Bella sat alone in the library, surrounded by books.

These books were not in any languages she could read, many of them not even in an alphabet she could recognize. They were also old, very old, and beautiful.

Which was very good, because Bella had no intention of reading them.

She was processing.

Now, her own love life had taken a turn for the bizarre, but it was a conventional turn. Girl goes to Italy, meets an alien, they become lovers, she has his child. It could easily be a movie starring an actress far more attractive than Bella.

Point out that the alien is her art professor and that actually makes it more normal. Who hasn't had sex with their art professor?

Sure, she wouldn't be talking to Renee or Charlie about it (she soon wouldn't be talking to them at all because apparently she was fake killing herself and that was still sinking in) but it wasn't that weird.

And Carlisle and Aro having their very obvious love affair, that wasn't too weird either. Gay guys have a fling, get beards, unresolved sexual tension remains. And sexuality aside, the pining exes cliché was just that, a cliché.

No, what she hadn't seen coming was Carlisle and Aro deciding to bang each other's wives because… She didn't actually know why. Because they couldn't sleep with each other due to being married? So it was–less bad if they slept with each other's spouses?

Bella imagined Carlisle, Aro, and their respective wives sitting down around a round table to discuss their respective matrimonies, and the way forward. There would be an appointed toastmaster, someone would write the referendum, and there would be an agenda, speech time, what have you.

And then apparently they all stood up, shook hands, the wives said "Enjoy my husband, he's a tiger," "I know, my husband told me,", and the wife swap was had.

To be honest, she felt a little upstaged.

Here she was, pregnant with something that had Carlisle's face twisting in despair every time he talked to her about it, and those two behind closed doors engaged in the weirdest love affair imaginable.

They'd even thrown her out of their Bella-is-pregnant-and-needs-to-jump-off-a-cliff pow-wow. Oh, you're pretending to kill yourself tomorrow, Bella? That's great, but we have to sit here and talk about how we still haven't had sex but have had sex with each other's wives. Talk to you later. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Honestly, she should find Marcus and have sex with him in the baths just to spite them.

That would show them.

And possibly kill her unborn child.

… Maybe she could just convince Marcus to accept a hand job or something.

Maybe Marcus would have some other, better idea, like maybe there was something else, pregnancy-safe, that Bella could do that would put her back on top. Figuratively.

… No, Marcus would not be much use. At best, he'd suggest they do another sperm sample, and then leave it in Carlisle's room, or something.

Bella sighed, wondered what she should do for the rest of the day, since classes and lunch were over and thus pretending to be pretending she had no clue what was happening was no longer a thing. Well, dinner would be a few hours, she guessed.

She thought about going to find Marcus, just to talk, but decided against it. Renata had been so sad yesterday after realizing she'd been tricked, Bella didn't have it in her to hurt the woman's feelings again by being with Marcus unchaperoned.

She looked at the ceiling, tilting back in her chair. Lord, she was so bored right now.

"Please don't do that!" Carlisle cried out, and his voice did a very funny thing where, for all that Bella never saw him move, her ears picked up that the sound was at first far away, then suddenly right behind her.

Bella's chair righted itself and she looked over to find Carlisle, Aro, and Esme speed walking towards her.

"Please, Bella, remember your condition," Carlisle said as he zipped over to her, actively fretting and making sure she hadn't, in fact, hit her head on the table right behind her.

Oh, right, pregnant.

That probably meant it was a bad idea to engage in dangerous activities like leaning back in chairs.

Except, Esme was there.

"Yes, cancer," Bella said, and gave Carlisle a wink with the eye facing away from Esme.

Aro and Carlisle exchanged a look. Carlisle then picked up Bella, and motioned for Esme to follow. They made their way to Aro's special collection room, which had become Pregnant Bella de facto HQ.

Bella looked at Esme as they walked there.

She looked so… normal.

No, not even that, Esme looked like a woman out of the silent movie era, her pale skin glowing just as if it was projected onto the silver screen, and her soft, shining, curls bouncing lightly as she walked, for all that her gait was perfectly smooth.

Not at all like the kind of woman who'd have sex with her husband's ex for reasons Bella couldn't even begin to understand.

The only thing Bella could begin to imagine was some bizarre way of marking her territory but–Esme didn't look the type.

Bella turned her attention back to Aro and Carlisle who, as usual, appeared to be running this meeting. Except, judging by the looks on their faces, they had no idea what this meeting was about either.

… At least they hadn't thrown Bella out yet.

"Bella, since this concerns you above all," Carlisle began, addressing her, "Understand that we're doing this because Esme deserves to be a part of our confidence, and not because we don't take keeping this secret extremely seriously."

Bella almost opened her mouth to ask how the hell Carlisle and Aro's dumpster fire sexual decisons concerned her. However, she was a very generous person who could keep these thoughts to herself.

