It's Murder Sequel
Chapter 10
EPOV
"It's twins. Just two. They can't tell for sure whether they are identical, from the one embryo, or if two took," Rose stated, smiling at her husband.
"Oh thank the Lord," Emmett replied.
So far the joint honeymoon was going well. There are two houses on the island, so my brother and Rose had the main house by the lagoon, and Bella and I were in the lighthouse that Dad converted into guest quarters years ago. Once we became teenagers, he let us three boys stay in it while he and Mom had the house, on family vacations.
The top floor was a magnificent bedroom with views of the ocean and entire island, seeing the glass went around the whole 360 degrees. This room had always been out of bounds until now; the adult bedroom.
One floor down the spiral staircase was the bathroom, then the bunkroom, then the eat in kitchen, and the living area was on the ground floor.
Bella, of course, was more enamoured with the lighthouse than with the million dollar house . Nobody could ever suspect my wealth had anything to do with me winning her over. She was as happy sharing a tent or a tiny one roomed apartment as she was in our new house.
Half the rooms were still unfurnished. She said she felt intimidated owning such a large home and wasn't ready to spread out and claim them all yet.
I'd wracked my brains trying to think of a suitable wedding gift for her, but it had not been easy. The obvious new fancy car would just get me a 'Thank You' before it got left in the garage for years.
She would love an island of our own with a lighthouse like this one but I had a feeling too much too soon would never work in my favour. Better wait until our tenth anniversary.
Expensive jewellery sat in her jewel case, unworn.
She had joked that a diamond pendant necklace left to me by my gran could be used in a pretty mobile to hang over the baby's bassinet as it would sparkle with all the colours of the rainbow, but I didn't think that was quite fitting for a diamond that could possibly buy the entire town of Forks.
Finally, looking at the many photo she had taken of us in her loft apartment and in the attic bedroom, it had hit me.
Have the upstairs windows in our house replaced with stained glass.
It was her favourite thing.
I was looking forward to her reaction when we went home. Carlisle was overseeing the work and assured me daily it was progressing nicely. Mom was apparently suggesting she would not mind some stained glass in their house but it was far too modern, in my opinion. Stained glass would look amazing in our renovated cottage, with it's whitewashed brick walls outside, and it's thatched roof, but I couldn't imagine it suiting their home at all.
Anyway, what was she planning? An entire back wall made of stained glass? There were no normal sized windows.
Rose passed around the phone and I dutifully squinted at the hazy photo of the twins. Two tiny barely discernible dark dots amidst a background of grey snow.
"Twins. I'm glad it's Siobhan and not me then," Bella said, finally completely at ease with the way things had evolved.
She'd promised to always talk over any big decisions with me in future, before telling anyone else, as one of her wedding vows. Time alone would tell if that would be possible for her.
"I need food," she moaned, pulling on my hand so I had to stand up and leave the beach. We had been cooking most meals in the house, and just eating breakfast alone together, so I headed for Esme's gourmet kitchen.
"I need food too," Emmett called out behind us.
Rose instantly whispered a suggestion of something he could munch on and I hurried my bride away before she saw anything she would wish she hadn't.
"Oh great, yet another bathroom break," she complained as I was about to plate her eggs. I was still doing all the cooking, afraid of my nightmares coming true. Every night I saw Bella get paler and more emancipated, starving at the expense of our baby; while in real life she was actually looking amazing.
She'd filled out a bit and her face was all the more pretty for the weight gain. Her hair was gloriously shiny and growing longer and thicker in front of our eyes. I have never seen any woman bloom quite as beautifully. It was like she was the ideal pregnant woman.
"Edward!"
I almost dropped the pan in alarm at the sound of her voice. Oh God no, please do not let her lose this baby. Not now.
I rushed to the bathroom, expecting to see blood and tears and a tiny dead fetus on the floor.
Instead, my wife stood in front of the floor length mirror, her hand over her slightly curving belly.
"It kicked."
"What?" I said, numb with relief.
"It kicked. I felt it kick. Put your hand here."
I gently placed my hand over the tiny bulge and waited.
"There? Did you feel it? isn't it amazing?"
There was no way I was bursting her bubble by saying I hadn't felt a thing. At first, the baby would be too small for the movements to be felt externally, but she could feel them inside herself.
"That's so wonderful," I sighed, getting to my knees to hug her waist and kiss my child through her skin.
"Can you tell if it's a boy or a girl? Doctors can detect all sorts of things that normal people can't, surely. You must have seen a lot of pregnant women."
"Not any others have let me kiss their bellies, though," I replied. "Do you want to know the gender? We can find out when we get home."
