Edward flips through his notes, reviewing a section on evidence. He consults his textbook, looks back at his notes, and highlights something randomly as he tries to ignore the argument breaking out in the middle of his room.
He's trying to squeeze in a short study session in preparation for the bar exam he's scheduled to take next week, but Alice is disrupting.
"No! I'm not wearing that," Bella says irritably. "It's a just dinner at the Sculpture Park."
"It's a fancy dinner at the Sculpture Park. Tickets are over a thou—er, TWENTY dollars. Yeah. They're over twenty dollars," Alice edits.
"That's not really much."
"Fifty. They're over fifty."
Finally looking up from the piles of notes spread out on his bed around him, Edward laughs. Bella looks over, studying his face. She chews her lip and pushes her hair behind an ear as she thinks.
"She's lowballing, isn't she? They're way more than that," she says accusingly.
It's a charity gala for the art museum, so, yes, they're much more than that. Upwards of a thousand dollars, but their tickets were significantly more than that.
"Like a hundred," Edward fibs.
"Oh." Bella looks at the blue cocktail dress Alice is holding up defeatedly. "I'll wear it, but not the heels."
"There are flats, too, this time. They're not as cute, but they're...available."
Bella gives Edward a pleading look.
"Alice," he begins.
"Just leaving this here." Before he can get the rest of his sentence out, Alice drops the dress on the chaise lounge and scurries to the door. "I'll be in my room if you need me."
Bella walks back toward his bed and sits with a sigh. "How many more parties are there? Just when I think they're over, five more pop up."
"I know, sorry. Good weather is rare for Seattle, so there ends up being a disproportionate amount of events in the spring and summer."
"Do we have to go to them all?" She pulls at the sleeves of her light blue sweatshirt, shrinking into the material.
Well, kind of.
He tries to think of the best way to phrase things. With his family's prior reputation and the amount of wealth he inherited, it's expected. Philanthropy and charity events are an important part of networking, so it helps with professional opportunities. "I like supporting the arts, and it's good to get in some face time now and then. I don't like that part any more than you do, if I'm being honest."
"I'd rather stay in and read. In bed, maybe." She chews her lip more.
He has to make a conscious effort to reel his thoughts back in. His study session is long forgotten. "We'll be able to slow down a bit this week when we drive out to the cabin. There definitely won't be any events out there. Just some hiking and a lot of free time to read to your heart's content."
"That does sound perfect," she says, crawling over to him and sitting in his lap. She wraps her arms around his neck and kisses him. "Was there anything you were wanting for your birthday?"
The way she says those words is enough to incite a host of creative ideas—none of which are appropriate given they still have two months until they're officially husband and wife. He's not about to ruin how much effort they've gone through in waiting.
"Your company is enough," he answers, avoiding the elephant in the room.
She rolls her eyes at him. "Are you going to study the entire weekend?"
"Most of it. "
"You'll do well."
"Thank you."
She slinks off of him, wobbling as she steps back down to the ground and collects the book she was reading from his desk. It's a well-worn copy of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.
"I think I'm going to change my major," she says. "An English degree might be more me. I don't really like...sharing what I write. Journalism isn't what I thought it would be."
"Yeah. That's great. It's still early, and it's not a big pivot."
"I just wonder what kind of job I'll be able to get with it. Maybe I should have gone into biology like I'd originally planned."
"You could still do that. Or you could study literature professionally, become a librarian, work at a publishing house, teach or tutor..." he lists off. "Ghostwrite for the rich and famous."
"Right, I'll just call up Hollywood and ask which up-and-coming reality star needs a new autobiography written." She laughs.
He's sure he could find someone to make that happen for her if she wanted it, but he doubts she would like that idea.
She walks to the chaise and picks up the offending blue dress with marked reluctance. "I guess I'll try this on."
"She thinks she's helping."
"I don't want her to help," Bella sighs. "I just want to wear my regular clothes."
"It's only a few hours and I'm certain you'll look beautiful."
"You don't think she's going to show up with unsolicited outfit options for the trip this weekend, do you?"
"No. Definitely not."
"You don't sound very definite."
Touché. "I'll tell her not to, so don't worry about it. You can wear whatever you want."
...
Alice walks up the sidewalk to the Olympic Sculpture Park where a beautiful party is set up on the waterfront.
On any other day, it would be a simple patch of grass with a few sculptures planted here and there. Tonight, however, there's a large tent awning with tables, lights, a small stage with live music, and a bar.
It's a lot like all the other parties she's gone to over the summer—people dressed up, tipsy, dancing and chatting—except this time she's wondering if she didn't pick the right outfit.
She never wonders if she didn't pick the right outfit. It feels awful.
