Bella MacLeod's Twilight Fanfiction

The Road Back

By Mama4Dukes

Chapter 11:

A week after returning from his honeymoon, Jasper had a surprise visitor knock on the door to his parents’ house. Mr. Alton Brandon, accompanied by his daughter Alice, arrived from Texas searching for Jasper. The Swans and the newlyweds happened to be dining there that evening. An interesting conversation ensued.

“Mr. Brandon, how may I help you?” Jasper asked.

Mr. Brandon strutted in with an insincere smile on his face. “Jasper, my son, it’s great to see you. You look like you’re doing well.”

“I am. Thank you.”

“Alice looks wonderful, doesn’t she?” Alice stood silently next to her father with a simpering smile on her face. She’d shyly look down at her feet and then occasionally glance up at Jasper fluttering her eyelashes. It occurred to him that she caked her makeup on so much that he didn’t really know what she looked like without it. In all their years together, she never let him see her without her face painted on, but he could see right through the false charms of his ex.

Jasper didn’t bother replying to Mr. Brandon, so the man continued speaking, “Let me get down to business here. Jasper, I want you back working for me. I can offer you a partnership at my firm with a guarantee of at least double the salary you were making plus benefits, of course. I’ve also taken the liberty of settling all your student loans, car loan, and credit card debt, which were surprisingly low.” He reached into his briefcase and handed Jasper a copy of the settled loans. “On top of that, Alice has the penthouse all ready for you to move back into. She misses you. What do you say, son? Are you ready to leave this hick town? We sure could use your talent at the Law Offices of Alton Brandon.”

“I don’t know what to say.” Jasper shook his head in disbelief. Then, he turned to Bella, who smiled at him with a twinkle in her eyes. “Mr. Brandon, thank you for coming all this way, but I’m afraid I have to decline your offer. I’m perfectly happy in my current situation.”

Alton Brandon’s expression turned from shock to fury. Clearly, he had never been denied anything before. “Decline? Are you declining my offer after everything I’ve done for you? If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t even have had a chance to work at a prestigious law firm such as mine! You’re from an insignificant town with nothing to offer, and you want to stay here? You need to show more appreciation to me, especially now that I’ve paid off your damn law-school loans, your credit card debt, and your car loan!”

“Ahem.” Bella interrupted the man’s rant. “Excuse me, Mr. Brandon, I was wondering how you were able to access Mr. Whitlock’s financial information? Such information, to my knowledge, is private.”

“He was my employee, for Christ’s sake. I have his social security number, and my law firm has a division dealing with debt collection!” Mr. Brandon spat out. “It was easy enough to get!”

“It is to my understanding that accessing an individual’s password-protected financial information without express written permission is against the law. Were you not aware of this, Sir?” Bella informed him.

Mr. Brandon’s face turned red with rage before he faced Bella. “I don’t know who the hell you think you are, young lady, but you shouldn’t spout nonsense as far as legal matters are concerned. I am a graduate of the University of Texas Law School. I’ve been a lawyer for over thirty years and employ over fifteen hundred attorneys in my law firm.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “You need to keep your pretty, little uneducated face out of other people’s business and stop talking about things you know nothing about.”

Alton Brandon turned to Jasper next. “Enough of this, son. We need to get you and Alice home to Texas as soon as possible and wash the stench of this yokel town off of you!”

Jasper and Peter were fuming mad and ready to pounce on Brandon; however, Charlie restrained the men with firm grasps on their shoulders before stepping forward and facing the unsavory lawyer. “Well, I think I’ve heard enough from you. Mr. Alton Brandon, my name is Police Chief Charles Swan of Forks, Washington.” He pointed to the badge on his uniform shirt. “You have, in the presence of myself and these witnesses, admitted to knowingly using the social security number of your former employee to access private, financial information.” He took his handcuffs out. “As you’ve knowingly broken a federal law….”

“Now, just you wait a second! I did the boy a favor. I paid off his debts!”

“It still doesn’t make what you did legal. As I was saying before, because you’ve broken a federal law, I am informing you that you are under arrest, anything you say…”

“Please, stop! What can I do to remedy this? Can I pay your house off? I know, I’ll give you a hundred thousand dollars in cash to each of you,” Brandon spouted off in desperation.

