The Help


8.

"It's going to be the party of the season," Bella said to Emmett on Monday morning, around a mouthful of cheerios. "The place to see and be seen," she continued as she reached for another handful. "I expect invitations are being sold on the black market."

Emmett looked skeptical. "Right," he said, raising the towel in his hands to scrub at his still wet hair. It was just after six in the morning and Bella and her breakfast of dry cheerios were interrupting Emmett's morning bathroom ritual.

"You're doubting me, I can see. But you'll be proved wrong. It'll be written up in the papers next week."

Emmett blinked at her from underneath the towel. "Bella. It's a third birthday party."

"Yeah, but it's Tanya Denali's daughter's third birthday party. You should hear her go on about it - it's the only thing she's been talking about for the last three weeks. Last I heard she'd hired a circus - not just one performer. Not a couple of clowns and maybe a pony. I mean a whole. Freaking. Circus."

"That's madness. The kid's three - she's not going to appreciate it."

"Exactly," Bella said, nudging past him to get to the sink. "Hey, you're done in here, right?"

Emmett nudged her back. "No - I still need to shave."

"Okay, well we can share. You shave while I fix my hair. Anyways," Bella continued, ignoring Emmett's exasperated sigh, "it's not for Elizabeth."

"You just said it's her birthday party -"

"Yeah, but it's the same way she buys Elizabeth these designer outfits. Elizabeth doesn't care what she wears, she'd be perfectly happy in a burlap sack. Same way she's not going to care if there's three ring circus in her backyard on Saturday. Tanya just does it to impress her friends. That's who it's really for."

"You make her sound so shallow," Emmett said. He threw his towel on the floor, and reached past Bella for his shaving cream and razor.

"Calling it like I see it," Bella replied.

Emmett frowned, and paused in the middle of his lathering. "You really don't like her, do you? I guess that means you've given up on trying to get her to like you?"

"No," Bella said. "Some stupid, relentlessly optimistic part of me is always going to want her approval, even though after five months you'd think I'd have realised I'm never going to get it. But the rest of me knows that Elizabeth likes me, and Edward likes me - and sometimes Alice seems like she isn't praying for my untimely death - so three out of four ain't bad."

"So are you invited to this party extravaganza?" Emmett asked her.

"If asking me to work during it, then yeah," Bella replied. "I don't even mind giving up my Saturday for it, though. It sounds like it's going to be insane."

"Well, I guess I'll just wait to read about it in the papers."

Bella flicked her hair back over her shoulders and eyed herself in the mirror. "Do I look okay?" She asked.

"Since when have you cared what you look like before you go to work?"

"I always care what I look like," Bella protested. "God, why do you always act like I'm some hobo or something?"

"Calling it like I see it," Emmett mimicked.

"Whatever," Bella grumbled, heading for the door. "Oh, and by the way," she said, pausing by the doorway and shooting him an evil grin, "I used your razor to shave my legs this morning."

Emmett looked furious. As Bella let herself out the front door she heard him shouting after her, "yeah, well I'm going to use your face washer to wash my balls!"

.

Bella's phone rang just as she was pulling up out the front of Edward and Tanya's place. She answered it distractedly, yanking up the handbrake with a grunt. "Hello?"

The voice that answered her was as familiar to Bella's as her own. How many times had she relished the sound of it on the other side of the line? How often had it brought a smile to her face? For so many years, all it had brought her was joy.

But all it did now was make her stomach drop. Her heart started racing, and her hands trembled so hard she thought she was going to drop the phone.

"Bella," he said smoothly. "How's it all going in the big smoke, girl?"

She tried to swallow, but her throat was so dry, and when she finally managed to speak her voice came out as a croak. "Jake." She swallowed again. "How did you get this number?"

"Your Dad gave it to me. We were talking the other day, him and I. He was telling me all about what you've been doing, and I kept thinking about how long it had been since I saw you. And you know, I miss you girl."

Bella's stomach churned. Her Dad had given him her number? She didn't know whether to be furious or to cry. Why was her dad doing this? Why couldn't he understand?

"I don't - I don't want you to call me -" she tried to say, but he just cut her off.

"You know, your Dad was saying you sound a little confused about what you're doing over there in Seattle, and how he hopes you decide to move back home. He's not the only one. You belong here in Forks. With us."

