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LadySharkey1 rocks my world by being the most amazing, kick-ass beta I could ever imagine.

18.

Bella had never crashed as hard as she did after she and Edward made love.

Yes, made love, because that was the only way she could describe it. It was raw, passionate, and at times would not have appeared all that loving but in every moan and gesture, they were sharing themselves. Their whole selves.

And yet…

Throughout everything, a strange sense of foreboding had taken shape within her heart. Something about the almost desperate way he'd touched her; drawing her close as if he was afraid she would vanish at any second, had set off her alarm bells.

Yet as his arms wrapped around her, Bella found herself too tired to follow through with her gut instinct. All too soon, sleep started to pull her under and the reassurance of Edward's strong, warm arms holding her safely to his chest was enough to extinguish the little spark of anxiety that had flared up inside of her.

It had been one of the biggest mistakes of her life; even though, at the time, Bella remained completely unaware of it.

When morning came with a deafening crash, however, her worst fears all came true within a matter of seconds.

"You fucking bastard!" The roar of Carlisle's livid voice made her jump up from the bed with a high pitched shriek, the sheet clutched to her chest as she watched the drama unfurl around her.

Edward remained completely calm, and that was the first clue she had as to the origins of the situation she found herself in. "What is it now, Carlisle?" He smirked, stretching languidly against the pillow, seemingly unbothered by the fact that his brother-in-law had just found him in bed with the nanny. "Did Esme accidentally put one of my boxers in your underwear drawer?"

For a second, Bella was convinced Carlisle was going to punch Edward; his body taut and poised to fight as he took a big step towards the bed. Then, at the last minute, he seemed to change his mind, settling instead on smacking the insolent interloper in the face with the small plastic baggie that had changed everything. "How dare you bring drugs into my house…around my kids!" Carlisle snarled. "You really have no decency left inside of you, do you?"

Bella blanched, her mind slowly starting to work after being so abruptly awoken from the deepest of sleep. Something bad had happened, that much she knew. Something involving drugs that Carlisle had found. And Edward wasn't in the least bit surprised which meant…that he knew? Her faced paled even more as slowly the figures started to add up. Because if Carlisle had been meant to find those drugs, did that also mean he'd been meant to storm into this room and find her in Edward's bed?

Had she—had they—been cheapened by Edward's deceit to serve as no more than shock value to his relatives?

No.

And yet…

How?

Why?

Edward merely sighed, outwardly unmoved by Carlisle's anger or Bella's embarrassment as he shrugged. "I thought we'd established that a long fucking time ago?" His walls were up, full force and he wasn't looking at her. In fact, he wasn't really looking at anything.

What was going on?

"I want you out of my house, now." Carlisle's nostrils flared in anger as somewhere behind him rushed footsteps were charging down the stairs. "I don't care if those good for nothing buddies of yours take you in or the state locks your ass up again—and I'm this fucking close to putting in a phone call to your parole officer-"

"Then why don't you?" Edward goaded him, jumping up from the bed stark naked as if it was just another day before proceeding to put on a pair of jeans that just happened to be close to the bed. "It'll solve so many of your petty little problems, won't it?"

Carlisle smirked viciously. "Believe me, I'd love to see you locked up for good, someplace where you can't harm my kids or my wife, but for their sakes, I'll settle for getting you out of my sight." He took in a ragged, angry breath, his balled fist telling everyone present in that room just how much it bothered him to let Edward walk free. "If you leave quickly, before the kids wake up, I won't put in that call."

Bella held her breath, her heart breaking as she saw the quiet acceptance in Edward's silent answer. This, too, didn't seem to come as that much of a surprise to him, even though the situation he was in meant a change of address put him in a possibly difficult situation with his parole officer.

It was as if he'd planned it all.

He still wasn't looking at her as he shrugged. It was almost like she hadn't been in the room with them…as if she was seeing this as a spectator or a nameless, faceless audience watching a television drama show.

But she was right in the middle of it.

Right in the center of hell.

She couldn't breathe.

She wanted to say something, scream at both of them to please tell her what the hell was going on, but her body didn't want to cooperate.

"Carlisle?" Esme, looking equal amounts disheveled and confused as she ran into the room, her hands still at work tying her bathrobe and her face bearing a look of acute fear and distress. "What's the matter?" She asked, her eyes her eyes flittered from her husband to her brother, who'd proceeded to shove some of his things into a worn duffel bag. "Edward? Why are you packing your things?" Her frown deepened as her eyes swept across the room, the absence of answers only heightened her confusion until it reached its peak when they came to rest on Bella. "Bella? What are you doing in Edward's room?"

