A/N: As promised a long time ago, here's Edward's Vogue article. Obviously, the songs/lyrics throughout belong to Taylor Swift and Halsey. You all can probably recite their entire discography now thanks to me. Hope you enjoy!

IN DEFENSE OF ISABELLA CULLEN

Nice to meet you, where you been?

I could show you incredible things

Magic, madness, heaven, sin

Saw you there and I thought

Oh my God, look at that face

You look like my next mistake

Love's a game, wanna play?

Blank Space, Isabella Cullen

I met Isabella Swan when she was twenty years old. She had the unfortunate luck of being seated with my family and myself at a charity function for the Chicago Police Department (I'm sure you all don't need me to explain the irony of that). Why an Academy Award winning actress was there, I still don't know, but it was a twist of fate that changed the course of my entire life.

I'll admit that I didn't know who she was when I sat down. I made an unfortunate joke about actors being simpleminded as I sat beside her, and she has spent the last twenty-plus years proving me wrong.

Before I knew her, the world had their own opinions about her. The evening after I met her I went home and watched as she tripped her way up the stairs to accept her first (of six, soon to be seven) Academy Awards. I kept away from the harsh opinions of the public, because a quick glance at one article proved to me they knew nothing about the beautiful, witty, blushing woman I had met not hours before.

Thanks to the power of the internet, I was able to go back in time and read what people wrote about her back then. I'm the last person to know or understand how pop culture and social media works, but I've done my research and come to my own conclusions.

For years, my wife let the general public s- all over her. She let you call her names and write horrible, insulting things about her. It's astounding the things thirty-year-old men will call an innocent seventeen-year-old girl given the anonymity of the internet.

From the time her career started at sixteen, up until I met her when she was nearly twenty-one, she was simultaneously adored by fans and torn down by internet trolls and journalists alike. So much so that it seemed like people were scared to stand up for her, scared to be the one on her side in case the rumors turned out to be true.

Since then, the opinions only got more and more harsh. She married me, a man who has been watched by the FBI since he was sixteen. That made her a gold-digging whore according to much of the online population. She protected herself against a home intruder and that earned her over a year in jail and a lifetime of mental scars, but the internet believed it knew the story well enough to call her a cold-blooded murderer. She somehow miraculously conceived our son, and the internet again decided it made her a bold-faced liar because doctor after doctor told her it was impossible.

Anyone who stood up for her over the years was usually faced with the same torture she was put through. They would be called names, accused of being nice to her for clout, nothing was off limits. So much so that, eventually, people stopped standing up for her. People stopped looking at her as the girl they grew up watching on the screen and saw her as the villain she was painted as.

I, however, don't give a f- what you all think about me. Call me a monster, call me a murderer, do your worst. Because this is the real story of Isabella Cullen. The one you were all too blind to see, the one the people that knew the truth were too scared to tell.

I'm headed straight for the castle

They've got the kingdom locked up

And there's an old man sitting on the throne there

Saying I should probably keep my pretty mouth shut

Castle, Isabella Cullen

Everyone knows the story. Cullen started her career at sixteen. By an odd twist of fate, she met Jackson Lawrence in a parking lot in Los Angeles and was immediately offered an audition to a film half of Hollywood wanted to be part of.

"The beginning part of my career was kind of like a movie itself," Cullen said, reminiscing on the start of her career. "No one becomes an actor, or a successful one anyway, without having that person that quote un quote discovered them. Meeting Lawrence will probably always simultaneously be the best and worst thing to ever happen to me."

Cullen goes on to describe the fairytale like start of her career. The bright side of things such as discovering a career path that excited her, challenged her in ways she didn't know existed. Meeting people that shared the same love for filmmaking she suddenly had. Becoming financially stable enough at seventeen to buy her family a home, pay for her sister's education, and support herself all at once.

Then, there was the other side of things.

"No one really understands what it takes to make a movie until they see it for themselves. Especially a film series like Tainted." Cullen went on to describe one particular stunt scene in the first Tainted film. "It was probably my second week on set. Second week acting in general and I stood there, listening to the stunt coordinator talk about how absolutely no one was to get within a hundred feet of this one area. Except me. Because I had to run through the burning forest while everyone else kept a safe distance."

