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. Edited by Sjdavis84 and StillDreaming85.
WARNING: This story contains mature themes and is intended for mature readers.
EDWARD CULLEN
In our twenty-nine years together, my brother has always been the reckless one. Anthony was the person that fired the rounds first and worried about the consequences afterward, that was only if he worried at all.
This was exactly the sort of thing I had expected from Anthony. But I would have never believed him stupid enough to commit the crime not twenty-four hours after our father's conviction.
Anthony's recklessness will be his ultimate downfall, it will likely get him killed and that was the reason our father worried about him the most.
Since Kate betrayed him, since he killed her, he hasn't been the same. He loved her and she ruined him. He's been reckless ever since.
Anthony loved Kate to an unhealthy point. They had the sort of love that cheap romance movies are based upon, powerful and strong. Now, my brother isn't the type of man to walk around with flowers and candies, but for Kate, he gave her everything and more.
Kate betrayed him, she betrayed us all. But for Anthony to take her life so easily, it was unsettling to watch him look into her eyes and pull the trigger and then fall to his knees. Anthony never cried for Kate, and he never mourned her.
We don't talk about this anymore, this is a chapter of his Anthony's life that we wouldn't dare bring up again, not around him at least. He hasn't been the same since.
Back inside the house, it was dead quiet. It was a quarter past five in the morning. At this point, I haven't slept in over thirty hours, and I don't think I'll be getting any sleep soon.
Mom was still out cold. I tiptoed into her ensuite trying to make as little noise as possible. In the bathroom cabinet on dad's side, tucked away in the back, he had his 'special pink pills' as he called them. Take one of these and the last thing you'll be thinking about is sleep.
I swallowed the pink tablet and pocketed the bottle. Tiptoeing back out of the room.
"Good morning, Mr. Cullen," Renta said, she was my parents house keeper. Renta has been with my father for many years. Her family has worked for ours for many decades. Renta was an incredible woman, and now at the age of sixty-seven, she was still going strong and showed no sign of slowing down.
"Morning," I mumbled.
"You need coffee and something to eat, come with me," she said.
Renta made breakfast, while I sat staring into space, sipping on coffee. I'm waiting for the storm from Anthony's actions to hit us.
Charles Swan needed to be punished for his betrayal, that was a given. We are not the sort of people that would ever give a second chance. Swan signed his own death certificate with his betrayal.
"Edward, what's wrong? What's the matter?" Renta asked.
"Nothing, I'm worried about mom and how she's going to get on without dad here," I said. It was not a complete lie, I was very worried about my mother.
"Your mother is going to have to deal with it. The man is not dead, he is only in jail until Miss Rosalie finds a way to get him out. Your mother will be just fine, and we all need to stop walking on eggshells around her about this," Renta said.
"And if Rosalie isn't able to do anything?" I had faith in my sister, and she had the determination to put in the appeal, but as she said last night, with such strong evidence against our father, it will be a challenge to produce a convincing case.
"Give your sister some credit. She loves her father too much to leave him in a place like that for long. I have faith in her, and you and Anthony need to have the same faith too. Finish your breakfast, I'm going to go and check on little Sofia," she said, kissing the top of my head.
By eight am, Isabella's disappearance made breaking news. Her picture was on every news and TV station. Charles's home had been turned into a crime scene and the street had been placed into lockdown. There was no CCTV footage, Anthony had taken care of that. At this point, they had no suspects and no evidence to point the finger in our direction.
"Breaking News, police have locked down a street in lower Manhattan
and the home of the state's district attorney has been turned into
a crime scene.
Isabella Swan, the daughter of DA Charles Swan, is believed to have been
forcibly taken from her home in the early hours
of this morning.
At this time police have no suspects. We will keep you up to
date as more information becomes available.
In other news….."
"Please tell me that you and Anthony had nothing to do with that girl's disappearance?" Mom asked. Jesus, she looked horrible. She had dark circles under her eyes, she looked as if she hadn't stopped crying all night.
"Don't be ridiculous, mom," I said, kissing her on the cheek.
"Don't lie to me, Edward," she warned.
"Mom, I'm sure Charles had plenty of enemies other than us. Anthony and I didn't take anyone," I said. My mother had an uncanny ability to read right through our lies, and not only her children's, but my father included.
She didn't believe me, I could see it in her eyes, that knowing look, she knew I was lying, but she didn't ask any more questions. The less she knew the better.
~DINY~
They came for us like I knew they would. But unlike previous times, they showed no mercy or care. No thought was given to the small child in the room as they marched in with their weapons pointed.
No thought was given to little Sofia, who witnessed her mother and father thrown to the ground and handcuffed, along with her grandmother.
My mother, they had the nerve to handcuff my mother and throw her in the back of the police car as if she were nothing but a piece of trash.
Sofia had been placed into the care of the state until Rosalie was released.
For five hours, my niece had been with god knows who.
But no one escaped, even Renta was arrested and questioned.
