Chapter 29

Edward

Typically, it was absolutely pissing it down with rain when we landed at London Heathrow. It had been, in the main, a boring flight, full of business people working and avoiding eye contact with each other. Bella was the exception for everyone on the plane. With her radiant pregnancy glow, she had turned heads as she walked into the First Class cabin, with the flight attendants, male and female, falling over each other to make sure she was comfortable.

We travelled with hand luggage only as we were staying in England for just five days, from Friday to Wednesday morning, and were in the arrivals hall half an hour after the flight landed. Two men and a woman, all wearing black shirts and dark jeans, were waiting for us, one holding a board with our names on it.

"Hi, we're the Masens," I said, approaching them.

"May we see your passports, please?" said one, a big and burly, mixed-race guy, around forty.

"Jared, it's fine. I know this is Professor and Mrs Masen," said the one holding the card. He was a pasty-skinned, balding, middle aged man with a strong Essex accent.

"Mr Jenks?" asked Bella.

"Yes, that's me, Mrs Masen." He paused to look at her. "By God, you do look like your dad."

Bella blushed and nodded.

"Sorry, Professor," said Jared. "I'm trained to be careful. Ex-Marine. Name's Jared Banks."

"No problem. Nice to meet you." I shook his hand and turned to the lady. She looked Spanish and in her thirties; she was tall and lean. "Hello, what's your name?"

"Professor, I am Paula, Paula Gonzales," she replied in a soft, Spanish accent. "I look forward to working with you both." Her eyes drifted over me only briefly; she appeared more taken with Bella, upon whom her gaze lingered a fraction longer.

They had a car waiting, and we were soon on the way to Emmett and Rosalie's townhouse in the Jericho area of Oxford. They were letting it out as a holiday rental until the New Year when they would decide whether to sell the place.

"So, Jenks, what's been happening with Volturi and MJ?" I asked as we pulled onto the motorway.

"We've seen MJ around the Neuroscience laboratories, and out with Alec. She is staying with him in his flat."

"What about Volturi? Have you seen her with him?"

"No, but he's currently in Rome. He's there for a long weekend, for his wife's birthday."

"What can you tell us about her?" Bella wondered.

"Mrs Volturi spends most of her time with her family in Italy. She's only in England maybe a week or two every couple of months. If she knows about his affairs, she doesn't show it, and she doesn't appear to have ever been unfaithful to him."

"Do you think he ever had an affair with MJ?"

"I don't know, Mrs Masen, but my gut instinct says they're not involved sexually. She's Kasparov's blood and he's known her since she was a little girl. But he does have more than an avuncular relationship with her; I'm just not sure what the extra element is."

"How much of a threat is Alec?" I wanted to know if he was as dangerous as MJ.

"He has established himself as Volturi's right hand man, and will do whatever Volturi asks of him without question. However, he appears to have little of his own initiative. If he tried anything, it would be because Volturi, or perhaps MJ, told him to do so."

"I don't know whether that's a good thing or a bad thing."

"Indeed, Professor," agreed Jenks. "Now, when we get to the house, Jared and Paula will go in first and secure the area. They will be staying in the property with you, and taking it in turns to keep watch. We've installed a temporary CCTV and video intercom system with Professor McCarty's permission."

Bella took a deep breath. She didn't want the intrusion of a constant security presence even though she knew it was necessary.

"And what about when we go out?"

"One of us will drive you, and the other will accompany you to wherever you want to go," explained Paula. "We will dress according to the occasion so we blend in. If you want to meet friends for coffee or a meal, we'll sit at a table nearby."

"Do you carry weapons?"

"No, Professor, we are trained in threat diffusion, hand-to-hand combat and martial arts, and find those are the most useful skills in our line of work," explained Jared. "We have firearms licences for when we operate in the USA and certain other countries, where it's expected that we carry, but the carrying of a gun on home soil would be more trouble than it's worth."

"To be honest, I don't think we'll be going out very much," replied Bella. "I'd like to meet my friend Angela for a coffee, but it's not an absolute. I haven't yet told her I'm in town."

"Bella, doesn't Angela's boyfriend work for Luis Molina?" I realised.

