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.
We couldn't stay at the estate forever, even though it was a better place for Isabella to be right now, I couldn't stay there any longer. I had business in the city to attend, and I wasn't going to leave my wife upstate alone, with another man.
Isabella...She's gotten better at being around me. After the failed day out, I made it a habit. Every day I took her out to town, just me and her. By the third day she had relaxed enough to enjoy herself.
She was almost euphoric as we walked hand in hand down the street. She had a smile on her face, not a forced one, a real one. It was the first time I had seen her smile, and I would do anything to keep that smile on her face.
She relaxed and I'll admit I did as well when she realized, no one recognized her. No one was looking at us, no one paid us any attention as we walked around. We walked around stores, bars, down by the lake, no one cared.
It was to be expected. The more time that went by, the more people would forget. After Charles's suicide, there was nothing mentioned about the case in the news anymore. It was typical, out of sight, out of mind. But that had been Lake Placid, we weren't bumping shoulders with people on the street. The city was different. She had lived here her whole life, she had friends, family around. Letting her go out in Manhattan, wouldn't be the same, not when there was a risk of someone recognizing her. It wouldn't be a permanent thing, it was just that more time needed to go by until she could have a somewhat normal life.
I have refused to go and see my father even though he has insisted, no, demanded I see him. I knew what he wanted. I had nothing to say to him, not now at least. We had bigger problems and one of those was Aro who, along with his son and daughter in law, have disappeared together.
Jacob had agreed to stage a raid, but as it turns out, Jacob did it the legal way. The FBI have been looking into some of Aro's finances. Turns out Aro is connected to a fraud case they have been working on. Jacob got Rosalie all the copies and files from dad's case before anyone had a chance to look at them. But luck wasn't on our side. What my sister needed wasn't there. Rosalie is going out of her mind trying to put all the missing pieces together, and I am going out of my mind trying to track the bastard down.
I'll admit, my brother had been a bigger help than I first thought. I had expected him to track Aro down without informing me and killing him himself, but he was doing this my way. The good thing about this, all his attention and efforts were focused on tracking down Aro and Caius, that he had no time to think of Isabella. He hadn't even set foot in my apartment to see her since we have been back in the city.
I'm not blind and I'm not stupid. I know my brother has a sort of sick infatuation with her, one that I thought would subside after our marriage, but Anthony isn't fazed that he is drawn to a married woman, much less that the married woman is also his sister in law.
Sitting down at the bar, it was only Anthony, Emmett and I in here. It was midday and wasn't set to open for another few hours.
Emmett headed to the door and unlocked it. My sister waltzed inside with a huge grin on her face and a massive file in her hand.
"What the fuck are you smiling about?" Anthony asked. His sour mood hadn't improved over the past days, in fact, it had only gotten worse. The only thing preventing me from kicking his ass right now was that he was actually being helpful.
"I found something interesting while going through Aro's files," she said.
"I thought you said there was nothing on his computer?" I asked.
"It wasn't on his computer. Detective Black handed me over a USB they thought was useful to them, as it turns out, it was very useful to us."
"Spit it out already Rose, we don't have all fucking day to listen to you go on," Anthony said.
Our sister gave our brother a murderous glare, a glare that only my mother could master.
"I went to see the new DA today," she said.
"Why would you do that?" Emmett asked.
"Aro passed information to Charles, certain deals and trades. When Charles gave the all clear for the NYPD to storm dad's business. A warrant was never issued for the search or for dad's arrest."
"Holy shit," Anthony said, closing his laptop. "What the hell are we waiting for. Let's go and get him out."
"It's not that easy, Anthony, I still have to take this to court."
"But it's enough evidence to get him out?"
"This is just for one thing, Anthony," Rosalie stressed. "There is still the issue with the accounts."
"Have you told dad?" I asked.
"No, I was hoping you would come with me," my sister said.
"Why?"
"You know why, Edward. You can't avoid dad forever."
My sister was right, I couldn't avoid our father forever. Damn it, even locked away he still managed to get under my skin and call the shots. Not that he has ever stopped. Being locked away didn't do much damage to his control. People still followed his order, and he was still firing them from his prison cell. The only reason I'm in the role I'm in is that you can't have a Don calling the shots behind bars. He calls the shots and I follow the order, all but one that is.
We, my brother or myself, he didn't care who. We were supposed to kill Isabella, we were supposed to get rid of her, he had been very clear on that, she needed to disappear.