My only thought during the whole conversation was on my wife's propensity of tripping over thin air. Something that, thankfully, alluded her as she was running through a burning forest at sixteen.

Reading through the early reviews on her career, it was obvious Cullen had an undeniable talent from the first moment she started acting. Her first film outside of the Tainted series earned her her first of many Academy Awards to come, along with a handful of other prestigious and not-so-prestigious awards. Yes, I am talking about the closet I have in my house full of surfboards and other oddly shaped awards.

She was America's beloved sweetheart. Cullen graced the cover of every teen magazine imaginable, talked about growing up in a small town and charmed her way in to America's hearts. She landed herself a handful of guest roles on a few television programs, including fan favorite Unknown. No one had a bad thing to say about her.

"Everything changed once I signed on for Clash. The first script I received was… honestly garbage. I could have written a better script at twelve. I said as much in my audition and everyone agreed that it needed work and promised it would be better by the time the movie was shot."

Clash was met with horrible reviews. The cast was mediocre, except for the woman with a brand-new Academy Award. "They knew what they were doing. Get anyone with an Oscar in a film and you have people's attention. You get to say 'Academy Award winner so and so' in your trailers. You get to have that on your DVD boxes. It might seem like a small thing to most people, but not if you know what you're doing in this business."

When asked about her decision to fight her contract with the Clash series, Cullen got obviously defensive. Arms crossed, stern eyes, and a set jaw. "Everyone told me not to. I had a hundred people from studios pull me aside every day and tell me to suck it up. But, I was pissed. I hated myself for getting tricked in to it, for falling for a game I didn't know I was playing."

Cullen fought to get released from her contract of filming two more films in the Clash trilogy. The moment the news broke out of her attempting to break her contract, she was no longer the girl America had fallen in love with. She had become the woman who was fighting for what she wanted. Something America has a history of disliking.

"The minute I won and was released from that contract was the minute everyone in Hollywood started seeing me as a threat. Because I was no longer the girl who had lucked out and booked a few good roles. I was a woman with an Academy Award to my name and standards."

Both dangerous things for an actress to have in her arsenal.

And all the kids cried out, "please stop, you're scaring me"

I can't help this awful energy

God damn right, you should be scared of me

Who is in control?

Control, Isabella Cullen

Before ever fighting against her Clash contract, before winning that coveted golden statue at the Academy Awards, Cullen checked herself in to Winding Winds Rehabilitation Center in central California. Her six-week stay was four months before her first Academy Award win. She arrived the day after winning five MTV Movie Awards with her Tainted cast.

"I had a minor… no, I shouldn't say minor. If it was minor I probably wouldn't have gone to rehab for it," she stuttered over her words, obviously still scarred by the public's reaction wherever mental health is concerned.

"I remember being in the hotel room getting ready. I hadn't eaten in a while, maybe a full day or two. Press tours are brutal and any free time I had I wanted to sleep. Anyway, I just… couldn't control anything anymore. Everything about my life was in someone else's hands. I couldn't even choose the f - shoes on my feet."

Cullen went quiet. Looking at me but not really looking at me. She's come a long way since she was the girl sitting in that hotel room with no control. Even with the distance between who she was then and now, the demons are still there.

"It all boiled down to control. My life was wonderful in so many ways, but it was also completely chaotic. A mess that I had no input in. My schedule was approved by practically everyone but me. My time wasn't my own, I had a list of approved things I could say or topics I could cover whenever I was in an interview. Hell, sometimes even in meetings.

"The last thing I had control over was my emotions. My reactions to these situations. And as I sat in that hotel room and listened to some guy beat in to my head that I had to mention the film at least three times in each interview I just… lost control over everything."

Cullen described the panic in that hotel room not an hour before she walked the red carpet. Her sobs as she got her makeup done. Dry heaving into the toilet because she had nothing in her system to throw up. Holding on to her assistant's shoulders as she was zipped in to a dress because she could hardly stand on her own two feet.

"I know it sounds… dramatic. Poor little rich girl is too sad to walk the red carpet. But when you've been working sixteen to twenty-hour days for two years, when people are constantly telling you jobs and careers and hundreds of thousands of dollars ride on you saying or doing the right thing… it's just a lot."

