I don't own twilight. What I own is my character's behavior, personality, background, and plot of the story.
A huge thank you to my beta Madmooey18 for putting in the effort and helping me make this story what it is.
Author's Note at the end.
Edward walks through the dark factory, or what used to be a factory. Since the family has bought it, it has been relegated into a torture space. The torture devices are inconspicuous as the company owned the factory and it needs to be in pristine conditions at a drop of a hat. You might wonder why have the company own it instead of an individual in the family. It's simple. A company property is far harder to locate than a personal property. It's borderline impossible to locate. As long as the police don't have a reason to suspect them, they are gold. Even if they did, it would be hard to catch anything as the family's men worked like a well oiled machine. He has to give it to his family, they can't run a legal business, but they can create a loyal following for their illegal one like no other.
"What is going on?" he asks the moment he steps into an open space and greets his brothers. He notices Emmett with his jacket thrown haphazardly on the ground, sleeves rolled and the first couple of buttons unbuttoned glaring down at a boy who is tied to a chair. Jasper as usual is standing back and staring at him like a total psychopath, but that isn't surprising in the least.
Throwing a glare in the boy's direction, Emmett walks toward Edward and tells him in a voice the boy won't hear, "He was hanging around Rosie and stalking her. He even dropped a letter for her in a restaurant she frequents. Scared the hell out of her."
Edward grimaces at the imagery that popped into his head as Emmett's words sink in. "What did the letter say?" Edward asks him.
Emmett takes a note out of his pocket and hands it to him. As Edward reads it over, his knuckles crack once he reaches the last statement.
"PS. Here is some advice to your little brother. Don't drag the swan into your life. Things are about to get ugly."
He turns to Emmett who tells him, "I didn't want to drag you into this. He has a record of violence so we can't let him live and I know that you don't like seeing us in action, but I felt that it was important for you to know beforehand."
"What does this even mean?" Edward asks, crumbling the paper in his fist and waving it around trying to figure out what the letter represents. He understands on a theoretical level, but what does it really mean?
Emmett places a hand on his shoulder and tells him, "This is a direct threat at Bella."
A feeling Edward never experienced rose to the surface. Is this anger? All of a sudden he finds himself angry, too angry. A level of anger he has never had before.
His knuckles turned white as he tried not to glare at his brother while asking him, "What did you get out of him?"
Emmett tells him, "Nothing, the guy is as loyal as one gets."
"I'll teach that motherfucker. I will make him talk," he mutters to himself as he marches toward the man tied to the chair. A resounding smack echoes through the air as pain shoots up his arm. Ignoring the pain, Edward punches the tied man a second time.
"Who do you work for? Answer me," he yells at him and then takes a chair nearby and smacks it against the man's head.
That is when his brother gets involved. "Come on bro, don't dirty your hands. Let Mario handle him," Emmett tells him as he leads him away from the man and toward the staircase opposite the man.
"Sorry, man. I don't know what came over me," Edward pauses to tell him before he returns to his pacing in front of his brother. He truly doesn't. All he knows is that one moment he was cracking his knuckles and the next Emmett was pulling him off the guy.
"It's okay, brother. It happens to all of us. When someone you care about is threatened, you tend to go blind," Emmett tells him sympathetically.
Edward nods his head and continues pacing trying to understand what happened and how to make sure it never happens again, when Emmett interrupts his line of thinking by wondering out loud, "So, I didn't know that you and Bella are that serious."
"We aren't that serious," Edward replies dismissively.
"Liar, if you weren't you wouldn't have been this angry," Emmett replies lazily as he sits on one of the couches and props his feet up on the coffee table.
"I am serious about her, but we aren't that serious yet," Edward explains.
"That's it? Make her be serious about you. It's not that hard," Emmett tells him.
Edward rubs his hand over his face before replying, "It's not that easy Emmett. Bella is the first woman I have dated that I can have a real future with, so it's not as simple as you make it seem."
"What do you mean? She is not exactly the first woman you have dated," Emmett replies looking at his brother in surprise.
"You won't understand," Edward replies, shaking his head.
"Then help me understand. I'm not that stupid," Emmett replies, putting his feet down and getting a serious look on his face.