"Look, Cullen, we can do this the easy way or we can make this painfully hard," Sam Uley said.
Sam Uley, forty-eight, born on January Eighth, Nineteen-sixty-eight to Jill and Jonathan Uley in Queens, New York. Jonathan died twelve nine years ago, Jill is currently in a retirement home upstate.
Sam's wife, Jessica, works retail at Barney's, in menswear as polo specialist. He has two daughters, Emily and Lauren.
He's worked in major crime for the past fifteen years since his promotion.
I know everything about Sam Uley. I know where he lives, I know where his children go to school. I can even tell you how many teeth he has in his mouth.
This is the difference between us and them. We were smart and they were foolish. For a long time, a very long time, we were the untouchables of New York, we were the king's.
They got lucky with Charles Swan. None of us could have predicted his betrayal.
My father, he trusted very few. How he could have let himself be fooled, tricked by someone like Charles Swan, or better yet why, that is a question that only he can answer.
"Where is she?" Uley asked again, and again, and again.
"And who might 'she' be, detective?"
"Don't play dumb with me, Cullen."
"Detective," I said, folding my fingers together and resting them on the table, I leaned towards him. "Do you know how many women there are in New York City? Neither do I," I said, leaning back in my seat.
"Here," he yelled, opening up the manila folder in front of him and pushed it towards me.
I played along. I picked up the folder and looked at the girl's picture.
She didn't have anything special about her, although she did have a sort of natural beauty about her. She certainly didn't appear to be someone flirtatious or provocative, but then again this was only an image. I hadn't bothered to get a proper look at her this morning, when she had been curled up on that filthy mattress in Anthony's basement.
"I've never seen this person in my life, detective," I said, and surprisingly, it was not a complete lie.
"Is that so." Uley's eyes narrowed. He came around the table and stood behind my back. He picked up the girls photo and shoved it in my face. "This is Isabella Swan, eighteen year old Isabella Swan. That name ring any bells to you, Cullen?"
"Nope."
"This is the state's district attorney's daughter, the same DA that only twenty-four hours ago had your father locked up. Is any of this clicking into place for you, Cullen, or are we really going to have to do this the hard way?"
"What exactly are you accusing me of, detective?" I asked. I knew they had no evidence to directly connect any of us with this girl's disappearance, not even Jasper and Marcus who had done the dirty work. They had nothing. They were basing all of this on pure instinct and assumptions, they had no real evidence, nothing to go on. Swan had to have had a hand in the arrest warrants, but I wonder what judge approved them?
"Charles Swan helped take your father down. Now, Cullen, I know you're a smart boy, much smarter than your brother," he said. Pulling out his chair opposite me and purposely scraping it against the floor. "There is no way that this is a coincidence Cullen. Let's cut the bullshit, where's the girl?"
"I don't know anything about any girl," I said.
"Look, Edward, if you cooperate with us, we can cut you a deal. Tell us where the girl is and we can work something out." Sam tried the nice guy approach now. It was funny how these idiots worked, thinking if they played nice I'd play nice too. Their routine is predictable, there was nothing to take me by surprise and Sam believes I'm telling the truth. He's just pulling at string now, trying to see if maybe by an ounce of hope he might be wrong.
"I told you, detective, I don't know anything about any girl, much less Charles Swan's girl."
Sam sighed, he was defeated and he knew it. The thing is, Charles Swan helped put a lot of notorious people away, criminals, rapists, drug lords. Charles had a long enemy list and the chances were, that all of them wanted a little revenge. As long as Sam kept on that trail, they would stay off our backs.
"Am I free to go, Detective, or should we discuss the weather?"
"Get the fuck out of my sight, Cullen," Sam spat.
I pushed the chair back, making the metal scrape against the floor with a piercing sound. Sam cracked his neck and snatched the folder roughly off of the desk, tucking it underneath his arm.
"I'll see you around, Detective," I said, exiting the room.
"Oh my goodness, you're finally out," my mother said, wrapping her arms around my neck. I held her back and kissed the top of her head. A commotion behind us had us all standing to attention.
Charles Swan, he looked horrible. Disheveled hair, dark bags under his eyes, and it looked like he hadn't bothered to change out of his sleeping clothes.
"I know it was you," he yelled at my brother. "I know it was you, Anthony. Give me back my daughter," he yelled.
"You're a fucking lunatic," Anthony said. He was enjoying this too much, he was enjoying Charles's distressed state.
Charles was like a madman possessed. It was taking three detectives to hold him back from attacking Anthony.
"Oh the poor man," my mother said. How she could feel sympathy for the vile betrayer even in his current state, I don't know. Because of him, she had been arrested. Because of him, she had been interrogated for hours. Because of him, her granddaughter had witnessed terrible events and yet she felt remorseful for him.
"Give me back my baby," Charles cried. He gave up and fell to his knees. With his fists balled up on the ground, Charles fell to his knees in front of my brother. "Give me back my baby," he whispered.