"Yes. No. I don't know. On one hand the surprise would be amazing, but on the practical side, we have to buy things for this kid and knowing whether we go with blue or pink would be handy. Do you want to know?"
"No way," I answered. "This is the most amazing experience we will ever share and I want the surprise at the end. I don't even have a preference any more. Whatever we have will be just what I wanted."
It was true. Just those few seconds of thinking she had lost our precious baby had made me realize this little human would always be the most important person in our lives and it's gender did not matter at all. I would have been just as heartbroken to lose a son as a daughter.
I stood and pulled her into my arms.
A shiver passed down her spine.
"What?" I asked, immediately worried.
"Do you ever just think about how incredibly lucky we are? We found one another against the odds, and we both considered marrying other people in the past, and yet, somehow that never happened. Imagine if we were both married when we met. That would have been the very worst thing, Edward. What if we had kids already? Neither of us would ever walk away from a child of our own. So we would never have been able to be together."
"None of that happened. We may not have met nearly as early as I wish, but we met soon enough. That's the important thing," I assured her.
Soon enough.
It was true.
I may wish I could go back and erase our pasts and meet as high school sweethearts, but at least we met before her imagined scenario. How heartbreaking would it have been to meet and fall in love with Bella if I already had a wife and kids? I would have still wanted her, and that could not have happened. There was no way I could ever put what I wanted ahead of my spouse and my children, who never asked to be born.
I knew I would give my life for my family, and if that had meant walking away from the woman I somehow knew I'd recognize anywhere as my One, then that's what I would have had to do.
"Sometimes I worry that we are too happy," Bella said. "That everything is too perfect. Something could come along and fuck us up... I couldn't bear it."
"That will never happen," I whispered, hoping to God I was right.
xxxx
The honeymoon was extended several times, but there's only so much sun and blue skies and soft warm golden sand you can tolerate; only so many midnight skinny dipping sessions that end with making love on the beach; at some point it has to end, because like Bella said, this life was too perfect.
The only negative in our lives at all was my continuing nightmares.
I wished I could hide them from her and so far, I had but last night she woke up and woke me up because I was crying so piteously.
"Stop it, Edward," she had cried out, still shaking me awake. "You can't say things like that to me."
I shook my head and tried to jump back into the present.
"What did I say? I'm so sorry. It was just a dream."
"You said you had to do whatever you had to, to save me. Even if it meant..."
"What?" I asked.
"Letting the baby die," she whispered, holding her hands to her belly. "You have to promise me if it ever came to that decision, that you would save the baby. I wouldn't want to be saved at it's expense."
"It's very unlikely these days that anything like that would ever happen. In most maternal disasters either both mother and baby are saved by modern technology, if it's not some genetic problem or illness in the baby. There would hardly ever be a situation where one life had to be chosen over the other.
Either one of the people involved is hurt or dying already...or else it's a case of something unpredictable happening like the placenta tearing away, and then both mother and child are at equal risk and the cure has the same chance of saving or losing them both."
"Nothing will happen to this baby," she swore. "It can't. We already love it and we have both promised to always be there for it, as long as we both shall live. We will be a family and nothing can change that."
With that promise, she lay back down and was asleep in seconds.
I sat there in the dark and hoped to God I never had to choose, because I would always choose Bella. No matter what the cost to my child, I loved her so much. My life would be meaningless without her in it.
There could be other babies but there would never be another Bella.
xxxx
BPOV
The night trip home was quick but for once I did wish the Cullen's owned a private plane because Emmett and Rose were just embarrassing. If they truly imagined the rest of us did not know what they were doing under that blanket, they were insane. Even in the dim backlit cabin,one cannot ignore a heaving, moaning mass of blanket.
"Mile high club just got two new members," Edward whispered unnecessarily in my ear, like I was too stupid to know that already.
"Someone needs to tell them they can only qualify the once," I hissed back. I swear they were making the whole planeload of passengers feel awkward.
"I'm sure you and I could be a lot more discrete," Edward replied.
He was laying so closely behind me, spooned around my body, that it was entirely possible we could have sex and not do anything to attract attention to ourselves. Anyway, Rose and Emmett had everyone's attention.
I felt Edward pat down the blanket over us, making sure we were completely concealed, then I felt his hand carefully lift up my long skirt and place it over my back. Next I felt that same hand move between my legs. I opened them the minimal amount and he kissed my neck as he slipped his finger inside me.
"We don't have to go all the way, we could just..."I whispered.
I'd forgotten what I was going to say.
I did now understand his insistence that pregnant women were not allowed to wear panties on plane trips. It had sounded rather suspicious but I'd gone along with it in case he was right.
What would I know?
"Shhh, they are being our distraction but we have to keep quiet," he whispered as he slid himself inside me from behind.