She was so focused on Bella's lack of enthusiasm earlier that she ended up losing track of time. What she previously thought was a good choice for herself suddenly felt off. She doesn't like how the slinky lime green material's draping on her, and her matching graphic eyeliner is slightly askew. She didn't have time to fix either of them before it was time to leave, though.
She glances at herself in the faux reflection of her phone's front camera quickly before tucking it into her purse.
"You look perfect," Jasper says beside her. He would say that even if she didn't, though.
"Am I annoying?"
"Never."
She narrows her eyes doubtfully. The streetlight turns green and she begins to cross. Emmett and Rosalie are following behind them and arguing a little too passionately about something involving competitive cheerleading and macronutrients.
Right before they left for the gala, Alice got a text from Edward that irked her, to say the least: You're stressing Bella out. Can you not treat her like a little dog that you dress up to carry around like an accessory? Thanks.
She wasn't sure what to say to that—or if a reply was even needed—so she didn't.
She hasn't been treating Bella like a dog. She's been treating her like her best friend who she knows gets nervous about fitting in at fancy parties and definitely doesn't have fancy clothes and makeup to wear that will make her fit in. It's the simplest solution.
By the time Alice's group arrived, Edward and Bella already parked and left their car, not bothering to send her a text of where they would be.
"I want to take a picture by the water with everyone," she says, her head spinning through a multitude of possibilities as to why two of her best friends have been so snippy with her lately. She's doing her best to make their big day and the weeks leading up to it as perfect as she can, but she feels like she's somehow falling short. "You don't think they're avoiding us?"
"No, they're probably just making their rounds first," Jasper says convincingly, even though Alice still doesn't believe it.
"What did you do this time?" Emmett asks.
Alice ignores him. "Maybe Edward's just stressed about his exam. And Bella's stressed about...the wedding, obviously, but maybe the Jacob situation, too. And the Victoria thing. Do you think she forgot about us? Maybe?"
Forgetting would be easier to stomach than avoiding.
"Alice!" a voice calls out. Alice looks over to see one of her best customers—a young design consultant from Mercer Island—waving. She's wearing a sparkly, black shift dress she made her a few months ago.
"Anna! You look gorgeous in that!"
"Thank you! You too! Always, you're always stunning! I need another dress soon. My cousin's getting married in Santa Monica next April. Are you booked up? My friends keep asking where I get the dresses, but I've been selfish. I want to keep you all to myself."
She giggles. "I'm sure I can squeeze you in."
"My sister's here too. One sec. Natalia! Come here. It's Alice!"
Another brunette who looks like Anna runs up squealing. She's also wearing one of her designs: a blue mini with satin detailing. They chat for longer than Alice intends. Emmett and Rosalie wander off without her while Jasper politely nods and hums along to the conversation.
By the time she finally splits off from them, her watch says it's been almost an hour.
"I want to get a ginger ale," she says. "Do you see the others around?"
"Yeah, Edward's walking over."
"Okay, good. I wanted to—"
"Alice!" another voice calls out. Normally she loves being a social butterfly, but she's trying to do some damage control before the end of the night.
She turns and sees Ellie, one of her friends from dance. "Oh, hi!"
"I didn't know you would be here! You look so cute!"
"Thank you, you too! I'm just going to grab a drink, but it's great to see you! Love your shoes!"
"Oh, thanks! They're Vivienne Westwood!"
"Love it!" She beams, sashaying away as quickly as she can without seeming rude.
They convene at the bar, Edward and Bella waiting around making small talk with Rosalie and Emmett as they sip on their drinks.
Bella's wearing sneakers.
They really don't match the outfit at all. Or the setting.
She notices Alice noticing and shifts awkwardly. Edward looks from Bella to Alice and shakes his head at her, his scowl subtle but clearly directed at her.
Okay, obviously Alice was right about them avoiding her earlier.
"Here," Jasper says, handing her the ginger ale she wanted.
"Oh, thanks. Um, should we go take a picture together?" she says, resisting the urge to question Bella on her shoe deviation in order to keep the peace.
They're really not even clean, though. She could have picked some newer, sleeker sneakers if she was going for something more casual.
Their group makes a slow trek to the water and they procure a stranger to take the photo for them on Alice's phone, the sun too low in the sky now so they need to use the flash to avoid being overly backlit. She smiles, Jasper's hand resting on her shoulder as she poses between him and Edward.
The flash sears spots of light into her eyes, making it hard to see for several seconds after. She blinks them away just in time for a second picture.
"How late are you guys staying?" Emmett asks as Alice takes her phone back from the helpful bystander. "We're thinking about getting food nearby."
Bella's expression lights up at the idea of leaving.
"Sure, what's open?" Edward replies.
"Wings...pizza...Dick's burgers..."
"Something we won't have to walk ten blocks to. Or get indigestion from."
"Let me check," Emmett grabs his phone and starts swiping around the screen.