"Shit, yeah. I probably shouldn't risk it."

"If you want to see her, you can, Mrs Masen," advised Jenks. "Besides, most of the Biological Sciences Faculty knows you're up before the Proctors this week anyway."

"Bloody gossip factory," I muttered. It was inevitable, but that didn't stop me from feeling pissed off that our personal lives were being discussed and dissected for other people's fun.

"I'll think about it," murmured Bella.

It wasn't too long before we were pulling up into the driveway of Emmett and Rosalie's house. Bella had been crossing and uncrossing her legs for five minutes, and as soon as the car stopped, she made to open the door; Cub was probably jumping on her bladder again.

"Wait." Jared's tone was sharp. "Someone's scoping the place out from that old red Fiat."

"Jared, go see who it is. We'll wait here," commanded Jenks.

Jared walked out and went to the guy, who lowered his window. He was in his mid-twenties and surprisingly smiley.

"It's a guy, dark haired, young. I don't recognise him," Jenks mumbled as Jared got closer, and started to type into his phone. "I'm gonna run his number plate."

Bella looked over and started bouncing in her seat.

"Oh, that's Seth, Emily's brother." Before any of us could stop her, she was out of the car and running towards the tiny, battered Fiat. Seth stepped out, grinning.

"Bella-Bee!"

"Seth!"

Seth pushed past Jared and swept my Bella into a hug.

"It's so good to see you!"

"And you." He put her down. "You look wonderful, sweetheart, all the better for being up the duff."

"Cheers."

"So, what's with the muscle?" Seth then looked over at me. "Oh, and is this your hubs?"

"Yep, this is Edward, Edward Masen. Edward, this is Seth Young, Emily's brother."

I could see the family resemblance when I got closer. He was tall and lean, with a youthful, rounded face and the same dark hair, olive skin tone and friendly grin as his younger sister.

"Hi Seth."

He grabbed my hand and shook it enthusiastically.

"It's good to meet you, man." He eyed Jared, and then saw Paula and Jenks watching from the car. "So, seriously, why the security?"

"God, Seth, even more stuff has happened since I spoke to you last ..."

Following a dash to the loo, Bella filled Seth in, while I made tea and served up a chocolate cake. Emmett and Rosalie had left it for us, as well as a whole kitchen full of groceries.

"This whole thing gets more and more twisted. No wonder you need protection."

"Yeah, it's sick," Bella agreed, stifling a yawn. "God, I'm so tired. What are you doing in Oxford, by the way, Seth? Did you come up just to see us?"

He looked sheepish.

"Well of course, seeing you was the priority, Bella-Bee ..."

"But?"

"I might have gotten myself a little temporary job ... in the Biological Sciences department."

"Seth! What kind of job?"

He pulled out an Oxford University staff badge, of him with a beard, shaggy hairdo and blue eyes instead of his current clean-cut look and brown eyes.

"You are looking at the Faculty's newest caretaker!"

"Sorry, have you taken this job just to get the inside dirt on Volturi and co?" I asked, somewhat incredulously.

"Yeah, it's the best way to truly understand the people involved and the way everything and everyone links together. And nobody ever takes notice of the maintenance crew." He sensed my hesitation and turned to face me. "I know it seems rather radical."

"Very radical."

"This is a major, major story," he reasoned. "A world-class university, a global pharmaceutical company, mass corruption, eminent professors misusing their positions of power and used and harassed young women robbed of their potential ... it's a tale that needs to be told."

"I hate to break it to you, kid," interrupted Jenks," but you ain't exactly the caretaker-type, even with your old banger of a motor. Everything about you screams 'privileged'."

"Oh, really, mate?" Seth suddenly dropped into a perfect, rough South London accent and walked around the kitchen island with a slow, rolling swagger. "You'd be surprised."

"I stand corrected." Jenks looked impressed.

"Cheers. I'm making good on ten years of shitty, compulsory school drama classes."

"When did you start?" I asked.

"A week and a half ago," he said, after swallowing a mouthful of cake.

"And what have you found so far?"