"I thought I was being quiet," I whispered back, indignantly.
"Oh no, you weren't," he replied. I turned my face to the side so he could cover my lips with his own as he gently thrust in and out, managing to barely move his body, merely his hips.
Within minutes my body was on fire, and I was pushing back against him, needing more.
His hand snuck around to the front and my favourite finger of his started circling my clit.
I really didn't want to thrash around but yes, I did want to as well. I tried my best to restrain and stay out of the bubble making love with Edward always put me inside.
I had to stay aware and make sure we didn't...
I felt myself bite down on his lip as I came around him. I could taste his blood in my mouth but he didn't seem to have registered that fact as he grabbed my hips and ground in deeper as I clenched and he climaxed. He held us both still and put his palm against me again so I had something to pulse against, and we lay there still and flushed, until the sensations were done.
"Welcome to the club," Edward whispered.
"I imagine you only managed to get away with that from years of practice," I whispered back.
"Bella, I've never done this on a plane before," he replied, sounding hurt.
It was something he had to get over; me assuming there were no more firsts for him. He'd been with a lot of women and how would I know where he had sex with them?
Sometimes I did feel some resentment and wondered what number I was, but I never asked. I didn't think he could answer anyway.
He was my lucky number seven.
I was his last, that was the important thing, I told myself and tried to pull myself out of the pit I could so easily fall in to.
I understand that he hates the six men before him, but six seems somewhat reasonable at my age,whereas God knows how many women he's been with, really. My only choice had ever been to accept him with his baggage and history or walk away and walking away was far worse than dealing with these occasional wobblies. I didn't need or want him to apologize yet again, but I will always wish things had been different.
I know he's had a hard time accepting his past, and wondering what the hell he was thinking, but facts are facts and I hate them.
"Wow," Edward said suddenly, grabbing my hand and placing it on my abdomen. "I really felt it that time."
"We woke up the baby?" I said in surprise. I'd forgotten our child existed for a few minutes there.
The fetus kicked and settled again.
"Sorry Sweetheart, but I love your mother far too much to leave her alone while you are growing inside her. I will be much more gentle in future."
"Not 'much more', just a tiny bit more," I growled.
I wriggled free of him to go visit the bathroom and Edward followed behind me, smirking as I looked at every passenger, checking to see if anyone was giving us a death glare or look of amusement but all eyes were turned to the bathrooms.
"Yes, Emmett and Rose moved the circus down here," he sighed as he held the door to the second cubicle open and closed it behind me, staying outside himself.
xxxx
EPOV
It was pitch dark when we got home and Bella was asleep in the passenger seat, so I parked and went around to her side and lifted her out into my arms.
Even if she didn't know it, I was still doing the traditional crossing of the threshold, and I didn't put her down again until I was up in our bedroom.
Esme had turned the sheets down, and Bella was only wearing the long soft frock she'd chosen to travel in, so it could pass as a nightgown for one night.
I kissed her forehead and headed for the shower, leaving the rooms dark.
Halfway through, as I leaned my neck back and let the stream of water wash over my throat and chest, the room was suddenly illuminated, and Bella stood at the open doorway but her eyes left me and stared at the multicoloured glass instead.
"You got me more stained glass windows?" she said in awe.
"Happy wedding gift," I replied. "All the upstairs rooms are done, and a few of the downstairs ones as well."
"But I didn't get you anything," she protested.
"Seriously? You gave me an entire different life; one I never expected to be living. You have given me everything already and still you will give me more. A child. Some stupid antique pen or whatever brides buy their grooms these days is meaningless compared to that."
She lifted her dress off over her head and joined me in the shower.
xxxx
To my constant amazement, Bella just continued to bloom. She loved the high she got from the pregnancy hormones and said she wanted a dozen kids just to get a constant dose.
We were all amazed at how much she ate, but one had to presume the little monster inside her got ninety five percent of the calories, because Bella's figure barely altered.
Her rack was larger and fuller and that alone was my reward.
I've never been disappointed with her breast size but I'd be lying if I denied I was enjoying this larger version all the more. My hands could barely leave them alone, but I figured their placement kept her nipples warm throughout the night, so I was really doing her the favour by holding on.
She could fall asleep any time,any place and that led to a lot of jokes from my brother. Naturally Emmett always had something to say.
"What's it like having sex with a sleeping woman? It doesn't put you off that it's just that one step up from necrophilIa?"
That was a step too far and I managed to lay one on him before he realized what was coming.
"Ow, Edward, unfair," he mumbled, cradling the blossoming bruise on his left cheek. I can be fast when I have to be.
