Chapter Thirteen: More Lies

Emmett, Jasper, and Royce were kept very busy over the next few days moving supplies and vehicles from one storage container to another. Emmett was annoyed at the labor, but at least it kept him busy and his thoughts off of what had transpired between him and Tanya. He hadn't heard from Rosalie at all, which he took as a sign that she really was going along with her relationship with Royce and even though it hurt a little and jealousy rose up, he shook it off and supported his friend. There were times where he had gone to Royce's room and he had been on the phone with someone, but as soon as he saw him he got off the phone quickly.

Emmett didn't think anything of it, and just assumed he had been talking to Rosalie. He felt his assumptions were right when he went to Royce's room that night and he found him looking at a list of apartments.

"Looking to get out of here?" Emmett asked sitting down on Royce's bed. He set the twelve pack of beer down on the floor and opened the box, grabbing out a couple of beers and handed one to Royce. "Where's Jasper?"

"He should be on his way," Royce said absently looking at another apartment listing.

"Why are you looking at two bedroom apartments though?" Emmett asked peering over Royce's shoulder at the computer screen.

"They're for me and Rosalie."

Jasper chose this moment to show up and waltzed through the door, greeting both his friends.

"What took you so long?" Emmett asked tossing him a beer.

"Had to clean up after sweatin' all day with you boys," Jasper joked sitting down on the bed next to Emmett. "I just heard what I said, and that came out wrong."

Royce and Emmett laughed at him until they had tears running down their faces. About halfway through, Jasper joined them and laughed along with them.

"What's that you're lookin' at?" Jasper asked nodding towards Royce's computer. He leaned forward squinting at the computer screen, "Apartments? You plannin' on leavin' us?"

"Yeah I asked Rosalie to start looking at apartments for us," Royce leaned back in his chair reaching towards Emmett for another beer. Emmett handed one in to his out stretched hand and opened another one for himself.

"Well ain't that sweet, you're very own instant family. Just add water folks!" Jasper said sarcastically. Royce responded by throwing his empty beer can at his head.

"You're just jealous cause your ex-wife left you," Royce retorted.

Jasper glared at Royce, "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that asshole."

A wicked grin spread across Royce's face as he looked over at Emmett and winked. He turned to Jasper and leaned forward in his chair towards him, careful to enunciate each word loudly enough for even people down the hall to hear him, "You're just jealous-"

Jasper kicked out and hit Royce's rolling chair just right, sending it flying backwards and Royce forward, face first into the floor. Emmett burst out laughing, while Jasper tipped his beer can towards him and took a long sip, leaving James groaning on the floor.

"I ain't jealous of shit, just makin' an observation sweetheart," Jasper laughed before helping Royce up off the floor.

Emmett wiped the tears from his face and watched Royce walk over and grab his chair, making sure it wasn't within kicking distance of Jasper before he went to sit down. Emmett waited until Royce was fully committed to sitting down in the chair and before he could, kicked out sending the chair flying across the room and Royce sprawled out on the floor. This cause Jasper and Emmett to only laugh harder and a new round of tears. Soon Royce started laughing from the floor and flipped them both the bird.

"You guys are dicks," Royce laughed out. "You almost made me spill my beer."

"Well that would have been a damn shame," Emmett chuckled.

Rosalie sat at her computer having an instant messenger conversation with Alice, telling her all about Royce's phone call and how her search for an apartment was coming.

"I can't believe this is finally happening!" she typed out to Alice.

"Be careful, doll face, you don't really know how it is living with someone from the military," Alice cautioned her.

"I know, but I'm excited. I don't want to be living with my parents and I really just want to be with him already. I'm tired of doing all this sneaking around. I'm hoping this means that Kylie decided to finally sign the divorce papers. Have you heard anything?"

There was a slight lull in their conversation as Rosalie ran downstairs to quickly unload the dishwasher that her step mother calling her to do. By the time she returned, she was winded from running up the stairs. It was getting harder and harder the closer her due date was approaching.

When she finally got back to her computer, Rosalie noticed she had an unread message from someone she didn't know.

