Chapter 14

Bella POV

When I woke up, the letter was gone.

What the hell?

"Mom, dad!" I shouted as I ran down the stairs, still in my pajamas. "Where is my letter! It was on my nightstand, and now it's-" I stopped in the doorway of the kitchen when I saw something unspeakable. "M-mom?" I whispered.

She slowly turned away from the counter, my letter in her hand.

"What are you doing?" I asked quietly, biting back my anger.

"It's not what it looks like," she said quickly.

My eyes scanned the counter behind her. I saw the blinking light of the garbage disposal, meaning it was being used. I saw two other letters sitting on the counter next to it, and my letter from today in her hand.

"You're destroying the letters!" I accused, though, my accusation was definitely correct.

"Bella, just calm down," she said in an overly calm voice.

I charged over and ripped the letter from her hand.

"How dare you! You think you can try and wreck everything I have with Edward?! You're such a…" I paused, trying to think of the right word to call someone like her. I found it. "A bitch!"

She gasped.

It all happened in slow motion then. Her hand whipped out, sending me flying across the room. My head smacked into the counter, and I heard her say, "Bella, I'm sorry!"

My eyes were shut. There was a loud ringing in my ear, and it was hard to identify what was going on. I could feel warm wetness pooling from the back of my head, where my head had smacked against the counter top. My eyes slowly opened, but I wasn't controlling the action. I looked down at the floor I was on and saw red. My blood. I looked up from the floor and saw my mom talking frantically on the phone. She was crying, with blood dripping off her fingers.

"It was an accident, Charlie!" she bawled into the phone. "I only meant to slap her, but I-" She stopped, and I could hear my dad's angry yelling from the phone from all the way over here. "I was going to slap her because she called me a…. What do you mean you don't care what she was going to say?! She can't speak to me like that!"

I shut my eyes again, letting myself drift into unconsciousness.

* * *

Beep. Beep. Beep.

I could feel my eyelids fluttering.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The beeping rhythm was getting on my nerves. I knew the sound, though. It was like a…. Ugh, I couldn't even remember. I didn't even know where I was. I didn't even know what had happened!

I moved my hands around, trying to find out where I was. I could feel softness. Sheets. A bed. I was on a bed.

"Look, Charlie, she's waking up!" I heard my mom's voice shout.

I blew out a breath I didn't know I had been holding, then opened my eyes.

My mom and dad were sitting next to the bed I was on. I looked around the room. The walls were white, and I could see an open door, revealing a hospital hallway. I was in the hospital…? Why?

"W-what happened?" I asked in a croaky voice.

My dad took my hand, and I looked down at our entwined hands. I nearly vomited when I saw what was stuck inside the vein of my wrist. A big IV needle.

"You don't remember?" my mom gasped, her eyes wide.

I furrowed my brows, thinking hard. All I could remember was…nothing really. I couldn't really remember anything that happened recently. All I remembered was me walking home during October, then, it all went black. Everything from me walking home, and back, I could remember. However, I couldn't remember anything after me walking home.

I shook my head. "All I remember is me walking home. It was October 11th, and…then it goes black."

My mom and dad gave each other panicked looks.

"What?" I asked, annoyed. I felt a big stinging in the back of my head and winced. "Ugh, my head is killing me. Is that why I'm here? Did I fall when I was walking home, or something?" That wouldn't be unlikely.

"Honey, do you remember what happened these past few months?" my dad asked, his voice tight.

I looked down at my arms. They were covered in scratches. I tried really hard to remember where I got them, but I couldn't.

"No," I said.

My dad smacked his head. "Oh, no." He held his face in his hands, and mumbled something that sounded like, "The poor guy."

My mom started to burst out crying, and I flinched. She ran from the room, and my dad didn't even move.

"Maybe it wasn't meant to be," my dad whispered into his hands.

"Dad, please, what happened?" I begged. I knew I was missing something huge. It felt like a big chunk of…something, was gone from my head. It was something important. I could even feel a tugging at my heart, a pain. Not a physical pain, but an emotional one. Why would I be emotionally sad?

