I don't own Twilight, Stephanie Meyers does.

Chapter 7

Esme entered the room quietly. She steeled herself to comfort her mate. She almost sobbed at the sight of him huddled on the floor. He was such a proud man, strong and handsome. Even after all these years she still felt the heat rise in her at the sight of him.

She sat down on the floor and laid a hand gently on his shoulder. He flinched away from her and closed his eyes tighter.

"I already know." She whispered.

Again he flinched but this time he pulled away from her, turning his back to her.

"I failed Esme, after all these centuries I failed." He choked out.

Esme said nothing.

"How can I promote our lifestyle now?" He said. "I'm just like my father."

"Yes you are but maybe now you can change." Esme said softly.

He turned to her suddenly giving her a clear view of his red eyes, wide open and shocked.

"You told me your father was rigid and judgemental. You said he never showed compassion to all the poor people wrongly accused." Esme said watching his face. He was frowning as he listened to her.

"You have become that. You have went your whole vampire life not knowing what the majority of us struggle with. Because of your phenomenal self-control you expect everyone to adhere to your strict rules." Esme told him.

"I've struggled. It hasn't been easy to abstain." He told her.

"Easier when you have never tasted human blood. I remember when I woke up to the thirst. I was horrified how much I desired human blood. How good it smelled. How much I wanted it. I tried so hard Carlisle. I wanted so bad to please you, but I failed and I felt your displeasure and disappointment." Esme said her eyes lowered.

"I never accused you Esme." Carlisle protested.

"Not with your words, but with your actions and it was in your eyes. When Edward scoffed at my weakness you said nothing...It made me believe you agreed with him." Esme looked into his eyes, holding his gaze. "Can you honestly tell me you weren't disappointed?" She asked.

Carlisle looked down not answering for a long time. "I was...I thought because you were my mate it would be easy for you and I thought...I thought you had given in to easy."

Esme closed her eyes she knew it, but hearing it out loud hurt. "I know." She breathed.

"After tasting human blood it was so much harder. With every slip it became harder. I eventually learned to control myself but it was torture. It gets easier as the years go by but initially..." Esme trailed off.

"Everyone is different Carlisle for some it is harder than others. Rose has managed to never taste human blood. She even managed to change Bella. Emmett struggled a bit. They all struggled with instincts. Edward went on a human diet on purpose." Esme said. She had begun to realize she resented Edward. He held a large part of her mates heart. If he was a good man, she would have been okay with it, but Esme was beginning to suspect he wasn't.

"Edward only hunted criminals. His gift made it easy for him to detect them." Carlisle said.

Esme laughed bitterly, still he defended Edward. "You really believe he only drank from criminals?" She asked a little disbelieving.

Carlisle looked at her in confusion.

"Carlisle...You were hungry would you have cared if he was a criminal?" Esme asked him.

Carlisle didn't answer, he didn't have to, the truth was obvious.

It was time to broach the subject of Jasper. "Carlisle, for years this family has mistreated Jasper." Esme began.

Carlisle stood up. "He attacked Bella! We had to do something, Alice said he would kill her."

"We will discuss that in a minute but first we must discuss this. Jasper lived a century with Maria in the southern wars, where he indulged in human blood in violence. Can you imagine how hard it was for him to leave that? Now that you have tasted human blood can you finally understand? He out of all of us was the most...addicted. It was hardest for him, but instead of gradually entering him into life with humans we stuck him in high school. Letting Edward and Alice monitor him. I'm sure you remember all the times they belittled him. Did we ever once stick up for him? Try to help him?" Esme asked.

Carlisle watched her but said nothing.

"He is an empath, instead of him feeling our compassion he felt our disappointment." Esme continued

He looked down, thinking on what she said.

"Bella pointed this out to me. It was why she did this to you . She wanted you to 'fall off your mighty perch'. She set Edward up to attack Sophia in front of us too. Do you remember that Carlisle?" Esme asked. When he didn't answer she went on. "All you did was ask Edward why he needed to date humans and I told him to hunt. Neither of us helped that poor girl home and neither of us reprimanded Edward. Yet when Jasper did the same thing we wiped his memories and banished him."

