I don't own twilight. What I own is my character's behavior, personality, background, and plot of my story.
Author's Note at the end.
Both of them sit in the dark of the parked car, "Are you sure you want to go alone?" Jacob finally says after he sighs.
She looks at him and answers, "Its better for me to go alone. Your presence will make it worse."
"That doesn't answer my question," he tells her.
She pushes her fingers through her hair and pulls it into a ponytail using the hair tie around her wrest. This is her fighting hairstyle. Jacob knows that. He knows that when she pulls her hair into a pony tail she means business. More so, Edward probably does too. Whether it will make a difference to him or not, is up to debate.
"I will be okay."
"Why can't you do this later?" he asks in concern.
"I have put this off enough as it is. This fight is more than five years in the making," she tells him.
"So you think you will fight?" he asks.
"I know we will."
"Will you tell him about the accident?"
"No. It's too early for him to find out. There is no way of predicting how he will react. It's better to keep him in the dark for now," she replies.
She opens the door of the car and steps one foot out of it when a hand on her arm stops her," I still don't understand why I can't put a wire on you?"
"Because I want to keep the last shred of dignity I have left," she replies and gets out of the car. She walks into the building and waves at the security that has been here since before she and Edward broke up. She punches the elevator button and steps into it once it arrives.
She swings back and forth on her heels as she watches the numbers increase till they land on 10. The door opens and she steps out and is hit by the fluorescent light of the hallway. She looks down and walks slowly towards his apartment, counting each footstep she rakes until she reaches 40.
She pauses in her place and stares at the door, willing herself to ring it. She has the upper hand. He can't take Cece from her. She has the button in the folded sleeve of her blouse all she needs to do is press it and Jacob will be with her in 3 minutes flat.
She has got this. Nothing will happen to her. She has put this off long enough as it is.
She rings the door.
After a couple of seconds of silence, she hears a horal, "it's open." She sighs to herself touches the screen to make sure the phone is recording, then takes the handle of the door and twists it before pushing open the door.
She enters and she blinks her eyes at the utter darkness that she plunged herself into. Is it gonna be one of those days? She wonders to herself as she feels around the wall looking for the lights to turn them on.
"Don't" he yells when she turns the light. She ignores his words and turn to look at him. He is sitting on the floor in front of a coffee table with two empty cans of beer and a third in his hand. She snatches the beer out of his hands then runs to the kitchen and spills it in the sink.
She walks toward him and sits opposite of him before she says, "it's almost like before we met. Years of rehabilitating your ass, and your only coping mechanism is still drinking. In the years I was gone, I didn't miss much, did I?" she asks sarcastically.
He raises his head to look at her, and she notices his bloodshot eyes, and pale face, and for a second she is worried about him before he shatters those thoughts with the vitriol he aims at her, "Fuck off, I waited for you but you took too long so I decided to help myself to a drink to relax, but you had to be a bitch and spill it all in the kitchen's sink."
"I apologize sincerely for keeping you waiting kind sir, but you see, I had to treat the bruises all over my back because someone decided to continuously shove me against the wall," she replies sarcastically.
When her words are met with a blank stare and silence instead of an apologetic look or a sorry, she gets up and walks towards the kitchen to get water while saying, "why am I not surprised that you don't give a fuck about the damage you did to me. It's not like you ever did back then," She mutters the last part more to herself than to him.
"Oh please, this isn't about you. Stop trying to be the center of attention. This is about the fact that you exiled me out of the life of my daughter," replies yelling the last part then throwing the empty cans in the general direction of Bella.
"Oh no you didn't just say this bullshit. This is about me. It all comes back to me. You want answers we will need to talk about what you did to me."
"Okay then, talk," he mutters looking anywhere but at her and tapping his fingers on the table.
"Drink," she replies feeling like a sail in a windless sea.
"Why?" he asks his eyes
"Because I don't want to talk to a drunk. The quicker you drink the sooner you will be sober," She answers while giving him a hard look with her arms crossed across her chest.
"There happy? Now can you answer my question," he tells her once he downs the entire glass of water.
"I didn't know that I was pregnant when I left," she tells him while rubbing her forearms and looking at the ground. it's like all of her courage went out of the window the moment she stepped foot into the room.
"It doesn't matter. You shouldn't have left the way you did. Instead of talking it out with me you choose to leave over something small and insignificant," he replies glaring back.
