CHAPTER 14

From a tender age I was cursed with rage

Came swingin' like a fist inside a battin' cage

~ Halsey, The Lighthouse

EPOV

SHE'S BACK

Isabella Cullen is officially reinstated as a member of The Academy after a month long absence. Cullen withdrew her membership following the investigation into Nathan Lawrence's claim that her biological father, Aro Volturi, bribed him to give Cullen her first role.

Word on the street is that Cullen was the only one being investigated for the scandal, even though it was Lawrence, also a member of The Academy, who had admitted to taking a bribe. Her short and blunt statement about withdrawing herself from The Academy due to 'irreconcilable differences' made the whole ordeal feel even more like Hollywood's mother and father were in the midst of a nasty divorce.

If there's one thing we know about Bella Cullen, it's that she doesn't forgive easily. Which is why her willingness to rejoin The Academy came with a few conditions. The biggest being that every current and future member of The Academy is now required to undergo a thorough background check. Anyone who is found to go against the newly renovated code of conduct will be dismissed from the organization.

It's an unprecedented and quite frankly shocking move by The Academy. The organization and Hollywood itself are a breeding ground for mental and physical abuse, something The Academy has never done anything to combat or even acknowledge.

The fact that they were willing to take such drastic measures to get back in Cullen's good graces should have us all on high alert for what the seven-time Academy Award winner has up her sleeve. And should have entertainers throughout the industry thanking her.

"Please, man, I don't know anything!"

Pocketing my phone with a sigh, my attention begrudgingly went back to the man across from me. He was strapped to a dingy old chair, his pleas reverberating throughout the empty warehouse and unfortunately chasing away all thoughts of the ungodly impressive amount of power my wife had at her fingertips.

"I know, Jerry," I sighed, leaning back in my own chair and taking in the man. He was worse for wear, his hair disheveled and sweaty, short brown clumps of it sticking to his forehead. He had arrived to me in less than pristine condition, though, having caused the men I sent to retrieve him a headache on the way over.

Not that it mattered to me.

"So y-you'll let me go?"

He must have gotten a concussion at some point along the way, because he'd asked me the same thing three times since I sat down. Or he was scared shitless. Rightfully so. "No. Unfortunately for you, you took a job delivering a decapitated swan to my wife."

It wasn't the first not-so-thinly veiled threat O'Malley had tried to send Bella. They were constantly being intercepted, whether they were sent to the house or her set. Some messages were more subtle, like the blood-red roses with a card from O'Malley. Others weren't, like the decapitated swan Jerry here tried to drop off at her set this morning.

I didn't appreciate the symbolism. Or the use of her maiden name.

She was a Cullen. And she was mine.

"What do you want to know, man? I'll tell you anything. I—"

"Twenty seconds ago you said you didn't know anything, Jerry."

"I—well, I don't. But I can—"

"I know you're the low man on the totem pole. You have nothing to offer me." He was a drug runner for O'Malley's pathetic attempt to encroach on my territory. I knew more about the inner workings of O'Malley's business than he did.

It didn't mean I was going to let him walk out of this unscathed. I stood, not bothering to hide the satisfied smirk at the pure terror that flooded his eyes at my movement.

I nodded toward the two men who had brought him in as I brushed past Jerry toward the door.

"Break both of his legs. Dump him back at O'Malley's."

Jerry was lucky. The last messenger got shipped back to O'Malley in pieces.

It was later than I had realized as I climbed the steps up to my bedroom. The house was quiet when I got home. It made the thudding of the rage pulsing through my body disappear. Because I rounded the corner and walked into my bedroom to see a pile of brown hair peeking out from underneath the comforter.

I knelt by the bed beside her, gently brushing the hair out of her face and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. Her nose wrinkled, just for a moment before her breath evened out again.

I took a quick shower, getting the lingering smell of Jerry and the warehouse off of my skin before I settled into bed beside my wife. About thirty seconds before the alarm on her phone went off.

Bella grumbled, fumbling with the phone for a moment before the room got quiet again. She flipped herself around and buried herself against my chest. Her voice was soft with sleep when she asked, "You okay?"

I pressed my lips to her temple. "I'm fine."

"You can still back out if–"

My arms wrapped around her waist as I pulled her closer. "I'll be there, Bella."

Her eyes finally popped open to meet mine. "You don't have to. It's a lot to ask."

I cupped her cheek with my palm. It wasn't a lot to ask. Not when you took into consideration the woman nearly went to prison for me. "I'll be there."

After a solid four hours of sleep, I made good on my promise and was on set three minutes before my call time. Kate sent me to a trailer, telling me they were just a few minutes behind schedule.

