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A/N- Capricorn75 has bullied me into posting the rest of it. Thanks.
"She obviously didn't know," Edward said, fanning me. "I was told for years to watch out for the girls who wanted to get pregnant by me to get a quick ticket to an easy life."
"This is a joke, right?" I asked. A very, very rich young doctor wanted to marry me. And I was having his baby and I had said yes to marrying him before he told me he could own half of Rhode Island. And we were already in love and I had no idea how fucking rich he was the whole time. My brain hurt, although Edward had caught me before I hit the floor. "Carlisle, you're pulling my leg, aren't you? Why didn't I ever hear about this from you or Esme or Alice?"
"Because it embarrasses Alice to no end," Carlisle said. "She would hate living in a small town with everybody knowing how rich our relatives are. We hide it, because money isn't as important as relationships. It shouldn't be, anyways."
"We don't live like rich people," Edward said. "I grew up mowing my parent's yard in the summers, working after school so I'd learn a work ethic," he said. "I had to earn half the money to buy my first car. Dad didn't want me being one of those rich playboy bastard kids."
"It paid off," Carlisle said. "Especially when you became a doctor. But, the one time he screws up…"
"I know, I know," Edward said. "Bella, do you still want to marry me?"
"If it were just you and me, I'd say yes in a heart beat," I said.
"It is just you and me," Edward said. "I'm not into the social aspect, just the humanitarian. What do you say?"
I blinked. "Yes," I said. "I still want some protection for our child."
"Edward, you need to call your lawyer in Seattle. Bella, you need to retain one," Carlisle said. "If you don't have the money to, I'll give you the retainer fee, Bella. You can't just figure this out on your own, and it will be a conflict of interests for you to have the same one."
"I know," I said. I wondered how Jessica Stanley and Lauren Mallory had missed that Edward Cullen was so fucking rich. "You're fucking loaded," I said, in awe.
"Don't remind me," he said.
"You're fucking loaded!" I repeated.
"Bella, please, do you want that phrase coming out of your baby's mouth?" Edward asked.
After Carlisle left, Edward and I put Jeannie in the guest bedroom downstairs. I was still woozy from the news. How Edward was worth that much and I didn't know was beyond me. How had I missed it? How had my friends missed it? Why hadn't Alice confided in me?
Edward took my hand and helped me up the stairs to the bedroom. I changed out of my clothes and into my maternity pajamas from when I had had Jeannie.
"How are you feeling?" he asked.
"Edward, how could you have not told me?" I cried. "How could I have not figured it out? How did Lauren Mallory and Jessica Stanley completely miss it?"
"Well, Jessica's not quite what I'm looking for," he said. "Intellect is something that's missed her. Lauren on the other hand… that girl that helps her run her salon is her partner… in more ways than one."
I stared in shock. "What?" I squeaked.
"Lauren plays for both teams, if you know what I mean," Edward said. "She's a nice girl, but she's not in to me."
"You're making that up," I said.
"One night when her partner, Gabrielle, cut her finger in the salon, she rushed her in," he said. "I stitched her up, and when I came back to check on Gabby, Lauren was kissing her in relief. I could tell they were being really affectionate. Lauren asked me not to tell. She told me she was bisexual, but she couldn't afford for her growing client base to find out, being as Forks is such a small town. That was the weekend I let her highlight my hair before Christmas as a thank you gift."
"You're kidding!" I cried.
"No," he said. "The money- it doesn't change the way you feel about me, does it, Bella?"
"No, Edward," I said. "I do love you. But, please, let me still work the store. I need to keep that for Jeannie. And for my own personal sanity."
"I understand," he said. "But Bella, now that you're becoming my wife, will you cut back on your hours? Hire some outside help?"
"We're trying to make it through the fiscal year with just Emmett, Rose and me," I said. "It ends August 1st for us."
"When are you due?" Edward asked.
"Late September," I said.
"I don't know," he said, "about you working through August. I don't know if your body can take it."
"I think it can," I said. "I took care of Charlie until the day I gave birth to Jeannie."
"Well, you're my fiancée, now. By then, you should be my wife," he said. "Can we just go to bed? I have work in the morning."
"Yes, we can go to bed," I said.
He tugged my top up and kissed my expanding girth. "You don't know how long I've waited to do that," he sighed. "God, you are so beautiful."
"Hey, hold up, Mister, I'm saving myself for marriage this time," I said.
"Oh, please," Edward said. "You can't get more pregnant."
It almost killed me that Alice wasn't speaking to me. Rose and Angela were, but Jacob was still livid over the entire Edward getting me pregnant thing. I didn't dare tell anybody about Edward's family fortune. I went to Seattle to retain a lawyer for the prenup. I completely understood what a prenup was for and found it completely fair, now. Carlisle gave me the retainer fee. He didn't want me getting screwed over.
I cried when the first draft Edward's lawyer presented us with said that part of the prenup was that he was allowed to adopt Jeannie. I agreed to it.
The first time I talked to his parents over the phone, they were elated to meet me. I was surprised because I thought that they'd hate me immediately for obvious reasons. I remembered them vaguely from Alice and Jasper's wedding. Edward had been doing an internship overseas in Africa at the time of the wedding, so he hadn't been able to go at the time, so that's why I didn't remember him. Liz Cullen was a handsome woman of Ukrainian descent with the same copper-red hair and green eyes as Edward with a soft face and pretty smile. Edward's father, Tony Cullen, was the quintessential tall-dark-and-handsome man who, at the time, had a goatee and was where Edward got his lanky frame from. They were going to the Ukraine for a month for charity work (Tony was going to do heart surgery in a major pediatric hospital at cost, his services for free), but promised they'd come to Seattle to meet me and Jeannie. They were ecstatic that Edward was adopting Jeannie. "Finally!" I heard Liz yell over the phone to Edward. "A grandchild! Is she cute?"
"The cutest," Edward said.
I spent my days at the store doing all I could to keep myself busy until the prenup was finalized. Edward's lawyer would offer one draft, we'd go through it and he'd explain what it all meant and we'd discuss the terms and if we thought it was fair. We went through this a few times before we came to a final agreement. Edward would have to take care of me, but I wasn't going to get half of everything he owned. I wouldn't let Edward have any of the store in profits because I wanted Jeannie to have it. Jeannie would be entitled to the same as our own child or any other children we would have. That was a great source of comfort for me between the Lamaze classes we attended at the high school at night in the freshman English classroom.
Edward left a bright, shiny brand-new American Express card on the kitchen table one morning before I got up with my name on it. I begrudgingly left it there for almost a week before Edward finally brought it up. We had a quick argument about it until he told me that I needed to buy new furniture for Jeannie and the baby, since most of it was at Charlie's.
Charlie was holding up his end of the bluff. He wasn't allowing me back into his home as an unwed mother. That was fine, I was going to keep his granddaughter from him if he wouldn't talk to me. I knew he missed Jeannie like he would miss his right foot if it were cut off.
Mark Hetsler came by the store one afternoon.
"Bella?" he asked. "I hate to bother you like this, but, your father's sick leave is up. Since he's so close to retirement and he's been injured so badly… he's getting early retirement. Everybody down at the station thought we'd give him a retirement party. We'd like it if you and Jeannie could be there."
"Charlie doesn't want to talk to me," I said.
"I think he does," Mark said. "I could think of worse things than getting pregnant by a respected doctor."
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