Chapter 9 - Tears and Acceptance
Esme was nervous as she walked down the hallway with Carlisle at her side. She couldn't explain why she was exactly nervous but the butterflies in her stomach didn't lie. There was no telling exactly how Bella would react when she heard that her father was arrested.
"I just want you to be careful, Esme. This is probably the first time you haven't seen her in a long sleeve shirt so the bruises will be disturbing, especially the black eye. Try not to stare, you remember how that would make you uncomfortable," Carlisle told her when they were close to her door. Esme nodded in understanding.
She paused right outside her door and turned to her husband. She placed her hand on his elbow and gave him a light kiss on the lips and whispered in his ear, "Thank you. For everything you did for her." He gave her a small smile before she entered Bella's room.
She had to physically stop herself from gaping at the state that Bella was in. There were so many bruises on her arms and her black eye was bad enough that she was surprised that Bella was able to see out of it. She remembered Carlisle's words and went straight to Bella's bedside and reached slowly for her hand to give her a gentle, comforting squeeze.
"How are you feeling, sweetheart?" She asked, softly.
"I feel like I just fell down some stairs," Bella said, quietly. Esme thought that she was whispering so no one could hear them but then she spotted the bruises around her throat and Esme knew the truth. It was hard for Bella to talk, Esme had to swallow down bile at the thought of Charlie strangling her.
"Are you sore?" Esme asked.
Bella just nodded. "I think blinking is the only thing I can do that doesn't hurt in any way, and that's with just my good eye. Esme, the reason I wanted you in here first was because you're the only one I can trust to tell me the truth. What happened? Why am I here?" The last thing that Bella could remember was Charlie pushing her down the stairs, she had a vague memory of someone talking to her but she was pretty sure that was just a dream.
"Yesterday when you didn't go to school Edward was worried about you-," she began to explain but Bella interrupted her.
"Edward?" That was the last thing Bella thought Esme would say.
Esme nodded. "He found out where you lived and came to see if you were okay along with his little sister. He spotted you through a gap through the curtains and actually broke down your door to get to you. You wouldn't have lasted much longer, that boy saved your life," Esme told Bella.
"So, what all does he know about…?" Bella asked, cautiously.
"He knows everything."
Bella felt numb at that thought. "He probably felt disgusted at having seen me like that and left as soon as he could, right?" Bella couldn't think of anything else Edward would've done, she wasn't his responsibility and she could only imagine what she looked like at the bottom of her stairs.
"Quite the opposite, actually. He stayed with you until the EMT's showed up and then followed them to the hospital, that's where I met him after I heard what happened to you. He stayed there the rest of the night with his sister until Carlisle told us that it would be best for us to go home and rest...He's waiting for you in the waiting room right now," Esme told her.
"Why? If he knows what's really been happening to me then why would he want to be near me? I've got to disgust him," Bella muttered to herself but Esme still heard her.
"Sweetheart, that boy cares for you and I doubt anything would take him away from you. I can see it in his eyes," Esme explained.
"But I'm nothing," Bella whispered with tears in her eyes. She couldn't stop the voice inside her head - it sounded an awful lot like her father - that told her she wasn't worthy of affection or friendship. She was nothing and that was what she would always be. Esme was quick to put a stop to that thought.
"I know that's what he's always told you but he's wrong. You are so much more than that; you are a friend to those kids that are waiting in the waiting room just to make sure that you're okay, you are like a daughter to me. You're everything to so many people, I never want you to feel like you are anything less," Esme demanded, gently.
"How long did it take you to believe that?" Bella asked Esme, referring to her first marriage with Charles.
"A while but with Carlisle, he helped me in ways that no one else could. I don't know what would've happened to me if Carlisle hadn't come into my life right when I needed him the most."
Bella paused before asking the question that she really needed to know but was also almost too scared to ask. "Where's Charlie?" Her voice broke on his name but she had to know where he was and what he was planning.
"The cops just arrested him."
"How?"
"He gave them permission to search the house, I think he didn't think there would be anything of value there but I made sure to tell them about the photos. Was there anything else in your room that pointed the finger at him?" Esme asked. She had been paying close attention when the officers arrested Charlie so she heard when they uttered the words facilitated rape, Bella hadn't said anything to Esme before but she wanted to make sure that Bella knew that she was here for her no matter what.
