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

[A/N] Welcome back to your favorite Twilight soap opera, I mean fan fiction.

This chapter is dedicated to Kyraaah1992. Thanks so much for your lovely review. It really put a smile on my face.

**Chapter 52**

"What a looker," Benjamin mumbled under his breath while he continued cutting a cucumber into small slices.

"Are you sure that he doesn't swing both ways?"

I raised one eyebrow.

"What makes you think such a thing?" I asked him curiously.

"Oh come on, Bella. He plays with Barbie Dolls. Which straight man plays with Barbie's?"

Ali chuckled slightly and twisted a wisp of my long hair around her dainty fingers.

"Just for the record: Emmett doesn't play with Barbie's; he's playing with his five year old niece."

"Yeah, whatever, it's not normal."

"Did you ever play with Barbie's when you were a little boy?" Ali asked him, her caramel eyes sparkling sheepishly.

"I talked my mom into buying me one when I was six. My dad wasn't that happy about it. He made her send it to one of my cousins in Romania. I cried and she was pissed at my dad for an entire week."

"He's not that happy, about you being gay is he?" I assumed hesitantly.

"It's starting to get better, now that he knows that it has nothing to do with the way he and mom raised me. Ela, my stepmom, forced him to read some books about homosexuality. It helped a lot."

"Your stepmother seems to be nice."

"She is. I don't know what she sees in my dad. Must be a father complex or something like that."

"Could be,"

"Or couldn't. Some people just don't get along that well with people their own age."

"No matter how old he his, your brother-in-law is still hot, Ali. Did you see that ass when he leaned down to search for something on the floor? Holy shit." He chuckled and licked his lower lip.

"I'm giving you a hint, because I kind of like you. Don't mention anything like that when my sister shows up here. Rosalie might not like it."

"I might not like what?" She mumbled as she walked into the kitchen, finishing the last bites of the sandwich in her hands.

"That there won't be any mustard in the food tonight."

"No, biggie, Tinker-Ali; I brought my own mustard." She stated cheerfully and pulled a jar out of her handbag.

Then she cleared her throat before she spoke up again.

"Oh, hi there, I'm Rosalie, Ali's sister."

Benjamin waved his hand at her.

"Nice to meet you,"

A smile flashed over his face.

"Now, I know where your husband's preference for Barbie dolls comes from."

"Em has preference for what?"

"Just ignore his stupid comments. Benjamin always talks before he thinks…" I stated, wrapping my arms around Ali from behind.

"No, Bella. I just say what I think, unlike other people."

"Hmm,"

"You don't look much like Ali." Rosalie told him after a few awkward moments of silence.

"His eye color is the same as mine, but he always wears contacts."

"Must make the best of the fact that I'm practically half-blind,"

"But I'm planning on getting a laser-op on them. My stepmom did that two years ago and the result was incredible. She had such horrible complexes because of the thick glasses she always had to wear and now…voila she's almost attractive…for a girl."

"You're really a charmer, aren't you?"

The russet colored dog rushed into the kitchen, nudging his huge head against Rosalie's stomach.

"Yeah, I missed you too, you slobber monster."

She petted his fur with her fingertips and a purring noise escaped his snout.

"I'm glad that you were here to protect Lilly and the others." She murmured, planting a kiss on his head.

Me too, I thought, feeling a shiver of fear running down my spine. Instinctively I pulled Ali closer to me.

"Auntie Rosie!" Lilly called out, wrapping her arms around her blonde aunt's neck.

"Hi, sweetie, how's it going?"

My copper-haired daughter frowned and kneeled down on the ground, cuddling her tiny body against the fluffy fur of the dog.

"The police took my daddy away because he was so angry."

"I know, Lilly. I'm really sorry about that."

"Is my daddy in jail now?"

"I think so,"

And I hope, he stays there, hopefully for a very long time, I added silently in my head.

"Can we send him food there?"

"What for?"

"They don't give people enough food in jail and they hit them. I saw that on TV."

"Who let you watch something like that?"

Her blue eyes narrowed for a moment.

"Emmett!"

"Yes, babe?"

"What did I tell you about appropriate TV for little kids? Now she's confused…"

"Rosie, I don't think that TV is responsible for her being confused. It's this whole…well, complicated situation that sucks."

"He's right, Rose. And it's my fault that Edward showed up here. If I hadn't been so stupid to change the code of the alarm equipment back to the old one…"

"You didn't do that on purpose, Bella." Emmett stated, crossing his arms in front of his broad chest.

"But I'm sending Kate over later to check on it, just to be sure. She'll explain the damn thing to you again."

XXXX

Zafrina sipped on the cup of coffee in front of her, her eyes still focused on the sheet of paper in her hands.

