A/N: Ok, another possibility at suckyness in this chapter, but bear with me. This is sort of a hard topic to write about (for me, anyway), and I have something that I have, already written, that I want to post later, but that means that I have to resolve this quickly. By the way, if you were wondering, the movie she saw was 27 Dresses. I just watched it (again), and it's a really good movie. Very chick-flick-y, though. Very chick-flick-y...
Edward's POV:
Sasha finally let me go...after two or three hours.
"There," she said, slightly breathlessly, "you've done as I wanted, and I'll keep my promise. I won't harm any of your family. Not Bella, Eli, Toby, or Crystal, though she smelled the most," Sasha paused, searching for the right word, "succulent." I shuddered at the word and thought of what a vampire as ruthless as Sasha could have done to my small daughter.
"Please, you've gotten what you want, now leave me at peace," I asked her. Sasha smiled evilly again.
"You know, I don't think I want to leave you here. I'm pretty sure I want to make you like me—as you once were. You could be by my side always, and join me in the Volturi guard." Her voice made the idea sound almost likeable. But she didn't fool me.
"No," I said as fiercely and with as much dignity as I could. "If you do that—if you bite me—I will kill myself."
Sasha shrugged. "Oh, well. You would have had a lot of potential, if you joined me, but I made a promise. You shall never see me again." And she was gone, running at a super-human speed away from my home.
I got up off the bed and walked to the dresser to put on some clothes. I felt weak from what she had done to me, but she would leave Bella alone now, and Bella never need know.
That's when the glint of what seemed to be silver at first caught my eye.
I kneeled down and saw the ring—Bella's ring—lying on the ground. She had seen me.
I ran over to the phone and called Alice.
"Edward," Alice said as she picked up the phone.
"I'm pretty sure you know why I called," I told her.
"Yes," she replied. "She's going to pick up your kids, Crystal first, then Toby, then Eli. Your best bet to meet her would be to pick up Eli, and then stay home and wait for Bella to get home." Alice paused, thinking. "Edward, prepare yourself. Bella is not happy with you right now, and she's planning a few different ways to tell you to leave her—for good. And she'll be pretty mad, so you'd better have a good excuse for what you did."
I felt a tear fall down my face. I shouldn't have let Sasha take me, even if it would have meant my death, I should have stayed loyal to only Bella.
"If you want to catch her, you'd better get a move on," Alice hinted. "Good luck."
"Thanks, Alice," I said, disconnecting the call.
Grabbing my key on my way out, I ran to the garage; to my car. I'd listen to Alice's advice. I'd pick up Eli, and just wait until Bella arrived home to talk to her.
Of course, Bella had taken my car. I looked around. Alice would never let me, Rosalie would kill me, Carlisle was at work, and I didn't need to use a huge jeep to find Bella.
I sighed, annoyed, and ran towards Bella's truck. Hopefully, I'd be able to get to Elizabeth's friend Jordan's house before Bella did. It wouldn't be easy, with the '53 Chevy, but it might get there first... I hope.
Bella's POV:
I wiped another tear off my cheek as I drove towards the Greenes' house. I'd take the kids to Charlie's, and we'd all stay there for the night. Minus Edward. Another tear fell down my cheek, and I hastily wiped it away. My finger felt naked without my ring, but I couldn't fix that right now.
I knocked on the door to the house.
Mrs. Greene answered the door, and looked confused for a moment.
"Bella, what are you doing here?" she asked.
"What do you mean? I'm here to get Elizabeth?" I said.
"Didn't your husband tell you he was picking her up?"
"No," I replied. "But thank you for letting me know."
"No problem," she said. "You know Elizabeth is welcome here any time."
I smiled. "Thanks, Anne."
Anne smiled back at me as I left. So Edward had picked up Eli. This complicated things. I couldn't leave Toby and Crystal at Charlie's; he wasn't social enough to keep up a conversation with an eight-year-old and three-year-old.
I sighed in exasperation. I'd have to take them home. If they wanted to stay home over night, I'd be fine with that. I just wouldn't be home.
"Mom, are you ok?" Toby asked. He was sitting right behind me in the car, but he could still see that I was upset.
"Yeah, Toby, I'm fine," I lied. My lying had, luckily, gotten better over the years, so Toby didn't see anything wrong with my answer.
