Happy Saturday!

Here's the last part of Bella and Edward's convo about her big reveal.

I'm always humbled and thankful for all the alerts and reviews. Apologies for not being able to reply as consistently as I did in the past-I'd rather use that time to write and give you more chapters, and I'm hoping you'll be in favor of that too.
THANK YOU also for voting in the Twific Fandom Awards. Round two nominations were announced last weekend, and voting goes through this Sunday. I won't post voting links here because we know what ffnet does to those. There's a pinned post in my group, LaMomo's Lair, with a list of nominees in Team Momo and a voting link. Go give all those wonderful stories and authors some love.

Usual disclaimer applies - I still don't own any of it. I just like to play with the characters ;-)

Team Momo wouldn't exist without Midnight Cougar and Alice's White Rabbit with their red pens, or without AGoodWitch, Driving Edward, Mel, Maplestyle, and Eternally Addicted who pre-read and tell me if I'm off my rocker or not. They also were nominated in the TFFA so remember to send them some love!

Reminder on chapters: unless indicated, odd-numbered chapters are in EPOV, even-numbered ones are in BPOV. We're with Edward today.

Chapter 15 - EPOV

"What a gigantic piece of shit."

That man had used his position of authority and power to charm the pants off a younger woman—a student in his class.

"That is a euphemism, if I ever heard one," she replied, her tone so neutral it was almost philosophical.

"How can you be so calm about it?" I felt incensed for her. I was furious. I wanted to find that bastard and wring his neck for having had the brass balls to hurt my Bella like that.

She shrugged. "What good would it do me now? Been there, done that. I made peace with the whole thing a while ago."

Then I remembered something Emmett had said about her in passing—that she hadn't dated much in college. Come to think of it, I'd not heard of her dating anyone over the years she'd worked at the firm. And God knew I'd paid enough attention to be sure of it.

"But did you? Did you truly put that behind you?"

That seemed to put her on edge. Taken aback, she recoiled and demurred, blinking at me like a curious owl and leaning her head to the side with a pensive expression on her face.

"Oh, shit. I haven't, have I? I told myself the whole time I didn't care, and yet …"

At that point, I couldn't bear to have the breakfast bar between us, dividing us. I jumped off my stool and went to stand beside her, gathering her in my arms. "Don't beat yourself up about it, love. We all process things differently, and that kind of betrayal … well, it would take time. You can't put a timeline on affairs of the heart."

"After a while, it wasn't even my heart that hurt but my pride. Laurent had duped me well and good at every turn."

"He used your inexperience against you; you said it yourself. He used you, period. Despicable man. How did it end? Did you see him again?"

She shook her head. "Nope. I changed my phone number the next day, so he wouldn't contact me, and I fed Stephens an excuse for dropping my extra work at the department. I didn't want to run into Laurent again."

"Did that get you into trouble with the old grump?"

"No. Emmett helped me smooth it over, explaining that now I worked at CCM Legal. Stephens was too impressed to complain, and I'd completed my requirements with his class anyway. He asked if he could refer other students to me for tutoring because Em had praised me to high heaven. I said yes to that."

I had another question, but I didn't know whether she'd welcome it.

"You have your thinking face on," she said with a smirk.

"My thinking face?"

"Yes. When you're chewing on a question, but can't make up your mind about it."

I chuckled. She knew me so well. "Guilty as charged. Did you report him?"

"No. I didn't know what to report, you see. We'd been in a consensual relationship, which had begun when I was no longer one of his students. What would I report him for, being a lying, philandering moron? Morally reprehensible, but not a reportable offense."

"Awful but lawful," I added.

"Uh?" She sipped her coffee, looking at me with a puzzled expression that was just adorable. God, how I loved this woman. This woman, who was mine, who loved me, and sat in my kitchen wearing only my shirt.

"It's something litigators say. I picked it up from Jamie. Something might be awful, but lawful—no legal recourse against it because, technically, it doesn't break the law."

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, that'd be an apt summary for Laurent's entire shtick. Funny thing is he kinda disappeared from campus after that. I could never pin down what happened, but I didn't see his name anywhere: department lists, class schedules, office hours. Nothing. Nada. Zilch."

"Well, maybe karma took care of it."

"That's one good way of looking at it," she said, then smiled at me. "Thank you for listening, Edward. It means a lot to me. I love you."

I kissed the top of her head. "As I love you."

Next chapter posts next Saturday, and our lovebirds will be back to real life in the office.
Reminder that voting info on the Twificfandom Awards is in a pinned post in my FB group, LaMomo's Lair, which you can find by typing the name in the search bar on Facebook.
In the Lair you'll also find info on my upcoming stories, visuals for current and completed ones, Rob pics and shenanigans. Come and join the fun!

Any guesses as to what our lovebirds will have to do on Monday in the office?