Chapter 23
Bella was quiet as she looked at the ash and debris on the ground. The remains of Charlie's old recliner were found among the rubble. It was a melted mess of leather and metal. Mangled and warped until it was nearly unrecognizable. The kitchen was completely burned out. The same went for the entire second floor. There was nothing left except for the brick fire place that went through the side of the house. Out of the corner of her eye, Bella caught a glint of something silver. She made her way over to where she thought it came from, reached down and started moving bricks and other debris out of the way.

"Did you find something?" Edward asked from across the way.
Bella didn't respond. Instead, she kept searching. She knew she'd seen something.
Edward came over and began looking with her. It took a could minutes but eventually, Bella felt something solid and made of metal. It was rectangular and badly singed, covered in ash. Edward passed her a tissue and Bella wiped away what soot she could.
It was a photo of her and Charlie on his friend's fishing boat. She was holding up a huge catfish with a brilliant grin plastered on her face. Charlie stood beside her, helping to hold the line. Smiling happily along with his young daughter. Bella hugged the photo to her chest. She unbelievably and against the odds had found something. The two continued on for a while longer, looking and searching. Edward came across a small jewelry box that Bella had never seen before. It was metal, heavy, and obviously well made because the jewelry inside was completely untouched. She recognized a few pieces as her mother's and grandmother's. She wasn't sure where the rest came from.

There was also an old photo of her grandmother inside an old pocket watch. It had miraculously survived in the box along with the others. Bella and Edward found a few more bits and pieces. Part of her back pack survived somehow, making Bella crack a sad smile. A few coins, she assumed that were from the change jar in the kitchen. The jar and bills were gone, but there were a few coins left over. Bella picked them up and put them in her pocket. She found a mug her father used frequently for his morning coffee. She picked it up and smiled, thinking of the time when she was little.

"I made him coffee when I was about 12." Bella spoke up, voicing the memory. "I used this mug because he always used this one."
Edward smiled and walked over, looking at the red, dusty mug.
"I tasted it before I gave it to him. It was horrible."
Edward and Bella both let out a quiet chuckle.
"What did you do?"/
"I dumped half the sugar bowl in it. It didn't realize it was meant to taste that way. I poured so much milk into so that the coffee was a milky, sugary mess. I didn't realize that my father took it black. Or what that even meant."
Bella paused, letting the memory wash over her. She closed her eyes, recalling the warm smell of coffee and the sound of her father coming down stairs.
"I was so proud of myself. I told him I would bring him the coffee so he went straight to his recliner. He took a slip because I was waiting to see what he thought."
"What did he do?" Edward asked curiously.
"He choked on it, of course." Bella recalled with a soft smile.
"He thanked me and said it was great. But he said it wasn't quite how he took it.
I was so crestfallen. But he took my hand and led me into the kitchen."
"Did he show you what to do?"
Bella nodded. "He showed me how he liked it, just a straight cup from the carafe. I told him it tasted horrible that way, so he made me a cup with a lot of milk and a little bit of sugar."
"Did you like it?"
"Not at first. But I wanted to be like my dad so much that I told him it was great. Every weekend, after I woke up, we'd drink a coffee together in the living room. He'd be on his recliner and I'd be on the couch or by his feet on the floor. We'd watch cartoons or a fishing show together. He loved those."

Bella stopped after that, looking at the mangled remains of her father's recliner. "We'll never get to do that together." She noted sadly.
Edward wrapped her up in a hug as she softly cried.
"I miss him." She sobbed into his shoulder. "Don't let go." She begged, holding onto his shirt tightly in her fists.