Hey readers, I know I was MIA for a bit, I had computer problems. I did finsih a few chapters while I was away though and here is the first. You will have another update really soon like a few days soon, somewhere around there.

Thanks to my beta Cierra, she has helped me grow a lot.

Please review, reviews keep me excited and happy :)

Chapter 21

"The Heart Knows"

Alice's POV

Jasper and I were side by side on the couch watching a movie, though I couldn't tell you what it was about because my mind was elsewhere. I had this horrible feeling and I couldn't place it, but something didn't seem right. My first instinct told me to call Bella. I had always had an unexplainable connection with her; I always knew when she needed me and I always knew when something wasn't right. It quickly became the same thing with Jasper and since he was sitting next to me, I knew it had to be Bella.

Jasper's arms were wrapped lovingly around me and as much as I hated to break away from him, I had to go find my phone and call Bella.

"What is wrong?" Jasper asked before I even made a move. It was like he could sense it and I am sure he could. Jasper was in tune with me in ways that I had been waiting my whole life for. He was truly my soul mate, my other half.

"I have a bad feeling, I need to call Bella," I whispered quietly.

Without a single question he kissed my head and released me. He just got me, he didn't need answers, and he didn't think I was crazy. I could feel his eyes on me and instead of making me nervous, it relaxed me. I found my purse near the front door, and my phone was in the side pocket of it. My business cell had been ringing off the hook, but my personal cell only had a few calls, none of which were from Bella. A few were from Edward and Emmett, but that was all.

I quickly hit one on the speed dial and listened to Bella's phone ring and then go to voicemail. I called again and again, and then it started just going straight to voicemail. I knew better than to think that Bella would turn her phone off on me. In all the years that we had been friends, we had never left the other hanging. Plus the knot in my stomach and the panic in my chest only grew as I heard her voice on her voice mail.

I called Emmett back and he hadn't heard from her. I was nervous to call Edward, but knew that there was a good chance he would know more than Emmett. Bella and Edward's relationship had grown a lot and I saw how much they were already in love, their future was lain out in front of me like a beautiful natural disaster. They had a hard journey before them, but love would save them. I wasn't sure how I knew this, but there are things we know, that we can't explain, and this was one of them for me.

"Alice," Edward answered on the first ring. "Have you spoken to Bella?"

I felt like I was going to throw up when I realized he hadn't heard from her either. She had shot me a text when she arrived in New York earlier in the morning, but nothing since. That was nearly fifteen hours ago.

"No, I was wondering if you had." I answered trying to control my breathing.

Suddenly, Jasper's arms were around my waist and he was holding me in a tight embrace. I knew it was an act to calm me and it worked to an extent.

"Shouldn't she be back by now?" he asked sounding suspicious and that was when I realized that Bella hadn't told him everything.

"Possibly, but I don't know," I said vaguely.

"Alice if you know anything you need to tell me," he pleaded. He sounded like a desperate man. I took a deep breath.

"I don't know anything, but as soon as I do, I will call you, Edward," I assured him and after he promised to do the same I ended our call.

As soon as I pushed the end button I was trying to call Bella again, so when it rang busy I got my hopes up. I called back immediately, but it went straight to voicemail again. It didn't make sense at first, but then I realized that Edward probably had tried to call her also. I tried a few more times just to be sure, but it was the same result. My heart ached in my chest and I could feel the uneasiness all the way into my toes.

"Something isn't right," I sighed leaning into Jasper.

"You should call Stefan or Collin," he suggested, so I did just that.

I tried Stefan first, but he didn't answer. I said a small prayer before I called Collin, but he didn't answer either. I was so uneasy and afraid that I felt like I might pass out. Something was terribly wrong.

"Everything is going to be fine," Jasper assured me and he sounded so sure I wanted to believe him.

A few seconds after we sat down on the couch my cell phone rang in my clutched hand. I was disappointed when I saw it wasn't Bella, but slightly relieved when I saw it was Collin.

"Collin, thank God, is Bella with you?" I asked feeling uneasy.

