Edited by: Sjdavis84 and StillDreaming85.

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Bella.

Edward, although very reluctantly, did back away. I did have him move far enough away that he wouldn't be able to hear what Antonio or I said.

He was seated next to Aro, who may have lowered his weapon, but he hadn't put it away. He did however pick up Antonio's and tuck it into the back of his pants.

"What do you want?" I turned my attention back to Antonio.

I didn't like the way he looked at me. He was smiling, and his eyes were bright. It was a happy look, almost loving and it made me feel uncomfortable, because besides Edward, no one had ever looked at me with that love in their eyes, not Peter, not Charlie, not even Renee.

"Thank you, sweetheart, for finally giving me the chance to talk to you," he said.

I tried not to cringe at his nickname for me. I had gotten better at it with Edward, but with Antonio, it didn't sound right because I didn't know what to make of him yet.

"What can I say, I'm full of surprises today," I shrugged. "You know, you've only got eight minutes left now."

He chuckled. One of his hands reached out towards me as if he were going to touch me, but he hesitated and pulled his hand back.

"I don't even know where to start, Isabella." He sighed.

"How about at the beginning."

"That's my problem, sweetheart, I don't know where the beginning is," he said, seeming lost in his thoughts for a moment.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Anything."

"You have to be honest with me or else you can walk out right now," I said, not that I would be able to tell if he were lying or not.

"Isabella, ask me already," he said, becoming slightly impatient, he drummed his fingers on the table so lightly he didn't make a noise.

I hesitated. Should I ask him, and did I really want to know his answer?

"If...If Edward wouldn't have told you about me. If you didn't know...Would you have ever…" I took a deep breath. I was wringing my fingers together to the point I was sure I would snap one of them at any second.

"Would you have ever come to look for me?" I managed to get out.

"Sweetheart," he sighed. "I kept in contact with Renee over the years. She assured me you were okay."

"And you bought that? You knew what sort of person she is, you told me so yourself," I said. He had told me back in Vegas. He was aware my mother was a conniving woman. He told me, Renee wanted him and not Charlie.

"You are her daughter as well, Isabella. I was stupid to accept things out of her mouth without making sure she was telling me the truth. That's my fault and I accept that. I fucked up, and for that I am sorry," he said.

The sincerity in his voice was almost too much to handle. He was sorry and he truly meant it, either that or he was a very good actor.

"Can you tell me what happened with Charlie, and with Renee? Your husband isn't the easiest person to get information out of," he chuckled.

"I don't think that's a very good idea," I said, biting my lip to the point of pain. I wasn't saving him from the awful story that was my childhood, but more myself.

I don't think I would be able to sit here and tell him my painful memories without breaking down.

I have done a good job my whole life blocking out those bad memories and I don't know how I would react if I were to open the floodgates to him.

My other problem was, if Edward saw me crying and becoming more upset he would no doubt jump the gun, and I knew if that were to happen, Antonio would not be leaving this cafe with his life.

As angry as I was with Antonio, I also didn't want to be the cause of his death. No, this was a story better left for another time.

"That bad?" Antonio asked.

"I didn't say that." I tried to play it off.

"Sweetheart, you don't have to say a damn thing, it's written all over your face."

He closed his eyes. He balled his hands up into fists, he had taken a hold of the tablecloth too.

He took in a few deep breaths before he opened his eyes again.

"Believe me when I say this, Isabella. I am not a man who has ever had to apologize for a single thing I have done in this life, and I regret very little," he said.

Antonio stood up and in two short steps he was in front of me. From the corner of my eye, I saw Edward leap to his feet. Aro grabbed a handful of his shirt, it was a weak attempt at holding onto my short fused husband. It would have been a funny thing to see in any other situation beside this one.

Antonio kneeled down beside me. He took one of my hands in his and with his other hand, he cupped my cheek.

"I am sorry for everything, for the way things turned out. For everything, sweetheart. But as messed up as this may sound, you were better off with Renee and Charlie than with me," he said.

"How can you say that?" I asked.

Antonio glanced over at Edward, who looked as if he were about to burst a blood vessel in his head at any second.

Antonio shook his head, but smiled smugly, I guess he liked Edward's reaction.

"Your husband, he's a the good guy," he said.

I gave him an odd look. I wanted to laugh out loud in his face. My husband the good guy?

Edward was a good guy, he was good to me and that was pretty much it, to be honest, I don't even know if he liked Carlisle or if he just put up with him out of interest.

Edward wasn't a good guy, far from it, and I wasn't going to delude myself into thinking that he was.

