Chapter 11: 1st July
Edward
"... Yes, that's right. Harvard ... yes, Dad, I'm sure!" Bella was in the bedroom, on the phone to her parents, and her voice was getting higher in pitch as the call progressed. "Look, I agree it was a sudden decision. Oxford's been great, but I'm ready for new pastures ..."
She hardly spoke about her father and mother, the millionaire, international oil company executives who had spent ten months of each of the past fifteen years abroad. Meanwhile, their daughter had stayed in the country to attend prep school, boarding school and then Oxford University, seeing them perhaps once or twice a year. When she was younger, she had a nanny who looked after her when she was at home at the Swan's country residence in rural Wiltshire, or their London townhouse. However, for the past four years, since the age of seventeen when the nanny moved onto another family, she had spent holidays alone at one of their houses, or in business hotels while her parents made multi-billion pound deals.
I was appalled. I hadn't had such wealth or privilege growing up, but I always had my parents' love, attention and devotion. Bella didn't really know what that felt like.
I was raised in Amersham, one of the Buckinghamshire suburbs that bordered London, and went to the local comprehensive school until the age of sixteen when I got a scholarship to a private school for my last two years. My father had been the manager of an electrical goods warehouse, and my mother a paralegal for a law firm. When I got into Cambridge for my undergrad, my dad proudly gave me ten thousand pounds, money he had saved over my entire childhood, and told me to use it wisely. I used it as the deposit when I bought my apartment in Oxford; I would make it back seven times over when the sale completed next week.
My father died of a massive stroke when I was twenty. I was devastated, as was my mother. She was stoic, though, and kept on working and living in our house until she died six years after him, at the age of fifty-eight. She had been walking home from the supermarket and had crossed the road in front of a van. She was hit by a bus she hadn't seen coming, and died instantly.
It was just after I got my PhD from Oxford. I took six months off for the first time in my life, and just mourned the fact that I would never again feel their love and warmth or see the pride they had for me. My mother's death left me financially comfortable thanks to the inheritance of our family home, the cabin in Scotland and my parents' savings and life insurance money. Yet I would burn it all for just one more day with both of them. Therefore, I found it extremely hard to understand the odd, distant, relationship my beautiful Bella had with her parents.
"... Look, I'm planning to leave for the States straight after graduation. It's on the twenty-third. Are you coming over for it, or not? No? Fine. Look me up if you find yourself in Massachusetts."
Shit, her bottom lip was starting to wobble. I dropped the box of books I was packing up and headed into the bedroom. By the time she ended the call, tears were falling from her big, brown eyes. I wrapped my arms around her, and she sobbed into my chest.
"They can't make it?" I asked when her sobs quietened.
"No. They're in Doha. The deal is at a 'critical' point, and they can't abandon negotiations."
"I'm so sorry, Baby."
"Maybe it's for the best. Who am I going to introduce them to? 'Mum and Dad, meet my flatmates and friends, who I've spent most of the past year ignoring.' Or 'Parents, meet Professor Banner, who has seriously questionable abilities in teaching molecular cell biology and choosing Neuroscience department heads.' Maybe 'So, family, meet Professor Edward Masen, the love of my life and my former supervisor, of whom you'll completely disapprove and probably embarrass me greatly in front of.'"
She was so cute when she ranted.
"I don't care. There's nothing they could say or do to make me love you less. Besides, you're twenty-one. Only your opinion matters. It's not as if they can stop you from being with me."
"No ..."
She looked up at me, and something flashed in her eyes.
"What?" I asked warily.
"It just occurred to me that I can do whatever the hell I like. I've spent so long being desperate to please them so that they'll actually show some kind of pride in me, their only daughter." She sat down on the edge of the bed cross-legged, and beckoned me to sit opposite her. "But if getting First Class Honours and a Gold Medal at one of the best universities in the world, and getting a place on the doctoral programme at another, means nothing to them, why should I care what they think?"
