CHAPTER 9

She's impatient and I'm complacent

With just a little taste of wasting time

Lookin' for honey

Well, she stings like she means it, she's mean and she's mine

~ Halsey, Honey

EPOV

Entertainment news was typically the bane of my existence. It still was, but I willingly turned it on in my office this time. Because the fire was back in my wife's eyes and I was going to thoroughly enjoy watching it burn Hollywood down.

It was a marvelous thing to watch. She'd done it time and time again but never the same way twice. She adapted to the situation, let her opponent take the first shot, and then came back at them stronger than ever and obliterated them without laying a finger on them.

It was so different from my own tactics and sometimes much more satisfying. A bullet in the head was quick and required nothing more than a flex of a finger. What Bella did was often more brutal and savage than anyone ever understood.

Because she picked her moments well, when she succeeded it was in a blaze of glory that would be thrown in the faces of everyone who fucked her over for years. People had tried to use her and undermine her and take advantage of her since she was sixteen. She had played–mostly–by their rules since then.

This time was different. I knew from the blaze in those chocolate eyes that she wasn't going to hold anything back this time. And I couldn't wait to stand by her side and watch them all burn.

Absentmindedly twirling the pen between my fingertips, I listened for my wife's name on the television while scribbling a few words on the closest sticky-note.

She stings like she means it, she's mean, and she's mine.

"Here's a plot twist no one saw coming," the peppy blonde 'news' anchor on the screen said dramatically. "Isabella Cullen was seen for the first time since her disastrous evening at the Grammy's last month looking surprisingly chipper as she left the offices of Milestone Records in Chicago. Men were spotted packing a car full of Cullen's accolades from the label and we're hearing reports that she's sold her portion of the company back to her long-time friend and original label owner Peter Clark. Nothing is confirmed yet."

"If she sold it," a man beside her said, seeming almost giddy as he spoke. "It's safe to assume she's no longer signed to the label as well. Which would make her an independent, unsigned artist for the first time since she was nineteen."

"Honestly I'm tired of the woman," another man grumbled.

"The woman is a legend. And this picture–that smile? It's a message. She's out for blood, as she should be."

"You always seem to forget the woman murdered her biological father in cold blood, Dwayne."

"A jury found her not guilty, and that's enough proof for me to believe her story. I've been Team Bella since I was a teenager. Absolutely no one does it like her."

I turned the television off when I heard what sounded like a stampede barrel through my front door. I was surprised it had taken them this long to show up. I hadn't told anybody where Bella was or how long she'd be gone or when I left two days ago to pick her up.

"Where is she?" Alice asked as soon as she saw me heading down the stairs. My sister was a tiny thing but did her best to look intimidating with her arms crossed and eyes angled.

"Out."

Rosalie huffed beside her. "You're kind of an asshole, you know."

I shrugged, brushing past them to get to the bar. "I know."

As soon as I had poured myself a drink the door opened again as Bella walked through, surrounded by the men I had sent with her. I gave them a nod of thanks and they disappeared as quickly as they had shown up.

Bella let out a surprised huff as Alice wrapped her in a hug.

"Where were you?"

"Out."

Alice frowned at my wife before turning to glare at me. "You spend way too much time with Edward."

Bella sent me a wink from across the room and I downed my glass of scotch. Because that wink should have ended up with my hand between her legs. Instead I had a small army of family settling in for an hours' long dinner.

I watched from afar as Bella settled back in easily with Alice and Rosalie, deflecting a majority of their questions with ease. Alice and Rosalie were much farther removed from the business than Bella had ever been. They asked questions from time to time, but they were happy to play the more traditional role of mob wife.

"Well?" Aiden asked as soon as we were all seated around the table.

"Well what?" Bella asked, frowning at all of the eyes on her.

"What are we going to do?"

It was Bella's turn to frown. "First of all, there is no we. You get arrested for assaulting a photographer again and I'm going to be pissed."

Aiden shot me a glare. He had tried to get me to promise not to tell Bella about his arrest. As much as I appreciated his desire to protect his mother, I wasn't going to lie to her about it.

"Second of all… I don't have a concrete plan yet."

"But you're going to do something?" Maggie asked, unable to keep the excitement out of her voice. She might have been an adult now, but she was still that little girl who had been Bella's biggest fan when Alice and Jasper adopted her.