"I thought about what you said about telling your story so I found an old notebook of mine and wrote down whenever he abused me and his excuses for it." Esme felt her heart fill with pride for this girl.
"That was really smart, Bella."
Before they could say anything else there was a knock on the door and Carlisle peeked his head in. "Is it alright if I come in and check on you?" Esme knew that Carlisle had waited for Esme to be in the room so there was less of a chance for Bella to be uncomfortable, she gave him a small smile and gestured for him to come in.
"Bella, do you remember me?" Carlisle asked her when he was standing next to Esme. Bella vaguely remembered meeting him one time before when he came into the store to give Esme something, Dr. Carlisle Cullen.
"You're Carlisle, right?"
"Yes, I'm covering your case, is that okay?"
Bella took a deep breath before nodding her head. She was just glad that her doctor wasn't a complete stranger and that Esme trusted him. She knew that Esme would never let someone near her that she didn't completely trust with her own life. It was a comforting thought.
"There's a couple questions that I need you to answer so we can know how to fully take care of you." When Bella nodded he continued, "Who did this to you?"
Bella closed her eyes in pain before saying, "Charlie, my father."
"Okay, how long has the abuse been happening?"
"Seven years. Ever since my mother died." Bella felt tears gather in her eyes at the thought of her mom but when Esme squeezed her hand to let her know that she wasn't alone Bella gave her a grateful smile.
"Bella, this is going to be a hard question. If you don't want to answer it now, we'll come back to it later, okay?" Bella nodded, reluctantly. "Did your father ever rape you?"
Bella felt her heart drop into her stomach as the question brought back the memory of James and Laurent on top of her and the way she cried out but no one helped her. Esme's heart broke at the look of pure fear that was on Bella's face, she brushed her hair out of her eyes and shushed her until Bella finally came back down to earth. She had to force the memories out of her mind as she looked at Esme and Carlisle.
"He never did."
"Bella, did someone rape you?" Carlisle asked, gently.
When Bella said nothing Esme told her, "It's going to be okay, Bella. You can tell us anything and it will never leave this room, I promise. Carlisle just needs to know if he needs to have someone check you out to make sure that you're alright."
"Remember the day he came into the store to talk to me and you questioned me later about what we talked about?" Bella asked Esme. She knew right away what day Bella was talking about so she nodded her head. "He told me that later that night he was going to have company over and that I needed to have dinner ready and then make myself scarce for the rest of the night. I thought that meant that I would be free of the abuse but, when I was going to sleep, a man came into my room and forced himself on me. It was horrible!" Bella cried. "It hurt so much, I cried but no one came in to save me and once he was done he just left me there before Charlie came in. He rubbed a towel over me and told me that I needed to be ready for the next guy and that they gave him money so I was supposed to make this good for him and if I didn't then I would regret it. Charlie left and let the other guy in, he also forced himself on me and then just left me there!" Bella was crying so hard by the end of her tale that she was hiccuping. It was terrible to relive that night but it also felt good to tell someone that she knew would never judge her or look at her any differently.
After a few minutes of consoling her Esme finally felt Bella's body start to relax, she took a deep breath and looked at Carlisle with eyes full of the monsters that she had seen.
"I'm sorry about that, Carlisle." She wiped at her eyes but winced when her hand brushed the bruise that was over her eye.
"Don't worry about that, Bella. It's okay if you need to let it out, you've been through something horrendous that I can't even imagine. You are incredibly strong and brave to be here right now and able to talk about it with us," Carlisle told her. After she got herself back together Carlisle motioned for Esme to follow him outside. "I didn't want to ask her but how long ago was that night?"
"About a month ago, why?"
"If we could've gotten any DNA from her then we'd be able to put those bastards behind bars but it's been too long. I'll have a nurse come in later to make sure that there wasn't any permanent damage done to her but otherwise there's nothing else we can do about that situation."
"I don't think he got away with it. When the cops arrested Charlie I heard them reading him his charges; one of them was facilitated rape. They'll make sure that he goes down for what he did to her." She hoped that what she was saying was true, she would do almost anything to watch that man burn for what he did to Bella.
After her conversation with Carlisle she went back into the room with Bella. She went straight to the bathroom, wet down a washcloth with cold water, and brought it back to Bella to gently wipe her face free of the tear tracks. Bella couldn't remember the last time she'd felt something so like a mother's touch, it brought a warmth that she didn't know was missing to her heart.
