Apologies for the late update, I originally wanted this up last night.

Happy reading!

2

Bella

"Do you have any idea how reckless what you did was?" Papa's thunderous voice echoes in the open space of our living room. I've never seen him this angry before. His face is red and the vein in his forehead looks like it's ready to burst. His question was rhetorical because he continued before I can answer. "Obviously not, or you wouldn't have done it.

"Dirty Martini is known to be a Masen hangout, Isabella. You walked right into their hands. If Embry hadn't gotten there when he did, and one of them had recognized you, who knows what would've happened!"

"Papa, I'm sorry…" he cuts me off before I can continue, not caring about what I have to say.

"'I'm sorry' isn't going to cut it this time. You're lucky I went with my gut and tracked your location and had Embry get you out of there before anything could happen to you."

I feel betrayal and anger simmer in my chest. "You tracked my location?" If he did it tonight, he would've been doing it while I was still in LA. All the guys I'd shown interest in who avoided me like the plague after the first date makes so much sense now. I thought it was because they didn't like me, but now I'm sure it's because my daddy had someone scare them off. "Don't you trust me enough to at least give me a little privacy?"

Papa sniffs, looking like he wants to ring my neck. "The irony of those words is astounding, Isabella."

"Before today, when I have, I ever given you a reason not to trust me?" I asked, feeling a lifetime of frustration making its way to the surface. "Everything in my life has been handpicked by you, I've never been given a choice. Everything that you've ever asked me to do, I've done. I just wanted to do something for myself for once, to have some sort of control, because all you've ever done is try to control me." It feels good to finally get everything that I'd been feeling for so long out, it feels like a weight's been lifted off my chest and I can breathe.

Papa's reaction isn't instantaneous, which is always scarier than when he just goes off. I'd rather have him yell, than have this slow simmering rage building in his brown eyes. They are almost molten as he stares at me like he can't believe I had the audacity to say those things to him.

Suddenly, the relief I was feeling vanished.

"I'm sorry," his voice is ice cold, and I can feel it chill my blood, "that me trying to keep you safe has been such an inconvenience to you."

Fuck, I'd really screwed up.

"Embry will be going with you everywhere for the foreseeable future." Papa says, some of the ice having melted from his voice. "And I don't care what you have to say about it, because you decided to act like a petulant child tonight, on more than one front. You may go now."

He dismisses me with a wave of his hand, and I know better than to try to say anything further.

When I get to my room, I close the door a little harder than I should, my frustration getting the better of me. I collapsed on the bed, letting out a heavy sigh. Once again, I felt like I wasn't heard. I knew that what I did was stupid, but I may never have done it had I been given room to breathe.

It doesn't take long for there to be a knock at my door. Emmett doesn't wait for me to answer before he comes in.

"I know," I say before he has a chance to speak. "What I did was incredibly stupid."

"Yeah, it was." He takes a seat next to me, patting my arm like our dad would when I was little. "We keep so much of what's going on from you, maybe too much. You still have this innocence about you, that if you knew half of what was happening right now, you wouldn't be the same."

"This isn't just about tonight, Emmett." I sit up, crossing my legs. "There's nothing I can say to defend my actions tonight, and I know that. I shouldn't have gone to Dirty Martini. But you don't know what it's like to have everything predetermined for you. You're given a choice, I'm not. I just wanted to do something for me."

He sighs. "I know and I get that. You should be allowed to live your life, you're a grown a woman. I'll talk to dad and see if I can get him to back off a little."

"Thank you." I lean my head against his shoulder.

"No problem." He wraps his arm around me, kissing the top of my head. It's nice to feel like I'm being heard for once.

-SC-

Edward

I drove up the driveway of my parents' house in the Hamptons, the sprawling estate sits right on the water and had been purchased by father for my mother, who'd always dreamed of owning a home here just like this one. She'd grown up in the Bronx to a working-class family, living paycheck to paycheck. She'd met my father when she was nineteen working at a diner. He'd come in for a cup of coffee one day and saw her, instantly knowing they were meant to be. He kept going back every day until she agreed to go on a date with him. If she'd known who he was and what his name meant at the time, things probably would have gone quite differently. By the time she'd found out that he belonged to the Masen family, she was already in love and pregnant with me. So, she stayed.

My father adored her, showering her with gifts and trips to wherever she desired. My mother was equally devoted to my father, and when he came home with bloody clothes, she treated the stains like they were perfectly normal. Which in our house, they were.

I parked next to Aro's, my father's second in command, Audi. He and Felix were already here, along with several other members of the organization. On the outside, it looked like we were having a gathering on this Sunday afternoon, like so many in this neighborhood were. Which, in a sense, we were.

I let myself into the house, my shoes echoing on the marble floors, fixing my suit jacket, smoothing the lapels. I hated wearing these damn things, but it was a requirement for gatherings such as these, so I sucked it up.

