Chapter 5
Release me.
Release my body.
I know it's wrong,
So why do I keep coming back?
~Release Me- Agnes

After having a wonderfully romantic weekend in Seattle, Bella and Jacob returned to Forks content. The couple had spent the morning eating breakfast in bed, then took advantage of the extravagant bathroom by soaking in the tub together, which led to a repeat of the raunchy night they had in bed. Before they left, Bella tested out the waterfall shower and found it to be delightful. Overall, it was a very satisfying weekend that they would remember for a long time.

Jacob parked the car behind the apartment in his designated spot and noticed Bella's spot was still vacant. "We should probably call the auto shop before I leave so that we can get your car back. I know you don't like driving mine." Jacob suggested as they entered the apartment building. It didn't take long to enter their home and get settled. "I texted Charlie and he said he'll swing by soon to drop off Nessie."

"Alright, I'm going to stop by Alice's apartment and grade some papers. After I finish I'll cook dinner." Bella first headed to her bedroom and changed into some comfortable clothes, then pinned her hair in a messy bun. Afterwards, she grabbed the stack of essays assigned to five of her classes last week, and headed downstairs to Alice's apartment.

This was a common occurrence for the coworkers. With Alice being an art teacher, she didn't have to assign the students homework often, unlike an English teacher would. So whenever Bella was swamped with work, Alice would help her grade the papers. The duo also enjoyed each other's company and often spent time together.

Bella knocked on the door, while juggling the papers in one hand. Alice opened the door quickly, dressed in her finest attire. "Oh are you going out?" Bella asked confused.

Alice motioned for Bella to enter, then shut the door behind her. "No, I was stood up this time."

Alice's apartment was different than Bella's. While Bella's apartment was bright and relatively clean aside from Renesmee's toys, Alice's apartment was dark and cluttered. The spiky haired woman rarely opened her curtains and she was a borderline hoarder. She also seemed to thrive in the dark and all of the lights in her apartment were dim except for the one in the dining room lamp that a few months ago, Bella had bought for her. The reason Bella enjoyed grading papers in Alice's apartment, versus her own, was that Renesmee couldn't bother her. While she loved her daughter, the young child could be a handful.

"Oh Alice, I'm so sorry." Bella set down her papers on Alice's dining room table, then turned and gave the woman a hug. "Are you okay?" she asked while clicking on the light and illuminating the room.

Alice smiled at Bella. "Well since I gave him the wrong address on purpose, I can't say I'm too disappointed."

Bella's face squinched together in confusion. "What?"

Alice took a seat on top of the table while Bella claimed a chair. "I was all set to go on a date with this man. He seemed relatively perfect." Alice began to count off on her hand. "He had a job, he owned his own home. He's only 29." Alice's smile began to sour. "So I decided to do a background check, just to be thorough."

"Wait, you what?" Bella's jaw dropped at the lengths Alice had gone through. "How do you even-nevermind. Continue."

Alice laughed lightly, swinging her legs against the table. "It's not that hard. And I know how to do it for free." She winked at Bella then continued with her story. "Anyway, I did a background check. Everything was clear, no felons or warrants for his arrest. I thought we were all good to go." Alice stopped swinging her legs then began to tap her fingers against her leg. "So as a final step, I looked him up on facebook and you won't believe what I found out."

Bella didn't want to admit it, but she was actually quite curious as to what Alice could've found out. "Go on."

"He's married!" Alice slammed her fists down on the table. "This perfect man is married! Now I know what you're thinking, 'if he's married, why is he on Tinder?'. That's exactly what I was thinking. So I scrolled through some of his posts and he and his wife fight a lot. But I don't condone cheating, so I gave him the address of a crack house three hours away. He's going to have a long drive. I also blocked him." Alice crossed her arms in indignation. "Cheating is disgusting."

Bella reached out and rubbed Alice's arm. "I'm sorry Alice. Maybe the next guy will be different."

Shoulders were shrugged and Alice scooted off the table to sit in a chair next to Bella. "It's alright. I'm thinking of going for Demetri at work."

Bella grinned at her friend. "He is cute. I can see you with him."

"Me too." Alice grabbed half the stack of papers. "After I help you with this, I'm hitting up the bar and getting a man to buy me a free meal."

