Welcome back!
Thanks to you and my team for sticking around. Lots of fiddling in this chapter, so any mistakes are mine.
All Victoria could do the last few days was worry while waiting for Isabella to return. She knew the news she had shared with everyone was heavy, the kind where the world stops turning and the floor bottoms out beneath unsuspecting feet. She had watched Isabella grieve for her brother and stood by while Isabella's family waited for answers that would never come — all without consequence.
But now, the answer Isabella had come to Port Angeles for hangs in the air between them as they stand in the tiny yard behind Rosalie's place.
"Did you bring me out here because you knew there wouldn't be any witnesses?" Victoria asks, looking around at the gray sky and the low wooden gate that separates Rosalie's place from the rest.
"Perhaps," Isabella sighs, turning around to look at her. She crosses her arms over her chest but sends Victoria a soft smile. "But no. I just wanted to feel the air."
Victoria nods in acceptance, leaning back against the stone wall of the building as she takes in the air as well. It blows gently across her face as she asks Isabella, "Do you hate me?"
Her voice sounds small and hesitant, reminding Isabella of a small child who knows she has done something wrong. Her heart tugs in her chest, and she wonders if this is how Victoria sounds to Edward whenever she speaks to him. The vulnerability in her voice and the closed-off way she stands against the building with her arms crossed against her chest makes Isabella want to protect the lost girl any way she can.
Isabella shakes her head, looking up at the sky. "How could I?"
Her voice is softer than Victoria expected it to be. Isabella turns around again and muses aloud, "It's strange to me to see how a single person has no idea how much of an impact they have in someone else's life."
"You mean Edward?"
"I mean you, Victoria."
"Me." Victoria's response drowns in disbelief. She eventually presses Isabella for more. "How so?"
Isabella pauses for a moment and takes a deep breath. She knows the words will be hard to say, and she knows she'll fumble through them, but she knows they have to be said regardless of their difficulty.
"There won't be a single day in my life where I won't wish my brother was here with us," Isabella replies, emotion appearing behind her eyes for the first time since she arrived. "I've been angry about him being taken from my family for far too long, and what good is that doing? Being angry won't bring him back."
Victoria scoffs, "He'd be back by now if that were true."
"Exactly." Isabella agrees, knowing if the anger in her heart, and Victoria's, could bring James back to them, he would be standing before them both this very second. She sighs and sits on an old, rusted chair. "His death brought me here to Port Angeles. To you, to Rose, to Edward and the pub. And, to my niece."
Victoria shakes her head, refusing to let the idea of Isabella forgiving her enter her mind. "But I chose to bring him to the pub that night. It was my choice to see Edward one last time. He'd still be alive if it weren't for me."
"Maybe," Isabella concedes, only to appease Victoria's concern, "but we'll never know for sure. Knowing what we know about Marcus, there's a good chance it would have happened anyway. Maybe he would have killed you, too. And the baby."
"Some days I wish he did," Victoria chokes out, her hands coming to her throat as she tries to gather herself, "just so, for once, I wouldn't have to feel everything I've lost."
She tries to hide the tear that falls from her eye, but it's too late. Isabella sees it and rushes to Victoria's side, placing her hands on both shoulders as she stands before her. She knows why Victoria crumbles at her touch. It is because their loss is shared. Isabella's loss is Victoria's loss. They are one and the same, their hearts lost in a pattern of brokenness and hatred, and even without speaking, they recognize it within one another.
"I understand," Isabella says, meeting Victoria's eyes as her tears form again. "That's why I had to leave Forks. My mother was beginning to slip away, and my father spent every waking minute working in the fields so he wouldn't have to remember."
"I took him from them," Victoria cries softly.
Isabella pulls the girl against her chest, relieved when she feels Victoria's arms wrap around her waist, hesitantly at first. After a moment, she steps back so Victoria can see for herself the truth in Isabella's words.
"It's true; he is gone, Victoria, but you don't see your impact clearly."
"Besides heartbreak and a slow descent into madness, I'm not sure what I've given them."
Isabella's mouth lifts into a small smile. "I came here looking for answers as to what happened to James. But you've given me, and them, so much more."
Victoria pauses, looking up at the gray sky once she understands Isabella's meaning. "They have a granddaughter."
Isabella nods, this time not bothering to wipe the tears from her eyes as they fall down her cheeks. "Do you see your impact now? How much you and your daughter will help us heal?" She pulls Victoria to her again, holding her as she lets go of the sobs she has held back, kept to herself, for over a year. "You made my brother so happy in his final months, and for that, I can never thank you enough."
"We really were happy," Victoria says against Isabella's hair, unable, unwilling, to step out of her embrace just yet. "I don't know what made him different than the rest, but he was."
"That was James," Isabella sniffs as she steps back. "He was just…different. Special."
"Unlike any other," Victoria says, crossing her arms once more as she leans against the building again. "I'll never forgive myself for taking him from you or not telling you sooner."
"I wish you had told me sooner," Isabella answers honestly. "Just for my own peace of mind."
"I wish I had the courage to tell you when I first realized you were the sister he always talked about," Victoria replies. "I'm sorry. I knew you were grieving for him, and I just…let you. I'm not as brave as you think I am. I've let a lot of people down in my life, and this time should be no different than the rest. I'm sure Edward has told you that."
"He hasn't," Isabella says, her gaze shifting as she remembers the softness in his voice yesterday as he spoke of his sister. "Edward only wants the best for you."
"I know," Victoria answers quietly. "Is he upset with me?"
"No. Right now, he's more concerned for your safety than anything else."
"We're all as safe as we're going to be with Marcus around," Victoria exhales, rolling her eyes. "Can we not talk about him right now? I feel like there's so much more we have to say to each other without him ruining everything again."
