Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or anything Twilight related. Everything belongs to SM.
Chapter One
"Bella, Bella? What are you doing over there? Hurry up and come over here so we can make your hand prints."
I rushed over to where my mother was standing near the newly poured cement that would soon be the new pathway leading from the main house to the detached garage.
"Boys come over here," I heard my mother's best friend say as she gathered her ten year old twins, Emmett and Edward.
"Eww mom, I don't want to do touch that. It's cold," squealed my best friend Alice. Her mother stood behind her holding her hands steady before pressing them into the wet cement. Alice squealed and I giggled as her older brother Edward flipped up the bottom of my skirt before stopping innocently next to his mother.
I felt my face flush and I turned away in attempt to hide it, but Emmett caught me. "Edward and Bella sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes marriage then comes a baby in the baby carriage," he sang.
I ran to my mother and buried my face in her skirt as my face continued to flame.
"Oh Bella, it's alright. You just ignore him," said Emmett's mother as she shooed him away. "Here it's your turn."
I lifted my face from my mother's skirt to meet the eyes of Esme Cullen. "Come on," she said offering her hand to me.
Ten minutes later there were four sets of hand prints in the newly poured cement. Underneath each set of hand prints was a name. Bella, Alice, Edward and Emmett. Underneath the names it simply said, 'The Cullen's and The Swans' 1989.
"Bella, we're always going to be friends, right?" asked Alice.
"Duh Alice, why wouldn't we be?"
"Bella, Bella. Hello earth to Bella."
I faintly recognized my best friend's voice, and was barely aware of her hand that was waving in front of my face.
"Hmmm, what?"
"Where did you go?
My best friend, Rosalie, was looking at me with questioning eyes when I finally looked up at her.
"I'm sorry, what?" I asked again.
"Where did you go? One minute we're talking about what we're going to do tonight, and the next you're a hundred miles away from here."
"Sorry Rose, I was just thinking about some stuff," I said with a sigh. Truth be told, I had no idea where that memory had come from, but it hit me like a ton of bricks. I hadn't thought about the Cullen's in years, the memories from that time in my life were just too painful.
"Do you want to talk about it? You know we don't have to go out tonight, we can just stay in," she said.
"Are you kidding me Rosalie, you're getting ready to leave me for three and a half months. There is no way I would pass up on our last girls' night," I said as I rolled my eyes at her.
Rosalie looked at me questioningly again. "Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?
I sighed again and ran my hands over my face before answering. "I…I don't know."
"Well, why don't we just go get some dinner, drink some wine and we can just talk. If we talk about it then that's great, but if we don't then maybe we can try again when I get home. Okay?"
"Yea, okay," I agreed.
An hour and a half later I found myself seated across from Rosalie in our favorite wine bar sipping on a glass of my favorite sparkling wine.
"You're still a hundred miles away Bells, talk to me," said Rosalie.
I looked up at the woman who had been my best friend since my first day at Northwestern. She had stuck by me through thick and thin and now, nearly ten years later and I had still hidden nearly half my life from her.
"Rosalie, you are my best friend. I love you to death, you know that right?" Rosalie nodded in agreement but stayed silent, waiting for me to continue. "I have….I have wanted to tell you this for the longest time but I couldn't find the words, or it just wasn't the right time and now here we are ten years later and you still don't know."
"Bella whatever it is, it can't be that bad. And no matter what it is, I'm still going to love you."
I could feel the tears pricking my eyes as I took a deep breath before continuing. "That's not exactly what I'm worried about Rose, but thank you. I suppose that I have my reasons for not telling you sooner. By the time I met you I was so sick of everyone's pity and their sympathy. I've lived a good life Rosalie, I have. Nicholas and Kathy are better than anything I could have asked for after I lost my parents."
Rosalie's eyes nearly bugged out of her head and she swallowed awkwardly to avoid spewing her wine all over me. "I'm sorry, you what?"
"I don't know if you remember, but shortly after I moved into the dorm I took a trip to New York with Nicholas and Kathy, who are my adoptive parents. When I got back I pretty much locked myself in my room until New Years. I didn't tell you then, because I didn't really know you yet, which was mostly my own fault. But even though I didn't know you, I knew that I didn't want your pity or your sympathy. Like I said, I've lived a good life." I paused to take a sip of my wine before continuing on. Rosalie reached across the table and squeezed my hand gently, urging me to continue. "That year, the year that I started my freshman year was the tenth anniversary of my parent's death. I was born in New York, and my name was Isabella Swan. My father was a surgeon and my mother was a housewife who volunteered as a candy striper and brought cookies to the children's hospital every Friday. We lived in a penthouse apartment in the city and spent our summers and holidays in my parent's mountain home upstate. My father's best friend lived in the penthouse apartment opposite ours, and their mountain home backed up to ours. He had three children, twin boys that are two years older than me and a daughter my age. Three months before the accident they moved to Seattle, my father's best friend was offered a chief of surgery position out there. We were all devastated; we had all lost our best friend. It hit us all hard. Seven days after my eighth birthday my parents were killed by a drunk driver. They were on their way home from the annual Heart Smart fundraiser at the hospital. I usually went with them, but since my best friend wasn't going to be there I stayed home with a sitter. The driver that killed them was only eighteen and his blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit, but he walked away without a scratch."
I took a large sip of my wine, and thanked the waitress for our appetizers with a smile and nod before turning back to Rosalie. "Everyone thought that my parent's best friend would come back for me. They certainly had the means to take me in as their own, and I didn't find this out until later on, but my parents had left me with quite a large inheritance which I would have recieved immediately if they hadn't. Three months went by and they never showed. Not even a sympathy card, it was like they moved to Seattle and completely forgot about us, or at least it felt that way. I kept telling myself that there was a reasonable explanation, but I could never come up with one."
The tears were falling freely by now, and I did nothing to stop them. "I was in a foster home for seven and a half months before Nicholas and Kathy showed up. It took another month for the paper work to go through, but by July of the following year I was living in Chicago. I was very quiet for a long time, but Nick and Kathy never lost their patience with me. It got old after while, telling everyone the story behind the nine year old that they just brought home one day, and by the time I reached high school I was ready to put it all behind me. Legally I had been Isabella Matthews since I first moved to Chicago, but it was time that put Isabella Swan behind me and fully embrace my new life as Isabella Matthews. It took me a long time to realize that my parents wouldn't want me living in the past. They would have wanted me to move on and embrace the second chance at life that I was given, even if it meant letting go of them." I chanced a look at Rosalie only to find that the look of shock had been replaced with tears. I felt a flash of anger shoot through me, but I was able to rein it in before I spoke. I didn't want her pity.
"I received my inheritance when I turned eighteen, which included the penthouse apartment in New York and the mountain home upstate. I don't go back to New York often, because it's still so hard for me to be there. But I think maybe it's time I took you there. We can plan a trip for when you get back."
Rosalie nodded and wiped her tears away before standing and sliding into my side of the booth. She wrapped her arms around my waist and laid her head on my shoulder. "I'm so sorry Bells," she said softly.
"I've lived a good life Rosalie, I have and I don't want your pity. I am the strong Isabella Matthews that I am today because of all the things I've had to experience throughout my life."
"I love you Bells, and I can't wait to get home so that we can visit New York."
Rosalie left the next morning for a three month stay in Italy.
A.N.- So I'm new to this whole writing thing, but I hope you all enjoy what I've come up with. I've been reading FF for a while now, and this has been rolling around in my head for way too long! Let me know what you think.