As always, it has been a while since my last upload... But better late than never no?

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Chapter 11: Meetings

The house was silent for a while. Then, Angela's tentative steps could be heard, making their way toward the kitchen.

I think I was in shock. I couldn't move from my spot, the same spot I had been in when Edward had kissed me (If that's really what it had been). My head was beginning to ache from the overflow of emotions I was feeling and my knees were so weak I was afraid they would fail me.

The last thing I wanted right now was to relive my evening by explaining it to Angela. I wasn't even positive I could do it since I wasn't so sure of what had been going on, I was so confused by Edward's constant change of mood.

"Everything's all right?" Angela asked when she arrived

I nodded, not trusting my voice. But in fact, I was starting to wonder if anything was right.

Just thinking about the few minutes I had spend with Edward, my incoming headache grew stronger and I didn't want to think about it right now. Or about anything. I just wanted to go home and sleep. For several days if possible. Until my life would start making sense again.

"Angela", I said with a strained voice, "don't take it the wrong way but I have to go home. I will call you later."

It was a little rude to take my leave like that but Angela took one look at my pale and tense face and nodded.

If I wasn't still so shocked and so very tired, I would have hugged her for being so understanding.

Instead, I made my way toward the house like an automat. I reached the door, then my car, my house, managed to sound normal while wishing Charlie good night and finally, I reached my room. I didn't even undressed and crashed on my bed, forbidding me from thinking about the evening. I fell asleep almost instantly. I just woke up at some point to kick off my shoes and crawl under my sheets, but otherwise, I slept a long time without dreaming.

The next day, I woke up feeling someone watching me. I opened my eyes and for a while I didn't know where I was and it was a strange feeling because I wasn't usually confused on mornings. But then I recalled who Alice was and smiled.

She seemed relieved and I wondered where her concern was coming from. But then I took a look at my room and comprehension dawned on me. I was fully clothed, my sheets were in a state of disarray never known before and my keys, jacket and shoes where littered on the floor, me who always kept my room clean. I could see where Alice interrogative stare was coming from.

"Good morning" I said, as if it was perfectly normal that I would be sleeping in my jeans.

"Try good afternoon, Alice corrected me. It's 12:15PM"

"No way" I said, and looked at my alarm clock. Sure enough, it read 12:13 PM.

"But I never sleep in" I complained.

"Well, you just did. And pretty soundly if you want to know. I heard Charlie check on you at least twice before leaving around eleven and you didn't wake up"

"Sorry I mumbled, you must have been bored"

"Don't worry, I just wanted to wake you up so you would be able to sleep tonight, Alice said. And I admit, I'm a bit curious to know what was said last night. Even more when I see how exhausted it made you!"

Hearing this, my memories of last night came back to me and I wanted to go back to sleep. But Alice had every right to be informed on what had been going on in the Cullen's and Denali's households since she arrived. And no matter how hard I tried to avoid thinking about Edward, I would eventually have to process what had happened during our time in the kitchen. So it might as well be now.

"Just give me a minute to find some clothes and to take a shower and I should be woken up enough to tell you about it" I said while getting up and starting to gather what I had left on the floor. "But just so you know, the police didn't found anything about you in Forks", I added, not wanting to keep her in the dark for too long.

"Thank you" Alice answered. "I will start to make some lunch. Or breakfast if you prefer"

She disappeared from the room and I quickly made my way toward the bathroom.

The shower helped a lot and when I was done, my mind was less restless. In fact, I looked almost my usual self. I guess I was getting used to all the crazy stuffs happening to me. We could get used to anything. And that's a good thing the human's mind is so adaptable, otherwise my brain would already have exploded.

When I came downstairs, I was assailed by cooking smells. Not bad but pretty strange. Alice greeted me with a sheepish smile.

"Sorry, I never learned how to cook so it's a little experimental" she said.

I think, at first, it was supposed to be sunny side eggs. But she had also added what seemed to me like the entire countenance of the fridge and mixed it all on top of the eggs. I recognized tomatoes, mushrooms, leftover of chicken, pastrami and some smelly cheese. It was fortunate I had been too busy lately to put more groceries in the fridge.

"Don't worry, every ingredient is good so it should be good together" I tried to reassure her. Every cook knows that it isn't a true rule but Alice didn't. And I was starving anyway; my stomach reminding me I didn't eat a proper diner the last night, so I would eat anything.