"Umm, no, Alice she isn't exactly with me, but I think you should get Charlie and come to New York," his voice was quiet, solemn, and frightening.

My heart sank with panic and dread. I was too stunned to act, Jasper took the phone from me, I could hear him packing and calling the air lines. Then I heard him calling Charlie, but it wasn't until he said that he was going too that I snapped out of it.

"You can't go; you have too much going on here with the team. Let Charlie and I go, and then when I know more or if I need you, then I won't stop you from jumping on a plane and coming to the rescue," I pleaded.

It took a good twenty minutes to convince him to stay behind, but finally I was able to. I was in such a rush and in a panic that I completely forgot to call Edward.

Before I could really sit down and think Charlie and I were on a flight to New York…

Bella's POV

All I could think as I squeezed my eyes shut is that my head hurt and my body felt disconnected from me. I didn't want to open my eyes because I could feel the light on my skin and I knew that it would only make my head ache more. It wasn't until everything that had transpired came flying back, overloading my senses, that my eyes fluttered open in a panic. Dust particles floated around me, a bright stream of morning light flowed into the room through a square window, and over in the corner sat Aro.

He was watching me and my heart was racing. I glanced around the room panicked, I was in a child's room, and it was a place I had never been before. A wall of green connected to a wall of pink, and a wall of pink connected to two walls of green. My thoughts were so jumbled they weren't even making sense to me. There were two pink walls and two green walls, that much I was sure of. There was white furniture and a few pages of yellowing paper drawings on the walls. The room looked dusty and old; as if no one had been in the room for a while. In large black, wooded letters above the twin size bed I laid on was the name Caroline.

I looked back over at Aro, he was a wreck, his eyes were red, his hair was a mess, and his tailored suit wrinkled around his tired looking body. He wasn't his poised shady business man-self, he almost looked child like hunched over in the corner of the child's room. He just sat staring at me with glossy red eyes. The need to escape set in and I glanced around the room quickly, hoping to find a way out. I didn't understand what was going on, but all I could think about was how nauseous and dizzy I felt. It seemed like an awful thing to worry about with the situation at hand, but it was all consuming.

My stomach turned and I leaned over as vomit expelled from my chapped lips. Suddenly, Aro was up and moving towards me; he grabbed a dusty towel and wiped up the vomit quickly, as I cowered against the wall. Then he handed me a bucket as he reached out to grab my hand and pull me towards the bed edge.

"Don't fucking touch me," I seethed.

He appeared taken back by the hostile words that left my lips, but I was unsure as to why it would surprise him.

"Caroline, it is okay, daddy is here," he whispered in a soft voice. My eyes shot up to him and I stared in morphed confusion.

"Caroline?" I chocked out staring at him in the most asinine way.

"Yes, my Caroline. You have grown into such a beautiful woman," he gushed reaching out to stroke my hair.

I couldn't believe what he was saying and I realized that either this was a sick joke or Aro had lost his damn marbles. I was about to ask him what the fuck he was talking about, but my stomach lurched again and my head was over the bucket as I dry heaved into it.

"Oh sweetie, you must have had some bad food, don't worry daddy will take care of his little girl."

I sat perfectly still trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Things had rapidly changed in… well I wasn't sure how long I had been here or how long it had been since I had been in Aro's house. I glanced out the window and figured that it had to be early morning, so I had to have been with Aro over night. I felt a slight panic realizing that it hadn't just been a few hours.

"You need something to settle your stomach, I will get you some toast and water," he said sweetly patting my back and getting up to retrieve my water and toast.

I felt a moment of excitement that I was going to be able to escape. Then, he shut the bedroom door and I heard a lock slide into place telling me I wouldn't be getting out as easily as I had thought. I got up and went to the window and looked out to find that I was high off the ground, at least two, maybe three stories, and the whole back/front of the house was nothing but a big cliff.