Charlie sighed and shook his head. “Now, I’m going to have to add a charge of bribery of a public official. Actually, there are four public officials in this room, including myself: two Washington state prosecuting attorneys and my darling wife, a public school teacher. Now, let me see one count for the illegal access of private financial information and four counts for bribery. Hmm… Now, what was the penalty for bribing a public official? I’m going to call one of the town’s prosecutors; they’ll know for sure.”

Jasper’s father had finally regained his composure and, with a smug smile, suggested, “Charlie, might I recommend you ask the senior prosecutor? Considering Mr. Brandon takes a college education seriously, I’m sure it’ll reassure him if you ask someone who went to Yale for her undergraduate education and Harvard for her Juris Doctor degree.”

“Good idea, Pete. Let me give her a call. Oh, wait! Today is our lucky day! She happens to be standing right here.” Charlie winked at Bella. “Madam Prosecutor, what is the penalty for bribing a public official?”

“I believe the fine is three times the value of the bribe plus fifteen years imprisonment in a federal penitentiary per count. So, four counts would make the fine one-million-two-hundred-thousand dollars plus sixty-years of incarceration.”

Jasper decided to play along. “Don’t forget, a conviction will also disqualify the official from holding any public office of honor, trust, or profit. This would mean Mr. Brandon would be immediately disbarred.”

“That’s right. I forgot about that part. It’s a good thing you remembered. Let’s give the floor to Chief Swan so he may continue explaining the charges he’s arresting Mr. Brandon for.”

“No, no, wait! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to… Is there anything, anything I can do to persuade you to drop the charges?” The man was actually quaking in his boots, realizing that he may have gone too far for the first time.

“Oh, honey, I just realized something!” Renee Swan interrupted with a mischievous smile on her face. “Mr. Brandon, you should also be reassured that my husband knows what he’s doing. Why he has two, count them, two degrees: a B.A. and an M.A. in criminology from the University of Texas. Isn’t that your alma mater?”

“It is, ma’am.”

“It’s my alma mater, too,” Renee informed him.

“Oh, I didn’t realize you were from Texas.”

Charlie approached Brandon, “Well, now, I suppose I can let a fellow Longhorn off with a warning, but I’m going to have to ask that you apologize to the fine people in this room, paying particular attention to my daughter and son-in-law. You may be able to strongarm and coerce people where you come from, but we are all law-abiding citizens here in Forks.”

“S… Son-in-law? You’re married to her?” Alice screeched at Jasper. “You could have had me, and you decided to marry this skanky bitch!”

“Alice, quiet!” Mr. Brandon snapped. “I’m sorry. My daughter didn’t mean to insult your daughter. No, she…”

“I don’t want to hear your sniveling excuses about your daughter. She crossed the line when she insulted my wife!” Jasper roared. “Between you and Alice, you’ve demeaned my wife twice since you’ve arrived here. You have also insulted my entire family and the town I grew up in. Now, your arrogant, presumptuous behavior isn’t doing you any favors. Chief Swan is willing to let you off with a warning, but I might just suggest to him that he arrest you both as a favor to me.”

“And exactly what do you intend to have him arrest me for?” Alice asked arrogantly.

“I have evidence that you opened wedding invitations addressed to me, personally, and sent via the USPS. Furthermore, you responded to the invitations without my knowledge using a pink pen-your signature pink pen with the custom ink. My friends have kept the returned RSVPs in their wedding files.”

“So, what? What’s so illegal about that? I did you a favor. You didn’t need friends here. They weren’t good for your image or mine. You were a lawyer at Daddy’s firm, not some small-town nobody with no prospects. And now, you’ve gone and screwed things up. Now, Daddy is going to have to pay this bitch off so you can get a divorce.”

“Alice, is it?” Bella didn’t wait for an answer but stepped directly in front of her, so they were eye-to-eye. Jasper noted that Alice was wearing sky-high heels while Bella wore sneakers. “First of all, I will not be divorcing my husband. Second, bribing a public official is illegal if you were listening to my father. Third, tampering with U.S. Mail is a federal offense, punishable with a fine of two-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars and/or five years in prison. Finally, as an attorney, I’m sure your father will concur with me that my knowledge is accurate. Is that not so, Mr. Brandon?”

