Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, or Breaking Dawn. I am simply barrowing the characters
(A/N) Thank you for the reviews! This chapter is up earlier than expected due to my snow day and of course your lovely reviews. A special thank you to twilightmebaby, for her friendly reminder. All normal pairing! I'm a little worried about disappointing you guys, so don't be surprised if you see a new poll weekly. If there is something you'd like to see happen please tell me. Also, Rose and Jasper will be coming into this story and really soon. Let's see what happens in this chapter of 'Bella's Destiny'.
Chapter 5Carlisle's POV
"Hello, my name is Carlisle Cullen. I'm pleased to meet you." I said shaking the woman's out stretched hand. She smiled up at me, ogling me. I shifted uncomfortably; this woman was at least 50 years of age. She wore a yellow jacket with white slacks. Saying she was overweight was an understatement, her chins had chins.
Dear god. I'm turning into Emmett!
"The pleasure is all mine, Dr. Cullen." She said Dr with a flirtatious wink.
Best introduce my wife.
"Right, well. This is my wife Esme." I said gesturing to my right, Esme was restraining a laugh. She nodded her head in greeting. I shot her a look. If we had any hope in adopting Bella we would have to be civilized adults. Esme returned the look with a sheepish smile.
"Mrs.-"
"Miss, I'm not married." She interrupted Esme's sentence, trying to wink at me without Esme noticing. I lightly placed my hand on the small of Esme's back; hopefully she would take the hint.
Esme looked unaffected, she smiled warmly and continued. I love this woman.
"Miss. Jones" She said gesturing toward the living room area "Would you please come and sit. We have matters to discuss." Esme said walking into the living room, I fallowed close by. Not wanting to be alone with Edith Jones.
"We are interested in adopting Isabella." I said once we were all situated. Esme and I sat on the loveseat while Edith took the arm chair across from us.
She looked shocked; she looked down at her chart for a moment before looking back up.
"You have… several children. Am I mistaken?" She asked, looking up from the chart to glare at Esme.
"Yes, they are all adopted. You see, Esme can't have children." I said squeezing my wife hand a little; she returned it with a smile.
"What a shame." Edith said before writing on the chart she held in her hands "Well, Isabella will have to come with me today. These things take time Mr. Cullen." She said looking up at me with hooded eyes.
"Yes, I understand that." I said acting oblivious to her actions. "Is there any way to become the temporary Guardian for Isabella, until you look more into our history and what's best for her?" I asked, better to just get it out of the way.
"I'm sorry Mr. Cullen; we are not obligated to do that. You never knew the swans, am I correct? You can only be appointed as Isabella's guardian if you have a written statement from-"
"Bella's parents?" Came the voice of Alice, finishing Miss. Jones sentence. I turned to see Alice walking into the living room with a stack of papers in her hand. I narrowed my eyes, where did she get those? "We knew Bella's parent, Charlie and Renee, we didn't know them too well, but they had no other family and said that if anything was to ever happen to them that left them unable to care for their daughter that they would like Carlisle and Esme to take on the role as parents." She finished looking at Edith with a small smile then added. "Charlie and Renee knew how fond Esme was of children." She said answering the woman's future question.
The woman looked flabbergasted she opened and closed her mouth several times before clearing her throat.
"May I see those documents?" The woman said looking at Alice's hand. Alice looked over at me and winked. She walked forward and handed the documents to Edith. Edith looked between them and the documents in confusion, and then she looked back up at me and Esme.
"Mr. and Mrs. Swan's charts said they had no will." She said in confusion.
"Of course it did, Charlie and Renee kept their will with them. Giving us a copy, I'm sure you'll find it at their house." Alice said matter-of-factly. The woman once again looked over the charts.
"Have you found Charlie and Renee?" Esme asked all the sudden, we all turned to stare at her. She only had eyes for Edith, looking for some information on what happened to Bella's parents since Alice wouldn't tell us a thing
The woman looked saddened.
"I knew Chief Swan. They found him a few hours ago near the La Push Reservation in the woods, seems it was an animal attack. They have no idea why he was in the woods so very far from his home. They have not, however, found his wife. I don't know anything else, only that their daughter will be put into foster care until they find Renee." She said with a small frown.
"Can we be Bella's foster parents until then? And if Renee is found…" I trailed off looking up at Alice; she shook her head but smiled. Smiled? Why would she smile? If Renee was dead that would not be something to smile about, I'd have to talk to her about that.
"Well, Mr. Cullen. The document here says that in a case like the one now, you and your wife are Isabella's legal guardians. However, since we have no records of this being true we have to go into further investigation on the matter. Would you mind coming to the foster care unit with us? We are going to have to ask a few questions." She said handing the document back to Alice.
"Of course, my wife will take you to meet Bella." I said, standing up when Esme stood.
This will give me the chance to talk to Alice, privately. Once Esme took Edith up stairs to where Bella was I turned to look at Alice. She expected my questions and answered with me voicing it.
"I forged the documents so that we get Bella sooner. I'm not going into detail on what I witnessed or on what I know about Charlie and Renee. This is not the time or place and Edward has to be present." She said looking at me with pleading eyes. "Please don't try and force me into telling you. I can't Carlisle, please just trust me. Everything is going to be okay." She said softly
I have to trust Alice. She is my daughter, though not biologically I saw her as my own. If she said that I shouldn't force her into telling, then I won't. She'll tell me when she's ready, when Edward is ready, which reminds me…
"When is Edward coming home?" I asked before she could answer
"Two and a half weeks." She said looking at her feet. "I'm sorry, it was my fault. If I hadn't told him he'd be back sooner he wouldn't be so determined to stay away so long."
