The last night's bitterness was still fresh in Nora's mouth when she decided to sit at the farther side of the table, away from Edward. Her usual chirp had taken a turn as she sat in her place, eating her breakfast in silence, lost in her phone.
Vanessa was quiet as usual although she kept her distance, not making eye contact once.
"If you're done," Edward tapped the table, asking for his sister's attention. "I'll drop you off at school on the way."
She shifted from her chair, unhooking her bag from the arm of her chair. "Don't bother," she stated in a flat tone. "It's not like you drop me every day."
Nora kissed her mother's cheek before scooting off, leaving them behind. Vanessa now began gathering the dishes to take them back to the kitchen. She piled her and Nora's plates on top of each other and began to reach for Edward when he held her hand, interrupting her in between, making her almost drop the dishes.
He let go of it just as quickly as he had grabbed her. "Umm," he bit his lips when he failed to realize why he stopped her in the first place.
Vanessa stood next to him, unsure whether to stay or keep going on with her chores. For a split second, Edward saw the familiar affection she always wanted to give him.
"Thanks for the breakfast," he cleared his throat and fisted his fingers, hoping to bring out what he was supposed to say.
Vanessa nodded and turned away to the kitchen while Edward was still pressed on his seat. His focus kept flickering on the wooden cutlery kept on the table to his stepmother, counting seconds in his mind. Finally, he pulled a fresh plate, spilled some sauce on it, and took it with him to her.
"You left this," he went for the excuse as he dropped the plate in the sink.
Vanessa saw the lie coming from a mile away. "Thanks." she busied herself with rearranging and cleaning along with house helpers.
"You don't need to say it," he told her. "In fact, if anyone should say it, it's me. Probably every single day."
His stepmother looked him straight in the eyes and he continued. "So thank you. For being there last night. When I bailed...you and Nora stayed put. I..I wanted to let you know."
Her expression had softened. "You are my child, too."
"No, I—" he bit the inside of his mouth. "I meant to say I'm not like other children that grew up in this house."
"You mean holding your sanity when it should've shattered years ago had it been somebody else," Vanessa said.
"That's a lie," Edward looked sharply at her. "And never lie to me to make me feel better about myself because it won't work."
"I did say it to make you feel better," she stated. "But that doesn't mean it's a lie. Don't forget who I am married to. You think you're everything like Theodore but there's nothing of you in him. He just wants you to think like that and you did."
Edward couldn't look at her anymore. "You know nothing about me."
He thought he heard her laugh a little. "Don't I? I saw you grew up. Your life was—"
Edward shifted uncomfortably. "You don't have to pity me."
"That's not pity," she argued. "In complete honesty, we both are living the same life. None of us could ever walk out of this house. You wouldn't because he was all you had and I couldn't because I was all Elvis had. And then Nora."
Edward felt his lungs straining. He imagined that if he had walked away from the dining table moments ago, maybe then he wouldn't be feeling suffocated at the moment. He focused his attention on the sink where one of the house helpers was scrubbing the plates but Vanessa's voice pierced through from the dizziness, slapping him like cold water.
"Be better." she was saying. "We both could keep the people we love safe."
He pulled himself from all the other noises and faced her. "You can't beat a monster without being a bigger monster."
.........
I'm in. Carlos texted. I'll text as soon as I find something.
Edward's reflection was staring back at him when he entered the empty elevator. His tired eyes were now rejuvenating with positivity. He fixed his tie and unpocketed Jay's watch that he'd been keeping with himself, wondering why he had it on him in the first place.
The door dinged open and he veered out, heading for the conference room. Slipping the watch inside his coat, he went in.
The lack of chatter or mechanical noises from the projector made him question if he was in the right room. He squinted his eyes down at the big round table in the middle of the room and three sets of eyes greeted him.
He guessed correctly why his assistant was not on duty today.
"I wasn't told you were doing the presentation, Mr. Parker," Edward said to the oldest of the three.
"My presentation may begin any time now but I still prefer a jury over this boring gray room any day." The lawyer joked back.
