Author's Note: Okay, so first of all I would like to apologize for first not posting for over a year and then telling you that I'd have the next chapter up a few weeks after. Ummm…yeah. Really sorry about that. I don't have a good reason, I just had a lot of things going on in my life right now and so…..a huge delay. Anyway, I'm hoping that after this chapter the posting will get better and then maybe I'll start to update Silver Eyes and some of my other…ahem…unfinished works. So here we go! As always, reviews are appreciated – if I have any followers left, that is….*eyes dart around nervously*

Chapter 10: Verity

Bella P.O.V.

To say that Rosalie looked angry would be an understatement. She was enraged. Her eyes were nearly black, the pupil barely visible and I was sure that in a few seconds she'd be foaming at the mouth. And yet there was something deeper, something hidden beneath her carefully composed features that hit me hard – she was hurting. Rosalie was in pain because of me.

She continued staring me down and then exhaled, her anger deflating slightly. She closed her eyes for a moment and spoke in a soft, even tone.

"How long have you known?"

I picked at the loose threads on my sweater. "Since I met Steven."

"And the baby….it's his. And that means…." She seemed unwilling to even accept this information.

"Yes. I'm so sor – "

"Don't." Rosalie returned her gaze to mine and glared. "Because you never deemed it necessary to volunteer the information that your baby is a half-human, half-vampire fetus, you both might die. And I don't really care if you die, but I want that baby, Bella. I've always wanted children, always. You have no idea what you've done. You might have just stolen that from me."

I tried again. "I'm sorry."

An eerie calm seemed to settle in the stale air between us. "I'm not going to forgive you, Bella. Not until I know that the baby is healthy."

She stood up and walked out of the room, careful to shut the door behind her. It wasn't until after she was long gone that the tears came. The dam had broken, and for the first time since Steven died I was forced to realize how far my life had gotten off track. I cried for hours – long, self-pitying sobs that Rosalie and Emmett and all the others must have heard and ignored. I was left alone.

Part of me wanted to curl up into a little ball and never come out, never wake up, never face all the messes I had made. Rosalie was a good person – she really was. I was the selfish, teenaged brat giving up my baby because I couldn't deal. She was right, I had risked the baby's life – I'd risked my life. I had known the pains weren't normal….I hadn't said anything.

"What's wrong with me?" I whispered, clutching the blanket closer.

A figure emerged then, hopping effortlessly over the window sill with a grace I would never be able to achieve.

"There's nothing wrong with you, Bella."

I backed away from Edward at first – there was no forgetting the last time we were alone together. The way he had thrown himself out the door, as if he couldn't stand to be close to me for one more second.

"You don't know that," I snapped. Even as fragile as I was, my temper still seemed to flare at the worst of times.

He sighed and stepped forward. "I want to apologize to you about the other night. I….should have handled myself better."

I kept my mouth shut.

"I heard your conversation with Rosalie," he admitted. His left hand ran through his hair, tugging at the roots.

He didn't just hear it, he eavesdropped, but I didn't voice my thoughts. "So you know. "

"So you know."

We'd spoken at the same time. He gestured for me to continue.

"I lied to everyone, Edward. What if the baby dies? Rose will never forgive me." I had no idea how it was even possible to be feeling so many things at once.

"You aren't afraid of us at all, are you?"

I stared at my fingers, lacing them together. "When I first found out what he was, I told him that I never wanted to see him again. He was, at the time, the most important thing to me – and he had lied about everything. His parents weren't traveling – they were long dead, he didn't have to stay on some strange diet – he had drained some poor animal earlier that week. I was having a harder time dealing with the lying part than I was the vampire part."

A harsh laugh escaped me.

"It didn't take long before I came crawling back, though. It was like gravity between us. Separation wasn't possible. He apologized over and over until I couldn't even bear to hear the words. He was sorry and I loved him."

Edward knelt beside me, looking up at my face with sympathetic gold eyes.

"He told me things in small pieces over time. I was slowly able to connect the fragments until they made sense. He was nineteen, physically, and two-hundred in reality. He always wanted to take me sailing…."

"When did…when….?"

I bit my lip. "He was going to leave me. He had been summoned to meet with the Volturi. He was trying to protect me…somehow. We slept together right before and I woke up alone. My father told me that Steven was murdered in Italy. The letter came for me, but Charlie had read it – I had fallen into a haze of pain. It simply stated that he was dead. He wasn't coming back. I had thought he was indestructible and they killed him."

