AN

So next chapter will finally be EPOV again and start off some explanations that are still due :D

Just a warning though, from here on out it's going to get pretty dark for at least the next 5 or 6 chapters.

So beware.

Anyway, enjoy this chapter and I hope to be able to post the next one this weekend!

And let me know what you think!

Chpater 21 - A moral conundrum... why can't I ever catch a fucking break?

Of course if they could find my work, they could find my apartment.

I had run home, and thrown the door closed behind me. I was frantically packing my things and almost ready to head out again, when there was a knock at the door. I groaned, I briefly considered jumping through the window and just disappearing.

But it could be my landlord. And I knew I had to tie up some loose ends before I could just disappear. I knew Aaron would be frantic with worry by now.

I headed to the door and looked through the peephole, quickly recognizing Emmett's big burly shape.

'What do you want?' I asked annoyed through the door.

'Can you open up, please? I'm not here to hurt you or take you anywhere. I just want to talk.'

I scoffed.

'Please?'

Something in his voice made me pause. He seemed desperate. Almost heartbroken. If he was planning on kidnapping me, he sure was a good actor. But I had never seen Emmett hide his emotions. Or be this subdued. His character was just too good, too jovial for it. I frowned at this sudden change in him. I opened the door a crack.

'What?' I asked again, my face set in a scowl.

'Can you let me in?' he asked, his face looked gaunt and his eyes were black with hunger, he hadn't fed in a while time it seemed. I frowned at that.

I pushed the door open and stepped aside. Emmett trudged in. He sank down onto my small couch, filling it up almost completely with his big burly shape. He held his head in his hands and stayed like that for a moment. I closed the door and stepped to his side. I had never seen Emmett this distraught.

'What's going on?' I asked in a gentler voice.

'I'm sorry…' he sighed, rubbing his neck. Then he looked up at me. 'For everything we put you through.'

I scoffed, crossing my arms over my chest. So it was a trick. He just wanted me to come back with them. 'Sure you are.' I said sarcastically.

'I know Edward was a jerk, I knew he was mean and that you felt humiliated by him. but there was a reason for that…' he took a deep breath. 'we couldn't tell you back then, but we… we knew he had to keep you at arm's length. We didn't know he would actually find that too difficult and keep hurting you by being so hot and cold.'

I looked away from him, my jaw clenched. They had all known. They had kept me in the dark and let him trample all over me while they made fun behind my back.
I got up, not wanting to relive all this again. And definitely not in the mood for all his excuses.

'Leave.' I said, sternly.

His eyes widened. 'No! please… you misunderstood.'

'Misunderstood? You just told me you all knew what he was doing and why and you LET him do it to me!'

He winced.

'How can you ever expect me to trust any of you ever again?'

he hung his head. 'I… I didn't… I mean…'

The door suddenly burst open and I glanced over, Rosalie and the little short girl named Alice stood in the doorway. Behind them were Jasper, Carlisle and Esme.

'We didn't know how he was treating you.' Alice said softly, with what looked like regret in her eyes.

'I told them the first time you got so upset.' Rosalie said. 'I confronted Edward about his behaviour and he apologized. He promised to keep his distance from then on. I put Jacob as your guard to deter him. When Jacob came back that night and told me Edward had locked you in a room with him, I had been ready to tear his balls off.'

'But you didn't. You left my side.' I remarked coldly.

she nodded and hung her head. 'And I'm sorry for that.'

'If we had known he continued to corner you, we would have torn him a new one.' Emmett said from the couch.

'he was supposed to ignore you and just keep Tanya happy.'

I winced as she said Tanya's name. 'Great. Just great. Was that all then?'

Rosalie and Alice shook their heads. 'Tanya was working for the Volturi.'

I blinked. Aro had told me there were spies in the Cullen Coven, but hearing it confirmed was… irksome to say the least. Tanya had really been a Volturi spy?

'Before you came to us, we suspected a mole.' Emmett said gruffly. 'we had a few candidates but we didn't know anything for sure. When Aro proposed the deal for Edward we discussed the possible reasons for him wanting this deal, why you.. why now? We figured with all of our abilities we would be able to figure out if you were there to harm us or not, so he accepted.'

