32.
Monday eventually rolled around. Bella and Angela were both antsy and nervous. Adi did not seem to know what to do with herself. Angie was in her room pacing and Bella was outside walking around the house mindlessly. Adi just didn't know who needed her the most. Thankfully for Adi, Emmett solved the problem for her. He couldn't take the emotional pain that Jasper was projecting and knew that it had to be worse for Jasper. Normally the house rules stated that one must knock on a closed door before entering the room, but Emmett just walked into Angela's room and scooped her up, interrupting her pacing.
"Emmett Cullen! PUT ME DOWN THIS INSTANT!" Angela was startled to be zipping down the stairs. Emmett proceeded to then plop her on the couch. "Angela please stay here for a minute." He held up his hand and gave her a withering look, when it looked like she was going to protest. She shut her mouth and just nodded with a huff. She folded her arms over her chest. She was now totally frustrated with Emmett. Why was he treating her like a toddler? A short second later Emmett came back into the house fireman carrying Bella. "OOPH", Bella was unceremoniously dumped onto the couch next to Angela. "What the Hell Emmett?!" Bella demanded. Adi took this opportunity to jump in between the two girls.
"Bella, honey, I understand that both you and Angie are worried about how everything is going to go today. I get it, I do; but have you thought for a second how the Empathic member of this family might be feeling? Right now, I can barely think straight with what he is projecting. I want to crawl into the tightest corner and hide. So just think how he might be feeling. I'm fairly sure that Jazz is currently trying his hardest not to project so that means…". Bella and Angela were staring wide-eyed at Emmett with "O" faces.
"SHIT!" Angela and Bella said together. They knew that they were okay to be worried about the impending trial, it was their right. However, they knew that they could have tried to tone down the dramatics. "I was so caught up in myself that I didn't even think about Jasper, or anyone else for that matter." Bella said. "Where is Jasper now Em? I haven't seen him all morning."
"He is currently out in the woods by Leah's. The emotions that you two are putting out are really pushing his powers. The effect that I am feeling and have been feeling from him have continuously been from that area! I don't know what is going on, but his power seems to be amplified. You two really really need to try and calm yourselves." Emmett said, nerves and emotion lacing his voice.
Bella looked like a deer in headlights. "I don't know how to calm myself like that Em."
"I do." Angela whispered. "After the twins died, I had a hard time dealing with things. I developed an anxiety disorder. Meditation and breathing techniques helped me calm down. My parents didn't want me to depend on medicine. I can help guide you through it if you want." Bella agreed; she and Angela went through a short calming session.
Jasper walked through the back door and shot Emmett a grateful look. "That's a lot better, thank you." He was now able to find his own calm and boosted by Bella and Angela's calm he was able to start projecting that. The heaviness that nobody really noticed before, lifted. Emmett took a deep breath and sighed, "Damn, that's a lot better. I feel like I can breathe again." He looked at the clock on the mantel, just as everybody else walked into the room. "It's time to go. Stephan, Vlad, Yael, and Hillel are you sure that you want to stay here today?" All four nodded their heads yes. "Leah and Jake, you guys are going to act as bodyguards for Angela please. I know nothing should happen to anybody today, but just in case your priority is Angela." Jake and Leah already knew this of course but knew that Emmett was just as nervous as Bella and Angie. "We will meet our attorney, Mr. Jenks, just outside the courthouse."
"Alright everyone let's get this over with." Carlisle said, everyone headed out to their cars and took of towards Port Angeles. Emmett did his level best to keep Bella, and Angela through walkie-talkies, in stitches the whole way. It mostly worked to keep the girl's minds from everything that was going on.
As planned, they met Mr. Jenks outside the courthouse, and he led them to a readying room. "Miss Swan, I just wanted to let you know, that this morning I filed for both Miss Stanley and Miss Mallory to be charged as adults for Assault in the 1st degree. If they are found guilty the minimum sentencing for that is 10 years. Does this seem fair or unfair to you?"
"10 years is a long time, and I hope that if they are convicted that they use that time to think of what they could have done differently or at least realize that what they did was wrong." Bella replied. Deep down she knew that Lauren would never change, but she had hope that Jessica could maybe change her ways. "Would they be housed in the same prison? I just realized that the two of them together will always be a very bad thing. So would they be together or apart?"
Mr. Jenks and Carlisle both looked very proud of the reply and question Bella had. "As a lawyer we can't tell the Judge that they should be separated, but we can strongly hint that they should be separated. I also think that I will push for both of the girls to be evaluated by a Psychiatrist to see if there are any underlying issues."