Isabella Cullen is no more mentally unstable than you or I. She is a woman who has had the weight of multi-million dollar projects on her shoulders since she was sixteen. A woman who has entertained you, your children, your parents for decades even when she was exhausted and running on fumes.

Everybody has a breaking point. A point in which their brain can hold no more information or their body can no longer keep them up right. Some of you, the ones who dare to call her psychotic or crazy, you haven't hit your breaking point yet. You have the right chemicals in your brain performing the right functions. You're lucky.

I have little to no tolerance for anyone who calls her any kind of derogatory term and, trust me, I've heard or read them all. Attacking her for her mental state, throwing her stay in rehab in her face, those have always been a few of my hard limits. Because no one understands how much pressure she puts on herself. No one sees half of the work she does. No one knows her, not really. Not enough to make those kinds of judgements on her stability.

All the people say

You can't wake up, this is not a dream

You're part of a machine, you are not a human being

With your face all made up, living on a screen

Low on self-esteem so you run on gasoline

Gasoline, Isabella Cullen

Following her release from the Clash films, Cullen was unable to be compensated for any kind of acting work for a year while the final two Clash films were completed. Instead of taking her punishment and a year off from working she wrote, produced, and stared in her first theatrical album. Welcome to the Badlands.

"Music was never really part of my plan. Not that I had much of a plan. I met Peter Clark through a mutual friend, Alison Tyler, and he sat down with me on my kitchen floor one night and an hour later we had written Castle. From then on, I had a way to get every frustration out, a way to say how I was feeling when I usually kept it all inside. And it was… phenomenal."

She would be the first to tell you it's not a completely original concept. But, she put her own twists on it. Twists that made her film a defining moment in popular culture.

The album and film were met with critical acclaim. It wasn't a half ditch effort from someone with a flailing career. It was a well thought out, poignant, and honest story of a woman who had a life completely foreign to most of society but went through struggles everyone could relate to. Everyone has been screwed over by a boss or lied to by a significant other or felt so out of control of their life they didn't know what to do. It's a film that has been praised even decades after its release.

"I loved making Badlands. Loved learning the process of creating an album and fell even more in love with the process of making a movie." Cullen went on to describe how Badlands is the most fictionalized of her theatrical albums, needing to be to hide the true identity of the man she was seeing at the time.

The biggest question most people have about the concept of Cullen's theatrical albums, is why she started making them in the first place. There is the argument that, if she hated the publics opinion so much, she was just giving them more ammunition There's also the idea that she is an egotistical narcissist and just wanted to get as much attention as possible.

"It was just a way to express myself, I guess. I had never been very good at coping with my feelings and putting out music about how I felt was a good way to learn how to speak my mind I think. Combining it with a movie gave me the opportunity to tell the story more accurately, and acting was kind of my crutch."

With the success of the Badlands album, Cullen embarked on her first nation-wide tour. What was supposed to be a small theater tour quickly turned in to her headlining arenas across the country, going from venues that held a few thousand to venues with a good seventeen to twenty thousand capacity.

"The tour was… honestly? Not my idea. I dreaded the thought of it. I've never even wanted to do theater. I f- up too much for anything live. I guess I didn't have complete control over my life then either, but it was still a hell of a lot better than it was before."

"Personally," I interjected. "I'm quite glad you ended up on that tour."

I met my wife when she was in Chicago on the Badlands Tour. My sister was a fan, though I had no idea who Isabella was until I sat next to her. The next night I went to her show with my family and have been fascinated by her ever since.

Unfortunately, this is the point of the story where most people agree I started the downfall of Isabella Cullen.

I think he knows

When we get all alone

I'll make myself at home

And he'll want me to stay

I think he knows

He better lock it down

Or I won't stick around

'Cause good ones never wait

I Think He Knows, Isabella Cullen

I had less than seventy-two hours with Isabella the first time I met her before she was off to another city. In those seventy-two hours I saw what most of the public couldn't, and that was that she was one of the most excruciatingly kind women I had ever met.

The first time I saw her after the night I met her was at her show the next night. She had given my sister tickets five minutes after she not-so-subtly hinted that she wasn't able to get some in the first place. Then, I met her backstage and she spent an hour after her intense, two-hour performance meeting people for free.

