Prologue
Bella glared at her computer screen, tapping her manicured nails on the desk rather than the keys. She couldn't concentrate on anything except the hum of the overhead fluorescent lights and the constant screeching of the copy/printer in the cubical behind hers. They were the only constants that distracted her from the paperwork Bella had hidden at the bottom of her purse.
At twenty-eight, the girl who once rode dirt bikes and ran with vampires and wolves worked for a collections agency, filed paperwork, listened to people's life stories on the telephone, gave them financial advice, and ended her night with a tall glass of wine before promptly falling into a deep, dreamless sleep. She was a long cry from the mousy, depressed, flannel-donning slip of a girl she'd been during her senior year at Forks High School.
Ten years can do a lot to a person.
Through time, Bella had developed her style and a few curves, learned to like makeup, stopped caring what others thought of her, and found a few decent friends. Dating rarely became an obstacle since men seemed fond of her librarian-ish appearance. She had a long-developed casual approach to relationships and sex, so it was easy to meet those needs, too.
Who would have ever thought Bella Swan would end up the girl who rarely made it past a three-month relationship, never had nightmares, and stopped dreading every moment spent alone?
Perhaps listening to the woes of others who couldn't afford their medical bills or tight-walked tangled webs of financial ruin from untrustworthy partners had put some things into perspective for her. Either way, Bella Swan was surprisingly content being alone - Not necessarily happy, but she was comfortable.
Building a life far from supernatural influence had helped her find peace, too. It had been a very long time since anyone tried to kill her. Besides her father, Charlie, she had expertly repressed those memories by avoiding their sources altogether. Those family check-in phone calls were few, usually ending after Charlie asked when she was planning to come home for a visit. He didn't understand her avoidance when the Cullens had moved away.
Then, out of the blue, the last thing she expected was waiting at her front door via courier, turning her peaceful existence upside down. Bella was unsure how he found her home address, but he did.
Okay, so maybe it wasn't entirely out of the blue. To be fair, it had been a long time coming, but Bella had expertly repressed those memories, too.
Bella pulled her purse out from under her desk and discreetly slid the papers out to examine them as if she hadn't spent nearly an hour doing so after they got handed to her. Unavoidable memories slammed her for the first time in years, leaving her shaking on the drive to work. Bella looked so rattled when she arrived that her senior manager assumed something tragic happened. She didn't bother to correct him, refusing any details while simultaneously thanking him for understanding and barely avoiding another writeup for tardiness. She had been on autopilot ever since.
Ten years ago, she had left Forks behind with the man she thought she would spend forever with. All of Bella's hopes had come crashing down during her disastrous honeymoon. It was her own fault, really.
An annulment was filed two weeks later. Charlie was relieved, but the "told you so" comments from others were plenty. Instead of returning to Forks with her tail between her legs, she fled to her mother's and started over - just like she should have when Charlie wanted her to.
The Cullens paid her a pretty penny when Bella left. She never asked for a dime, but they were all too willing to give what they believed she deserved after the year of hell they'd put her through. Bella didn't need to work, ever. But that money stayed hidden. Some became tied up in investments, and some donated to women's shelters. What remained was virtually untouched, drawing interest. People believed her to be average, with pretty hair (currently very blonde), no kids, a stress-filled job, and too much credit card debt. And she liked it that way.
Thanks to this stupid paperwork and one impulsive, drunken mistake she barely remembered, average, mildly stylish, boring, no-nonsense Bella Swan would return to Forks, Washington, under the guise of her ten-year high-school reunion, to get divorced for the second time.
She hoped like hell that her husband stayed out of her way.
Chapter One
Between tardiness and distractions, Bella skipped lunch and still worked late. She felt annoyed as her immediate supervisor, Nathan, tapped on the wall of her cubicle. He appeared tired, his tie loosened around his neck as he stepped around to lean on her desk.
Nathan was friendly but looked a little like the killer from Scream. His heavy smoker's voice reminded her of her stepfather's, and his tendency to flirt with her despite multiple company policies was irritating. He pushed shaggy, dyed blonde hair away from his dark brown eyes with one hand and said, "Hey. Finally caught you off the phone."
She realized he must have waited a while since she'd just ended a twenty-minute phone call with a grief-stricken woman from New Jersey.
"It's been busy today," she said apologetically. Bella discreetly slid other paperwork over her divorce papers and turned towards him to obscure his view. "Is there something I can help you with?"
