Chapter Fourteen
It was noon when we met Ian at the border. He had two vampires with him. I recognized them as Evan Cameron and his mate Kamaria (or Kam, as she preferred to be called) from my wedding.
Emily's face fell. "That's all?"
Ian sighed and nodded. "I spoke to six others, but no one wanted to get involved in yet another Volturi matter, not given the circumstances."
Who could blame them? The Volturi hadn't heard of the Winters until they'd gotten involved with us. What was to stop them from taking a special interest in anyone that decided to side with us? If the Volturi knew that their sympathy was with us, it could place them in a very precarious position.
"Thank you for coming," Emily said to the two.
Evan nodded his head. "We're glad to help. William certainly hasn't been doing us any favours."
"The murders in Seattle have gone international," Kam continued. "It's made it even harder for us to hunt subtly."
I shivered involuntarily.
"We really do appreciate the risk you are taking," Grandpa Carlisle said.
"Anything for our friends," Kam said, smiling at the Winters, and then at us.
I went with Emily, Uncle Jasper and Aunt Alice for the second half of the trip. Ours was the second car to leave the border. We followed Ian, Rob and Jacob's car for several hours before we stopped at a rest stop outside of Jasper National Park, to everyone's amusement, to refuel and get something to eat. I stayed at the car with Uncle Jasper while Emily and Aunt Alice went to get food.
"Shall I get you something, Nessie?" Emily asked.
"No thank you," I said, still adequately nourished from yesterday's blood packet.
"Do you want anything, Jazz?" Emily asked. "Some type-J, maybe?"
She and Uncle Jasper chuckled wickedly. Aunt Alice rolled her eyes.
I raised an eyebrow and looked at my uncle. "What exactly did the two of you do to J. Jenks?"
He glanced at me with a slight smile. "Some things are better left unexplained."
"I'd be sorry I asked, wouldn't I?" I asked him.
"Probably."
I shook my head. Well, it could have been worse. I could only imagine what would have happened to our poor, abused lawyer if Uncle Emmett had gone with Uncle Jasper in Emily's stead. Or, worse yet, if all three of them had gone.
"Are you feeling alright?" he asked casually.
I looked at him quickly. "What do you mean?"
"You've been very tense lately."
I turned my head as I rolled my eyes. "Did my dad put you up to this?"
"No."
I sighed. "I'm fine. It's just relationship stuff."
He half-smiled. "I'll mind my own business," he said.
Thank goodness there was one person in my family capable of taking a hint.
Aunt Alice and Emily returned bearing sandwiches and water for herself and Jacob. Rebecca, like me, had declined food in the hopes of going for a hunt. I noticed that her eyes, usually brown, had darkened to an almost brown-black shade.
Once we got back on the road, Emily's good spirits vanished and she resumed her quiet, brooding and reclusive attitude.
"You should eat that," I murmured to her, gesturing to the unopened sandwich in her lap. She was staring out the window, her now darkened blue eyes betraying her hunger.
She looked at me and then looked away again. "I'm not hungry."
"Emily," Aunt Alice said quietly.
"Leave me alone, Alice," she snapped.
Aunt Alice sighed and looked at Uncle Jasper.
"Don't even think about it, Jasper," Emily muttered.
"What good are you going to be to Tara if you won't even take care of yourself?" I said.
She looked at me in surprise.
"I'll call Carlisle," Aunt Alice threatened.
Emily gave her an exasperated look and opened the package loudly. She took a bite, chewed it carefully, and then swallowed. "Are you happy now?"
"I'll be happy once you've consumed it."
She sighed and continued eating.
I toyed with my bracelet, thinking over what was to come. I frowned and looked at Emily, suddenly realizing something. "Wait, your father alters memories, right?"
She glanced at me briefly and took another bite. "Yes."
"So how do you know that he hasn't altered yours?"
After she had swallowed, she said, "I was never sure. Not until Irina and Kate arrived."