It was a completely foreign concept to me, being nice to people. I was raised by harsh, uncaring parents who put me on a track of business and backstabbing from an early age. I didn't (still don't) do things for free or without an ulterior motive.

Isabella was raised by a selfish woman who never showed her an ounce of the love and respect she deserved, and turned that around by doing her best to show every person who took a chance on her that she loved and respected them more than they could ever imagine.

It was an interesting change of pace for me, being around someone so open and kind and good. I was immediately intrigued by her. By her and not her career. She was (is) beautiful, heartbreakingly so, inside and out.

"It wasn't one of my smartest life choices," she told me with a sly smile. "You could have been an axe murderer or something and I just willingly followed you home after meeting you twice."

Meeting Isabella was, by far, the best thing that has ever happened to me. That's why I have such a hard f- time understanding how anyone who sees her or knows anything about her can conclude that she is anything other than extraordinary.

Our relationship is nowhere near perfect. We've been through hell and back at least five times together. She has had to come to terms with aspects of my life that are unavoidable, and I've had to do the same with her lifestyle. There was never another option for us, though.

Once I had her, I knew better than to ever let her go.

I used to be a darling starlet like a centerpiece

Had the whole world wrapped around my ring

I flew too closely to the sun that's setting in the east

And now I'm melting from my wings

Angel On Fire, Isabella Cullen

The success of Welcome to the Badlands led to Cullen making a follow up theatrical album, Hopeless Kingdom. It was released two weeks after we announced our marriage to the public. Less than a year after my wife was shot twice at the final Tainted premiere.

Hopeless Kingdom was met with the same critical acclaim its predecessor received. The acting, the story, the songs were all nothing short of successes. The actuality of that being Cullen's life, though, was put under harsh scrutiny.

The public, it seemed, had hit its limit with her. Again. The articles about her art were few and far between, replaced by articles slamming our marriage and questioning whether it was real or not. Sponsors pulled out of her tour because of her image. Fans turned on her because of something they had no right in deciding for her.

Everyone failed to realize that she was still the same woman. She still put her heart and soul into every song, every scene of that film.

"The release of Hopeless Kingdom was… bittersweet. I was so excited. So excited. I was happy and in love and I got to show the world how I fell in love with my husband. It was the strangest thing, people praising the film and album but just absolutely hating me."

I watched her attitude on life change in front of my own eyes. Saw her have to make the decision not to check up on the people she cared about online because the moment she opened a computer there was someone online calling her a whore.

"Hopeless Kingdom wasn't even our whole story," Cullen added, exasperation seeping from her every movement. Hands tossed up, frown in place. "I really thought it was going to be something people could relate to; meeting this guy and just falling completely head over heels for him. Not caring about the consequences or what everyone else thought," she sighed, pressing her lips together and smirking at me. "Maybe I'm still a little bitter about the whole thing."

After a shortened Hopeless Kingdom tour, Cullen decided a change of pace was in order. "I felt completely betrayed, even though I shouldn't have. People are fickle and I shouldn't have been shocked they were upset with who I married, considering he and his family had their own reputation. I know better than anyone, though, that you can't believe everything you read online."

While the tour sold out and fans rejoiced in getting to see her and celebrate her songs, there was still an air of tension everywhere Cullen was concerned. No one felt they could trust her, no one wanted to work with her. People wanted to talk about her but not with her.

Cullen went from talented starlet, winning Academy Awards for a film she created nearly on her own, to public enemy number one seemingly overnight.

"I assumed the backlash from marrying Edward Cullen would be the lowest low in terms of public perception. I was… quite wrong, though."

The world moves on, another day, another drama, drama

But not for me, not for me, all I think about is karma

And then the world moves on, but one thing's for sure

Maybe I got mine but you'll all get yours

Look What You Made Me Do, Isabella Cullen

On September 6th Aro Volturi broke in to the home I shared with my wife. He wrapped his hands around her throat, leaving deep purple bruises in his wake. Threw her to the ground, a sizable cut on her forehead where it hit the edge of my desk as she fell. He told her the thought crossed his mind to bring some friends, let them "have some fun" with her, before he killed her.

There is not a day that has gone by in the decades since the incident that I haven't tried to think of some way I could have prevented it.