"Whatever the hell do you want to do, Bella?"
"I want to go to Italy and actually see the country instead of a boardroom. I want to live in a house that's homely, not student digs or cold Maida Vale townhouses or remote country mansions. I want to learn to drive. I want to have a child and actually raise it ..." she glanced up at me, crying again. "I want ..." she sobbed, "I want ... to be with you every day of forever."
I slipped my hands under her arms and lifted her into my lap.
"I want that too," I replied. "Bella, love, do you mean it?"
"A-absolutely," she said through her tears.
"Bella, I want to give you everything you need and want. And it seems that those things are what I need and want too. To see Italy. A home. Marriage. Children." I inhaled deeply in preparation for the question on my lips as I dropped onto one knee. She gasped and clapped her hand over her mouth. "Isabella Marie Swan, please would you do me the extraordinary honour of marrying me?"
"You're serious?"
"As serious as glutamate-mediated cell death," I deadpanned.
She cracked a massive smile and then bit her lip.
"Wow, that's pretty fucking serious!" she laughed, drying her eyes.
"Is that a yes, Baby?"
"Yes! Let's do it!"
-cc-
16th July
Bella
"Isabella Marie Swan, please would you do me the extraordinary honour of marrying me?"
His proposal had been a simple declaration of what was on his heart, and in dropping to one knee and saying those fateful words, The Fox made me happier than I ever could have hoped to be.
Once we decided that we were getting married, we decided that we didn't want to wait until we'd made our relationship public. We wanted a small wedding, just us, so we could start our new life in The States as man and wife. Therefore, we decided to elope to Italy. We both agreed that our declarations of love and commitment to one another should be completely and utterly private.
I had been to Italy before; once was on a school trip, skiing in the Italian Alps, and another had been to Rome when I was eleven. My parents were doing a deal with an Italian petroleum company and took me along only because it was the school summer holiday, and my nanny had been ill so she couldn't look after me. I wasn't allowed to go exploring by myself as I was too young, and they didn't have the time to take me anywhere, so for three days, all I saw of Rome was the view from my window at the hotel. Of all the places I had been taken by my parents, Italy had been the one I'd wanted to see the most, and to be so close, and yet so far, had been painful.
After some wrangling with an Italian wedding planner, Edward and I managed to bribe our way through the red tape involved so we could be married with just two weeks' notice, and found a beautiful villa on the banks of Lake Como. They sorted out everything for us, from the early evening ceremony and witnesses, to the photographer, to a sumptuous sunset feast for the two of us on the balcony of the luxury honeymoon suite. All we had to do was turn up forty-eight hours before the wedding with our wedding garments and rings to go through some official bits and pieces. After a few days honeymooning on the Lake, we would return to England for my graduation ceremony, and tie up our final loose ends, before heading straight for Boston.
Carlisle was ecstatic that Edward agreed to move to Harvard, and even more so when I agreed to be his doctoral student. Jasper and Emmett moved to London, to King's College's Clinical Neurosciences department to work with Siobhan McCloud. They also started planning a research network so they could work with several labs on different arms of research on the same topics, including Harvard. They and their wives were still the only people from Oxford who knew about our relationship. Tanya, Edward's best friend, who lived in New York, also knew, as did Emily, of course.
Thankfully we didn't start in Harvard until September, so we had almost two months. I was very glad of that. I knew that we would need time to adjust to life in the USA and to build a home together. Carlisle had found an apartment for Edward to rent over the summer, and we intended to look for something permanent. Edward and I agreed not to reveal our relationship until we got there. As I would be doing my PhD in Carlisle's labs, not Edward's, there would be no conflict of interest, but I still felt the need to be careful until we got there, especially with Slimy Volturi popping up here, there and everywhere.