"Volturi's hardly been there. I've seen him just twice. He seems to go to London a lot, and he's currently in Italy. Alec Brighton is like his head student. They're all working on a project called GB-2682C, testing it on rats, but I overheard them say it would be ready for human tests in June next year."

"That's very soon, isn't it?" asked Bella, yawning yet again.

"It is, Baby. They shouldn't be even talking about human testing until they have at least a year's worth of published data from the rats."

"Hmm ... thanks for telling me that. I'll keep my ear to the ground for more info." Seth looked at his watch. "I'm going to have to go. Sadly, working there means doing Friday nights too. Besides, Bella-Bee, you look shattered."

"Yeah, I'm having to fight for my energy levels with our Cub, who is winning!" she joked, her delicate hands stroking her growing tummy. "Take care of yourself, Seth."

"Will do. If you happen to see me around, promise you'll ignore me?"

"Will do."

He kissed Bella on the cheek, shook all our hands, and ran out the door.

While Bella had a nap, Jared and Paula checked the temporary video monitoring and intercom system they had installed, which covered the whole house and garden. Jenks checked in with his various associates and I called Sarah to check on Jake and Nessie, who were fine, she reported, but missing us.

Jenks bid us farewell after about an hour as he had to return to London, leaving me with Jared and Paula. They didn't make small talk with me; instead they conversed in low tones between themselves. I got on with making dinner and by the time Bella came downstairs, I was putting the finishing touches on a baked chicken dish with tomato sauce out of the ingredients left for us.

"Smells amazing, Foxy. I'm starving."

"Why doesn't that surprise me, Baby?" I replied, kissing her soft lips. She wrapped both her arms around my neck and took our kiss deeper, pressing herself against me.

"Starving for more than food," she whispered eventually.

"Baby, we're not alone in this house."

"I can be quiet. I've done it before, as you well know ..."

"Bella."

She ignored my warning tone, and dropped her hand, ghosting it over my crotch. It felt so fucking good, I nearly turned her around and bent her over the kitchen counter then and there, but just about managed to control myself.

"Edward."

"Upstairs?"

She shook her head.

"Up against that giant fridge. Now. They could walk in a heartbeat, but that's kind of thrilling, isn't it?"

I looked around the room and saw Jared at the door, about to step inside. Our eyes met and I looked away, silently telling him to take a hike. He subtly nodded, turned around and closed the door so quietly that Bella didn't seem to notice. I relaxed, knowing that we wouldn't actually be disturbed.

"Does that excite you, my lovely vixen, knowing that we could be caught,in flagrante, at any moment?"

Her breath quickened.

"Yeah."

I tightened my arms around her waist and cupped her ass. She wasn't wearing any underwear under her swishy, black skirt. I turned her so her forehead rested against the cold metal of the fridge door and placed my lips on the back of her neck. She sighed and trembled.

"Stay there just a second, my love."

"No, don't leave ..."

I stepped away for just a moment, to turn the small camera that was facing us towards the other end of the kitchen.

"Turn around, Bella."

When she did, I pressed against her, and placed my lips on her collarbone. From there I kissed my way down the ravine of her ever-increasing cleavage.

"Yes, don't stop," she breathed, keeping her voice low and husky.

I pushed up her t-shirt and pulled down the cups of her bra, to suck at her juicy nipples, while I felt between her soft, velvety thighs. Glorious heat emanated from her pussy, and as I inched my hand further up, I could feel the slickness of her arousal on her skin.

"Rub your tits for me, Baby," I instructed, while I migrated further south. She duly complied as I pushed up her flirty skirt, and licked and caressed my way over her sweet little bump, all the time stroking her wet lower lips. Before long, my mouth met my fingers, and she was starting to make short little gasps. I fucking loved it when she made short little gasps.

"More, Foxy."

I slipped her thigh over my shoulder to taste her sweetness and was rewarded by her shaking and juddering to a climax. As she caught her breath, she grabbed my hair and tugged so I looked up at her.

With her eyes focussed intently on my, she murmured,

"Fuck me."

I stood, and her hands immediately pulled at my trousers.

"Patience ..."