"I'm going to do everything," Bella said, unable to keep that cocky smile off of her face. "Without needing the approval of a single board or executive or asshole in a suit. I'm going to do what I want when I want how I want and I'm going to make people understand how I became the monster they think I am."

I wanted to argue against the statement, but I couldn't. Because even the man I saw on the news a matter of hours ago thought she was a monster. And I knew Lawrence would stop at nothing to push that narrative in every form.

She was a monster because she was married to me, because of what happened with Aro. Her career made her cold and callous and cocky and people hated her for it. Because they didn't know her.

Personally, I thought her arrogance was well deserved and nothing was sexier than the woman when she got that cocky smirk on her face. I also happened to think her tenacity for revenge was glorious so perhaps I was in the minority.

But I also knew her. I saw all of the parts of herself she kept hidden from everyone else, the soft spots that she knew would get exploited if anyone knew about them. Because deep down, underneath that tough exterior was still the sixteen-year-old who was just trying to figure out who she was when a career landed in her lap. The one who wanted to be good enough and took it to the extreme.

I sat back and watched my wife happily eat her dinner, the first full meal I had seen her eat since Lawrence's documentary was announced. No one was safe. No matter how long it had been since they had screwed Bella over, anyone who had wronged her in the past was now on a very dangerous hit list. Because that girl that wanted to be good enough was now the woman in front of me who would tear them all apart because they told her she wasn't.

–Love|Power–

"Hey," Aiden yawned, wandering into my office with a coffee cup in hand. Sitting down and looking at me as if he were waiting for something.

"Can I help you?"

He frowned. "Ma texted me at four in the morning and asked me to meet you guys here."

"Sorry I'm late," Bella said, pushing the office door open with her shoulder.

I stood up quickly, grabbing the stacks of files she had stuffed in her arms. She gave me a smile and a peck to my cheek before taking a seat beside Aiden. I sat across from them, dropping the files on my desk.

"What is all of this?" Aiden asked, grabbing a random folder and flipping through the pages.

"Cullen Productions."

Aiden's frown probably matched my own. "What?"

"I'd like you to take over as CEO of Cullen Productions."

Aiden's brows shot up. "I don't know the first thing about running a production company, Ma."

Bella shrugged. "You have a business degree. If I can figure it out, you can figure it out."

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

"I thought you were doing…something. Don't you need–"

"I don't need anything but myself. That's the point. If you don't want it, that's fine. I can find someone else."

"I never said I didn't want it. I just don't want to fuck it up."

Bella smiled at him, standing and kissing his cheek. "You won't. I'll be around to help you if you need it."

I got a quick peck to the lips before she left just as quickly as she came.

"Is this some kind of joke?" Aiden asked, flipping through more of the files.

"No." I shook my head, reading through a few myself and smiling at the small notes in Bella's handwriting. There were project proposals and director pitches and casting sheets. It was obvious she was more hands on than any other CEO would have been. She knew the business better than anyone; including all of the dirty little secrets nobody else was supposed to know.

I couldn't stop the grin from spreading across my face.

She was going to eat them alive.

–Love|Power–

After Aiden left, suddenly with the new title as CEO of Cullen Productions, I found Bella sequestered in her office. To any normal person the scene I walked in on might have been confusing, but I had seen it before. Papers were scattered about, seemingly random and misplaced. I knew better.

I didn't disrupt the careful flow of the pages as I read a few lines here and there.

They told me all of my cages were mental

So, I got wasted like all my potential.

…

I didn't have it in myself to go with grace

And so the battleships will sink beneath the waves

You had to kill me but it killed you just the same

…

You assume I'm fine but what would you do if I

Break free and leave us in ruins

Took this dagger in me and removed it

Gain the weight of you then lose it

Believe me, I could do it

…

What did you think I'd say to that?

Does a scorpion sting when fighting back

They strike to kill and you know I will

…

She smiles back but it's a fact

That her fear will eat her alive

Well, she got the life that she wanted

But now all she does is cry

…

I paused at the last page I came across. "This last one is… different."

Her head popped up, like she was so engrossed in the pages she was reading she didn't even hear me walk in. "Yeah," she smiled, almost proudly. Like it was a catch she wasn't sure someone would make.

She walked over, plopping herself down on the couch beside me. Her smile faded as she fidgeted with the edges of the papers in her hands. Her voice was soft, hesitant as she spoke. "I had a lot of time to think in South Carolina. And I was sitting outside watching a storm roll in when I realized if I had stayed on the path I was on and never met you I'd probably be dead right now."