"Are you ready to see Edward and Alice? If not, they're more than alright with waiting for whenever you are." Esme asked her, gently.
"I'm ready," Bella said. She knew that there was a chance that Edward and Alice would leave the moment they saw her but she would rather that happened sooner than later so Bella wouldn't be dreading the time.
Esme patted her hand before telling her that she would be right back. She went down the hallway to the room where Edward and Alice were waiting patiently. They immediately sprang up the moment they saw Esme.
"Is she okay?" Edward asked.
"She's better than I imagined so that's good. She's been through a lot so just make sure that you're gentle with her but she's ready to see you both. I'll take you to her room," she told them.
Edward was happy to finally see Bella but he wasn't sure how she was going to react when she saw them. Last time they parted ways she didn't know that he was suspecting something, would she freak out the moment she knew that he knew everything?
He'd seen Bella when she was brought in, of course, but the sight of her lying in that hospital bed was still overpowering to him. It took everything in him to make sure that he hid his reaction so it wouldn't hurt Bella. She deserved so much more than lying in a hospital bed with a partially broken body.
"How are you doing, Bella?" Edward asked when he and Alice were next to her bed, he barely registered Esme closing the door behind them to give them some privacy with Bella.
"Sore but better than I would be if you hadn't found me," she told him.
"It was nothing, I just wish that I'd gotten there sooner," he said.
"Edward, with how I treated you I wouldn't have been surprised if you had just pushed me to the back of your mind and never given me another thought. I just wanted you to know that I appreciate what you did for me," she thanked him. She thought she saw a slight reddening to his cheeks but otherwise he just gave her a small smile to let her know that he heard her.
"You guys know everything, right?" Bella asked after a few minutes of silence.
"Pretty much," Alice answered her.
Bella's eyebrows drew together in a confused pucker. "Then why are you still here? Shouldn't you be running as far away as you can from me?" Bella remembered what Esme had said but she still didn't quite understand what they were doing here.
Edward reached for her hand slowly so she would know what his intentions were and to pull away if she didn't want him to touch her. He was pleased when he made contact with her skin and looked her in the eyes so she would know that he was telling the truth.
"I'm here because I couldn't stand the thought of someone hurting you. You're the kindest and bravest person I know and the last person in the world to deserve something like this. I would like to get to know you better and to show you that I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to prove to you that I want to be your friend even if it's the last thing I do," he told her. A tear slipped out of her eye, the one without the bruise, and he reached up to softly wipe it away.
"Bella, we both just want to be your friends. If you'll have us then we'll be here for you," Alice told her.
"Thank you, that means so much to me," Bella whispered. She paused a moment before asking, "Can you two do something for me?"
"Anything," Edward said.
"Can you call Angela and ask her to come here. I feel like I need to apologize and thank her for everything she did the last seven years."
Edward had called Angela after they found Bella, he had thought that she would've come to the hospital to wait for any news but he still hadn't seen her. He knew that she cared about Bella so he didn't hesitate before nodding.
He excused himself and went into the hallway to find Angela's name in his contacts.
"How is she?" Angela answered by way of a greeting.
"She just woke up. She wants to see you, would you be able to come to the hospital?" He asked her, uncertainly.
"She actually said that she wants to see me?" He could hear the surprise in her voice.
"Yes, why does that shock you?"
"I didn't do anything to help her, I didn't think that it would do any good but you're here not even two months and have helped her more than I ever did. I didn't think that she would want to see me," Angela whispered. Edward could hear the agony in her voice and it almost broke his heart.
"Angela, I think you helped her more than you realize but if you get to the hospital maybe you two can talk and put this all out in the air."
Angela hesitated but she eventually agreed. Edward came back into the room and nodded to Bella.
"She's on her way."
"Good, there's so much I want to say to her."
"We'll make sure to give you some privacy when she gets here. Is there anything we can get you? Food, books, or magazines?"
"I would love Wuthering Heights and some food. That would be amazing," she told them with a smile on her face. Edward's heart skipped a beat when he saw that smile, it was free of fear and he felt a warmth spread through his body knowing that he helped her get there.
A/N: Thank you to ClaceLover08 and ohsugarhoney for reviewing the last chapter! You guys are awesome, please keep the reviews coming, they help me so much!
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