"What do they have to do with anything?" Uncle Jasper asked. I could see his furrowed brows in the rear view mirror.
"If he were capable of erasing my memories, he wouldn't have left one that would have prompted me to leave."
That was true. Well, that was of some comfort. "So why wouldn't it be effective?"
She shrugged. "Probably for the same reason that Alice's doesn't work with us."
"Because we're not full vampires?"
"Something along those lines. I don't particularly care to know the finer points of that man's twisted mind," she said bitterly.
I tried to get her off of the topic before it could sour her less-than-stellar mood any further. "So you mentioned something about him taking Tara to the house she was born in to increase the emotional impact."
"What about it?"
"What's the big deal with the house? What's so special about it?"
A miserable look twisted her expression into a grimace. "It's not the house so much as it is Lillian."
"Tara's mother?"
She nodded and reached into her purse. She withdrew her wallet, from which she pulled a small picture that looked like it had been black and white and then re-coloured.
I gasped.
The woman was absolutely breathtaking. Her face, which was beautifully balanced and perfectly proportioned, looked like it had been carved by the gods themselves. Her divine face was framed by shiny auburn curls. Her kind emerald eyes were exactly like Tara's, right down to the warmth they exuded. Her perfection was topped off by the beautiful smile that turned up the corners of her even, red lips.
With a mother this striking and a father as handsome as William, it was easy to see where Tara's stunning beauty came from. As Emily had said, Tara really did look a lot like her. She was truly the only woman I had ever seen that even remotely rivalled my Aunt Rose, and what was more remarkable was that she had been mortal.
"She's beautiful," was all I could say. "You'll never show this to Aunt Rosalie, right?" I murmured.
Emily half-smiled. "No."
I sat back. "So you said he loved her, right?"
"I believe so."
"Was she the only one he loved?"
"Probably. She was the only one which I ever suspected him of loving, at least." She looked back at the picture. She gave a quiet sigh. "On her deathbed, she made me swear to her that I would love and look after her child, that I would raise her if she could not. She, like your own mother, had hopes of surviving, and if there was a human that could have done it, it would have been Lillian. But I knew better. I knew better, and still I did not save her." A bitter edge returned to her voice.
"I'm sure you did everything you could," I murmured.
She gave me a hard smile. "I led her like a lamb to the slaughter. I was the one that chose her. The minute I pointed her out to William, she was as good as dead."
I wondered if there was a bottom to three hundred years worth of guilt. After an appropriate pause, I tried again. "I remember you saying something about venom and half breeds a few months ago. You said that it's painful, right?"
"Very," she said, shuddering delicately.
"How do you know?"
She smirked slightly and looked away. Colour appeared in her cheeks.
"Never mind," I said quickly. I had never seen Emily blush before, and whatever it was that was causing this incredible phenomenon was definitely not something that my innocent ears could handle.
She chuckled.
"No, no, I'm interested now. I don't think I've ever felt you feel embarrassment, Em," Uncle Jasper said, grinning.
"Yeah," Aunt Alice said. "I've never seen you blush before."
"Well–" Emily began.
"Tell them later!" I exclaimed. My cheeks felt like they'd been lit on fire, and then sprayed with gasoline. "I so don't want to know this! Can we please keep this PG?"
Emily chuckled. "Alright, alright. It wasn't that bad, anyway."
"Here's something I've been wondering," Aunt Alice said. "What's William's little…plan…got to do with Nessie?"
She sighed. "I'm not sure. I think he's probably just interested in studying her." She looked at me. "She's so different from us. It's like she's a different species altogether."
"Well I'm not that different," I said, reddening again.
"I don't just mean physically. The way you've been raised, your parents, your lifestyle, your life in general, really…it's so different from the rest of us."
I blinked. I'd never thought of it that way, but it made sense. I still had a mother, for one thing. That alone must have been a fairly significant difference between me and other half-breeds.
