Disclaimer- Hmm let me check......nope I still don't own Twilight. Only this story.

A/N-So, just remember, this story is rated M for a reason.

And thank you to my lovely beta! Truth in the Moon

Chapter 2- Distractions

I felt my entire body tremble as I tried to find my way back to my house. Tears blurred my vision, making it even harder to put one foot in front of the other. I had no idea what I was going to do if there was a stranger still at my house, but all I knew was that I had to get there. Now.

I endlessly tripped over nothing on the sidewalk. People started to stare, and honestly I couldn't blame them. A wretched, crazy looking woman stumbling through the streets with a waterfall of tears falling from her face? Yeah, I would have stared too.

Somehow I ended up on my front yard. I guess my subconscious knew where I was going. I didn't think it was possible, considering my current situation. My hands shook furiously as I stared at the front of the house that my mom and I shared together. The bricks surrounding the garage and another section of the house seemed to darken as I took a shaky step towards the dark green door.

My fingers lingered on the doorknob, not wanting to see what happened to my mother. Eventually my foot nudged the door open, since my fingers refused to do the job. I inched forward slowly, leaning around each corner and wall. There was no one in the living room or the kitchen. I inched toward the other side of the house where the bathroom and our two bedrooms were. I gasped when I saw a line of blood connecting the bathroom and Renee's bedroom. My eyes filled with water again as I desperately tried gripping the wall for support. I pulled myself towards the bathroom, bile rising in my throat in preparation for what I would see. I leaned around the threshold and peeked in.

There was blood coating the bathroom sink, and a puddle on the floor in front of it. The trail of blood started from the puddle, leading out of the bathroom, down the hall, and into my mother's room. I kept my hands on the wall, following the deadly trail of blood. When I was inches away from Renee's bedroom door, I leaned against the wall and leaned sideways, peering into the room.

I screamed.

Renee, bleeding and so...broken, laid sprawled out on her bed. She was surrounded by blood soaking into the sheets. I inched closer, whimpering with each step towards her. There was a, long gash across her stomach, blood trailing from it down the side and into the sheets. Her mouth was bloody, along with her nose and forearms. Her eyes and neck were bruised. My hand came up to cover my mouth, I really was about to throw up.

I walked a little closer, inspecting the damage. To say she was banged up would be the understatement of the year. Scratch that. The understatement of the century.

I whimpered again, my tears starting to splash against the ground.

She wasn't just banged up.

She was dead.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The office was cold. I would say it was empty, but it wasn't. The hallway outside the office was bustling with cops and detectives, trying to figure out who killed Renee and why. They would never find the killer, he was too stealthy. Even though he brutally killed Renee, he could clean his tracks well. I should know. He's been watching me for the past two months.

In fact, he was probably watching me right now. Here, in this cold detective's office. Where I sat in a big leather chair facing a cherry wooden desk, with my knees pulled up to rest my chin on, and my arms locked around my ankles.

I stared endlessly at the desk in front of me, with a swivel chair sitting peacefully behind it. I hated being alone like this. But I had been alone for the past two months. I had to be alone. I couldn't drag someone down with me.

Yet my mother was dead.

And I was still being watched.

This kind of thing shouldn't happen to me. I had lived a simple life. Just Renee and I, fending for ourselves. We did pretty damn good, too. We had a great house, perfect for just the two of us. She worked for the local newspaper, made enough to pay the bills and then some. I always did well in school, top of my class, maybe second. A job wasn't necessary for me, but I had one anyway. I wanted to work. Even though it was a minimum wage job on a small horse ranch, I loved it. When the day was over and all the lessons were done, the owner of the ranch would let me take one of the horses out riding. My favorite horse was Pebbles. He was a medium brown thoroughbred with a gorgeous dark brown mane, along with his tail. A small white spot sat between his eyes, right before where his mane started. He was so calm and loving; I looked forward to seeing him every day at work.