I debated for a moment and decided that I didn't care; I was not staying in the room. I tried to open the window, but it didn't budge, I noticed that in the corners of the woodwork around the glass were nails holding it into place. I let out a frustrated sigh and decide that I was going to have to break it, but before I could I heard the lock slide out of place and the door open. Aro stepped back into the room with a bottle of water and a small plate holding a piece of toast.

Even after the toast and water that Aro insisted that I eat and drink, my head still ached and my stomach still turned with unease. However, I wasn't going to let it deter me from getting away from the psychopath that was still insisting that I was some girl named Caroline.

I couldn't believe that this was happening, my life was like a damn soap-opera, honestly who gets held hostage twice. Upon thinking about the last time I was held hostage, something Aro had said the day before, or whenever the hell it was that we were in his house, resounded in my mind and made a little more sense. "With James I needed to be able to see what you could do."

When Aro's eyes meet mine again, he was the strong, sadistic business man. "Don't even think about escaping, there is no way out, just play by my rules and don't flee like your mother," he growled as if he knew what I had been thinking. Then he shoved me back towards the food that I hadn't completed on my plate.

I tried to figure out if he meant my mother, as in me or as in this Caroline he thought me to be or that he was pretending I was. I was too confused to figure what the hell his words meant or what was going on. My head still ached and everything was an echo and felt distant.

Then only moments later Aro was back to being the sweet, caring man who thought I was Caroline.

I ignored his commands for me to finish the food; no one holds me hostage and then tries to demand me to do things. I thought as I stubbornly jutted my chin up and crossed my arms, however, my arms quickly moved to my head as it spun with the room.

"Ugh," I groaned as my stomach rolled with my head and the room.

"You always were such a stubborn child, just like your father, as your mother would say. However, I think you are more like her than me," Aro said sweetly as he watched me.

"You have lost your fucking homicidal mind," I said with disgust dripping off each word I spoke.

"Language," he sighed. "Young ladies shouldn't speak in such a way."

I sat silently with his crazy ass trying to figure out a way to escape for what felt like years, but Aro was convinced that my name was Caroline and that he was my daddy, so there was only so much I could do. The whole situation was the most insane, and surrealist thing to ever happen to me in my whole life. I dug deep down into my being and tried to find my inner crazy person hoping that I would be able to find a way to get away from Aro. It was more than obvious to me that he was having a psychotic break and if I could find a way to deceive him in such an unstable state, I would be able to escape.

That is it, I thought. Realizing that I had to deceive him, I had to play along. He thought I was Caroline who I believed now to be his daughter. If I played along then he might trust me and once he trusted me not to run I would be able to make my escape, effortlessly.

I bided my time playing along with him, I ate his dinner, and I even got snaky and threw him some fake smiles. He seemed to be buying it and I was getting anxious to make my get away, but the sky was falling dark and it was obvious that he hadn't sleep since he brought me to this place. I was hoping he wouldn't lock the door while I slept, but even worse fears came to light when he pulled out a syringe.

"Daddy is tired, so I am going to give you your medicine so we both can get some sleep," he spoke as if he was talking to a small, sickly child.

My first instinct was to fight him and call him a fucking sick bastard, but that didn't go along with the game we were playing. So, I swallowed the last of my dignity and pride and spoke sadly and sweetly to him.

"Please daddy," the name was like razor blades on my tongue. "I will be a good girl; please don't give me a shot."

He paused staring at me, contemplating; I prayed to the high heavens that he would believe me and trust me. Something had to give, I had been through enough. He seemed to waver and he nodded his head, he sat the syringe on the night stand and tucked me in. I mean for real, he tucked me and kissed my head.

"Sweet dreams, daddy loves you," he whispered smiling down at me. "I am so happy to finally have you home."