My thoughts were distracted by Aunt Alice's phone. She flipped it open. "Hello, Carlisle." She was silent for a moment and then began to chuckle. "Yes, she did. She complained the entire time, but she did." There was another pause and Aunt Alice glanced at me. "I think she'd rather hunt."
"Reporting in to the authorities, are we?" Emily said coolly.
"Yes," Aunt Alice said unashamedly.
I smiled.
Emily muttered something darkly.
"If it's of any consolation, he's called everyone else's cars, too," Aunt Alice said as she hung up.
"Yes, I suddenly feel much better," Emily said dryly.
I tuned out their bantering and leaned my head against the seat, closing my eyes and exhaling. I must have fallen asleep, because when I opened my eyes again, we were stopped at another rest stop.
"Where are we?" I asked, shivering as I got out of the car.
Emily, who I now noticed was wearing a parka, held a second coat out to me. "We're about half an hour outside of Grande Prairie."
I blinked as I pulled the blessedly-warm coat on. Not even my extra body heat was enough to counteract the cold air to which I was so unaccustomed. It scarcely ever got this cold in any of the places that I'd lived, and I'd only ever been to Alaska during the summer. "We're already in Alberta?"
She half-smiled. "You've been asleep a while. We're stopping for food."
"What time is it?"
She glanced at the sky. "About seven o'clock, I should think." She glanced over her shoulder warily at the same time as I heard the shimmering sound of dozens of bodies transforming from wolves into humans.
"I'll see you inside," she said, walking briskly towards the restaurant glowing with an assortment of neon signs on the other side of the gas pumps.
Jacob was the first to appear from the brush. His black hair was wet with melted snow and his bare chest was slick with it. I looked away quickly, trying not to notice. This was no time to be dazzled.
Too late.
"Hey, Loch Ness," Seth grinned as he ambled towards me.
"Hi," I murmured simply as I waited for my head to start working again. It took me a moment to be taken aback by Seth's pleasant mood. I could already feel Leah's accusing, hateful eyes boring into me. But her brother seemed completely nonchalant in my presence, despite what was happening with Jacob and me.
He laughed suddenly as Aunt Alice handed him a winter coat. "Alice, what do I need this for?" he asked, looking down at it as though she'd handed him a child's toy.
"You may not think it's weird to walk half-clothed around a gas station in November in northern Canada, but I assure you, that will not be the humans' impression," she said got more coats out of the trunk and passed then out to the rest of the pack.
Embry whistled softly. "Who is that?" he asked, nodding towards the petrified cluster of the Winter's friends. I heard several other appreciative murmurs come from the other wolves. "For a leech, she's freaking hot!"
"Julianna," I said. I didn't have to look to know immediately who they were marvelling at. "Rob's ex."
"His ex?" Embry stammered. "That's Angry's ex?"
"Ex what?" Seth asked. "Supermodel?"
I smiled at their nickname for Rob. They secretly differentiated between Ian and Rob by calling them Tall and Angry respectively.
"Why would he let someone like her go?"
"Emily?" Aunt Alice pointed out.
"Oh," Embry said. "Right. She's fine, too."
"I'm glad to know you approve of my taste in women," Rob said from behind him, clearing his throat uncomfortably.
Embry, completely unabashed, turned to smile at him. "Hey, Ang – uh, Rob"
"Hello," Rob said, raising an eyebrow.
"So when did your hot girlfriend get here?"
"Ex-girlfriend," he qualified quickly. "She got here two days ago."
"Is she single?" Seth grinned.
I rolled my eyes.
"Believe me, my friends, you don't want to go there," Rob said. "Also, she's rather smitten with my brother."
I laughed at Seth and Embry's crestfallen expressions.
Rob looked at Aunt Alice and me suddenly. "Come on. We – well, Nessie, – should eat quickly and then we must get back on the road."
"How far is it to Yellowknife from here?" Aunt Alice asked as we walked.
"Ten hours."
"Ten?" I squeaked.
He half-smiled. "Welcome to Canada. It'd be fifteen if we drove according to the speed recommendations."