"How do you know it was small and insignificant?" She asks looking at the floor as she slowly walks toward the couch opposite him and sits down.
"If it wasn't small and insignificant I would have known about it." She might think that he didn't love her enough or the right way, but Edward knows that he would have noticed anything important.
"Oh you did know about it and you didn't give a flying fuck about it," she replies her voice showing her frustration with him. Years of dating and he never realized that he was treating her terribly, and as if that isn't enough five years of separation and his interest hasn't been piqued enough to look back on their relationship and question his action. The fact that he has yet to realize the ramification of his action is even more hurtful than the actions themselves.
"I doubt that I knew your reason and I doubt that I didn't give a fuck about it."
"Really, how do you know that?" Bella claps back challenging him.
"Because I fucking love you and I would have done anything for you," he replies his voice getting louder.
"Anything?"
"Anything!" he replies close to screaming.
"How about not screaming at me? How about treating me like a person? How about not yelling at me in front of people? How about not embarrassing me in front of people? How about not getting drunk and scaring the shit out of me? How about not manhandling me? How about not abusing me?" she screams at him her chest heaving as she watches him.
"I never abused you," he replies dismissively.
"Your behavior would say otherwise," she replies calmer her tone matching his.
"That doesn't even have anything to do with you keeping my daughter a secret," he replies irritated that the topic of the discussion has changed to something he can't defend himself from.
"Our daughter."
"Same different. Stop beating around the bush and answer me," he demands.
She is silent for a full minute wringing her fingers before she raises her head, looks him square in the eye, and replies, "Because I wanted to protect her."
"From me?" he asks in disbelief.
"Yes I wanted to protect her from what you did to me. I never want her to experience it," she replies calmly.
"I never abused you. We were in a toxic relationship, but not an abusive one."
She jumps up and tells him, "See? You are refusing to even acknowledge your role in the demise of our relationship and instead trying to make it a fifty-fifty thing in which both of us are equally at fault instead of acknowledging that you hurt me, it wasn't a fifty-fifty, you are the sole responsible person for the demise of our relationship."
"It doesn't matter. I am her dad. I should have been allowed to know her and raise her. You had no right," he replies ignoring her last statement.
She sighs heavily knowing that there is no getting to him, "Well, you can think of me what you want, truth is I did what was right for her."
Now it was Edward's turn to be angry, "Right for her? Growing up without a father is not right for her."
"You are mistaken if you think that your presence would have been better than your absence. My daughter doesn't deserve to be exposed to your bullshit. She deserves better, and as long as I live she will have better," she replies getting up ready to leave.
"I will sue for custody," he threatens mirroring her by getting up, but his drinking makes a difference since he sways on his feet.
She looks him up, and down in disgust before she replies, "We will see about that."
"I will and no judge will take your words seriously. I will be awarded her custody," he mutters flailing his arms around.
She laughs an empty laugh then replies, "A judge's ruling means dog shit to me. I have my ways of making sure that never happens."
"What are you gonna do? Kill me?" he asks.
"Oh no darling. That's your thing not mine. I prefer methods less messy." she replies then leaves through the door.
She walks toward the elevator ignoring Edward's calls and demands of an answer and steps into it, then makes a call, "I don't care what you do, I don't want him to sue for custody," she replies the moment the phone is picked up.
"How did he find out?"
"Its not important. What is important is you making sure that he doesn't try to sue me," she replies.
"Can I do anything?" He asks sounding giddy.
"anything," She replies.
Hello lovely people,
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Leave me your thoughts in the review section. I know that some of you were expecting something more, but you have to understand that with Bella here on a mission and her experience with Edward as someone not trustworthy and undependable, she won't tell him anything until she is sure that he can't mess up things for her. I know that it has been a long wait for you guys, but certain things have to happen before Edward finds out about the accident, mainly Eleazar and Tanya being removed from the picture which is going to happen in a couple of chapters.
Now to answer a question I received, how does Bella expect Edward to do right by her when she arrived with a child and a husband?
Bella's disappointment with Edward has more to do with his behavior when they were dating and less to do with what has happened since she returned. From her perspective, if he didn't behave the way he did, she wouldn't have had to leave to begin with.
I hope that Bella's choice of words makes more sense.
Until my next update,
Stay Safe.