I set the table while the strange mixture was cooking, taking note of the little word from Charlie on the table, informing me that he had gone fishing and would be home in the evening. My stomach growled loudly and Alice poured a portion of the now scrambled eggs in my plate.

Despite the strange appearance, it was surprisingly good and I regretted that my mom wasn't usually that Lucky in the kitchen department: She also was an experimental cook until I took over the kitchen duties but her meals were rarely eatable.

When my angry stomach was appeased, I began filling Alice up on what I had heard from Emmett, Rosalie and Edward the last night. She was relieved nobody had had real trouble with the police, especially Carlisle who didn't need it, but made a face when I told her jasper had been grounded. "But at least, she said, he had the common sense to diminish the importance of our relationship in front of his parents"

I thought it was a little depressing that Alice was so relieved about that fact. When you are happy because your boyfriend's parents don't know you are together, it's not a good sign. But having seen Rosalie and Jasper's mother, I knew that they had good reasons to keep it a secret.

When Alice was certain her presence didn't create more disturbances than the increase of authority in the Hales' household, she relaxed a little but I couldn't help but wonder if she was really as confident as she had always seemed to me. Since the first time I had seen Alice, I had been impressed by her courage and her independence. Now that I knew her better, I was pretty sure she was as confused as anybody else . She might look like she wasn't afraid of anything and knew what to do in any circumstances but now I knew better. And in fact, I found her even more courageous this way.

That's maybe why I trusted her with my secrets. Not every one of them, I didn't want to tell her about Edward's outburst or the fact I was pretty sure he had kissed me, even if it had seemed more like a show of his force than an act of affection but I didn't want to think about it. Instead, I told Alice everything I knew about his history. Or more accurately, Carlisle's one. I wasn't done yet when Angela came looking for me. I guess she was worried about my condition after the way I had left her house the night before. So I just had to start all over again with my story.

When I was finished, Alice and Angela both looked very angry.

Angela was the fist to react.

"That's horrible what happened to this poor guy"

I thought it was a little strange to hear Edward be qualified of "poor guy". Sure, his life was a mess but his muscular frame alone should stop anyone to calling him a "poor guy".

But then I realized Angela wasn't talking about Edward but about Carlisle.

"And he just wanted to help poor Esme", she continued.

Funny how after hearing Carlisle's story, I had mostly been sad about Edward who couldn't have a real family while growing up. Alice and Angela were mostly concerned about Carlisle. I felt ashamed of myself for not seeing that side of the story before. Ok, I had it bad for Edward. But it didn't mean I should overlook everyone else's problems.

Alice was equally shocked by my revelation and nodded vigorously along with Angela's commentaries about the unfairness of Carlisle's life.

A last, the anger I had seen on both their face took an aim:

"The Volturi's and the Cullen's parents, they are so bad", Angela said

"And this Laurent guy, He wasn't able to cure his fiancée and he still ended up with the good situation, the whole hospital and everyone respect while Carlisle was sent in jail in secret", Alice added.

I didn't know Laurent Malory very well. His reputation wasn't so good, especially with his numerous girlfriends but I would have disliked him anyway because of his niece Lauren. After knowing about his past, I was liking him even less.

"No Wonder Carlisle always looks so nostalgic", Alice commented.

"Nostalgic?", Angela Asked "If that was me I wouldn't be nostalgic, I would be furious and seek revenge"

"Easy tiger", Alice laughed, "It's not really who Carlisle is. Maybe at first he was angry but I think now he is just sad about Esme. And knowing Edward, I'm sure his dad has the same habit of blaming himself for everything."

"That's just stupid. Maybe he shouldn't have kidnapped Esme but 11 years of prison seem a little excessive. Besides, he really did manage to cure her, no?" Angela said.

"How do you know that?" Alice asked.

She then put Angela in the secret of her discovery from the day before; how she had found a box full of documents about Esme in my attic.

"For what I read", She added "Esme died shortly after coming back to Forks. Esme and Carlisle were found in south America and brought back home. So she couldn't be in very good shape"

"But do the math", Angela contradicted, "Edward was placed in the orphanage when he was 4 right?"