Then his words caught up with her, "Wait a minute," Bella said holding up a hand, "You're telling her about–the thing, that no one else can know about, because you feel shitty about sleeping with Aro's wife?"

"No," Carlisle began, "it's because our marriage– er, you know what, while the honesty rules still apply they'll have to be delayed. That is to say, we're not doing a walkthrough of my marriage right now."

"So it is about you," Bella said, feeling her mouth falling open, "I can't believe this. Can you believe this, Esme?"

Granted, she didn't particularly care one way or another. Oh sure, if it'd been Forks, she'd be utterly mortified. But she was in a castle of aliens who would never, ever, speak to anyone she'd known growing up. Including her parents.

Whether one alien knew and another didn't was no skin off Bella's nose.

But still, it was downright offensive.

Esme looked completely mystified as she stared at her husband. "I don't even…" she threw a look at Bella, then back at Carlisle. "I think I'll just wait for whatever it is Carlisle wants to tell me."

Bella sighed. So much for female solidarity.

"Yeah, I'm waiting too," Bella scoffed, "Go on, Carlisle, share with the class, why don't you?"

Carlisle pursed his lips. "Thank you, ladies," he said, with a wry smile. Then, gesturing for the others to sit, he pressed his hands together. "I think it's best I begin by admitting the obvious. Bella doesn't have cancer, that was a lie."

Judging by the look on Esme's face, that hadn't been obvious.

"Oh, thank goodness," she breathed, and turned to face Bella with a look that was so relieved, so happy for her, that Bella had never felt worse about faking anything since she lied about being sick so she could get out of PE in her freshman year at her high school in Phoenix.

Though why she should feel bad was beyond her. She hadn't been the one to come up with the cancer backstory. This was all on Carlisle.

Esme then turned her huge, kind, eyes towards Carlisle. "You lied about that? But why?"

Carlisle cringed.

Carlisle glanced at Bella, silently asking permission. Feeling very magnanimous, and still a bit slighted, Bella motioned for him to continue. It seemed that Esme would find all about Marcus Jr.

Carlisle flashed her a tired, but grateful smile. "I think I'll say it, because Aro doesn't want to and you'll just start bragging."

Aro gave Bella a pointed look at that, very much the look of someone whose boyfriend just defended them.

Once again, Bella couldn't help but note that with the seating arrangement, with the way Carlisle held Aro's hand, it felt like those two were the ones who were married and Esme and Bella were just–here for whatever this was.

Carlisle turned to Esme. "On Tuesday night, in the Roman baths, Marcus and Bella had an inexplicable misunderstanding and made the equally inexplicable decision of engaging in sexual intercourse."

"Hey, it was a very explicable misunderstanding," Bella pointed out, "I had every reason to believe what I did and it still makes way more sense than vampires."

"No," Aro said in faint amazement. "No, Bella, you are unhinged."

"You really want to throw stones in glass houses right now?" Bella asked instead, eyebrows raised in challenge.

"Excuse me," Esme said, holding up a hand, "Does she know about vampires? And - I take it she's in a relationship with Marcus now. Congratulations," she smiled at Bella.

Bella thought about that.

She–honestly didn't know. It wasn't like she'd walked up to Marcus and asked, "So, you're my boyfriend now, right?" She supposed she hadn't felt the need to define their relationship and now she felt at a bit of a loss about it.

She guessed they… had sex twice now and she was hopefully be to be turned into a vampire which meant she was sticking around. Unlike some people, she didn't intend to go sleeping around with anyone else and if she did she'd probably let Marcus know about it and give the veto option.

And she'd be–upset, if he went and slept with someone else behind her back, though she didn't think he would.

She supposed that counted for something.

Esme turned back to Aro and Carlisle. "Doesn't this mean she can be turned now?"

"Ah," Aro said, pressing his lips together in a thin smile, and giving Bella another, pointed, look.

Carlisle only exhaled. "We'll get to it. But first, this was the reason why Aro appeared in our room in his bathrobe. He'd been headed down to have a bath of his own, only to… get an eyeful. Mortified, and unable to handle the prospect of Marcus as a sexual being, he panicked when Caius came down and decided to say the only thing that would get rid of Caius, and that was that I would be down any second. Which I wasn't, for the record.

After that, my panicking friend here decided to burst into my room, to get me so that my scent would corroborate his redundant lie to Caius, and also so that I could help him clean up this entire Roman bath so that no one would ever know Marcus had had sex, because the shame of it was too great. I wish I was making any of this up, I really do."

"Oh," Esme said, as if not quite sure what else to say to that.

Bella enjoyed how Carlisle thought this was a story that made it seem like he wasn't cheating on his wife.

"And that's when Edward called. And since Aro weeps in the face of people finding out that his brother," Carlisle leaned in close to Aro and said, with emphasis, grinning as his words made Aro flinch "had sex, he made me lie. I had to come up with that ridiculous laundry story."