He was a criminal. He had killed people before, and he would do it again. But I loved Edward, with all his messed up flaws.

But Antonio calling Edward good? Was he serious?

I knew Antonio was involved in the same life as Edward and his uncle Marco, but I didn't know what roll Antonio played.

"Trust me, he's the good guy," he said, motioning with his head in Edward's direction. "I'm the bad guy, sweetheart."

"Are you going to explain that?" I asked. It wasn't the sort of thing you could say to someone without explaining it further.

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"You can't say something like that to me and not explain it further. It's not fair," I said, folding my arms across my chest as if I were a stubborn child. This only made Antonio smile.

"Some things are better left unsaid, Isabella," he said.

"Fine. Edward," I called out.

Edward was by my side in record time. I was impressed that he hadn't knocked over any of the tables or chairs in his haste to get next to me.

"What's wrong?" He was quick to ask, and quick to jump to conclusion, of course.

"Nothing is wrong. I asked Antonio a question and he can't seem to answer me, and I was wondering if you could help him?" I said, giving him my best kiss ass smile.

"What the fuck did you say to her?" Edward said to Antonio.

"He didn't say anything to me, that's my problem," I said, moving to step in between the two of them, hoping that maybe me being there would stop them from going at each other.

"Then don't worry yourself with the trivial crap, Bella," Edward said. I narrowed my eyes at the bastard. I thought he would be on my side.

"Trivial crap? If I'm going to accept him in my life, I think I have the right to know what role he plays," I said.

I think this was the whole parent thing in me coming out, I don't know, but for some unknown reason I wanted to give Antonio a chance. Maybe not so much as my father, but we could start out as friends and work our way from there.

"If you don't tell me, I'll just assume it's something much worse." Looking from Edward and back to Antonio, both had the same expression on their faces, both gave nothing away.

"What do you mean, accept him into your life?" Edward said, trying his best not to yell. I had to hand it to him, he hasn't snapped yet, that was progress.

"It's what I want," I said.

"No, absolutely not. We are not having this thing come into our lives," Edward lost it.

"Hey, watch that fucking tone of yours when you're speaking to my daughter," Antonio said, pointing his finger in Edward's face.

"Don't you fucking tell me what to do. Get the fuck out of here," Edward said, pushing Antonio's hand out of his face.

Great, just great. This is all I need, my husband and my newly discovered father fighting or worse, killing each other in my cafe before I have even had a chance to open it. For crying out loud, I have white tablecloths.

"Will you two just fucking stop it," I yelled, standing right in between the both of them, putting my hands against their chests.

"This is my life and I have the right to choose who I want in it and who I don't," I said, looking from one to the other. Why wasn't Aro helping me here?

"You're my Husband and I love you, Edward. But this is something that I think I need."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" He spat.

Over the past twenty-four hours, I had given this a lot of thought. I was going to be someone's mother. I liked the idea of that, but at the same time it scared me to death because I never had a loving family myself. It scared me because I didn't know if I would be a good parent. What if I wasn't good enough? What if I was too damaged?

The more I thought about it, I kept coming up with the same conclusion. In order for me to face and overcome my fears, I have to forgive and accept those that have wronged me in the past.

Antonio's only mistake was believing that I would be better off and happy with his brother as my father instead of him. He seemed genuine in his apology, and he was very determined, why else would he have followed us back home? I think Caroline had been right, I needed this. I needed to get to know him and to understand him.

"I think in order for me to get over my fears of becoming a parent, I need to work towards forgiving my own parent," I said.

"You're pregnant?" Antonio said.

"Yeah, she is. Stop fucking stressing her out," Edward said, pulling on my arm until I was by his side with his arm securely around my waist.

"I ain't stressing her out," Antonio said. "You're stressing her out with that big ass mouth of yours."

Good Lord, I was thankful they weren't armed any more. Both of them were so stubborn, both of them believing that they were right, and neither of them were willing to back down. Fair to say, I've made my life that much more interesting.

Well, tough luck for them. They are going to have to learn to get along with one another if they want me and my baby in their lives.

"Alright, both of you just stop it. You two aren't helping keep my stress levels down," I said. If this would help them get along, I was going to milk the situation for all it was worth.

"Sorry," they said in unision.

Then Antonio had to do it, he had to push Edward's buttons. I bet his blood pressure sky rocketed through the roof as well.

Antonio pushed him out of the way and engulfed me in a big hug. He cradled my head to his chest as his fingers threaded through my hair.