Rosalie quickly typed out a message to Alice, "Hey do you know who Carmen is?"

"Carmen? Yeah that's Maria's mom, why?"

Rosalie froze and felt like her heart was about to pound out of her chest. Why would her boyfriend's soon to be ex-mother-in-law be messaging her? Panic started to set in, she didn't want Royce to get in trouble for being with her, especially since the army was his life. Her mind started to race and her palms became sweaty, she felt like she was going to be sick.

Rosalie ran from her computer and made it to the bathroom just in time to release the contents in her stomach. She sat on the bathroom floor, leaning over the toilet heaving until her stomach hurt and there was nothing left. Her phone rang from her room and she got up slowly off the floor. Shakily, she rinsed her mouth out and made her way to her room while her phone continued to chirp. Picking up the phone with shaky hands, she answered it while her voice tremored.

"Hello?"

"Hey, you quit replying! I was worried, is everything okay?"

Rosalie breathed a small sigh of relief, it was Alice on the other end.

"I don't know what happened, all of a sudden I just had the urge to throw up and it felt like I couldn't breathe."

"Wow, are you okay now?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she reassured her friend sitting down at her desk.

"So what's going on?"

Rosalie grimaced staring at her screen, which was still notifying her of the instant message that was waiting for her to read.

"Carmen somehow got my email-don't know how, but she has-and has added me to instant messenger and sent me a message," she replied dryly.

There was a slight pause in their conversation before Alice asked, "Have you read it?"

"No," Rosalie snorted.

"Maybe you should, it might not be what you think it is."

"You're right, stay on the phone with me," Rosalie clicked open the message. They stayed on the phone with each other in silence, while Rosalie slowly and hesitantly read the message from Carmen.

'Hi, I know you don't know me, but I'm Carmen. I'm Maria's mom.'

"Okay, see that's not that bad," Alice said encouragingly.

"Yeah, but it doesn't say what she wants or why she's writing to me."

"Okay, well answer her."

Rosalie rolled her eyes at her friend's persistence and typed out a reply on the keyboard.

'I don't know you personally, but I only know who you are. Why are you messaging me?'

Rosalie waited in silence while her instant messenger notified her that Carmen was typing out a message to her. The longer Carmen typed, the more her stomach tightened.

'I just wanted to let you know you need to stay away from Royce.'

Rosalie stared at her computer in complete shock, her face heating up as her anger levels rose to new heights.

'Not that it's any of your business, but we're just friends.'

"What did she say?" Alice asked, hearing Rosalie pound on the keys.

"The bitch had the nerve to tell me to stay away from Royce!" Rosalie spat out.

"What? Did she say why?"

Just as Alice asked, Carmen sent another message, 'Good, cause Maria and Royce decided to work on their marriage, she's moving down to Texas next week. Royce got them an apartment.'

Rosalie read the message aloud to Alice and tried to hold back her tears. Suddenly she grew very angry and typed back, 'That's funny because Royce and I were supposed to move in together in that apartment. Your daughter needs to stay the hell away from Royce, he's crazy and has talked about wanting her dead and how he'd do it.'

"Oh honey, I'm so sorry."

"It's fine," Rosalie sniffed. "That's what I get for seeing someone whose divorce isn't done yet."

"Call him, find out if it's true. She may just be doing this to upset you," Alice suggested.

"Well it worked."

"Call him," Alice pushed.

"Good idea, I think I will."

"Okay babe, call me back and let me know what happens."

After promising to call her back, Rosalie hung up with Alice and called Royce's cell phone. After several rings, it went to voicemail and she left him a message begging him to call her back as she tried her best not to cry, but was pretty sure his voicemail picked it up. After she had hung up, she crawled into bed and let herself cry. Her phone alerted her to a text message, but she ignored it for now. She didn't want to talk to anybody, she just wanted Royce to call and tell her it wasn't true.

Emmett was currently eating lunch with Jasper and Royce, as well as several more guys from their unit when his phone started ringing from his pocket. He excused himself and answered it, trying to hear over his friends' boisterous laughter.

"Hey Alice, what's up?"