"I just wanted to check-in. Robert said you were late today and seemed pretty upset." He stuck his bottom lip out, pouting as he asked, "You okay?"
Bella held back a groan, mentally cursing their boss for being a gossip. "I'm fine," she said and nodded. "I appreciate the concern, but I'd rather not discuss it."
"Are you sure?" Nathan smiled, suggesting, "Maybe a stiff drink would help. We could go grab a couple if you'd like."
Bella sighed. "Yeah, I don't think so. Look, I need to finish up so I can get out of here, and I've got three more calls to make."
He forced a polite smile and stood up straight. "How come you keep shooting me down, Bella?"
She scoffed automatically, surprised by the question. Nathan's brow furrowed, clearly insulted by her response.
Great. Bella said, "Do you want the truth? I don't date co-workers, Nathan, even if it wasn't against the rules here. I don't date brown-eyed men, and I don't date gingers, either."
"I'm a blonde," he argued.
"Your roots are not," she said, gesturing toward his hair. She gave him the most sincere smile she could muster and said, "I'm sorry, but that's how it is. I have reasons, and those will remain private. Okay?"
He sighed, nodding. "I understand. I'm sorry I asked."
"Honestly," she said, turning to her desk, "No should be enough. I didn't owe you an explanation, Nate. Just learn to accept no, and it'll do you some good."
Bella didn't look up to see his reaction. Instead, she waited for his footsteps to fade before taking a deep breath, dug her divorce papers out of the mess on her desk, shoved everything else into her top drawer, turned off her computer, and hoped he wouldn't see her as she hurried out the door.
After rushing to her car, Bella texted the only genuinely trusted contact in her phone to confide in about her current predicament. She hoped he had a bottle of wine waiting when she got home.
Bella's neighbor waited on her couch when she walked in. He looked handsome in his expertly tailored dark blue suit, lounging against the overstuffed sofa cushions as if he owned the place. One long, firm arm lay draped across the back of the sofa, the opposite leg swung just slightly, crossed over the other. Big blue eyes stole all the attention from his sun-kissed, youthful face, perfectly set over a strong nose and pouty lips. Bella was used to this scene, which she recreated at his apartment, too.
After five years, the friends came and went from each other's homes freely and without a second thought. Somehow, they worked like a team, tending to each other like roommates rather than neighbors.
She sighed with relief at the two tall glasses of red wine on the coffee table and sunk onto the sofa beside him. "Jack. I'm so glad you're here."
"Long day, Honey?"
It wasn't lost on her that Jack called her honey, just like Jake used to. She simply refused to acknowledge it. The term of endearment had left Jack's mouth easily from the first time they met, and it had soothed what little homesickness existed in her soul.
Bella said, "Nate hit on me again. I told him he needed to learn to take no for an answer."
"Ew. Fuck. I don't understand why anyone thinks that guy is managerial potential when he seems to spend more time humping desks than anything."
Jack reached for the wine glasses and carefully handed one to Bella. "Is that all, though? Your message seemed urgent. You didn't get in trouble or anything, did you? Is it PMS? Jesus Christ, are you pregnant? I couldn't handle you pregnant, Bella. Because I swear that if you start harping, trying to send me out into the snow for ice cream and pickles at two o'clock in the morning… " Bella cackled, and he leaned back, grinning.
"None of that, but it won't surprise me if I get written up since I was late for work today. I could see Nate being that petty, especially since he used it as an excuse to talk to me initially."
He chuckled. "Honey, you were late again? You really should look into working remotely, Bella. You know, where you won't need an alarm clock. Considering the cacophony of woe-be-gone tales you listen to daily, I'm surprised you're not a crisis consultant for one of those 800 numbers."
She cringed at the thought of listening to someone screaming into the phone mid-crisis. She'd had enough screaming, fear, and gore for a lifetime. Bella tilted her wineglass back and drained it. Jack watched her in wide-eyed silence as she leaned forward to set the glass back on the coffee table.
"Oh- kay ," he said with a nod. She laughed as he took a drink and put his glass down. "That bad, huh?" He reached for her glass and carefully refilled it as Bella opened her purse. She pulled out the papers she'd received that morning and clutched them nervously.
He feigned a horrified gasp, dramatically clutching his chest. "Honey! Did you get sued?"
Bella laughed, rolling her eyes at him. "Remember how I wasn't going to the reunion?"
Jack frowned, all humor gone as he said, "Yeah. Did you change your mind? I thought you didn't want to go back there. Damn. Didn't your step-sister just have a kid?"