He and Edward aren't going to agree on anything with those parameters.
The air suddenly feels cold and a chill runs over her skin.
Alice looks around at the city lights that seem far too bright against the darkness of the night. She blinks, trying to clear the glare of them shining into her eyes.
Car horns blare as a large, blinding figure of light moves toward her quicker than she can react.
She tries to blink her eyes open again but feels herself falling backward, arms stretching out and skimming through empty space.
Fire blazes around her, hot flames bursting out against her arms and legs. She can't move. She's seated with her hands and feet fastened tight against a metal folding chair.
"Alice?"
Her body tenses as it's hit hard, sharp pain searing through her limbs and head.
...
"Is she okay?" Emmett asks, joining the small circle crowded around Alice's limp figure. Jasper and Edward are crouched near her, her head lolling against Jasper's shoulder.
Rosalie kneels, her hand moving to rest against Alice's neck, checking her pulse. Her other hand holds her phone with a stopwatch running. "She's been out almost three minutes. Has she done this before?"
"No," Edward and Jasper both answer at the same time.
"She does a lot of weird stuff, but fainting isn't usually one of them," Emmett says with a frown.
Without warning, Alice sits up with a loud gasp, startling Bella into tripping over her own feet and landing on her butt. Rosalie flinches away from them both.
Emmett isn't immune to the surprise. "Woah! Holy shit, Alice! Is she possessed?"
Alice gives him an unamused look as she picks herself up from the ground, the others hovering around her incase she's going to faint again.
"We need to leave," she says, her eyes darting around the people milling about the park. She takes a few steps away from the lawn and one of her legs gives out, leaving her momentarily stumbling as she regains her footing. Jasper tries to take her arm, but she's moving too erratically.
"Alice, you should sit for a while. You look like you might have low blood sugar," Rosalie advises. She turns to Emmett. "You're sure she hasn't done this before?"
"I mean, not when I was around."
"She saw something," Edward says, scowling at no one in particular.
"Is she okay?" Bella asks quietly.
Alice shakes her head. "They're here."
"Who? Where?" Emmett asks.
She doesn't wait for the streetlight to change green before she makes a beeline toward the parking garage. There aren't many cars out at this hour, but she's also not particularly quick with the shoes she's wearing. Or ever.
"They'll be waiting for us over by the cars if we take too long," Alice half-explains.
"How do you know they're not already there?" Edward asks.
Emmett's still lost on what's happening. He just knows it's bad.
"Who?!" Rosalie demands impatiently.
"Victoria. She has some new friends with—" Alice's words are cut off by the loud revving of an engine.
High beams flash directly into Emmett's eyes, blinding him as a car comes swerving across the street and onto the sidewalk.
The group scatters, shouting and moving out of the way of the vehicle as fast as they can. Emmett pulls Rosalie into the stairwell of the garage without a second thought.
He watches as the car peels off, turning through a red light. He didn't catch the license plate, and there are about a million other silver Honda Civics in the city, so that's not exactly useful information.
"What the hell was that?!" Rosalie yells, peering out onto the sidewalk again.
"Whoever Alice saw."
"Well, no shit."
Jasper, carrying Alice, strides past them and up toward the second floor. He guides Rosalie in the direction of the stairs as he passes. "Come on."
"Where's Edward and—"
"Here," Edward says, rushing past them as well. Bella's lost what little color there was in her face, but she's in one piece.
Rosalie doesn't spare another second and follows them up with Emmett behind her.
"Alice, are you okay?" Bella asks, her voice shaky.
"I'm fine."
"You're...bleeding..." Bella says weakly. "A lot..."
There are little droplets of red splattering down one of her shins, and as they turn the corner and arrive on the third floor where they parked, Emmett sees it's coming from her knee. It's scrapped up pretty badly.
"Don't go passing out now, too, Bella," he teases.
When they come up the stairs, the cars are parked where they left them.
Emmett jogs ahead to look around. No one else is in the garage. "I don't see anything."
When he turns around, he sees Jasper holding something he picked up off the ground.
"A football lanyard," Edward says. It has three nondescript keys on it.
"Okaaay...that could be from anyone, though, right?" Emmett points out. "Who doesn't love football? Do we just pick up things off the ground and call it evidence now?"
"The guy driving that car—the one that almost hit us—it was one of your friends from the team. The one who transferred in from U of O freshman year and won the beer pong tourney," Alice says. "He was obsessed with being team captain."
"Riley? Shit, and he does have a silver Civic."
"That's the one."
"Oh my god!" Emmett looks at Edward with an expression of ah-ha. "He must have put the drugs in my bag!"
"And told the coach so he could take your spot for try-outs."
"He's dating Victoria," Alice says.
"The redhead? What the eff. Now I feel dumb," Emmett grumbles. "Why did no one show me what she looked like?"