She raised her eyebrow at me, and licked her red lips. I kissed them and let her pull out my cock. She guided it to her waiting, wet pussy and then slipped her hands around my neck. I pushed inside her and braced her against the fridge in one swift movement, and tried not to groan as her heat surrounded me. I thrust inside her, and she let me take all her weight, wrapping her legs around me so I could go as deep as possible.

"Yes, yes, Foxy ... "

Suddenly she was in spasms around my cock, and biting my shoulder.

"A-amazing ..."

"You came again?"

"And I'll come once more, I bet," she murmured.

I slid my hands under her bum and squeezed. She responded by biting my shoulder. I continued pumping into her, while sucking at her neck, and astonishingly, her walls started to flutter and tighten once again. This time I was close too, however, and as she clamped down around me in the throes of ecstasy, I came so hard I felt light-headed with the pleasure.

"Fuck, so good, Baby."

"Mmm ... I love you Foxy. Thank you for taking a risk with me."

-cc-

Bella

Three days after we arrived, on a crisp, frosty Oxford Monday, The Fox and I made our way to the Oxford University Personnel Office, with Jared and Paula in close proximity. We ended up not leaving Emmett and Rosalie's house all weekend. I had been hit by jetlag and spent a ridiculous amount of time sleeping.

When I was awake, we put together the written complaint about Volturi, and the supporting evidence we had gathered, ready to present ahead of our hearing with the Proctors. It included all the correspondence Volturi had sent Edward and me, the information from Irina, and a statement from Bree with evidence about her relationship with Slimy.

Undoubtedly, the complaint we were going to lodge against Volturi was going to cause serious waves, especially because it drew in Professors Banner and Molina. Jenks had truly come good with the information he had gathered about them.

Doug Banner did have a serious gambling problem, and had come close to bankruptcy several times in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Horseracing had been his weakness, but more recently, he had discovered online poker. The only way he had avoided financial difficulty in the past few years was to sell some of his wife's Eclipse shares. He still had enough left on which to retire comfortably but maintained a vested interest in the company doing well. Owning shares in a pharmaceutical company was not against the rules, but failing to declare them as a conflict of interest most definitely was, and Doug Banner had most definitely not declared them.

Luis Molina was unfortunate in that his ex-wife had taken him to the cleaners in their divorce, leaving him scraping by while she lived off his savings in the south of France. He loved his work and his research, but supplemented his income consulting for the Clinical Microbiology department at Eclipse. He wrote papers enthusiastically supporting their antibiotic products and got paid very well for it, and Eclipse also paid him a retainer. He had declared his extra income from papers, but not his monthly retainer fee.

Jenks gathered further evidence of Aro Volturi's current affair with his new PhD student Jessica Stanley, and confirmed that Doug Banner and Luis Molina knew about it; none of them had informed the university. He also found out that he had been sleeping with two undergraduate students in Cambridge before his move to Oxford, and paid them off with jewellery and glowing references.

The Personnel Office was right in the heart of the city, which was its usual bustling self, but when we walked through the doors, we were greeted by calm and quiet. The only person visible was a meek-looking, mousy-haired receptionist in her thirties, who was filing her nails.

"Good morning," The Fox began, and she looked up. "I'm ..."

"Professor Masen," she gushed. "I remember you from the summer."

I glanced at Edward, and he looked pensive for a moment before suddenly smiling at the now wide-eyed receptionist.

"That's right, uh, um…" His eyes fell on her necklace, a gold chain with her name on it. "... Sally?"

"You remembered my name!" She exclaimed, apparently unaware of the necklace she was wearing, and started to flutter her eyelashes at him. I felt my possessive streak kick in, bubbling up from deep inside me, but I supressed it; her adoration could only be useful right now. "What can I do for you?"

"I just need a minute or two with Tia Castleton. I'm sure she's very busy, and I know I have no right to ask as I don't technically work here anymore, but is there anything you can do?"

"Of course, Professor." She picked up a phone. "Tia? Can Professor Masen have a moment with you? He's here in reception ... Yes, Edward Masen. He's asking to see you ... okay, no problem." She put the phone down and looked up, smiling beatifically. "She's going to come out in a minute."

"Thank you Sally."

