"Hello?" Renee answered the phone, as if she didn't have a care in the world.

"You were looking for me?" Bella replied very monotone. She was aggravated with her mother's persistence. I held her hand in mine and ran my thumb along her palm trying to help keep her calm.

"Bella, honey, how have you been?" Was this woman on something? She practically stalked a wrong number for hours to talk to Bella and now she's acting like this phone call is so unexpected.

"What do you want mom? I'm busy."

"I just wanted to talk to you. We never talk anymore Bella." She was whining! This woman was in her late 30's and she was whining. To her 18 year old daughter no less!

"You did not hound a wrong number for hours and call Dad making threats to come 'correct his parenting' looking for to 'catch up'. What do you want Renee?"

Renee sighed heavily before proceeding to get on with the matter at hand. "Alright fine; I'm calling because my taxes need to be done."

Bella rolled her eyes. "Then go get them done."

"I want you to do them. You always do them."

"Renee, I live in Washington with dad. How exactly do you expect me to file your taxes? Secondly, you are a grown woman. You should be able to get your taxes done on your own. Make an appointment with a tax professional."

"Why are you being so difficult Bella? It's not like…"

"Look, I am not doing your taxes. You have a husband; tell him to get them done. I am not responsible for getting you through life. It's time to grow up Renee."

"How dare…"

"How dare I? Are you serious with this bullshit right now? You know what I am done with you. Don't call, don't e-mail and don't write. I am done! Enjoy your life Renee." And with that Bella hung up on her mother.

She called Charlie and told him to change his phone number. We had never gotten her a cell phone and so changing that wasn't an issue. She asked me to bring her back to Charlie's house and I did. She was very angry and there wasn't much I could do to try and calm her in the car. I knew she needed to work through her feelings and so I had to let her, even though I wanted to just make it all okay for her.

We walked into Charlie's house and when she headed for the basement I was confused but followed her anyway. She turned on a CD player that had a mix of rock music on it and she started wailing on a punching bag that I hadn't initially noticed. Bella didn't strike me as someone who would be keen on using a punching bag at all. I knew she was upset but I guess I underestimated how upset she really was. After a few minutes of her wailing on the punching bag I started trying to get her attention so I could calm her down but she wasn't acknowledging me at all. She started to mumble to herself about how pissed off at Renee she was and how sick she was of being blamed for Renee's immaturity, and it was just getting her more mad by the minute. She had every right to be mad, but after about 10 minutes of unsuccessfully trying to gain her attention I decided to call for reinforcements. I called Esme.

Ring. "Hello?"

"Mom, can you come to Charlie's house? I need your help with Bella."

"I'm on my way. Is she alright? Is she sick?"

"No she's not sick, she's angry. She got into a fight with Renee on the phone and… Well you'll see when you get here." I was running my fingers through my hair while staring at Bella, glad for her extra strength so that she wouldn't rip open her knuckles.

"I'll be there in two minutes." And she hung up.

When Esme arrived, she came down to the basement and after listening to Bella mumble for a minute she asked me about the phone call. I quickly told her about the phone call and she seemed to be just as angry as I was. Bella was her daughter too and to have a woman who was supposed to take care of Bella talk to her like that incised her. She walked over to Bella and stood in front of her but off to the side.

"Bella, sweetheart?"

Bella didn't say anything but she acknowledged Esme with a grunt.

"Sweetheart, let's go home and talk about it."

"What is there to talk about?"

"What happened with your mother?"

"DO NOT call her that! She is not my mother. I stopped calling her mom six years ago."

"I know sweetie but…"

"NO! No, buts! I hate her, I hate her!" She was hitting the bag harder than before and she now had tears running down her face and if Esme and I could cry we would be.

"Sweetheart it's okay; come on, let us take you home." Esme put her hand on her shoulder and tried to get Bella to stop hitting the punching bag, but she only tried to hit the bag harder and faster. Esme wrapped her arms around Bella securing her arms in place, while Bella kept thrashing in her arms, screaming and crying. I knew she was in severe emotional pain, and I was so thankful for Esme at that moment. She just sank down to the floor with her and rocked her, whispering to her that she loved her and that she would always be there for her and take care of her. It killed me to see her like that and not be able to help her, but she needed her mother. Not the self serving one she had in Renee but the one who truly loved her despite the short time they had known each other.

Esme had seen that Bella had always played the role of adult and never had anyone to lean on but herself. She had taken up that role quickly and fully for Bella. Esme was her mother.

Emotionally exhausted, she finally fell asleep in Esme's arms after about 20 minutes of heavy crying. I lifted her from my mother's arms and carried her out to the car, placing her in the passenger seat. Esme followed us home in her car, talking to Carlisle and Charlie on the phone and filling them in on what happened. Charlie was going to come to the house later to discuss how to deal with Renee and check on Bella.

When we got home I brought Bella into the house and directly upstairs to our room. I laid her on the bed and I was going to go and get some water for her for when she woke, however she started to wake up and she called out to me so I crawled into bed with her and wrapped myself around her. She clung to me but settled down and fell back asleep.

