Really sorry to everyone for the lateness of this post, big time real life stuff just decided to invade my life today. Hope you enjoy this chapter, we will post again on Monday.

Chapter 4

I leave work at the library a little earlier than normal due to our meeting with Tanya Denali and her lawyers. I'm picking my mom up, so I head over to collect her from her supermarket job.

"Are you ready, Mom?"

She shakes her head at me. "No, not even a little," she says as I help her put on her jacket.

"Mom, we've made a shitload of money. We almost have enough to re-open."

She nods at me, but I can see the sadness in her face. "It's just taking from a kid, one who has no one. It's making me feel guilty."

I groan and rub my face. "You're not taking it, I am. Mom, really, she asked how much to teach her and I gave her a figure. It's not like I'm lying or making her pay me this amount." I close my eyes trying to brush away the guilt I'm feeling over Bella. The rest of the drive is quiet.

We arrive a little early at the offices of the Denali Corporation, since I'd rather not be late.

"Miss Denali will be right with you," the woman behind the desk says in a bored tone.

We sit in the chairs and time goes by slowly. I'm getting more pissed with every passing second.

"Edward, it's after two. You should leave to pick Bella up."

I shake my head at my mom. "I'm not leaving you with that woman on your own."

"Then you need to call her and tell her you're going to be late."

I slap my forehead. "I can't; I still don't have her number."

Before my mom can tear into me someone approaches us.

"Esme," she says with a grin. "Edward," she says in a flirty voice that makes my insides instantly recoil, "follow me."

Both my mom and I follow the viper into her office.

"Please, take a seat," she says waving her hand in the direction of some chairs. "This business has been closed for six months now. I think now is the time to sell. If we wait any longer, we will start to lose money and losing money is something I don't do well."

"No, we still have eight months to go, and we are raising the money to buy you out."

The viper laughs as she looks between my mother and me.

"Tanya, here are those papers you wanted."

She grins and takes them from the man who just walked in. "Thank you, James," she says, but her eyes don't leave mine. "Esme, may I speak with Edward alone?"

My mom looks at me then to the viper and I nod at her.

Once my mom leaves, the viper moves and sits on the corner of the desk. "I will not sell this business to your family," she states.

I glare at her and go to stand up to leave.

"However, if you'll become mine for the next eight months, I will take it into consideration."

"You want to date me?" I ask in disgust.

The viper laughs shaking her head. "No, you'd be mine—my toy that doesn't need batteries. I call and you'd come running to meet my needs."

I feel my mouth drop open as I look at her.

"You're a good looking man, Edward, and you look as if you're packing quite a package. So you keep me happy, and I'll see to your family's happiness. Such a shame you don't come with money. I could take you out, but then again, you look a little rough around the edges. I'm sure you would get your silverware mixed up and just embarrass me. No harm, I'll just have to suffice to have you as a fuck toy."

Without saying a word I move to the office door.

"Think about what I said, Edward," she calls out as I walk out the door.

"Let's go Mom," I say and walk quickly out.

"Edward, honey, what happened?" My mom asks as she power walks to keep up with me.

"Nothing; she's just a viperous bitch."

Thankfully, my mom drops it. I drive her home, before heading to Bella's school. When I get there I see that no one is around. I look at my watch seeing that it's almost five. I jump back in my car and head to her house.

When I get there I frown a little, because it looks as if no one is home. I knock on the door, even ring the doorbell. When no one comes, I move back to my car.

"Edward?" I turn around to see Bella standing at the door.

"Hi," I say walking back to the door where she's standing. "Can I come in? I swear I won't touch anything," I say chuckling and she closes her eyes nodding.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm not used to people coming by anymore."

She opens the door more letting me in and I feel just how cold it is.

"I think it's warmer outside; is your heat not working?"

Bella turns and looks at me. "It works just fine. I turned the pipes off in the rooms I don't use, which is all of them, but three."

I pull at my hair. "That's not a good thing, Bella. Not with how cold it is – your pipes could burst from freezing over."

"Really?" Bella asks me in alarm, and I nod at her.

"Why does it not say that?" she almost yells as she closes her eyes. "I mean, how was I supposed to know about all of this?"

"I can turn them all back on for you and make sure everything's okay."

She nods at me. "I'm sorry. You must think I'm pretty stupid." The chuckle she gives after speaking doesn't hide the embarrassment in her voice.

"It's okay, Bella, it's a learning curve."

I spend the next hour going in all the rooms and turning the heating back on in each of them. "How come you don't have any pictures up?" I ask finding the bare walls rather odd.

"I took them down, and put the ones that mean something to me in my room."

I nod at her.

"Do you want something to eat?" she asks, and I smile at her.

"That sounds good," I reply as I watch her bite her lip.

"I'll show you the kitchen."

I raise my eyebrow at her retreating form, wondering why she sounds like this is the worst thing ever.

"I have every ready-made meal you can think of. They're all there in the freezer, just pick anything you want."

I open her cupboard and shockingly find very little. I open the fridge and find it virtually empty apart from a bottle of water. I then open the freezer, and like she said, it's filled with frozen, tasteless, ready-made meals.

"Is this what you've been eating?"

She shrugs her shoulders and gives me a nod. "It's just me, and I was never taught about cooking. Sue, my dad's nurse, taught me how to use the microwave before she left. As for shopping, it's - well, strange for me. I can never find anything, and there are so many people there."

I let out a sigh. "Get your purse; I'm taking you shopping."

She looks a little taken aback, but I hold my hand out for her. I watch her hand slowly move up as she places it in mine.

I drive us to the supermarket where my mom works and grab a cart. "This is where the fruits and vegetables are."

Bella glares at me. "Edward, I know what they are."

"Well, I didn't see any in your kitchen."