I was ripped out of my thoughts by the sound of a doorknob turning and footsteps. I slowly turned my head to see a tall blonde man too good-looking to be working in law enforcement in a black suit and red tie standing in the doorway. He held a thick folder in his left hand, his right hand in his pocket. My gaze met his and he smiled genuinely. I tried to pull a smile together, but I'm pretty sure it just came out as a grimace. The man didn't falter. He probably knew there was no way I could truly smile right now.

I noticed someone behind him, but the man was in the way so I couldn't see his face.

"Hello Bella." the blonde man said. "I'm detective Cullen. But you can call me Carlisle." I nodded slightly in acknowledgement and turned back around in my seat to rest my chin on my knees again.

I heard footsteps sound behind me and soon enough Carlisle was sitting in the swivel chair behind the cherry desk. He gestured across the room. "Bella, this here is my son Edward. He will be joining us for today, as it's take-your-child-to-work day."

I didn't bother turning around to look at Edward. I didn't want to. I didn't care. I just nodded my head, desperate to get this over with.

The next two hours were filled with questions that I either didn't know how to answer, or I just didn't want to. There were some questions where I could just answer 'yes' or 'no', but they were rare. I decided not to tell them about my little stalker situation. I knew if I told someone, I'd be with Renee. Killing her was a warning to keep my mouth shut, or I'd end up with the same fate. Actually, I was already in for the same fate.

I sighed shakily. This was really happening. Renee was really dead. I was really in this office being interrogated.

My life was really on the line.

Carlisle must have noticed my shaky sigh, because he asked, "Bella? Are you alright?"

I shot him a look that said 'Are you really that fucking retarded? Being a detective, you should fucking know I'm the farthest thing from alright'. He got the hint and continued to examine the folder in front of him. The questions shooting from his mouth eventually slowed. Maybe he finally realized he wasn't going to get shit out of me. Because I knew nothing.

I heard a sigh and looked up. Carlisle was getting up from his seat and gathering the contents of the folder. "Bella, we are going to take a break for a little bit. If you're hungry or anything, ask someone in the hall." I nodded and he walked behind me and out of his office door.

I sat there with my chin resting on my knees, my arms still locked around my ankles. My hair fell around me, but I did nothing to shake it away. How much time passed, I don't know. It could have been hours, minutes, or even seconds. It all felt the same to me.

"You're hiding something," came a velvet voice. I shrieked and jumped out of my chair turning around in circles, looking for the source. I caught someone sitting on a small couch across the room. He had striking green eyes and bronze hair. I didn't think a hair color like that was possible. He probably dyed it, hair that color just isn't natural.

I narrowed my eyes at him, despite his good looks. "Who are you?" I said quietly. His lips twitched, trying desperately not to smile. I glared even more at him.

"I'm Ed-ward." he said, splitting his name by the syllables. "My father, Carlisle, introduced us earlier. But I saw you didn't bother to look."

"Oh." I said softly. I turned back to my chair and curled back up into it. I rested my forehead against my knees, breathing deeply.

"You're hiding something," Edward said again. I sighed. Stupid detective's son.

"What makes you think that?" I tried bluffing. He saw right through it.

"You know what I'm talking about. You're hiding something. I can tell," he said fiercely. I sighed again. He was right, but I wasn't about to confess my secrets to some perceptive stranger.

"So what if I am? It's normal for people to hide shit in this god forsaken fucked up world." I mumbled. There was rustling over on the couch and then footsteps. They stopped in front of where I was sitting. I slowly looked up to find Edward standing in front of me, staring me down. I just shut my eyes and buried my face again. He sighed before sitting down in the chair next to mine that was identical to the one I was sitting in. Moments of silence passed before he finally spoke up again.

"Are you scared?"

I barked out a bitter laugh before lifting my head to stare at him. "Am I hiding it that well?" I asked sarcastically.

"Just answer me?" he said quietly. It sounded more like a question.

I laughed bitterly again, but it came out as a choked sob. "Yes, Edward, I'm scared. I'm scared out of my fucking mind. I had no idea someone was going to kill my mother, and I have the biggest instinct that I'm going to be next. If you really had to ask a question like that, you have no hopes of being a detective." Tears started to trickle down my face.