"This is starting to get ridiculous, Bella. Your dipshit of a husband refuses to talk to anyone about his so-called 'voice-hearing'."

"Can't you force him to do that? Jasmine mentioned something like that when she talked to Ali."

Zafrina raised one eyebrow and for a split second a smile flashed over her face that didn't reach her dark eyes.

"It's nice to see that Miss Whitlock is developing such a confidence in my skills."

"Is she right? Can't we force Edward to do that?"

She shook her head and took another sip from her coffee.

"We can't. But when we go to court, it won't make a good impression that he refused to do one, when you were so willing to do yours."

"I hope so." I mumbled, while I started biting my fingernails nervously.

"You're still scared of him, aren't you?" she asked me worriedly.

"Not really scared of Edward himself, more of the things that he could do."

"You don't need to worry. He's in jail and since he doesn't seem on preferring to move into a padded cell. He'll stay there."

"But for how long?"

"Not long enough. Maybe you and Ali should rethink your plans on staying here in Seattle. It would make things a lot easier for you, if you didn't."

"Are you suggesting that we should run away from him?" my voice raised two octaves.

"No, I'm not, but you have to be aware that when we go to court, your husband will do everything to make your relationship with his younger sister look like one of the deadly sins. Everyone will know that the two of you are together. That you left your husband for a woman and the question is whether you're ready to deal with that; if the two of you are ready to deal with that."

I swallowed hard, trying to think of a good way to respond. Were we ready? Was I ready? It didn't matter; I had no other choice than to be ready.

"I'm sorry, Bella. I probably shouldn't have said that to you. But I don't want you to be in court the first time you think about these things."

Then she took my hand in hers and squeezed it gently.

"Don't be afraid of the whole court thing."

"I'm still nervous."

"You're not still worried that Cullen will get custody for Lilly, are you? No judge would give custody to him after the incident at your house. Plus, if he's in jail, he can't take care of a little child."

"Lilly is so upset because of what her father did. And I can't explain to her what happened."

"I see. Have you considered letting her talk to Miss Whitlock about it? As much as I dislike this whole psycho crap, I think it could actually help her to talk to someone who's not directly involved."

"Hmm,"

I thought about making a comment about that I'd prefer it, to not involve Jasmine into the problems of my family.

"You don't like Jasmine, do you?"

I nodded my head, feeling my cheeks reddening in embarrassment.

"She's in love with my fiancée." I told her, although I knew that she was already aware of this fact.

"No, she's not. She's just in love with the idea of being in love with her. But the Ali that you love and the one she thinks that she's in love with, they're two completely different persons."

"I don't think, I understand."

"You love her for who she is now, but Jasmine is still attracted to the girl she used to be."

"Maybe they're the same?"

"Definitely not, Bella. A woman is never the same she was yesterday. It's you that make Ali the one she's now and it's her that makes you who you are now."

"Can I ask you something personal, Zafrina?"

"If you want to,"

"Well, Ali told me that you and Jasmine…well, that you…"

She smirked and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"That we had sex, you can say it Bella. It doesn't hurt."

"And that was all? I mean, it didn't mean anything to you?"

"I came, she came. It's not that we have to get married because of this."

She seemed to hesitate for a moment before she continued.

"And Jasmine seemed to dislike the fact that I'm bi more like anything. She wouldn't be interested in something more."

"I'm sorry about that."

"Don't have to be. She's quite attractive but it's not like she's the only available woman out there." Her voice remained calm and casual the entire time, but now and then her lips twitched for a moment.

The phone on her desk started ringing and she cleared her throat before she picked it up.

"Penthes,"

"Oh, that's good to hear."

She wrote down a few notes and mumbled something that was too low for me to hear.

"Really?"

"Who?"

"No, of course, I don't mind…"

"When?"

"That soon?"

"No, it's fine. You don't have to worry. I'm glad you called me. Thanks a lot."

She hung up and walked over to the window on the other side of her office. For a moment she remained standing there, staring out of the widow as if she was trying to sort her thoughts.

"Bella?"

"Yes,"

Slowly she turned around and sat down on the edge of her mahogany desk.

"I have good and bad news for you. Which one do you want to hear first?"

I sighed deeply and started biting my lower lip nervously.

"The bad one," whispered eventually.

"The judge who was supposed to do your case had an accident. He broke his leg while he tried to golf."

"And that a bad news because?"

"Because he's way more liberal…than the one we have now."

I nodded my head, not really knowing what she meant with liberal.

"And what's the good news?"

"We're going to court now much sooner than planned."

"How soon, is sooner?" I asked her, taking several deep breaths through my nose to calm myself down.

"Tomorrow,"