"It's kind of crazy to think that something that happened in a span of less than ten minutes can define you for the rest of your life," Cullen said, not an ounce of pain in her voice. Simply… wistful bewilderment.

Three weeks after the attack Cullen was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit manslaughter and murder in the first degree. The trial lasted for a year and a half. I had to fake my own death because of the barrage of threats being hurdled at my wife. She had to go on the witness stand and be tormented by a vengeful prosecutor who was out for anything but justice.

"The whole thing kind of feels like a really long nightmare. Something that was kind of real but also so outrageous it couldn't have actually happened. I mean, obviously it happened. I spent twenty years not being able to wear a watch or a bracelet. Maybe I just wish it never happened."

There is enough information that was kept from the public during her trial to fill up this whole magazine and then some. Cullen was attacked inside the county jail, hands still cuffed and unable to defend herself. She was attacked by Detective Riley Biers when she refused to talk without her lawyer present. There were more than a few threats against her life while she was locked up.

Still, the public never cared about any of that. They didn't care that you could see a young woman deteriorating in front of them every day on the televised trial. Everyone had abandoned the girl that was constantly there for them. Myself included.

And it was a f- travesty.

"I can't really blame the public for how they reacted," Cullen said slowly, like she was choosing every word carefully. "If the prosecutor presses charges, they have to have pretty solid evidence that you did it. In this case I think that… their evidence was tainted by my last name. But that's how the system works sometimes."

To be clear, my wife may not blame the world for how they turned on her, but I sure as hell still do.

"Even now, people expect me to regret what happened. I regret that he broke in, but not how I reacted. They want me to beg for forgiveness and express how sorry I am for what I did. I felt crippling guilt for a long time, but the truth is Aro Volturi set his own fate. He broke into our home, he wrapped his hands around my neck, and I shot him four times in the chest for it. Both of us weren't getting out of that house alive."

She sits across from me, my wife of nearly thirty years, and even now I can still see how uncomfortable she is with the conversation after a while. Her eyes get sad and her fingers rub subtly at her wrists.

I have stood by the statement that my wife is not a murderer for a long time. She's a protector. She can protect herself when necessary, something that makes me sleep a little better at night, and she has protected myself and my family from the moment we met her.

Isabella is the most loyal, loving, passionate, talented woman I have ever met. Her resilience is staggering and her compassion, even after everything she has gone through, inspiring.

The public was so quick to believe the story, the lies that the prosecution fed to them. They forgot the years that woman spent growing up in front of their eyes, fighting for what she believed in and showing them more of herself than anyone else ever would.

And all the pieces fall right into place

Getting caught up in a moment

Lipstick on your face

So it goes…

I'm yours to keep

And I'm yours to lose

You know I'm not a bad girl but I

Do bad things with you

So It Goes…, Isabella Cullen

It was over two years after Cullen was acquitted of all charges that she made her comeback. And it was one hell of a spectacle. The final part in her trilogy of theatrical albums, reputation, became her most successful yet.

"The process of creating reputation was very cathartic. I don't think I ever could have moved past that part in my life if I didn't make it. I always would have been that girl. The one everyone hated, the one that supposedly got away with murder. I had never needed to tell my story so badly."

To me, reputation is the most honest and accurate of my wife's films. I had never seen her be so unabashedly herself and it was a wonder to watch.

"I wanted reputation to overshadow everything else I had done. I needed it to be a new beginning for me. The sound of the album was different from my first two. I managed to get a bigger budget for the film and make it everything I wanted it to be. The tour was bigger than anything I had ever done. I had a wonderful sponsor," she told me with an adorable smirk.

My company has sponsored every tour she has gone on since I met her. Not because she married me for my money or I was placating her in any way. I sponsored her endeavors because I didn't want her getting screwed over like she had in the past; sponsors dropping out last minute or people using her for her name.

The reputation Tour grossed over $300 million in the United States, becoming the highest grossing female tour that decade.

"That tour will probably always be one of my favorite things I've ever done," Cullen said with a wistful smile. "I pushed myself really hard to put on a show that I never in a million years would have thought I could do. I'm not a dancer. Live performances consistently terrified me. But, I wanted to put on a big f- show. And I did."

