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Two days passed without a word from Emmett. I began to wonder if he had forgotten as I sat with Melody at the piano. A scream startled the two of us that sounded from upstairs, and the girl jumped away yelling for her mommy.
When the girl and I made it upstairs, we both stopped to see my teddy bear of a brother holding a shaking Bella. Tears followed shamelessly down her cheeks.
"What happened?" I growled towards him.
Bella's head snapped up and her eyes held emotion unknown. Emmett released her when Melody ran to her mother.
"Come to the car and help me load stuff in," he muttered.
Once outside, he dove into the sequence. "I came in the door, and Bella must have been just coming down the stairs when I enter." He turned to me and raised a brow. "Obviously, she didn't know that I was supposed to be arriving today."
"Guilty," I murmured.
"Anyway, in surprise, she tripped down the stairs down on her knees."
I groaned. Her healing ankle probably didn't appreciate another visit down the steps. Once the two of us unpacked the car and situated all of it in the house, I handed reports over to my brother to come back in a matter of three weeks to pick up more paperwork. He handed me a thick envelope.
"You may want to stay in the house a few more days to not raise suspicion.
When Emmett left, I smelled a sent of cheese wafting in the air. Bella stood, back towards me, in front of the stove stirring with seemed to be macaroni n' cheese. Melody was clinging to her leg, and I could hardly make out the words that tumbled from her mouth.
"It's okay, Mommy. We're okay."
The child had a deep soul, and that was reveled to me there in the kitchen as she soothed her mother's worries instead of the other way around.
"Are you hungry, Edward?" Bella asked without looking behind her.
"Uh, yes, I am…How did you know I was there?" I asked stunned.
"All mothers seem to receive a sixth sense about someone's presence," she sighed.
I tried to remember if my mother had eyes in the back of her head when I was young. Perhaps Bella was right. My mother always knew when I was about to stick my hand in the cookie dough even when she wasn't looking at me.
I flashed the new ID in her face. She examined it.
"Claire? Is that my new name?" Bella asked. She didn't look like a Claire to me, but Emmett chose the names. Melody tugged on my pant leg, letting me know she wanted hers.
"Ashley?" Melody complained. "Why couldn't it be Harmony or something?"
I quirked an eyebrow, "Harmony would have been too obvious. We are trying to blend in. If we don't, we won't be able to leave the house."
"We get to leave the house?" the little girl jumped and clamped her hands together in excitement forgetting all about the name change. She rushed off to change out of her pajamas.
"We'll take her to the park today," I told Bella, "she'll need some fresh air, Mrs. Cole." I whispered her fake surname in her ear and held up a small silver band identical to the one I wore on my left ring finger.
I thought I heard a small gasp leave her lips, but when I glanced at her, her face showed no evidence of embarrassment. She held out her left hand, and I slipped the ring in place. She marveled at it momentarily before moving away from our closeness.
"Mommy, after we eat, can we go to the park?" Melody asked reappearing in the kitchen loading up a bowl full of macaroni.
"You'll have to ask Edward," she replied though I had already told her the plans for the day.
"Yes, Melody, we'll be visiting the park today. Remember, in public, you are Ashley Cole. You may call my "dad" or Roy. You're mother and I will be posing as husband and wife."
Her eyes gleamed, and then she leapt into my arms.
"Don't worry, Daddy, I remember our talk," she whispered in my ear. She placed a kiss upon my cheek before pulling back. Neither of us missed the disapproving look on Bella's face.
The child slurped down the scalding meal in less than eight minutes and tried to beckon us out the door in the next two. When we arrived at the park, Melody was the first out of the car. She made a mad dash to the swing set. I wrapped my around Bella and lead her to a nearby picnic table.
I kept her close to my side as we watched her little girl interact with a boy around her age who had joined her on the swings.
"So how is the married life?" I teased murmuring in her ear.
When she didn't respond, I pulled away and noticed a dark look that had impaled her face without invitation. I reviewed my words and instantly regretted them. Of course the married life was horrid. Bella had been abused by the one who promised to love her forever.
"I'm sorry," I whispered, the words flowing easily now. "I know this has been hard for you and Melody."
I wrapped the other arm around her, so I had her incased in my embrace. Her form was stiff. I placed a soft kiss on the lobe of her ear, but her body only went rigid.
"Mommy?" I released Bella so she could face her daughter.
"Yes, Sweetheart?"
"Is something wrong?" Her eyes were deep and a line of concern was displayed across her forehead.
Bella shook her head and smoothed the line across her forehead, "Of course not."
"May I go play with Aaron?" She turned back to point out the same boy that had approached her on the swings. Aaron looked at Melody sweetly and waved. The girl waved back shyly.