"You're right. There is so much more we have to say," Isabella agrees, standing from her chair. "And I want to hear every word. Let's go."
They disappear upstairs to Isabella's room, with nowhere to be for several hours.
And though the door may close behind them, many more will soon be opening.
——-TLK——-
In his office at The Lost Key, Edward taps his fingers against the top of his desk, his gaze unwavering from the closed door in the quiet room. Other than the sound of the thrum of his fingers against the hardwood, the only things he hears are the gears in his mind working to solve the latest uproar in his life.
He has what he has wanted from the moment Marcus revealed himself to be as ill-mannered as Edward always knew he was. He had suspected it all along, all of them had, that Marcus was behind James' murder, and now that he has the proof he needs, Edward doesn't know what to do with it.
If he stays quiet, nothing will happen. Nothing will change. Marcus will continue conducting his business as usual, with most people turning a blind eye to everything he does just to keep him satisfied.
To keep the peace.
If he does nothing, Victoria, Isabella, and James will never receive the justice they deserve. It pains him to imagine the void left in their lives with no signs of closure to any part of it.
If Edward decides to share the news Victoria told them, it will not be managed appropriately, if at all. If Edward trusts the wrong people with his newfound knowledge and passes it from his hands to anyone else's, the situation will be dealt with, according to Marcus.
And they all know how that will end.
"It has to stay with us," Emmett says from the chair on the other side of Edward's desk. The two men had been so lost in strategy Edward had forgotten he was in the room. "No one but us can know about what Marcus did to James."
Edward takes a deep breath, pauses for a moment, then exhales loudly through his nose. He gives Emmett a cursory nod. "Yes. Only us. We don't know how far his influence reaches in the department."
"Far enough," Emmett mutters, cursing as he stands from his seat. "He was a good kid, James."
"I don't remember much about him, but from what you and Isabella have said, it seems like we've lost a decent man."
"Have you talked to Victoria at all?"
"She was outside at Rosie's when I dropped Isabella off. Looked like she was waiting for us. Or at least to speak with Isabella."
"How do you think that's going?"
Edward clears his throat, reaching inside his pocket for a smoke. Bringing it to his lips, he remembers Isabella talking of Victoria over the last few days at his apartment and shakes his head fondly as he recalls her words of forgiveness.
He isn't sure if he would be able to do the same thing if he were in her place.
He has forgiven Victoria plenty of times over the years, but never has there been a situation of this magnitude between them like Isabella and Victoria. Isabella's pure heart, the same one that has captured him so completely, allows her to forgive Victoria as quickly as she has.
Pulling the cigarette away from his lips, he nods to Emmett with confidence. "Everything will be all right."
"How do you know for sure? As long as Marcus is around, things will never be all right."
Edward swings his eyes to meet Emmett's, the two of them stone-faced and lethal. "You know what we have to do."
The consequences rage war through their minds, but they know it has to be done. Justice cannot be denied.
"Just us," Emmett confirms with a single nod of his head.
"There's no other way," Edward breathes smoke from his nostrils before putting the remaining embers out in the ashtray on his desk. "There's too much at risk for anyone else to know."
"They'll be safe," Emmett says of Victoria and Isabella, with a touch of reassurance. "Both of them."
"There is no other option but to keep them safe," Edward replies, standing from his chair to look out the small window in his office. "I know what needs to happen in order to do it."
He isn't speaking of Marcus or Victoria this time.
Instead, his mind drifts to Isabella and other ways he can protect her and ultimately keep her out of Marcus' grasp.
Suddenly, Emmett lets out a loud laugh that breaks the somberness of the room. "You were going to marry her even if none of this happened."
He laughs harder, this time earning a small, reluctant chuckle from Edward in return. His eyes never leave the window, but his head is filled with images only he has the privilege of seeing. "I guess I would have."
He has pictured her as his wife in his head for some time now, the image becoming clearer as they have grown closer. From a protective standpoint, it makes sense; Marcus would never be able to intercept Edward Cullen's wife without repercussions.
But more than that, he can't shake the swell of hope and sense of rightness that comes over him when he thinks of Isabella as his... forever.
He sits here now at his desk, reliving the last two days and nights they had spent together in his apartment, and begins to laugh as loud as Emmett. The son of a bitch is right. Edward wants to marry her not only for her protection but simply because he can easily see himself spending the rest of his life with her.
He sees them together and feels happy. Not just content or passing the time. But happy.
He can't remember the last time he felt anything like this.
He thought he had been able to hide his feelings for Isabella since he first met her the day she walked into the pub, demanding a job she had no business applying for. Her grit and determination had gotten her the position, but the intrigue surrounding Isabella Swan allowed her to keep it. She had proven herself to be hardworking, honest, and loyal — not to mention the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She had caught him off guard, and now that they had given themselves completely to one another, he could never fathom letting her go for a single day for the rest of his life. Isabella hadn't been his first, but she would be his last.
Apparently, Emmett hadn't been caught as off-guard as Edward had been. "I'm happy for you, Edward. You deserve this. You both do."
"Don't get ahead of yourself," Edward laughs. "I still have to ask her first."
"Besides the fact that marrying her will keep her out of Marcus' hands, she'll say yes because she wants to. She looks at you with stars in her eyes."
Edward keeps Emmett's words in his head for the rest of the day and the night. After telling Emmett they would meet in the morning with a plan regarding Marcus, Edward had left the pub to walk Isabella to work for her shift. He spent the next several hours at the pub with one eye on the door and the other on her; Emmett's words were confirmed every time he caught her eye. He finds it almost impossible to believe that she can soothe the tension deep in his muscles and the storm within his head with just a look.
But she can.
And he's the luckiest bastard of them all to soon be able to call her his wife.
…If she agrees.
Would you agree if he asked?
See you soon!