Edward runs his fingers through his hair. This is the same guy who mocks him for having never killed someone. Emmett is the same person who thinks that he is playing for a career. Does he really want to give Emmett more ammunition? Edward turns to look at Emmett and the honest look in his eyes makes the decision for him.
Fuck it
"You have it easy. Rosalie just has to contend with the mafia side of things. I don't. Whoever I date will have to contend with the mafia side of things, my work as a businessman and my fame. No woman that I have met before Bella could handle those three. You think I want to be single? Well I don't. It's just that those relationships don't logistically work. And it's not like Bella is a round block that fits a hole. I truly care for her. She is witty, passionate, smart, and strong. I truly admire her but I also know that if circumstances were different there may not have been an us because I wouldn't have seen the point in dragging her into a life that she will refuse to be a part of."
Emmett is surprised by everything he hears as he never imagined what his brother's experience is like. Now a lot of things that Edward does makes more sense. His dating patterns make more sense. More so, Edward's constant anger at him and his father makes more sense. His life is much simpler in comparison.
"Bella is too much of a public figure. Whoever he works for won't go after her, but if you are still worried, why don't you hire a bodyguard?" Emmett feels at a loss for words, so he gives him the advice he knows on the topic he knows the most about.
"The moment Bella finds out that her life, or Adam, and Peter's life is at risk, we will be over," Edward rebuttals. Bella obviously worries continuously over her kids. When he ran into her and Phil in the park, like clockwork, she glanced at her children every 30 seconds. If he tells her that someone is threatening her life, she will run for the hills. There will never be getting her to like him. Her survival instincts are stronger than any persuasion he can try.
"She doesn't need to know. The bodyguard can be discreet and once you are more serious she will have to have security like all of the Cullen women. By that point, she will be too in love with you to say no," Emmett tells him, ending his statement with a wink.
Edward balls his left hand and punches with it the palm of his right one as he tells Emmett seethingly, "I just, I am so angry. I have stayed away from those things my whole life and then the moment things are great, they decide to drag me into something I don't want."
Emmett is quiet for a moment before he tells him calmly, "Maybe that's the problem? You staying away. Had you been scary enough, they might not fuck with you."
"What are you suggesting?" Edward asks, scared of the answer Emmett might give him. He doesn't want to do it. He doesn't want to compromise who he is just to put up a boundary.
This is so unfair
Looking out of the window and refusing to meet his eyes, Emmett tells him, "You know exactly what I am suggesting."
Bella walks back to the living room after putting the boys to bed. It wasn't the easiest task as both of them don't like going to sleep when the adults are still up, but she has no option. She needs to talk to both Phil and Seth without the boys present.
"So, Bella, have you spoken to Aro yet? It has been a week," Phil asks, beating her to the bush.
Bella sits down and keeps her expression neutral then tells him, "Yeah, I did yesterday. This is what I wanted to talk to you about. Aro told me something."
"What happened?" Phil asks.
"Billy died."
"What?" Phil exclaims jumping from his seat. At the look on Bella's face, he realizes his mistake and sits down looking apologetic.
"Billy had a heart attack the day before yesterday," Bella tells him, looking solemn.
"Ohh," Phil mutters quietly, looking at his lap.
"He is going to have his men go in and find the video after the funeral is held," Bella tells him quickly. What she doesn't tell him is that Aro's men got him the video already and that Aro will hand it to her the next time he visits New York. What she doesn't tell him is that the heart attack is the result of a drug that was slipped into his food that doesn't show up in the autopsy.
Phil nods his head in understanding and tells her, "That is smart."
She nods her head then asks him, "There is no point in doing anything with the video, is there?"
Phil rolls his eyes and then tells her, "Of course not, Bella. All it will do is connect the both of us to a murder story we had nothing to do with. That said, we should still go to the FBI with what the men are doing."
"Absolutely not," Bella states firmly, getting up.
"Why?"
"It will not be useful for them," she states, crossing her arms.
"I don't care about what's useful. I care about the fact that a crime is being committed," Phil replies getting up.
"What about their lives?" She asks.
