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.
The first thing that registers in his mind is the giggling. It's loud and all-encompassing. He looks around and finds himself in his bedroom with Bella watching him and trying to hide her smile.
"What is so funny?" he asks her as he tucks a strand of hair behind her ear.
She smiles at him then turns around and reaches for her mobile phone behind her on the nightstand and opens it. She gets a crease between her eyebrows before it's gone and she looks satisfied as she taps something.
"Hello Bella. I looove you so much. I miss you. I love you and miss you more than anyone else could. The boys are laaame and boringg. I wish you were here with me. Everything is always better when you are with me," Bella giggles as the voice memo end. He realises then that this isn't a dream. This is a memory. This did happen a year into his relationship with Bella.
"You my love, look awful. Cute, but still awful. Good thing I made you take two advils and drink a lot of water before you slept or you would be moaning and groaning about your hungover," she tells him kissing his cheek.
He apprehends her by wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her on top of him. He doesn't know when he will ever get to do that in reality, so he will be damned if he doesn't do it in a dream. He kisses her deeply and before they know it things escalate beyond simple touches and creases and before he can think of the next step, he finds himself in another memory.
Bella is sitting in the car sulking. She is refusing to listen to him or speak. He does not see the problem. It's not like it was terrible.
Suddenly out of the blue, she mumbles quietly, "You aren't good for me. You get angry at me and embarrass me a lot. I don't like that." He almost doesn't hear her, but then he does and alarm bells ring in his head. Was this the moment Bella started to consider leaving him? He should have seen it coming. That was a loud cry from her to him to change. How did he not see it?
"That man was touching what's mine. You think I was going to let him get away with that?" the Edward of his nightmare demands.
"Are you even listening to yourself? Touch what is mine? I am not a position. I am my own person. I had the situation under control. Why did you do that?" Bella tells him angrily refusing to look at him while demanding an answer.
"Because I love you and I am not going to let anyone get their hand on you. If someone touches you, they answer to me. Simple," he replies dismissively.
"I am not a," she pauses for a moment not sure what to say then she takes a deep breath and tells him, "You need to trust that I will tell those men no. You need to trust me." She pleads with him to understand with her tone and eyes. Edward understands then that he is remembering this moment for a reason. This is the first crack in the ice. He should have expected the ice to give in from under him when it did.
Nevertheless, his dream self says, "I trust you, baby. It's those men I don't trust." His dream self tucks a stray strand of hair behind her ear then turns to the road.
"Then why does it feel like you don't trust me?" Dream Bella asks in a distraught voice.
Edward wakes up with a start. He looks around him in the dark room. He gets out of his bed and walks to his kitchen where his coffee machine is waiting for him.
It was all his fault. Everything is fault. If only he had listened. If only he had known better. They would be having coffee together instead of living apart.
Alas, he needs to go and see her. They have important things to discuss and plans to make. Eleazar is out of the picture. She is delusional if she believes that he will not want to see his daughter. He understands any kind of rules or system she would want him to adhere to, but not knowing his daughter is out of question.
He waits by the door as he hears light footsteps pad toward him. The door swings open and Cece greats him at the door. Before she can say a word, he bends at the knee and sweeps her for a hug. Her infectious giggles fill the room as they spin around.
He hears a throat clearing making him drop her and straighten up to find Marco staring at him.
"Please come in and go to the office. Bella is in it. She was expecting you," Marco tells him in an American accent and Edward finds himself transported back to when he heard Bella and Marco arguing in her office.
Before he can think more of the accent, Marco turns to Cece and tells her, "Darling, you have got homework to finish up. Say goodbye to Mr. Edward and go back to finishing it."
Cece nods her head and a hair strand falls from her ponytail before she tells him, "Okay daddy," then she turns to Edward and throws her arms around his legs for a moment before whispering, "Bye bye Mr. Edward," and runs away.
Edward walks silently to the office. His interaction with Cece left a sour taste in his mouth. He isn't necessarily heartbroken that she didn't call him daddy, but her calling Marco didn't sit well with him. He is still trying to make sense of his fatherhood. It's a strange thing to know that there is a child out there that is half him. All he knows is that he doesn't want her to ever be harmed and her mum hates him.
He knocks on the door and hears a soft, "Enter," so he twists open the door knob and steps into the room. It has two desks and a drawing table.
"Marco told me to come," he tells her once he notices the surprised expression on her face.
She nods her head in understanding and after a moment of silence answers his unasked question, "Yes, we moved here as FBI agents to investigate Eleazar."
Edward nods his head in understanding. That probably means that Marco is in fact American and was pretending to be Italian.
"Edward," she calls attracting his attention and pulling him away from his inner musings, "I am not going to assume that you are here for me. I know it's for Cece. Right?"
Despite wanting to answer her with many things, Edward nods his head which prompts her to continue, "Cece doesn't know you. She doesn't know that you are her dad. Eleazar's arrest doesn't change anything Edward. You don't need to make things more difficult than they are. Just sign these," she finishes pushing a folder toward him.
He opens it to find parental right termination papers. His heart sinks when he reads the words. He closes the folder and pushes it back.
"I can't sign this. That's my daughter in there Bella. I am not just going to give her up just like that," he tells her.
She pushes the folder back toward him and replies calmly, "You didn't want her."
Edward rubs his face in frustration then tells her, "Bella you can't use what I said about a hypothetical situation against me."
"Would you have said anything different if it wasn't a hypothetical situation?" came her quick reply.
Edward opens his mouth to tell her yes but this morning's dream stops him in his tracks. He isn't sure his image of who he was back then is a true reflection of who he was.
"I don't know Bella. I am not going to pretend I was a saint back then but it shouldn't matter because we are speaking in the here and now."
Bella looks surprised by his answer but hides her surprise within seconds.
"I don't trust you around my daughter. She already has a father in her life. Blood isn't everything. You know that more than anyone Edward. Please sign these. You don't need to make things harder," she tells him pushing the envelope toward him.
"For whom? For you? For Marco?" Edward replies trying to control his tone and not sound angry.
"For Cece. Do you think it will be easy on her?" she asks him rhetorically. It was hard on him and he was an adult. He knows more than anyone how hard it can be.
"Please take the papers and think about it," Bella tells.
Edward nods his head not sure what to say then he takes the folder and walks out of the office. On his way out he spots Cece and Marco working on her homework. She throws her hands around his shoulder and thanks him for being the best person in the world.
Hell to the no. I am not signing those papers.
Hello lovely people,
Long time no see. I had exams, but I am done now which means that I am back to updating frequently. I hope you had fun reading this chapter. I know I enjoyed writing it.
Dear tas62 thank you for your contentious support and reviews. I admire your tenacity and faith in your analysis, but no Edward doesn't have multiple personality disorder.
I think the reason why to many, Edward seems very jarring is because I am allowing a character that is typically automatically villainized to have contradictory qualities without giving him the typical basic lame sob story men are given to excuse their despicable behavior which is something I did on purpose.
I hate how society allows men to do the most hurtful and toxic things to women and somehow women are supposed to empathize with them because their mummy or daddy was abusive, they got cheated on, or their crush rejected them, when women get brutalized by men and are somehow expected to lead a normal healthy life and judged if they don't do so.
I don't believe that people hurt others because their trauma drove them to do so. Trauma is used by harmful people as a crutch and a get-out-of-jail-free card when they harm others, and personally, I don't want my story to perpetuate that.
If you think otherwise, let me know in the review section and I will reply to your comment in the next chapter's Author note.
Until then,
Stay Safe