Charlie showed up about an hour later and they all came up to our room so that we could discuss a plan without waking Bella. Of course this was only necessary for Charlie's sake. I could tell he was uncomfortable with the position I was in with Bella currently, but it was comforting to her so I wasn't going to move.

Charlie asked for me to go over the phone call again. He was quickly frustrated and started pacing the room. "I knew Renee was flighty and everything, but I had no idea that Bella was doing so much in the house. Her next step is probably going to be to come here and make Bella move to Florida." He sat down heavily in the chair he was using and I started to growl lowly at just the thought of losing Bella. That woman would not be taking MY Bella from me.

"Does Renee have full custody of her Charlie?" Esme asked.

"Yes. She is going to be 18 soon and we didn't see the need to change the agreement for the sake of a few months."

Jasper got up and asked to speak to Carlisle in the hall for a moment. Charlie raised his eyebrows in question as to why they were leaving and I told him Jasper had been having some medical issues lately.

"Edward" Jasper called in vampire pitch, "I have an idea but we would have to call Jenks in for it."

"And what might that be?"

"We emancipate her. She would be legally responsible for herself and Renee wouldn't be able to make her go anywhere. We could tell Charlie that Carlisle called his lawyer to gain information on the process in case there was ever a need for it, in light of Bella's last conversation with Renee."

"Try it." I whispered.

Carlisle came back into the room and reiterated the conversation Jasper, him and I had just had. Charlie was okay with the idea but doubted we would have the time to get it finalized before Renee would show up here.

"Charlie when I brought it up to my lawyer he told me he would start on the paper work and if I needed it he would just have to file it. I'll go to my office and call him." Carlisle stepped out to go and meet up with Jasper, who was already on the phone with Jenks giving him the instructions on what we wanted done and telling him we needed it ASAP. Jenks promised tomorrow evening for the completed papers. Jasper hung up and whispered to me that everything was taken care of. Carlisle walked back into the room and told Charlie that his lawyer had a Judge friend and that he would be putting the papers through first thing in the morning.

With the decision made on how to protect Bella from her mother, Charlie left asking me to have Bella call him in the morning. The family left the room shortly after, all of them whispering goodnight to her. They were all pissed at Renee, especially the women of the house and so they all decided to go hunting to work off their anger. I stayed wrapped around Bella for the rest of the evening, purring hoping to comfort her even in her sleep. She didn't wake until the following morning.

"Edward…" she whispered.

"I'm here love." She pulled herself closer to me and cried a bit.

"I'm sorry Edward. I've only gotten that angry once before and Renee and I didn't talk for two months. Of course she was out of town the entire time and when she came home acted like nothing had happened. It was however the best two months I had had in a long time." She laughed a small weak laugh. "Anyway, I could hear you trying to talk to me but I was too angry to respond. Is Esme here?"

"They are out hunting right now. They'll be back soon." I kissed her hair and she clutched me impossibly closer. "Love, while you were sleeping last night we all had a discussion, including your father. He is worried just as we are that Renee might come here and try to force you to move to Florida with her." She tensed but let me continue. "Jasper called our lawyer and we are having papers drawn up to emancipate you so that she can't do that."

"Really? Oh, Edward thanks so much for thinking of doing that for me! It is completely unnecessary though. I have been emancipated for almost 6 months. How do you think I was able to get the tattoo? Tell Jasper to cancel the papers. I only stayed with Renee long enough to be able to get her to peacefully allow me to go to live with Charlie."

My mate, how smart she was. "I would never be able to leave you, Edward even if I wasn't emancipated." She placed kisses all over my face and I just laughed, happy that she was happy. I heard the family come home and informed Bella that they had arrived. She jumped out of my arms and ran downstairs to meet them; enveloping Esme in her arms as tight as she could.

"Thank you so much for yesterday. I love you so much and I could never have asked for a better mom." She whispered into Esme's ear, even though we could all hear her.

"My baby you are so welcome. I will always be there when you need me."

Bella pulled away from Esme with a smile on her face and turned her head until she located Jasper. She ran into his arms too, Jasper catching her in surprise.

"Thank you so much Jasper for coming up with the plan of emancipating me. I'm so glad I get to have you as a brother. However it is unnecessary as I am already emancipated." Jasper smiled and kissed the top of her head.

"Little sister I would do anything for you. Now if you'll excuse me for a moment it looks like I have a phone call to make."

Bella ate some breakfast and called Charlie. They talked for a while and she thanked him for being so cool about everything and explained about being emancipated. After she got off the phone and finished eating breakfast, we decided to have a family night in. We watched movie's, told stories, and just had fun as a family. It was during this time that Alice went into a vision. I started to growl immediately.

"What's wrong Edward?" Bella asked.

"Renee will be here in two days."

"Of course she will be. Well I'll worry about her in two days. Come on love. Let's go take a bath." I smiled at her and got up to follow her.

Good for her for not letting Renee get her down ~ Esme

That was pretty much the general consensus of our family, as we left them to go retire to our room for night, to enjoy what was sure to be an eventful bath.