[Disclaimer] All things Twilight belong to Mrs. Stephenie Meyer

[A/N] Blows kisses to her lovely readers out there. I appreciate all your reviews. They are what keep me continue writing.

This chapter is dedicated to lynettecullen for liking the proposal and to DeeJee because she made me smile when I read her comment about Edward and Fido.

**Chapter 43**

For a very long time I just kept staring down into her gorgeous caramel eyes. Then I realized that I should probably say something to her in response. Slowly I reached out my hand and put a wisp of her short hair behind her ear.

"I love you so much, Ali. And I want to spend the rest of my life with you by my side."

Her ruby tinted lips twitched into a breathtaking smile that exposed her perfect milk-white teeth.

"Is that a yes?"

I swallowed hard to hold back the tears and then I nodded my head.

She leaned over and planted a soft kiss on my trembling mouth, letting the tip of her tongue lick over my lower lip in a featherlike movement.

"Say it, Bella." She mumbled against my lips as she pulled back.

"I think that I need to hear it."

I pulled her on my lap and wrapped my arms around her dainty waist.

"Mary Alice Cullen, I will marry you."

A low chuckle left her throat before she kissed my mouth again.

"I think that's was the first time you called me by my full name."

I pulled her closer to me and planted a soft kiss on the silky curls of her hair.

"I love you…so very much. And I want to make you happy."

She took my left hand in hers and put it to her mouth, blowing kisses on each of my knuckles.

"Do you want a ring?" she asked me almost shy.

"Do you want one?" I asked her back instead of answering her question.

She nodded her head and shoved an invisible ring over my ring finger.

"And I think you should have one too."

"I don't want you to spend so much money on me, Ali."

"Stop being silly, Bella. I want to give you an engagement ring and I will. If you don't accept it you're insulting my pride."

My hand moved under her shirt, circling over the velvety skin of her stomach and down her sides until I reached her hipbone.

"Do you want to have your ring now or later?"

I raised one eyebrow in confusion.

"You already have a ring? Are you kidding me? What would you have done in case I would have said no?"

She pulled a tiny purple box out of the pocket of her jeans and sighed deeply.

"I didn't make a plan for you saying no to my proposal, I just hoped…"

"Ali, of course, I want to marry you. Or maybe it's not so much getting married to you that I want. I want to spend my life with you."

"And I want to spend mine with you, Bella."

"I can't wait for the stupid divorce to be finally over."

"Yeah, I know. I just wished my brother would let you go."

"I really don't want to talk about Edward now. Not tonight, Ali. This is just between me and you."

"Okay, we can deal with him later too."

Then she cleared her voice nervously before she spoke up again.

"Do you want to see your ring now?"

XXXX

I was going to do something completely stupid but still I knew that I at least had to try it.

With trembling fingertips I dialed the familiar number, sighing deeply as his smooth voice picked up on the other side of the line.

"Cullen."

I cleared my throat before I spoke up again, desperately trying to make my voice sound calm.

"Edward, it's me."

"Bella?" his voice raised two octaves.

"So, your cunt of a lawyer and the stupid little bastard allowed you to call me, how very gracious of them."

"Firstly, I don't like the way you keep calling Ali a bastard. It's not her fault that your father didn't manage to keep his dick in his pants."

"Do you want to know what he should have done when her? Shove her off into the next orphanage and forget about her."

"That's what you would have done, Edward and I'm really glad that you obviously used protection when you fucked your red-haired whore. You don't deserve to have kids."

"You fucking little piece of shit, how dare you say something like that? Don't dare to think that you're such a good mother!"

"Lower your voice, Edward. I didn't call you to listen to your insults."

"Then, why the fuck, did you call me, Bella?" he snarled through the receiver.

"I called to ask you why you are refusing to sign the divorce papers."

"You're not honestly asking that, are you?"

"Of course, I am."

"Why the hell would I be so stupid to sign those fucking papers? Your malicious attorney already managed to talk my parents into buying off the other half of our house so that you could stay in there with Lilly."

"Zafrina didn't force them to do that. Esme and Carlisle care about their granddaughter and they didn't want her to have to move."

"How nice of them, I'm sure they'll regret that when my daughter is going to live with me in Anchorage."

"Why on earth would I agree to let Lilly move to Alaska?"

"If I'll get full custody for her, you won't have a choice."

"You'll get full custody for her on the day the fire of hell freezes to ice."

"That day might come sooner than you think, Isabella."

"Don't be too sure about that, Edward. Just sign the damn papers and send them back to Zafrina's office if you have any pride left at all."

"I won't do that, Mrs. Cullen and I can tell you exactly why. I know that it pisses you off and that makes me happy. You can be sure that if we go to court, I make sure that you can't show your face around anywhere in Seattle afterwards."

XXXX

I parked the Volvo in front of Rosalie and Emmett's house and turned off the engine.

"So, we agree about not telling anyone about the engagement until the divorce is through, do we?" I asked Ali as we stepped out of the car.

She nodded her head, her gorgeous eyes looking sad now.

