I don't own Twilight. What I own is my character's behavior, personality, background, and the plot of the story.
Author's note at the end of the chapter.
Edward is left alone in the living room with no sound but the one in his head. He shakes his head as he tries to make sense of what just happened. Sighing out loud, he decides to sleep it off, yet finds himself awake despite the sedatives the ER doctor loaded him with.
Life has a way of twisting things for him beyond recognition. He doesn't recognize the person he has become recently. He doesn't recognize Bella either. No matter how he looks at things, they make no sense. How did he get here? Why did he get here? What was he thinking? Testing Bella to see if she cares? Neglecting his parental duties as part of his ploy?
No wonder Bella wants nothing to do with him! Of what use would an immature boy be to her? Only an immature fool would pull ploys like this thinking that they will fix things. Real care isn't grand gestures and huge ploys. Real care is in being present every day. It's in being consistent and kind. Grand gestures are for people who need to make up for their low effort. Real care is about putting in a lot of effort.
He needs to cool his friendship with Maya, which if he is being honest with himself isn't doing a lot for him. Maya isn't bad per se. She is just someone who is in a different life phase than him. He doesn't want to end their friendship. She has become too valuable of a person in his life to do that, but it doesn't mean that he hasn't been complacent in setting boundaries with her.
He will get his shit together, be more present as a parent, make it up to Bella, and hang out less with Maya. Now that he manages to create a game plan for the future, he finally sleeps hours later feeling better about everything.
He wakes up to the sound of knocking on the bedroom door but before he can get up and open it he hears Bella says, "Sweetie, your daddy is sleeping. Leave him be."
A few seconds later, he hears the shuffling sound of reluctant feet and then complete silence that is only interrupted by the sound of the AC that encompasses him. He contemplates getting up to help Bella with Cece since Bella stayed late waiting for him, but one glance in the mirror changes his mind. While his nose looks slightly bigger, his eye is a different story altogether.
A couple of hours later, he finally manages to drag himself out of bed and he leaves the house to get cinnamon rolls from Bella's favorite bakery figuring out that if that doesn't help him, it won't do him any harm.
His sunglasses are perched at the highest point on his nose to provide his black eye the maximum amount of coverage and protection from the sun which slightly camouflages his identity. That is why he spots Tanya before she spots him.
She looks thinner than she was when they were still together, or maybe she has lost weight since her dad went to jail. After all, not everything is about him. Walking into the restaurant he is having a late breakfast in, she is still the picture perfect of grace and poise with the mannerism that only someone who grew up with generational wealth can have. Her wardrobe is as immaculate as ever that if he didn't know her, he wouldn't have doubted her rich background, but he does know better.
The black credit card that was always within arms reach was no longer around. In its place, she carried an ordinary credit card that most middle-class people carried. It doesn't escape his notice that she carries a Gucci bag that he gifted her three summers ago. Once upon a time, Tanya wouldn't have been caught dead carrying a bag from the last season. The entourage that signaled her importance was missing, probably a result of her fall from grace. Her restaurant choice might signal that she has money but the order she makes doesn't.
Edward almost feels pity for her. Then he remembers that this is the same woman who almost killed his daughter and every sad thought he carried for her evaporated into thin air.
Observing all of those things make Edward fail to notice the look of recognition in her eyes. "Edward, fancy seeing you here," she states theatrically as she sits in the seat opposite him.
"Tanya," mutters in greeting. He has no interest in pleasantries with her.
Tanya raises an eyebrow and laughs coldly before asking him, "That's what you have for me? Am I no longer deserving of a proper hello from you? Five years just spelled down the drain?"
Keeping a fake smile on her face, Edward huffs in irritation then tells him, "Excuse me for not having any fuzzy feelings toward the woman who almost killed my child."
"Oh please! You know that I loved you. Had I known she was your daughter, I wouldn't have done that to her, but then again, for me to know that you would have had to know first and we both know that the love of your life hadn't bothered letting you in on that tiny detail," she tells him muttering the last sentence sarcastically.
Edward ignores the slight jab directed at him and rolls his eyes behind his sunglasses and states, "Excuse me for not having any fuzzy feelings for a woman that tried to kill a child. Does that sound better?"
"Definitely."
"Awesome."
Both stare at each other in silence. Neither willing to risk looking away. Edward has always thought that he has made peace with how things went down. He doesn't think he would have quit drinking or become a better father had things not happened the way they did. He understand that he needed the shock he got to change, yet a part of him can't help but wonder. What would have happened had Tanya not set her sights on him? Maybe eventually Bella would have told him about the accident and that would have been enough to shake him out of his long stupor.