"I really don't want to be a detective." Edward said nonchalantly. "Personally, I want to be a doctor. I'd like to be saving people from death rather than wondering why they're dead."

I wasn't expecting him to say that. His comment actually pulled a chuckle out of me, but it was a very small one.

"So, if you want to be a doctor, why are you here?" I asked, trying desperately to change the subject away from myself and my secrets.

I think Edward knew what I was trying to do, but went along with it anyway. "I either had to choose between my detective father or my interior designer mother. Being a guy and all, I don't crave to be around fashion all day. That's more for my sister. Plus, take-your-kid-to-work day is a perfect excuse to get out of school." He chuckled after his last sentence.

My tears slowly came to an end as I felt a chuckle rumble through my chest. I was really laughing? Without trying to? "What's your sister like." I whispered, my face still buried in my knees. It sounded like a statement, not a question. But Edward got the point.

"Well, you know Tinkerbell, right?" I nodded, urging him to continue. "Well, imagine Tinkerbell with black hair and blue eyes. Minus the wings, and add obsessed with the latest fashion."

I giggled. "I'm assuming she takes after her mother, because that sounds nothing like Carlisle."

He coughed. "Well...um.." he stuttered. I brought my head up to look at him, confused.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "You don't look like Carlisle either." He looked away and coughed again, rubbing the back of neck with his hand. My lips crawled upwards into a little smile. "Who's hiding something now?" He didn't say anything and after a while I continued. "You're adopted. So is your sister."

He nodded slowly. I stared at him, waiting for his explanation. He cleared his throat before talking. "Carlisle and Esme were close family friends with my parents. When I was about 18 months old, my parents decided to adopt Alice. She was 2 months old when they adopted her." He stopped. I tilted my head, and gestured with my hand for him to keep going. He sighed. "When I was 3 years old and Alice was 2, my parents got into a terrible car accident. My father died instantly. My mother was rushed to the hospital in a coma. She stayed in a coma for around 3 months until the doctors said there was hardly any chance of her waking up. So they pulled the plug." He sighed again, and his whole frame shook. I wanted to reach out and comfort him, but was afraid of his reaction. "In my parent's will, they stated that they wanted us to be taken care of by Carlisle and Esme. So that's who we went to."

"Wow," I whispered. I don't think I was loud enough for him to hear me. I took a deep breath to make my voice louder. "You were so young. Do you remember them?"

He looked to the floor and shook his head. "Carlisle and Esme are the only parents I've ever known. I only know about my real parents from what they've told me and the pictures I've seen."

I rested my cheek on my knee, sighing. "I'm sorry." I whispered.

He shook his head and brought his gaze back to mine. "No, I'm sorry. That's not something I normally spring on people I first meet. But, I thought you could use the distraction." He smiled. I smiled weakly and closed my eyes. We sat there in comfortable silence for a while.

Suddenly Edward spoke again. "Hey, Bella?" he whispered.

"Hmm?" I said in return, starting to drift into sleep.

"Why are you hiding something?"

I sighed and turned my head away from him, my eyes still closed. I was about to answer when Carlisle came bursting through the doors. "Bella! You should see this." He practically ran out the door again. I looked to Edward, then jumped up and walked quickly behind Carlisle.

He led me into a dark room, with a large table in the middle. There were plastic bags spread out all over, with objects in them. There were also several photographs. I walked slowly to the table, petrified of what I would see. I scanned the photos. Renee's neck. Her eyes. Nose. Stomach. Legs. Fingertips. Her whole body. The pool of blood in the bathroom. The trail of blood.

I then scanned the bags. Renee's diary. A pair of scissors. A bloody knife. A post-it note.

I froze. A post-it note. That could only mean one thing. I reached a shaky hand down to the bag with the post-it note in it. Lifting it up, I read the words written right across the middle.

Bella, honey, you're next.

The bag fell from my hands as my body collapsed to the floor.

The last thing I heard was a velvet voice calling my name.

Then the world went black.

A/N- Dun dun dun!

Well, we met Edward! What role will he play in this story?

Please, click that lovely green button and tell me what you think of this chapter!

~Ashleyy