Aunt Alice laughed. "I believe they are actually considered laws, Rob."
He snorted dismissively.
"He has more speeding tickets than a cop," Ian muttered, falling into step with us.
"And remind me who bails me out every time?" Rob shot back.
Ian had no reply.
I entered the restaurant and smiled at the humans' amazed expressions as they took us all in. I doubted that they'd ever seen so much beauty – or so much danger, unbeknownst to them – in one room.
The two bands of immortals instantly polarized upon entering the restaurant. The werewolves took the right side while the vampires took the left. I went with Jacob and the wolves, taking a seat in a fake leather booth with Jacob and Embry. Quil, Seth, Paul and Leah sat on the other side.
"So, Uncle Jake," Paul said, leaning back in his booth and lacing his fingers together behind his head. "Aren't you glad we're going to be even more closely related soon?"
"Let me see…no," Jacob shot back.
Paul laughed, as did the rest of the pack – except for Leah. She was still shooting daggers at me. I tried to ignore this fact and managed a smile.
"Aw, come on, Jake. Look on the bright side. At least this means the kid will be pretty, right?" Paul said, gesturing to himself.
Jacob shuddered.
"It's okay, I know you're happy deep down," Paul grinned.
"You keep thinking that," Jacob griped, and then muttered something about him being equally happy about global warming and world hunger beneath his breath.
"What about you, Nessie?" Paul said. "'You excited to be an aunt?"
"Yeah, sure," I smiled.
Leah made a disgusted sound.
"Shut up, will you?" Jacob snapped.
I looked at him in surprise, as did everyone else. He sighed heavily and toyed with the menu.
A waitress arrived then, interrupting our conversation. "Can I get you s-s-something to eat?" she stammered as she stood at the head of our table. She was a tall, stocky girl with thick glasses, from which large brown eyes eyed the pack with awe. "Our special of the day is poutine."
"What's poutine?" Jacob asked, frowning.
"It's a Canadian specialty," Emily said, appearing out of nowhere.
The waitress flinched in surprise, and then turned her head to look at Emily in amazement.
"Mind if I join you?" Emily asked me, ignoring the awestruck woman's ogling. I was amazed again by how unaffected she was by humans' staring. It was something I'd not yet been able to accomplish yet. "Rob's feeling ill and he doesn't want me eating in front of him." She looked back at me. I could see that she was trying very hard to ignore her fight or flight instincts. "Would you mind?"
"Not at all," I said, sliding down the bench closer to Jacob.
"Thank you." She took her seat beside me. Her fingers curled around the edge of the wooden table and gripped it tightly, although her face was carefully arranged into a casual expression.
The waitress was staring at me now. I cleared my throat uncomfortably and tried not to look at her. "So what exactly is in poutine?"
Emily smiled – something I hadn't seen her do in days. "It's French fries with gravy and cheese curds. It's a very popular dish here."
"No kidding, because it sounds awesome!" Quil said. "Let's go with that."
Emily glanced at the waitress. "Eight orders of poutine, please."
The woman continued to stare for a few moments before she realized she was doing it, and then scurried away to fulfill our order.
"So," said Embry. "You're a Canadian."
Emily looked at him. "Yes."
"You don't sound like a Canadian."
"I was raised largely in England."
"So that's why you've got an accent," Seth nodded. "I always wondered about that."
"How old are you, then?" Embry inquired.
"Haven't you heard it's impolite to ask a woman her age?" she retorted.
"Fifty?" Embry guessed.
"No, no, I say a hundred," Quil said.
"I say ninety," Seth put in.
"I don't know, I'm thinking seventies myself," Paul said. All four studied Emily closely.
I half-smiled. They had no idea how far off they were.
Emily mirrored my smile. "I'll be three hundred and five in a month's time."
I laughed at their dumbstruck expressions.
"You are old, Scary Eyes," Embry said.
"'Scary Eyes'?" she asked questioningly.
"Yep," Quil said unrepentantly.