I thought the trailer was empty when I walked in. It was obviously a hair and makeup area, mirrors lining the wall and five chairs lined up in front of them. I sat down, pulling my phone out of my pocket when I heard the quiet voices.

"It's just… a really cool vibe on set," the girl said, her voice quiet and soft.

"Everything is going okay? There haven't been any issues?" The woman's voice was distorted. I leaned back in my chair to see a girl who couldn't be older than eighteen huddled in the corner. Her back was against the wall, her eyes on the phone in her hand.

"It's amazing. Bella is really nice. Every time I see her she stops to talk to me and asks me if I'm okay. She said she knows I have anxiety and if I ever needed a break or anything to let her know and it was fine. And she meant it, I could tell. This is kind of the coolest thing I've ever done, I think."

The door to the trailer opened, louder than I had come in and catching the attention of the girl in the corner. Her head popped up, cheeks flushing as she watched Bella walk in and saw me sitting there.

"I've got to go, Mom," she said quickly, hanging up the call and standing.

"Everything okay?" Bella asked her, worry immediately furrowing her brows.

"Yeah," the girl said quickly. "Sorry, I know the trailer was supposed to be closed. My mom called and I–"

"It's okay, Grace," Bella smiled. "Your sister was looking for you, though."

The girl nodded, tucking a strand of long, pitch black hair behind her ear. She left without another word.

"Nice kid," I told her as she leaned against the counter in front of me.

Bella nodded. "She is. Within the span of a year she went from living in a small town in Rhode Island to the most followed person on the internet."

I nodded. Every person who was part of the film had a similar story. There was no one participating who didn't know just how ruthless the industry was. None of them seemed to take for granted the lengths Bella was willing to go to tell the truth about it.

Least of all the quiet girl in the corner who was just happy to have someone say she could take a break if she needed one.

"I brought you some coffee," Bella said, changing the subject and handing me the to-go cup in her hands. I eyed the logo, knowing it was from the little coffee shop down the street from my office that I got my coffee from every morning. "Okay," she relented. "I had someone else go and get it. But I brought it from my trailer to here."

"I already agreed, Bella. You don't have to bribe me with coffee."

She had been giving me an out every other day since I agreed to be in her film. And while I appreciated that she knew it was out of my wheelhouse, when she gave me more detail on why she wanted me in the film in the first place, I couldn't say no.

"It's not a big part. You wouldn't even be playing anybody besides yourself. But I just–had this idea. Of you being there, in the background. Always there, always watching over me. No matter what."

Even remembering her pitch had my chest ache. Because I knew I didn't deserve her, but I was never letting her go.

"Besides," I said, standing and taking a sip of the coffee. I eyed her up and down, taking in the well-worn blue jeans and the old tour crew t-shirt she had on and attempting to lighten the suddenly heavy mood. "I prefer my bribes from you to be in the form of sexual favors."

Bella let out a loud chuckle, grabbing my hand and leading me out of the trailer.

–Love|Power–

"Come out, Bella," I sighed, checking my watch for the sixth time in the last ten minutes.

"I look stupid."

"I highly doubt it, my love."

Even through the door to our ensuite I heard her sigh and grumble to herself. After another minute of her mumbling the door reluctantly swung open.

My breath caught in my throat. I had seen every version of my wife over the years. I had seen her in hospital beds and with vomit in her hair as she took care of our son. I had seen her draped in the most expensive jewels money could buy and in the most prestigious designer clothing. And I had seen her in nothing at all. Up until this point that had always been my favorite vision of her, but this one was a very close second.

Because I knew her lack of higher education had always been a sore spot for her. She constantly thought she was looked down upon for her lack of education.

I was never exaggerating when I told her she was usually the smartest person in every room she was in. Grades and tests weren't the only indicator of a person's intelligence. Some of the smartest people on paper made the stupidest fucking decisions in their everyday life.

Bella might have seemed impulsive to the public, but I knew better. She was smart and calculated each of her decisions carefully before ever making a move. She currently had the entire country waiting for her next move. It wasn't a position someone without a great deal of intelligence could get into.

So seeing her there, in her purple robe with a graduation cap placed carefully on the top of her head was a surreal moment.

"I told you I looked stupid."

My eyes rolled as I placed a hand gently on her hip and pulled her into me. I pressed my lips into her cheek. "You look lovely."

She read over her speech on the drive. The one I knew she had memorized. I squeezed her hand, smiling over at her as she mouthed the words. "I love you."

