Day 16
we walked casually into the diner & looked around as if looking for a table. "Alice suddenly grinned & waved then she nudged us and pointed
"hey look its Charlie',' she said Loudly "lets go say hi."
she headed across the room with the two of us following behind.
"hey charlie" she said when she reached his table charlie looked up from his bowl of cobbler.
"oh hey kids"
"do you mind if we join you"alice added cheerily
,"sure feel free" he replied smiling at Just alice.
we sat down and then it occurred to me that we had planned everything except how to get the conversation about the "truth" started. but then knowing alice she likely had a plan, i was wondering what the plan might be when i heard
"oh shit"
from across the table. I looked up, alice was rifling through her purse with a worried look on her face, after a minute she huffed & looked up at me.
"edward i left my wallet at home, be a dear and lend me yours i promise i'll pay you back later!"
I rolled my eyes then took my wallet out of my pocket & tossed i lightly over the table to alice. she caught it easily, took out a few bills then rather than tossing it back she skidded it still open across the table as it came, my driving licence slipped out and skidded to a stop against Charlie's hand, he picked it up to hand back automatically glancing at it as he did. then he froze. he looked at the licence more closely before fixing me with a look that was all police chef swan.
"edward according to the date of birth on this you are 26 years old"
bingo! i resisted the urge to grin & instead
rearranged my face into an abashed expression
"ah, well, thats because i am 26."
he glared at me "and are Carlisle & esme really your adopted parents?"
"sort of, esme is my sister, she & Carlisle have had custody of me since my parents died!"
"and how old are the others"
"they are all the ages that you know, I'm the only one who is older"
"why have you been lying about your age?"
"its a long story, you see , there is a lot more to our family history than this town knows. people here assumed that as Emmett alice & i are adopted then we must have histories unconnected to the others, and each other, but actually we were always one family in a way"
"I've got time," charlie persisted as we had known he would
"perhaps you should start at the beginning, whatever that is."
"alright" i replied
i took a breath & began the story that alice had taught me..
years ago my family lived in new york
the eldest were my big sister esme who had Just turned 20 & her lifelong best friend Carlisle 21,
our parents treated him like an extra son. I was the next oldest at 14.,
two doors down lived our cousins Jasper & rosalie both 8, their mother was our mothers only sister, our maternal grandparents were very old and living in a care home . They had had children late as had their daughters, our fathers parents lived abroad and were "enjoying retirement with no desire for responsibility" and as for our cousins fathers parents, the elder hales, his father was very ill and his mother spent all her time caring for him.
living in the house between us and our cousins were Alice who was 6 and Emmet 7, with Alice's father and Emmett mother, who had married when Alice and Emmett were both babies. Emmett's father had died in an accident before he was born , and Alice's mum had died in childbirth. the four of them had no other family but us.
we were all very close and spent a great deal of time together.
one day all 6 of us kids were at my house with esme in charge while the parents went out. there was an accident on the freeway and they never came home. the grandparents were talked to of course but none of them could or would take us and there was no other family to ask.
esme couldn't bear to see us spread to the winds of foster care and our house was large so she moved us all in and determined to raise us all herself. social didn't believe she could do it alone and refused her first request for official custody, they planned to. go to court for an order to take us, Carlisle had already finished college & first year medical school early, he took a place as a nurse at a teaching hospital and got esme a Job as a secretary, they also decided to get married even though they were never a couple.
it was enough, they showed up to court married & with Jobs
& owning the house we were all living in, the judge awarded them custody . esme adopted alice, Emmett & myself but for some reason Jasper & rosalie's paternal grandparents blocked her attempt to adopt them. we were alright for a while but then i developed delayed onset ptsd, I went off the rails and missed almost all of my first
two years of high school, Carlisle & esme pulled me out & i spent a year
getting better, but then there was the issue of education. they tried to get me into school but nobody would take me as a freshman, i was too old, but i was too young for adult education.
then Carlisle heard about forks. we came to visit.
it was peaceful here & someone recommended the school. Carlisle spoke with the principal who agreed to meet me. he was a very nice man, after we had explained everything he offered me a place at the school but suggested that perhaps i could pretend to be the same age as the other freshman i looked young enough. Carlisle agreed it a good idea,"so we moved here and rosalie, Emmett & Jasper Joined the school as Juniors and alice & I as freshmen.
Charlie was silent for several minutes after i finished speaking
finally he said "thats quite a tale"
fallowed a moment later by " did Bella know"
"yes" i said emphatically "Bella knew the whole truth about me before we were a couple"
"i see" then he fell silent and turned back to his lunch.