I attended many shows on the tour, each time blown away by the spectacle. By the image of my wife, so small compared to the giant stage around her, controlling a room with 60,000 people in it with a single smile.

The fan aspect of my wife's career always unsettled me. She was attacked one night on stage by an unruly fan, and I knew he wasn't the only one out there. But seeing them show up in waves for her on that tour changed my perspective completely.

I watched their faces. Saw people cry just at the sight of her. Somehow, every night on that tour, I was surrounded by people who loved and cared about my wife nearly as much as I did. I am eternally grateful to them for showing up for her when she needed them the most.

"There is no better vindication than winning two Golden Globes, a Screen Actors Guild award, four Grammys, and three Academy Awards for a project about the whole world turning their back on you."

Technically, reputation as a whole won four Academy Awards with Noah Carter winning Best Actor. It should also be noted that, during the months spent preparing for all of those wins Cullen was also planning the most watched Super Bowl Halftime show performance.

"reputation is the most successful project I've ever done, and I am completely happy with that. I mean, I won best f- picture for that. A film I wrote and produced. With music I wrote and co-produced. It's still crazy to me."

While the project was successful it was also a time when it seemed everyone on the inside of the industry was attempting to tear her down again. Men from her record label leaked an alternative project to reputation, Lover, in an attempt to change the narrative Cullen was trying to keep. A rogue manager, Colton Shay, was attempting to sabotage her every move based on an old vendetta.

Lover, once officially released as a backlash against the rogue label employees, became Cullen's fourth number one album. And Colton Shay ended up losing a majority of his clout and clients after it was revealed he had been sexually harassing women for years.

"I never could have released Lover in place of reputation. It… would not have landed well. I'm glad people enjoy it, but reputation will always hold a very special place in my heart."

Just close your eyes

The sun is going down

You'll be alright

No one can hurt you now

Come morning light

You and I'll be safe and sound

Safe & Sound, Isabella Cullen

After reputation, Cullen took a well-deserved break from the spotlight. During that time, she started a production company, another aspect of filmmaking that she had fallen in love with over the years. She also gave birth to her first, and only, child: Aiden Anthony Cullen.

The public's reaction after his birth was understandably shocked, considering Cullen had been open about the prognosis that she would be unable to conceive her own child due to damage from one of her gunshot wounds. If you thought you were shocked at the news, you have no god damn idea how shocked I was to come home one night to my wife surrounded by fifty pregnancy tests.

"I thought the doctor could have been wrong!" Cullen laughed before sobering. "When I was younger I didn't want kids. Being responsible for a kid is… a lot. Even today I'm still constantly scared I'll do something wrong. But when the doctor told me… I really, really wanted him to be right."

It wasn't an easy pregnancy or delivery. Our son had to be delivered via an emergency cesarean that resulted in an immediate emergency surgery for Isabella following his birth. Thankfully, at the end of the day, both were happy and healthy. It was the start of a new path for Cullen.

"I think it was about ten years that I didn't do much more than run the production company. There are women that go right back to work a couple months after having a baby, and that's incredible, but this was my one and only chance. I was never going to have another baby, never get to take my toddler to the zoo again and see the smile on his face when a giraffe looked at him. I wanted to be there for every second I could."

I've watched my wife do wonderful things. Perform on the biggest stages, win the most prestigious awards. Nothing was quite as magical as watching her become the wonderful mother I always knew she would be.

My castle crumbled overnight

I brought a knife to a gunfight

They took the crown, but it's alright

All the liars are calling me one

Nobody's heard from me for months

I'm doing better than I ever was

Call It What You Want, Isabella Cullen

At this point, we have covered everything. The start of her career, her downfall, and her subsequent rise from the ashes. And now, at the age of forty-nine, Isabella Cullen is about to receive the first Isabella Cullen Lifetime Achievement Award at this years' Academy Awards.

When I brought up the award, Cullen said she wasn't sure if she deserved it. I'm going to take the opportunity to point out just a few of the reasons why that is most definitely not the case.

From the age of nineteen she has been creating her own films. Hell, sometimes funding her own films.

Her films and music brought modern, popular culture into an academy that previously focused on pompous old men who were known to bribe their way in for an award or two.

