Disclaimer: SM owns all things Twilight. I own the rest of the words.

A/N: Thank you to my Beta, timeaovergain. And thank you to my pre-readers and nightlights in the darkness, CatMasters, Hev99, and Nostalgicmiss.

Chapter 25: Unraveled

EPOV

Closing that door and walking away from her was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. The look on her face when I turned back to see her one more time made my blood run cold. I could see the life draining from her as she retreated into the dark places of her mind. And knowing what was coming, knowing what they were going to make her talk about, had my hands shaking in anger and my stomach rolling in disgust. The urgency to hear what was going on in there, to monitor it so that I could be ready if she needed me, had my pace quickening, knocking on bedroom doors as I hurried towards the kitchen. I couldn't be bothered to wait for them to answer before moving along to the next one, but before I reached the stairs the sound of multiple doors opening echoed down the hallway.

"What's going on, Edward?" Alice asked.

"Just come with me, and hurry."

I could hear the confused ramblings of my siblings as they followed me, their curiosity outweighing their annoyance at being disturbed, but I didn't really care. All I cared about was getting to my destination quickly so that I could hear if she needed me. What if she had already called for me, and I didn't hear because I wasn't moving fast enough? I sped my descent and was practically running full speed for the kitchen, having to grip the door frame in order to make the turn without slamming myself into the wall. The footsteps of the others hammered on the floor as they each tried to keep pace with me. Jasper, and then Emmett bowled through the door, followed by Alice, mirroring Jasper and Emmett's concerned looks, and finally Rosalie, just looking irritated.

"What's going on? Where's the fire?" Emmett inquired as he slowed his breathing from the sudden exertion.

I didn't really know how to explain, and I didn't want to take the time to, so I simply walked over to the intercom on the wall and flipped it on, simultaneously hitting the mute button so that we couldn't be heard. Instantly, the words of the no longer private conversation going on upstairs poured out of the box on the wall.

"...taking it slow. Just let us know when you need a break or if you need anything else. ok?"

"Edward! Is that what I think it is?" Alice spat out, her eyes wide with disbelief. I just nodded.

"Turn it off, Edward!" Rosalie ordered, moving towards the controls that I was blocking. "I won't let you invade her privacy like this. It isn't right. This is her story to tell on her terms, not yours."

I held my hand up to halt her advance. "It's ok, Rose. She gave me permission. She wants us to listen so that we can help her if she calls. We're like back-up."

"What about Mom and Dad? Do they know?" Emmett challenged.

"No. I asked Bella secretly and she agreed. There's no way anyone else up there would agree to this."

"Edward," Alice said, her voice hesitant and concerned. "You don't know...I mean, are you sure you want to hear this?"

"Honestly? I don't know, but I don't really have a choice now. I promised her I would listen in case she needed me. I don't know why. All I know is that she was afraid, and I would've said or done anything to help calm her fears." I admitted before turning to everyone. "I understand if you guys don't want to listen to this, but I promised her I would be here, so I'm staying put."

I could see the deliberation going on in each of their heads. Alice and Rosalie whispered their thoughts to one another in an effort to make the right decision. The near silence in the room was broken only by the voice of Agent Dwyer floating out of the speaker.

"...Why don't we start at the beginning? When did your father become abusive towards you?...

...um...a few weeks after my mom died I guess..." Her voice was small and distant.

I noticed that all eyes were on the wall to my right. Their expressions, a mix of concern and guilt, stayed unchanged as they each fumbled for a seat, not one of them diverting their eyes.

We stayed relatively quiet as we listen to Bella's early encounters with the increasingly drunk and dastardly Chief Swan. Alice gasped audibly as Bella described being locked in the basement for days at a time, being forced to take ice cold showers, and being kicked in the shins and thighs by him while he wore his work boots. All because of stupid stuff like his dinner was still being put on the plate when he walked through the door instead of already being on the table, or his laundry wasn't folded just so. The tears began to pour down Alice's cheeks.

"It's so much worse than she told me." Alice' strangled whisper hung in the air. There was no response to that. I clinched and unclenched my fists as I struggled to contain my anger. My stomach wound itself into knots at the thought of her, still racked with grief over the loss of her mother, being forced to endure the cruelty of a once loving father. I don't know how anybody could make sense of something like that. Taking deep breaths, I tried to get a grip on myself, knowing it was only going to get worse from here.

Bella's voice, growing more and more robotic and distant, continued her story.

"...It was my fourteenth birthday...my present was a man's belt. He cuffed me to the stairs and... he...hit me with it..."

Acid burned up my throat, and the room began to take on a red tint to it. I knew my body was shaking, but I couldn't really feel it. Alice was now listening stoically, apparently already aware of this part of the story. Jasper features were dark, his eyes raged with fury. Tucked securely in the lap of a slightly green Emmett, Rosalie had her face buried in his chest, her shaking shoulders the only indication of her emotions.