"I was beginning to wonder when you'd arrive." Tanya's voice comes from my right, where the formal sitting room is.

I look over to find her leaning against the doorway in an emerald, green dress that leaves very little to the imagination. Her normally curly strawberry blond hair is pin straight and swept over shoulder.

"Tan." I greet her, not trying to keep the ice from my voice. "You watching for me?"

Tanya and I had dated in high school. She'd been my first love, but we'd broken up when she'd cheated on me with Riley, one of my best friends at the time. I'd regrettably gone there a few times since, but I saw through her game now. She wanted the power that came with my name. She didn't care about me; I don't know if she ever really did.

She shrugs an elegant shoulder, feigning innocence. "What if I was?

I grind my teeth. I really hated it when she tried to toy with me.

Tanya walks over to me, her hands smoothing down the front of my jacket. "I don't know why you keep trying to fight us. We're so good together." She looks at me from beneath her lashes, playing the vixen. There would've been a time that would've worked on me. "Felix said that girl from the bar turned you down. I bet that was frustrating." Her hands go lower, touching my belt buckle. "I could help you alleviate some of that frustration."

I grab her hands before they can go any further. "Whatever you think is going to happen between us, is never going to happen." I spit through clenched teeth.

She sighs, looking at me with a stupid little smirk on her face. "We'll see."

She takes her hands from my grip, leaving me seething in the entryway.

Shaking off my encounter with Tanya, I walk down the short hall in front of me, ending up in the kitchen where my mom and the staff are getting the meal ready. It smells amazing, not that I expected anything less. My mom was an excellent cook, and she relished the opportunities to cook for large groups of people.

She's standing at the counter, her caramel-colored hair pinned back as she worked on arranged fruit on a platter, an apron tied around her waist. When she sees me, a wide grin spreads across her face.

"Edward!" she exclaims, wiping her hands on a towel, coming over to hug me tightly. I hadn't seen her in so long that I forgot how good her hugs felt. "When did you get back in town?"

"A few days ago." I admit, watching her smile morph into a frown.

"And you didn't come see your mother first thing?" she admonishes, hitting me lightly on the chest.

"I'm sorry, mom."

She pats my cheek. "You're forgiven. Like I could stay mad at you, anyway."

She was right, she never could stay mad at me. When I was growing up, she'd been the soft parent that never went through on her punishments. My father, on the other hand, ruled with an iron fist when it came to discipline. Every rule he caught me breaking had a consequence. Even something as small as talking back earned me a spanking. And that was the least horrible of the punishments he came up with.

"Edward." My father's voice echoes in the much too large kitchen. He's walking in, hands tucked in the pants of his three-piece suit, blonde hair slicked back. "Just the man I was looking for. There's something I need to speak you with about." He kisses my mom on the cheek. "We'll be right back, darling."

"You better be, or the food will get cold." She kisses him before going back to prepping the meal.

I follow my father into his study, taking a seat in one of the plush chairs in front of his desk as closes the door. He takes a seat but doesn't relax into it like he usually does.

"We found another body last night." He says after a moment, and I can feel my skin prickly.

"Who was it this time?" I'm already seething, seeing red at the knowledge that another one of our people has been struck down.

"Marcus."

"Fuck!" Marcus was only nineteen and had just started making his way through the ranks. The fact that they're cold enough to take out someone so young makes me sick.

"They of course left this behind."

The card he handed me upon first glance looked like a regular playing card, but on closer inspection, they had the Swan's family crest in the center instead of the King of Hearts. All the bodies had one lying next to them when they'd been found. Charlie Swan kept insisting that they had nothing to do with it, but it was hard to believe when his family's calling card kept being left behind. The bastard was fucking with us and enjoying it. My anger gets the best of me, and I crumple the card in my fist.

"What are you planning?" I know he has something up his sleeve, that's why he brought back to New York. Whatever he's planning, I want to be fucking a part of it. I want that bastard's blood on my hands for what he's done.

"Charlie Swan's daughter is back in town for the summer. I want you to infiltrate the Swan's through her." The pictures of the woman in question that he places on his desk makes my stomach roll, because staring back at me is the girl from the bar.

The fiery brunette that called me on my shit, that I hadn't been able to stop thinking about, was a Swan.

"Mother fucker." I mumble, still in shock.

"You're naturally the perfect choice." I'd been out west for the last several years, handling business in Seattle for my father. I stayed mostly out of the fray, preferring the inner workings of the organization. No one knew what I looked like, or that I even existed, really. My father had been careful to keep me well hidden. Obviously, Charlie Swan hadn't been as careful with his daughter. It was going to end up being his biggest regret. "Are you up to up for the challenge?"

"Absolutely."

It didn't matter how beautiful Isabella Swan was. I would do anything to take down he father. She was just collateral damage.

Next chapter will be up next Saturday.