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

[A/N] Blows kisses to all her lovely readers out there. Thanks and hugs for all your encouragement and feedback. I can't believe I managed to get over 900th reviews with this soap opera…ahm I mean Twilight fan fiction.

This chapter is dedicated to aurike and Villemo79. Hope you'll like it.

**Chapter 47**

I cleared my throat nervously and wiped my sweaty hands on my jeans while I thought about a good way to respond to the last question.

"I would…I mean, I think…" Jeez, why was it so difficult to verbalize the things that were so obvious to me? Why don't I want to have joint custody with my husband? Because he's an arrogant ass who cares about no one apart from him. Would it be okay to use the word ass in front of the judge?

Zafrina sighed deeply and sat down next to me on the red leather couch.

"Bella, you need to sound less insecure. If you stumble out your answers like a sophomore in a school test, no one is going to believe that you're serious about this."

"Of course, I'm serious. Look, I'm sorry that I suck so badly at this whole questioning thing but the thought of being in court makes me so…nervous kind of."

She nodded her head and walked over to the mahogany cupboard on the other side of her office. The glass clinked against the dark bottle as she grabbed both of it in her right hand.

"What's that? Iced tea?" I asked her as she poured a light brownish liquid into the glass.

"Bourbon, I think it could help you to relax a little bit."

"By getting drunk?"

"You're not supposed to drink the entire bottle; just one glass."

"Kay."

I gulped down the content of the glass in two gulps. It tasted disgustingly bitter but afterwards a pleasant wave of warmth spread through my body.

"Why do you have Bourbon in your office?"

"I have a drinking problem."

"Really?"

"Jeez, you're not that good at sarcasm, are you? The Bourbon was a gift from a client."

"I see."

"You don't have to worry too much about the court thing. We're going to practice all the possible questions that your dipshit of a husband might come up with. But you need to remember; whatever you say, Bella, you need to sound like you don't have doubts about your decision."

"I don't have any." I told her, while I twisted my hairs into a knot at the back of my neck.

"I know that, Bella, but the judge doesn't. And it's him or her that you need to convince not me."

"I don't know what I'm going to do if Edward gets custody for Lilly." I mumbled, already feeling the tears starting to burn in my eyes.

"Why do you think that he could get custody?"

"Because…well I don't know. Edward might say that the relationship between me and Ali would have a bad influence on Lilly or something like that."

"What kind of bad influence?"

"That she might get confused because she has two moms now. Well technically she still has only one mom but…"

"I see what you mean. If he tries something like that, we'll sue him for discriminating you because of your sexual orientation. Trust me it won't be a clever move from his side."

"And he always says that I'm…well…instable?"

"Instable? You've practically raised your child alone since she was born because your husband was too busy fucking around…ahm I mean, working. I don't think that someone who's…instable would have been able to do that. But anyway, if he thinks that you're mentally instable we need to get a psychological report to disprove that."

Great, I thought. Now I have to talk to some fucking shrink about whether I'm a good mother or not.

"Do you want to make an appointment with Miss Whitlock yourself or do you want me to call her for you?"

"Jasmine?" my voice raised two octaves, reaching an embarrassingly shrill frequency.

"Is there a problem with that, Bella?"

"No…"

She chuckled slightly and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"Bella, it's a good thing that you're not working in my profession. You really suck at lying."

"Fine, so I have a problem with that. I don't want to talk to Jasmine. She and I don't get along that well."

Understatement of the year…

"You're not supposed to spend the holidays with her. She's a shrink and you need one for the stupid report."

"Is she the only fucking shrink in this town?"

"Jeez, Bella, you need to calm down. If you don't want to see Jasmine, we'll find someone else."

"Thanks." I mumbled halfheartedly.

"You're jealous of her, aren't you?"

"No, I'm not. She's jealous of me because I'm with Ali now."

"I didn't say that she's not jealous. That's pretty obvious to anyone who's not completely blind."

"Really?"

She nodded her head and took a rose from the vase on her desk, crumbling its petals between her fingers.

"She thinks that she's still in love with Ali. But the thing is that she's not in love with her…it's like she's in love with the idea of love. Pretty naïve if you ask me but what can you expect from someone who gets money for throwing psycho crap at other people."

"Hmm,"

"But you're jealous too because you don't understand the relationship between Jasmine and your girlfriend."

"I don't want to understand it."

"If you're not interested in pissing off your girlfriend you should at least try it."

"What for? She's trying to steal away Ali from me. She even kissed her. This is so…"

"Tragic for all three of you but quite funny for anyone from the outside…" her dark eyes sparkled sheepishly.

"I kind of like women who get so enthusiastic when it comes to love. And just for the record; you can't steal anyone away that doesn't want to be stolen away. And you can't make someone love you if the other person doesn't return the feelings."

XXXX

"Hello, Miss Swan. It's nice to meet you." The red-haired woman greeted me friendly, exposing a row of perfect pearl-white teeth. Her hair was too red to be real but it formed a beautiful contrast to her Alabaster skin.

