A.N. New chapter – WOO! Enjoy! Please review at the bottom!
BPOV
The next few weeks passed by fairly quickly. Nothing much happened and I found myself relaxing even more. I hadn't told my brothers anything else and I think they were slightly annoyed that I wouldn't tell them what was going on.
Jared and I had also fallen into a steady rhythm around each other. We often spent our frees together now. I think my brothers were watching me even more now, now that they have seen me and Jared together. Nothing is going on between us though, I am sure of it. We are just friends. I am not ready for anything more.
Emily and I were in English one morning when we were each given newspaper articles to have a look at. We had to deconstruct them and answer heaps of questions. Emily was sitting next to me today and reading her article quietly. She and I looked to be the only ones actually doing the work. When Emily was finished I heard her mutter to herself,
"That is so sad. Her family must be devastated."
I looked over to see what she was talking about. I saw the headline 'Long time cancer patient battle ends'. The article hit close to home so I took a closer look and saw my mother's name printed all over the paper. I started hyperventilating; I looked at the date and saw it was from yesterday. She was actually gone, Mom had passed away. Before I could stop them, the tears had started flowing. Emily was extremely worried now.
"Bella? Honey, what's wrong? Did you know this Renee Dwyer?" Emily asked leaning over to give me a hug.
Between tears I managed to choke out that she was my mom. Emily was shocked but handled the situation quickly by helping me up and leading me over to the teacher. I hadn't noticed it but the whole class was now staring at me wondering what had happened.
"Excuse me Miss, but can I take Bella to one of her brothers. My newspaper article had to do with her mom passing away; she needs some comfort from at least one of her brothers." Emily said quietly so no one in the class could overhear.
"Oh, yes, absolutely, go ahead, I am so sorry sweetheart. If I had known, I wouldn't have added that article in today's lesson. Is there anything I can do for you?" my teacher replied grabbing a few tissues from the box on her desk. My tears hadn't stopped and I was starting to feel numb.
I knew my mom wasn't well and the doctors had said that she didn't have much longer but this came on a lot sooner than I expected. I felt guilty because I haven't spoken to mom in at least a week. I didn't keep my promise to keep in contact.
Emily kept her arm around me as she led me down the halls and to one of my brothers' classes. She knocking on a door, the teacher answered, took one look at me and immediately became worried.
"What can I do for you?" he asked Emily.
"Can Paul please come out here? Bella needs her brother at the moment. He probably won't be back to class either." Emily said.
Paul, hearing his name, looked up. When he saw me he jumped up and came running over.
"Bellsy, what's wrong. Do I have to beat someone up?" he asked as he pulled me into a comforting hug.
"Paul you might want to come out here to hear this. Can you just watch Bella for a few minutes while I get your other brothers? I don't think Bella or I want to repeat this too many times." With that, Emily was off, she ran down the corridor going to get Jake, Embry and Quil.
Paul sunk down to the floor with me cradled in his lap. He didn't ask anymore questions, he just tried to calm me down.
I heard heavy footsteps and then my other brothers were there as well. They had run the whole way when Emily had told them I was really upset and I was crying.
"What's wrong darling? What happened?" Embry asked.
"M…mm…mom's gg…gone." I cried out through my tears.
At that moment, Emily handed the newspaper article to Paul. I hadn't realized she had kept it with her. It made it easier for me I guess to not have to give them too many details at the moment.
Paul continued to hug me as all my brothers crowded around to read the article.
"Wait a minute, Mom's dead? But how did we not know she had cancer. Why didn't she tell us? Why didn't you tell us Bella?" Jake said shocked. I could see tears in all of their eyes.
"I…I'm s…s…sorry. S…she told me not to tell you. Y…you would just w…worry." I said breaking down even more. We sat there on the floor till the bell was about to ring and then Paul carried me out to the front of the school and placed me in the back seat of his car.
"You guys stay here for a minute; I will go and sign us out. Emily can you come with me please?" Paul said.
Embry and Quil climbed in the back with me. I curled up around Embry as Quil made soothing circles on my back.
PPOV
I ran over to the front office with Emily trailing behind me. I still couldn't believe mom was gone. I mean, I haven't seen her in about 12-13 years. I kind of disowned her as my mother for her ditching us like that, but that didn't mean I couldn't still be upset that she was dead. Why hadn't Bella told us she was sick? Is that why she finally came back to live with us?
I told the receptionist that there was a family emergency and from the look on my face she didn't question me as I signed out my siblings.
Emily had finally caught up so as I left the office I turned to her.
"If anyone asks where we are can you not tell them what just happened? If one of our close friends asks though can you just let them know it is a family thing or something? I am sure they will already know but can you make sure they don't tell anyone else? Thanks for being there for us and Bella especially. You are such a good friend." I said.
"Thanks, I will do my best to make sure the information doesn't spread. Everyone is here to support you though, so if you need anything, just call one of us and we will come. Now off you go, your brothers and sister need you." She said, giving me a quick hug before pushing me away.
I ran back over to the car where Bella was still being held by Embry as Quil rubbed her back. Jake still looked pretty out of it in the front seat. Me and him had the strongest memories of mom since we were older when she left. Jake had always been close with her when she lived with us and he had been so upset when she had left.
When everyone had figured out how to put their seatbelts on while being out of it like Jake or being hugged like Bella, I set off for home. I wasn't sure if dad knew what had happened but I knew when we got home I would have to call him.
When we got home, Bella was still curled around Embry and didn't look like she would be letting go anytime soon. I opened Embry's door and undid both there seatbelts before Embry climbed out of the car carrying Bella bridal style into the house.
He sat down on the couch with Quil and Jake on either side.
"Come here Bellsy." Jake said. Bella slowly uncurled herself and moved over to Jake's lap, stretching out so her legs stayed in Embry's lap. The tears had started up again and I felt so bad. I couldn't let my emotions show but I knew as soon as I had a chance to myself, I would break down. For the moment at least I had to stay strong for my siblings.
I walked into the kitchen so I could speak to dad without the others overhearing.
"Chief Swan speaking."
"Uh, hey Dad, it's Paul, umm, I think you should come home." I said, this is so hard! How am I supposed to tell him his ex-wife is dead?
"Paul, what's wrong? Why do I have to come home?" he asked, worried as to what we have gotten up to.
"Well, uh, Bella was in English and they were doing stuff with newspapers when she saw an article about our mom. She died of cancer a yesterday; apparently she was a long time patient. Bella knew but mom told her not to tell us. She didn't want us to worry. Um, we are all home, Bella isn't doing to well and Jake is completely spaced out. Embry and Quil are mainly just trying to comfort Bella." I said, trying to get everything out as quickly as possible. The whole time I spoke, Dad didn't interrupt me once. I was getting worried when he continued not to say anything.
"Dad? You still there?" I asked hoping to get an answer. At that moment, he snapped out of it.
"Yeah Paul, I'm still here. Uh, okay, well I will start packing up here and I will be there as soon as possible. How are you doing?" he asked.
"Um, I'm holding it together at the moment. I'll be fine. See you soon." I said before hanging up so he could go and pack up at the station.
A.N. How was this for a chapter? Was this what some of you had guessed about Bella's mom? Hope you enjoyed and there should be more coming soon!
