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.
She drops the phone on the couch right after she finishes her call with Aro, only for it to ring again, "Hello," she answers without looking at the caller ID.
"Hey. Bella, it's Edward," comes from the other side of the line.
"Oh, hey," she greets weakly, having forgotten entirely that she sent a message to Edward earlier.
"Hope I am not calling at a bad time. How are you doing?"
"Oh no, you're not," Bella tells him, plastering a smile on her face before continuing, "Things are as interesting as they can get."
Understatement of the century.
"Interesting enough for you to go with my suggestion," he states, his tone sounding awkward.
"Interesting enough for me to become your problem as far as the public is concerned," she replies jokingly.
He barks a laugh that slowly dissolves into chuckles before he asks her, "Is that how kids refer to dating these days?"
"I am not a kid. I wouldn't know," comes her retort.
He chuckles, "Thank God for that."
They both are silent for a moment before Bella tells him, "So, what did you wanna talk about?"
He replies, "How we will play out the deal."
"Aha," she tells him pausing before continuing, "Would you believe me if I told you that I forgot that I messaged you since I did?"
"What? It has been a grand total of fewer than 24 hours. How?" he asks surprised.
"Well, a lot has happened since then," she replies sitting down and then continuing, "A friend from Forks moved in with me."
"Oh," he says pausing for a moment before asking her, "Will he be a threat to our arrangement?"
Interesting how he automatically assumed it's a man.
Bella frowns trying to understand before it dawns on her and she quickly replies, "Oh no, Seth is like a brother. Plus he is only 19, and I have known him since he was 13 years old. That would be creepy."
He sighs telling her, "Good to know I am not dating, no one thinks I am dating a person who might become a creep down the line." He scrambles to correct himself halfway through.
Bella stops herself from laughing at his mini freak out before telling him, "It's good to know that the person you are publicly attaching yourself to isn't going to date a high schooler you once supposedly break up."
"Yeah, that," he says, chuckling with her.
They are both silent for a moment, each not knowing what to say until Bella suggests that they meet to iron out the details of their arrangement.
"That's a good idea. I can clear an hour today if you meet me in two hours. You can come to my office?" he tells her the last sentence coming out as more of a question than an answer. She readily agrees with his suggestion and then they hang up.
Time passes by and the next thing she knows, she is putting on the final touches of her makeup before she goes to Seth's bedroom. "Hey Seth, how are you doing?" She asks stooping till she is looking him in the eye.
Seth's body doesn't move from it's horizontal position on the bed. A tear slowly rolls down. Bella drops her bag on the ground and sits beside him before laying in the bed too, and facing him with her forehead touching his.
"Seth, it shall pass. I promise," she whispers trying to do for him what he once did for her; give her hope. A little less than a year after Adam was born, she was nothing more than a scared cat that was afraid of her own shadow but had promised herself to try to be courageous for him, so every day like clockwise, she took him for a walk in the house yard and the surrounding forest.
One time, she got lost in the forest and spent more time walking than she was used to. Upon arriving at the back yard, she was treated by the sight of Seth cleaning the yard for her father. She quickly scrambled back into the house, but not fast enough as Seth spotted the fading black eye, and the next day he showed up with a packet of drugstore makeup.
He told her that he doesn't have any experience with abuse, but he used to be bullied and abusers are like bullies. His words to this day ring in her head, "Bullies will think that they won if they know that they have caused you pain or made you afraid. Don't let him think that. Don't let him think he is winning. You don't need to fight back, just make sure he doesn't win."
His then message was; if he can't see your bruises then he can't see the pain he is causing, or know how much pain you are in. The confusion he will feel then means that he won't win. That is why she will always feel like she owes Seth because without him there would be no life.
"How?" he whispers hoarsely his voice barely coming out.
"I don't know," she whispers pausing to sweep his tears away before continuing, "Nobody knows because it's not an exact science. It's something that gradually happens and takes you by surprise when you notice the change."