Naturally my Mom fussed around him with ice packs and sympathy, and gave me plenty of death glares but what the Hell? How often had I ever managed to bruise him, compared to the black and blue patchwork my body had been at his large hands growing up, when he 'taught me to box'.
Jasper had always played it smart and stayed well out of it, but I had been somewhat delusional, and always dreamed of giving my older bro a black eye.
"Fighting like teenagers, honestly. In a few months time you will both be fathers. I'm ashamed of you, Edward," Mom moaned but I noticed Carlisle was concealing a grin and he took a photo of the bruise with his phone.
Bella was completely unperturbed and merely rolled over on the sunlounger beside the pool and snored a little.
She did not understand sibling rivalry so my belated success in finally hitting my brother would not mean to her what it did to me.
I've always wanted to mark him, just the once and now I had.
Rosalie merely berated him for letting me get the one punch in when he went crying to her, so I felt childishly satisfied.
I snuggled up beside my wife and fell asleep, sleeping the sleep of the victorious.
xxxx
"Edward, we need to talk."
I shook my head to clear it and noticed my breathing was accelerated. Bella was still sleeping soundly. Carlisle helped me up from the lounger and we headed inside.
"These nightmares are rather disturbing. You were freaking out the womenfolk. What's going on?"
I explained my dreams; how I was watching Bella starve and die before my nocturnal eyes, and he shrugged.
"Do you think it's merely because you have never truly cared about any other woman, and now that you have found Bella and made her yours, you greatly fear her being taken away from you?"
"Maybe," I muttered, running my hands through my hair. "I can't find any other reason it's happening. She looks amazing, like she born to be a mother. She hasn't had a single episode of nausea or any aches and pains. She absolutely loves the pregnancy hormones, and as you see, she can sleep anytime, and an atom bomb wouldn't wake her."
"So, she doesn't know about your nightmares?"
"I did wake her up once when I got particularly vocal, but now I ease away from her once she is asleep and just lay there watching her sleep. I haven't had a decent nights sleep since she conceived. I don't understand it. This is what I want. This is all my dreams coming true, even the dreams I'd given up on long ago. This should be the happiest time of my life and by day, it is. Yet night times are turning into Hell. I fear it's a premonition of some type."
"That's illogical. There's absolutely no sign of anything being wrong. She's had more scans than the average woman carrying triplets and everything looks perfect, Edward. I wonder if it's because you don't think you deserve such happiness? You do, you know. Your previous behaviour was no worse than many men your age."
"How can you say that? You and Mom have never been with anyone else. For God's sake, she was engaged to another man when you met and yet she had never slept with him. You are the only man she has ever been with, and she is the only woman you have ever touched. You are both so lucky. I want to turn back time and have things be the same way for Bella and I, and I can't."
"It was never luck, Edward. It was a conscious choice, and one you too could have made. I never had any desire to sleep with my earlier girlfriends because I never felt they were quite right for me. I wanted to save myself for my bride, and I've never regretted it. Knowing she had never lain with any other man just made it that much more special.
You grew up knowing this, as did your brothers, and none of you chose to follow our example. I know your generation thinks they are entitled to do whatever makes them feel good at the time, but there will always be a price to pay, and you are paying it.
Waiting has it's own reward. You threw away the chance to share yourself with only the woman you would someday meet and fall in love with in exchange for a number of 'quick thrills' that were less than meaningful.
Now it's time to pay the piper.
You lost something by your behaviour and there are no second chances.
The privilege of being with Bella alone is gone, and nothing will change it. You need to accept it, accept you behaved badly, and accept yourself as you are now, and move on. Don't let this come between you."
"I would never let it interfere with my marriage. I visited a psychologist for months, as you know. I just want to change the way I lived before, and it's impossible. I know that but God knows, I regret it."
"I'm sure he told you all you can do is accept the things you can't change and just be the best man you can be from this point onwards. That's the only choice left to you. You and Bella met later in life than Esme and I did. I guess in this age of instant gratification, it was unlikely either of you would have kept yourselves for your special person. Sometimes your generation spends less time considering if they'll sleep with some random stranger than girls used to expend on considering if a boy could buy them a drink. You want something, you take it, with no thought to the consequences."
"Sometimes I wonder.."
"What do you wonder, Edward?"
"When she's asleep,and she smiles and writhes around, clearly in the middle of a sex dream, I wonder if it's me she is dreaming of, or one of the others?"
xxxx
Alice had printed out dozens of photos from the wedding, so we had an overflowing album to look through, and the brides both looked amazing. Emmett looked like the cat that got the cream, and I looked truly happy.
I had to adjust my thinking and be grateful for the blessings we did share, because as my nightmares reminded me, it could all be swept away in a single moment. Maybe that was all they meant. Be grateful for what you do have...while you still have it.
xxxxx