We got up to the house, where my truck was parked in front, and I went around to open the back doors for Toby and Crystal.
"Mommy, is Daddy in twouble?" Crystal asked.
I looked at her curiously. "Why would you think that?"
Crystal pointed to a red splotch on the grass near the front of the house. I saw a wounded rabbit a few yards away.
"It's just a hurt rabbit," I said, picking up Crystal so she wouldn't go over to look at it. I also grabbed Tobias's hand so he wouldn't touch it.
"Go ahead up to your room, ok kids?" I asked. "I need to talk to your father."
"Ok, Mom," Tobias said. I put Crystal down and Toby took her hand, leading her upstairs to her room.
I walked in after them, locking the door behind me.
"Edward," I said lightly as I walked into the kitchen. I could tell that he knew that I knew. He was holding his head in his hand and staring at the table.
"Bella," he started.
"I'll see you tomorrow," I said curtly. It hurt me to do this, but I couldn't trust him. I had seen, with my own eye, what he was doing with that...other person...
"Bella, please, just let me explain—" he reached out for my arm. I spun around and my hand connected with the side of his face. His head snapped to the side, and I could see a red mark forming on his cheek already.
"Leave me alone, Edward," I said fiercely.
"Bella, please," Edward said, but I walked out of the room as he started talking.
I went up to our room, packed a bag with some clothes, and turned to leave—running right into Edward, who wrapped his arms around me.
"Bella just let me explain. Everything will be fine," he said. I twisted out of his arms. Or, tried to, at least. He tightened his grip around me. "I wish you hadn't seen what I did, and I admit that I did it, but I didn't want to."
I let out a humorless laugh.
"Right, that's not the way I saw it," I told him. I tried to twist out of his arms again with better results. Once I was free of him and on the other side of the door, I turned to look at him. "From what I saw, you were quite enjoying what you were doing." I suddenly felt something heavy on my neck and reached my hand up to the necklace he had given me when Elizabeth was born. I had half a mind to take it off right then, which he perfectly deserved if I did, but I couldn't make my hand tighten around it enough to take it off.
"I'll see you tomorrow," I said, turning to leave. I felt the tears in my eyes fall over the side of my cheek.
"Bella," Edward said. I could hear the hurt in his voice. I wanted so badly to turn around and throw myself in his arms, just forget that he did anything, but I couldn't. I couldn't trust him.
"Just let me go, Edward," I said just as fiercely as before. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Edward look upset as I left—taking his Volvo again.
I started his car and turned off the music. I didn't feel like listening to his music just then.
I knocked on Charlie's door—I had left that key at home, ironically.
"Bella?" he asked, startled I was there. "How are you? Where's Edward?"
"Edward's at home, with the kids," I told him. I was still standing outside. "I was wondering... Can I...?"
"Sure, come in, come in," Charlie said. Sitting in the living room were Billy and...Jacob. I didn't care what they were doing there. Jake still looked like he had at my wedding—I guess that was because he wasn't aging...not normally, at least.
"So, what brings you here?" Charlie asked.
"Nothing, really," I said. I did not want to talk about my marriage problems in front of Jacob. "I was wondering, though, could I stay here for the night? Edward—" it hurt slightly to say his name—"wants to use tonight to bond with the kids." I smiled to cover up the hurt I was feeling at the fact that Edward cheated on me.
"Sure," Charlie said. I think he could tell that something was up, but he didn't say anything, "you're room's still empty."
"Thanks, Dad," I said, letting an honest smile show, as I walked up the stairs to my room.
I flung myself on my back onto my old bed and sighed. I'd only planned to stay for one night, but I might just stay for more, if the...problem...didn't go away.
About five minutes after I had arrived, there was a knock at my door.
"Who's there?" I asked.
"It's me," I heard Jacob say from the other side of my door. "Can I come in?"
I sighed in exasperation, knowing that he would come in anyway, even if I said no. "Sure," I said.
He opened my door and sat down on the edge of my bed.
"So what's the real reason you're here?" Jacob asked. "I know you're not just here because 'Edward's bonding with the kids'," he mocked me.
"That is the real reason I'm here," I said.
