Bright lights
Metal
Blood
A cry
A digital clock
9:51
9:52
Seconds passing

Alice's eyes flashed open. Jasper's arms were around her tightly and she struggled to free herself from them, digging into her pocket for her phone. She pressed 1 for speed dial and put it to her ear, frantic sobs working their way up from her chest.

The calm voice that answered cleared her mind just enough to say the first word.

"Daddy?" she asked, and then her voice broke.

It was a quiet night. Esme was restless, though, and I wasn't much better. Bella had been gone for only two and some hours, and she was due home in less than thirty minutes. Things would be just fine.

My phone rang, snapping both of us out of our thoughts and I looked to see it was Alice.

"Alice, Honey? Are you okay?" I asked right away, sensing something was very wrong. I was proven right when the only thing she could get out was: "Daddy?" and the her voice broke.

I quickly stood up.

"Alice, I need you to calm down and tell me what's wrong. What did you see?"

"Bella," Alice started, and I already had my keys in my hand, "There's a car accident at 9:50."'

My watch read 9:44.

Esme and I were in the car in less than two seconds and speeding down the driveway. Jasper took the phone from Alice and spoke to Esme for a few minutes.

"I'll call you back when we've figured out what's going on," my wife told him, "We love you all."

After they hung up, neither of us spoke until we reached the highway. I knew Esme was watching the clock, and when it passed 9:50, she buried her face in her hands. Another mile on the highway and I pulled over, praying what I saw wasn't real. There were two cars, and Bella's truck was easily spotted as one of them. The other was a small red Toyota.

"Isabella!" I shouted, and then to Esme, "You better stay here. There's blood."

She knew there was blood. She could smell it.

I sped over to the two cars and carefully lifted the end of the truck to flip it over. Bella's head was bleeding bad and her shoulder was dislocated. The situation read "Permanent Brain Damage" and "Brain Hemorrhage" through and through.

"Oh, Bella..." I whispered. I reached for her wrist, counting each pulse count. She wasn't going to make it thirty minutes.

I was distracted by another sound: the wailing of a baby.

I quickly moved to the other car and opened the front driver-side. There was a man and a woman and I quickly checked the pulse of each, but felt nothing. I opened the backseat to find a rear-facing car seat, and tucked into it, wrapped in a pink and yellow blanket was a baby. The baby looked hours old; maybe a day.

"Oh my goodness!" I gasped, quickly removing the child from the five-point-harness and looking her over. There was a bruise on her forehead, but she seemed otherwise alright. There was a hospital bracelet on her tiny wrist that read: Carson, Teresa - 4/11/2010.

She was born yesterday.

In a moment I was back at my own car and I handed the baby over to Esme.

"Call an ambulance." I told her.

"Is Bella..."

The end of her sentence was implied.

"No," I said, and she relaxed a little, "She's alive, but not for long. I don't have another choice, I think."

I took my black bag out of the back seat and returned to Bella's side to gently take her out of her seat. I laid her out on the ground and opened my bag to take out a needle of morphine mixed with a sedative. It would keep her quiet and still for long enough to sign her death certificate and have her funeral, and then we'd leave.

I held my breath and injected her with the combination, and then I put it away as the ambulance pulled up.

"The two in the car are already dead," I informed the EMTs, "The girl won't make it long. Put her on life support to get her to the hospital. There was a baby in the car. My wife has her at the moment. She has a bruise, but she's going to be okay."

"I'm sorry, you are?" one of the EMTs asked.

I offered my hand to him.

"Doctor Carlisle Cullen. Now do as I say."

He nodded and I returned to Esme while their backs were turned.

"Can you drive to the hospital with the baby? I'd like to go in the ambulance with Bella."

She quickly nodded and I returned to our daughter just as they were ready to leave for the hospital.

I steeled myself as I stepped into the back of the ambulance and closed the doors behind me, and then I knelt down beside the bed and took her little hand in my own. I carefully pressed a kiss to her forehead and then brushed her hair behind her ear.

"You know her?" one of the EMTs asked.

I glanced up at him and nodded stiffly.

"She's my foster daughter," I said quietly.

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Hello, Readers! As some of you might have guessed, this is the beginning of the end! I will have the next chapter out shortly!