Chapter 21: What's going on?

"So you're telling me that he has cancer but he won't tell anybody in his family? Because he wants them to forgive him naturally and not because he has a sickness?" Rosalie said slowly, while pacing back and forth in front of Bella.

Bella gave a quick nod and she ran her fingers through her hair with a sigh.

"What kind of sick twisted logic is that?" Rosalie threw her hands up in frustration and sat down beside Bella.

Bella shrugged and Alice patted her shoulder sympathetically.

"Well we have to respect his wishes. I mean he trusted Bella and I guess us to a certain extent to let us know that he has this problem and he wants some help. No matter what the situation with the family is and whether he wants them to know or not, we have to help him the best way that we can." Bella said in one breath and Alice looked unsure while Rosalie looked skeptical.

"Are you sure that he's telling the truth? What if he's just saying it for sympathy because he thinks you'll tell Edward and then he'll get forgiven that way." Rosalie said, but Bella shook her head immediately.

"I don't think he would use this to get his sons to talk to him again. Esme was the one who approached me to talk to Carlisle, and he never wanted to tell me anyways. I kind of forced him to tell me." Bella argued.

"I don't like to keep secrets from Jazz." Alice said in a small voice.

"I don't think any of us here want to jeopardize our relationships for a man who can't tell his family that he has cancer. Next thing you know he's going to be making meth for money." Rosalie said sarcastically.

Bella rolled her eyes.

"This isn't an episode of Breaking Bad Rosalie. Besides, Carlisle doesn't need to make meth to support his family. He has enough money to support fifty families. He promised me that he would tell Esme. So if he holds his end of the deal, I'll have to hold my end of the deal and I can't tell the guys. You guys can't either. I don't want to have anything that would make Carlisle upset or his condition might worsen." Bella scolded them and Alice looked down sheepishly while Rosalie's eyes flashed.

"I'm not risking this relationship with Emmett and not telling him his father's potentially life threatening disease. He's the best thing's that's happened to me and I don't want to lose that because I can't tell him his own father might be dying." Rosalie said quietly and Bella fell silent.

"I don't know what else to do. I promise Carlisle. But I don't want to go behind Edward's back either. I know they all deserve to know about their father's condition but I just…I don't even know what I would say." Bella said helplessly.

"Say what?" Edward's voice startled the three girls and Bella put her hand over her mouth and couldn't help the guilty look creeping onto her face.

"I need to go. Good luck Bella. Text me." Rosalie said in a rush and she brushed past Edward without another word.

Bella shot Alice a pleading look but Alice just gave an apologetic glance to both of them before she too headed out without another word.

"Bella? What's going on? Is everything okay?" Edward asked with concern in his tone.

He sat next to her and seemed to give her a look over just to make sure she didn't have any physical damage.

"I'm fine Edward." Bella managed to say through her now dry throat.

Edward frowned and he put his hand on her forehead to check her temperature.

"Are you sure? Do you need to see a doctor? Just tell me what's wrong." Edward urged and Bella had to shoo his hands away from her so she could think clearly.

"I'm fine. Really. Nothing's happened..to me.." Bella stuttered and Edward stared at her, confused.

Edward stared at her expectantly and Bella opened her mouth to say something, but she was unable to have any words come out. The phone rang, and Bella hastened to answer it, glad that something had come up to prevent her from talking to Edward.

"Hello?"

"Bella? It's Esme. How was the talk with Carlisle?" Bella stiffened and she looked at Edward who was looking at her curiously.

"I can't talk right now. Can I call you back later?" Bella said awkwardly and gave another quick glance at Edward who had a frown on his face.

"I just want to know that things went okay with Carlisle. He hasn't come home yet and he hasn't phoned me. I just don't know what to do." Esme sniffled and Bella felt her heart ache for the woman.

"I'm sure he's fine. The talk went fine. He has something to tell you later tonight though. Maybe give him a call?" Bella suggested and she quickly said her goodbyes and hung up the phone.

"Who was that?" Edward asked immediately and Bella blushed.

"I…Uh…" Bella stammered and Edward frowned, grabbing the phone out of her hand.