This was a common occurrence for Alice. Whenever she didn't have money to afford to afford groceries she would go out and seduce a man into buying her food. Bella didn't know how she always succeeded as she always left the men hanging. "What did you spend your check on this time?"

Alice pointed to her outfit. "It was on sale! I spent less than a thousand dollars on it."

Bella looked Alice up and down and sighed. "Alice, you have a problem. Also, rent is due at the end of the week. What are you going to do?"

Alice shook away Bella's concerns. "We get paid at the end of the week so that won't be a problem, thankfully."

"Well alright. I still think you should manage your money better. Stop buying new clothes. Even if they are cute." Bella smiled at her friend then grabbed a paper to grade. "Hopefully this won't take long so you can hit the bar scene and get your free meal."

It took the women just under three hours to grade the papers. After they had finished, Bella felt exhausted while Alice still seemed to still have an abundance of energy. "Oh I meant to ask earlier, how was your weekend?"

Bella thought back to the lovely time she had in Seattle with Jacob, and running into old friends. "I had a good time with Jacob. We had some much needed alone time."

Alice clasped her hands together. "Oh good! You get weird when you haven't had-

"But it's good to be home." Bella cut off her friend while organizing her papers. "Well I'm going to go. I'm sure my family is starving as it's nearly 7." Bella headed to the door and opened it carefully. "Will anyone even be at the bar on a Sunday?"

Alice smirked at Bella. "There's always someone at the bar willing to buy me food."

Bella laughed at her friend then wished her a goodnight before heading back upstairs. She entered her apartment and put away the graded papers in her traveling case that she would bring to school tomorrow. Luckily she had separated the papers by class so there wouldn't be any confusion. Bella found her living room empty, but heard noise down the hall and assumed Jacob was in Renesmee's room. Peeking her head inside confirmed her suspicions as she found Jacob playing with Renesmee and her toys. "Hey you two."

Renesmee paused in her ministrations and looked at her mother with elation. "Mommy!" she dropped her toys and ran to the brunette standing in the doorway. "Mommy! I had so much fun at Pawpaw's house! Lee-lee was there and we watched movies and ate ice cream!"

Bella leaned down and picked up her daughter, settling the child on her hip. "Sounds like you had a good time. What else did you do?" she kissed her forehead and listened to her daughter talk actively about her weekend. Once she had finished, Bella placed her back on the floor and looked at Jacob who was slouched over a barbie dream house with a toy car through the window. "I'm going to cook dinner. Something light so we can put Renesmee to bed soon."

"I'm not sleepy!" Renesmee pouted at her mother who chuckled in response.

"Actually I was thinking of watching a movie. What do you think Nessie?" Jacob looked at Renesmee hopefully.

The small child placed her hands on her hips. "What movie?"

"You can choose!"

Renesmee grinned at Jacob then raced into the living room to rummage through their DVD collection. Jacob followed his wife into their kitchen and asked her how Alice was doing.

Bella opened their fridge and drew out a few ingredients, intent on making a chicken soup. "She's doing fine. Spending too much money like usual, but otherwise she's alright."

Jacob wrapped his arms around Bella's waist and rested his head on top of hers. "Did you grade all your papers"

"I did indeed." Bella grabbed a large pot and began to fill it with some water, then set it on the stove so that the water could begin boiling.

"I can help you grade papers you know." Jacob suggested, while casually rubbing Bella's stomach.

Bella scoffed, reaching out and grabbing the leftover cooked chicken breasts from a few nights ago. "Last time you helped me grade papers you gave everyone an A and didn't even read them." Bella chopped the chicken quickly then tossed it into the pot. "One of the students had just copy and pasted an excerpt from Romeo and Juliet!"

Jacob rolled his eyes. "How was I supposed to know that?"

"Really? 'But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.' Everyone knows that quote." Bella grabbed some celery next and quickly chopped it to add to the pot. "I'm sorry honey, but you can not grade papers. But that's okay. We all have things we're not good at."

Jacob leaned down and kissed Bella's neck. "I may be bad at some things," he nibbled her ear lightly and caused the woman to shiver from his touch. "But we can agree I'm better at other things right?"

Bella giggled lightly before pushing Jacob away playfully. "Go check on Nessie. I need to finish cooking dinner."

