May We Meet Again Teaser

 “Alice, you need to grow up,” I hissed, gently guiding her away from the bank of elevators. I wanted to rip into her, scream at her for awful behavior. “You’re having this temper tantrum because I asked Bella to be the other person to know the security code? Really?”

“You’re my brother. My blood!” she snapped, glaring at me. “She’s nothing but an entitled little cunt.”

My anger flared as I pinned her with an angry glower. “I am your brother, but we’re still strangers,” I snapped back. “All I know about you is that you are technologically brilliant, but you have anger management problems, attacking your birth mother on the promenade and throwing the world’s biggest temper tantrum because I wouldn’t share the security codes with you.”

“But, you trust that bitch,” Alice sneered, narrowing her ice-blue eyes. “She’s just like her dictator father. Fucking bitch.”

“That bitch sewed up your leg after you were attacked by that the water snake after you impulsively jumped into the river. That bitch lost her family, her father, in the most cruel way,” I explained. “Yes, we’re family, but I’ve known Bella for most of my life. I’ve known you for a minute and we met while you were in jail. Excuse me for not trusting you …”

“Like I told the bitch, when we get back to the drop ship, I think I’m going to join Jacob,” she muttered. “Now, I want to get the fuck out of here. I don’t want to see your face. It’s clear you’re like them, your parents. Close-minded and incapable of loving a byproduct of your mother’s rape.”

“I’m not arguing with you,” I huffed, pinching my nose. “I’m also not like my parents, Alice. I just don’t know you. I want to, but your anger issues, along with your lack of impulse control make it really, really difficult. I care about you, and I’ll worry about you if you leave.”

“Yeah, I’ll make it easier for you,” Alice huffed. “Don’t worry. Don’t care. Just like I won’t worry or care about you.” She turned on her heel, stomping back toward the elevator.

Hearing that from my sister, made my heart shatter a bit. Even though we didn’t know each other, I loved my sister. I cared about her, and I didn’t want her to be hurt. If she went out on her own, she would be … hurt, or worse … killed. I couldn’t afford to lose any more family. I’d already forfeited my relationship with my parents by coming down to the surface. Now, my sister?

“Edward?” Bella called softly. She walked over to me, slipping her tiny hand into mine. “Are you okay?”

I shook my head, looking at Bella. Her skin was pink, slightly sunburnt from walking around in the sun. Her hair was curled over her shoulders, pulled back into a low ponytail. She had some tendrils framing her heart-shaped face. Her dark brows were furrowed as she nibbled on her lower lip. I wanted to nibble on that lip. What are you talking about, Cullen? How had I never noticed how beautiful Bella was?

May We Meet Again Update

MWMA Ch. 2 on FFn

MWMA Ch. 2 on AO3

MWMA Ch. 2 on Stars

MWMA Ch. 2 on Wattpad

“We need to figure this out,” Dr. Renee Swan growled, scrubbing her face. She looked so drawn, exhausted … all because I was doing my job. I should have left well-enough alone. This is your fault, Cullen. All your fault. Renee shot up, stopping my self-loathing. She paced angrily, clenching her hands into tight fists. “In three months, my husband is dead set on floating my daughter. On killing our child. All because he wants to make an example of her.” Her voice cracked with her hands flying to her face. “I can’t lose her. I can’t lose my sweet baby girl.”

“What did she say the last time you were granted a meeting with her? When you were last able to visit her?” my father asked. Renee choked out a sob and my mother scurried over to her, hugging her tightly. My father was getting frustrated, blinking to me. “Can you get Renee in again? It’s important for Renee to talk to Bella. We need more.”

“I’m trying, but the warden is a staunch supporter of the Chancellor,” I explained. “What Charlie Swan says is law according to Warden Pike. If Bella is in solitary confinement for her own protection, she is in solitary confinement. No outside visitors or interaction with the other prisoners.” When I worked in the prison, I visited Bella and each day, she lost more of the life in her eyes. It sparked slightly when I brought her food, but that flash of emotion was hatred for me.

Yeah, I don’t blame you for hating me. I hate me, too. This is my fault.

“I cannot believe Charlie,” Renee snapped, shrugging off my mother’s embrace. She stomped to the window and stared, sightlessly outside. Crossing her arms over her chest, she continued, “Our quarters are quite tense. I’ve taken to sleeping in Bella’s room. It’s the only way I can be close to her. He tried to convince me to come back to our room, but I said that I wouldn’t come back to him until he acted like a father and not as a Chancellor when it came to Bella. If I could, I’d leave him. But, he’s more concerned about fucking optics.”

“I miss Chancellor Molina,” my mother muttered, sitting down on the couch. “She had compassion. Hell, it was her compassion that prevented my death.”

“Because you did nothing wrong, my love,” Dad said, caressing her cheek. “You were attacked by an animal who got his just desserts. He hurt you and took away your choice. He paid for what he did to you with his life.”

“If Charlie was in charge, he probably would have floated Esme,” Renee grumbled, crossing back to the table, and picking up the tablet. She angrily swiped at it, shaking her head. “Ugh! We’re missing something. Bella told me to look at the oxygen scrubbers and the correlation between the increased hypoxia cases. What did she see that we’re not?!”

“What’s hypoxia?” I asked, my ears flaming with embarrassment. “I’m not a doctor and …”

“Apologies, son. Hypoxia is where you’re not getting enough oxygen to your vital systems,” Dad responded. His eyes scanned his tablet, trying to make sense of the numbers on the screen. “But, according to the computers, the scrubbers are working fine. I think?”

“It’s all gibberish to me,” Mom said, shaking her head. “I can teach simple algebraic equations, but that is …”

I pressed my fingers to my temples. “Let’s back up. What are the symptoms of hypoxia? And what happens to a person who has to deal with this condition long term?” I pressed. “Obviously, Bella is concerned about this if she’s adamant that something is wrong with the oxygen scrubbers and recyclers, causing hypoxia or whatever.”

“Symptoms include headaches, shortness of breath, a bluish tint to the skin, cough, confusion, and a slowing heart rate. If it continues for some time, people can lose their sight, with decreased blood flow to their extremities, causing them to turn gangrenous and, if untreated, they will eventually die,” Renee answered. Snapping her fingers, she looked back at her tablet. “Wait, let’s look at the trending cases of hypoxia. Where are they all located?”

“D-Block and E-Block,” Dad answered, reading from his tablet. “The inhabitants who are furthest away from promenade.”

“And the quarters that are packed to the gills,” I offered. “There are two to three families living in a room half this size.”

“I think I get what she’s trying to say,” Renee said. She pulled up another file on her tablet. “Holy shit, the oxygen scrubbers and recyclers are not providing enough oxygen to those locations on the Ark. It was buried deep within the environmental systems files. Carlisle, you wouldn’t have been able to see it. Hell, I wouldn’t have been able to see it. I had to use Charlie’s access codes.”

“The Chancellor’s office is covering this up,” I frowned.

Council Chamber

Dr. Renee Swan

Edward Cullen

Dr. Carlisle Cullen

Chancellor Charlie Swan

Prison aboard The Ark

Alice

Emmett McCarty

Jasper Whitlock