I don't own Twilight. What I own is my character's behavior, personality, background, and plot of the story.

Thanks to my Beta MadMooey18 for her constant support and help in making this story what it is today.

Bella feels a shiver run down her spine as she turns away from the office and quickly walks toward the dining room. She finds a lone maid carrying the dishes to the kitchen who tells her that the family moved to the living room. She smiles at her in thanks then heads to the living room where she finds soft music playing while everyone is sitting. Rosalie and Alice are talking to each other, while Esme and Edward are scrolling through their phones.

"Is this how you spend your family visit? On your phone?" she asks him lightly as she sits beside him.

Edward looks up hearing her and wraps an arm around her shoulder then tells her in a quiet voice, "Not usually, but if I don't I will say something I regret."

"What happened?" she whispers as she leans into him and rubs his shoulder. "Nothing. Same old shit and that's the problem."

Bella kisses his cheek and tells him, "Don't lose hope. Rome wasn't built in a day." "It wasn't built in 28 years either," he quips back.

"What's with the music? It's not holiday-themed," Bella asks him after a couple of minutes of silence.

"It's my mum's favorite. Dad hates holiday songs so she puts her favorites on instead."

Bella moves her head off his shoulders and whispers, "Why don't you take her for a spin? I bet she would love that."

"So I award her for taking his side by dancing with her?" Edward asks Bella sarcastically.

Bella rolls her eyes at Edward being dramatic and tells him, "She isn't the enemy. Your mum is no happier about this entire thing than you. She is stuck between you and your father. That can't be a great position. Cut her some slack. Show her that you are not angry at her, just your father."

Edward just stares ahead refusing to comply with Bella's idea. He sees that it has some merit to it, but his pride won't allow him.

"You know, I could force your hand by calling out to her and telling her that you want to dance with her. That wouldn't be so great, though."

Edward looks at Bella in surprise searching for something to tell him that she is bluffing. He does see a mischievous smirk hanging off her lips that puts him at ease, but then notices the serious look in her eyes and knows that there is no way out.

Edward sighs to himself then plasters a smile on his face and approaches his mum. It takes him about a minute to get her to her feet and then with a big swoop, he twirls Esme around which gets Alice and Rosalie's attention.

Esme whispers something in Edward's ear that prompts him to grin at Bella. She smiles back and gives him a thumbs-up. His eyes sparkle as he stares into her eyes, not looking away. They stare into each other's eyes for what feels like hours, and Bella realizes she could spend a lifetime doing just that; staring into his eyes.

Esme is spun around and their gazing is cut off.

Bella shakes her head to clear it as she discovers that someone turned up the music. She decides to go and get some water from the kitchen to cool down a bit and when she returns, she finds the rest of the Cullen men came back.

She pauses in the doorway for a second and that is all her brain needs to have something click. Having made her decision, she walks with purpose toward where Jasper is standing and stands beside him, and as luck would have it, Alice is the one dancing with Edward.

"You know, I will never understand why you don't dance with Alice. She loves it," she tells him, making her presence known.

"I hate dancing. Alice understands," Jasper replies uninterested.

Are you sure you wanna do this?

Yes. Alice is not a child. Let her figure things out on her own.

Bella smiles as she braces herself. "I think it's smart. It is also good practice for when she starts dancing with other men."

Jasper turns quickly then clutches her wrist painfully as he demands, "What are you talking about? Is Alice cheating on me?"

"Drop my hand," she whispers furiously as she stops herself from whimpering in pain. Years of abuse at the hands of Charlie were good practice.

"Answer me!" he demands.

Bella glares at him and tells him, "If you don't drop my hand, I will scream and get everyone's attention. How do you think your brother will feel about you bruising me?"

He drops her hand and she gently massages the area he was clutching and tells him, "Alice loves you too much to ever cheat on you." That prompts Jasper to let go of the breath he was holding.

"Although for the life of me, I will never understand what she sees in you?" Bella finishes, making him roll his eyes.

"Then what did you mean?"

Bella turns to him smirking and asks, "You think I am gonna give you the answer for free? I have only tolerated your ass for Alice. The two of you breaking up is a dream come true to me."