She felt sick, actually sick to her stomach. One arm curled around her middle, trying to hold it in. "Don't," she whispered. "Jake, don't."

"It's true, though. It's not right, you being so far away. You know, I think about you all the time - about us, and how good we were together, and how things used to be -"

Bella's hand flexed automatically at this. How good they were together? How things used to be? Was he kidding? She tried to keep the tremble out of her voice, tried to tell herself he was miles and miles away and that she was safe here. She tried to maintain her anger and not succumb to the sickness and to the fear. But still her voice wavered, and she hated it. "Don't. Don't think about me."

"How can I not, Bells? You know you're always on my mind."

"Don't, Jake!"

"Hey - chill out, girl -"

"Don't tell me to chill out." She felt her heart thudding in her throat, pulsing beneath her skin with each frantic beat. "Don't think about me. Don't talk about me with my Dad. And don't call me again."

"Bells -"

She hung up, her finger slipping over the screen. Her hands were sweating, but she felt suddenly very cold. She hunched over, resting her hands on her knees, until the trembling subsided. But when she sat back up, her adrenalin was still pumping. The phone rang again - it was the same number. She hit cancel, then silenced it, and threw it onto the passenger seat, wanting it as far away from her as possible.

She tried to pull herself together before she head inside, but as she let herself in the front door with her set of keys her hands were still trembling.

"You okay?" Edward asked her as he met her in the foyer, briefcase in hand, a look of concern on his face once he saw hers.

"I'm fine," Bella said quickly, shooting him a quick smile and trying to smooth out her features. Her mouth and throat were still dry, so her voice came out as a croak. She swallowed a few times and tried again. "You're off early."

"Yeah, I'm meeting with the city council about a new contract." He reached out and tilted her chin up with his thumb and forefinger in a swift, comfortable move, and peered anxiously into her face. "You don't look fine. Are you not well? I can send Elizabeth to my mother's if you need a day off -"

"No, really, I'm fine." She stepped back and sent him an embarrassed smile. Her skin felt warm where he'd touched it. "If I was sick I wouldn't have come. Don't want Elizabeth getting sick before her party this weekend."

"Right, the party I'm taking out a second mortgage for," Edward said, with a wry smile. He moved towards the door, but stopped in the threshold to tell her, a hint of concern still lingering in his words, "if you need anything today, just give me a call. I'll have my phone on me all day."

As the day wore on, part of Bella wished she'd taken his offer of a day off. Elizabeth was tired and whiny, and when she picked her up from school Alice was full of attitude. Tanya called just before five to say she was working late and Bella would need to stay until Edward came home. Then only minutes later Edward called to say he was stuck in his meeting and wouldn't be back til late, and could she get the girls dinner? All Bella wanted to do was go home, pick up Emmett, head to the bar and get absolutely hammered. Anything to get that phone call and Jake's voice out of her head. Instead she had Alice, who was being twice as surly as usual, acting unpleasant to the point of rude. And she had Elizabeth, who didn't want to eat dinner, then didn't want to take her bath, and then definitely didn't want to go to bed. Bella was up and down the stairs no fewer than ten times, calming her crying and reading book after book until finally, just after nine o'clock when even Alice had turned in for the night, Elizabeth finally drifted off to sleep.

When she finally collapsed on the sofa in the family room she was drained, exhausted not only from the girls, but from the effort of trying to suppress everything she'd been feeling all day. But no matter how hard she'd tried to block it out, his words - his voice - had been running through a constant loop in her mind. And after everything it was like she was back in Forks again, seventeen again. She'd worked so hard to put Forks and Jake in her past. She'd tried so hard to forget; even telling herself that if she could forgive her dad she could forgive him, too. After how hard she had worked to put it behind her, with one phone call it was like it was all crumbling at her feet.

As the day had progressed, her shock and distress had naturally turned to anger. She didn't know what made her madder - him for having the gall to call and act like he'd never done anything wrong; or her dad for actually giving him her phone number. She'd begged and pleaded with him not to - something she should never have had to do in the first place! But her father had always turned a blind eye to everything that had happened between her Jake - literally a blind eye - blithely ignoring the bruises on Bella's arms, the black eye. His one and only comment had been that she was "extraordinarily clumsy"; told to the doctor in the ER who'd set Bella's broken hand. And even after that, even then he'd continued to act like everything that had happened had all been a misunderstanding, that Bella had been exaggerating.