The story moved forward as Bella recounted previously untold abuses. I was nearly dizzy with rage as I listened to her inhumane treatment in her own home, and I had to choke back the bile as a new realization hit me... She hasn't had a day, not one single day in five years, that she has not been in pain. It was so overwhelming to think about that I had to grab the table to steady myself from falling off the stool on which I was perched.

"...I had brought home the wrong fishing line, so he whipped me with his fishing rod..."

A single tear slid down my cheek, as I looked helplessly to my siblings. But they were each unresponsive, consumed in their own unique modes of listening while at the same time reflecting back to me similar looks of the helplessness I was feeling. My pulse pounded in my ears while a cold, hollow feeling expanded in my chest. How did she hide this? My anger turned quickly to those who were supposed to protect her. Where were the teachers? The neighbors? A stranger on the street? Anyone? And then as if a truckload of rock was dumped on my head, I realized that I didn't see it either. Or at least I didn't see it enough. How could I have been so blind?

Pain exploded up my arm as my fist connected with the table. My face twisted in agony, but the pain in my hand did not exceed the pain in my chest, so I coiled my arm back to strike again. But the connection was never made. Instead I found myself face to face with Jasper as he held my throbbing arm.

"Edward, stop!" His grey eyes were intense, filled with equal parts rage and compassion. I just stared at him for a moment, my breathing rough and labored, before slowly closing my eyes and releasing the pooled moisture in them. Jasper continued to hold my arm, and assisted me to the floor as my strength vanished. Sitting against the wall, I rested my elbows on my bent knees and my forehead on my clenched fists. Jasper said no more, but sat beside me with his hand on my shoulder in a silent gesture of support, while Alice slid across the couch and tucked herself under Emmett's arm.

All of our attention was again purely on the voices in the intercom as the words we all dreaded began to flow.

"...I left Alice and Edward at school and drove home to get everything ready for the poker party..."

At the word party, her voice broke in a heartbreaking fashion and to my surprise a new voice spoke up.

"...Why don't we stop for a minute and let Bella have a break?..."

It was Dr. Masen. She asked a question, but her tone indicated that there was only one answer.

"...Yes, why don't you take a break, Bella? We have a few questions for Dr. Cullen anyway..." Agent Morrison wisely agreed.

Straining, I could hear Dr. Masen quietly speaking to Bella, but frustratingly could not hear her response. I heard Dr. Masen ask her if she as alright, and if she needed anything. Bella must've answered positively because the next thing I heard was Dr. Masen telling her how well she was doing before their conversation was drowned out by a much louder, and obviously closer to the intercom unit, side conversation between Agents Dwyer and Morrison, and my dad.

"...Carlisle..." Agent Dwyer began. "...I understand that after Chief Swan stopped by your house and spoke to your wife the other day, that he approached you at the hospital, is that correct?..."

"...It is..."

"...Can you tell us about that conversation?..."

"...Chief Swan was upset that Bella wouldn't be home soon to help him with his party..."

I could hear the disgust in his normally calm voice as he sneered the word, party. None of us knew what had happened after Chief Swan left the other day, and while I was still desperately concerned over Bella's condition, I couldn't help but be curious about what had transpired between my dad and the chief. We all listened closely as Dad continued.

"...He insisted that I deliver her to him by that evening. I asked him what I could do to change his mind and allow her to stay on with us a while longer. He told me he would accept nothing less than twenty-five thousand dollars. He said if I paid him that, then she could stay with us until the new year, and then it would be five thousand dollars a month after that if we still wanted her. He said it was about time she repaid him somehow for all the trouble she caused him. I agreed to his terms, with full understanding that this was illegal. So what am I looking at?..."

I swallowed nervously and looked at the wide eyes of my brothers and sisters. We had never even considered the possibility of dad getting into trouble with the law over this. No one was even breathing as we waited for Agent Dwyer's response.

"... Yes, it was illegal, but considering the circumstances I doubt anyone would prosecute you. Besides, you weren't purchasing a girl for illicit reasons. On the other hand, I'm quite sure Chief Swan was trying to sell her for the exact things you are trying to protect her from, and that will definitely not go unnoticed. Thank you for your candor, Carlisle. And for what you have done to help my goddaughter..."

There was pain in his voice as he offered this information for the first time, but that did not squelch the gasps of shock. My comprehension of the situation was still shallow, but this new information was beyond my ability to process. He was her godfather, and he left her at the hands of a sadistic prick and never checked on her. Who does that?

Nausea inducing thoughts of the now strongly disliked Agent Dwyer had to be pushed to the back of my mind as they prepared to resume Bella's interview. Simultaneously, Jasper's hand tightened on my shoulder as Emmett's arms tightened around the girls. Bella's voice was empty as she told of being sent up to her room to wait.