"Right", Alice agreed

"And I assume, he was sent to Aloe shortly after his parents had been discovered in South America and Carlisle was convicted of having kidnapped Esme. So it would mean that Carlisle and Esme lived together for a long time. At least 3 or 4 years"

"You're right in all your assumptions", Alice agreed "again from Esme's file, it's written that she and Carlisle were only found because they tried to put little Edward in school. Before that, there were no traces of their doings"

"See?" Angela beamed "So Esme couldn't be too bad to lead a life outside an hospital for so long. Not to mention to have a kid and raise him from 0 to 3 or 4"

"You are probable right" Alice said "but then, why did she die so quickly after being found? And she really died from an overdose, there is her medical file"

"Don't know" Angela said "maybe it was a suicide? From loosing Carlisle?"

She was saying it very lightly. Sure, she looked like a pro in her reasoning, but I wouldn't have minded a little more compassion in her voice. But then again, one shouldn't lose itself in sentiments if one wanted to find the truth. It wouldn't help to put aside possibilities because they were too horrible to think about.

Alice seemed to think along those lines too because she continued:

"Or maybe it was something else, maybe something in Forks was the cause of her illness"

"What are you suggesting? " Angela asked, visibly interested in this hypothesis.

"Something in the file made me wonder" Alice continued, a little bit mysteriously, " about Laurent's role in this story. He was the first to find Carlisle and Esme in South America. The police here in Forks had almost stopped looking for them. The Volturis still wanted to find them badly because they hold Carlisle responsible for the disappearance of their daughter, for which they were right, but they didn't know what to do. So Laurent advised them to hire a private detective. And since the Volturi's parents were so busy and it was Laurent's idea, they let him be in charge of the communication with this detective. I guess it was because he was still, after all, Esme's fiancé. So Laurent was the first to know about Carlisle and Esme and he was the one who called the police"

"And what's so strange about that? " I asked.

"Laurent didn't tell the police right away what he knew. He went for a while in South America by himself. Your dad discovered it but it's not even in the official file. He was there a month at least before calling the police. Isn't it strange?"

"Not really" I said, "Maybe he wanted to avoid trouble to Carlisle and tried to convince Esme to come back with him?"

Angela snorted and Alice and I both looked at her

"No offense Bella" she explained, "But you don't understand much of Forks' life and you don't know a lot about Laurent. But let's just say that avoiding trouble to someone to be nice isn't really in his character. On the contrary, for a Malory, causing trouble to a Cullen would be precious. Not to mention that by sending Carlisle in jail, he was assuring himself a free reign over the hospital. Because, after that, I assume that the Volturi have been so grateful to him for bringing their daughter back that they gave him everything he wanted. So I agree with Alice, it's strange that he didn't told the police right away were Carlisle and Esme were hiding."

Alice nodded her agreement and explained that from the notes taken by my dad, he had also wondered a lot about this fact but without finding a good explanation.

"I'm not sure your dad was supposed to investigate that much on this story" she explained "he wasn't the one in charge of this case. I think he only did the research for himself, but without anyone's knowledge. That's maybe why the box I found wasn't with his other files, it's not really one, just personal work."

The 3 of us just ate our desert in silence for a while. I had added a plate for Angela but until then, we didn't have much time to taste the leftover of cake I had served.

While eating, I thought about Charlie doing this research all by himself. It wasn't so unlike him to investigate on something he found strange without telling anyone. Especially if he knew the person involved as it was the case with Carlisle, a former student of Forks' high. But usually, he worked on a case until he was satisfied he had the answers of all his questions. Somehow, this time, I was sure the case wasn't completed. Some things still were amiss.

We were still lost in our thoughts when Angela had to leave us to do some shopping with her mother. She promised to come back tomorrow to talk some more.

After her departure, Alice and I stayed around the table where we went through the countenance of the box found in the attic once again. But Alice had made a good job of summarizing its main contents and we didn't found anything new.

We were both looking at the disparate documents in the bottom of the box when someone knocked at the door.

Alice's face lost instantly all color and for a fraction of second, everything seemed frozen in place. It was amazing that we had been taken by surprise. We had been so busy that we didn't hear a car stopping in front of the house. But after the first shock, we both jumped to our feet and acted the fastest we could without doing too much noise.

Alice put everything back in the box and ran in the attic while I quickly gathered our plates and put them aside. I then took a big breath to calm my nerve and opened the door.

Outside, under the rain were Billy and Jacob Black.