"How? How will I sleep at night? I am tired but worried that my thoughts and dreams will match my reality," he tells her vulnerably.
"Well, don't sleep now or else you will mess up your internal clock more than it already is," she tells him sternly before she gently continues, "The first couple of nights will be hard. You might not get much sleep, if at all, but gradually, every day that comes, you will sleep one more minute. Slowly you will find yourself getting better sleep. At first, you won't notice, until having nightmares will no longer be the norm and it will become an unusual occurrence.
He takes a deep breath and then closes his eyes before telling her, "I feel like I don't how I feel. I don't have the words in my dictionary to describe it. All I know is that I shouldn't feel like this. No one should feel like this."
He opens his eyes to find her staring into his. "I know that. I don't know what you are feeling but I know what its like to feel something no one should have to feel." She tries to smile at him but it comes out more like a grimace.
He scoots backward then leans his forehead on her shoulder and breaks into a sob. She rubs his back soothingly as his sobs become even more painful to hear. They stay in this position for 10 minutes until Seth's sobs become shorter and his hiccups less frequent.
He raises his head to look at her and tells her, "You are dressed. Are you going out?"
She nods her head and tells him, "It's a business meeting I couldn't get out of it. Don't worry you won't have to look after Peter and Adam. I am dropping them off at Phil's office on the way."
He shakes his head and gets up before telling her, "Oh no, I will look after them. It's the least I can do."
She sits up following him before she states, "No it's okay. Sit back and relax. You just spent a night traveling. You are probably tired."
"No, no, no. You said that I will work for you. Since you don't run any business, it's safe to assume that I will be your assistant which means that babysitting the boys will be my job. Let me just wash my face. That will give you time to fix yourself. You look a bit rumpled," he tells her going into the bathroom.
"Asshole," she mutters under her breath before she gets up and goes to her bedroom. She looks at herself in the full-length mirror and realizes that the asshole was correct in his assessment.
Bella takes off her sunglasses and smiles at the receptionist before she tells her, "Hello, I am here to see Edward."
The receptionist looks up from her computer screen and stares at her for a moment before she tells her, "What is your name?"
"It's Isabella Swan, Bianca," Bella replies reading her name off the plaque.
Sounding unimpressed, Bianca replies, "Mr. Cullen doesn't take visitors without appointments. You can book one with him in two months and if you pass through our vetting process, you will meet him."
Bella smiles at her sweetly before she tells her, "I am not here for work, sweetie, and I am not meeting Mr. Cullen. I am meeting Edward, so please direct me to his office."
Bianca puts on a polite bored face as she tells Bella, "I am afraid that I can't do so. I don't allow anyone without a scheduled meeting in."
Dropping the nice girl mask, Bella tells the secretary, "Call him and you will know that there is a meeting. It was just not arranged with you. It was arranged between us directly."
"I am sorry ma'am but I can't disrupt Mr. Cullen's workflow for no substantial reason," Bianca tells her then goes back to working on her computer.
This is getting old. Just call him.
Bella dials his number then presses the call button, and her call gets answered by the second ring. "The food will be here in five minute. Please tell me that it won't be cold by the time you arrive."
"I don't think I will make it. I am outside of your door but your secretary was very helpful in letting me know that you have quite the busy schedule and a man in demand as people typically need to schedule a meeting with you two months in advance, Mr. Cullen," she tells him in a flirty tone that she amps up for the sake of Bianca who is doing a terrible job in appearing not interested. A spy, she won't be.
By the time Edward is out of the door to greet her, Bella is done ending the call and returning her phone to her clutch. He hugs her tightly before pulling back and then turning to face Bianca and introducing Bella to her.
"Why did you introduce me as your girlfriend?" Bella asks once they settle down with the food.