Bella made a lunge for it, but it was too late. Edward already saw the caller ID.

"Why was Esme calling you? What's going on Bella?" Edward asked sternly and Bella couldn't help but give a soft huff of annoyance.

"That wasn't very nice you know. It could've been my secret boyfriend and then this would've been really awkward. Not that it already isn't but you know what I mean." Bella said with a huff and she saw a glimmer of amusement in Edward's eyes.

He looked at her expectantly and Bella gave a soft sigh.

"Okay. Here's the deal. Don't freak out okay?" Bella said.

Edward nodded.

"I went to see Carlisle today." Bella said and Edward got up from his spot on the couch.

"Why would you do that? I told you to stay away from him? What did he say to get you there? I'm going to go see him and tell him to leave you the hell alone." Edward's anger made Bella wince but she stood up and she latched onto his arm.

"What happened to not freaking out? Just calm down. I have something I need to say to you. He didn't lure me to see him. I went there out of my own free will." Bella shouted, needing to be heard over Edward's loud curse words.

Edward froze and he stared at Bella.

"What?"

"Esme called me this morning and we met up to have coffee. She was in tears. She said things were tense at home and that Emmett and Jasper weren't willing to talk to Carlisle and even when they did, it was terse and they didn't have conversations. They wouldn't have dinner together anymore and things were bad over there. I sympathized with her because I thought something else was going on that night of him lashing out at us. I didn't think he did it maliciously. Esme told me that it was all a plan to get you off your ass and standing up for yourself. They didn't really hate what you did or want to stop your passion, they just wanted you to acknowledge it and to actually go for it yourself. They were to light your fire as she put it and of course I told her that was kind of weird, but nonetheless, it was a good sentiment. But Carlisle wasn't supposed to take it that far. Things went out of hand and Esme doesn't even know why. So I went to pay him a visit to get to the bottom of this." Bella explained and Edward narrowed his eyes.

"I can't believe they would do that. If they wanted me to do what I was passionate about why didn't they just tell me to? Why would they hatch this plan and make a mess of everything?" Edward asked and Bella reached out to him and they sat back down on the couch.

"I don't know. You should probably ask them that yourself." Bella gently said and Edward shook his head.

"What they did was wrong and uncalled for. I'm not going to talk to them about it. It would make things worse. You shouldn't talk to them either. Why are you even trying to help them?" Edward snapped.

"I felt like it was partly my fault that this was happening Edward. It seemed like you guys had the perfect family before I came along and ruined all that. So I had to try something. So I went to see Carlisle. And Edward. He looks horrible. He looked like he hadn't slept in days and hadn't eaten much. I really think that this has torn him up. I really think you should go talk to him." Bella advised and hoped she didn't have to tell him the real reason he looked so haggard.

"I told you. For the last time Bella. I'm not going to talk to him. I'm going to call them right now and tell them to leave you alone." Edward scowled and pulled out his phone.

Bella snatched his phone back and she glared at him.

"How are you being any type of mature right now Edward Cullen? You need to man the fuck up. Get off your high horse and apologize to your parents for your actions. They really miss you and I won't see this family rip itself apart because of a miscommunication." Bella insisted and Edward stood up in annoyance.

"Why can't you understand Bella? I don't want anything to do with them." Edward said.

"They're the ones who took you in and raised you. Whatever the reason for the fight was, you need to talk to them Edward." Bella said stubbornly.

Edward shook his head and he started to leave the room. Bella grasped at something desperately inside her brain to make Edward listen to her.

"Carlisle has cancer." She blurted out and she immediately put both hands over her mouth and her eyes went wide.

Edward slowly turned around and he stared at Bella in disbelief.

"What?"

Oh. my. Goshness!

I am sooo sorry that I haven't updated in FOREVER. The last post I made was in August and what month are we in now? October?! WTF?! I am soo sorry. Time just got away from me and school has been a pain in the butt. I can't make any promises about when the next update will be, but I will promise that it won't take a month for me to update. I know I did you guys wrong, but leave me some love!

xoxo,

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