And the worst part of all, was that Bella had no one that she could talk to about this. She hadn't maintained any of her friendships from Forks, she'd drifted apart from most of them when things had started to get bad with Jake. She had never told Rachel and Rebecca because she'd wanted a fresh start, a new friendship without any of the weight of her past. And although Emmett knew a certain amount about her past - about why she'd left Forks, about why her relationship with her father was so strained - he didn't know everything, because she hadn't been able to bring herself to tell him. Part of her was terrified that whoever she told would react the way her father had. That they'd try and tell her that she'd brought it on herself.

Or worse - like she'd once thought, like Jake'd had her convinced: that she'd deserved it.

And she just couldn't deal with that again. She didn't want or need anything to remind her of the person she'd been back then. She was stronger now, but she didn't think she'd ever be strong enough that she could think of it without pain.

Her exhaustion got the best of her, and at some point she must have drifted off to sleep, because when she opened her eyes again the clock above the mantlepiece read just after ten. The lights in the family room were all off, apart from a dim lamp on the table near her head, and someone had settled one of the throw blankets over her feet. She heard the sound of someone moving about the kitchen, the muffled noises of socks on tiles and the refrigerator being softly closed. Turning her head, she saw Edward's familiar shape move past the doorway, moving from the kitchen to the dining room with a bowl of something in his hands. She had all intentions of getting up - it was ridiculously late and she should be getting home - but the soft sounds of Edward's socked feet on the floorboards and the light hum of the refrigerator lulled her back to sleep only seconds later.

.

When she opened her eyes again it was because she was woken by a noise - the sound of high heels clacking across the tiled kitchen floor. Then Tanya's voice rang out. "I rang you and told you I was going to be late. So I don't understand the drama."

In her sleep muddled state, Bella thought for a moment that Tanya was addressing her. Then she heard the low rumble of Edward's voice.

"I'm not upset that you didn't call," he was saying, his voice muted compared to his wife's. "I'm upset because this is the fourth night in a row that you haven't been home to have dinner with the girls."

"Honestly Edward, I've just walked in the door. Do you have to start an argument before I've even had a chance to sit down?"

"I'm not trying to start - "

"Besides," Tanya considered, indignant, "you weren't home tonight, either. So don't play the martyr with me!"

Edward's voice was still low, but abruptly filled with anger. "I wasn't home because I had an incredibly fucking important meeting, Tanya. About winning a contract I need us to win, so I can pay for this bloody party this weekend. Where were you? And don't say you were at work because I know for a damn fact you weren't, I rang you to see if you would be home to have dinner with the girls and they told me you left at five." His voice became almost dangerously calm. "So do you want to tell me where you were, Tanya?"

Tanya's voice was almost shrill with indignation. "If you're accusing me of something, just go ahead and do it, Edward!"

"I'm not accusing you of anything, I just want to know where the hell you were that was so important you once again came home after the girls had gone to bed."

"Jesus. I was having drinks with some advertisers, alright? Part of my job is entertaining clients, you know that, so don't get all uptight. I'm just as entitled to a career and to success as you are -"

"When have I ever said that you're not?"

Edward was still keeping his voice muted, but Bella could still hear every word, and her cheeks burned, knowing she shouldn't be hearing any of this, and only imagining how Tanya would react if she knew she were listening.

"You're at me, day and night, about not being at home with the girls. You know that my job isn't nine to five, Edward, you knew that when you first met me -"

"You know what I knew?" Edward snapped. "I knew what you told me - which was that you always believed a family came first. I believed you when you told me when you had children that you wanted to stay at home and be with them, to raise them the way you wished your own mother had raised you."

"Jesus - so sue me for loving my job, and sue me for being good at it! You've been throwing this back in my face since the moment I said I wanted to return to work!"

"I don't want to argue about this with you now, Tanya. You've been drinking -"

"I had two drinks!"

"Keep your voice down, Tan. Bella's asleep on the couch."

Tanya's footsteps halted. "What on earth is she doing there? Why haven't you sent her home?"

"Because she's asleep, Tan. Besides, I'm a bit worried about her. She didn't seem herself this morning. She said she wasn't sick, but she seemed really out of sorts."