'Tanya had been trying to get closer to Edward for a while by then. He'd not really accepted her, other than entertaining himself with her.' Alice said, shrugging slightly. I winced at her casual tone. He certainly did entertain himself with her, I'd seen enough of that. 'We figure Aro wanted someone of his in Edward's bed, to control him.'

'When Tanya failed, you were sent in.'

'he kept his distance from you and kept treating Tanya mostly the same to not arouse suspicion.' Rosalie said. 'but then we started receiving threats. Vampires, human blood drinking vampires were starting to encroach on our territory, somehow getting through our defences in our weak spots.'

'It has happened before, but never in this capacity.' Alice muttered. 'Someone was leaking information to the Volturi about us.'

'And you suspected me?'

'at first Edward's distance was about suspiscon yes, but by the second day you were with us, we knew you were no agent.' Rosalie said. 'you were their victim.'

'We intercepted some correspondence after the first week you were with us.' Emmett said. 'We'd caught a vampire that had crossed into our territory to wreak havoc and his residence held some correspondence between him and Alec.'

My eyes widened.

'The letter stated that you failed your objective. That you were liable to become a defector. The letter stated explicitly that if he got word that you were being treated well and finding your place in our coven, he should do everything in his power to get to you and kill you.'

I gasped and sat down in a chair, more like fell into it. I knew that they had wanted me dead long enough. I knew they had hoped Edward would kill me. but I hadn't expected them to actually sent mercenaries after me.

'When Edward found out he got frantic. He couldn't stand the idea of you being in danger. So he started treating you worse publicly. He hoped that would make sure word got to Volterra that you weren't being treated well and they wouldn't focus their threats on you.'

'He didn't want to do it, but until we found the mole, he thought that was his only option.'

'Then we finally discovered Tanya was the mole. We were about to apprehend her and make sure she didn't have any others helping her. Edward insisted on talking to you first and apologizing to you for his behaviour.'

I winced remembering that night. I had been so confused. His entire personality had seemed to have done a 180. And I couldn't understand it. I had been so hurt and angry at him that I had locked him out of my room.

'I slammed the door in his face.' I remembered.

Rosalie nodded and grinned. 'and that was exactly what he deserverd. ' she said. 'and that kick to his balls. He deserved that too.' Rosalie said.

'she gave him another ass kicking after you left. Jacob too' Alice said smirking slightly.

I couldn't help but laugh at that visual. 'Well thanks…' I muttered.

Rosalie smiled at me. 'anytime.'

'anyway, when we finally headed to get Tanya, you were already gone.'

'We're sorry for the things she said. Edward got a pretty good look of that conversation in her head. It's true we kept you in the dark from some of it, but we never laughed at you, or made fun of you or hated you. We wanted you to be part of our family.' Alice said.

I shook my head. This made little sense. Everything they were saying didn't make sense to me. 'If you liked me, why did you let him do those things? Why did you let me leave? Why did you let the Volturi take me?'

'Edward knew you'd wanted to leave. He'd heard of your escape plans from the wolves.'

I grit my teeth and shook my head. Were my secrets never safe?

'They didn't betray your trust.' Jasper said softly, walking further into the room. 'The wolves didn't tell us your plan, Edward heard it in their minds.'

I frowned. 'Edward can read minds?' I was shocked. Then it started to make sense. Why Aro had wanted me to go, I'd been the one person immume to his power. It also explained how he'd so quickly pegged my power on that first day.

'But not yours.' Jasper said confirming my suspiscion. 'that's why it was also hard for him to trust you. he had no idea what your true intentions were. '

I shook my head, unable to believe all this. But somewhere inside me it struck a cord. How sometimes he'd seem to be having silent conversations with people.

'He knew you wanted to leave us. He knew he'd hurt you deeply and that Tanya's taunts hadn't helped. So he didn't want to stop you. He wanted you to have a chance at a normal life. He ordered us to leave you in peace.'