"If you two are done," Benji slipped in, feigning boredom. "Let's just get over with. Jasper and I need to be somewhere, you know, more fun."
His friend Jasper, now bald due to the stitches from the wounds Edward caused was looking nowhere normal. The stoic look on his face was still bearing the bruises he had left.
Mr. Parker, their lawyer, unaffected, rolled his eyes and detached the file on the table. "Assuming you're already aware of the marriage between you and Benji's sister, we are here to present the nuptial agreement. In any case, this can't be altered."
Edward laughed out hard. "A nuptial agreement?" he said. "What is this? A joke?"
"We're businessmen," Benji said. "We all know marriages are lame excuses to merge our companies and etcetera etcetera. It's just that we have the upper hand in this marriage. So it's our call."
Edward slid the agreement back at him. "Take it and go fuck yourself."
"You think I want my sister to marry a bastard like you," Benji bit out.
Mr. Parker shot him a look. "Maintain some civilization, here, Mr. Hart."
But Edward liked where this conversation was going. "Will you leave us alone, Mr. Parker?"
He was taken aback. "No, I think—"
"Five minutes," he pressed. "We'll keep it civilized." and hesitatingly, after looking back and forth at them, he left the room. "So, Benji you were saying something?"
Cocking his head, he resumed. "I said my sister can't marry a bastard like you. Everybody knows you're not a real Blake. You don't even go by that name anymore." he said, feeling pleased with himself. "I did some digging. You dropped your father's name long ago. It solidifies the rumor about you. Although my dad, for some reason believes you're going to lead the company, not Elvis. But I know that's not gonna happen anytime soon...or later."
His nonsense was draining Edward's energy faster. "And what makes you think that?" he yawned at them.
Benji sneered but it was Jasper who spoke for the first time. "'Cause you're soon to be a dead meat."
"You children," he chuckled. "First get off your mommy's milk and grow some balls."
Jasper was on his feet, looking red, however Benji was pulling him down like the last time. "Knock it off," he told him, forcing him to sit down. When he did get down while keeping his bloodshot eyes trained on Edward, Benji cut through the tension. "Look we didn't come here to pick up a fight. I'm here to make an offer."
Edward stiffened. "What offer?"
"Instead of marrying my sister, I would like to marry yours," Benji spoke confidently. Too confidently that Edward realized Benji must have assumed that he would jump at the alternative in a second. "What do you say?"
"I repeat myself," Edward smirked. "Go fuck yourself."
Benji was now twinning the look with his friend. "My sister doesn't wanna marry you. She doesn't deserve someone like you."
"And you think my sister deserves you?"
Benji crossed his arms. "Unlike me. I care about my sister," he said, throwing a knowing look at his friend. "That night at the party when Nora Blake was flirting with my friend, she told him how uncaring you are. You don't give a crap about her."
"She was so much in need of attention." Jasper interrupted in, curling his lips into a smile. "She came to me. I didn't."
"I said knock it off, Jasper, or get the fuck out of here," Benji snapped at him, surprising both of them. Tension thickened the air and then the chair squeaked as Jasper dashed out of the room, slamming the door behind. "This is about our sisters." Benji went on. "One way or the other, one of us has to sacrifice. My sister won't be happy with you. I know about your love story with that brunette. And as for your underage sister is concerned, I won't rush the wedding. We can sign another agreement and when the time comes, we'll get married. You have my word that I will do everything I expect for my sister to be treated by her husband."
"I have no reason to trust you," Edward told him with utmost honesty. "The company you keep proves what kind of a man you are."
He sucked in a breath. "I know Jasper's a little fucked up. But he's a good friend. You just don't know him that well. He'll never lay a hand on her, I swear."
You need to get here. Carlos' message popped on the screen.
"Let's not lie to each other that we don't know exactly what kind of a person he is." Edward pocketed his phone and leaned on the table, smiling a little "And you can drop the act too. I know that you know he murdered a man almost two years back with his car and ran away from the scene. I'm pretty sure you were in the passenger seat."
The color of Benji's face was as white as the shirt he was wearing. "What the fuck you're saying, man?"
