Hey readers! I'm back from my break! Here's the next chapter. Much, much love to my beta MadMooey18!
Edward's Point of View
We had just reached home from school. Willow was fast asleep on her play mat in the living room while Esme was seated on the couch typing away on her laptop. She looked up from her screen and grinned excitedly raising her eyebrows in a silent greeting, so as to not wake up the sleeping baby. I waved at her and took a seat opposite Esme. I looked at the peaceful face of the baby as I felt the sofa dip next to me. Bella slipped her fingers through mine, leaning her head on me and we gazed at the baby.
She was a little emotional because Willow was turning eight months old today and she went on about how her baby was slowly becoming independent. She had had an emotional breakdown in the car this morning...
"...she didn't even let me hold her bottle while I was feeding her today. Soon she's not going to need me for anything, what am I going to do? She'll be off to kindergarten in no time and then elementary school and then high school and then..." she sobbed. I rubbed her back as she blew her nose with a soiled tissue that she had fished out of her bag earlier.
"Hey, Bella, shush my love. Oh, Bella," I attempted to calm her down. She mumbled some incoherent words and continued sobbing. I understood what she was feeling. I had witnessed Esme breaking down so many times just because her babies were growing up so quickly. I had been a victim to that a couple of times, but I took it like a champ.
Bella's sobs slowly quieted down and she pushed herself away from me and wiped her tears with the sleeve of her sweater. She had been very emotional today but she was very stoic about it.
Ha!
We were going to have a pizza night, Mom had invited Charlie over so we could celebrate this big day for Willow, though she wouldn't understand what was going on, she loved all the attention.
The last few months had been drama-free for all of us. Willow had warmed up to my siblings and my parents very quickly. She loved it when Emmett played with her. It was quite entertaining to see him turn into a huge teddy bear when she was around. He absolutely adored her. Alice was a terror, Willow was not a happy camper when it came to "Auntie Alice" (Alice came up with it on her own, obviously because she thinks that she rules the world) playing dress up with Willow, after the first time when Alice tried it, Willow avoided her like the plague. It was amusing to watch her crawl away from Alice every time she approached her.
Yes. Willow had started crawling. If you thought Bella was being too theatrical about her turning eight months old you should've seen her when Willow had crawled for the first time. No, I'm not going to elaborate.
The main door slammed shut breaking me out of my reverie as we heard Emmett guffaw and saw him entering the living room. The commotion woke Willow up with a start. She was a little disconcerted as she opened her eyes but seemed to forget all about it once she saw her mother's face. It was heartwarming to see how they interacted with each other as if they were in their own bubble. Bella would have this soft look in her eyes as she cooed to her baby. Willow would respond to her mother by smiling or grabbing her hair or by showing off her toothless little grin or squealing or babbling.
Willow flailed her arms and legs, signalling that she wanted to get close to her mother, so Bella sat down on the play mat, picking up the baby from the mat and snuggling her close. I took my seat next to her and Willow smiled as she saw me. She squealed loudly as I placed a kiss on her nose. Bella placed the baby on her raised knees, so that she could see the both of us.
Willow whined after a while, this was her "hungry whine". I was quite used to her cries and noises now. We headed upstairs to the nursery so that Bella could breastfeed.
Alice and Esme had done a wonderful job decorating Willow's room. It was jungle-themed, so there were murals of wild animals on the wall and lots and lots of stuffed animal toys. The furniture was all white which went pretty perfectly with the entire room. They had bought a plush rocking chair for Bella so that even if she fell asleep while feeding or trying to to put Willow to sleep, she wouldn't be uncomfortable.
When Bella made Willow switch sides, I heard the light crunching of gravel as a car entered the driveway. Dad must be home, I thought.
Bella looked up and smiled at me lovingly. I walked towards her and knelt next to the rocking chair. It wasn't moving so I carefully placed my head on her knee and she gently stroked my head. There was a haphazard knock on the door and I quickly jumped to grab a blanket for Bella to cover herself.
"Come in!" I said.
"Edward?" Alice's head slowly showed up as she entered the room. I studied her face and it wore an expression full of distress.
"Someone's here to meet you," she quietly replied to my unspoken question.
"Huh?" I stated dumbly.
"Come on," she said, reaching her hands to help me get off the floor. As if she could even handle my weight.
I got up and glanced at Bella.
"Go on, I'll join you right after she's done," she said looking at the feeding baby. I nodded at her and followed Alice out of the nursery. She walked with a short stance, which wasn't like her. Was she nervous?
As we got to the end of the stairwell, I saw him.
Grandpa Stevenson.
He was sitting with his back to the stairwell and my mom was sitting right across from him. She rose from her seat as soon as she saw me. She walked towards me and grabbed my shoulders and whispered in my ear, "You don't have to talk to him if you don't want to."
I shook my head and looked at my grandfather who had a longing look on his face. "I want to talk to him, Mom, please," I pleaded.
His name hadn't been brought up ever since my mother told me about my adoption. We hadn't addressed how we were going to handle the situation if he ever showed up again. He seemed pretty upset when he had left last time, so I hadn't expected him to return anytime soon. Not that I knew him that well...
"Alright, Edward. If you feel like you don't want to continue the conversation, you can walk away, okay?" She really didn't want me to talk to him.
"Yes, Mom," I said and took a seat where Esme was sitting earlier. She sat right next to me and Alice was nowhere to be found.
"Edward, my boy," Grandpa said in his old shaky voice. He looked older somehow, but there was a hint of surprise in his eyes as he spoke to me. He'd grown a beard and a moustache which was all white in colour.
"Grandpa, how are you?" I asked politely.