We sat on two leather chairs and soon enough, a side door opened and a tall, mixed-race woman in her forties emerged, with dark brown, wild, Afro hair, and caramel skin.

"Edward, great to see you again."

"Tia." He kissed her briefly on both cheeks. "This is my wife, Bella."

"I had heard you got married and ran across the pond to Harvard. Congratulations. Nice to meet you, Bella." She leaned across and shook my hand. "What brings you by?"

Edward glanced at Sally who was looking at all of us in rapt fascination, absorbing every word.

"We would like to register a complaint about the conduct of a Faculty member," he practically whispered.

"Uh-huh," she replied, as though she was unsurprised.

"I've already completed the paperwork." He gestured her to folder we had compiled. "There is also a substantial amount of supporting evidence."

"I think you'd better come through."

We followed her through the side door and along a winding corridor until we reached an end office.

"Come in." She showed us through and The Fox nearly dropped the folder when he saw who was sitting on a sofa in the corner of the room.

Bree.

"I believe you know my new acquaintance," Tia said, smirking slightly.

"Good morning, Professor, Bella," Bree murmured, standing up.

She was dressed in a simple, grey shift dress and black cardigan with black flat boots, her hair now a more elegant shade of honey blonde, and slightly longer than the last time we saw her. She still looked on edge, but she was nowhere near the tremulous wreck we'd met in New York, and to our surprise, she hugged us warmly.

"You're here?" I mumbled into her shoulder. "You never said you were coming. You gave your statement and the evidence to Max, and Jenks put it in the folder."

"After I handed it over, I imagined Aro's face as he found out about the complaint, as all his indiscretions came spilling out in public. Suddenly I wanted him know that I stood up to him. That I filed the complaint. That I wasn't afraid of him anymore and it was about time the world knew too."

Tia promised to process the complaint straight away and inform the Proctors ahead of our hearing that afternoon. We returned to the house with Bree for lunch. She had flown in late the previous night and stayed in an airport hotel before getting the first bus to Oxford this morning. She was intending to stay for our hearing with the Proctors, and then get the bus back to the hotel to spend just one night with Don before returning to Brooklyn to get back to Robbie.

"Ach, this is a nice pile of bricks," Bree said, walking in.

"Emmett McCarty's wife is a very successful divorce lawyer."

"That explains it," she replied, sitting at the breakfast bar while Edward poured tea for us. "Thank you for making me lunch. Being fed by you in your friends' spectacular houses is getting to be a habit."

"Maybe you should actually come to our house," I suggested, not for the first time. "You could bring Robbie for the weekend, meet the dogs ..."

"Aye, that does sound nice. I'd love to see Harvard. When this is all over, I'll definitely come."

"I still can't get over the fact that you're here. The last time we saw you, you were wracked with nerves and I was so sure you were going to do another runner," commented Edward. "I know we've been talking a lot, and to your Uncle Jeff too, but ..."

"I have hope now. That's the difference," she interjected, smiling. "Don's firm are supporting him to do his American qualifications so he can transfer over, and I might try to get back into research."

"You know I'd support you with that, and so would Carlisle Cullen."

"Thank you. It would be a long way off though."

"Maybe not. When you're ready, just ask."

-cc-

Despite knowing that we were going into the hearing with the Proctors armed with a counter-complaint and with plenty of support in the form of Jenks, Bree and our security detail, I still felt a chill go through me as we walked through the doors of the offices. Jared walked beside me and The Fox flanked my other side as we made our way down the wide corridor towards the hearing room.

Paula, her hair loose around her shoulders, wearing a fake Oxford University staff badge, walked a few steps behind so it didn't look like she was with us. The nerves got worse when I saw Professor Banner and Professor Volturi talking outside the door. Edward took hold of my hand when they noticed us.

"Ah, Isabella and Edward," Slimy began in his reedy voice. "You are here."

My stomach lurched and flipped; Cub detested him too.

Volturi took a step towards us but before he could get closer than arms' length, Jared stepped slightly in front of me.

"Please keep your distance," he warned.

Volturi put his hands up with a bemused smirk and returned to Banner. He didn't notice Bree and Jenks behind Paula.