"Thank you so much, sweetheart, for giving a chance. I'm going to do everything I can to make everything up to you," he said, and kissed the top of my head.

I could understand why Edward would be upset with my decision, but then, I couldn't also.

This was my life. I had a right to choose if I wanted Antonio in it or not, that wasn't Edward's decision. He can't be mad at me for wanting to get to know my father, the same father that he tracked down.

"I'm not happy with this, Bella. I don't want him around you, especially now that you're pregnant. You don't need that fucking stress," he said. He had been pacing the cafe floor back and forth ever since Antonio left thirty minutes ago.

"The only thing that will stress me out, is the two of you not getting along. If the two of you could try not to kill each other for more than five minutes, that would make me very happy," I said.

"This is fucking bullshit. Fucking bullshit, Bella. You have no idea what you've done," he yelled.

I eyed Aro, who was doing his best to pretend he wasn't listening, unlike Esme. The only thing Esme was missing right now, was a bucket of popcorn.

"You wanna know what I think?" Esme said.

"Mind your own business," Aro said. That only earned him a jab to the ribs.

"I think this is good for her and as her husband, you should want what's good for her," she said, looking at Edward.

"Well, lucky for you I don't give a fuck what you think," Edward smiled at her.

Esme and Edward, for the best part, got along great with each other, a lot better than he got along with Rose. But Rose was high maintenance, and she didn't put up with Edward's crap unlike Esme, who was more laid back and more forgiving.

I was hoping Edward wasn't going to be here for this, when Charlotte showed up. I had heard about what happened with Charlotte and Edward, how she had lied to get a job at Scorpion.

I can see why Edward was mad at her, I can even picture his face as he found out and what he must have done to the poor girl. But she was just that, a girl, a child who made a mistake. Who came here trying to make a better life for herself and ended up in the wrong place, that wasn't exactly a cause for a death certificate.

It was Esme's idea to call her and I agreed. This would be a perfect job for Charlotte, it was good, it was clean, it was legal and we would pay her well.

Jasper came in holding her hand with Emmett behind them. I didn't know what exactly was going on between the two of them, but I hoped it wasn't what I was thinking it was. She was so young and Jasper was, well he was twenty-eight, not exactly old, but that still made him ten years older than her.

When Edward saw the trio, let's just say I could visualize the steam shooting out of his ears and nose. Poor Charlotte backed away, standing behind Jasper.

"I sent you two to do a fucking job, not go and have a goddamn threesome," Edward said. Idiot.

"Edward," I said, "What the hell?"

"Charlotte, it's good to see you again. Come here, don't be shy," Esme said.

Poor little Charlotte was so reluctant to leave her safe spot behind Jasper's back, but it was Jasper that didn't leave her with a choice, as he walked off towards Edward.

She came and sat down in between Esme and myself. She was a nervous mess, looking up at Edward and she breathed a sigh of relief when his attention wasn't focused on her anymore.

"Don't worry about him," Aro said, offering her a small smile, before he went to join the other three.

"I'm sorry about him. He's had a long day. Don't take it personally. He doesn't like anyone," I said, hoping she might relax a little more.

"Do I really get the job?" She asked reluctantly, almost as if she couldn't believe this was true.

"Of course you do, as long as you want it." I smiled.

"Thank you so much, Bella, you have no idea how much this means to me."

"Let me show you around," Esme said, taking Charlotte's hand, she took her behind the counter. Charlotte would have to learn how to use all the equipment and the register system. Esme and I didn't know how to use that. I wondered if Edward would be nice enough to show her without scaring her half to death?

From where I was sitting, I had a perfect view of the front, the people walking by and the cars that were parked on the curb. But there was one that caught my attention. There wasn't anything special about it. It was a silver car. I couldn't see what make or model it was, I was never good at identifying cars but it was a sedan. The back passenger window was half way down. The windows were very heavily tinted, making it impossible to see anyone or anything inside.

The person sitting in the back lifted their hand out and and shook the ash off of their cigarette.

I got the impression they were staring at me, at us inside. It made me uneasy, there was something not right about this, even as innocent as it seemed.

"Edward," I called.

"What, what is it?" He was quick to come to my side, sitting down beside me. "What's wrong? Are you okay? Is the baby okay?" He worried.

I only turned to him for a brief moment, not even a second. But when I turned to look back out the window, the strange car had gone.

That was impossible, traffic was a nightmare outside, how could it have disappeared so fast?

"Bella, what is it, you're making me panic here?" Edward's hand touched my face, bringing my attention back to him.

"Nothing, it's nothing. Never mind," I said.