She has been the most awarded woman at the Academy Awards since she was twenty-seven.

She has broken barrier after barrier for women in the industry, taking every opportunity to call out those who abused their power such as Colton Shay.

Throughout her career she has been nominated in a bigger variety of categories than any other person in the history of the Academy Awards. Ranging from Best Actress in a Leading Role to Best Song to Best Director.

Isabella Cullen has had unparalleled success in the entertainment industry and anyone who says otherwise is kidding themselves.

This article may be tainted with untold amounts of bias considering I've been married to Isabella for nearly thirty years, but her achievements speak for themselves. And, when they can't, I can tell you that woman loves nothing more than bringing a smile to someone else's face. She is an entertainer, through and through. A storyteller unlike any other. An artist. A fantastic mother. A woman I am beyond proud to call my wife.

Whether you believe every bulls- article you've ever read about her or not, there is no one out there like her. No one with their hands in every possible aspect of the film industry. No one else who could deserve a Lifetime Achievement Academy Award more.

They're burning all the witches, even if you aren't one

They got their pitchforks and proof

Their receipts and reasons

They're burning all the witches, even if you aren't one

So, light me up

I Did Something Bad, Isabella Cullen

At the beginning of this article I told you this was the truth about Isabella Cullen. It has been, but it has also been her defense case. One of the only ones that you will find out there.

Because while she has been standing up for women in her industry to get paid fairly or have equal opportunities as their male counterparts, most women in her line of work have been tearing her apart and wishing she would disappear.

While she stood up against the men who leaked an entire albums' worth of her work, men whose leaked emails shows a history of vile and disgusting comments against other artists on her label, none of those artists thanked her for getting rid of them. None of them showed her a single ounce of support since then. Personally, I quite love the irony that since then my wife has bought said label that a majority of those people are still signed to.

When she was on trial for a crime she did not commit, no one was there. No one besides her team and my family stood by her side.

When she was the first one to speak up about Colton Shay, an act that led to countless people finally being released from his unfair and binding contracts, not one person thanked her or stood by her side.

Isabella Cullen has accomplished a few lifetimes worth of achievements in spite of her colleagues' complete lack of respect. In spite of every f- media outlet never being on her side.

No one has ever stood up for her, so much so that she had to constantly do it herself in the biggest way possible. In a way that, you guessed it, got her s- from every one of you.

In case you couldn't tell, this has been my way of saying f- you to everyone who has ever screwed over my wife.

I consider myself the most qualified person, my wife excluded, to analyze and understand her songs. It's something I've spent hours doing, listening to her albums and thinking of all the little tidbits of our lives she puts into song. The following list is purely to show the general public that no matter how hard you try, only I know the true meaning behind every word. Below, in no particular order, are my top fifteen Isabella Cullen songs.

Castle:

The opening of her debut album set the tone perfectly for the rest of her career to come. From the moment she started working, Bella was out to conquer the world and call out everyone in her way.

Best Line: I'm headed straight for the castle / They've got the kingdom locked up / There's an old man sitting on the throne there saying I should probably keep my pretty mouth shut

Control:

Oscar winner for Best Song, this track is an overview of everything that led to Cullen's breakdown prior to the MTV Movie Awards so long ago. Perhaps one of her most open and honest songs about her mental health while simultaneously acknowledging she was more powerful than everyone overworking her.

Best Line: God damn right, you should be scared of me / Who is in control?

Heaven in Hiding:

One of my personal favorites from Hopeless Kingdom. There is no more perfect way to describe the early days of our relationship than a heaven in hiding, considering no one knew we were together until we were married. The intensity, the build up, it all perfectly emulates our early relationship.

Best Line: Said this ain't what you usually do, and a girl like me is new for you / And I can tell you mean it 'cause you're shaking

Angel on Fire:

As gut-wrenching as the song is, it's an important part in my wife's story. It's her inner battle of no longer being the girl everyone saw her as, the starlet everyone wanted her to be. In my opinion, the woman she turned into is who she was supposed to be all along.

Best Line: I'm standing in the ashes of who I used to be / But I'm fading away, you know, I used to be on fire

So It Goes…:

In another life our story could have ended here: blissfully happy and engaged and in love. I remember the moment well and the song perfectly represents the feelings of finally realizing I'll get to spend the rest of my time with the love of my life.

