Chapter Thirty-Four—Some Truths

Somewhere between Forks and Seattle, a call from Charlie woke up Edward and Bella as they slept in the backseat of Emmett's Jeep. Charlie's news had left them wide awake, yet equally exhausted. The security team and Charlie, at the last minute, decided to change the hour of Esme's medical transportation. It could potentially keep anyone watching on their toes.

The truth of the matter was that every resident in Forks was a possible spy for the organization. Money and fear were powerful weapons at their disposal.

Charlie and Emmett's father wanted Edward and Bella to wait until Esme was admitted and settled into her room before they headed to the hospital. It would also allow the kids a few hours of much-needed rest.

When they arrived at the secured apartment building set up by Emmett's father, Rosalie, Emmett's fiancée, answered the door to the apartment with a smile that didn't reach her unique blue-green eyes. Her bottle-blonde hair was in serious need of a roots touch-up, but after being self-conscious about it during introductions to Edward, she explained about not bleaching and coloring her hair until after the baby. Only a head shorter than Emmett, Rosalie spoke with an endearing mix of Spanish and English.

"Did you all eat?" Rosalie attacked the gelato as soon as Emmett handed it to her. "Have a seat." She gestured toward the nearly empty living room. Other than a huge flat screen, some stereo equipment, and an enormous couch, there was nothing else.

"Stopped at that 24-hour place to eat," Emmett said, groaning as Rosalie fed him a spoon of gelato he brought to answer the call of her cravings. "But it was a long ass fucking drive. I'm fucking tired."

"Edward or I would've driven, Emmett." Bella rolled her eyes. "All you had to do was ask."

Rosalie pointed to Bella with the spoon in her hand. "You would've turned back around if Emmett let you drive."

"No." Bella met Rosalie's glare as she plopped onto the couch, pulling Edward down with her. "It's true. The minute they told me Edward's mother was being moved to a hospital here, I let them bring me here."

"You would've stayed there and you know it." One of Rosalie's thin, light brown eyebrows arched high and remained there. A couple Spanish curse words Edward barely recognized slipped through when Bella didn't bother to reply. "You and your dad are so damn stubborn. Tontos!"

"Hey, leave my dad out of this!" Bella stood up, starting to pace. "He's doing what he can with limited time and with what he has at his disposal." Her whiskey eyes circled around to meet everyone's gazes, pleading for them to understand. "He's doing the best he can."

"You mean the best he can on the choke chain they have him in." Rosalie appeared triumphant as she stuffed a gelato-filled spoon in her mouth.

"That's a good description." Emmett grunted, shrugging when Bella aimed a glare at him. "It is, Bella. And not only does the organization have a chokehold on him, but so do the FBI. They don't want him making a move until they have everything they need to charge and destroy the organization in one fatal blow. They know if Charlie leaves town, it would scare the organization from making this new deal."

"It's true then, they're expanding." Bella sat beside Edward again, all the fight deflating when faced with such a horrible thought. "Guns and drugs are no longer enough. Now they want to start trafficking people."

Rosalie looked at Bella, the spark of anger in her eyes firing up. "The potential for making millions of dollars is too tempting for the greedy putos to ignore." Rosalie tossed the spoon in the tub of gelato and rose to her feet, too agitated to stay still. "There has to be a way for you all to leave town and have them not want to come after you."

"There's something else holding back the FBI." Emmett rolled his shoulders, looking especially tired. He had been up for a solid thirty-six hours and counting, spending at least eight of it driving. "I don't know what it is, but my dad and Charlie know something we don't."

"It's never good to be uninformed or misinformed." Bella let her head fall back on the couch, staring at the ceiling. "If they know something we don't, it could prove fatal to us."

Edward had remained quiet since introductions between him and Rosalie, listening and assessing the family dynamics. Until Bella, he'd always been good at reading people. He picked up on little things here and there about her, but mostly, he realized, Bella wouldn't show emotions unless she wanted them to be seen.

A part of Edward worried that he was convenient in a way. Her brother's murder occurred while he lived in Chicago, so she trusted that he wasn't the killer. Did it translate to trusting him in every way that mattered?

The photos on her mantle back at her house came to mind. Edward's thoughts triggering a long-forgotten memory. He focused away from the picture of a cute, little girl with pigtails, missing front teeth, and a busted arm, and didn't linger on the one of Bella dressed as a mini Luke Skywalker for Halloween. His mind zeroed in on Charlie's wedding photo, and him dressed in Army blues.

"Hey, are you all right?" Bella tugged gently on his hand.

Edward had to shake his head to clear the fog. Emmett, Rosalie, and Bella looked at him with concern, maybe even a bit of apprehension. He was the newcomer, the outsider in their eyes. How long would he feel like that?

"Your dad was in the Army." He looked away from Bella and the others as he put the pieces together in his mind. "And so was mine."

Now Edward had to wonder… What were the odds they served together? A hundred to one? More? Nobody said a word for a few moments, but Edward turned to look at Bella. It didn't take long for him to read her this time. Confusion morphed into realization, and then, to barely concealed anger.

Bella asked Edward couple questions about his father's Army days, whatever information he had on where his father served, and if he met anyone growing up. She wanted to know when his father left the Army and why. After confirming several facts about Charlie with Emmett, she spent a few minutes on the phone with a relative.

"Our fathers served together." Defeat settled in Bella's eyes and onto her already heavily burdened shoulders. It was as if Edward could see them weigh her down. "Stanley, he retired shortly before moving here. I remember Stanley talking about his service while he campaigned for election. It won't take long to confirm, but there's a good chance my dad and Edward's father served under our esteemed Mayor. That's the connection I was missing."

"That's what they're keeping from us!" Emmett looked ready to pull out his phone and call his father.

Bella stopped him, begging with tears in her eyes not to call him.

Emmett gave in and promised he wouldn't ask his father anything yet. "No wonder they can't move. If Stanley still has connections in the Army, there's a good chance your fathers can't even fucking sneeze without Stanley knowing about it. This also makes everything so much more complicated for the Feds; no wonder why they want solid evidence and want to bring them down for something huge."

Bella sat, stunned, in shock. "I can't believe my father never told me."

Edward laughed, no joy in the sound. "Don't you get it, Bella. My father dragged my mother and me to Forks, not to save me from self-destructing in Chicago, but to help your father."

"What are you saying?" Bella's eyes tightened. "Are you blaming my dad for all of this?"

Edward stood, his eyes meeting Bella's for a brief moment, before he started to cross the room. "I'm going to bed."