Tanya made no reply, but Bella could hear her heels clicking around the kitchen. Then she heard her voice call out, terse and chillingly polite, "did you call the caterers about this Saturday? You know I need to see that confirmed menu before Friday."

"Uh-huh. They said they'll email it to us tomorrow." Then, "I was thinking we should offer her the guest room tonight."

"Who?"

"Bella. Even if everything is okay, she's clearly exhausted. She's been here since seven am, and it's after midnight."

Tanya sounded supremely unconcerned. "And? She's getting paid for it, isn't she?"

Edward's voice had an edge of irritation. "That's not what it's about, Tan. I'm not sure she should be driving."

"Honestly, Edward." Tanya's voice was careless. "It's not our concern."

"Not our concern?"

"Yes, Edward! Don't you think we have enough to worry about at the moment, without worrying about the hired help?"

"Bella's our nanny, Tanya. Not a servant. And yes, she most definitely is our concern. I don't know how you can be so dismissive! She looks after your child, for crying out loud. You don't always have to be so cold, you know."

Tanya's voice was icy. "I'm too tired to argue with you about every damn thing tonight, Edward. You do what you want." Bella heard the sharp sound of her heels head out to the hallway and then begin to ascend the stairs.

A few moments later Bella heard softer footsteps approaching, and she sat up just as Edward appeared in the doorway. "Hey, you're awake," he said.

"I'm so sorry," Bella mumbled, embarrassed. "About falling asleep - I mean, I don't normally -"

"It's fine," Edward told her. "You'd locked everything up and the baby monitor was on - so everything was just fine. Don't stress."

"You should have woken me when you got in," Bella mumbled.

"You looked knackered," Edward told her. "You still do, in fact. I don't think it's a good idea that you drive home tonight. We've got a guest room, you can stay here."

"Oh - I couldn't impose -"

"You're not imposing," Edward told her firmly. Bella got the feeling he knew that she'd overheard his and Tanya's argument. "It would be irresponsible of me to let you drive home." Then he cracked a small smile. "And if you got into an accident, you could sue. And on top of the party this weekend, that's the last expense I need."

"I really - "

"I insist. Come on, I'll show you there."

Bella trailed behind Edward as he led her to the back of the house, and the guest wing that lay beyond it. Despite his insistence, she was still uncomfortable about staying, particularly when she knew Tanya wasn't a fan of the idea at all. She figured she was crossing all kinds of boundaries now, giving Tanya more ammunition to disapprove of her.

" - and the ensuite's just through here. Towels in the cupboard, soaps and shampoos and all that sort of stuff in the shower." Edward paused by the bed. "Do you need anything to sleep in? I can check and see if Alice has -"

"Oh, I'm right - really," Bella said. "I can sleep in my t-shirt, that's fine. Honestly, Edward, you've troubled yourself enough."

"It's no trouble at all, Bella. It's the least I can do. I'm so sorry about being so late tonight - I feel awful, I knew this morning you didn't seem a hundred percent, but I just couldn't get out of these meetings, and I didn't expect Tanya would be so late either -"

"It's fine - and I'm fine, I swear. I just -" she broke off just as her explanation about a distressing phone call was about to fall from her lips, hesitated, then changed her mind and just smiled gratefully at him. "I'm fine."

"Alright. Well I'll leave you to it. Let me know if you need anything. Otherwise I'll see you in the morning."

"Thanks. Night, Edward."

He hesitated for the briefest moment in the doorway. "Goodnight, Bella." Then he closed the door behind him.

As Bella undressed climbed into the huge, unfamiliar bed, she heard the sounds of Edward moving around downstairs, turning off lights and locking windows and doors. She turned off her lamp, waiting for the sound of Edward ascending the stairs to his bedroom and his wife. And maybe it was because the walls were too thick, or Edward's footstep too light, but she didn't hear him at all.

.

.

.

When Bella arrived at Elizabeth's party on Saturday morning she was expecting to see the circus tent set up in the backyard, so it wasn't that much of a surprise to her. What was a surprise was the hoards of caterers who seemed to have taken over the kitchen with their endless silver trays of hor d'oeuvres and the three crates of Moet stacked up against the kitchen bench. As were the two women who stood in the foyer, dressed as though they were going to a film premiere, eerily similar in appearance to Tanya.

