya said? The first person who does will get a sneak peek of the next chapter!

Can we get to 300 reviews? Whoever gives me the 300th will get something special... but please review if under or over!

Until next time :)