I chuckled and looked at Emily. "So why are you actually eating with us?"
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Well, obviously the issue wasn't that Rob was feeling sick."
"Well, in a manner it is. He abhors the smell of human food. He can't abide it." She chuckled and glanced over her shoulder towards their table. I followed her gaze. I was surprised to see that Rob was in the midst of a conversation with Julianna.
Emily sighed. "I don't know how he stands her."
I looked at her. "You really don't like her, do you?"
She smiled grimly. "It's not jealousy that makes me dislike her so. I know my husband better than to suppose that I have anything to worry about in that department." She looked at me in a way that made it obvious that she was not merely speaking about her relationship. "I would gladly make known the true reason for my hatred of her was it not for Rob's…chivalry."
"What do you mean?" I asked, frowning.
She sighed. "You know that Rob and Julianna were together for a while."
"Fifteen years," I nodded.
Her mouth twisted into a distinctly unhappy expression. "Yes. And you and just about everyone else knows how Julianna feels for Ian."
"Yes."
"Well, suffice it to say that her feelings for Ian did not develop after her relationship with Rob had concluded."
My eyes widened. I looked back at the other table. "Wait, she cheated on Rob?"
"No. Ian would never participate in something like that. He wouldn't hurt Rob that way, but heaven knows she tried to persuade him to. I don't know how long she'd been with Rob when she decided that she had fallen in love with Ian, but from what I've been told by both Rob and Ian, it can't have been too far into the relationship. It was obvious to everyone except Rob. He loved her deeply, and it made him blind. I have no doubt that she reciprocated his feelings at first, but she didn't have the decency to be honest with him when her feelings changed. I could have forgiven her well enough for that. But she dragged things on with him for years, supposing that he was her key to achieving her true prize."
"And Rob had no idea that she was using him?" I asked, horrified.
"For more than a decade, no, although he began to suspect her, at which point he began trying not to notice." Her blue eyes were furious as she stared at the table. "She finally admitted it one day. It utterly destroyed him. It took him years to recover."
"And you," I said.
She gave another small smile. "I'd like to think I was something of a help, yes."
I shook my head. "That's so horrible. I can't believe that she would do that to him."
Emily's smile became hard. "It becomes far more believable the more that you get to know her."
"So he just made up that story about her not wanting to come to North America, then," I realized.
"No, that part was true," she said. "Rob asked her to go with them, hoping that she would change her mind, but she didn't want to leave Europe. She knew Ian was furious with her, so she saw no point in following them."
"Did he make up the part about them parting ways amicably?"
"No," she said bitterly. "Unfortunately, that part is also true. No, Rob's forgiven her for everything. He doesn't even hold the fact that she tried to cheat on him with his own brother against her. He considers her as much his friend now as he always did. The one grudge that I wish he would hold, he completely disregards. He says that he can't hold her at fault for her feelings. He just defends her whenever I bring it up. It's sickening."
Yet again, Rob had proved himself to be a better person that I'd thought.
My stomach twisted guiltily. I'd been among those teasing him and harassing him for information about her. I felt like a jerk.
"I would appreciate it if you could keep this quiet," she said. "As it is, he'd be furious if he knew that I had told you. He doesn't want anyone to think poorly of her because of the past. It's why he won't let me tell everyone."
"Of course," I said. I looked at her for a moment, and then cast a quick glance at Jacob, who was talking to Seth. "But…if you know that Rob's loved someone else, how can you be sure that he'll never feel that way about her, or someone else like her, again?"
She looked at me again with the expression that I so hated. It made me feel so naïve, so young. "Because of three simple words that he's said to me every day for more than forty years, even on days that we spend angry with each other. Because he says them to me and not to her or other people like her."
I thought about that for a moment. "But…how do you know that that won't change?"
"He promised when we got married that he would only ever love me. I trusted him then and I trust him now. I choose to believe that he's being honest himself and with me when he tells me that he loves me."
"But all you have is his word," I pointed out.