"Hey," I whispered and wrapped my arms around her neck, pulling her pixie body closer to me.

"It's not that I don't want to, Ali. It's just…technically it's impossible to get engaged while you're still married to someone else."

Slowly I leaned down and planted a soft kiss on her full lips, tasting the sweetness of her mouth as the tip of my tongue slipped between her parted lips.

"I love you and I'll marry you, Ali. We'll just have to keep the news to ourselves for a little while."

"Kay, that's no biggie for me, Bella. You're the one who has a problem to lie to people."

"There is a difference between telling a lie and not mentioning something."

She chuckled slightly as she knocked on the door.

"That's what you think, honey."

The door opened and the huge russet colored dog almost made me fall flat on my back.

"Fido, sit." Emmett instructed and the dog whimpered as if he still were a little puppy.

"Good boy."

"You should probably work a little bit on his temper." Ali told him cheerfully, wiping the slobber from her hands.

"Fido doesn't have a temper. He's just passionate and a little bit too protective."

"Protective?"

"You'll see what I mean, Bella."

We walked into the house and when Ali hugged her blond haired sister a low growl left the dogs snout.

Rosalie sighed deeply and sat down on the edge of the couch.

"Come here, you jealous monster." She told him and petted his huge head with her fingertips as he pressed it against her stomach.

"You're encouraging him and you know that, Rosie."

Lilly looked up from her coloring book and frowned.

"Fido is so stupid. He doesn't want to play anymore. He just keeps pressing his head against Auntie Rosie's belly all the time."

I pulled my daughter on my lap and planted a kiss on her copper curls.

"I'm sorry about that Lilly."

"Me too," Emmett stated, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"I don't know why he's acting like that but it's starting to get quite annoying."

"We brought a present for you." Ali told her sister and pulled a glass of mustard out of her handbag.

"I wanted to buy you flowers but Bella thought that you'd properly like this much better."

Her lips twitched into a smile.

"Well, she's right about that. God, mustard is so delicious. I'm considering writing a book about…"

"About on what food you can put that stuff on. I would just like to know…if I put some of that on my…"

"McCarthy, you're such a pervert."

He chuckled slightly and planted a kiss on the rosy cheek of his wife. This small caress earned him another growl from the dog.

I took Ali's hand in mine and squeezed it gently.

"So, how are things working with your divorce?"

I frowned and hesitated for a moment before I spoke up again.

"Not that good. Edward refuses to sign the divorce papers which mean that we'll go to court."

"I assume that Esme and Carlisle don't know about that am I right?"

Ali nodded her head and I pulled her closer to me when I recognized the slight tremble in her hands.

"They'll find out soon enough, I guess."

"Why doesn't he want to sign the papers?" Emmett asked me, while he sipped on the glass of coke in front of him.

"Because he tries to make things more difficult for me...and for us…" I mumbled, taking Ali's hand in mine again. The metal of the small rings clicked against each other and I sighed deeply.

"He's still obsessed with this full custody thing for Lilly and he wants her to move to Alaska to stay there with him."

"I'm going to move to Alaska?" Lilly asked me, her voice sounding horrified.

"No, sweetie, you won't."

"Bella, you really need to start explaining things to her so that she can understand them. I don't think she does that right now. She still thinks that her father will come back so that the four of you will live together under one roof."

"Rosalie, I know that this is confusing for Lilly but I don't know how…"

"Just do it, Bella and promise me to do it soon."

I nodded my head.

Then her eyes caught the small rose-gold rings on our hands and she raised one eyebrow.

"Lilly sweetie, would you be so nice, and get me some cookies for Fido from the kitchen?"

As soon as she was out of the room she shoved the dog away from her lap and kneeled down in front of her pixie-like sister, taking her left hand in hers.

"Is there anything that you would like to tell me about, Ali?"

"Yes…no…I don't really know. Bella and I think that it would be better…"

"Excuse me, but thinking isn't exactly your strong point." Her blue eyes sparkled feisty as she looked at me and back to her younger sister.

"And that goes for both of you."

"We don't have to justify the decisions we make for our life to other people."

"Other people? Are you fucking kidding me? I'm your sister and not fucking other people!"

"Rosie, sweetheart, try to calm down. I'm sure that Ali didn't mean it like that."

"Emmett is actually right, Rose. We just wanted to keep it to ourselves until the divorce is through."

"Hmm,"

"Hey, don't be so sullen, Rose. That's not good for the babies."

"The babies are pretty fine, thanks."

Lilly returned from the kitchen and started feeding the cookies to the dog who had obviously decided that it would be okay to turn his attention away from his pregnant mistress as long as he was eating.

"Can I ask you something? Are you just going to change your name back to Cullen when you and Ali…well you know what I mean."

"We haven't really talked about that yet but wouldn't it be weird somehow to go to all of this to get rid of the name Cullen just to keep it in the end?"

XOXOXOXXOOXO

[A/N] Hope you liked the update. The next chapter should be up tomorrow…if I find enough motivation to write it.