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.
Tanya's horror-stricken face.
The heavy boot of the FBI agents as they make their way out of the room with Eleazer handcuffed.
Tanya's cries as she runs to her dad and stands in front of him.
People all around murmuring.
The alien looks people give him as he stands in the middle of the ballroom.
The soft words of a female FBI agent that turns harsh as Tanya refuses to listen to reason and needs to be restrained.
Edward stands frozen in time watching the utter chaos explode around him. The people are giving him looks. Some in disgust and others in embarrassment as the room slowly empties until there is no one left but him, Tanya, and Bella.
Tanya grabs her clutch from one of the tables and makes a call. After about a minute of whispering, she walks to Edward and pulls his hands but he doesn't budge.
"Edward, this isn't the time for you to freak out, come on let's go," she tells him sounding irritated.
"Why?" he asks sounding in a trance.
Tanya gives him a look of irritation as she replies, "We need to go with the lawyers to see why daddy was taken."
He looks to the side and gives Bella who is silently watching everything go down a look she can not decipher then mutters, "Why?"
"What do you mean why Edward? Are you intentionally being obtuse? Daddy needs our support right now," she tells him losing her cool and getting irritated with him.
"Why?" Edward parrots again.
"Why? Why? Why? What has gotten into you?" Tanya yells getting into his face and glaring at him.
"Why me?" Edward asks meeting her eyes and not flinching despite the seething glare she is leveling at him.
"Edward you are my fiancee. You are family. Family sticks together," Tanya tells him slowly as if talking to a child. One might think that she was patient with the tone she used, but the vein in her neck popping gives her away.
Edward is silent for a moment not sure of what to say and how to say it. Bella might have been speaking about the FBI raid when she said that her plan is better than his, but he doesn't think so. Getting the opportunity to break the news to Tanya now after her dad just got dragged to jail by the feds feels like an even better revenge than the one he had planned. Sure he can no longer get back at Eleazar, but Tanya almost killed his daughter. He hasn't forgiven her for that. It's time for her to pay her does and get the wake-up call she deserves.
"No."
"What do you mean no? You have to come with me."
"No. I won't. We aren't family Tanya. We have never been family Tanya and we will never be family," he tells her firmly with a neutral expression.
Tanya opens her mouth and closes it a couple of times in surprise before she finally says, "You are breaking up with me?"
When Edward stays silent and doesn't answer, she leans forward and places her hands on her knees as if the wind got knocked out of her.
She straightens up and walks around and cracks her knuckles in rage as she looks everywhere and everywhere but him.
When she spots Bella she screams, "what the fuck are you doing here? Get out."
To both Edward and Tanya's surprise, Bella doesn't move an inch and instead sits down in the closest chair and states, "oh no, I am very comfortable here." she then tilts her head to the side and raises an eyebrow with a challenging playful glint in her eyes.
If it wasn't for the sheer surprise Edward was feeling at seeing that, Edward would have had a very different physical reaction and a different line of thought. The Bella he knew didn't like confrontations. Although this Bella is very different from the one he knew and he doesn't know what to do with her.
"Don't go after her. Your problem is with me. Don't drag her into something she has nothing to do with," Edward tells her firmly with a serious look on his face. While he would love to tear her a new one over how she fucked him over, Bella got him a golden opportunity and he owes it to her to protect her from Tanya.
Tanya barks a laugh in disbelief before stating, "She has nothing to do with it, my ass. That FBI agent has her last name. I would bet daddy's company that he is her father."
Now it is Bella, and Edward's turn to laugh. She looks at both of them in disbelief as her face gets more red by the second.
After a full minute of laughing Edward decides to put her out of her misery by telling her with chuckles in between, "Darling your daddy is being investigated for sex trafficking and tax fraud. You shouldn't be betting on a losing horse."
Tanya looks at him with murderous looks in her eyes and before he knows it, she is beating his chest with her fist and screaming, "you son of a bitch," again and again.
Edward lets her do it for a couple of seconds and then he stops her by holding her hands in place and then saying, "I say the truth and somehow I become a son of a bitch. Go figures."
She pulls away but the hands holding hers pin her in place and after struggling for a full minute she stops and glares at him before saying, "You called my dad's company a losing horse and decided to break up with me the moment dad was falsely accused of something. That is why you are a son of a bitch."
Edward rolls his eyes at her and then states, "Sweetie wake up. The FBI is accusing your father of tax fraud and sex trafficing. Do you think those are charges based on a message sent by a scorned competitor? The FBI doesn't throw such charges around unless they have a case built against him already. And breaking up with over this? Dear, our break up has nothing to do with this."
Tanya finally manages to move away from Edward once he drops her hands. She walks away putting some distance between them before she returns to pacing with the occasional muttering to herself that was too unintelligible for Bella and Edward to hear or understand.
Suddenly she freezes in her spot for a second and spins to face Edward then states, "So you break up with me the moment my dad goes to jail and I am supposed to believe that it has nothing to do with my dad? Give me a fucking break," Tanya states stressing every word of the last sentence and glaring at him.