Bella assumed these were the other two Denali sisters, and confirmed her suspicions when they both received her smile and greeting with narrowed-eyed stares and stiffly lifted chins. They were almost identical in appearance, although Bella knew from her google research that one of them was the older by three years; their similarity was less to do with genetics and more a result of the way they presented themselves. Sleek hair cut perfectly level; wrinkle-free complexions that surely were the result of botox, but without any of the tell-tale shininess to betray them; slightly pouted, glossed lips and eyes that appeared make up free from afar, but up close revealed eyelash extensions and artfully applied nude colours. The outfits they wore were likely worth more than Bella's college loans.

Bella felt suddenly embarrassingly under-dressed in her jeans. But she plastered a smile on her face and forcibly reminded herself that she was there to work - she was there to crawl around on the floor, wipe up cake spills and snot and change dirty diapers - she was hardly going to wear her best.

She found Tanya out on the back patio, barking orders about the layout of the tables and chairs at a nervous looking young man in a cummerbund and bow-tie. She greeted Bella with the same level of warmth, and led her into the family room, where Elizabeth was sitting propped up on a pile of cushions, wearing pink silk.

"I really don't want her getting dirty," Tanya instructed Bella. "There's a professional photographer coming later and I'd like her as pristine then as she is now."

"Right," Bella said slowly. "Um. With the circus out the back -"

"It shouldn't be an issue," Tanya replied. "She'll be watching it - not joining it." She finished this with a trill of exasperated laughter, as though Bella were an imbecile to believe the performers were there for anything other than appearances sake. "Anyway, that's why we asked you to work today, to keep an eye on things like this."

Bella smiled tightly. "It shouldn't be a problem at all," she lied.

Tanya's answering smile was just as tight. "Good."

"Um, I got Elizabeth a little gift," Bella said, pulling the small package out of her handbag. "It's not much, but-"

"The gift table is in the formal living room," Tanya said, not even glancing at the package. "You can leave it there. Elizabeth will be opening her gifts just after the cake is presented, once the photographer has arrived of course."

"Of course," Bella repeated.

Tanya glanced at Bella sharply, as though suspecting Bella were mocking her. Then her gaze moved over Bella's shoulder, and her smile became even frostier. "Alice," she said, her voice sugary and in total contrast to the expression on her face. "I thought we agreed you were wearing the dress I bought you -"

"It doesn't fit."

Bella turned around as Alice entered the room, dressed in tight purple jeans and converse, her usual scowl on her face. She was trailed by two girls who appeared to be her age or a little younger. They were impeccably dressed in pastel coloured dresses, each adorned with sashes that tied into large bows on the back. Bella had a sneaking suspicion, judging from their outfits, their physical likeness and the oddly-confident way they carried themselves, that these were the Denali cousins Alice spoke so derisively of.

"When you tried it on last week it fit you just fine."

"Well I must have put on weight or something because it doesn't fit."

"Are you sure about that? Because I'm not entirely sure your outfit now is appropriate for this event. Your cousins look lovely and you don't want to look out of place next to them in the photos -" Tanya dropped the sugary voice and her face took on the hints of a scowl as she said, "don't groan young lady, you were told about the photographer -"

"I don't want to wear that dress," Alice said, sounding petulant. "I told you last week that I didn't want to wear that dress." Alice shot a side-long glance at the two girls, who had moved over to the cushion pile where Elizabeth was sitting, and were now fussing over her dress. "I don't care what Charlotte and Catherine are wearing; they're Charlotte and Catherine, not me -"

"Alice!" Tanya hissed, also glancing at the two girls, her cheeks reddening. "That sort of rudeness is completely uncalled for!"

"I'm not being rude, I'm just saying that I'm not them -"

Tanya's voice rose over hers, artificially pleasant again. "Now, Alice, I don't think I'm asking too much when I requested you present yourself appropriately today. This is a family event -"

Alice muttered something that Bella didn't quite pick up, but clearly Tanya did, because her shoulders stiffened. "We are all a family," she said, through clenched teeth. "And considering how lenient your father and I have been on you about your little dance class situation, I am surprised at your attitude towards this one simple request we're making of you, we certainly don't want to have to re-consider our decision to allow you to continue with your little hip-hop lessons -"

Alice's face coloured. "Fine!" She exclaimed, "I'll wear the stupid dress, alright!"

"Thank you, Alice."