Because at the end of the day, that was all that mattered to me. She could get up on that stage and stutter over every other word or say her speech out of order and not make any sense and I'd still be there for her on the drive home.

Very few people understood us, Bella and I. On paper, we never should have worked. Our lives and careers were too different. I should have left her alone a long time ago, if only for her safety.

But I think both of us realized early on in our relationship that we were all the other had. That we were worth all of the bad shit because we were the only one that could survive it with the other.

Bella's head popped up, eyes losing the hint of fear they had been carrying around all day as she looked at me. "I love you, too." She set her speech aside, took a few deep breaths, then looked tentatively back over at me. "Thanks."

The stress and anxiety that had been eating at her all morning had vanished by the time we pulled up to the same stadium we watched Aiden graduate in a few years ago. With one more kiss to her cheek I watched as Alistair followed her to her waiting area and I went in search of the rest of the family. They were easy to find, because there was a wide breadth surrounding them all.

They were all here, though. From Alice and Rosalie to Olivia and Peter. There was even a rowdy group of Aiden's old fraternity brothers that were prepared to be the boisterous group that everyone in the place hated by the end of the ceremony.

I took a seat beside Adeline, smiling as Ella plopped herself in my lap. She entertained herself with the cufflink on my jacket while I talked with her mother.

"Have you found anything?"

Adeline hesitated. Eying the crowd for a moment before she spoke. "There are some… concerns over how the three of them managed to purchase the streaming company so quickly. Even combined they shouldn't have had enough funds. Bella isn't the only one who got screwed over in the deal. There are a lot of people digging into it and a lot of people seem to think they committed at least a few white-collar crimes to get it done so fast."

"Any proof?"

"Nothing concrete yet. Jared and I are working on it."

"Good. Thank you."

"Embry Call also has a long history of cheating on his wife. But that's not as useful," she shrugged.

Bella had been rightfully hesitant about Adeline when we first learned of her and Aiden. Because she was an excellent lawyer and it would have been a bigger problem than I cared to admit if she was on the other side of things.

Aiden liked to keep her away from our business, but Adeline had insisted on trying to find something that would help Bella. "You shouldn't look into Call."

"It's all connected. The CPD has it out for her."

I sighed. They had been more of a pain in my ass lately than usual. "I know."

The ceremony started, most of it inconsequential until I heard my wifes name.

"Isabella Cullen," the man standing at the podium started as I watched Bella be led forward on the stage. "Trailblazing actress. Screenwriter, director, producer, singer, songwriter, and performer. You have broken glass ceilings for women in the entertainment industry. Fought for artist rights and championed for the protection and well-being of all entertainers. Your philanthropic work has spanned decades and crossed international borders. Your unprecedented career has stretched across genres and mediums, making you one of the best selling artists of all time and one of the most profitable actresses in the world. By virtue of the authority vested in me, I am pleased to confer upon you the degree of doctor of fine arts honoris causa."

The crowd roared. A steady cheer radiating throughout the open stadium that was a reminder that while people in Los Angeles might easily be swayed by the media, Chicago was ours. Because I might have ruled the city with force, but they truly did love Bella. They saw the impact of her philanthropy the most, from the waiters throughout the city who were always surprised by her kindness and generous tips to the children's hospitals that were flooded with toys and gifts every holiday.

The flash of shock on her face as they cheered for her disappeared and a beaming smile replaced it. Our section cheered even louder as she was handed her purple diploma cover and took her spot at the podium to deliver her speech.

"Hi," she gasped, slightly out of breath as her eyes scanned the crowd. "I wanted to start by saying thank you for not booing. That was a very real fear I realized about three minutes ago," she said with a chuckle. Making a joke out of what I knew wasn't a joke to her at all.

Her speech was eloquent and inspiring. She was a woman who had been through more than anyone knew and still came out on top. If there was anyone in the world qualified to offer unsolicited advice, it was her.

"I leave you with this," she concluded. "We are led by our gut instincts, our intuition, our desires and fears, our scars and our dreams. And you will screw it up sometimes. So will I. And when I do, you will most likely read about it on the internet. Anyway… hard things will happen to us. We will recover. We will learn from it. We will grow more resilient because of it.

"As long as we are fortunate enough to be breathing, we will breathe in, breathe through, breathe deep, breathe out. And I'm a doctor now, so I know how breathing works."

I wasn't sure how she did it, but she always managed to find my eyes. Even when I was in a crowd of fifty thousand, I knew the moment her attention was focused solely on me as she said the words I always told her when she was struggling. I usually told them to her when she was having a panic attack, gasping for breath and assumed she wasn't even really hearing what I was saying.