Carlisle's mouth fell open in shock. "I didn't realize..."

He took a deep breath and began to speak. "What exactly has Bella done and why did she do it?" He asked.

Esme studied him, debating whether she wanted to tell him who he had killed. Knowing about Marvin would ease his pain. Eventually she decided against it, he needed to learn a lesson not justify his actions.

"Jasper is Bella's mate." Esme said answering his second question and waiting for the implications to hit him. She was pleased at how fast he was coming to the same conclusion as her.

"Alice has lied...I'd like to believe Edward was deceived but..." Carlisle whispered.

"Yes, I came to the same conclusion." Esme said nodding her head. She pulled him down next to her and began to tell him all she knew.

"Jacob can you watch Esme? Don't listen I just want you to warn me if she is coming back." Bella asked.

"Why Bella? I thought we were going to give them privacy." Jake asked.

"I want to ask Edward some questions. He might not want to answer and Esme would stop me from doing what needs to be done." Bella said with steel in her eyes. She no longer knew what was true anymore about what happened to Jasper but she knew one thing. She needed to find him at all cost and if it meant a little torture so be it.

"Rose you want to come with me?" Bella asked as she went to grab his hand that she had broken off the thumb from. His limbs were becoming brittle, they were going to have to reattach or burn them soon.

Rose nodded grimly. "I want to find him too." She said as she followed Bella.

Edward looked up as they entered the room. He looked wary as he saw Bella held his hand. Bella swung it around carelessly, throwing it in the air and catching it while Rose lit a fire.

"Please Bella, no more. I'm sorry..." He sobbed out.

"I don't think you are Edward or you would tell us the truth." Bella said her eyes narrowed in hate.

Edward's eyes grew big, but he swallowed and spoke bravely. "I don't know what you are talking about."

"Oh, you don't know that Jasper is a live and that he doesn't remember us." Bella said casually breaking off a finger. Bella tossed it toward the fire.

"Okay!" Edward yelled. Rose caught the finger before it reached the fire and started to toss it from hand to hand.

"Alice is my mate. We knew the moment she joined our coven, but she was frightened. She knew Jasper would kill us if she tried to leave him so she hatched this plan." Edward said.

"Wimp." Rose muttered under her breath and eyed the fire.

"What plan?" Bella asked grabbing his chin and forcing him to look at her.

"I learned how to throw my blood lust at him so that at the party when you had your accident I threw it all at him. I even pushed you into the glass plates she had laid out for that purpose. It worked he attacked. Then she convinced Esme and Carlisle, Jasper would kill you. She said she knew someone who could wipe his memories but that Rose needed to believe you were dead or she would find him and give them back. She said her visions of you went dark when Rose found you and told you that Jasper was dead. She said that meant you were dead." Edward said.

The only parts she didn't know already were that he believed he was Alice's mate and that they had intended her to die.

"Where is he?" Bella growled.

"I didn't know Alice's friend. She said his name is Damien. She said he was going to take Jasper with him and ensure he didn't hurt anyone, but she didn't tell me where." Edward said.

"Since Alice is your 'mate' are you in contact with her?" Rose asked.

Edward looked down and mumbled a no.

Bella snorted. Alice had obviously played him. Bella nodded to Rose and Rose tossed the finger in the fire.

"Where were you supposed to contact her?" Bella asked darkly.

"She was supposed to meet me here. The house I was staying at was our house." Edward said.

"We'll talk again later." Bella said as she motioned Rose to follow her.

They left the room quietly and closed the door.

"What do we do now?" Rose asked.

Bella was asking herself that very question. Should she wait for Esme and Carlisle? Tell them everything? Should she wait for Emmett? She trusted none of them. They didn't have Jasper's best interest at heart.

She looked up at Rose. She knew Rose wanted to find her brother but maybe it was time for her to patch things up with Emmett. She looked over at Jacob who had fallen asleep at the desk. Did she want to involve him more?

"I'm going to hunt, could you show Esme and Carlisle the tape of Edward's confession? Tell me how they react?" Bella asked. She didn't know if she could trust them but she wanted them to know of Edward's duplicity, his cowardice and selfishness.