Edward sold his apartment in Oxford, just four days after putting it on the market. Having bought it fifteen years ago, he made a tidy profit. Between his healthy bank balance, and my inheritance from Grandma Swan, we would be able to afford a luxury pad, but we both agreed that we wanted something homey. I had spent my life in soulless townhouses, stark hotels or cold, uninviting country manors. We wanted our first house together to be a warm, cosy place, full of love, a place where we could relax and enjoy married life. Nearly all of our stuff was in storage and Emmett and Jasper would send it to us when we had found somewhere permanent to live.
Edward and I stayed in my family's house in London, for a couple of days before flying out to Italy from Gatwick, only because it was convenient; I pretty much hated the place with its designer, stark, white furniture and giant windows. Emily recommended a tiny jewellery shop off Berkley Square, and as usual, she was spot-on. My engagement ring was a single, one-carat, princess-cut diamond on a thin hoop of twisted platinum, and Edward and I had co-ordinating twisted platinum wedding bands.
We also took a trip to Selfridges, where I bought a mid-length, ivory, strapless dress with a full, organza skirt. Edward chose a light, silver-grey suit that made him look like a male model, with a darker silver-grey tie; I bought a sash to go around my waist in the same colour, and a silver lace bolero.
The day of the wedding dawned. Our stunning suite overlooked the expansive, blue lake, and the Italian sun dappled off the undulating waters. The Fox was still asleep; he hadn't even stirred when a waiter brought up thick, syrupy ristretto coffee and crispy, fluffy cornetti for breakfast a few minutes earlier.
Watching him in his slumber, I waited for cold feet, nerves, butterflies or some other sign that I shouldn't be proceeding with marrying him. I had waited for them every day since Edward proposed, but each time, none came.
I was more certain of marrying The Fox than anything, even becoming a neuroscientist.
My phone buzzed with a text message.
Best wishes for today, B. So surreal to think that my bestie's getting hitched! Love you, Emily xxx
"Bella?" Edward's hoarse, sleep-thickened voice broke through the quiet of our suite, as I was texting Emily back.
"Happy wedding day, Foxy," I replied, putting the phone down and crawling over him.
"Happy wedding day, Baby." His arms locked around me, and I rubbed the stubble of his cheek with my nose. "What time is it?"
"Nine-thirty. Nine hours until 'I do.'"
"I have a little surprise for you if you're interested in doing a little exploring," he murmured.
I ran my hand down his chest, and he shuddered. We hadn't had sex since arriving in Italy, to make our wedding night more memorable, but both of us were getting quite antsy.
"What kind of exploring?"
"A boat trip with just a guide and us. Otherwise we'll just be hanging around waiting."
"Sounds amazing, Edward."
An hour later, we were on a small cruiser, sightseeing around the lake, from the beautiful village of Bellagio to Tremezzo and Villa Carlotta, and even, apparently, George Clooney's villa, although I was sceptical. Still, it was the perfect way to relax before our nuptials. My Fox had chosen well.
We returned to our suite with just an hour to spare, and changed into our wedding clothes, before walking arm-in-arm to the lakeside terrace where our ceremony was to take place.
"Last chance to change your mind, Edward," I whispered just before we walked through the terrace doors. "If you want to run away ..."
"Never," he interjected, turning to face me. "I knew, the moment we declared ourselves in my office, that you were it for me. Even though I still believed that you eventually would lose interest and move on."
"Never," I echoed. "I am in love with you. You make me feel whole, and you make me feel safe. I feel like every single moment in my life that I endured alone, and there have been a lot, was worth it because now I've been rewarded by being given you."
"Baby, that's exactly what I wanted to say to you. My work has always given my life a purpose, but I never knew true happiness until I felt your love," he replied. "Forever?"
"Forever." I agreed.
He bent down and softly caressed my lips with his, as I brushed the tears away from both our cheeks.
We would officially say the words just a few minutes later, but I would forever remember that moment as the one where I truly became Mrs Masen.
-cc-
Hi everyone. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. None of this was in the original one-shot, so it's all new!
Things are getting a little better on the RL front, so I'm hoping to get back to a weekly posting schedule soon.
CC xxx