A/N: This is my first story. I'm not really a writer and the story isn't beta'd. So I'm sort of just testing the waters here. Read on. Please feel free to let me know what you think but I do ask you do be gentle though.
Disclaimer: No copyright infringement intended. Everything Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer.
Chapter 1: Behind the scenes
EPOV:
"I'm sorry Mr. Cullen but it seems that your mother's condition has gotten worse and worse. She is losing the will to fight. If this keeps on I'm afraid she won't be able to m-"
"Don't" I cut Dr. Cooper before he can finish his sentence. I didn't need for him to finish his statement for me to understand what he was trying to say.
"Please don't say that. There has to be something you can do!" I meant to say it as a command or a threat but somehow, no longer able to contain my grief, the words came out as a question. Or a plea. Or a beg even.
"I'm sorry Mr. Cullen. We are doing everything we can.." Dr. Cooper's voice was soft and I felt the sympathy and pity from his tone.
"I know. Look.. just.. keep doing what you can. I mean the best medicine, the best treatment.. If you need to search the world for specialists, so it. I dunno. Just please do everything doc.. Money isn't an issue you know that." I said. Tired and resigned but I didn't want anyone giving up on mom. I didn't know what else to do anymore and I felt every ounce of my composure breaking down. For the first time, I felt like crying. No. Not really. I don't do crying. CEO's don't cry Edward don't be ridiculous. I mentally scolded myself. "Of course" he simply said.
"Edward? Edward dear are you there?" A voice came from behind and I saw my Aunt Esme's head peaking out of the door. It brought me back to the present and tried to regain my composure. I turned around to see her sad smile, a smile I have been getting from a lot of people lately. I hated that smile. It's pity smile and I don't need any of it from anyone. But my Aunt Esme knows me well and she's family so I let it go. "She's awake" she whispered. I simply gave her a nod and turned to Dr. Cooper."I'll give you guys a moment" he said. I shook his hand and turned to enter the hospital room as he turned the opposite way of the hospital halls.
The room where mom has been confined for the past 6 months is huge and probably is the largest suite in the entire hospital. It doesn't look like a normal hospital room, but more like a hotel suite. It has floor to ceiling windows draped with lavender and gray fabric swept aside giving a breath-taking view of Forks Washington's abundant greens. It has paintings on the walls that reminded me of home. The paintings were probably from home. Aunt Esme brought a lot of personal items to make the room resemble our house and less like the generic hospital rooms she knows my mother hates. Mom's favourite paintings were on the walls, décors on top of the coffee table and side drawers, couch pillows fill the sofa at the side of the room, draperies, vases and flowers. A lot of freaking flowers. I know mom loves them and my Aunt, bless her, trying to overdo her kindness in everything she does, felt the need to transform the room into a garden. Two separate doors can be found inside the room. One leads to a luxurious toilet and bath. It didn't have a bath tub but it surely isn't one of your usual hospital guest comfort rooms. It resembled a hotel's bath suite with all the marble and closet spaces built into it. The other door leads to a small kitchen pantry with a small 4-seater wooden dining table at the center is filled with different kinds of fruits.
At the center of the room is a queen-sized bed with a wooden mahogany headboard. It resembles a normal bed but we had it custom-made to rise higher and accommodate the hospital equipment and breathing apparatus, probably the only reminder that we are still indeed inside the hospital.
Lying limply in the middle of the bed, covered in blanket is the frail figure of my mother. She has gotten so thin the past months but her face remained beautiful and regal. Her cheeks are hollow and her cheek bones protruding. Her long dark hair brittle but neatly combed as they flow like waves on her pillows. Her pale skin almost translucent in the afternoon sunlight. Her breathing is so labored that it felt like it was taking every ounce of her energy as I see the exaggerated rise and fall of her chest. Her mouth and nose are covered by a transparent oxygen mask connected to a tube of the breathing apparatus. I hated it. It makes her sound like Darth Vader when she breathes.
She mostly lay asleep in her bed but few times each week, like today, she would be able to open her eyes and whisper a few words to us. I see her sad brown eyes looking at me as I approached her and sat beside her bed.
"Hi mom" I simply said as I wiped a small tear that fell down her cheek.
A small sob escaped her throat "Edward". I took her hand in mine and caressed her bony fingers as I smiled at her and wait for her to say more. "Have you found her?" she asked me. Pain squeezed my chest as I take in the one question I have been dreading to hear. I chance a small glance at Aunt Esme who is standing on the other side of the bed. She was looking at me expectantly, the same look I found as I drifted my eyes back to my mom's.
"Almost ma. We're almost there. I talked to an old lady who used to work as a hospital staff in Chicago and she might finally give us some answers."
I gave her my most enthusiastic smile as I lied through my nose. We were about as close as finding my long lost sister as we are finding the cure for cancer.
"Oh thank God!" I heard my Aunt breathe a sigh of relief as I tried to ignore the guilt I felt and gave her a small smile in acknowledgment.
"Alice…" her Darth Vader voice through the was louder than I have ever heard in months. Her eyes twinkled with hope and excitement and I clutch the side of the bed to hold myself together as the intense pain and guilt washed through me.
Shit. Motherfucking crap. What the hell am I supposed to do?!