"You may have gotten better at lying, but you can't fool me, Bella," Jacob said. I rolled my eyes at him. "Really, why are you here? My dad and I were going to stay for a few days to watch a few games. I was going to stay in here, with my dad, but you came home. Why? You hardly ever visit home. I should know, it's getting closer to the Super-Bowl. Dad and I have been here more often, recently."
"That's not true," I argued. "My family comes here at least once a month."
"Oh, yeah," Jake said, remembering. "I was here when you guys stopped of on Halloween." He laughed, remembering. "I remember the little guy—Tobias?—" I nodded, "was dressed up as a werewolf. And the two girls—Elizabeth and Crystal?—" I nodded again, "were dressed as a vampire and a vampire-attack victim." Jacob laughed. "That was four and a half months ago, wasn't it?"
I shifted uneasily. "Yeah, well, we've been busy." Wrong words. Jacob howled with laughter.
"You two have been 'busy'?!" He laughed some more, at my expense, for about five minutes straight before calming down. "So, are you expecting soon? Since you've been 'busy'?" I rolled my eyes.
"I meant that my family has been busy, you idiot. Not me and Edward specifically," I said, hitting him over the head. I winced. It was like hitting a rock.
"With what?" Jacob asked.
"Edward and I have been looking to see what elementary school we want to send Crystal to, Toby's gotten in trouble at school a couple times for...roughhousing, a bit, and Eli's been having a hard time with the other girls and the guys in her grade."
"No surprise there, with Elizabeth," Jacob cut in. I gave him a look. "Well, if she were old enough, and if I didn't like you—" I rolled my eyes at him. "—then I'd be trying to imprint on her every time I saw her, she's beautiful. I mean, no wonder she has problems with other girls, she's prettier then them, and the problem with the guys is because guys think about one thing when they see a girl they think is pretty."
"Jacob!"
"What, it's true?"
"Oh, so that's what you think about every time you see me? You said you like me," I commented.
"Well..." Jake paused, his face turned red. "Yeah, that's what I think about when I see you."
I shook my head sadly.
"You are nuts," I stated. I heard a car door slam and looked out my window to see that Charlie was driving Billy somewhere. Why they were leaving, though, I had no idea, but they were leaving me and Jacob...alone...in my room. With Jacob sitting between me and the door.
"Well, Jake, not that the visit hasn't been fun, but I should probably go make dinner for my family," I said, but Jacob held my hand and stopped me from getting up.
"Jacob," I warned. He leaned closer to me. "Jacob, n-!" Jacob forced his lips on mine and pressed his body against mine. I tried to push him away, but he was about five million times stronger then me.
But he didn't just kiss me, of course not, he was too rude. Hadn't he just said that every time he saw me, he thought of one thing? And now he had the perfect opportunity! Edward wasn't here, Charlie wasn't here, Billy wasn't here, there were no witnesses, and I was trapped.
Jacob was harsh—taking out eleven years of anger and waiting on me in as much or as little time as he thought he had to do whatever he was planning to do me.
Alice's POV:
"Jasper, don't even try," I said with a giggle. I saw him sneaking up behind me before he actually did anything.
I turned around and pressed my lips against his expectant ones.
I pushed away all the nagging-ness of a vision, which worked for a while, but it was hard to repress it. The vision would usually take over, but I made it stay away for a good ten minutes before it came through. It always did.
"Alice?" I heard Jasper ask from far away. He could feel my emotions fading away; my mind fading into the vision.
"Bella, what happened?" Edward asks. Bella's face, torso, and legs are covered in her own blood, a very tempting smell. She is lying on her bed at Charlie's house when Edward finds her. The room smells faintly like werewolf, but Edward can't smell that anymore, since he's not a vampire. Bella is faint. She's having a hard time staying awake.
"Edward," Bella says weakly. "Edward, help me."
"How? Bella, how?!"
"Doctor," Bella tells him. "Get a doctor."
Edward tries to help her, but she loses more and more blood.
Bella loses more blood, and loses consciousness. After Bella is asleep, Edward works harder to keep her alive.
When it seems hopeless, Carlisle runs in from smelling the blood and hearing the screams. At this point, Edward has given up at saving her. Carlisle offers Edward a way to save Bella. They fight for a few minutes, but in the end, Carlisle bites Bella.
A/n: Alright, are you guys ready for the next chapter? It's coming quick, and it's got some twists!