Chapter 11: crazy eyes, ice-bergs and more ice-bergs

"What about Esme?"

"She's dead."

I blinked, Edward's words hanging in the air.

"She's dead? How?" I asked.

Edward looked at Jacob and shook his head. "Let's go somewhere. I…I just need to think. Or talk."

I nodded, grabbing my bag and jacket. I waved to Jake, hoping he'd be cool with me leaving.

"Gotta go, J-"

"No, Bella. Wait a minute," Jake said, whispering. "Just think for a minute. Is this really a good idea? He has crazy eyes. Look at him, Bella. He is clearly not in control of his emotions right now"

I heard Edward snort behind me.

I shook my head at Jake. "I'll be fine. I'll call you." As I turned away from Jake to get into Edward's car, I knew I was being a bad friend. Jake cares. Really cares. But I was drawn to Edward like a moth to a flame. He needed me. He said he had nowhere else to. And his mother is dead. I can't let him leave alone. I continued walking, feeling Jacob's eyes on me. I'll make it up to Jake, I promised myself.

Edward drove only a few minutes away from the ranch and stopped next to the road passing the forest.

"Let's walk for a little while," he said, getting out of the car.

"Okay," I said, hesitating. Should I tell him about the random screams I heard earlier today? I wondered. We might stumble upon the massacre. But I shook my head and followed Edward, glad that I wore sensible shoes. If I'm lucky, I'll only fall down once.

We walked for quite a bit, in silence. Edward seemed to be thinking very carefully of what he wanted to say to me. After 10 minutes, however, I was getting hot and tired. But Edward was striding along just fine. But his mother just died. Who am I to judge how he copes with it. Anyway, he must have heard my huffing and puffing, because we stopped to rest.

"Do you want to talk about Esme?" I asked, leaning against a tree. I had never met Edward's mother. He also never mentioned her. But he was visibly upset when he told me about her death. Why did I never ask about her before? I wondered.

Edward shook his head. "I don't know. I can't just tell you about Esme. It's like showing you chapter 10 of a novel, hoping you'd understand."

"Then fill me in one the previous 9 chapters. We have time. And you can trust me."

He sat down next to me.

"Not so into the journalist thing anymore, are you?" he asked.

I shook my head. "No. This is off the record. Promise."

We were silent again for a while.

"Bella, I know it seems melodramatic to say this, but my family has a lot of secrets. You've only seen the tip of the ice-berg. Even I don't know everything. I don't think I ever will."

"What do you mean? What does your family secrets have to do with Esme?"

"It's like…like it doesn't even seem real to me," he said, ignoring my question. "My family is rich. That makes us powerful. Or my dad, at least. He has a lot of people working for him. Family-members. Employees. You could call us all his prisoners, in a way. He has something on everyone."

I nodded, motioning for him to continue.

"He is a doctor, but soon grew bored with it. He went into business after he married Esme. She didn't know a lot about it. She hosted the dinner parties, acted on the boards of charities. She loved him. And he loved her. It was a cherry on top that she never asked any questions."

He stopped again, pondering. It was like he is sifting through everything he wants to say. How ironic, I thought. Keeping secrets while telling me your secrets.

"Forks was a nice place to start over, a couple of years ago, after a few dealings went sour. A big company had bought Carlisle shares, he'd been completely forced out of more than one business. I think he was bored. He could have gotten his way. He always has. But he just let it be and we moved here. And, almost immediately, he had his hand in every cookie jar in town."

"How, thought?" I asked.

He hesitated again. "Money. Violence."

"Nobody resisted? Called the police? How can Carlisle have blackmail-material on so many people in Forks?"

"It's complicated. Err…we'll get to that."

"Okay."

"So, then we settled here, and we kids got older, we were asked to help. Small things at first, like picking up packages, driving people places…it seemed okay. But it gradually got worse. Carlisle doesn't like doing his own dirty work. He thinks its beneath him. Don't think he can't, though. Sometimes Emmett had to rough around a few people. I went along, sometimes joining in. But my main purpose was relaying messages. Threats. Jasper is Carlisle's right-hand man. He runs everything past him. Jasper is probably gonna take over one day. Alice and Rosalie did less heavy lifting. They have good ears, so they get sent to places we do business with to check if things are going smoothly. They're good with finding the few who try to run."

"That's awful, Edward."

"We were making him so happy though. And it seemed harmless enough. I mean, these people usually owed us money or breached contract or something."

"Normal people call the police, Edward."

"I know. But things went south last week."

"Donald?" I asked.

"No, even before that. A body was found in the woods, remember?"

"I think I do. I overheard Jessica and Angela talking about it the day of our first interview."

"Sound about right. The body was one of Carlisle's employees, Laurent. He was in charge of transporting drugs into Forks without anyone knowing. And he was good at it. He was murdered and that's why we were sent to Donald. He was an informant. There's this other family who want to take over in Forks. It's a small town with good people. Not a lot goes on here. There is no better place for buying and selling drugs. Apparently, he had info about Laurent. The other family…they're called the Volturi. Or at least, they are a part of the Volturi. One of the biggest drugdealer-organisations in the world."

I nodded, trying to wrap my head around everything that had been going on in and around Forks. How on earth do these people keep everything secret? I wondered.

"You still with me?" he asked.

"Yeah, continue."

"We were sent to Donald. Only to talk. But Emmett got carried away. I was supposed to just warn Donnie. He had to deliver a package, which contained evidence of the Volturi's involvement. Carlisle wouldn't step on any Volturi-toes without proof. They are very dangerous. And powerful. His paths had crossed theirs once and he never forgot about it. But when we got to Donnie…Emmett…well…he lost his temper."

"I think he did more than lose his temper, Edward. He killed him."

"I am so sorry, Bella. That was never supposed to happen. But it didn't make Carlisle very happy. We had no other connection to the Volturi. But at least the weed business does very well here. Which you know about."

"Yes."

"Esme had been in London for a week. She was at some charity thing. She always supported me when I said I didn't want to work for my father. I want to write. So I have been telling Carlisle for months now. He just wouldn't budge. But after Donnie…I threatened to leave and he came around. Emmett's drop was supposed to be my last job. Ever."

"What happened to Esme, Edward?" I asked, an uneasy feeling in my stomach.

"She came back early. From London." He took a deep breath, his voice shaky. "I don't know why she came early. She knows Carlisle doesn't like surprises." His voice broke. Edward was silent again, clearing his throat.

"Esme overheard everything about Donnie. During our first interview, Emmett had returned home to tell Carlisle about what happened." He took another deep breath. "And then, well…apparently she freaked. Started packing her bag, threatening take us all and leave him with nothing and no-one. Emmett said it was hysterical. Carlisle ordered him to leave and when we got home later, Carlisle said she'd returned to London to finish up some things. But…she…Esme…my mom was dead this whole time."

I had a knot in my throat. Edward continued.

"Emmett was suspicious. He called all the siblings for a meeting in the woods this morning. We were talking about going up to London together. Carlisle gets intense sometimes and we do it sometimes. But Carlisle showed up. And Emmett started accusing him. Carlisle just…exploded."

"He told you about Esme?"

"He spat it out like a snake trying to poison us. He kept saying how he no choice. She was going to ruin us. He kept saying how he did it for the family. Alice and Rosalie were…beside themselves."

"I think I heard them screaming."

"Yeah, probably."

"And Jasper?" I asked.

"He didn't know. I had never seen him like that. None of them, really. I don't know where they are. We all just left on our own. Carlisle begged us to stay. But I can't. Bella, I can't go back. I'll kill him."

A/N: Thanks for sticking around! And thanks for the reviews It's always great to hear from you all.