"I'm Didyme Volturi. Miss Penthes office called me that you needed someone to do a psychological report about your mental status."

I nodded my head.

"Well, she thought that it would be necessary for the divorce."

"You and your husband are fighting about the custody for your child, aren't you?"

"Yes, we are. God, this is so messed up. I'm just glad that Lilly is too young to really understand what's going on."

She pulled out a small tablet and started taking notes.

"Do you want to drink something?" I asked her, pouring myself a cup of coffee.

"Coffee would be nice."

"Zafrina must like you a great deal," she stated as I handed her a cup with the steaming liquid.

"She knows that I hate doing boring reports but she talked me into doing yours."

"Isn't that what shrinks usually do?"

"If they need to work, yes, probably."

"And you don't need to do that because?"

She chuckled bitterly, taking another sip from the coffee.

"My ex-husband and I, we both loved beautiful things. Unfortunately they weren't the same ones. I had a weak spot for European designer clothes and he had a rather unhealthy affection for Italian models."

"I don't think, I understand."

"He broke my heart and I got most of his money in return. Every time I'm using my credit card it feels like I'm kicking him…maybe not where it hurts the most but still, I guess you get what I mean."

"So, Zafrina was your divorce lawyer?"

"Yes, she was. The best one I could get. Worth every single dime I paid her."

I tried not to think too much about how much Zafrina's work would cost me in the end. If she managed to make sure that Edward wouldn't get custody for Lilly, it would be worth it.

Didyme showed me a few pictures and wrote down my comments about them.

"Fine, Miss Swan, we're almost done now. Do you think that I could talk to your girlfriend for a moment?"

"Hmm, of course you can."

I walked over to the living room and waved my hand at my pixie-like lover, who was busy coloring a few sketches in front of her while my daughter continued stuffing food into the snout of our new pet. I was sure that the he would at least double his weight if she kept doing that.

"Ali? Can you come with me for a moment? The shrink says that she wants to talk to you too."

Slowly she followed me into the kitchen, never letting go of my hand in hers.

"Oh, hi there," Mrs. Volturi greeted her, looking up from the tablet.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Mary Alice Cullen. The source of this whole…divorce thing."

"Nice to meet you, Miss Cullen and I don't think that you're the source of the divorce. Look, I understand that the whole situation is difficult for you too. You're so young and all of a sudden you're the second mother of a five year old child. How do you feel about that?"

"How do I feel about what? Taking care of Lilly while Bella is working? I'm fine with that. She's my niece and I love her."

"Of course you love her. The question is; are you willing to care for her? Raising a child is not the same like babysitting it."

"I know…or I don't."

"Auntie Ali! Fido is trying to eat up your sketches!"

A low growl left Ali's throat as we quickly rushed back into the living room.

"Let go, you stupid mutt." She snarled at him and with a puppy-like whimper he let go of the sheet of paper in his mouth.

"Arrg, Bella. This is so disgusting. His slobber is all over it now. Yuck, so gross…"

"I'm sorry about that Ali. Maybe the dog is sick. He's always hungry, no matter how much we feed him."

"Dogs don't eat paper. He's trying to get some attention by doing stuff like that." Didyme stated cheerfully, petting the huge russet colored head with her fingertips.

Then her eyes caught the slobber covered sketch on the table.

"Wow this is…"

"Gross, I know. Now I'll have to do everything again, just because our stupid dog thinks he's not getting enough attention."

"I'm not talking about the slobber thing. God, this sleeveless dress on it that's fucking fantastic."

Ali raised one eyebrow.

"You like it?"

"I actually love it. But the color is wrong. Orange looks horrible with my hair color."

"The color is not a problem. I could make it any color you want it to be. A dark green would be nice or maybe azure blue."

"Really? That would be great. Do you think that $ 1.600 would be enough for two dresses?"

"You want to pay her eight hundred dollars for a dress?" I sounded like a complete idiot now.

Didyme cleared her throat before she spoke up again.

"You sound surprised. We're talking fashion here. I'd pay double the price for having something pretty like that made for me."

"I'm sorry; I just can't believe that someone would spend so much money on clothes."

"Bella..." Ali mumbled, putting one arm on my shoulder.

"I think she knows pretty much what she wants. Don't you, Mrs…"

"Volturi, Didyme Volturi. And to answer your question, Miss Swan; yes, I want to pay her eight hundred dollars for the dress. It's my ex-husbands money and I'm determined to spend all of it."

"Sounds like a plan." I mumbled, staring down on the ground next to me.

"I actually think it's a great plan." Ali told her, pulling out a tape from a little box on the table.

"We could add some gloves as accessories if you'd like that."

She nodded her head, stuffing back her tablet into her handbag.

"What about the report?" I croaked out hoarsely.

"You don't need to worry too much about that, Miss Swan. Hmm, let's see, your….very talented girlfriend here does the gloves for my dresses for free and I make sure your psychological report will be close to perfect."

XOXOXOXOXOXOX

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