Alice stormed out of the room. Tanya glanced back at Bella, her features twisted with anger, and Bella made a point of busying herself with re-arranging the crinoline under Elizabeth's skirt, trying to give the impression she hadn't heard a thing.

"Girls," Tanya adressed Alice's cousins, "You'll have to forgive Alice today, she's feeling a little under the weather." The lie rolled off her tongue so smoothly that Bella could only assume she used it a lot.

The taller of the two girls smiled up at her aunt. "We don't mind, Auntie Tanya," she said sweetly. "We think it's going to be an amazing day, no matter what."

Tanya's face relaxed just slightly, but it stiffened again the moment she turned back to Bella.

"The other children should be arriving shortly," Tanya said, her voice clipped. "There are only a few, and most of them will be old enough to take care of themselves, however I do ask that you ensure they all remain occupied with the more child-friendly activities."

In other words, Bella thought to herself as Tanya strode out of the room, keep the kids out of the real party.

"I'm Bella," Bella said to the two girls, who Tanya hadn't bothered introducing her to. "I'm Elizabeth's nanny -"

"We know," the taller girl said. She got to her feet, and so did her sister, and the two of them tugged Elizabeth up by her hands. "Come on Elizabeth. Let's go and count how many presents you have already."

And they headed out of the room, leaving Bella to trail behind, with the unnerving feeling that she'd been slighted by a thirteen year old.

.

"Bella! It's so lovely to see you again!"

It took Bella a moment to place the older woman who waylaid her as she was heading inside to grab some more wet-wipes (her only shield in the constant battle to keep Elizabeth looking pristine). She was the first adult who'd actually spoken to her; who'd actually looked her in the face and acknowledged her. The other parents at the party - of who they were very few, confirming Bella's suspicions that the party was for the adults, not the children - had left their children with Bella with evident relief, making bee-lines toward the patio and the bar without a backward glance. There they now stood in small knots, sipping champagne and talking about each other.

The woman's face and voice were familiar, and Bella was surprised when recognition struck her. Surprised mainly that the woman remembered her at all.

"Oh - Mrs Cullen. How are you?"

"I'm wonderful!How are you, run off your feet, I suspect?"

"Um - well, not all the children are as well behaved as Elizabeth, that's for sure. Mind you, she's one in a million, so..."

"She certainly is - and I say that, of course, completely without bias. Oh, Bella sweetheart, this is my husband, Carlisle." She indicated the gentleman who sidled up beside her, having just removed his coat, and Bella did her best to hide her surprise. He didn't look a day over forty, with a head full of platinum blond hair and only the finest of lines around his bright blue eyes. This was Edward's Dad? He looked young enough to be his brother.

Bella politely accepted the hand he offered. "It's nice to meet you, Mr Cullen."

"And you, Bella. I've heard so much about you."

"Oh! Um..."

"All good, of course," he said with a smile that could only be described as flirty, squeezing her hand before letting it go. "But I have to say neither Esme or Edward mentioned just how pretty you are."

Esme rolled her eyes at her husband's antics. "Now, Carlisle," she said with good nature and a teasing smile, "don't even think about trading me in for a younger model. I have far too much on you!"

"Blackmail," Carlisle told Bella with a wink. "It's the secret ingredient to any good marriage."

Bella grinned. "I'll keep that in mind."

"What's all this?" Tanya said with a trill of laughter, appearing at her father-in-law's elbow, a glass of champagne in one hand. "What's the secret to a good marriage? If there's any couple I would take marriage advice from, it's without a doubt you two." She bent down to kiss first Carlisle's cheek. "How are you, Carlisle? You're looking as devilishly handsome as usual." She let out another little trill. "Edward should be careful, one of these days I'm going to snap you up for myself."

"It's good to see you, Tanya dear," Esme said, accepting the kiss Tanya brushed across her cheek - was it Bella's imagination or did her smile seem just slightly forced? "Carlisle and I were just offering the lovely Bella some handy tips about blackmail,"

"Oh. Isabella." Tanya turned to glance at her, as though she hadn't realised she were there. The smile slid from her face. "The Hunter's have just arrived with their two girls - perhaps you should offer to assist them?" The words, although veiled as a suggestion, were undoubtedly an order.

"Of course -"

Tanya followed Bella two steps towards the foyer, but not so far that her words wouldn't have carried back to Edward's parents, and said coldly, "And please don't forget that you're here as an employee, Isabella, not as a guest."