Her husband smiled before leaning down and kissing her reddening cheek. "Alright, I'll leave you alone. I'll be in the living room okay?" Jacob received a nod in response then headed out to find his daughter. He turned on the TV while they searched for a movie to watch.

A delighted squeal emitted down the hall, and childish laughter filled with mirth, rang throughout the house. Bella loved the sound of her daughter's laugh as it was always filled with such happiness. She and Jacob had gotten into the habit of making home videos to preserve the jovial moments that they shared with their daughter. She was growing up so fast, already out of her toddler years. Her birthday was actually coming up in a few short weeks and she would be five years old. Time sure did fly by when you had children.

Renesmee's laughter had simmered down and Bella was able to hear the television. Jacob must've left it on a news station as she heard the weather reports for the week. Bella continued with the task at hand, absentmindedly chopping the carrots to be placed in the steaming pot of chicken soup. Amidst stirring the soup, she listened to the TV.

"—and that was just uncalled for. The girl was released with a slap on the wrist, but she will also no longer be able to keep the squirrel." After the 'squirrel' comment, Bella heard the light chuckles from her husband.

"Why are you laughing daddy?" Bella could practically see the look of curiosity on her daughter's plump face.

"I just happen to know what that girl did with the squirrel. Everyone was talking about it at work." Jacob told her. "Don't play with squirrels okay?"

Bella didn't hear Renesmee's response but whatever it was, it made Jacob laugh. Bella peered into the soup and frowned. It seemed like it was cold and flu season. Everyone was getting sick. She hoped the soup would help keep her family healthy. It didn't seem thick enough so she added some rice and stirred it gently.

"And to conclude tonight's newscast, a surprise is in store for Edward Cullen."

All motion ceased for Bella at the name and she dropped the large wooden spoon she was using to stir the soup. She hated to admit it, but hearing his name struck fear into her very core.

"A lawyer found some new evidence on the Edward Cullen case and it turns out he was wrongly sentenced."

Bella forced her immobilized body to move and she stiffly made her way into the living room. Jacob didn't even notice as his eyes were glued to the TV.

"-so the new court date was last Wednesday. They ruled in favor of releasing Edward Cullen for his crimes. I'm sure he's very excited after spending the last," the newswoman glanced at her papers and squinted. "Six years he's spent in prison. I'm sure he's very excited to be released. Here is some footage from when the lawyer contacted Edward Cullen and gave him the news that would change his life."

The female newscaster disappeared and in her spot came a more pixelated camera focusing on a penitentiary. A tall, dark haired man walked through the grimy halls of the building after being frisked by the guards. The man and a security guard walked into a small cement room where Edward stood shackled between two guards looking stoic.

The dark haired man, one could only assume was Edward's lawyer, smiled at him. "It's great to see you again, Mr. Cullen. I have good news for you!" Edward's face didn't change but he turned so he was actually facing the man to show that he was listening. The lawyer cleared his throat and pulled out a manila envelope from his briefcase. Shaking it in the air triumphantly, he pulled out some papers and flashed them to Edward. "You've been given a reprieve."

Bella's breath caught in her throat. Jacob, who had also been immersed in the TV, heard Bella and glanced at his blanched wife standing in the entryway. He quickly got off the couch and embraced her reassuringly. "It's okay. Don't worry, he can't hurt you." Bella barely registered Jacob's words, and her arms hung limply at her side while her eyes remained glued to the screen.

"-and so you're basically going to be on probation for three years. It's not as bad as it sounds. You just can't leave the state for the first year, or country for the remaining two years. You're mother is excited for you to return home." The lawyer finished and smiled at Edward, then the camera.

After the lawyer had finished talking, Edward opened his mouth and asked a single question. "When will I be leaving?"

The lawyer smacked his head and barked a laugh. "Silly me! I almost forgot the best part. You'll be out of here next Monday!"

Edward looked directly into the camera as a leer spread across his face. "Excellent."

A/N: For anyone who read Remember Me, I know I put a sneak peak from Forget Me as the final chapter. I had to tweak it a bit as the original Forget Me was lost on my original laptop that kinda died. So I had to start over from scratch and went in a different direction. Regardless, I hope everyone is enjoying the story so far!