Edward rose from his chair. "I'm saying gear up 'cause this is going to be one hell of a ride for you both."
"Don't do something stupid, Edward." Benji was now on his feet too. He looked a little out of place now. "Did it even occur to you why we're the ones with nuptial agreement? You are not going up against us. It's your father. You take us down, we take you down."
"I pretty much figured that out," he replied. "You must have something on him to get inside my family, tie your name with us. And since we are straightening our facts, it's him I don't give a fuck about. My sister, on the other hand, is one of the very few people I cherish so forget about laying your eyes on her or I'll kill you."
Benji swallowed the lump down his throat when Edward patted his cheeks. "Good. That's what I thought. Now excuse me, I have to be somewhere you know, more important."
..........
A room, full of trash and, a foul smell cramped inside was not on Edward's list. Even his inner hygienic self was making notes on what not to do to reach this level in a room.
Jasper's old apartment was still in use as Carlos told him he sometimes visited his place for a few hours every once or twice in a week. If only Jasper had used his time to clean his room. His dirty clothes were piling everywhere along with beer cans, butts of hundreds of weeds, and discarded credit cards smudged with remnants of drugs on them in the dustbin.
Edward avoided the kitchen altogether.
"You said you found something," Edward asked Carlos who appeared out of another room.
He held out a photograph neatly folded in half in his hand. "This is what they had against your father."
The truth coloring the photograph couldn't faze Edward anymore when he sneaked in a look. He was expecting nothing more. "You saw it, didn't you?" he asked Carlos who was trying to hide his trembling fingers.
He nodded. "I shouldn't have. I'm sorry."
"It's not like it was wrapped in an envelope," he said. "But you need to leave, Carlos. Now that you've seen it, you can't stay here. Leave this place."
"What?" his eyes widened. "Why?"
"Why?" Edward looked at him incredulously. "There are things that some people shouldn't know. If my father finds out you saw it. You're dead. My protection could go only so far."
"But—"
"No,but." he said harshly. "Just stay out of the city for a while. Use your fake identities. When I'm going to confront him about this, he'll figure it out I've got help."
"And what about Estella?"
"She's with Lopez. She'll be safe."
"Fine." he agreed as Edward moved over to the window, turning up the blinds halfway to let some fresh air in. "But I think I found something else."
Carlos grabbed a ziplock bag full of disks off the table. "He hid it in the bathroom. Under the towels. Dirty towels."
"I'm guessing password protected."
"Exceptionally password protected. Even I couldn't get in. I bet it's something useful," he said. "But I know a guy who'd take less than a minute to break through the security."
"You need to leave, ASAP." he reminded him.
"And I will but thirty more minutes won't kill me," he stated and began putting the ziplock in his backpack. Edward averted his eyes back at the window at the noise of a screech of a car. From five floors up, he saw Jasper hurriedly rushing out of the cab, throwing the fare at the driver.
"How much time you said you needed, Carlos? Thirty minutes, was it?" Edward said with a victorious grin when he responded positively. "Then get on with it as he's here and I'm going to have a final chat with him so you better dig something up useful for me."
"Sure will. I'll send you a copy," he reassured him.
"Use the stairs," Edward suggested before he exited out of the place. He glanced around one more time, the grossiness seemed to have subsided just a little. He ambled to every corner of the room, not touching anything. Behind the closet between a little space and the wall, he saw a baseball bat. Using his handkerchief, he fished it out, testing his balance.
When the sound of Jasper's steps was closer, Edward heard him talking to someone. "I know I'm sorry. I forgot to make a copy. I'll do it as soon as I can." He was now unlocking the door. "Yeah, I'm here. I'll click a picture and send it to you for extra safety.......See you in an hour." As soon as the room opened, Jasper hung up the call and Edward swung the bat around, hitting him just hard enough to knock him out, intending to keep his newest bruise as invisible as he could.
"You—" Jasper muttered before his legs wiggled and he fell flat on his stomach.
"I think it's time we pick up where we left off," he said before Jasper was overwhelmed with darkness.