Feeling very much like she'd been scolded - and mortified about it happening in front of two people who'd been being so kind to her - Bella scurried off into the foyer.

.

It was a third birthday party unlike Bella had ever seen before. Instead of sugary drinks and sticky sweets there were flutes of champagne and platters of prosciutto wrapped scallops. The music piped over the speakers was classical jazz instead of tunes by the Wiggles. And the only games the guests played were definitely for those over 18, with gossip about who'd had the most plastic surgery and who had slept with who being passed around like a warped game of pass-the-parcel.

Everybody was so incredibly good looking and well dressed. Although Bella had no idea who any of them were - seeing as none of them had actually been introduced to her - she was pretty sure that mingling amongst the guests on that patio were some of Seattle's wealthiest and most influential. And drifting from group to group, with a polished smile and genteel manners Bella had only suspected her of possessing, was Tanya, clearly in her element. She greeted her guests with smiles, the women with a brush of her cheek against theirs and a kiss that hovered just over their skin, favouring the men with affectionate squeezes to their arms and a warm, intimate laugh. She waved her husband over often, fitting against his side like she'd been carved a place there; occasionally calling for Bella to bring her Elizabeth; and there the three would stand, looking like a spread from House & Living magazine. Like the epitome of the perfect family.

And Bella could hardly wait to get home to tell Emmett all about it, because as impressive as it all was, ultimately it was all a facade, and at the centre of it was Tanya. While she obviously cared about her daughter, it was glaringly obvious - to Bella at least - that the only people here Tanya was trying to impress were her guests, and none more so than her two older sisters. It was classic sibling rivalry, just on a scale Bella had never seen before.

The three Denalia sisters, when they stood together, were equal parts striking and intimidating. They drew the eye of every guest at the party, woman or man, and were the topic of many a conversation that Bella overheard. Most of the women spoke of them with thinly veiled envy, of their looks and their husbands and their homes and their cars, their material possessions clearly all that they were interested in. And the men more often than not expressed a sort of joking disappointment - that Bella didn't believe was all that joking - that they hadn't snapped one of the sisters up for themselves.

Both Irina and Kate had been accompanied by their husbands, but like their wives, Bella could barely tell them apart. Both were considerably older than the sisters, in varying stages of graying around the temples, and spoke very quietly and very seriously, even to the children. And because they all treated each other with a sort of brusque formality Bella wasn't entirely sure which husband belonged to who.

Edward stood amongst a knot of similarly indistinguishable men. Bella hadn't really had a chance to say hello to him yet, she'd been busy with trying to keep Elizabeth spotless and trying to manage the handful of other youngsters she'd been charged with the care of. He'd caught her eye across the crowd at one point and had sent her a small wave, but she'd ducked her head because she'd been somewhat embarrassed at being caught staring. She rarely saw him out of his business suit, and then it was usually his gym gear. Both were, to her, a uniform of sorts, a reminder that he was a Dad and a husband and a businessman, and as nice as he was to her she was not on his level and never would be. But today he was wearing jeans and a striped rugby top with the sleeves pushed up and the buttons at the throat undone. He looked casual and relaxed, a beer in one hand and his hair messy and windswept.

And abruptly she was reminded of something Rebecca had told her, when they'd met for lunch on Bella's day off last week. When Rebecca had made a joke about him bragging to his friends about his "hot nanny", and Bella had reacted with a scoff of disbelief. Which had compelled Rebecca to tell her, "Just because he's a figure of authority to you, that doesn't make him any less of a person. He's the same as any other guy you'll meet - in that he eats and shits and drinks and probably doesn't get enough sleep and probably picks his nose when he thinks no one is looking, and probably wishes he was having more sex than he gets and probably has, at one point or another, thought about you naked. He's your boss, and he's a father and he's a husband. But none of those things stops him from also being a man."

It was the second time Rebecca had made a comment similar to this, and it made her feel just as weird the second time as it did the first. She knew he was a man - she wasn't blind, after all. She didn't know why thinking of him as just another guy instead of her boss - someone completely off-limits and not on her level - made her nervous.

As Bella watched, he caught her eye again and sent her an affable sort of grin. And for reasons she couldn't explain she felt her cheeks warm, and she turned away to hide her blush.

.