There is a stray blood droplet on the end table by the doorway of the sunroom. I just keep staring at it. It has long since dried. A little reminder of the transgressions that have happened in this room. The life that was lost in an ill attempt at reclaiming self. That one stray droplet holds the truth of everything. Alice killed Tanya. Violently. There is no way to spin that.
My head tilts to the side as Rose comes back into my line of vision. Golden haired beauty with a face twisted in fear. Her eyes teary and defeated as she...begs? I don't know. I cannot hear anything. I haven't heard a word that has been spoken since Alice asked for help. It's like after those little words were uttered everything went white. No noise. Nothing.
Fuck. The quads. Benny. Jay. The bakery. My dad. Literally everything that I hold dear to me. Alice just jeopardized it in a blink of an eye...or over a few minutes...or how ever long it took for her to come back to her senses. Did she lose her senses? Was this one of those moments when a woman snaps? I can't fault her for doing it. Edward and Tanya pushed her to the brink of insanity plenty of times. I'm shocked it took her this long to act it out. But I can be angry at the fact she brought us into it.
"I..I...I bought the bleach," I choke out.
"Fuck the bleach! Bleach can't help this," Rose yells outrage.
Alice looks at me pitfully, "I know thank you."
Burning rage. I leap out of my seat and look widely around at the utter chaos. At the possibilities that are literally swarming around in the air. This changes it all and she cannot even see it.
"I bought the bleach," I repeat, firmly finding my voice as the white noise eases out of my consciousness. "I drove to the store in my fucking Tesla, got out of the car without sunglasses, walked into the store where my peers shop, got fucking bleach with my bodyguard, and checked out with my fucking credit card that is in my name!"
"Bella…"
"Did you fucking think? At all? How the fuck do you think this is going to go?" I look at her daring her to deflect.
"Obviously-" Rose begins.
"Shut the fuck up Rose! I asked Alice. I want to hear Alice speak. Speak, Alice."
Alice starts crying. "I panicked. I fucking panicked. Okay? I was not thinking."
"Who we are and who we are married/engaged to does not afford us that luxury. Alice, my fucking kids are in the hospital. I'm trying to adopt Benny. Rose has a kid. You called us here! You endangered everything we are working for! Alice, I was in the fucking store buying bleach! Driving to your house in a gated community! Put one and one together!" I yell.
"Jay and Emmett can get us out of this," Rose offers meekly.
"No!" Alice screams.
"If we go to them then Edward is surely to find out that Alice killed his mistress which happens to be the love of his life. Edward will attempt to kill her, launching a war," Rose deflated instantly. "We could try to get rid of this but there are way too many loose ends. Who knew Tanya was here? How many cameras are here? Getting all the stories correct. Hiding it from our partners."
"Well, what do you suggest," Rose snaps at me.
"I literally don't know." I finally respond after a bated breath.
And I don't know. We are damned if we do and we are damned if we don't. For one minute I allow myself to hate Alice. Absolutely loathe her. She has always been a self-centered, entitled, bitch but I normally brush it to the side. She is Jay's little sister after all, the golden child that can do no wrong. All her life she was taught to look pretty and stay quiet and the world would be handed to her at her feet. She has taken that entitlement for granted and twisted so crudely that she believes the ones who love her the most should take the fall for her.
"I am not going to jail for you," Rose snaps looking Alice up and down.
Alice pouts and then looks down. Calling Rose here was desperate for her. They have not talked since Rose kicked Emmett out. Alice out of spite won't even see her nephew. The fight ensues between the two. They throw things and shout and scream. I tune them out and observe emotionlessly. They are forgetting that we are in the middle of a crime scene and they are just spreading DNA evidence around.
We never force Alice to take care of herself. Even when we went with her to fight Tanya we did the legwork to make sure there was no fall back on her. We always make sure that she is together emotionally, physically, and spiritually. She never gives that energy back ever. It is like we are the puppets in a Broadway show. Honestly, I am sick of it. I am tired of her acting like a child.
She screams something at Rose that catches my attention. I look at her curiously while she continues her tirade. Rose hasn't caught onto her slip because she is too busy holding back from punching her in the face.
"Wait, what did you say," I ask her, rising out of my seat.
Alice looks back, "Uh...huh?"
"You said Masen always listens...MASEN…what did you mean by that?" I ask her.
"Uh..well you know...he's been here a lot so we talk," Alice mutters, turning away from us.
Rose and I share a look. This fucking bitch. Before I can even blink I have my hands around her neck shoving her against the wall. Anger licks up my spine as I stare into Alice blank ones as she cries. I smash her head against the wall again. Rose is trying to pull me off her but I shove her way.
"Alice, do you think I am stupid," I ask choking back the thousand other things I want to say. "You are fucking Masen aren't you?"