Best Line: I'm yours to keep / I'm yours to lose / You know I'm not a bad girl, but I / Do bad things with you

King Of My Heart:

There is no greater feeling than knowing my wife is just as unhealthily obsessed with me as I am with her. She's given me her heart and I'll do damn well anything to protect it and her.

Best Line: Is this the end of all the endings? / My broken bones are mending

Dress:

Not the deepest or most meaningful song of hers by any means, but the fact that it is written about our wedding night makes it more important to me than most of her entire discography.

Best Line: I woke up just in time / Now I wake up by your side / My one and only, my lifeline

Look What You Made Me Do:

If could make my whole list songs of my wife standing up for herself, I would. This track is her most controversial, but that makes the message all the more clear. Every line has a purpose and a message for anyone and everyone who was part of her trial and prosecution.

Best Line: I got smarter, I got harder in the nick of time / Honey, I rose up from the dead I do it all the time

I Did Something Bad:

Another Oscar winner for Best Song. The brutally honest description of my wife finally understanding that she shouldn't feel ashamed for protecting herself inside of our own home.

Best Line: I never trust a narcissist / But they love me

Call It What You Want:

Call It What You Want is about Bella finally finding her peace after being put through hell for nearly two years. It's a beautiful thing to see, and was an even more beautiful sight to see as I watched her slowly piece herself back together.

Best Line: Nobody's heard from me for months / I'm doing better than I ever was

Lover:

I was reluctant to put anything off of Lover on my list, simply because I knew Bella never wanted the songs out in the first place. But, a song this beautiful and timeless had to make the list.

Best Line: With every guitar string scar on my hand / I take this magnetic force of a man to be my lover

Enchanted:

Perhaps the most sickeningly sweet song she has ever written. Nothing about my life before her could have ever fit within this song. Nothing was bright or happy or whimsical. All of that changed once I sat next to her, a moment so beautifully captured in this song.

Best Line: The playful conversation starts / Counter all your quick remarks / Like passing notes in secrecy / And it was enchanting to meet you

Shake It Off:

My wife would never be described as the kind of person who shakes anything off lightly. She's a thinker, a worrier, and someone who could have used a song like this herself a time or two.

Best Line: It's like I got this music in my mind / Saying it's gonna be alright

Style:

The one consistent theory that the public has had about Bella is that her marriage to me is rocky. We're either constantly on the edge of divorce or never even liked each other in the first place. I'd like to think that after all this time we've proven that our marriage is very real, something I think is beautifully put in Style.

Best Line: When we go crashing down we come back every time / 'Cause we never go out of style

Clean:

My wife has always made her best public statements via songs. Perhaps one of my favorite statements comes from this track.

Best Line: When I was drowning, that's when I could finally breathe

Bonus – Blue Jeans:

I have a very coveted possession of an album of music created by my wife that is for my ears only. A whole album she gifted me before the birth of our son, all songs that sound absolutely nothing like her traditional music. Perhaps it comes from a calmer time in our lives, or maybe she truly can do anything. This track has a beautiful message of I'm with you no matter what. Something we've both proved to the other time and time again.

Best Line: Love you more / Than those bitches before

A/N: Lots to say here… first, I do have a small(ish) future-take for these two floating around my mind. But, I'm worried people might be tired of this story. If you're interested in a future-take, I'd love to know! If you read the reputation outtake, you know how carried away I can get with them. But if you know me you also know once Halsey released a new album I had to connect the dots.

Second… a few stories from the Hopeless Series are nominated at the TwiFic Fandom Awards! Dark Paradise and reputation are up for favorite all time fic, reputation is up for Empire Records (which I really just think this Bella needs, you know?), and Hopeless Kingdom is up for undiscovered gem! A big thank you to anyone who nominated the stories. You can vote every twenty-four hours on their site!

Third… I've got a new story for anyone who might have missed it. Bad Kind of Butterflies is up on my profile now. Hope you're all enjoying it!

Again, thanks to anyone who nominated these stories. Thanks to anyone still reading this long note. I hope you enjoyed this outtake – remember to let me know if you're interested in one more ride with these two!