"That's all I need."
I wrestled with that until the poutine arrived moments later. I folded my hands in my lap and inspected the dish the waitress set in front of me.
Frankly, it looked like a mess. French fries were hanging over the edge of the plate, and the fries and curds were nearly swimming in gravy.
"Don't judge it yet," Emily said, detecting my scepticism. "Try it first."
"I'd much rather hunt," I said.
"Of course you would. You're a parasite," Leah muttered.
I looked at her and swallowed.
Jacob slammed his fist into the table, making everyone's plates – and me – jump. "Shut up, Leah!" Jacob snarled. "I am sick and tired of your snide comments! Just keep your mouth shut!"
"Was that an order, boss?" she shot back sarcastically. "Why do you keep defending her when she only makes your life miserable?"
I lowered my eyes.
"The only person making my life miserable right now is you," Jacob hissed. "So keep your comments about my wife and my business to yourself. No one asked you."
Leah glowered at him and then rose and left the restaurant.
"I'm sorry, Jacob," I whispered, breaking the awkward silence that she'd left in her wake.
"Don't apologize for her," he sighed. "She doesn't know when to butt out."
"Never has," Seth sighed.
Embry laughed. "That's Leah for you."
"I thought her mood towards you had improved," Emily said.
"Oh, it did. For a while." And then I went and hurt Jake again, I added mentally.
"Whoa!" Embry exclaimed, his mouth still full with his first bite of poutine. "This stuff is amazing!"
I gazed back at my plate. I picked up a cheese-and-gravy-covered fry and ate it.
"Well?" Emily asked.
"It's good," I admitted.
She looked contented with my answer. "It's one of Tara's favourites." She lowered her eyes, her grip on the table tightening so that it shook the entire table.
"It'll be okay," I said. "We'll get her back, and then it will seem like the past four months never even happened."
She slowly turned her head to look at me. "The past four months? What do you mean?"
I froze, realizing my mistake.
"Renesmee, what are you talking about?" she demanded, her voice dangerously quiet.
I cleared my throat and pretended to scrutinize the sleeve of my jacket. "Did I say four? I meant two."
Emily's gaze became more suspicious. "You're lying to me. Why?"
I closed my eyes and braced for her rage.
"Tell me the truth, Renesmee," she snapped coldly. "Don't make me force it out of you."
"Hey, ease up a little," Jacob said warningly.
"It was a slip of the tongue," I said quickly.
Emily shot to her feet. "Tell me the truth!" she hissed.
The restaurant fell entirely silent. I looked over the back of my booth to see Dad grimacing. He walked over to us and touched her arm. "We'll discuss this outside," he said.
"You're damn right we will," she said, glaring at him with such ferocity that he actually took a step back. She stormed out of the restaurant.
I looked at Dad and grimaced. "I'm sorry. I slipped."
"It's alright," he assured me. "She would have found out eventually."
"Well, let's get this over with," Jacob said.
I got out of the booth, Jacob following. He turned to look at the pack expectantly.
"You know, I think I'm good here," Paul said.
"Me too," Embry said.
"Yeah," Quil agreed.
"Good luck," Seth said sympathetically.
Jacob and I exchanged glances, and then we both rolled our eyes.
We joined Emily on the far side of the restaurant parking lot, away from where prying human ears might catch something. She was pacing like a caged bull near the road when we arrived, with the rest of the family arriving shortly thereafter.
"One of you, spit it out," she demanded. "Or I will use my gift on you."
Ian searched our faces in confusion. "What's going on? What's wrong? Emily?"
"I'd like to know that myself," she said.
I pursed my lips and kept my eyes on the ground.
"No?" Emily said when no one spoke. "Fine. Renesmee!" she barked.
I glanced at her quickly, and instantly regretted it. Her ice-coloured eyes took on an unnerving intensity as she called upon her gift. "Tell me what happened."
Against my will, I head myself say, "Rebecca has suspected since she and Ajay got back that William was still in Canada."
