Carlisle Cullen stared at the young lady sitting politely in front of him. His wife, Esme, did not stop smiling at her since she first arrived at their house. Bella shifted nervously in her seat, starting to feel awkward from the stare.

"Well, I think you are suitable to work here," Carlisle said after a long silence. "It's just that..."

"How is she going to communicate with others," Rosalie, Bella's adopted sister, guessed. She smiled warmly. "You don't have to worry. Unless you know sign language, Bella usually types in her words in her phone."

"I understand sign language," Esme said. "I used to work at a children's hospital where most of the patients are either deaf or mute. In some cases, both."

Bella looked down at her hands tangled on her lap. She furiously blinked away the tears that gathered in her eyes. Esme noticed this and quickly apologized.

"It's okay, Mrs Cullen. Consider this as a reminder. Bella doesn't want to think about the accident," Rosalie said.

After that, the four of them discussed about Bella's arrangement to work in the Cullen household. Bella is to work for five days—from Monday to Friday—and during that time she could stay at the big house. On weekends, she could only come in during the day and not at night, which meant she can return to her parents' house for two days. This agreement was valid for three months.

"When the summer vacation ended, Bella will return to Dartmouth and finish her studies," Rosalie concluded.

"I almost forgot to ask. You're in what year?" Carlisle asked.

"She'll be in her final year starting next semester," Rosalie answered on behalf of her sister.

"My, you're in the same year as Alice!" Esme said.

Bella's eyebrows furrowed. 'Who's Alice?' she signed to Esme.

"We have two children. The first one is Edward and the second one is Alice. She's a student at Dartmouth as well, a future doctor," Esme answered.

Bella nodded her head. Somehow, the name Alice Cullen rang somewhere inside her head. Did I know her? she thought to herself.

After talking for five minutes, Bella excused herself to the toilet. Once she disappeared from the living room, Carlisle turned to Rosalie and said, "May I ask what happened to her that left her mute?"

Rosalie looked down for a moment, thinking of the easiest way to explain about the accident to the couple in front of her. "Two years ago, Bella went out to Port Angeles for a reunion with her friends from Forks High. On her way home, there's a drunk driver coming from the other way and swerved dangerously towards Bella. She swerved her car to avoid the drunkard's car. Unfortunately, she didn't see a truck park at the road side and she crashed into it. One of the sharp wires from the truck's back pierced through the skin of her neck and..." Rosalie couldn't finish. She couldn't imagine how horrible the image was.

Esme gasped and her hand automatically went to her chest where her heart was. "Oh my goodness, that's so terrible," she said sadly.

Rosalie continued. "When the doctor told her that she couldn't talk anymore, she was so upset that she cried for the whole day. The next day, she turned quiet. When I say quiet, I meant unresponsive. When our parents asked her if she wanted anything, she didn't reply. We've tried everything so that she could respond to us. But after a week, she was still the same. Only now she has improved slightly."

"How?" Carlisle asked.

"She ignored everyone around her for a few weeks after the accident. Now, she only talked to us if she needed anything. She rarely talked to us about how her day was like she used to."

"It's normal for someone who went through something as horrible as that to feel that way," Carlisle said, his doctor instincts started to kick in.

Rosalie nodded. "For now, our family lets her to live in her own world. We won't disturb her unless there's something important."

At that moment, Bella returned and sat down next to Rosalie. She noticed how Carlisle and Esme looked at her sympathetically. 'Is there something wrong?' she signed.

"No, nothing's wrong, dear," Esme said, smiling sweetly.

"So, I guess that's that," Rosalie said while standing up. "She can start on Monday, right?"

"Of course," Carlisle said. Him and Esme led Rosalie and Bella to the door. They said goodbye as the two girls entered Rosalie's BMW and left the house.

"You know," Esme said as the BMW disappeared around the corner. "I think I'm going to add another name to my list of potential daughter-in-laws."

Carlisle looked at her in amusement. "Again? You know that Edward don't like it if you do so."

"I know."