I pick up different things and place them in the cart. "If you want, we can come once a week and study at your house that day?"

"You still want to help me?"

I stop and look at her. "Yes, I'm sorry I didn't pick you up today. There was this meeting about my family's business, and the woman was an hour late. I didn't have your number to call you. I really should get that from you."

"Yeah, of course, and maybe my father's business could help you or at least get this other business to back down?"

I shake my head at her. "It's okay, really."

I push the cart around, showing her where all the different things are. After we get a bunch of things, we head to the checkout. We have a bunch of stuff, but have only spent just over a hundred dollars. When we get back to the house, it feels a lot warmer and I help her unpack.

"Okay, what do you want to learn to make?" I ask washing my hands. I glance at her when she says nothing, and see she has that deer-in-the-headlights look.

Once we settle on what we're making, and I give her a few carrots and onions to cut up. I watch her struggle to chop the vegetables. When she glares at me, I chuckle and move to help her. I turn her back to the counter, and move behind her. I bring my arms around her and my hands join hers as I show her what to do.

"Nice clear cuts," I whisper in her ear. "Careful with your fingers," I say changing the way her other hand is holding the onion. As soon as we have everything cut, I start to show her how to make a good vegetable soup.

It only takes an hour for it to be ready and I cut us up some bread.

"Oh, this so good, and so much better than the canned stuff," Bella says, as she takes another big spoonful.

"When was the last time you ate something proper?" I ask as she almost inhales the soup.

She shrugs.

"What have you been eating?"

"Toast for breakfast and a sandwich for lunch when I'm at school. Here, it's normal peanut butter and jelly ones and then a ready-made meal for supper every night."

I groan knowing she's not been eating anywhere near the amount she should be in order to stay healthy. "Shit, Bella, that's nowhere near enough or the right amount of vitamins from your food."

Bella stops eating and just looks at me. "It is, and I'm fine. When my dad was ill and fired everyone, I would call in people to make things. Then he would yell, scream, and call the police, on them and me. So, I had to put a stop to it. I couldn't make very much, but I tried. Then when Sue came to work for us, she was able to handle his moods and also took over cooking for him. He actually thought I was trying to kill him." She screws her faces up a little, and I chuckle gently. "My cooking is really bad, so I don't blame him for thinking that."

I watch as a faint smile comes across her face, she shakes her head a little, and looks back at me. "As he became sicker he'd stop eating, and well, I just didn't feel like it. Then he died, and I just..." she lets out a sigh and her shoulders drop. "I'm trying, it's not fun eating by yourself, and no one showed me this," she says waving at the soup. "I know that you think I'm spoiled, and you're right, I am—was—but I can't change the fact that no one taught me how to cook."

I swallow and put down my spoon. "I know, and you're right; I shouldn't have taken my bad mood out on you. I will help you. I'll teach you how to cook as a way to make up for my bad behavior."

She looks at me almost as if she's trying to work out if I'm telling the truth or not.

"Can you forgive me, Bella?"

Bella shrugs and then nods at me. "Sure, you're forgiven."

I swallow and frown a little when she makes it seem like it's not a big thing.

"Are you sure?" I ask, placing my hand on hers.

She looks at our hands and then to me. "Yes, it's fine, really."

I let out a sigh knowing that she's brushing off what I did. "Okay, I need to head home, and I'll see you at the usual time tomorrow."

"Yes, and, Edward, please think about using my company to help your family. I really think we can."

I sigh and give her a nod. "Okay." I walk down the steps only to turn and chuckle before running back up them. "I still need your cell number," I say handing her my cell. She types in the number and hands it back to me. I scroll finding her name quickly just after Alice's and press call. I can hear the faint ring from inside.

"You have my number now, too. See you tomorrow."

I look to her and see that she's smiling for the first time, and her whole face is lit up. I'm taken aback over the fact that she's quite pretty.

I arrive home and head for a shower, before turning in for the night. I lie in my bed and my mind goes back to Bella. How could I not see just how hurt and sad she was when I first met her? Was my anger over the viper really so high that I no longer saw people, only their status and class? When I don't get the answers in my mind that I want, I close my eyes, turn and try to get some sleep.

~*FB*~

I lie on the couch with my feet up, enjoying my first morning off in a very long time. I sit up when I hear someone come in the front door.

"Hey, Dad," I say jumping up and helping him with his bag. "Thought you weren't coming home until next week?"

"Yeah, they have issues and they need to let some people go. Since I was one of the last to start, I'm one of the first to go."

"Shit," I say pulling at my hair. "Dad, I'm sorry, but Bella has kept up with the payments, so, we just need the viper to sign it over."

My dad sighs as he sits down taking off his shoes. "Son, I don't think she will sign it over."

I swallow and tilt my head a little at him.

"Just a feeling I have, and there must be something more to this than what we know. Anyway, how is the studying going?"

"Good, Bella seems to be picking it up slowly, but she's smart. She just gets a little bored with it, but she's only a teenager," I say chuckling a little at the end.

"Is she able to keep up with her school work, too?"

I shrug; because that's something we haven't talked about.

"She's so young and seems to have a lot to handle. I just hope it's not too much for her. You should invite her for dinner. Just because we're having a hard time, doesn't mean we can't help others."

"I have, but she says it's too soon. She said that if we want, her company can help us. I turned her down, of course."

My dad nods, but looks tired. "It may be worth looking into; what business is it?"

"I'm not sure. She spoke about it, but I was being an ass at the time, so didn't pay attention to what she was saying." I look at my dad when I hear him chuckle.

"Hmm, just hope she didn't say anything important then. Goodnight, son, I'm going to catch some sleep and I'll see you later."

I watch him walk away and I lie back down on the couch.

A/N: So what do you think of the viper?