Chapter 1 – Engaged

Where was Alice? I want to have another try…

I was trying my best to bore into Alice’s head, I desperately wanted to see it, the beautiful dress she had chosen for Bella, my Bella...I reminded myself and smiled. She was making it very very difficult; she was translating Battle Hymm of the Republic into various languages. I was as curious to know about the dress as I was to read Bella’s thoughts.

Alice had gone shopping all alone for the dress of course; long before Bella even agreed to marry me. She was always ready for a dozen different futures. So there was no hope of getting what I needed from Rosalie o Esme. She did not mostra them the dress either. I heartily wished she had taken Rosalie along; her mind was one of the loudest. I could have very easily fished it out of her head. Alice was determinedly keeping it away from me and so far, she has been quite successful. I have absolutely no idea what my Bella will be wearing tomorrow. Frustrating…

She will be beautiful of course, what ever she wore. She was the most beautiful thing in the world...My Bella…My beautiful, selfless angel…her dark hair, her pale skin, I have always been quite mesmerized da the contrast and I smiled again to myself as I thought of her. Her deep chocolate-brown eyes brimming with Amore when ever she looked at me and the beautiful blush on her warm cheeks…. I never got over the fact that it was me she had detto yes to. Not Mike, not Eric, not Tyler, not Jacob… not Jacob Black…

I knew that she loved Jacob.
“I Amore te more” she had told me.

I would never forgive myself for letting that relationship grow. I had left her alone, bleeding and he had been there for her to stitch up her wounds. I will always owe him of course, through out my…existence. He took care of her, when I had left her, when I had hurt her…but even then she had chosen me over him. I was the only one whom she had ever told yes to. My silent cuore fluttered. The new complication is that Jacob had run away from home. Leaving Bella very upset obviously. She tries her best to hide it in front of me, but I could still feel it.

I strongly suspected that the wedding invitation I had sent him had everything to do with this. I had added a little note to it.

Jacob,

I’m breaking the rules da sending te this. She was afraid of hurting you, and she didn’t want to make te feel obligated in any way. But I know that, if things had gone the other way, I would have wanted the choice.

I promise I will take care of her, Jacob. Thank te — for her — for everything.

Edward

This note had been transformed into numerous “HAVE te SEEN THIS BOY?” posters. Bella told me that it had been Charlie’s idea. I knew Billy Black would never do anything like this.

“And neither would I” Bella confirmed. “What’s the point? Seth can hear his thoughts. He’s somewhere in Northern Canada now.”

Charlie had printed up the flyers and spread them all over town. And not just Forks, but Port Angeles and Sequim and Hoquiam and Aberdeen and every other town in the Olympic Peninsula. He’d made sure that all the police stations in the state of Washington had the same flyer hanging on the wall, too. His own station had a whole corkboard dedicated to finding Jacob. A corkboard that was mostly empty, much to his disappointment and frustration.

“Edward, look what I have for te here” Alice thought as she stepped into the house. I broke off from my train of thought to concentrate on her head again.

She was now translating Battle Hymm to Portugese. Will she at least change what she’s thinking! I have been stuck with this stupid battle for weeks! She opened the door and stepped into my room.

“What do te think?” she said, mostrare me the tux which I should be wearing for the wedding. She tried to keep this a surprise too, but there could be nothing very surprising about any tuxedo. Anyway, I had peeked at it before hand, she wasn’t as careful about this as she was about Bella’s dress!

“Wonderful, Alice. Thank you.” I said, still concentrating on her mind.

She smiled. “I knew te would Amore it”

“Thank you, Alice” I detto again. No…I might as well give up. She was so focused on the Battle. I sighed. I will have to wait till tomorrow then. Tomorrow, the Big Day. I smiled. And almost immediately I groaned.

“Something wrong with it?” Alice asked startled. “I thought…”

“No, absolutely not. I just… thought of something else”

“I’ll see te later, Edward.” lots to do…she reordered the things to be done for the wedding in her head and then started the Battle in Spanish.

But I wasn’t listening to her head anymore. I was thinking…about the bachelor party. I won’t be able to spend tonight with Bella. I groaned again at the thought of spending the night away from my angel. One night away from her probably wouldn’t kill me…surely wouldn’t…. I didn’t exactly, well…die when I was away from her for several months…. I guess I was a walking corpse those few months... The bachelor party was mainly for Emmett and Jasper to spend some time with me, I have spent maximum of my time with Bella and have been spending very little time with my family. Trust Bella to keep me completely occupied.