Alice gives him a sassy look. "I did."
"Okay, well, she looks way different with a smokey eye, and her hair's different."
Bella abruptly starts to tilt, stopped from crumpling only by Edward grabbing her last minute. She's still looking at Alice's scrape with a horrified expression.
Rosalie notices and frowns. "Can we go before someone else tries to kill us? Seriously. And you should get that cleaned up." She motions to Alice's leg.
"That's not going to heal before the wedding," Emmett points out.
"I know." Alice squirms like a toddler about to have a temper tantrum. "Set me down. I can walk."
Emmett bursts out laughing as Jasper hesitantly sets her on the ground.
...
"I don't understand why they would just leave," Alice says—mostly to herself, but also to Jasper.
He's driving the Porsche back to the house while she sits in the passenger seat with her leg wrapped in one of Emmett's hoodies that he left in Rosalie's trunk. It's the ugly camo one that says You Can't See Me on the back. She's not-so-secretly happy that she'll ruin it with her blood.
"Yeah. They could have gotten scared they'd get caught, but if that's the case, why bother following us downtown to an area with a party in the first place? Even if it's dark around the garage, it makes no sense."
"And I'm going to have to rework my outfits for this week."
"How does it feel?"
"Horrible. I already don't like the idea of outdoorsy apparel, and this is just adding another wrench in my plans."
Jasper glances over at her briefly. "Does it hurt?"
"Oh, no, it's not too bad." She can feel her hip and elbow were bruised when she fell, but they'll heal in a few weeks. She doesn't want him to fuss too much over her.
An Angéle song plays over the stereo. She turns up the volume.
Lights whiz by as they turn onto the highway. Her head starts to feel heavy. She closes her eyes and tucks her legs up on the seat, slouching into the premium Napa leather.
Headlight brights flash once, twice behind her eyelids. She can feel them turning this way and that. Accelerating.
She feels like she's missing something. She can't place what.
Then they're not moving. The hum of the car engine stops.
"We're back," Jasper announces.
Alice sighs and sits up, ready to get into bed, but knowing she should wash up first. She won't actually be in bed for another hour at least.
And Edward's already back home—his Aston Martin is in the garage and the Tesla is sitting in the driveway—but Emmett and Rosalie must have gone to her apartment instead.
As Alice turns to get out of the Porsche, her foot hits something small and plastic that goes skittering across the floorboard. Her brows knit together.
It looks like a key fob. The kind that opens a garage or door of some kind.
"What is that?" Jasper asks.
"I'm not sure. It's not mine...Is it yours?" She holds it out.
"No. It's a Bluetooth tracker, isn't it?"
"A tracker?"
"So you can find your keys or wallet with your phone...Charlotte used to use one for her purse because she would leave it places." He frowns. "How did it end up in your car, though?"
"You think someone intentionally put it in here?"
"Well, yeah. Someone almost ran you over earlier tonight. I'd say that's well within reasonable assumption. Who else has been in your car?"
"Just Bella." And while Edward can be clingy, she doubts he would go so far as to put a tracker on his fiancée. "I wonder if these are reverse trackable."
Right about now would be a great time to suddenly awaken a form of clairvoyance that lets her see into the past, but unfortunately, she's not so lucky.
She steps out of the car and stumble-steps over the makeshift hoodie-bandage. One of her own hoodies would have been awkward enough to walk around with. Emmett's is downright unwieldly.
Jasper starts to say something as he comes around to her side of the car, but she interrupts. "I'll have Carlisle take a look in the morning."
"Right. Good idea."
A quick glance down lets her know that the scraped leg is mostly covered in her own blood by now. "It looks a lot worse than it is."
"Can I carry you inside?" he asks. He can't help himself. It's sweet, but he's clearly freaking out.
It's embarrassing being carried around. She normally isn't a fan. Especially at her stature...People just assume they can pick her up for fun.
It's Jasper though. She'll make an exception. Just so long as he doesn't start carrying her around on a daily basis, it's fine.
"Sure." She grabs her purse and lets him sweep her up in his arms.
Exhaling a sigh, a glint of light flashes across her vision and causes her to blink away quickly. It catches her so off guard that she almost drops the slinky chain of her bag.
The dark cloak of night spreads around them almost instantaneously. The street lights and windows of the house glowing amber are the only sources of illumination, and what she saw definitely wasn't from that.
Jasper looks at her smiling as he walks them up the front steps. She just smiles back, keeping her little snippet to herself.
This time, it wasn't a fire, car headlights, or some kind of deadly explosion.
She could have sworn she saw the most beautiful canary diamond accented with little white diamonds on either side. Her manicure was different—a simple pink jelly polish on delicately tapered nails as opposed to her cyan set now—but there was no mistake that it was her hand.
It'll look absolutely fabulous with the wedding gown she saw herself in last week.