Even in a hypothetical situation, in a world in which we never crossed paths, the idea of the woman beside me simply not existing anymore made my chest ache.

"I was only about five years into my career and I was already ruined. I still am, because those years shaped everything about me. I sprained my ankle when we were filming the first Tainted movie and I didn't miss a single day. For weeks Lawrence and every other crew member constantly told me how impressed they were with me and how glad they were that I didn't put us behind schedule and I never questioned putting a project over my health after that. After the whole Colton Shay… situation I have never hired a single man to be on my immediate team. After I–thought–I had fallen in love with Jacob Black and he told me I was nothing more than a convenient fuck I decided to never let anyone know all of me again. Not if I was going to survive."

Bile rose in the back of my throat. For a moment I regretted killing Black years ago, wished he was still around so I could pay him another visit.

"So," she sighed. "I wrote my first album and made that movie to create a perfectly crafted perception of me for the world. I kept the most fragile bits of myself locked away where no one could find them and hurt them.

"But, you found me," Bella continued, looking up at me through her lashes. "And you saw all of those parts within the first hour we met, as we were dancing at that benefit. I know if I didn't have you… I wouldn't have survived."

We were both silent. Bella seeming to be lost in her own thoughts as I studied every inch of her profile and thought about that first night. Those parts of herself, the fragile bits she thought she had locked away, they were so obvious to me. Etched into those pretty brown eyes as she looked up at me.

Bella shook her head, eyes hesitantly darting up to me. "Anyway. I thought about how fucked up my own life was and realized there are a lot of other people that don't have someone like you to pull them out. So I'm done putting on a smile and keeping my mouth shut because that's what they trained me to do."

Bella handed me the papers in her hand, the first blank save for one word written in the center. Folklore.

"This first part is my way of trying to get people to understand. It's… three different scenarios on how my life could have turned out, taking the acting aspect away so people might finally understand. Scenario one is supposedly falling in love at sixteen and ending up in a toxic, abusive relationship that I can't escape. Scenario two is that I'm in and out of rehab. Never happy, never fulfilled, just… there. Trying to survive. Scenario three… is you. Saving me."

It was a lot to process. Because I had always operated under the assumption that it was Bella who had saved me. And I couldn't force myself to think of the alternatives, of her in those scenarios.

"So, what," I cleared my throat, holding out the last lyrics I had read. "What is this?"

Bella smiled. "That's about forty years worth of repressed anger. That's the truth that… that I'll put in my own documentary. About myself, Hollywood, everything."

My brows shot up. "You're going to make a documentary?"

"Nobody really knows me. So… I'll show them. Without the pretense of a script I'll show them who I am and what I do."

I shook my head, looking down at the pages in my hands. Before I even had a moment to form a solid thought, she started rambling.

"Are you mad? With a documentary there are going to be a lot of cameras around. And with the O'Malley situation I know it's not ideal but–"

"I'm not mad, Bella. I'm… in awe. Not mad."

Her eyes met mine, wide and uncertain.

Here, she had just written out and processed a few decades of trauma and I sat here at a loss for what to say. Because she wasn't just getting her revenge. This wasn't only about taking her story back from Lawrence and telling the truth, it was about acknowledging all of the fucked up shit she had gone through. It was about trying to change it for people after her.

The O'Malley's were still a problem. Bella might have thought she was simply getting her revenge on Lawrence, but the entire thing would also be a kick to O'Malley. Because he wanted the city, I knew he also wanted the fame. He wanted people to know him and fear him. And while he went after Bella because she was my weak spot, he also went after her because she was her. Royalty in her own field, the Hollywood queen to my Chicago king.

Bella not stepping down, proving that she was still on top of her own game would piss him off to no end. It brought a small smile to my face.

"O'Malley is still a problem," I told her. "And he's going to be pissed when he realizes you're not scared of him."

Bella sighed, her eyes flaring. "I'm tired of men trying to manipulate me into doing what they want."

"Good," I nodded, handing her work back to her. "Give 'em hell."

A/N: I hope you're all enjoying this one. See you next time!

The line Edward writes in the beginning is, of course, from honey by Halsey. Lyrics from the middle of the chapter are from: This Is Me Trying, My Tears Ricochet, Tolerate It, and Mad Woman by Taylor Swift, and The Tradition by Halsey.