Edward wouldn't mind her believing that he decided to break up with her at the first bump in the road. To know that her fiancee would discard of her that easily is bound to hurt. What he is not okay with, is her assuming that she knows everything and thinking that their break up is a result of her father's supposed victimhood and not her action.
He wants, no needs Tanya to know that it was her and her father's behavior that resulted in their break up. He wants Tanya to live with the knowledge that her behavior is what got her where she is. He wants her to know that all of the times that her dad acted on her behalf to protect her, he was in fact harming her. That is something Tanya will never move on from.
"It has to do with your behavior, or did you think that I would let you almost killing Cece slide? Sweetheart I was planning on breaking up with you before we even got engaged," Edward tells her.
"You decided to break up with me over what happened with Cece?" Tanya yells in disbelief.
"Yes I did. Why is that so hard to believe?" Edward demands offended at her surprise and disbelief.
Tanya barks a laugh before she states, "Are you kidding me? You barely tolerate your nephew and niece. You are telling me that you value a stranger's kid that much. Sure. I believe that." She nods her head sarcastically.
"Cece isn't a stranger's daughter," Edward replies defensively.
"I will take your word for it," Tanya replies sarcastically rolling her eyes.
"She isn't," Edward states then pauses and his smile turns into a smirk then he continues, "You love to think that you know everything and are in control of it all, but the truth is that you Tanya don't know a thing. You have no idea who Cece is."
"Who is she then? who is she? Since I know nothing why don't you grace me with your superior knowledge," she states with her hand on her waist.
Bella holds her breath as she watches the smirk widen on Edward's face as he stays silent for a minute before saying, "My daughter."
You could hear a pin drop as Tanya freezes in shock and the other two watch her with batted breath waiting to see what she will do next. Both of them have been waiting for this moment, Edward since he found out about his daughter and Bella since the moment Tanya decided to miss with Cece.
One moment, Tanya was frozen, and the next, attacking Bella.
"Do you think you can harm me?" Bella asks as she twists Tanya's arms behind her back.
"Huh? You really think that you can even harm me?" Bella demands twisting her arm harder. Tanya tries to claw at Bella's face with her other arm but Bella sees that coming and twists the other arm too.
"You fucking bitch. You come after my man and I am the bad guy for coming after you?" Tanya spits out.
Bella shoves her away like Tanya is a dirty rag Bella can't believe she touched, "I would not take him back if he was the last man on earth. I was the one that dumped him, don't flatter yourself, sweetie," Bella tells her then picks up her clutch ready to leave this stupid place.
Edward winces internally as he thinks to himself, "I guess our truce is over."
Tanya keeps looking between the two of them and then finally says to Edward, "Well, your plan backfired. The shares you took aren't worth much right now. The same can't be said about your trust fund." She looks smug and proud of herself as she says that and Bella decides that she will be the one to pop bubble for her.
Bella barks a loud laugh and then tells her, "Sweetie, the trust fund can't be shared. A person can't legally gift half of it to someone else."
Tanya's smirk dims a little but she stubbornly tells her, "That isn't what the contract we signed states."
"Darling," Bella tells her as she walks closely to Tanya until she is close enough to touch her, "It doesn't matter. That was one of the conditions of the creation of the trust fund," Bella's smile is faux sympathetic as she says that.
Tanya shakes her head refusing to believe what she just heard, "No, no. That is impossible."
"Yes, yes, yes, sweetie. You would know that from Rosalie if you were friends with his family," she tells her. Tanya refuses to believe her as she keeps shaking her head from side to side.
Bella shakes her head in empathy before she tells her, "Sweetie, it's okay. You have to see the good side of it."
Completely forgetting that they are enemies and that Bella probably had a hand in her father's demise, she tells her, "But how? There is no positive side to it. All of my investments are gone. It was the one thing I was counting on"
"That's a mistake you will never repeat again," Bella tells her patting her left cheek harshly as the empathetic look on her face turns into a harsh one.
Bella turns away, but not before giving Edward a glance. She doesn't need to deal with either one of those two again, and she doesn't care what happens between them next, so she leaves them behind and just goes.
Hey everyone,
I hope you had fun reading this chapter. Tell me your thoughts in the review section.
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER
Bella's comment about Tanya never getting to know Edward's family well isn't intended to shame women who chose to put up boundaries with their in-laws or limit their relationship with them. Some in-laws deserve to be cut off and out of a woman's life. For some in-laws, whatever a woman chooses to do is never enough and they will always mistreat her.
I say this from experience as a person who saw that happen to her mum through out her life. I can say from experience that there are some in-laws that are willing to mistreat their nephew/niece, or grandchild as a way to get the mum, get back at her, or even twist her arm.
Choosing to prioritize one's mental health and peace should never be something one is shamed for doing.
Until my next update,
Stay Safe