Maybe he would have never changed and Bella would have broken up with him, but at the very least, he would have been present for his daughter. It is not like it takes that much to be a good father legally speaking. Pay child support, be there for the trophies, and make himself available every other weekend. God knows that Bella wouldn't have trusted him with more. He would have been present for all her milestones and seen her growing up, not as much as he should have, but enough.
"Why the sunglasses inside?" Tanya is the one to break the silence.
"Trying to start a trend," he replies dryly.
She gives him a giggle as fake as the diamond necklace on her neck then studies him for a minute before she replies, "Hungover on a workday? What a shame!"
"I am not. I stopped drinking a while ago," Edward mutters defensively before he can stop himself from taking her bait.
She shakes her head slowly and tells him, "I see some things never change."
Edward takes a moment to keep his voice neutral then tells her, "l am not drinking."
Tanya laughs then tells him, "Don't get so defensive. I totally believe you. I was just talking about your lying skills."
This time Edward is prepared for her words and instead of letting them get to him, he tells her, "You might be too blind to see the change in me, but I am not blind to the change in you."
At the confused look on her face, he continue, "You carry an ordinary card, wearing an ordinary bag, with an ordinary number in your bank account. You have become ordinary, a nobody if I am being honest. You have become the personification of everything you have ever hated. I would be laughing if it wasn't so pathetic."
For a moment, Edward worries that a vein will pop in her forehead. He readies himself for her to jump over the table and attack. A minute later, he even commands her in his head for her self-restraint.
She tried to poison her child for her mother's lesser crime. It's a surprise she hasn't choked him yet.
Taking advantage of her great restraint, he decides to press harder, "Tell me, is your daddy aware of your fall from grace? You would think he would help you maintain your previous lifestyle. It's a shame that we have come to a day when a father puts his interest above that of his child."
Then Tanya can't help but rise to the attack and clap back, "All of my father's money is gone. It has been expropriated by the federal government, and my father is in jail so it's not like he can help me."
"Keep telling yourself that love. Maybe after you repeat it enough times you will come to believe it," Edward tells her in a patronizing tone, the term of endearment he used to call her before no longer holding the sentiment it used to.
"What do you mean?" Tanya demands.
At his continuous silence, Tanya demands again with even more urgency than before, "What do you mean?"
Edward smirks as he tells her, "You can't tell me that you don't know."
"Know what?" Tanya asks.
"About the offshore accounts," Edward answers as he brings his drink to his lips.
"Daddy doesn't have offshore accounts," Tanya mutters defending her dad, but even she doesn't sound that sure of her words.
Edward throws his head back and laughs loudly before he tells her, "Don't be ridiculous. Your daddy made a shit load of money he couldn't account for its source. There is only so much money laundering his company could do before the IRS and the FBI came sniffing around. The rest went to offshore accounts."
Tanya shakes her head in denial and tells him, "That's not true. If Daddy had that money, he would have given it to me."
"Or, he would have hired a financial investor on the down low to keep that money growing, so that the moment he is out of jail, he can go back to his glory days while living somewhere exotic," he states smirking.
Tanya shakes her head silently refusing to believe him but Edward knows that he has gotten to her, "It's sad really. He could have at least used the network of people on his payroll to help you get a better job instead of letting you work in retail."
He stands up knowing that his job here is done. He never paid her back for what she did to Cece, for the role she played in the ending of his relationship with Bella. Active, or passive, she played a role in the downhill his life has taken years ago. It's now time for her to pay her dues, and he just made sure of it. If there was one thing, Tanya placed above everyone and everything; it would be her relationship with her dad. Shaking that relationship with him is the ultimate revenge he could have had.
Hello lovely people,
Sorry for the late update. Our internet has been out recently and I have been busy preparing for my graduation ceremony which was on the 20th. Between those two things, I decided to take a short break from updating so I could give myself more time to think over the future events of the story.
To reply to a comment, this will be a HEA. If the way the story is written, or the way Bella acts adds too much stress to your life and that makes you stop reading it. I understand and I respect that choice. For me, to write a story I am happy with, I need to be faithful to the Bella I created, and I need to write a healing process that doesn't do a disservice to abuse victims. Furthermore, Bella isn't angry at him for hanging out with Maya. Her frustration and anger primarily stem from his absence as a parent. Sure, Bella is in love with Edward, but that doesn't mean that her jealousy will come before her daughter's best interest. Bella is a parent first and foremost. She is someone who has dedicated her life to her daughter and thus will show her anger on behalf of her daughter before she shows her jealousy.
What do you think of Tanya's return? Did you see it coming? Do you think she will appear again? What do you think will happen when Edward returns home? How will Edward behave from now on here?
Tell me your thoughts in a review section and I will reply to it here if I feel that it requires a reply.
Until my next update,
Stay safe.