"I'm good, boy. Woah, I thought you'd be much younger when I'd get to meet you for the first time, but I'll take this," he said as he wiped his tears away hastily. "I didn't think that I'd get to speak to you today."
"Me neither," I replied.
"So? Tell me about you, boy? What are you into? What are you planning to do after you graduate?" he asked after an awkward pause.
"I'm planning to follow my father's footsteps and become a doctor. I like to play the piano and guitar," I replied feeling like a six-year-old asked to talk about himself.
"Wow, that's a good choice, Edward. You know your Mama used to play the piano really well. She wanted to become a musician when she was ten," he chuckled. I glanced at Esme, who was absent-mindedly playing with her fingers.
"Yeah?"
He nodded in reply.
"That's great. Grandpa, look, this might sound rude but I really want to know why you kicked my mother out of your house," I said bluntly.
He seemed a little taken aback with the question and he hesitated to answer but he cleared his throat and he replied, "Look son, it was a difficult time for me. Your grandma was diagnosed with cancer that year, just the hospital bills had become too much for me to handle. The day Elizabeth told me that she was pregnant was infuriating. The frustration of my wife being sick and unable to do anything on her own caught up to me. Liz first told my wife and she refused to look at her own daughter out of shame so I had to stick with her decision, I felt like I had to stick with any decision that she'd made. We were worried about what people would say, you know? I didn't want to kick Elizabeth out of the house but I was exasperated. I thought that she'd come back to me and apologise but she never did. I regret that decision now and I will regret it until I die. Not only did I lose my wife soon after but also my daughters. Esme has denied that she's my daughter since then.
"I've lived alone since, I still feel remorseful about my last words to my daughter. You know, when I saw you in Esme's arms when you were a newborn, I knew I should've been there for my daughters, I hated myself for it, I still do, but now? I really want to get to know all my grandchildren, I want to make things better with my daughter, only if she allows it." He was full on sobbing now. I handed him the box of tissues that were on the coffee table. "Better late than never," he chuckled darkly.
It was heart-breaking seeing him like that. I couldn't even look him in his eyes.
"Edward, I thought she'd go to sleep but she made a fuss when I sang to her, clearly, she didn't want to sleep." Bella's voice echoed as she entered the living room with the baby in her arms. She looked up at me and caught sight of Grandpa Stevenson.
"Shoot," she murmured. I chuckled. I walked to her and scooped the baby from her arms and sat next to Grandpa. His eyes were wide in wonder as I showed him the baby.
"Meet Willow, Grandpa," I said as Bella took a seat next to Esme. Willow looked up at him curiously and reached for his white moustache. He laughed in amusement and he kissed the baby's hand. She squealed.
"Is she yours? Her smile is beautiful," he said.
"Not biologically, but I wish she was. Yes, she gets her smile from her mother." I glanced at Bella who smiled at me meekly. Willow whined a little and Bella rushed to us to see what was wrong. Before she reached us, I placed the baby on the floor and she crawled to her Mommy. It was adorable, really. Bella sat down watching the baby crawl around.
"This is my girlfriend, Bella. Bella, this is my Grandpa." I introduced them to each other. Bella rose from her seat to shake his hand.
"It's nice to meet you," she said with a genuine smile.
"Ah, I see where Willow gets her beauty from," he chuckled. Bella blushed furiously.
"So, we're all good?" Grandpa asked, aiming his question as Esme.
"I think we are," she retorted as she hastily made her way to embrace him with her arms.
Mom insisted Grandpa stay over for dinner but he declined the offer. However, he invited me and Emmett for fishing next Sunday for some "grandpa-grandsons bonding time".
Dinner was fun, Willow lounged in Charlie's lap as he ate his pizza and we all laughed at her antics. She was an entertainer. She did not hesitate to make a spectacle of herself as she was such an 'attention-seeker' as Bella called her.
When it was time for Bella and Charlie to leave, Willow didn't want to leave me. Charlie looked at me helplessly and Bella chuckled as Willow wailed. She wasn't chuckling anymore when she had to pluck the baby's hands from the death-grip she had on my shirt.
"Awh, look she doesn't want to leave Edward," Alice cooed. "How about you sleep over Bella? Summer break starts tomorrow, so you won't have to worry about getting to school in morning," she chirped.
Bella looked at her father and he laughed at her.
"Oh, now you need my permission?" He asked his tone full of amusement. Bella blushed and hid her face behind a curtain of her hair.
"Go on, stay over. Just warning you that I don't need any more grandchildren so soon," Charlie joked.
All the humour disappeared from my system when he said that. Bella just playfully shoved her father's shoulder and whined for him to stop embarrassing her. Everyone joined in with Charlie's laughter. Bella wrapped an arm around my waist and squeezed it while looking up at me adoringly.
"Okay, Willie-Woo, you wanna say goodbye to Grandad?" Charlie cooed. She babbled some baby gibberish and placed a sloppy kiss on Charlie's cheek. We all chuckled and saw Charlie off.
That night after we'd brought Willow's crib in my room and put her to sleep, I gave Bella a fresh pair of boxers and one of my running t-shirts to wear to bed. We spent the night together as a family, though Willow wasn't mine legally, but she took up a huge place in my heart, just as much as Bella did and that was a lot. I cuddled Bella closer, whispering in her ear that I love her.
She kissed my nose and tucked her head under my chin.
Thoughts?
Charlie is the coolest father to ever exist, I think. Glad that Edward finally got some closure.
This is the last chapter before the epilogue, which makes me sad, because I'm going to miss writing so much. This has been a great experience for me. I got to meet my beta and it's been really fun reading your reviews and writing this fic.
Please leave a review! There's Willow and Edward fluff in the next chapter :) I'll update VERY soon, thank you so much for keeping up with me.