Chapter twelve. Panics and life changing words.
I dropped the necklace and dug out the files. The first thing my eyes hit when I opened it up was a word.
Adoption.
My breathing hitched a couple of times. I bit my lip as I reached down the pick up the piece of paper in the file.
Adoption papers.
My heart rate accelerated immediately as I read through the words. It blurred past my vision and tears were forming in my eyes already.
Liars.
They lied.
Mom and dad, no, Carlisle and Esme…. They lied to me. I wasn't their biological daughter. I went through the folder looking for any other papers as such and found nothing. So Emmett and Alice were theirs. And I wasn't.
I felt myself choke as I dropped the papers and grabbed my phone in my pocket. I needed to talk to someone. I quickly switched on my phone and called Alice.
"Bella!" she answered perkily. Trust Alice to be happy and beaming. Alice… the girl whom I shared a room with the past fifteen years of my life. She was the best sister a girl could ask for.
Yet, she wasn't my sister.
"Alice…", I whispered.
"Ohmigod, where are you? We've been looking for you ever –"
"Alice can you come home?" I asked, sobbing, "please? I'm sorry for interrupting dinner, but I really need to talk to you."
"Is she ok?" I heard in the background.
"Bella? What's wrong?" asked Alice.
"Please come home", I pleaded her, "I just found out…"
"Let me talk to her!"
"No, Emmett! Get off the –"
"Bella? Bella, where are you?" Emmett's voice gave me reassurance.
"I'm home", I answered.
"Thank god, you came back home", he sighed.
"I was always home", I explained, "I'm in the attic Emmett. There's something you have to know –"
"You were in the attic the whole time?" Emmett demanded.
"The whole time of what?" I sniffed.
"We thought you sneaked out and… Bella? Are you crying?" Emmett's voice immediately softened.
"I'm adopted", I blurted in a gasp, "I just found out… they lied, Emmett, mom and dad lied."
……………………….
Emmett's POV
"We thought you sneaked out", I told her. I thought I heard some sniffs in the background. Alice was still poking me here and Edward kept demanding where she was. "And… Bella? Are you crying?"
"I'm adopted", she whispered, sounding terrified. My heart nearly stopped. No… she wasn't supposed to know. "I just found out… they lied, Emmett, mom and dad lied."
"Bella, I… am you sure?" I asked, shakily.
"Why is she crying?" demanded Alice.
"Yes, I'm sure", Bella sniffed, "I saw the papers. But you and Alice are theirs. I'm not… I'm not your sister…"
"Stay home", I said firmly, "I'm coming. Don't do anything. Jus stay there. Understand, Bella? Are you listening to me?"
"Yes, Emmett but I'm scared", she whimpered. My baby Bella… she was crying… she was scared.
"It's ok, Bells, I'm coming."
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Bella's POV.
"Bella!" gasped Emmett as he walked through the door. I was sitting in the living room, as soon as I heard the cars pulling up and went to the door.
Emmett wrapped me in a big bear hug, he held me close.
"I demand to know what's going on", snapped Alice walking through the door.
She took one look at me and stopped, allowing jasper to bump into her from the back.
"Bella… what's wrong?" whispered Alice.
"Why is she crying?" asked Edward walking through the door, followed by Rosalie.
"She was in the house all along", explained jasper, "she was in the attic and we thought she had sneaked out."
"Sneak out?" I asked pulling away from Emmett, "you guys thought I sneaked out?"
"We went to see you and you had disappeared", explained Rosalie, "what were we suppose to think?"
"So… you went out looking for me?" I asked. They all nodded.
"Oh… I thought you guys went to dinner or something", I mumbled.
"Bella, what's wrong?" asked Rosalie, "you're… you're crying. And Emmett has never parked his jeep that carelessly in his life."
My eyes began to water as I looked at her. At that precise moment, the front door was being opened and mum and dad stepped through the door.
"Hey kids", greeted dad, "how's it going?"
"Nice to see you all", said mum smiling brightly. Her smile disappeared when she saw my face, "Bella, honey. Are you ok?"
"You lied…", I whispered stepping back.
"She found the papers, dad", said Emmett in a lifeless tone. I turned around to him.
"You knew?" I screeched. A hard lump formed at the back of my throat. Emmett knew. He lied to. They all lied.
I whipped around to Alice.
"Did… did you know I was adopted?" I asked her.
"Adopted?" she repeated. She turned to her parents. "What's going on? Bella's adopted?"
"Whoa…", breathed jasper.
"We better leave", said Rosalie, "um, we'll talk later. Come on guys."
Rosalie and jasper made their way back into the hallway. Edward threw me a rueful look before, he too, went.
"I repeat, what. Is. Going. On?" Breathed Alice through gritted teeth. "What's all this about adoption?"
"I'm adopted", I told her, "I found the papers in the attic. My real name is Isabella Swan."
"I think we all need to sit down", said Carlisle. Alice came over to me and held my hand. We all sat on the sofa.
"How could you not tell me?" I whispered to Emmett, "how could you lie too?"
"Bella… I… I didn't know how…" began Emmett shaking his head, "it doesn't matter though, you're still my sister. We're still a family."
"Families don't lie to eachother", I hissed. I turned to Esme and Carlisle.
"When were you planning on telling me?" I asked.
"Bella… we didn't know how to tell you", Esme explained, "we wanted you to know but… it was hard."
"But I'm not your daughter! Don't you think that's a big piece of information I need to know?"
"But like Emmett says", said Alice, "it doesn't matter."
I turned to her. She was against me too? They were all against me? They lied and now they were against me?
"It does matter", I snapped, "you are not my parents. You are not my siblings. You are not my real family."
"But we are", said Emmett, "we're the ones who are always there for. Provided for you, cared for you. We love you Bella. That's what makes a real family. Love."
I stared at Emmett as another tear rolled down my cheeks. Who knew Emmett could be so profound?
"You still lied", I sniffed shaking my head, "and I woke up today as a Cullen, now I'm a Swan. Who are my real parents, anyway?"
"We don't know", Esme, said, "when we… found you, there was nothing apart from a note."
"I was abandoned", I whispered, "my parents abandoned me…"
"Yes, but we took you in Bella", said Carlisle, "we loved you and cared for you. And we didn't want to tell you that you didn't belong to us, because you do belong to us."
"How come Emmett knew?" asked Alice.
"I found her", said Emmett smugly, slightly smiling. "And I'm the one who convinced mom and dad to take you in."
I looked over to him and smiled.
"Why the hell did you go into the attic anyway?" he suddenly snapped, "You could've fallen and broken our neck? Do you know how many death traps there are up there?"
"I was trying to get away from Alice and Rose", I admitted, "I didn't want to talk to them."
"Why not?" demanded Alice.
"Cos I knew you would ask questions", I told her.
"Bella?" said Esme cautiously, "are you… are you with all of this? I mean, we never meant for you to find out like this. In fact, to be honest we never meant for you to find out at all, because you are our daughter Bella. Maybe not biologically but… finders keepers, eh Emmett?"
A booming laugh came from Emmett shaking the whole sofa, I looked at him questioningly but he was too busy laughing to explain.
"I'm ok… mom", I said nodding.
"Come here, baby", she whispered. I went over to my parents and got the most embarrassing hug in the history of hugs.
"What about me?" whined Alice.
"Come here", said Carlisle as Alice skipped over.
"And me", Emmett roared, crashing into us all.
"Emmett – get – off ", I puffed under him.
"Oh, sorry Bella."