"What do you want? Money? Jewelry? What is it?" Jasper demands urgently. He might not be Bella's biggest fan, but it doesn't change that she holds the key to Alice's secrets and as much as he doesn't want to believe her, pretending that Alice hasn't been pulling away from him in the recent months will only make him a fraud.

Bella snorts, then takes a sip from her glass of water then tells him, "If you think that is what I want, you are dumber than I thought."

"What do you want?" Jasper demands feeling too depleted to listen to her mockery.

She looks at Edward as she tells him,"Believe it or not, I don't want anything for myself," she pauses then turns to face Jasper and tells him, "Edward doesn't want to be part of the Cullen Mafia. Make sure what he wants happens."

"Done. Now tell me why Alice wants to leave me?" he tells her impatiently. "You haven't proposed."

"That's it?" Jasper asks her in surprise.

Bella shakes her head and asks him, "You think that's not a big deal to Alice?"

Rubbing the back of his neck, Jasper tells her, "I know she wants us to get married, but I figured she would want to get her business established and off the ground before that. Plus, she is only 24. She has all the time in the world to get married. She doesn't need to do it now."

"She watched some so-called relationship expert who said that after the two-year mark, the longer you date, the more unlikely he is to propose. Now she thinks that you are just messing with her and don't really want her," Bella tells him shrugging.

"You didn't try to talk her out of that nonsense?" Jasper asks her.

"I don't like you. Why would I talk her out of breaking up with you?"

"Yet here you are," Jasper states smirking.

Bella stares at Edward as she whispers, "Yet here I am."

Jasper looks toward where she is gazing and stares, "You love him."

It's not a question, but an answer. An answer to many things about Bella that Jasper didn't understand.

"And you love him enough to know that joining the mafia would be the worst thing to happen to him," Bella replies, turning to stare into his eyes.

Jasper nods his head in understanding, but Bella's piercing gaze doesn't leave him and soon enough he finds himself looking away. "He is my younger brother. You think I don't know that he hates mob life? I have never wanted him to join. I know it will put out the spark in him."

"Then you will do everything in your power to ensure that never happens, or else you won't like the consequence," Bella tells him as she turns away from him.

She spies Edward frowning looking in her direction and she smiles at him and gives a thumbs up discreetly which makes his frown turn into a grin.

You're not putting your hands in the devil's for no reason. You are doing it for Edward. Edward is worth that and more.

Those thoughts continue to occupy her mind long after she leaves the Cullen's house with Edward.

"You and Jasper seemed to be talking about something intensely," Edward comments, breaking her out of her thoughts.

Bella turns to find him giving her a side glance and a hopeful smile. "He was talking about possibly proposing to Alice."

"No way!" Edward exclaims loudly into the quiet car.

"Why is that so surprising?" Bella asks as she turns to face him.

Edward smiles at her, "Him proposing isn't surprising per se. I guess him telling you before me is, but that is great. It means that he is starting to warm up to you. For a while, I thought the two of you would never get along."

"Well, don't get too excited. He was probably testing the waters since I know Alice best." She feels her stomach drop as she lies more to him.

"Jasper doesn't test the waters with anyone. The fact that he talked to you about it means that he likes you," he tells her, smiling at her in a way that forces the knife of guilt to twist even further.

"I am gonna be in so much trouble if I don't decide on a gift for Jazz now," Alice whines to Bella over the phone.

Bella rolls her eyes at Alice's moaning and tells her, "I have known Edward for a couple of months. It's normal that I have trouble getting him a gift. You and Jasper have been together for years. What's your excuse?"

Bella and Alice are different in many ways, but one of the few things they have in common is that they are the queens of procrastinating. Both of them used to put off doing their homework till the last minute. Now, they are in trouble because they putting off buying their boyfriend's Christmas gifts.

"Well, Edward has different interests and hobbies. You have many options. Jazz, on the other hand, does nothing but work. Doing me is probably the only hobby he has."

"Get him lingerie and a couple of suits," Bella suggests.

Alice huffs then tells her, "I did that for our first Christmas together."

"I have given you 15 suggestions so far, Alice, and you haven't liked any of them. I don't know how much more help I can be," Bella tells her, finding herself at a loss for ideas.

Bella isn't a selfish person, but recently, her friendship with Alice has been starting to feel one-sided. Bella does so much for her. They hang out at Alice's spots more than hers. Most of their talks revolve around Alice's issues. Sure Bella is a bit secretive about her problems, but shouldn't Alice have noticed that?