A young clerk stepped out of the hearing room then, preventing any further awkwardness while waiting.

"Professors Banner and Volturi, please follow me. Professor Masen and Miss Swan, please wait for a minute."

True to her word, the clerk returned very shortly, and we were shown to seats around a large meeting table. The Proctors were sitting at one end, and opposite us were Professor Banner and Professor Volturi.

Jenks and Bree came in too and were instructed to sit at the bottom end of the table; they were introduced as our witnesses, which was allowed by the university as part of the hearing room protocol, but their names were not mentioned. Volturi and Banner gave them a cursory glance, but Bree kept her head down and Volturi didn't recognise her thanks to her altered appearance.

"Good afternoon," began the Senior Proctor, a fairly elderly, portly man with a silver comb-over. "Thank you for coming. Some of you have come rather a long way, I realise. Now, as to the reason we are here ..."

He gave a summary of the complaint Professor Banner had filed. Banner had stated that Edward and I had begun an inappropriate relationship while I was his supervisee, and as a result my academic qualifications were compromised. As he spoke, I fixed my gaze on Banner, who looked everywhere but me. He knew he was peddling shit.

"Professor Masen, would you like to respond?"

Edward swallowed hard.

"The only part of the complaint with truth in it, sir, is that Isabella and I did begin a relationship while I was her research supervisor. However, I informed Professor Banner that I would not be marking her dissertation before we got together. Isabella had become a paid researcher on my team and her work so strongly supported my hypotheses that I felt I could not be objective about her thesis."

"Could you tell us how your relationship developed?"

Edward summarised the first few months of our relationship, from feeling obliged to take me on because of John Gerandy's sudden retirement to our mutual attraction, to the events of that fateful Christmas party.

"When Isabella returned in January, we had an honest discussion about our feelings, and realised that our connection was more than a sexual attraction. We were falling in love, and it felt too precious to expose to the world."

"That's all very romantic, Edward," interjected Banner, sneering. "But you were in prime position to influence Isabella's academic progress."

I was getting tired of being talked about without contributing and shifted in my seat.

"Miss Swan, would you like to respond?"

"I would, sir," I replied, unable to keep a slight edge out of my voice. "Professor Banner." Banner dragged his eyes up to look at me, finally. "Edward was my research supervisor. He taught no classes on the undergraduate programme, and in the preceding ten years, he had only had four undergrads in his lab because he was not keen on working with them. I was only his supervisee because of Professor Gerandy's retirement.

"I graduated at the top of my class at one of the country's most prestigious girls' boarding schools, and top of my class in my first and second years at Oxford. I won every single scholarship I was eligible for, proving my academic record was stellar before I met Edward. As head of the Biological Sciences Faculty, and my collegiate supervisor at Lady Margaret Hall, you would have had far more influence than he."

"We have seen your academic transcripts, Miss Swan ..." stated one of the other Proctors.

"Mrs Masen," I corrected.

"Apologies, Mrs Masen. You are correct. They are excellent. The only question is whether your thesis was marked favourably."

"But Edward has already stated that he didn't mark it."

"But, Isabella, it was marked by Professors McCarty and Hale, Edward's close friends," replied Banner.

"They didn't know about my relationship with Isabella when they marked it, and I didn't ask them to mark it favourably. Bella earned that grade, like she earned every single grade, because of hard work and her brilliant mind."

"I have reviewed your dissertation, Isabella," said Volturi, all of a sudden. "It is very good, but I don't think I would agree with the high grade they gave you."

"With all due respect, Professor Volturi," I bit back, "you are hardly objective ..." My sharp tone surprised him and the Proctors. "But if a re-mark is what the Proctors want, I won't dispute it. I'm also prepared to re-sit all my final-year examinations to prove my academic ability."

"Mrs Masen, that will not be necessary," replied the Senior Proctor. "We are satisfied that you earned your First Class Honours Degree and the Gold Medal. Although you and Professor Masen should have notified us and the Personnel department of your relationship as soon as it was established, it is clear that there was no academic compromise on either side."

"Thank you." The Fox's voice was quiet but the relief we both felt was palpable.

