9. Liar
"Rose!" I smiled, running through the trees towards her. "There you are! I didn't kn--"
"Emmett, hon, there's something I need to tell you." Rosalie said, standing absolutely still, her ams folded. I stopped mid-word, taking in her tight shoulders and her defensive form.
I had been hunting further away at Rose's suggestion, looking for something more appetizing than deer. I'd only been gone for half an hour, but in that short time Rose's whole attitude had changed. When I'd left she had been smiling, if thinly, and she had kissed me warmly. Now she most certainly was not smiling; she was grim.
"What, baby? Are you all right?" She turned an even whiter shade of pale as I came to stand with her.
"No," she sighed, her hair hanging in her face. "Emmett--" For a second she had to get a hold of herself. "I know Carlisle isn't coming back. I know it."
"What..." I looked hard at her expression: it was pained, guilty. "Okay, Rose, what's up?"
"You love me, don't you, darling?" she asked, suddenly hugging me tightly.
"Yeah, sweetie, of course I do. You know I do."
"Then please, please, please don't hold what I'm about to say against me. I know you'll understand."
I felt chills on the back of my neck when what she was saying started to sink in. "Rose, do you know where Carlisle is?"
"I don't now, not anymore. But--at first-- yes, I did."
"Did? Wait, what are you--"
"Oh, Emmett!" She pressed her face into my chest. "Carlisle made me help him leave, Emmett! He made me promise to get him out of here, without a hitch! I've known all along!"
"What?" I gasped. Was she insane?
"I knew two weeks ago," she choked out, my shirt front bunched up in her hands. "That's why I left before you and Edward got home, Friday. He'd said we had another week, but then--"
"Rose, what are you saying?" I asked, unwilling to believe it.
"I'm saying, we had planned it out, Emmett. Carlisle and I. But he told me another week! He swore that I could tell everybody then!"
"You..." My voice was barely a sound. "You-- helped him? You helped him leave us?"
"Oh, no!" she cried."You're going to be so angry!"
By then I had stopped hearing her words. All at once there was only the last few phrases, running around in my head. I'm saying, we had planned it out, Emmett. Carlisle and I. That mantra kept rattling around in my brain, making it impossible for me to do anything but dwell on it.
Rose had helped our father leave us? My Rose?
"You've got to be wrong," I said, cutting off whatever she was saying.
"Oh, baby, I wish I was," Rose said sadly.
"Rose, you couldn't have--"
"I wish I hadn't have done it."
"But, Esme?" I spoken our mom's name like a plea. "How could you do that to Esme?" I wanted to add, How could you have done that to all of us? But I didn't.
"If only you could have heard him," Rose groaned. "Carlisle never asks for anything, and then he was nearly begging me to help him! How could I refuse?"
"How could you, Rose!" My voice was hot with anger.
"Don't tell me you would have said no!" She shot a fierce look at me, raising her voice.
"What about Esme?" I shouted back, my hands clenched around her wrists.
"What about Carlisle!" She yelled jrking back, her hands balled into fists, her body in an aggressive stance. "Would you have told him you couldn't help him?"
"Help him desert us? You bet!"
"NO, Emmett! You don't understand!"
I hissed, my shoulders hitched up almost to my jawline, like an angry cat's. How could she, in good conscience, debate with me about destroying our family?
Rosalie, her stunning face stricken, reached for my hand. I hastily snatched it away, staring at her in bewilderment. "Emmett, sweetheart," she pleaded, "please listen to me. I can explain--everything."
"Explain? What are you talking about, Rose?!"
"You didn't let me finish," said Rose, her eyes practically brimming with non-existent tears. "I said Carlisle told me to do it!"
"To lie to us, that's what he asked? Carlisle wouldn't do that, Rose!"
"I never lied to you, darling!" She tried to cling to me, but I pushed her back, afraid, for once, I might do something I would regret. "Carlisle told me not to tell you I knew! He knew you would tell them all, and then his plans would be ruined!"
Shoving my hands to my ears, I turned from her. "Why are you lying, baby?"
"I'm not lying!" She screamed at me, nearly hysterical. "You have to believe me, Emmett!" She tore my hand from my ear. "I'll tell you everything, just please don't be so heartless to me!"
"Heartless?" I snarled, springing around to face her. "Lying to Esme, breaking her heart? Making Alice take the guilt for not seeing this? Forcing Edward to lead us? All that's not heartless, and yet when I call you on your lies, you call me heartless? Don't be such a hypocrite, Rosalie!"
Flinching, she nodded helplessly. "I'm sorry, Emmett," she whispered. "I'm so sorry. I thought I was doing the right thing. Carlisle asked me to help him."
I was amazed at how unbelievably, almighty angry I was. It was almost like being a newborn again; my vision was tinged red. Blinking, I stepped away from Rose as fast as I could. There was no way I was going to hurt her, not even if I was furious. Rose stared at me, her face twisted, a faint sob breaking through her teeth. By the look on her face, I knew she was torturing herself over lying to me. Normally, that would have calmed me down, made me comfort her. That's what I usually wanted to do when Rose was upset, hold her and cheer her up.
What disturbed me more than my anger was the fact that, at that moment, I couldn't have cared less what Rosalie was feeling.
"Babe, I got to go," I said, trying not to sound as put out as I was.
"No, wait--" Her hand grazed my sleeve.
"Rosalie, sugar, you don't want to mess with me right now," I warned, dancing out of her range. "I need some time to cool off, all right?"
She thought for a minute, her luminous eyes fixed on me. Then she nodded, biting her lip. "Okay, Em. I love you, you know that?"
"Of course, angel. Now, I really need to leave. Don't follow me."
I heard her start to cry again, as soon as I took off. Let her cry, I thought, it's not going to kill her. I was immediately struck with remorse-- I didn't want Rose to cry. I was just too angry to care about anything other than what she'd just told me.
As I ran, my feet didn't have a direction they intended to go; they were just flying. I was flying, moving faster than I'd run in a long time. It felt awesome, beating my anger into the ground, leaving behind the things that were infuriating me. I'd been around long enough to know that I couldn't run from my problems--and I hardly ever did, it was too much fun to "fix" them-- but I just couldn't go back to that house, where Edward and Bella and Esme would be waiting, Esme trying not to be torn up and broken, Edward and Bella holding us all together while falling apart themselves. And I couldn't go back to Rose, not when I was burning with anger at her deception.
Carlisle, I thought ironically, would be proud of me. Not only had I run away from a fight, but I was also starting to sound smart, poetic even, in my thoughts about our wretched family.