"It's Alright, Alice. This is probably better anyways; Edward is not going to like Bella being here." I said with a sigh.
"Oh, he'll like Bella being here all right." She said with a chuckle, I stared at her in confusion. Edward may like Bella to an extent but he had no hopes of her becoming a Cullen, or rather a Hale.
"I don't know what you mean." I said curiously.
"Nothing, it's an inside joke me and Rose will have." She said laughing darkly.
"Where do you see Edward?" I asked ignoring her last comment.
"He is in Chicago; He is looking for some information on his birth family, he is having difficulty because they had died so long ago without any living family. His family tree has ended as everyone knows it. Don't ask why he is there because I don't know. I think he is trying to distract himself but I'm not for sure." She said looking behind her just as Bella, Esme, and Edith walked into the room. Esme was holding Bella's bag and Bella was sporting a frown. Edith looked quite uncomfortable.
"We're all ready." Esme said with a smile, Bella looked up with a smile.
"You're coming too?" She asked with hope.
"Of course, sweetie." Esme said patting Bella's hair down. "We have to answer some questions so you can stay with us. If you want to stay with us." She added toward the end with terrified eyes.
"I want to stay with you; Emmett promised we could watch football together until my daddy comes home." Bella said happily, grabbing into her bag searching for something.
Esme flashed me a small frown. Bella still didn't know about her father, and I didn't think this was the time to tell her.
"Look what Emmett got me!" Bella said holding up a shirt that said 'I'm lost, please take me home with you'. I stared mouth opened at the shirt, then walked forward fast and snatched it out of Bella's hands.
"We'll get you a new one; Emmett got you the wrong size." I said before she started crying at my rude behavior, it really wasn't rude in my opinion but to anyone else it would look as though it was. What was Emmett thinking? What Bella went through was not a funny matter
"Okay!" she said with a smile, skipping over to Alice and tugging on her hand. Alice bent down with an amused smile and let Bella whisper in her ear.
"That lady smells like my old rabbit, Peter pan." She whispered to low for the human woman to hear. I heard Emmett laughing from somewhere in the house, and Alice snicker silently. Esme and I remained the same.
Children
"We'd better get going." Ms. Jones said oblivious to Bella's comment. I nodded my head and motioned for Alice to go forward. She nodded her head and picked Bella up. Edith followed right behind them, then Esme and me.
When we got in the car, Alice began talking to me faster than any human could hear.
"We'll be here only for a short while. Bella will stay only for a few hours before they release her into your custody." She spoke to me and Esme.
Esme squeezed my hand and I looked over to her, I didn't have to read her mind to know what she was thinking.
What is Edward going to say?
I nodded my head in understanding and turned to look toward the front.
Edward isn't going to like this that I was sure of. All I could do was hope that he'd come home, and soon.
We arrived sooner than I expected, it felt like we were in the car for no more than a few short minutes. I let Alice drive while I sat in the back with Bella, and Esme in the front with Alice. The foster care woman drove in front of us, at a rather slow pace. I didn't mind.
"Mr. and Mrs. Cullen, I'm taking Bella into another room to have another co worker ask her some questions, please take a seat." Edith said motioning for me to sit when we made it into a small room that had a nameplate on the door reading 'Edit Jones'. I wonder if she ever noticed they spelled her name wrong. Alice stayed out in the car, saying that it would take no longer than a few minutes. Esme sat next to me holding my hand to ease her nerves. I smiled warmly at her, trying to encourage her that everything will be okay. She relaxed a little and we sat in silence until Edith came back.
"I have only a few questions for you Mr. and Mrs. Cullen." She said before she began her interrogation.
Bella's POV
"Hello, Isabella. My name is Cassie Moore. You can call me Cassie, I just want to ask you a few questions and I would like it if you could answer me honestly." She said with a sweet voice.
Cassie Moore was an extremely pretty; she was about 25 years old with bright blond hair and baby blue eyes.
"Bella," I said softly, looking down.
She smiled. "Bella, are the Cullen's nice to you?" She asked picking up a pen and staring expectantly up at me.
"Yes." I said looking her in the eye.
"Did your parents know the Cullen's?" She asked scratching something down on the paper.
I opened my mouth to tell her no but then closed my mouth as I remember what Alice told me before buckling me in the car. 'When Mrs. Moore asks you if we know your mommy and daddy, tell her we do.'
"Yes, they know them." I said blushing, when I lied to Mrs. Moore. She was nice and I didn't want to lie, but Alice told me too.
"Really? How long have they've known your parents?" She asked.
"Not long, we just moved to Forks. My daddy lived here before, but moved when he met my mommy." I said looking at my swinging feet.
"Bella, this is a safe place. You can tell me anything. Did the Cullen's tell you to say that?" She said setting the pen down and staring intently at me. I stared back, my face feeling like it was on fire. Alice wouldn't tell me to lie unless it was important.
"No." was all I said as I stared back at my feet again.
"Okay, Bella." Cassie said with a soft sigh.
I can't believe I just lied, mommy said lying was bad and only led to trouble. But daddy said sometimes you have to lie and even though it was dishonest you had to do it sometimes.
I think I'll believe daddy's words this time. I didn't want any of the Cullen's to get in trouble, they would be my family until mommy and daddy came to get me.
(A/N) What did you think? I didn't like having Alice make Bella lie, but I felt like it was needed here, maybe not I don't know. Yes, Edward will be coming back. I promise! Review if you like or don't like please!