"That is it?" Volturi on the other hand spoke loudly, his face turning a disgusting shade of puce. "He takes advantage of his young student and there is no consequence?"

"How exactly did he take advantage of me, Professor?" I asked, daring myself to hold his cold gaze. "I loved him almost from the first moment we met. He never took anything from me that I didn't give freely. Whatever people may think about the differences in our ages and positions, our relationship is completely equal. He shows me that he loves me every single moment that we are together.

"Despite knowing that we would constantly have to deal with people making assumptions about us, he married me. He has given me everything I wanted, and he has done everything in his power to protect me from the bad things that have been thrown at us."

"Like this complaint," Edward added pointedly. "Over the past few months we've felt utterly harassed."

"It sounds to me like you are brainwashed, Isabella," Slimy retorted. I was about to retaliate, but Edward gripped my hand, and I held my tongue.

"Professor Masen, you mentioned harassment," said the Senior Proctor. "Are you are referring to the complaint you made with the Personnel Office this morning?"

"That is correct."

"Oh, what complaint is that?" asked Professor Banner. He seemed completely obtuse, as though there was no possibility that we could have found out his indiscretions.

The Senior Proctor nodded to the clerk who placed documents in front of all of us.

"Professor and Mrs Masen, along with a third complainant, have filed a very thorough complaint about the conduct of three professors in the Biological Sciences Faculty, namely you and Professor Volturi, and Professor Luis Molina."

"Are you serious?" exclaimed Banner, grabbing the document. He flipped through the pages, skim-reading, and suddenly went pale as he realised what we knew. "Oh, right. Um, who is Bree McKay?"

"Bree? No ..." Volturi looked up sharply and picked up his document. "She would not do this," he whispered to himself, "not that stupida puttana." As he read it, his face went from puce to purple and beads of sweat broke out on his forehead. "Stupida puttana!" he repeated, louder.

"That would be me he is calling a 'stupid whore' in Italian," piped up Bree from the other end of the table. "I'm Bree McKay, nee Tanner."

Volturi turned and did a double take as he finally took notice of her. She got up, moved closer to the rest of us and smoothed down her hair and looked him in the eye.

"Bree,carissima," he said, softening his voice and smiling at her, as if he hadn't just insulted her in Italian. He turned on the charm big time, and although it made me nauseous, I could see how some girls could fall for it. "What are you doing here?"

For a moment, I thought she was going to burst into tears, but she held her nerve and I felt her resolve harden.

"I came because I thought it was about time that the world knew about the way you seduce young women, make them promises, and then cast them aside when they are no longer useful to you."

"Bree, that is not very nice. I knew you had a crush on me, and you have had 'problems' but to make these things up ..."

"You will find, when the Personnel Office speak to you, that amongst the supporting evidence I provided with my complaint are copies of every single email you sent me, photos of our trip to Paris and the birth certificate of our son, along with a photograph of him which shows his resemblance to you."

"You lie," Volturi hissed, his eyes narrowing as his façade dropped. He had gone purple again. "How dare you lie?"

"How dare you be such a hypocrite? You only made this complaint about Professor Masen and Bella because you wanted her as a conquest and she saw right through you. When you couldn't seduce her, you tried to destroy their reputations and their happy home life."

"I am bringing this meeting to a close," interjected the Senior Proctor, who had clearly had enough of the tension in the room. "We have dealt with the matter for which the hearing was brought, and we are satisfied that no academic compromise occurred."

I let out a sigh, as did Edward, and then he wrapped his arm around my shoulder to give me a brief but sweet embrace.

"What happens next, sir?" I asked.

"Professors Banner and Volturi, please stay here; the head of the Personnel Office will be coming shortly to talk to you. Professor and Mrs Masen, you and your party can step out. We will meet you in the building lobby in fifteen minutes to give you the paperwork, and then you will be free to leave."

"Just like that, they can go?" protested Volturi, standing up while Banner held his head in his hands.

We ignored him and left the room, our heads held high, Bree's highest of all.

-cc-

Thank you for reading! I can't wait to hear what you think.

The next update will be in two weeks.

CC xxx