He turned to leave and as he went I reached over and grabbed the syringe. I shot out of bed and jabbed the syringe into the back of his neck and I pushed the contents into his blood stream. He swung his arm around knocking me back into the wall and the dresser. He grabbed at his neck and I scrambled across the room. The events were starting to weigh down on me and I could feel my strength wavering. He turned to glare at me, but as he came towards me his steps got heavy and as soon as he stumbled I sprinted past him. He reached for me in vain and I sprinted out the door. Once I was outside of the doorway I slammed it shut and slide the lock into place. I stumbled around the dusty house trying to find an exit. Once I found the door and my feet hit the fresh green grass, I ran and ran until my lungs were on fire. The streets were dark and empty, but I could see light ahead of me, so I followed the road and kept going. Just as I thought I couldn't run any longer I saw a house and a man in the driveway.

"Help me," I yelled and he turned shocked to see anyone out in the deserted area.

The houses seemed secluded and I felt I was lucky to stumble upon one; he caught me in his arms.

"Jesus, are you okay?" he asked trying to keep from falling over.

"Please help me," was all I could say before blackness took over.

My body and brain could take no more…

At a later point I was in a hospital room with my father, Alice, and Collin. Then I dozed off again, a police officer tried to talk to me, but it was all a blur.

When I finally fully opened my eyes I was staring into emerald ones…

Edward's POV

I was angry and I felt guilty about being angry. Bella was laying in a hospital bed and she had been held hostage for the second time in her life and I was angry with her. I wanted her to wake up so I could yell and scream at her. She deserved to be yelled at, but at the same time she didn't. She had been through a lot, "a lot that she had put herself into," is what my head was arguing, but I did my best to ignore this fact. Nonetheless, no matter how angry I was and how terrified I had been when Alice called me, I was above all still in love with Bella. So, there I sat next to her bedside waiting for those deep chocolate eyes to open.

I knew I was going to have hell to pay for missing our last season game, but I couldn't deny the pull to Bella that I had. Everything else faded for a moment and all I could think about was that she needed to be okay and that when she woke up she was going to need me. Bella was strong, but she had been through too much and I knew it was possible that she was going to be extremely fragile.

Suddenly, her eyes fluttered and she was staring up at me through glossy, dull eyes. I could see so many emotions flicker across her brown pools, but they all settled out and only regret and love showed through. Tears flowed and I didn't know if she could read the emotions that were locked away in my eyes or what, but I could tell she knew that her lies wouldn't go unwarranted. However, right now wasn't the time for it. Right now I had to make sure she was okay and then we would figure out everything else later.

She looked so broken, weak, and so very far from the strong girl I had seen so many months before. It broke my heart and I had to hold her in my arms, I couldn't take seeing her like that. I had to hold her, I had to try and hold her together because I could see her shattering. A person could only take so many traumatic events before it was too much. She was breaking and shattering before my eyes. I climbed on the bed and held her tight to my chest. She smelled less like my strawberry Bella and more like the stale hospital; her tears ran down her cheeks and onto my arms. I tightened my hold on her as the anger settled and for the moment I was just a man soothing the woman he loved.

I could have held her for minutes, hours, or days, I am not sure, and time seemed to just pass by in a blur. I held her, she cried, and I longed for everything that had just happened to be some horrible nightmare that she could wake up from and forget. I wished it could have all been undone, but it couldn't.

I am not sure if Bella felt something in my hold or if she just sensed my thoughts turn, but she rolled back to look into my eyes. They were red and puffy; they were deep and glowing with her pain, but somehow flat and emotionless.

"Edward, I'm sorry," she whispered hoarsely, it was the first words she had spoken since she woke up. I closed my eyes tightly trying to hold off the anger and pain.

"Not right now," I told her quietly.

"Can you forgive me?" she asked trying to sound strong, but her voice betrayed her.

"Let's not do this now." The finality in my voice stopped her from saying anymore. She turned back away from me and I could feel the sob ricocheting through her chest, but I couldn't find it in myself to say the words to sooth her.

I hated myself for hurting her more, but I couldn't help it. I knew that I was going to hurt her, she lied and she hurt me more than she could ever understand. She took the one thing from me that I had laid fully in her, my trust.

I felt like a monster and an angel wrapped in one, but mostly I was just a martyr in that moment because it was breaking me to be there with her. I was risking so much and the biggest thing on the line was my heart.

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