"Edward is leaving," her husband announced, his cold, accusatory gaze lingered on Bella for one mortifying moment. "I suggest you take Bella into another room while I help him pack."

As Bella watched with rising distress, Edward calmly continued packing under the watchful, seething glare of his brother-in-law. "Edward?" she finally managed to squeeze out of her constricted throat.

"Go with Esme, Bella," Carlisle commanded, never taking his eyes off Edward. He didn't have to, his disappointment with his best friend's daughter shone so clear through his voice that it was almost tangible.

And yet she resisted. "Edward?" Bella repeated, her despair seeping more and more into her voice as she took a small step forward on unsteady legs.

But he continued to ignore her, his movements showed no regret or hesitation as he kept on cramming clothes into his bag.

And he never spoke a word.

"Come on, Bella." It was Esme who stepped forward in the end and took the poor, shivering girl under her wing, gently shepherding her out of the room and on towards the kitchen. "It's best to let them finish. We're lucky enough the kids have somehow managed to sleep through all of this. I don't think they could handle watching their dad throw their uncle out of the house. Not again."

Bella frowned as Esme's words slowly started to seep through the hazy fog that seemed to have clouded her mind. "Again? Did…did this happen before?"

Esme nodded sadly. "I should have done more to warn you about him but I really thought…" Shaking her head, she let out a deep, heartbreaking sigh. "I thought that prison had changed him, made him see the error of his ways. And things have been going so good lately…I just don't understand."

Bella swallowed, fighting her tears as she started to realize that this whole thing had been orchestrated by the maestro himself. This was Edward, pulling the emergency brake and setting up his own downfall before he got too comfortable…before she could get too close to him.

"I thought you were in no danger from him," Esme went on, pouring water into the kettle and turning it on, robotically making them some tea. "Your dislike for him seemed so strong and…and you're not his usual type." Laughing bitterly, she opened a kitchen cabinet in search of tea bags. "I should have known better, though. With your father and Carlisle being friends, you were the ultimate challenge to him…a sure fire way to get to my husband and cause trouble."

Even in spite of her turmoil, this made Bella's hackles rise. "You seem very quick to give up on him!" she snapped. In her anger and confusion over the situation she found herself in, she didn't give a flying fuck about pissing off her employer. All she wanted was to find a way out of this mess…find a way to fix things.

"I'll never give up on my brother!" Esme snapped back. "Even though he'd given up on himself years ago, I will always keep trying…until he does something like this! Until he fucks one of my employees, lets his good for nothing buddies into our house and steals our things, or stumbles into the house drunk and high with some half-naked bitch hanging off his arm. And believe me, all of those scenarios have happened more than once."

Bella gasped, knowing instantly that Esme's words were the truth. After all, had she not heard them confirmed by Edward's own voice so many times? Still…

"I'm sorry, Bella." Esme sighed, walking around the island to pat the trembling hand that was holding Bella upright in that moment. "I know my brother has a way with words and he must have told you things, or made you believe you were special to him. The thing is, though, he's done that to all the girls he's seduced under this roof. He uses them for his own entertainment or to help him find his inspiration, and when he doesn't need them anymore, he casts them aside. Just like that."

"No." Bella spoke, though a shadow of doubt started to creep into her mind as she remembered the way Edward had acted in his room only a few minutes ago. It was as if she hadn't even existed to him.

Just then, a door slammed inside the house, then in the distance the front door opened to reveal the sound of a car running stationary in the driveway.

No.

"Edward!" Rushing on unsteady feet, she tried to catch up with him, not wanting to believe the man would just leave her without saying goodbye. Even if he'd grown scared or had tired of her, he would have said something.

She couldn't believe it would end like that.

With nothing.

But as she finally reached the open door, after a sprint that seemed to go on for ages, she realized just how wrong she had been to assume that she had come to mean as much to him as he did to her.

Because she would not have allowed herself to be chased away without a fight.

She would never have left without him.

Without a word.

But as she watched the yellow taxi speed away from the house, the auburn crown of his head faintly visible through the rearview window, she realized she should have seen it coming all along. Even if the warning signs hadn't been all around her, she'd felt it in her gut from the first time her heart had skipped over at the sight of him.

He was going to break her heart.

And he just had.

Thoughts?