"For a little while," Bella agreed. Melody gave her mother a quick hug before running off with the boy. I worried for a split second that he was hired by Mike, but then the boy took her hand and looked at her with emotions young boys were not known to have.
"Didn't you suspect he could have been working for Mike?" I asked her.
She shook her head and smiled. Perhaps it was another mother thing I mused. The two ran off together hand in hand, and Bella giggled.
"What?" I asked.
"C'mon, Mr. Cole," she winked, "wasn't that little scene adorable?"
I cocked an eyebrow at her but laughed when she giggled again.
"You just passed the house, Edward," Bella commented.
I raised an eyebrow, "I'm aware of that. There was a car behind us, and everyone in the area believes the house has been empty for quite some time."
Her mouth formed an "o" once she understood my reasoning. Bella was so naive when it came to protection. The simplest things that she missed could be the very elements that someone could use to hunt another down.
"Can we go back to the park next Tuesday?" Melody piped up from the backseat.
"I suppose so, but why is that?" I answered her before Bella could get the chance.
"Aaron is going to be there," The little girl flushed her mother's blush and avoided eye contact with me. "He wants to meet me there."
Bella turned in her seat to beam at the little girl.
When we arrived at the house, Melody was reluctant to enter the house. I ruffled her hair playfully, but she swatted at my hands arguing that I was going to mess up her curls.
"Bella, I'll need to check out that ankle again." I said pulling her to the side while Melody skipped in the door, happy about her new boy toy. "Emmett told me about the spill you took down the steps."
Bella grimaced but complied for she made her way up to her room. Melody approached me and tugged on my pant leg. "Where is Mommy going?"
I had no idea if the child knew of Bella's injuries, so I put the explanation in simple terms. "I'm going to check out your mom to see if she is hurting anywhere."
Melody surprisingly laughed. "She's clumsy, so I wouldn't be shocked to see some bruising, Dad."
I went to correct her, but she winked slyly. I wondered idly if I shouldn't have told her to call me "dad" in public, but I pushed the matter aside for the moment.
Bella was waiting for me on the couch in her room. She was still clothed, assuming I wasn't going to need another review so quickly. I kneeled before her and took her foot gently in my hands.
I prodded gently at the skin wrapped around the ankle bone, and a wince from Bella was not unnoticed. When I lifted my fingers from the bone, a purple tint was visible.
"We're going to want to keep this wrapped up for another good week or so," I murmured more to myself than to her. Her face was flush when I looked up at her. "What is it? Is something wrong?" I asked.
"I'm just not use to people taking care of me, that's all," she muttered. She let her eyes fall to my hands where they were tenderly embracing her injured foot.
I swept away some of the hair that had fallen in her face, and the tension in the room was thick.
"Hi, Mom!" Melody smiled at the two of us. When we both jumped in surprise, I noticed that I had subconsciously been nearing Bella. Melody's grin widened. "Wanna go swimming?"
Bella looked to me for permission, but I chuckled in response. "You don't need my approval on everything. Feel free to use the pleasantries of the house."
"Oh, Bella, may I ask you a question before your swim?"
Apparently my tone bored the child for she left the room. Bella nodded absentmindedly looking at her daughter as she scampered off.
"What crossed your mind that caused the reaction this morning?" I asked. I didn't clarify the event, there was no need to.
She looked away embarrassed, but I lifted her face up by placing a finger beneath her chin. Bella's eyes were guarded, and her voice was weak.
"I though it was him; I thought he had found me and my daughter."
I tried to ease the tension. "What am I, chopped liver?"
She smiled grimly, "You simply asked what went through my mind, and there it is. Take it or leave."
"Bella, I need you to understand this. I've been doing this job for many years, and I've never been beaten at it. No one is going to be able to get through me to get you or Melody. I promise."
"You don't know what he's capable of," she muttered breathlessly. I sighed. Changing her mind was an obvious lost cause.
Bella stood and left the room to retrieve her daughter and head down to the pool for some exercise.
"Take it easy on that foot!" I called after them. "Melody, stay away from the deep end without your mother watching, and Bella, no diving with that ankle. It'll swell."
My warnings were clearly a wasted effort. The little girl had a mind all her own, and the mother was almost tied with her in that case. I deliberated going down to watch the two myself, but the idea of all the paperwork and studying I had pulled me into my office.
I reviewed all the info Bella had issued to our services including the length of time she had been putting with up the harassment. The information written in black ink stared up at me, and I dropped my head in my hands. For the first time in all my years of working, I had no desire to know why and how a woman's husband was abusing her. But, maybe that was because it wasn't any woman. That woman was Isabella Swan.
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