Emily stopped dead. She rounded on Rebecca. "You thought he was here the whole time and you never said a word?"
"I'm sorry," Rebecca said, grimacing. "But Ajay and I agreed that it would be a bad idea, and so did Carlisle when we told him."
"You told all of them, but not me?"
"No one told me," Ian pointed out, his face still paralyzed into an unblinking expression of pure shock. "Why didn't you say anything?" he asked Rob.
"Wait, you knew about this?" Emily said, anger intensifying in her eyes. "So you've known about this since September, and you didn't tell me?"
That surprised even me. I hadn't even known that Rob was in on it.
"Rebecca asked all of us not to say anything," Aunt Alice said remorsefully.
"How could you keep this from me?" she raged.
"I was asked to keep it to myself," Rob said calmly.
She turned on Grandpa Carlisle now. "Explain!"
"Emily, Rebecca didn't want you to know," he said in a calm tone. "I would have told you immediately had she not requested that I keep it from you."
"And yet you told Rob!"
"As the leader of your coven, I felt he had a right to know."
"And as the daughter of the murdering lunatic in question, I don't?" She shook her head and looked away. "That's the real reason why we left Vancouver, isn't it."
"Yes," Grandma Esme admitted. "With what happened two years ago…" she began, and then shivered. "Em, we almost lost you. We didn't want you to do something foolish like that again."
"So you don't trust me!"
"Frankly, no," Rob said. "How can you expect us to?"
I pursed my lips as I realized that she wasn't the only one that that statement applied to. I'd been just as stupid as Emily during the last crisis. I saw Jacob glance at me out of the corner of my eye.
"I thought that they were coming for me," she snapped.
"Even though we told you otherwise."
"Okay, but why did no one tell me?" Ian asked.
"Because you would have told Tara, and with her telepathy…" Aunt Rose said, avoiding Emily's glower. "We simply couldn't take that risk."
"Well isn't this fantastic," Emily whispered. "Because you did not see fit to trust me with this, my sister is now being held prisoner and could very well die." She looked at Rob, and then at the rest of us. "If she dies because of this…I will never forgive you." She spun on her heel and stormed away from us, disappearing into the trees.
We all remained very quiet for a long time.
"She's right," Aunt Rose said. "I hate to say it, but if we had told her, maybe she would have been more prepared and she would have been able to help us prevent this."
"And now she's going to blame herself," Rob said with a heavy sigh.
I did not envy his position. But then again, I had to spend the next ten hours in a car with her.
"But think about what might have happened if we had told her," Uncle Jasper said. "She could be dead right now."
Rob flinched.
"Or in captivity with Tara," Aunt Alice put in.
"Yes, or things could have happened exactly as they have," Rebecca said. "We don't know what would have happened. I maintain that it was the right thing to do."
"Regardless of what may have happened, the priority now is what has happened," Grandpa Carlisle said. "Tara is still alive, and I believe that our efforts and attentions should be focused on her right now. We will all have to be understanding of Emily for the next while, but we must maintain our focus. She will understand that, and I know that she wants the same. We are still half a day away from Yellowknife, and the longer we discuss this, the longer it will take for us to reach her, and the longer we take to reach her, the longer William has to try to extricate whatever it is that he wants from her. So if for her sake, let us be swift so we can put all of this behind us."
I nodded in agreement.
"You're right," Mom said. "Come on, let's get to the cars."
"I'll talk to the pack," Jacob said.
The tension in the air was heavy as Aunt Alice, Uncle Jasper and I waited in the car for Emily's return. When she finally did join us in the car, she was escorted by Ian. She got in and slammed the door after her, causing the entire car to shudder. She spoke not a word as she fastened her seat belt.
"Em-" Aunt Alice began to say gently.
"Don't you dare speak to me," Emily snarled.
Silence filled the car. After a moment, Uncle Jasper pulled out onto the highway after Jacob, Rob and Ian. And thus began the longest ten hours of my life.