"What about it?" Phil wonders not understanding her question.
"Won't they be destroyed?" she answers him trying to get him to sympathize with the boys.
Phil rolls his eyes at her and tells her, "So what? They chose the life of crime. They have to deal with its consequences."
"Of course you think that, Phil Dwyer. Your life has been laid out for you. You have been given so many good options in life, so why would you go with the wrong one. Of course you don't understand," she tells him angrily.
"What is that supposed to mean?" he asks her sounding offended.
"It means that you were born a white rich man. You have lived a life of privilege. You don't know what their experience will be like in the legal system. You don't know what things they went through that led them to make the choices they made and you don't know how they would have done things differently if they had the options you had."
Phil is contemplative for a moment before he gets a firm look on his face and tells her, "Then what? Should we let them deal drugs and poison the youth? There are so many options between I can't find employment and I am dealing drugs. It's not like that was the only option they had."
"You don't know that, Phil. Sometimes doing the wrong thing isn't a slippery slope. It's a free fall. Sometimes, doing the wrong thing is your only escape. You can't judge them for choices they made to survive a life you couldn't have handled," Bella says begging him with her eyes to understand.
Don't you get it? They aren't the only ones whose hands have been forced to do something they didn't want to do.
"What do you suggest we do?" Phil asks her patiently.
Bella throws herself on the couch then tells him, "I don't know, but I know that going to the FBI is not it."
"Seth, what do you think we should do?" Phil asks, turning to Seth.
"They want opportunities and employment," Seth answers, speaking for the first time.
"I will try to figure out something," Phil replies nodding to himself.
Bella checks the main door to make sure that it's locked before turning to check on Adam and making sure he is covered by the blanket. Spotting the light in the room Seth is sleeping in, she goes in to make sure that everything is okay.
She finds Seth sleeping with his back to the door, so she turns off the light and goes to leave the bedroom but something she hears stops her in her tracks, "What happened to Billy?"
She turns to Seth and finds him staring at her wide awake, "I told you. Were you not listening?"
"Bella, I'm not Phil. Don't lie to me," Seth replies quietly.
"What do you mean?" she asks, playing dumb. She isn't about to show her cards to Seth before she knows exactly what he thinks. She cares for Seth, but she will never trust someone enough to give them a key to her destruction.
Seth pushes himself up and leans against the headboard as he tells her, "I mean that you didn't like Billy. You told us that Aro would handle things and then we find out he died."
"Excuse me? Are you saying that I killed him because I didn't like him?" Bella demands, sounding offended. She would have felt better about him knowing the truth than thinking that of her.
"I am saying that it's awfully convenient that things went down the way they did," he replies, turning away and staring out of the window.
She decides to switch gears and tells him, "Seth, he committed murder. You're worried about the karma of a murderer?"
"I don't care about him. There are many tales of him beating his wife before her supposed disappearance. I am worried that this will come back to me. I saw him a week ago. You can't say that," he tells her angrily.
Bella sighs in relief and tells him patiently, "He had a heart attack. The report shows that he had nothing in his bloodstream and he will be incriminated. You have nothing to worry about."
"Are you sure?" he asks her, sounding skeptical.
Offended, she questions him, "Have I ever not been sure of anything?"
He nods his head and lays down in bed. Bella smiles at him, as she goes to shut the window before leaving the room.
"Bella?" Seth asks, making her pause in the doorway.
"Yes?" she asks, turning to look at him.
"Did Charlie meet the same fate as Billy?" he asks her. She can't see his expression in the dark but he can see hers.
She hides her face by turning away from him and tells him, " No, he didn't. But I wish he did."
Hello lovely people,
Happy Ramadan to anyone who is celebrating, aka fasting. In case you don't know what Ramadan is, it's a month in which Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. As a Muslim, I am fasting, so I am not sure how frequently I will update.
I have already finished the next chapter. I will update it once my beta and I are done editing it.
Please leave a comment in the review section. It could be your favorite part, thoughts, feeling, or even criticism. Any and every comment you leave is read and taken into consideration. Your comments motivate me to update faster, and help me grow as a writer.
Until my next update,
Stay Safe