"Don't act all friendly with me, did you know about this?" Alice hissed at him.

Emmett looked at his phone in shock at the angry tone that Alice was coming at him with, "Know about what?"

"I swear if you're playing dumb right now, I'm flying to Texas and kicking your ass," Alice threatened him.

"I don't even know what you're talking about! So why don't you tell me before making threats?"

This peeked the interests of Royce, Jasper and several other of his friends. Emmett glared at them when he noticed they were all staring at him and they all went back to eating their food and making idle conversation.

"That Royce and Maria are getting back together," Alice snapped at him. Emmett's gaze snapped over to where Royce sat only to find his eyes were already on him. Emmett returned his gaze with a glare.

"Yeah, tell me more about how Maria and Royce are getting back together and how you found out about this," Emmett said loudly enough for Royce to hear. Royce's expression didn't really change to those around him, but Emmett saw the slight narrowing of his eyes as he continued to stare Emmett down.

"Rosalie and I were instant messaging each other when Carmen messaged her-"

"How did she get her email?" Emmett interrupted.

"I don't know, anyways, so Carmen instant messaged her and told her to stay away from Royce -I was on the phone with her the whole time."

"Who Carmen or Rosalie?" at this Jasper's head snapped around towards Emmett and he leaned forward to hear the conversation between Emmett and Alice.

"Rosalie," Alice answered him exasperatedly. "So Rosalie asked her why and she told Rosalie that Maria is moving down to Texas next week and that Royce found them an apartment."

"You mean the apartments that he had Rosalie looking up that was supposed to be for them?"

Royce looked down at his food avoiding both Emmett and Jasper's glare at this point talking to everyone else, but them.

"Is Rosalie okay?"

"No, she started throwing up and I could hear her crying, that's when I suggested she call Royce, but he didn't answer."

"Alright, let me find out what's going on and I'll call you back."

Alice said goodbye before he had a chance to and hung up the phone. Emmett snapped his phone shut before glaring at Royce, joined by Jasper.

"Outside, now," he growled.

Royce lazily looked over at Emmett, leaning back in his chair, "Or else what?"

"I'll call Maria," Emmett threatened.

Royce narrowed his eyes at the two before getting up and following them outside. Emmett fumbled for a cigarette trying to calm his anger before he really lost it on Royce, this had gone too far. Jasper took out his own pack and Royce followed suit while Emmett quickly typed out a text on his phone to Bethany promising to call her later.

"Explain yourself now," Emmett's voice was at a whole new level of deadly and Royce actually shrank back a little, almost confirming to Emmett that Royce was all talk and no hype.

"There's nothing to explain," Royce replied quietly shrugging his shoulders.

"You mean to tell me that you had Rosalie believe that the two of you were going to move in together and that you were going to get married, and actually had her looking up apartments under the impression that they were for you and her? And the whole time you were talking to Maria and knew the two of you were getting back together?"

Royce flinched at the anger in Emmett's tone while Jasper watched the exchange with a raised eyebrow.

"Now hold on a minute, I did no such thing. I really was going to move Rosalie over here, the apartments really were for us," he defended. "Maria and I were talking because I've been trying to get her to sign the divorce papers and now she's demanding that I take care of her for the next year until I get back from deployment and when I get paid for that I have to give her half of it. Then she'll sign the divorce papers!"

Emmett stared at him incredulously, "You expect me to believe that?"

"It's true! What I don't understand is how Alice found out," he took a long drag from his cigarette.

"Carmen told Rosalie," Jasper deadpanned staring at his phone.

"Wait how do you know?" Emmett turned on Jasper.

Jasper shrugged, "Alice just texted me."

"Great," Royce threw his cigarette on the ground stomping angrily on it. "I have to call Rosalie, I'll catch up to you guys later."

He pulled his phone out, searching for Rosalie's number and waived to the two of them as he turned to walk away.

Jasper and Emmett exchanged glances between the two of them.

"Do you believe him?" Emmett asked cocking his head towards Royce's retreating figure.

"Yeah, do you?"

Emmett shrugged before heading back inside to finish his lunch, "I don't have a reason not to."