Rose gasps at my accusations. Jay had mentioned that Masen was taking over watching Alice. That she felt comfortable with him and Jay didn't mind loaning one man with everything going on. It puts his mind at ease knowing that she is being taken care of when her husband cannot be bothered. I have met Masen a couple of times. The red-haired Irish-Italian is quiet but a force to be reckoned with when it comes to tech. Masen has always been super sweet when we have been in the same room.
"No..no..no," Alice mummers.
"Alice, don't fucking lie to me when there is dead body in the room. Don't you fucking dare," I threaten loosing my patience.
Alice gasps, "It wasn't supposed to happen. But I mean Edward has Tanya. It's not like he cares. So yeah, we have been fucking."
I release her and turn to look at a shocked Rose. Yeah, wasn't expecting that. All that talk about saving her marriage was a bunch of crap. I don't feel one way or another about her cheating on Edward. This has been a sham of a wedding from the start. What I care about is that we are in the middle. I will bet my left tit that Edward knows Masen is banging his wife. He is a crafty sadistic fucker that one.
Still looking at Rose I utter a question, "What was Tanya doing here?"
That is the most important question that has not been brought up. Rose brows crunch in confusion. She hadn't thought about it either. I believe we both chalked it up to their fucked up relationship. But in all honesty, I cannot explain why she is here. It is too sloppy even for Edward to have her here and I believe he and Tanya have their own lovers nest in the city.
"Alice, answer," Rose snaps.
We both turn to look at her. Her bloodshot eyes darts between us. She looks like a child at this moment. An innocent young woman who has had crappy hands dealt to her. But I remind myself she is not innocent. She is very calculating and can be a dangerous variable.
"She was blackmailing me. Me! After she has been screwing my husband for over a year. She was in my wedding!" Alice screams at us. "She wanted me to leave Edward or she was going to tell him I was sleeping with Masen and get him killed. I called her here to talk and possibly pay her off."
"And what happened?" Rose grinds out.
Alice licks her dry lips, "We talked. She stated Edward wanted a child with her. But she doesn't want a bastard. She wanted me to leave him so he can move her into my house and raise a family! That backwoods trash could never. I just lost it when she started talking about the baby names they came up with. When I came to, she was dead and I was holding the knife."
"She was pregnant?" Rose's voice is very shrill and to be honest that is the least of our worries.
"No. They were making plans for having a baby. Edward apparently wanted to wait till after they cleaned up this mess." Alice states.
She lets that hang in the air. We all have associated Tanya with being a homewrecker, and she was. But she was also a woman with dreams, aspirations, and loved ones. Mainly, she had Edward in her corner and that is going to be a problem.
If Alice killed anyone else, it would be easy-well not easy-to make them disappear ourselves. But she killed someone close to a ranked member in the family, even if she was just a goomah. We are in over our heads and I am tired of trying to make everything easier on Alice.
"I'm calling Jay...this...this is too much," Alice starts sobbing. I'm effectively putting in motion either a price on her head or a price on her husband's head. "Alice, it is above us now. One wrong move and we could go to jail and they will use that against the family. You think your brothers would let you sit in a jail cell? You think they would let Rose and I sit in a cell? We cannot afford to be sloppy."
Rose sniffles, "B, is right. It's too risky, Ali."
"No," Alice declares. "I will not do that to my marriage."
"You don't even love him!" Rose shouts back.
"Fuck you. You abandoned your marriage! You traitor," Alice retorts at the top of her lungs.
As they start their verbal battle, I shoot a coded message to Jay. Fuck whatever Alice thinks she is going to boss me around into doing. I am not risking my family for Alice fucked up marriage. Jay responds with a signal that he is on the way and slips my phone back into my back pocket.
"...stuck up Edward ass. You don't know what the real world is like," Rose screams, managing to find a whole piece of furniture and chucking it at Alice head.
Alice manages to duck and tries to tackle Rose to the ground but Rose shoos her away. I yawn and glance around the room wondering how Jay is going to fix this. This site isn't exactly well maintained and despite my suggestion Rose and Alice have been in and out of this room. DNA is all over this house.
"Bella," They both scream in usion. I look back at them questioningly.
"We can handle this right," Alice looks at me pleadingly while Rose shakes her head in the background.
"No. Jay is already on the way," I tell her bluntly.
"Edward is going to kill me and Masen," She gasps.
"Or the family will kill him," I mutter.
Alice lunges for me but stops when she sees I am not flinching. It's starting to settle in with her that I am not afraid of pissing her off. I know my place and that is basically above her right now. The power positions have shifted and she is at loss on how to play her part. We are both guilty of that because I never tried to enforce my role before. I am not. Alice isn't fit to be the heart of the family, especially when my fiance is going to be the head.
"You suck my brother dick for a while and you think you know what's best for this family. You think they even like you," Alice snarls.
I shrug as the doorbell rings. "I don't care if they like me but they respect me. I know we gave you a chance and you shitted on it. I know just like always we are going to clean up your mess."
I saunter towards the door but pause when I am next to her ear to whisper, "If you ever and I mean ever fuck up this bad again...it will be your last."