"... and then I saw them in my room. They said they were there to give me my presents..."

I felt Jasper's grip tighten to an almost painful level as I watched him and Emmett exchange looks of dawning comprehension, before each of their faces crumpled in pain and self-loathing.

"You couldn't have known." My voice was a strangled whisper, but I knew they heard me because the each glanced at me briefly before lowering their heads again in shameful defeat. I wished I could offer more to them, but I was just barely hanging on myself. The more we listened, the more puzzle pieces fell perfectly into place, creating a large picture of unimaginable horrors.

Alice and Rosalie sobbed on the shoulders of a now very pale Emmett, and Jasper clenched his jaw and flared his nostrils as his body shook in fury. I watched them, trying desperately to focus through the indescribable torment rolling through my body, as Bella began to describe being gang raped in her own bed. With perfect clarity, I could easily visualize each injury as she spoke of how she sustained it. The marks on her wrists from the restraints, the blows to her face, temporarily marring her beautiful features, the cracked ribs. One by one, like checklist, she offered the answer to the mystery behind each wound. Her voice, no longer empty, was now quivering and soft, and my heart shattered into a thousand pieces as I listened.

The heels of my hands dug into my eyes as my fingers clutched tightly into my hair, blinding me to the expressions of the others, but Rosalie's choked sob when Bella told of Officer Warner's assault with his nightstick was like ice on my spine. She told how her father had come in and lashed her seventeen times before stopping his torture only long enough to reveal he had known of her week spent in our home. I heard my mother gasp as I felt all blood drain from my head, leaving it bobbing around strangely. Raising my eyes, I locked on Alice's horror struck face.

"It was all our fault." She half whispered, half mouthed. My eyes rolled up and closed, clenching tightly as the truth of her words sunk in. It was our fault. We thought we had been so clever, and all we had really done is sign the warrant for Bella's torment. Before I knew what was really happening, I was on my feet and running for the sink. The remnants of my last meal made an encore as I retched violently into the basin. I heaved repeatedly, continuing even after I had nothing left to give. Slowly the spasm in my stomach eased and I rinsed my mouth out thoroughly before turning back towards the others. Little by little, I worked my way back towards my spot by the speaker, my grip on the counter the only thing keeping me upright.

We all breathed a collective sigh of relief when Bella made it to the point in the story when she met up with us in school, and the agents decided the story could be picked up by one, or all, of us. I slid to the floor next to where Alice had crawled into Jasper's lap, the shock of what I had heard making me numb. At least I thought I was numb, but as my twin slid under my arms and buried her face in my neck and wept, I broke. I wrapped my arms around her small body and let loose of everything I had been trying so hard to control.

I'm not sure how long we sat, consumed in our grief, before Jasper cleared his throat and spoke sympathetically. "Uh, Edward? I'm sorry man, but you might want to listen to this."

My head instantly shot up with my full attention to the box on the wall. I could hear Dr. Masen speaking.

" ...This is very typical, you know that Carlisle. She's been through a very traumatic ordeal this past couple of hours, and now her mind is trying to protect itself. Each episode should get shorter and shorter as she heals. Um, Agent Dwyer? That's not a very good idea..."

I could now hear Agent Dwyer speaking, but it was more distant and no longer held an official tone. For the first time in years, he was her godfather again.

"...Bells? Sweetie, I'm so sorry. I didn't know...I..."

Agent Dwyer's apology was abruptly cut off by Dr. Masen's frantic warning.

"...No! Don't!..."

There was suddenly a loud commotion, and I leapt to my feet as Bella's hysterical screams burst out of the wall.

"...No! No! No! Don't touch me! Please! No! Not again! Edward! Edward, please help me!..."

Running faster than I ever had before, I bolted up the stairs and pounded down the hall. Throwing the door to the office open, it took me less than a second to zero in on her. My chest stabbed with pain as I saw that she was backed into the corner by the couch, screaming and flailing her arms and legs. My mother and Dr. Masen were crouched in front of her attempting to calm her as my dad was pulling a syringe out of his bag. Agents dumb and dumber were just standing there looking lost and well, dumb.

Rushing over to Bella, I stepped past my mother and Dr. Masen and pulled her straight into my arms. She was still frenzied and unaware, and she continued to scream and hit me, frantically trying to escape the assailants in her mind.

"Bella, love, it's ok. It's me. It's Edward. You're safe now. I'm here." Her thrashing reduced to smaller, jerky movements that seemed almost involuntary, and though she never seemed to have full awareness, she relaxed into my arms a bit and began to sob. Great shudders ripped through her body as she poured her agony out. I held her tightly to my chest and rocked her, but with everyone in the room there was a near palpable stress. So carefully, I stood. And with the most precious cargo I could imagine, I walked out the door, leaving five very stunned adults in my wake.

A/N: Thanks for reading! :)