Brandon gulped and squeaked, “Yes, you’re correct.”

“Daddy, you won’t let these bumpkins arrest me, will you?”

“Alice, shut up!” Brandon hollered. “You’re making things worse. Now, be quiet so Daddy can handle this.”

Alice immediately donned a hurt expression, wrapping her arms around herself and turning her head away from her father. Jasper had seen this maneuver before and was not about to fall for it.

Bella shifted positions so Alice would understand her clearly. “I recommend that you do not provoke me any further, Miss Brandon. You will not win.” Then, clearly perturbed, Bella turned to Chief Swan. “Daddy, I agree with Jasper that the Brandons should be charged to the fullest extent of the law.”

“No! Please! I… We… We are very sorry, and we humbly apologize for any insult towards you and your family. We will be leaving now.”

He tried to leave but was stopped by Jasper. “No, I don’t think so. You aren’t going to be leaving until we get a signed confession from you and Alice. I know that you’re scheming and underhanded enough to return home to Dallas and try and turn this around in your favor, and I won’t allow it.”

“How dare you? I made you who you were! You were nothing when Alice first met you! You were a spineless, white-trash, little shit with no real prospects in life. You wanted to become a history teacher. A teacher? What a worthless career!”

“Well, now, you’ve gone and insulted my mother-in-law, and you’ve pissed me off to no end. Maybe you should just read him his Miranda Rights and cuff him, Charlie,” Jasper suggested. “In fact, cuff them both.”

“I think I’ll do just that.”

Alice and Mr. Brandon’s eyes mirrored each other as they widened in fear. Alice started bawling while Alton Brandon dropped to his knees, begging not to be arrested. “No, please. I am sorry. I’m very sorry. I was wrong! I was despicable! I… I promise I’ll never cross paths with you again. I’ll write the confession letter, and Alice will write one, too.” He turned to his daughter and asserted, “You must do this, or there’s a genuine chance we’ll lose everything. Everything.”

Jasper led the Brandons to the dining table. Mr. Brandon removed his laptop computer from his briefcase. He set it up on the table and quickly fired off a confession letter. If there was one thing about the man, he was very efficient with his legal writing skills. He requested to use the printer to print out the letters, and the request was granted. Three copies were printed.

Alice, meanwhile, wrote a handwritten confession using her pink pen. It was a terrible letter, riddled with errors. Jasper believed Mr. Brandon was in a state of shock to see just how lacking his daughter’s education had been. Jasper made two additional photocopies of the letter.

Before they signed the letters, Bella stopped them. “Mr. and Miss. Brandon, this is Mr. Stanley from the local bank. He is a certified public notary. He is willing to certify your letters so they can be properly filed.” They quickly agreed and signed their letters. Mr. Stanley notarized them and left.

“Alton Brandon, I’ll keep a copy of this letter in my office and file one with the county prosecutor’s office. I will also give you a copy to keep. Heed this warning, if you knowingly infringe on the rights of Jasper or any member of this family again, I will bring down the force of the law with you in full force. Is that understood?” Charlie stated. “I trust we will never see you again.”

“Never, Chief Swan, Sir.”

Jasper recollected when his father-in-law had told him only those who were guilty of something used ‘Chief Swan’ and ‘Sir’ in the same sentence. He did his best to suppress his laughter.

“Miss. Brandon, do we have your agreement?”

“Yes, Chief Swan, Sir.”

“Then we have an agreement.” Charlie paused and stated to Brandon, “As a fellow Longhorn, you know that we form connections all over the world. Keep in mind that I know many people in the law enforcement field all over Texas. You can go.”

“Thank you, Chief Swan, Sir. On behalf of the Brandon family, I apologize for all the insults and the inconvenience we caused.” He turned to Jasper. “I would have loved to have you back, but I see you’re happily settled here, and you have a brilliant wife. This town is lucky to have both your talents.” He rushed Alice to the door and left the house with one last nod.

“And don’t come back!” Jasper’s mother followed them to the front door and watched them leave, swinging her rolling pin.

“Mom, I really don’t think they’re coming back.”

“No, but I had to have my say!”

He hugged his mother. “I love you. Thank you for being a protective, Mama Bear.”

“I will always be your Mama Bear. Now, let’s eat.”