Bella and Angela nodded their head quietly, they both genuinely thought that Lauren did have some kind of mental issue. They knew that prison wasn't the best place for someone with a mental problem to be, but if push came to shove Carlisle would pay for someone to meet with both girls in prison if necessary. "It's time to go in. Bella you will be sitting at the table with me, and Angela you will be behind us sitting with the family until you are called to give your statement to the court. Don't worry about anything other than telling the truth. You don't need to look at the the other girls at all. If you need to look at someone look at your new family or that young man who can't seem to keep his eyes off you." Mr. Jenks winked at Bella when Angela blushed, and Bella had to hand it to the guy, he sure knew how get Angela's mind off any negative thoughts she may have been stewing on.
Through out the trial, Lauren and to a lesser degree Jessica, were trying to signal to Bella and Angela. The Cullen family could see that their girls ignoring the others really was getting under Lauren's skin, as she kept getting more and more red in the face. When it was time for Bella to testify, you could see the cogs slowly turning in Lauren's head as she leaned in to speak to her lawyer. Her lawyer heaved a huge sigh and stood. "Miss Swan, is it true that you instigated the fight between my clients; Miss Mallory, Miss Stanley, and yourself?"
"No. I simply was using the bathroom after lunch. I don't see how that was an instigation of a fight." Bella replied evenly.
"Did you or did you not call my clients whores and other foul names?"
"I did not. Your clients are the ones that called me a whore for being with my Fiancé. Again, I don't see how me being with a man who loves me is an instigation of a fight."
The lawyer knew that he didn't have a case to defend against. He had been working with both girls for only a short time but knew that they were guilty as hell and had to pretend he thought they were innocent. This meant that he was going to have to try and drag this poor victim through the mud and see if anything stuck.
"Aren't you a little young to be engaged? Weren't you madly in love with…" the lawyer scanned a piece of paper, "Edward Cullen just a few months ago? Isn't Edward Cullen in fact the brother of the boy you're calling your Fiancé?" The lawyer scanned the faces of the family and realized that calling the exceptionally large man a boy might have been a mistake.
"Edward Cullen was my boyfriend, yes. Was I madly in love with him? No. Is he the brother to the MAN I'm going to marry? Yes. Does that cover what you asked me?"
"You weren't madly in love with Edward? From what I have been told through my fact finding is that you were in fact in love with Edward, and then you left him to steal an Emmett Cullen from my client Miss Mallory. Miss Mallory says that you stole her boyfriend away from her is what made her snap. We have other witnesses to the fact that Emmett Cullen and Lauren Mallory were very happily dating for a long time, with an engagement eminent."
A roaring laugh could be heard. The Judge banged the gavel a few times, and Emmett was just barely containing himself. Rage was the predominate emotion he was trying to squash, but revulsion was written all over his face when ever he looked at the defense table.
"Nothing could be further from the truth. Edward Cullen is a selfish person who wants to put himself above all others. He left not just me, but his whole family to run off and "find" himself. Emmett Cullen was not and never has dated Lauren Mallory. She is a loudmouth who can't back up what she claims. I can probably list off all your witnesses without looking and it would be short because the only person that still talks to those two is Mike Newton. He is as reliable as a hamster is against a bear. He thinks with his head and not his brain if you catch my meaning."
The lawyer indeed did only have Mike Newton as a witness to Lauren and Emmett being together. Blushing he said, "I have nothing further to ask this witness."
Bella was then given the chance to tell the horrid tale of how her still visible injuries came to be. She was then excused, and Angela was called up to testify. Her story matched Bella's story to the tee and the defense knew that his clients would be going to prison for at least 10 years.
In the end both girls were convicted of Assault in the 1st degree and were sentenced to 15 years each. They would be housed in separate prisons and no communication would be allowed between them. They also would have to be Psychologically evaluated for psychotic tendencies. As they were led out of the court room Jessica couldn't stop sobbing and Lauren threatened Bella and Angela with more bodily harm and even death. It wasn't until Lauren's mother slapped the bitch that she shut up and listened. It turns out her family was disowning her and that she no longer would have mommy and daddy (or their money) to help her through anything. That night before they could transport Lauren Mallory to prison, they found her hanging in the county cells with a note pinned to her chest. She couldn't take the fact that she was going to be penniless when she got out in 15 years. In the letter she blames her parents for everything. The Mallory family never claimed her body, so she was cremated and buried in a pauper's grave.
Jessica was found to suffer from a type of Autism and was moved to a special facility. She would end up living out her life there.
As the Cullens and the Swans left the courthouse not knowing what the future held for the two that were just sentenced, it felt as if a weight had been lifted and that things might go right for a change.