I was going to marry her. Tomorrow. I was the happiest man alive. I felt a small wave of sadness when I remembered the cost she had agreed to this for. She wanted me. When she was human. And there was no way she was going to take No for an answer. She was ready to give anything in return. But no time. At all. Anything else. The main thing is, other than marriage, that’s precisely what I wanted – Time. And some patience with her impatient human hormones.

But since she was definitely not going to give me that, I had decided to make best use of the opportunity I had. I made sure she got accepted in Dartmouth and even bought a house there… I was not going to take any chances in case I managed to convince her to stay human a little while longer. I gifted her a platinum credit card of course. It made me sad to know that she hardly uses it. I guess she wouldn’t be Bella is she did. My stubborn angel. She had agreed on cars after all. The look on her face when I told her that I have got two cars for her was priceless.

“Two?” she had screamed out.

“Yes Bella” I kept my voice as light as possible.
“The first one te can use till te are human” I detto pointing to the new black Mercedes Guardian. I wondered if she would every realize that this was a Guardian? “your ‘before’ car. After te have been changed, te can take the ‘after’ car” I pointed to the red Ferrari F430 standing in the corner. It was covered.

“What are te going to do with this car then?” she detto looking at the Guardian. She didn’t even ask what her “after” car was. I sighed. She showed no interest in the cars at all. Not that I expected her to. If I talk something più about it… I could remember the response which she had once dato me “I don’t speak car and driver” Same response could be expected now. o maybe, one with an even higher level of sarcasm.

I chuckled at the look on her face. What would she do if she ever comes to know that this car was equipped with missile-proof glass and four thousand pounds of body armor and the fact that these cars aren’t in Europa o America yet?

“This is only a loaner, Bella. I promise, I will return it after the wedding, as soon as te are changed.”

“That makes no sense at all” she murmured. “You just like spending money because te have too much of it. te don’t need a valid reason for it.”

I suppressed my laughter. I had a very valid reason. Little did she know that this car was here only to protect her than for transportation purposes. She was sicuro, cassetta di sicurezza inside this car. I could be sure of that.

She accepted the car without any complaint. I knew she would. Anything for that. Accepting cars was nothing to her, as compared to talking to her parents about the engagement and marriage. She shook and shivered when ever she thought of it.

“They will think I am pregnant, Edward!” she whimpered.

“No, Bel-“

“Honestly, what other possible reason would sane people have for getting married at eighteen?”

“Love” I detto simply. She rolled her eyes and answered in a completely convinced tone.

“Charlie will shoot me before we have time to explain this!”

But it was much easier than what she had imagined obviously.

As the sound of Charlie’s incrociatore came closer, she tried to shove her left hand in her pocket, but I held her hand firmly, making it the center of attraction.

“Stop fidgeting, Bella. Please try to remember that you’re not confessing to a murder here.”

“Easy for te to say.” She retorted as Charlie slammed the door shut.

“Calm down, Bella,” I whispered as her cuore gained speed.

He’s here, no surprise… Charlie was thinking dully.

“Hey, Charlie,” I detto calmly.

Well, he’s a decent guy, good for Bella… He was still doubtful though. He was just trying to convince himself.

“No!” Bella whispered under her breath.

“What?” I whispered back.

“Wait till he hangs his gun up!” As if a tiny little bullet was going to hurt me. I chuckled.

Look at him…sitting so close to my daughter…

“Hey, kids. What’s up?” He sincerely tried not to look too harsh.

“We’d like to talk to you,” I detto serenely. “We have some good news.”

Charlie became suspicious immediately. What’s this now?...

“Good news?” Charlie glared at Bella.

“Have a seat, Dad.” Bella managed. Her heartbeat was quite uneven.

He raised one eyebrow, stared at her for 5.32 seconds, then stomped to the recliner and sat down on the very edge, his back ramrod straight.

This is something serious….look at the state of her….

“Don’t get worked up, Dad,” She detto as if Leggere his mind. Isn’t that my job? “Everything’s okay.”

Okay? Hmm…so marrying me was just “Okay” for her. There are a whole lot of other words which could have been used in this context. Aren’t the words like great, perfect, marvelous, spectacular, fantastic, glorious, wonderful, terrific, splendid, fabulous in her dictionary at all?

Yeah right! “Sure it is, Bella, sure it is. If everything is so great, then why are te sweating bullets?” detto Charlie.

“I’m not sweating,”

She’s always been a terrible liar…

da now Bella had reached her limit. She turned away from Charlie’s murderous glare and started pushing at me.

Why is she clinging on to him? She’s looking as if she’s done some crime! It can’t be so bad…or is it? What the…??