"Why would I not?" he asks back, smirking as he removes part of the wrapper of the burrito and takes a bite. He is on cloud nine since she called him from outside his office. He knows that Bella was probably laying it on thick for the sake of Bianca. He knows her too well to think that she will let Bianca's dismissive behavior slide, but he can't help but feel like there was a real feeling behind how she acted with him.
"Because we aren't dating," she replies in a duh tone before she takes a bit from her sandwich.
He swallows after chewing and tells her, "We are here to discuss how we will present ourselves as a couple in public. The purpose of telling her is for the news to spread in the company and someone to go to the gossip magazines with the news. Please don't tell me that you changed your mind, Bella. Arrangements were put in motion."
"Of course not," Bella tells him quickly.
"Then what's the problem?" he questions putting his burrito down.
Bella takes her time chewing on her bite before she tells him, "It just seemed too forward. That's it."
"How come?" Edward asks leaning back into his seat and studying her.
Because for a second, I forgot that we were pretending and was taken by surprise.
She doesn't tell him the truth, instead she asks, "Should I visit you a couple of times here before we become official?"
He eyes her for a moment as if he doesn't believe her before he replies, "If I am casually dating someone, they don't show up to my office. I can't have you come in and say that we are casual. People will notice that something is wrong."
"Makes sense," she mutters to herself nodding and then taking a bite from her burrito.
Once she swallows, she tells him, "How long should this last? I think that a year is a good starting point and then we will see what happens from there. Maybe either of us wants to date someone else."
"Is Isabella Swan eager to get into the dating field?" he asks looking at her from under his eyelashes.
"No, Isabella Swan is being considerate to you," Bella replies rolling her eyes.
He nods his head and then asks her, "So, how will we do this?"
Bella squares back her shoulders before she tells him, "We can't talk about each other or a lot of people will notice and start asking questions. You will have to meet my kids at one point or another or at least have the media think that. We will occasionally go to a red carpet together but for the most part we will go to events in which we don't get photographed officially. We can't seem like we are together only when it gets us attention."
Edward blinks twice before he reaches for the water bottle and drinks from it and then tell her, "You seem to have given this a lot of thought. I don't even have to contribute much to this discussion."
With her hands folded on her knee, she smiles and tells him, "I never show up to anything unprepared."
He nods his head and tells her, "I noticed."
They continue to discuss the finer details of their arrangement. They discuss the type of dates they will have, the kind of statements they will make for each other, and how they will show support for each other, and he tells her of an event he wants her to attend with him in a week.
Bella walks out of his office with a smile on her face and when she notices that Bianca's office is empty she gets an idea and pauses to wait for her. "How can I help you?" Bianca asks politely once she spots Bella standing near.
Bella smiles at her before she tells her, "Of course with nothing, my dear. I just wanted to let you know that I like you. Not many people can be as tough as you were without being a bitch."
Bella winks at her before she pushes her sunglasses up her nose and walks away.
"So what do you want me to do?" Aro asks Bella after she is done telling him about what Billy did to Sarah and the dilemma she is finding herself in.
"I don't know. You tell me," Bella tells him in uncertainty as she bites her lower lip.
"I think you know what I want to do. Men like him are the pinnacle of despicability and are a waste of the oxygen they breathe," he tells her with finality.
You knew what he would do before you called. Don't turn into a coward now.
"I think I want to make sure that this story never sees the light of day. No matter the consequence," she tells him. Her voice which was shaky in the beginning lands with finality at the end.
Hello lovely people,
This chapter was late. I am truly sorry. My cousin recently passed away. I feel mostly okay, he was 25 years older than me, so while I always appreciated him as a person, we weren't close and there wasn't much heartbreak there. It was mostly pain for what my aunt is feeling. That said, my cousin was named after my father who passed away five months ago, and so when I was hugging my aunt and she told me that both of them are gone now, it hit me harder than I thought it would.
So, things didn't happen the way some of you wanted. As a reminder, the Cullens are a mafia family and even though Edward isn't heavily involved in the mafia world, the story will contain it's fair share of mafia things.
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