"My step-brother's wife did, and I still don't, but…I don't think I have much of a choice." Bella took another deep breath as she handed him the papers.
The corner of his mouth lifted into an incredulous-looking smirk as he reached for them. A paralegal by trade, Jack barely needed to glance at them to know what they were. His eyebrows shot up in surprise and remained there as he read through them. Bella reached for her wine and took another drink.
"Keep that up, and you're gonna sleep real good in about twenty minutes," Jack said, still examining the papers.
"Hope so," she said and laughed. "I have to get up in the morning to make travel plans, take an emergency leave of absence from work… just so much shit. I have court in a week! And I've been gone so long that if I pretend to only go home for that reunion…"
Jack muttered, "That'll really hurt your dad, huh?"
"Yes," she said, nodding. "Charlie will expect time with me. I'll need enough time to be sure I can be available for court that day. I'd rather get it over and forget it ever happened with no one the wiser."
He scoffed, refolded the papers, and tossed them to her. "Abandonment and irreconcilable differences, huh? I can't believe it's taken the sucker that long to file."
Bella groaned. "He's not a sucker , okay? He's just…" Bella couldn't explain it. She'd married him on a drunken whim in the last place on earth she'd expected to see him. It wasn't as if it was entirely her fault, either. It takes two to tango, or so they say.
"Well, he's not the one, or you'd have stayed with him instead of coming back here and ignoring him for … what? Seven years?"
Why had he filed now, anyway? No one had ever learned what they'd done, to her knowledge. Bella corresponded with him briefly via email every tax season, filing as married to avoid taxation issues since they lived in separate states. She even sent him half the return despite out-earning him and having no further ties to his life. She highly doubted his social life had changed for the better.
In the long run, he was getting the better end of the deal - unearned income and a wife that only existed on paper instead of tying him down.
Still, she couldn't help but think of what little she could recall from their wedding night - brief glimpses of him in a white button-up shirt, smiling and standing across from her as some idiot in a bad Elvis costume pronounced them man and wife. And the sex. The incredible, seemingly endless hours spent defiling a fancy hotel room above a casino, pretending they could be together somehow.
But, the dawn had come as it always did, reigning reality over their heads as they scrambled to figure out how to handle their new situation. They'd parted, arguing, with Bella running away, forgetting half her belongings as she rushed to pack and take the first flight home. He'd angrily finished destroying the room when Bella left, adding some hellacious charges to her credit card, which she paid without complaint. It wasn't worth another argument. The one she'd run away from was hurtful enough.
"Earth to Bella," Jack said, pulling her from her thoughts. When she refocused on him, he asked, "Sure you're okay? Do you need me to go with you for this? Do you need any legal representation? I see he's not asking for anything monetary from you, but you once told me he has a shitty temper."
"He wouldn't hurt me," she grumbled. That, she knew.
Looking skeptical, Jack said, "And you've avoided going home all this time because he's safe?"
"I avoid Forks for lots of reasons, Jack. He's just one of them. And not because I'm afraid of him."
"So why go home and do all these things you don't want to do? You could hire a lawyer in that county to represent you and keep your ass planted right here with the rest of the greenery."
Bella chuckled. "I think I need to do this face-to-face, Jack. I probably owe him that much."
"He could have come after you years ago, Bella. You don't owe him shit."
Bella wasn't sure if Jack meant her husband could have come for her legally or to pursue a relationship, but he was right either way. She had the same job, and she'd never moved - not that he had anything more than a post office box address to go on until now.
The fact was, if he found her now, he could have done it years ago.
She drained the rest of her wine and slumped back on the couch. "Can you watch the place while I'm gone?"
"You know I will," Jack said, nodding. "Someone has to water your damn houseplants and finish the wine."
Bella laughed, reaching for his hand. "You're the best."
"Yeah, yeah," he grumbled, standing. Jack drained the rest of his wineglass and picked up her empty one. "Go pass out. I'm bushed, too. I'll put these in the sink and talk to you tomorrow?"
"Thanks, Jack," Bella said and groaned as she stood. He laughed as she kicked her pumps off, sending them flailing across the room.
"That is shoe abuse…" he sang, quoting their shared favorite parody song.
"Are those double dees…" she sang back as she walked toward her bedroom. Jack's laughter was the last sound she heard as Bella flopped onto her bed, fully dressed, and promptly fell asleep.