A week after the trial Bella knocked on Angela's room door. "Hey can we talk. I feel like we haven't really spoken to each other since the trial."
"Sure!", Angela said, "What would you like to talk about?"
Bella wasn't sure how to start and just sat gathering her thoughts for a minute. Angela gave Bella all the time she needed. Angela thought she knew what Bella was going to ask and was mentally preparing herself.
"You spoken a tiny bit about your twin brothers, but never what happened to them. If you aren't comfortable talking about them now, I understand, give your recent loss, but I figured that it might help to talk about them and your parents." Bella said all of this while looking at her hands. She didn't want Angela to think that she was pressuring her to open. Angela had been wandering around the house and school in a daze most days and Bella was worried. The whole family was really starting to worry about Angela and Bella wanted to see if she couldn't help her friend.
"They…." Angela started but choked on her words. "It was about 5 years ago this summer that the accident happened. The boys had been bugging my mom to take them to the beach down at La Push. She hated the beach and kept putting them off. I even offered to ride my bike with them to the beach and watch them for her. They bugged her and bugged her until she finally relented and took them. I didn't know it, but at the time my mom had an addiction problem. She abused opioids and that day she took a few and had wine coolers to drink while she was watching them. She ended up passing out due to the combination of drugs and alcohol in her system. From what the Charlie and his men said, the boys were out in the water when an undertow grabbed them. They were swept out and drowned. Their bodies washed up a couple of hours later down the beach. Th…. they were…..still…holding hands!" Angela was sobbing, but she felt better and kept going not giving Bella anytime to say anything. "I hated her for a long time, I think that I still hate her at times. She was supposed to watch them, and she didn't. She let them die, it was all her fault." Bella threw an arm around Angela for comfort and felt Jasper sending out calming waves.
"My father didn't seem to care one way or the other. For him, it was God that called the Twins home and that was that. I couldn't believe that he wasn't angry at my mom or even God. He didn't cry. He didn't rage, nothing! Neither one of them wanted to talk about what happened. My mom hit the drugs harder and then eventually went to rehab when my dad found her choking on her own vomit. He really, only seemed to care about her. He hardly acknowledged me or the fact that I was his daughter. I tried my hardest to get good grades for him and be a good Christian like I knew he wanted people to be, but it was never enough. Why couldn't my parents love me like they were supposed to Bella?"
At this point Angela was a broken sobbing mess. Bella and the rest were all horrified that a seemingly normal family had such darkness to hide. How had nobody ever seen the pain this young woman was in. How could parents totally ignore signs that their daughter was struggling in life and with the loss of her brothers. Bella tried a few times to remove the damned lump in her throat before she spoke.
"I'm sorry Ang if I have hurt you by asking about your brothers, but it really sounds like you needed to get that off your chest. That kind of hurt and pain can really fester if you don't get to talk about it. I'd imagine that counselors weren't something that your folks believed in right?" Angela just shook her head. "I want you to know something going forward in life, so please look at me. Ben will probably tell you the same thing later. You are loved and if you have any problems, you have a whole variety of people to pick from to talk to. I know that my dad would talk to you about your brothers. He understands the situation better than most, just because he was at the scene and he is a Police Chief. My opinion, if you want to hear it, is that your parents let you down hard. It wasn't the other way around. Parents are supposed to kiss your boo-boos and comfort you when you are sad. While I believe in and Love God, a physical person can sometimes do more for your mental health. So, don't blame God or hate Him because he knows you are strong and will make it through this with help from your new family. I know it doesn't seem like there is light at the end of the tunnel right now but take it from someone who knows how parents aren't supposed to act, it does get better."
Angela sat up as Adi stuck her now very large nose in the door. Angela pat her leg in invitation for the pup, who pranced into the room and rested her head across Bella and Angela's lap. After stroking the dog's head Angela said, "Thank you Bella. That was emotionally painful, but I do feel better. I think that I might even begin to be able to forgive my parents. I also know that the family that I have Chosen to spend the rest of Eternity with will help me when I need."
Adi chuffed a little and the girls giggled at her antics. "Let's go play with Adi and the obstacle course!" Bella said standing and grabbing Angela by the hand. "Oh let's!" Angela replied, "I heard Em saying he wanted to add some heat seeking element to the course, I wonder if he ever did?" The two girls and do ran out to the backyard to have fun. Charlie, Esme and Carlisle couldn't be prouder of Bella than they were right now. They all saw the potential leader in Bella grow everyday and hope was starting to blossom in the chests of all the vampires.