I made Isabella Swan disappear, just not in the way my father had wanted.
Of course, my father never banked that Marcello's daughter was planning on killing me. To be honest, I'm not sure Marcello knew himself. But I couldn't take that chance, not with Aro missing. Marcello and his wife, along with Heidi's younger sister had to go. I didn't leave the job to our family in Sicilia, no, I sent my own people there to make sure the job was properly done. It was fortunate that there was construction and maintenance being done along the Parco Fondo Badia in Palermo. It is there that Marcello and his family rested, under tons of concrete.
Our father had been informed about Aro's plan weeks ago, since we had figured it out. My brother told me that our father had been relatively calm about the news.
He wants Aro, but he also demanded that this information stays between us only, no other members on the outside were to know.
"Don't be a princess about this, Edward. You and Anthony made a mess of all of this. You weren't supposed to marry that girl, you were supposed to kill her, now you need to face the music," my sister said.
~DINY~
"I can do this, dad," my sister said.
"I didn't want you involved in any of this. I told you to stay out of it," our father said, pacing the floor in the warden's office.
"If you would have let me on your legal team from the start, you wouldn't be here now," my sister fired back.
"Watch your tone with me," dad warned her.
"Shut up, dad. You should have trusted me to begin with. You shouldn't have pushed me aside. Aro would have never been able to pull this off if I had been on the team. You wouldn't be here right now and that poor girl wouldn't…"
"Shut up, Rosalie," I said.
"Why? Because you know I'm right?"
"Rosalie, stop. Thank you. You have always been too smart for your own good. I should have trusted in you and I am sorry. But you know I have tried to keep you out of my affairs your whole life," our father said.
"We should go," I said, thankful that the hour we were given was almost up and Rosalie had occupied most of that time informing our father of her findings.
"Rosalie, wait outside, I want to speak with Edward for a moment alone." Rosalie hugged our father and kissed his cheek before she took her leave, leaving me alone to face the devil.
My father pulled me out of my seat and embraced me in a tight hug. To an outsider, it would appear comforting, nothing more than a father who had not seen his son in a long time. But the death grip he had on me. He was strong for a man of fifty-five.
"I told you, both you and Anthony to kill the girl and what do you do," he hissed in my ear. "You fucked up, mio figlio."
"It's too late now," I said. His hold was tight, cutting off my air supply. But I kept my calm and didn't struggle. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of knowing he was slowly smothering me to death.
"Are you in love with her? Is that why you disobeyed me?" He asked. I had not expected him to come right out and ask me that. It was a question I had found myself pondering over many times.
I had no problem taking someone's life, man or woman, yet with Isabella, I couldn't even put the idea into my head. The thought of her dead made me sick, it made my chest hurt and my stomach churn. I think in a messed up way, I did love her, everything about her.
"You are, aren't you?" My father chuckled. He let go of me, I took a moment to catch my breath and steady myself.
"I...I don't even know what to say, Edward. She should never have made contact with any of you."
"I had a different plan in mind for Charles, but Anthony took her before…"
"Let me ask you one thing, Edward, since you are in love with her," my father said, no humor evident in his tone or on his face.
"What are you going to do with her now?"
"What do you mean, what am I going to do with her now?" I asked.
"You can never take her out in the city. She cannot be seen in public, ever."
"I've thought of that. I know that," I said, slapping my hands over my face. "It's messed up, I know. But I've covered every single step. Now it's just a matter of time, a year, maybe two, and no one will recognize her. She only had a few friends. Only her mother's alive, and from the information I've gathered, she plans on moving to Pennsylvania as soon as the house is sold."
"You really have thought this through, haven't you," he said. It wasn't a question. I think he was more stunned that I had put all this effort into one person. What I didn't expect, was my father's next move. He knocked me down on my ass, climbed over me and punched me square in the jaw. I could taste the blood in my mouth. I spat it out on his jumpsuit.
"What the fuck," I said, shoving him off of me.
"You deserved that, you deserve a lot worse. That was from your mother, I haven't even started on you yet," he said.
He turned to leave the room, but stopped midway and then came back towards me. His foot collided with my stomach. He crouched down, getting in my face, grabbing onto my jaw.
"You have really hurt your mother. She told me everything you and your brother have done to that girl, the one you apparently love. Fix this or so help me God, figlio, I will fix you," he warned.