"Okay, let's take a break from that and figure out what you should buy Edward. For the first contender, I suggest lingerie," Alice tells her.

"Alice! You just stole the last suggestion I gave you. Come up with your own idea."

Alice giggles at her offended tone then tells her, "It might have been stolen, but it still holds merit."

Bella stumbles over her next words. "No. I am not getting him that."

"Ohh. I don't need to see you to know that your entire face turned red," Alice tells her giggling then pauses for a moment before continuing, "Why not? It's a great idea. You can't tell me you haven't had sex yet. I don't believe that."

Bella feels herself sink into the couch as she pulls the blanket tighter around her shoulders and tells Alice, "We have not had sex yet."

Alice is shocked by Bella's answer, but she recovers quickly and tells her jokingly, "If you don't have sex with him, I will."

"Alice! You are having sex with his brother. You can't do them both," Bella exclaims loudly, taken by surprise.

Alice just giggles on the other side of the phone before she suddenly stops.

She is quiet for a moment before she asks Bella in a hesitant tone, "What happened in Forks?"

Bella freezes, unsure of what to tell her. "Why are you asking?" Bella finally asks.

"I have always wanted to know but felt like you needed space, so I figured you would tell me once you were ready, but it's been a year and you still haven't told me."

"When did you become this considerate?" Bella asks, trying to change the subject.

"I have always been. Don't change the subject," Alice tells her in a no-nonsense tone.

Bella sighs feeling exhausted all of a sudden. What the heck does she tell her? How do you put it into words that her father never loved her, and just wanted to own her? How does she explain all of the awful things he did?

Will she even believe me, or think I am exaggerating? God, I went through it and until this day, I sometimes wonder if all that had happened was real.

Bella finally settles for the only words that pop into her head. "The worst things that could ever happen, happened."

Alice sighs over the other end, "You're not ready yet to talk."

"No."

Both of them are quiet, each dealing with different thoughts until Alice breaks the silence and asks her, "Have you at least made peace with what happened?"

"I don't think I will ever make peace with what happened."

I will never make peace with what happened.

"Bella, not talking about it isn't making it any better."

Bella opens her mouth ready to defend herself when a sound alerts her that she is getting another call.

She pulls the phone away from her ear to look at the caller ID then tells Alice, "I need to hang up, Alice. Adam's school is calling." Before she hears what Alice has to say, she hangs up and answers the call, "Hello."

"Hi, this is Samantha from Principal Collin's office. Are you Adam Swan's mother?" The caller from the other side asks.

Bella tells her that she is.

"I am sorry to inform you that your son hit another boy in his class and your presence is needed."

Bella is shocked beyond belief at what she has heard. "I am sorry, but are you sure you have the name of the right child? My son isn't violent."

She hears the ruffling of pages before the secretary is back on the line. "Yes, I am sure. It says here that Adam shoved a boy named Jeremy and he fell on the ground."

Bella quickly hangs up and before she knows it, her shaking fingers call the one person she needs right now. "Hey, love."

"Hi."

Noticing the shaking of her voice, Edward asks her, "What's wrong?"

Bella stutters struggling to get the words out as she suddenly finds herself too overwhelmed to breathe.

"Sweetie, try to take a deep breath for me," Edward coaches her over the phone as she hears some rustling in the background.

"Where are you?"

After some stuttering, Bella manages to finally answer him. From there, Edward talks her down from the panic attack she was catapulting into minutes earlier.

"Adam punched Jeremy," she finally manages to get out between tears.

"Oh, sweetie, don't worry, I will come with you. Everything will be okay. Nothing will happen to Adam. I will make sure that the Kings know better than to fuck with a Cullen," Edward tells her nodding his head as if reassuring both of them.

Hello lovely people,

To reply to a comment I received over the last chapter: the Cullens won't try to separate Bella and Edward, but they will use it to their advantage.

Bella is starting to form alliances within the Cullen family. Did any of you expect her to form one with Jasper? Do you think she needs to? Do you think she will form one with another person next?

The Kings are being themselves, and Edward came to her rescue, but do you think there will be a price to that?

Tell me your thoughts and predictions in the review section, and favorite and follow my story if you haven't.

Until my next update,

Stat Safe