"what's he thinking" whispered alice too quietly for Charlie to hear
"i cant tell" I replied "you know he's almost as silent to me as Bella, all I get clearly are his strongest thoughts and he seem to be avoiding strong thoughts"
after several minutes of quiet, during which charlie finished his coffee & cobbler, he looked at the three of us, stood up and threw on his jacket.
"let's take this conversation outside" he lead the way outside without another word.
We looked at each other then followed. outside Charlie was waiting for us in the shadow of the trees at the far end of the car park. we Joined him. "right" he began fixing us with a stern look.
I'm guessing that the reason you just told me all that is because you want this to be the new public story for your family & you want me to ensure that it gets spread about town"
we gaped wordlessly at him, i strained to try and hear what he was thinking but he was still keeping his thoughts calm. all i could get was that he was pleased with the reaction he had caused.
"try all you like edward I know i only come through to you clearly if i think loud.
we gaped more.
eventually Jasper managed to speak.
"Im not sure i know what you mean"
"you can drop the front Jasper I'm in the loop" he said clearly enjoying himself. then after a moment he sighed.
"okay so i traced Bella's phone to Alaska and i drove up to see her. of course they went expecting me & i saw too much.
"what did you see" demanded alice
"I saw a man win a wresting match against a massive wolf, a man that shone in the sun. then i saw the wolf turn into a kid i've known all his life!" his thoughts got louder and for a moment I could see him remembering the scene in the Denali's back yard. then it clouded over again. suddenly I realised that charlie was doing it deliberately. he was
controlling his thoughts to control what i could & couldn't see.
"tanya and Bella had a brief conversation and decided that i'd seen too much for them to explain away so i got the whole story: the truth about the wolf pack and your family."
i couldn't work out just yet how bad this was.
"What did she say abut us splitting up" I asked
"she said that you had left her, but had a really good reason"
"I see" i said surprised.
"but i would like a few more details about these reasons" charlie added.
"what do you want to know" i hedged.
he seemed to have coped with finding out about vampires & wolves but without being able to hear him clearly i couldn't be sure. and
i worried that even if he was alright with it all, which i doubted, learning that i had left Bella for Carlisle could be the last straw. "why did you leave Bella?" he asked." 'you broke a lot of promises."
"i know Charlie & i feel horrible for letting her down but it wasn't something in my control."
"i don't understand"
"its a... vampire thing... I Well, i never realised it but I had been in love with someone else for decades. my true mate, you wold call it a soul mate. some things happened that lead to me realising my feelings and then. well some more things happened that lead to them revealing theirs. we realised that how we felt for each other was far stronger than what we felt for our existing partners, we knew then that we had to be together." i paused then continued "i know it sounds really callous and selfish but we really had no choice"
charlie pulled a face that was a cross between a scowl and a grimace but then said,
"no i think I understand."
"you do"
"yes i don't like it but i get it" this time he paused for a moment "and as Bella understands too i guess i would have no Justification for being mad."
"Bella told you that she understands?"
"yes she said that she "holds no grudge against you or your reasons"
"thats very big of her"
"yes it is," his glare clearly communicated that he felt me unworthy of her graciousness and i agreed.
he looked at me closely then said " this new pubic story for your family, it makes two big changes, it makes you older and it makes Carlisle single i'm assuming therefore that the person you left Bella for is Carlisle."
I must have looked impressed at his deductions because he added.
"I'm a cop edward, its my job to be able to put things together & deduce the bits between the lines" alice chuckled.
"you're right"i confirmed Carlisle is my partner now.
"and bella knows!"
"yes bella knows"
"good. well, i don't pretend to understand all of this but seeing as bella isn't mad and seems to be happy enough where she is i wont get mad, and bella clearly sees you as family so i suppose i should look out for you as well, i will spread your story about. & if any scandals pop up i will see what i can to squash it"
we were all surprised at his acceptance although i could detect a hesitant and slightly grudging edge to his thoughts, and the overall
tenner of his thoughts suggested he was having a harder time with this than he let on
"thank you Charlie"i said sincerely
"You're welcome now i must get back to work" and with that he turned and left. i looked round at the others
"we need to tell Carlisle that charlie knows everything."
"bella could have give us a heads up"grumbled alice, i chuckled.
"i expect she knew some version of this conversation would happen sooner or later and knowing bella i bet she thought it would be good for me to handle it unforwarned.