"Oh Edward.. please hurry..I want to meet her. Take the pain away son. I want to see my Alice before I die. Please give my heart peace. I want to leave this world knowing she is alive and well and had a good life." My mom sobbed. "That's all I need Edward. To know she is safe and well"
That was the most words I heard from her in months, the fight almost coming back as hope and longing filled her eyes. I tried to push the guilt aside once more as I stroke her cheeks and smiled at her. "We will find her ma, just hang in there".
I need to find her soon. If I need to fly out there and look for her myself I would do it. I need to call Jenks later and plan this one out.
My parents, well, my foster parents used to be the power couple during their younger years. They had a perfect life. Elizabeth Masen was the daughter of a Hotel tycoon in Chicago and my dad, Edward Cullen Sr. was the only son and heir of the Cullen Enterprise Empire. The marriage was not only a perfect business decision but my parents were in love. My dad wooed my mom. Hearts. Flowers. Sweet words and promises. They were married like royalties and my mom got pregnant after 2 years of marriage. She gave birth to their first daughter, Alice. Everything seemed perfect until one night, the night after my mother gave birth, the hospital in Chicago caught fire. My dad was away to get some things from home and planned to grab a gift to surprise Elizabeth when she wakes up. He passed by the nursery section where they kept little Alice under the nurses' monitor, gave the baby a quick kiss on the forehead and a promise to be back in a couple of hours. Elizabeth was still asleep in the hospital and resting from the C-section operation. My dad thought to buy her favorite flowers to surprise her when she awake. She would love to wake up to flowers.
Until the fire…
The hospital caught fire. The fire spread impossibly fast like it was fuelled. Stampede and chaos reigned the night as the power went out in the entire area and the nearby villages started to flee. The hospital was located in the more remote parts of South Chicago suburbs so it took days to control the fire that spread to the nearby villages and forest area. Meanwhile, evacuation and refuge areas were set up all over the vicinity to accommodate the wounded and lost. Back during the first night, my dad almost died when he went back and saw the entire hospital up in flames. No one can enter the hospital as flames swallowed it whole. He searched all the refuge centers desperately and after 3 days he found my mom in one of them. She suffered burns and wounds and since she was still vulnerable from the operation, her lungs became weak from all the smoke inhalation. She was alive and dad felt relieved but the relief was momentary. The nurses on site told him that Elizabeth spent days and nights crying and begging for her baby but was unable to do anything since she was so weak the volunteer doctors wouldn't allow her to move. They said that the patients at the hospital were all scattered in the different evacuation centers and since everyone panicked that night, as the fire grew fast, no one was able to keep track where the patients were relocated. Heart-broken my dad went on around and combed through all the evacuation centers but they did not find baby Alice. A lot of the patients died during the fire but there were also a couple who were saved and rescued by the nurses and hotel staff. Some people within the area also tried to rescue some of the victims trapped inside but there were no word on where they might be or if they even made it out alive. Days have gone by, people little by little fled the area to settle to other cities, and to different states. My parents have stayed making sure they have searched everywhere but Alice was small and they did not even have pictures of her that time. The refuge centers all cleared out until no children were left. Well, except for me. I was in the same evacuation center as Elizabeth's. Her bunk was beside my mom, well my birth mom that is. Everyday I watched my birth mother lose her strength suffering from the burns and her damaged lungs. I was only 3 years old that time and my mother was all I had. I watched painfully as her life slowly slips from her and as I did, Elizabeth Masen watched me from her bed. She would talk to me sometimes, feed me and tell me stories. She held me at night when I felt like crying for my dying mother. Elizabeth took me in when my birth mom passed away. I was so young that time but the pain of watching my real mom die was so intense and memorable and seeing Elizabeth Masen, my mother not by blood but by bond, on her bed now in the present, after 23 years since that night of the fire, I swore to do anything to avoid feeling that pain again.
We stared at each other for what it felt like an eternity until a shrill ringing sound pulled me out of my trance. I looked at my phone and saw the number of , the private investigator I hired to help me find Alice. My mind raced as I silently prayed for him to have a good news for me.
"Hello?" I answered curtly.
"Mr. Cullen.. I found out word about your sister." His tone was flat and void of any emotion.
I slowly stood up and paced a little farther from my mom's bed. I didn't say anything for a full minute.
"What is it? Tell me." I said those words quietly but I think somehow my mom and my aunt might have heard me as they were looking at me, both hopeful and expectant.
"She's dead sir.. One of the witnesses said the nursery area's wing caught fire first. It was impossible for the children to have escaped. The statement was verified by another hospital staff survivor" He held a long pause. "I'm sorry Mr. Cullen."
Time stood still as I kept looking my mom in the eye. I couldn't move, my body was frozen.
"I see". That was all I could say. I ended the call without even waiting for Jenks to respond. My heart was beating so fast my rib cage hurt.
I slowly walked back to my mom's bed, stroked her cheeks and sat beside her. I can see her breathing become more labored and her skin getting paler. She was so tired.
"Edward, son…" she closed her eyes seemingly concentrating to put all her strength on every word. "Please bring Alice home to us" she begged softly.
I took one huge breath and muster every ounce of courage in my body. My soul felt like it was about to break.
"Yes mom, I promise to bring her back."
Her lips twitched into a smile as she dozed off to slumber.