"I…don't know where to begin," he whispered. He shook his head. "No, when he gets out, that's when you'll know."

"When who gets out of where?!" I was getting annoyed now.

"It's not my story to tell," he whispered, looking me straight in the eyes. "Maybe, in time, you'll remember."

I hoped my dad was right, because, apparently, I was missing a lot. It felt like I had been asleep for the longest time ever.

"I hope you're right," I said aloud.

My dad kissed my forehead, then said, "I'm going to go check on your mother, then we'll go home."

I nodded, watching as he walked out.

I was home now. The doctor said I fell, but when he said this, my mother started crying again, saying over and over she was sorry. For what? I had stitches on the back of my head, and when they showed me them, I actually vomited. They were weaving in and out of my scalp, covered in dry, crusty blood.

I decided to sleep now. There was nothing else to do. When I walked into the kitchen, there was dry blood scattered across the floor. I asked my dad what happened, but he wouldn't tell me.

Strange.

It was about midnight, and I was fighting to keep my eyes open. I knew it was silly, but I was afraid to go to sleep. I thought maybe I'd miss another chunk of my life.

I lay in my bed, wrapped in my purple sheets like they were a warm cocoon. For some reason, I didn't feel safe. I felt like I was being watched by someone. I felt haunted, like there was a dark, but inviting past somewhere. I searched my mind the whole night, trying to find one bit of information that could uncover the whole ship load that was lost somewhere in the deep depths of my mind.

By the time I gave up searching, it was four in the morning. I sighed, then shut my nightstand light off. I'd get some sleep, and maybe all the answers I had been searching for would turn up. I hoped they would.

Edward POV

Clank. Clank. Clank.

What the hell! Can a guy get some fucking sleep around here?

I jumped from my cot, then went over to where the clanking was coming from. Some asshole was smacking against the jail cell bars.

"What do you want, Chief?" I asked drowsily, rubbing my eyes.

He gulped. "Edward, I have bad news."

I went rigid.

Why did everything that was bad have to come my way? It was like I had a fucking black cat stitched to my back.

I took a deep breath, then blew it out.

I couldn't see anything. The only light that showed the faint outline of the Chief was the moonlight. From what I could see, he was biting his lip, staring down at something in his hands.

"Just say it," I whispered.

"It's Bella."

I think my heart may have detached from my chest, and was now plummeting painfully slow down to my stomach.

"Is she…hurt?" I asked in a tight voice. It felt like my fucking throat was closing in on itself.

"Not really," he said.

I grabbed his shirt through the bars, and pulled him against them roughly. It made a loud cracking sound.

"Don't be so fucking cryptic! Either she's hurt, or she's not!"

"I wouldn't know what the definition of hurt would be for this situation," he explained quickly. "Just, let me go, and I'll explain."

I took a deep breath, then threw him away from the bars.

"Spit it out," I hissed between clenched teeth.

He cleared his throat while adjusting his messed up shirt.

"Her mother hit her."

That bitch was going to be fucking messed up in the face.

"Did she get arrested?" I asked, hopeful.

"No."

I kicked the bars, and they shook.

"Why the hell not?! I get sent to jail for doing nothing, and this bitch hits her daughter and doesn't get sent away?! That's fucking messed up."

"I know, Edward. But, she is a very rich person. You know how it is. Also, she claims she didn't mean to hit her that hard."

I went up to the bars again, and wrapped my tight fists around the bars, sticking my face out.

"How hard are we talking?" I growled.

I almost smiled at the image of me pushing that bitch down a flight of stairs. Ah, that would be nice.

"She meant to slap her, but apparently she used more force than was necessary. She passed out after smacking her head against a granite counter top, and went to the hospital."

My eyes widened. "Is she-is she okay?" I stuttered, fighting back the urge to start crying like a baby.

"She woke up, but…"

Spit it out!

"She lost her memory, Edward. She can't remember anything from before the day she was walking home from school - the day she was kidnapped."

My brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, she has no memory of James kidnapping her, no memory of her mother hitting her, and…she has no idea who you are."

The song used in this chapter is Breathe Me by Sia. It's a very good song :) anyways, you know the drill.

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