Breathe in, breathe through, breathe deep, breathe out.

I spent the rest of the ceremony with my eyes on her. The woman who should have left my ass behind years ago but had stayed by my side through every fucking trainwreck. Who was so brilliantly devious in her own right, sitting there with an honorary doctorate when not six months ago everyone was calling her a fraud.

–Love|Power–

It was too quiet. My office, the city. O'Malley in particular.

I wasn't surprised when Aiden flung my door open and tossed a man into the chair opposite of me.

My brows raised as I eyed the man. I didn't recognize him, but I could also barely recognize my son at the moment. He was furious, lips curled in a snarl at the man with his hands clenched in fists at his sides.

"Everything alright?" I asked, leaning back in my chair.

Aiden didn't appreciate my nonchalance, but it made the fury behind his eyes dim for a moment. "This prick came to my office and showed me this," he spat out, tossing a flash drive on my desk.

I eyed the unfamiliar man for another moment before sticking the drive into my computer.

There was a flurry of movement, the screen blurry and the audio muffled for a moment before it straightened out and focused on a chaotic hospital.

"Twenty-one-year-old female with a GSW to the shoulder and abdomen. Lost consciousness multiple times in the ambulance and more blood than we're comfortable with."

My attention snapped to the man, just for a moment when I realized what I was watching. He had the brains to look terrified.

"Ms. Swan, you need to stay with me while we look you over, okay?" a woman in dark blue scrubs told the patient on the bed. She was covered in a blanket and gauze, both of which turned red far too quickly.

"Shoulder is through and through but there's no exit for the injury to her abdomen," another man in dark blue scrubs said quickly.

"She's lost too much blood we need–" she stopped, frowning at the sudden change in the beeping that sounded through the room. "Her lung collapsed!"

She was surrounded immediately, handed whatever equipment she quickly listed off that she needed and punctured Bella's chest and waited a heartbeat until it lifted on its own again.

The other doctor walked over to examine her arm, the one with too much blood staining her skin and carefully lifted it until Bella let out a pained shout.

The view of the video falters, the sound of the doctors rushing around still heard but the only image was a white windowsill with a blood splatter dripping down.

"Christ, she's not going to make it," a man mumbled. Maybe the one filming.

"Then make sure you get it on film."

The screen went black.

"You filmed this?" I snapped. He nodded. "You showed this footage to her son?"

"Look, I just thought she should have it. Lawrence–"

"He's the one who had you film it? Who said to get it?"

"Yes. He had me film everything back then. And I did, because it was my job. This one felt… wrong. So I told him the file got corrupted. He was pissed, but it didn't feel like a moment he should have."

"This was thirty fucking years ago."

"And no one has seen it since. I'm not asking for anything. I was just trying to get it to her. Bella–back then–she was a good kid. Innocent. I just wanted to get it to her. I thought he might be less likely to kill me if I gave it to him," he said, eying Aiden. "I underestimated him, though."

I slammed my laptop shut, even the frozen image of the windowsill making me nauseous. "Leave," I snapped at the man. "Before I change my mind."

He didn't have to be told twice, quickly scrambling out of the chair and brushing past Aiden.

"He had footage of mom for years before–"

"He didn't do anything with it, though. He gave it to her. Eventually, at least. We can't have bodies start showing up in Hollywood. Not yet."

Aiden was still obviously frustrated and furious. I didn't blame him, I was too.

"I don't get it," he sighed, leaning with his elbows on his knees as he looked over at me. "Why everyone is always after her. Hollywood is full of other people to talk about and torment."

I nodded. "Power. Your mother has it. Everyone else wants it."

Before he could ask any other questions my phone rang. I reached over to silence the call, but when I saw Alistair's name, I picked up immediately. "What happened?"

He hesitated. The highly trained professional I paid to keep my wife safe hesitated before saying, "She was arrested."

My stomach dropped. Breath drained from my lungs. "For what?"

"Aro Volturi's murder."

A/N: First off, I'm so sorry for the delay in an update for this (and Mine). In case you missed it, I posted a holiday short story! It's called 'tis the damn season and it took up more time than I had originally planned. But I do love it, and I hope you'll check it out if you haven't yet!

Second, if you're ever worried about a delay in posting or just want to chat, you can always find me over on Twitter (fragilefanfic) where I tend to update you guys on when things will be updated or any delays.

Third, thank you guys for sticking with me. And my sincerest apologies for the cliffhanger.

Bella's commencement speech (minus the line about booing, obviously) was quoted from Taylor Swift's 2022 speech at NYU.

PS. yes I know about double jeopardy. Stay tuned.