Knowledge

RPOV

Charlie eventually notices the other woman's gaze and clears his throat before making the awkward introductions.

"Alice, this is Rosalie and Emmett, Bella's friends. Rosalie and Emmett, this is Alice, Bella's old best friend from Forks," he says, watching us apprehensively.

Bella has never mentioned an Alice before. She's never really mentioned anyone from her home town before. In fact, she's often completely changed the topic of conversation when anything about her old life came up.

"Hi," I say politely. She doesn't respond. She's still staring at Lily.

"Alice, this is Bella's daughter, Lily," He continues nervously, gesturing with his head to the little girl in his arms.

"Holy shit." Alice whispers.

Charlie looks nervous and uncomfortable. I glance at Emmett and he shares my look of confusion.

"This is why she didn't return my calls, isn't it?!" Her voice is high pitched with a note of disbelief in her words.

Charlie nods his head. He looks at Emmett. "Would you mind taking Lily out to go look at that nice colouring book I saw in the waiting room, son?"

Emmett looks between Charlie and Alice nervously, then gives me a look as if to ask 'do you have any idea what this is about?'

I give him an 'I'm as clueless as you' shrug.

"Sure, come on sweetheart," Emmett says as Charlie sets her down and he takes her hand. He shoots Charlie and Alice one last curious look before leaving the room with Lily.

I turn back to the situation at hand. "What's going on?" I ask no one in particular. It's clear I'm missing out on something, but the other two ignore me.

"How could she not tell me?" Alice says incredulously. "How could she not tell him? He had a right to know, we all did!" She leans forward in the chair, her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands, concealing her face from us.

Charlie takes a few tentative steps towards her and puts an awkward hand on her shoulder. "Alice... she didn't want you to know. I...I guess she thought you would be ashamed of her or something."

"No. No," Alice says angrily, standing up suddenly. "This wasn't about me, it was about him."

"Him? Him who?" Charlie asks, confused.

"Edward!" Alice cries. "Lily's father!"

Charlie looks like he's been hit by a bus. "Edward?" He asks, confused. "Edward, your brother, Edward?"

"Of course! God! She's the spitting image of him!"

Charlie falls heavily into Alice's vacated seat, his face stark white and his mouth open in shock. I watch their exchange awkwardly as if it's some bad soap opera on television, but I'm finally starting to understand what's going on.

"Damn," Charlie says quietly to himself.

"Damn is right," I agree. Until I'd read the letter in Bella's drawer I had always assumed that she wasn't sure who Lily's father was, that she had gotten pregnant by some faceless one night stand or that (god forbid) she had been raped. And now I know why Bella hasn't returned to Washington to visit her dad in the entire time that I've known her, why she's spent every holiday with Emmett and I and our families.

"God, Bella! Why didn't you tell me?" Alice says, walking back over to the bedside and taking Bella's hand gently, rubbing small circles into the bruised skin. I'm sure if Bella had been awake pressing on the bruise like that would've caused her pain. And then I think that maybe that's the point. But Alice doesn't seem angry anymore, just dejected.

APOV

The little girl who had come barrelling into the room is an almost exact female replica of my brother, and everything fell into place.

I sit by Bella's bedside, my mind going a million miles a minute. Bella had been pregnant. Bella had had my brother's baby, my niece, and hadn't told me or Edward or my parents or anyone. She had gone through her pregnancy all alone, raised that little girl all on her own. I'm angry at her for not telling us, and proud of her for being independent and making a life for herself and her little girl without relying on anyone else. I'm sad because I've missed out on all that time with Bella and her daughter, and I'm happy to find out that I have a niece. And then there's this feeling of relief too. Relief because I finally know why she left and why she never called.

The room has been quiet for a few minutes, each of us lost in our own thoughts, each trying to come to terms with the things that have just been revealed to us.

"Rosalie, did you know any of this?" Charlie asks quietly, looking to where the blonde still lingers near the door.

She shakes her head. "No, I didn't know anything about Lily's father until last night. I didn't know anything about you," she says, nodding her head in my direction.

She stands there awkwardly for a minute or two, looking like she wants to say something but is unsure.

"I, um, I found this," she finally says, "when I was getting some stuff for Lily." She pulls a crumpled envelope with neat handwriting on the front from her handbag and hands it to me.

I glance at her and then read the letter in silence, comforted somewhat by Bella's once familiar handwriting.

As if I ever had any doubt, the letter confirms that my brother is Lily's father. I'm glad that she wanted him to meet his daughter.

I know Bella. Or at least I used to. I try to understand what she must've been thinking, how she must've been feeling. And part of me gets it. That independent streak she always had, the determination to follow her own path and not let anyone stop her. But part of me wonders what if there had never been an accident? What if nobody ever found out? Would she have kept Lily from her family her entire life? I can't imagine that she would be so selfish as to deny her daughter her family.

Part of me is jealous that Bella took the time to write this letter to my brother, who she barely knows, and not to me, who spent every waking moment with her all through high school and treated her like a sister.

"She's never mentioned me?" I ask the blonde woman, Rosalie, swallowing the lump in my throat.

"No," she sighs, coming a little closer to me.

I sigh and nod my head in quiet acceptance.

"Alice?" Rosalie begins carefully. I look up at her. She gives me a small smile. "She does love you, you know."

I huff in disbelief.

"Really," she says. "Lily's full name. It's Lily Alice Swan. She named her daughter after you."

It's a small shock compared to the previous one of Lily's existence, but I'm still unable to stop the tears that roll down my face. I give her a warm smile. "Thank you, Rosalie."

Seeing that I'm not in immediate danger of having a breakdown, Rosalie turns to Bella's dad. "You okay, Charlie?" she asks, concerned.

"Fine," he says gruffly. "Could use a drink is all."

The big guy from before peeks his head in through the door and looks to Rosalie, who nods, and he leads Lily back into the room, her small pale hand totally encased in his big hairy one.

Lily goes to sit on her granddad's knee, hugging him and giving him a proper greeting now that she's gotten over the shock of seeing her mom like that.

"What happened?" Big guy asks, looking around at us all.

"Come out here and I'll fill you in," Rose says, and the two of them disappear into the hallway.

Charlie looks up, catches my eye, smiles and waves me over.

"Lily, you know how Rose is your auntie? Well this woman here is your auntie too. Her name's Alice, say hi." The little girl who looks so astoundingly like my brother looks me up and down for a minute, analysing me. Then she smiles, says 'hi' in a voice sweet as honey. She jumps down from Charlie's lap and comes over to hug me tightly. I hug her back. She's small and delicate and she smells like lavender.

"If you're my auntie, how come you haven't come to see me before?" She asks and a cute little crease appears in her brow.

I open my mouth and close it twice, unsure how to answer her.

"Alice lives a long way away, near me, and she just never had the chance to come visit you and your mom." Charlie speaks up.

She thinks about it for a second. "Okay." She smiles and takes my hand, leading me over to her mom and telling me all about how we have to be very gentle and quiet to help her mom get better. The little girl accepts me into her life so easily, and I only hope it will work out this way with the rest of my family, because there's no doubt about it. I've kept hundreds of secrets for Bella over the years, but I can't keep this one. It's too important. I have to tell them.