“You’re pregnant!” Charlie exploded. “You’re pregnant, aren’t you?” I was slightly confused. I had clearly mentioned that it was good news. Bella getting pregnant was good news? No, Charlie was just confused. I shuddered. It was something which was never going to happen. I was taking it away from her. I was taking everything away from her. She was sacrificing everything for me. Her family, her friends, her humanity, her potential to give birth to a beautiful child with Bella’s chocolate-brown eyes… If there was anyway I could become human for her…anyway at all…

Charlie Glared at me.
And I thought he was a decent guy, yeah right; planning to leave her again, is he? I winced. Where’s my gun? I’ll kill…

“No! Of course I’m not!” detto Bella. And she turned to look at me with her “I-TOLD-YOU” look.

“Oh. Sorry.” Thank heavens…but what then?

“Apology accepted.” she said, eager to calm him down.

There was a long pause after which she looked up at me panic-stricken. Her eyes were screaming at me. “SAVE ME!” Even Victoria did not have this effect on her. I reassured her with a smile and turned to Charlie.

Is there some real problem? Bella seems really upset….he’s smiling? Nothing too serious then….will they at least give me a hint what they are heading to??

“Charlie, I realize that I’ve gone about this out of order. Traditionally, I should have asked te first…”

Tradition?

“…I mean no disrespect, but since Bella has already detto yes …”

She detto yes???... His eyes snapped to her left hand and his eyes locked on the ring.

“…and I don’t want to diminish her choice in the matter…”

Jesus! They’re engaged!

“…instead of asking te for her hand, I’m asking te for your blessing…”

How dare she? How dare he? His face turned red.

“…We’re getting married, Charlie. I Amore her più than anything in the world, più than my own life,…”

Oh Yeah? That’s why u left her to suffer, is it? I winced again, but continued.

“…and—by some miracle—she loves me that way, too…”

No doubt she’s crazy about you….

“…Will te give us your blessing?”

Not that I didn’t expect some thing like this…But how dare they? She’s barely eighteen! They’re still kids, how can they? I can’t let them make the same mistake we did. But Bella is much più mature than Renée obviously, and Edward is too, but she’s barely eighteen, what’s the big hurry?...

I could hear the conflict in his thoughts

“Give him a minute” I muttered to Bella.

Charlie went over the same lines again and again in his head.

…Still kids…more mature…only eighteen…decent guy…

Gradually, he calmed down. And I relaxed.

“Guess I’m not that surprised,” Charlie grumbled. “Knew I’d have to deal with something like this soon enough.”

Bella breathed, I hadn’t noticed she was holding her breath.

“You sure about this?” Charlie demanded, glaring at her. He HAD left her once after all….
I shuddered as Charlie remembered Bella with sunken eyes but nobody seemed to notice my presence anymore.

“I’m one hundred percent sure about Edward” I smiled at her, but she didn’t look at me. Was I invisible?

“Getting married, though? What’s the rush?” Charlie demanded.

She was quiet, probably wondering how to explain about my “ridiculous marriage condition” as she called it. I decided to intervene and remind them that there was another person in the room besides them.

“We’re going away to Dartmouth together in the fall, Charlie. I’d like to do that, well, the right way. It’s how I was raised.”

Wow… he’s so …guys of this age just don’t speak this way… But…but… he’s leaving me with no argument!!! What can I say to this?

“Knew this was coming,” he muttered to himself.

I never imagined after what happened to us I would allow my daughter to get married when she’s just eighteen… how can I just let this happen?…Renée would never allow –

He froze. His mind and face were blank for a second.

“Dad?” Bella asked anxiously.

Of course! Renée! Of course she wouldn’t allow this!

“Ha ha ha ha!” Charlie exploded. Let Bella try to deal with HER!

I fought not to laugh.

“Okay, fine,” Charlie choked out. “Get married.” Another roll of laughter shook through him. “But…”

“But what?” Bella almost screamed.

“But te have to tell your mom! I’m not saying one word to Renée! That’s all yours!” He busted into loud guffaws. And Bella turned to me with terrified eyes.

She spoke to Renée on the phone soon after that. She told me nothing about the conversation, only the final outcome. “She’s all right with it”. I wondered if Renée had been harsh to her. I was slightly worried. But the aftermath of the phone call proved quite the opposite. For the last few weeks, Renée had immersed herself in wedding plans. She’d spent hours every giorno on the phone with Esme and Alice. She probably thought we were engaged long ago. She too was obsessed with arranging everything perfectly for tomorrow. Charlie was furious that Renée had let him down, but he tried his best not to mostra it.

I heard Emmett and Jasper come into the house.

Excited about the bachelor party tonight, Edward?

Emmett knew perfectly well that I was highly uninterested, why does he have to keep bothering me? I didn’t respond. One night away from Bella wouldn’t kill me…