'But we wanted to help you. And we never stopped caring about you.' Alice said. 'We helped you get an apartment and a job in New Hampsire.'

I frowned. 'How do you know I went there?'

'I saw it.'

'Saw it?' I echoed incredulous.

she nodded. 'I can see the future.'

I gaped at her. 'What Aro wouldn't give to get his hands on you.' I muttered.

Ahe grinned and nodded. 'I know. Some of our coven are really talented, that's why Aro is so insistent on trying to take over.'

'But if you saw that, why didn't you see the mole? Or how Edward was treating me for that matter?'

'There are holes… the future isn't set in stone. It's subjective and it's also dependent on people making decisions. People I know well are easiest for me to see. But those people also know how to get around my visions. Although it is quite hard to do, it is possible.'

'So they both used those holes?'

she shrugged. 'it's my best guess. Of course I also can't see everything, some things just slip through the cracks.'

'So you didn't see the Volturi coming for me?'

Alice looked away from my gaze. 'I didn't.' She said sadly. 'I can't see you very clearly on your own. I think it's a by product of your shield. I can only see you clearly when your fate is tied together with one of ours. I had to focuss really hard on you to get a small glimpse of New Hampshire.' She looked up at me and her lower lib trembled. Jasper put his arm around her comfortingly. 'I'm so sorry we couldn't stop them from getting you. I'm so sorry they took you and we didn't come to your rescue.'

I sighed. 'I don't think I would have accepted your help even if you came to save me. You all hurt me, deeply. I'm not sure I would have trusted you if you'd just showed up.'
then I looked pointedly around the room. 'Which brings us to now. why are you here?'

'We got word that the Volturi had taken you.' Emmett said grimly. 'We couldn't just sit back. We were planning a rescue mission, when we got word from Aro for a deal.'
trepidation filled me. Were they here to barter with me? Did Aro have someone of their coven and he wanted me in exchange for their life? but then I frowned. Wait – I'd left the volturi over a week ago. How is Aro making deals?

'I escaped them over a week ago. What deal is Aro trying to make?'

'We didn't know you had escaped.' Alice whispered.

'Aro proposed a deal to Edward. Him for you.' Rosalie said in a whisper.

My blood would have run cold if I still had blood. 'But I'm not there.' I whispered.

They nodded, all of their eyes downcast.

'That's what we realized the day before yesterday as well, when I had a vision of you walking out of a library to here and settling in to read sans disguise.'

'Where is Edward?' I asked, my voice trembling slightly.

'He's in Volterra. Aro has him.' Emmett said. 'He thought you were there. He couldn't wait for our plan. He rushed over there the moment Aro proposed the plan.'

My mouth hung open. Edward had gone to that place willingly? In exchange for me? but why? It made no sense… unless…

'Why did he do that?' I asked softly.

Emmett blew out a harsh breath. 'He loves you Bella. He's your mate.' He said looking right at me.

And that was too much. My limit was reached. I scrambled backward until my back hit the wall, sobs racked through me unable to stop myself. My mind was reeling and my body was in turmoil. Could vampires go into shock? Could they throw up? Because it felt like I was about to do both.
could he really be my mate? Could he really love me? it seemed unlikely… and yet…

'Will you help us get him back?' Alice asked.

'Me?' I asked shocked. 'what good can I possibly do?'

'You may not know this, Bella. But Aro is afraid of you.' Rosalie said gently.

I scoffed. There was no way in hell that man was scared of me. I was terrified of him, especially after the way I left. I was sure if I ever set foot back in Volterra in would be in for it.

'It's true. Your gift has a lot of potential, Aro knows this. In the right hands it can flourish and you will be virtually untouchable.'

'I suck at my gift.'

Alice shook her head. 'for now.' She said mysteriously and I rolled my eyes at her. 'Bella, you're the only one that stands a chance at getting him out.'

'Please.' Rosalie said. 'You're the only option we have to get our brother back.'

'We know we don't have any right to ask this of you.' Carlisle said, stepping into the room as well, followed closely by Esme. 'but we're begging you… please help us.'

'Please, Bella.' Esme said. 'Please help us.'