"There wasn't a funeral. His traveling parents didn't show up, obviously, and as far as the school and everyone else was concerned he was just another teenage runaway. After all, how could anything bad happen in a town as small and unassuming as Forks?"

"Charlie tried to convince the men at the station that the Caligary case was important to look into, but I had burned the letter, the most important piece of evidence. Days after that, I found out I was pregnant. And days after that I decided to give the baby away. What kind of mother would I make? My boyfriend was dead and I was a wreck. I wanted to disappear."

"Then I found Rose and Emmett. I knew they were vampires when I first saw their eyes, though it had taken me a minute to accept it. In the end, though, I liked the idea of Steven's child being raised by vampires. Their eye color told me they were harmless, and Rosalie had been so kind. The decision was made. Rosalie would get to be a mom and I would be able to fade away. I would be able to see him. Be with him forever, like I'd always wanted."

Edward was silent for a few moments after I finished. He didn't meet my gaze, just sat beside me on the bed.

"Would you promise me something?" He grabbed my wrists gently and brushed his thumb across the knuckles on my right hand.

"Yes," I said softly, but I tugged my hand out of his grasp.

He considered his words carefully – the sentence was slow and unsure. "Please…don't just fade away – don't disappear."

Something stirred in me, an emotion that I had locked away in a dusty corner of my heart. I forced my thoughts away. "Why, though, Edward? I don't have anything left."

His eyes darkened. "Bella, listen to me. Rosalie's upset right now – she has wanted to be a mother since she was just a child herself – but she does care for you. Emmett thinks you're the most hilarious person he's ever met. Alice is jumping out of her skin at the very prospect of shopping with you again. Carlisle wants to get to know you; he thinks you're an incredibly interesting person. Esme – well, you haven't really met her yet but you have no idea how highly she thinks of you. Jasper is pleased that you're making Alice happy – you have his seal of approval. And I – I care for you, Bella. We would all be affected if you left."

There were so many things that I wanted to say. I wanted to tell him that of course I cared for Rose and Em and Alice and even the rest of the Cullen clan. That I even cared for him – probably more than I should have. But my thoughts were all blurred, my hormones running wild. One minute I wanted to burst into tears and the next I was seriously considering slapping a vampire. And then, as the minutes ticked by of Edward waiting for my response, I thought of Steven.

I remembered the way his nose was crooked – it had obviously been broken at some point. I remembered the way his eye lashes were long enough to make me jealous. I remembered trailing my hands over his broad shoulders and tangling my fingers in his hair. I remembered the open-mouthed kisses he had left in the hollow at my throat. I remembered how much I loved him.

Yes, I did care for the Cullens.

It was just that I loved Steven more.

Rosalie P.O.V.

I imagined her with long blonde hair, a shade fairer than my own. She would have brown eyes like Bella, and they would always be wide with curiosity. In my fairy-tale, I called her Verity. Lux et Veritas – light and truth. Because that was what she was – would be – my truth, my everything and always. Emmett would love her. I could easily picture him twirling her around, taking her go cart racing and who knows how many other crazy things I would disapprove of. Alice would like to dress her in ridiculously frilly outfits complete with lace and ribbons and ruffles. She would have two, bright red cheeks that flushed with color when she was happy or embarrassed or angry or excited. And she would love me, look at me the way children looked at their mothers – with such complete trust it was heartbreaking.

But now that image was tainted. That perfect, extraordinary life I had created was tinged with darkness. The little girl was now deathly pale. She didn't blush and twirl. Instead, she smiled, flashed sparkling white teeth, and lunged for a young fawn's jugular.

Edward turned his furrowed, uptight, I-am-worried-all-the-time frown in my direction.

I growled at him. Get out of my head, you poking, prying bastard.

But I couldn't stop the pictures from forming. My daughter, my lovely perfect daughter glimmering in the sun. And it wasn't beautiful or magical. My baby, my only reason for existing – wiping her mouth clean after swallowing mouthful after mouthful of blood.

Verity, with those inquisitive eyes a shocking, disturbing shade of crimson.

Verity, in black robes and paper-thin skin, one of Aro's minions, his slaves.

Verity, frozen in a state of non-being, suspended in time.

Verity, to end up like me.

Author's Note: This took me a while to get out, but I can't imagine it any different. I hope that it holds up to your standards – I hope that it's good. Rosalie's section nearly brought me to tears. Please read and review. Share any thoughts, questions, criticisms you may have.

Love,

R