"Your thinking of ditching me and searching for him alone aren't you?" Rose asked, Bella said nothing. "Bella I love you my sister...please don't shut me out."

Bella searched Rose's eyes. The right thing to do would be to let her work things out with Emmett. Let her be with her family, but Bella found she couldn't. She wouldn't have survived these long months without Rose and she had a feeling that things weren't going to get easier. She needed her sister.

"Okay." She whispered and ran out the door.

"So I called the hospital that Carlisle said he was transferring to. They haven't heard of him." Charlie said as he sat down next to a plate of food. Jasper sat across from him. For some reason he wasn't surprised he didn't find Carlisle.

"I'm going to put in a missing persons. We'll find them son." Charlie said before pouring steak sauce on his plate.

"Son are you sure you don't want some of this?" Charlie said looking at Jasper confused. He was cutting into a very unappetizing piece of meat. Jasper had known he was different from Charlie, but he hadn't realized how different.

He knew he was making Charlie concerned by his odd behavior, but Charlie had said nothing yet. Jasper felt his worry and concern and knew that was about to change.

"Alright this is just damn strange. You haven't eaten or slept in three days. Or have you been eating and sleeping when I wasn't watching?" Charlie asked.

Jasper cocked his head. "I've never 'slept' and I have eaten. I hunted yesterday while you were sleeping." He had seen Charlie sleep, he would close his eyes and breathe deeply. His emotions would be peaceful for the most part, though occasionally they changed.

"You went hunting?" Charlie asked in surprise.

Jasper's brows furrowed, he understood that Charlie was asking what he ate but something in him was reluctant to answer. He studied him intently. He had learned a lot about Bella's father. He was intelligent, kind, brave and compassionate. He truly liked him and didn't want to lie to him.

"I drink blood." Jasper said truthfully. He felt Charlie's fear rise and saw him jump from his chair and back away from him.

"Are you a psycho?" Charlie asked.

Jasper thought it over. "Maybe, but I drink animal blood. I'm not like you Charlie. I don't sleep, I can't eat the food you do, I sparkle in the sunlight. I feel every emotion you feel, I can see and hear things that I have noticed you don't."

"You feel my emotions." Charlie asked.

Jasper found it odd that was the one thing he picked out but nodded. "You are suspicious right now and a little afraid." He said.

Charlie stared at him for a long time before finally sitting back down. The fear was still there but the suspicion was gone, replaced with a little humor and affection. Suddenly it was too much for Jasper. He couldn't live with this man and not tell him the whole truth. He sat down slowly and lowered his head. His plan had been stupid, living with the father of the girl he had murdered was wrong. He should have told him from the start and let him kill him.

" I woke up in the north, to nothing but a sea of white and only one memory. A girl laying on the floor amongst glass and wrapping paper bleeding. I knew...I knew I had killed her and I wanted to die. I tried...I tried to starve myself but I was weak and gave in. Then I had another memory and learned the girl's name. Bella..." Jasper stopped as he felt Charlie's anger spike.

"I examined that memory and found your name and the town so I ran here. I thought I could somehow make it up to her by helping you. Now I realize how foolish that was. I deserve death Charlie. I don't know how I can die but you have the right to kill me." Jasper said. He felt Charlie's anger then contemplation. Jasper looked up confused.

"You say she was surrounded by glass and wrapping paper?" He asked.

Jasper nodded.

"That could have been her birthday party at the Cullens. She came home with her arm bandaged up. She was alive though Jasper. Maybe you just saw her hurt?" Charlie said.

Jasper let out a sob. Alive? She could be alive? Hope jumped in him.

"She told me she was going with her friend to a college down south but she never contacted me after she left and I have investigated her claims and found out she lied. So I can't tell you for certain son, but I believe she is alive." Charlie said. Jasper felt his conviction.

"I think if we find the Cullens we will find Bella. I will contact a private detective I know and get him on it. In the mean time, I think you need to tell me everything about yourself. Starting with telling me if I have to worry about you drinking my blood when I go to sleep." Charlie said as he resumed eating.

Jasper chuckled, he knew he would never hurt this man he had grown so fond of.