Yeah, Carlisle was doing a great job of convincing Esme she had no reason to worry about the state of their marriage.

"I see," Esme said slowly, and Bella could see the wheels in her head furiously spinning as she tried to fit the pieces together.

"Then, because having sex with vampires is a horrible idea," this emphasis was directed at Bella. God, Carlisle, in the running for most ridiculous person on the planet, who goes around having sex with his ex's wife while his wife has sex with his ex was really fond of making fun of other people, wasn't he?

He was pushing it, he really was. Here Bella was, being very nice about all of this and not dropping the millions of bombs he'd handed her, and he was just taking this moment to grandstand about how he would never have sex with a human.

Which, now that Bella thought about it, sounded very xenophobic.

"Aro and I had to give her a medical exam. Well, I gave the exam. Aro retrieved the medical supplies." He sent Esme a mournful shake of his head. "I do believe he robbed a hospital."

Aro made a face, but said nothing.

He'd definitely robbed a hospital.

"And that was when we found out she was pregnant with Marcus' child."

Esme frowned.

She turned to look at Bella, then back at Carlisle. Then, she opened her mouth.

"But–" Esme started, "That can't–What about Rosalie?"

Aro nodded somberly. "Three thousand years, and I've never heard of anything like it. I didn't believe it, at first."

"What about the Denali?" Esme pressed.

"It seems that… If a human woman and a male vampire lie together, and the woman survives, she has the ability to become pregnant. Every other combination though– male human, female vampire, male on male - appears to not produce the same results," Aro said, rubbing at the back of his neck as if not quite sure what to say about it.

"She's certainly pregnant," Carlisle added, "I didn't believe it myself but–it's undeniable."

"But–" Esme frowned, still uncomprehending. "It can't have been more than a few hours. It hasn't been more than a few days! Can you really see it that early?"

Carlisle gave her a grim smile. "Bingo, my dear."

Carlisle's smile faded and he noted, "And so, because Bella is suddenly, inexplicably, pregnant with a child that no human doctor can be allowed to examine, and I am the only vampire in the world who has the expertise required–I had to stay. And I had to lie, so that no one would know."

"But why not?" Esme cried. "Imagine all the people this could help! All the people who long for children - imagine Rosalie! It's all she's ever wanted. Carlisle, she could have it!"

Aro let out a dark laugh, "Yes, imagine all the people."

Carlisle, for a moment, didn't look at Esme. Then he said, "She couldn't have it, at least, she would never choose it."

Eme only stared, not comprehending.

He let out a sigh, "Imagine, Esme, if Rosalie knew. Emmett would have to find a suitable woman, someone young and–someone willing. You know the kind of control Emmett has, Esme, and how he loves to be–strong. The woman would not survive it."

Aro hummed. "Our kind regards humans as cattle. Esme, I do not mean to upset you, but knowing what you do of how very expendable humans are to our kind, and of how many wish for children, what do you think would happen to the prospective women? The young, beautiful, chosen ones, who would be taken by men of our kind hoping for heirs?"

Esme opened her mouth, but the words didn't come out. Instead, a look of horror and–utter terror had spread across her face. She'd gone completely still, like she was in a film and someone had pressed the pause button.

Carlisle, for once, seemed to remember he was her husband, as he walked around the table to kneel before her, taking both of her hands in his. "You see why we can't afford for anyone to know about this. Why it would get women killed, hundreds if not thousands of them, and in such awful, wasteful ways too."

She shook her head in numb horror, "But maybe–does it have to be like that? Couldn't they–the Denali sleep with humans, it doesn't have to be–"

"Yes," Aro sighed, "yes it does. Had I been anyone else, I might have been more hopeful. However, I have been the leader of the Volturi, and the world, for over a thousand years, and I have seen how even with just one single law to follow, our kind falls short again and again. Where there's a sin to commit, they indulge in it." He smiled wryly. "We may be the lawmakers, judges, and executioners of our kind, but the sad truth is that our mission is best compared to Sisyphus' burden of rolling a rock that will never reach the top of the hill, or to trying to cut the head off of Hydra when there will always, always, be one there to replace it."

"We have no society, Esme," he noted, "We have no institutions, no sense of community, nothing that serves the common good of our own species, let alone mankind. I have one law, Esme, only one and it is disgustingly lenient. Don't get caught, that's it. It's not 'don't rape' or 'don't murder' or 'don't steal' or even 'honor thy father and thy mother', it's just don't get caught. And so we live in a world where when a vampire meets another vampire, their first instinct is to murder one another over finite resources, where our natural lifespan is an eternity but our practical one is less than a year because the murder rate is that high. We are hedonists through and through."

He gave her a weary, hopelessly tired look. "I simply don't have the resources, no chance at all, of keeping the creation of hybrids orderly. I could try, of course, issue some law, but- the truth, Esme, the horrible truth, is that we are barely able to enforce the law we already have. There are thirty of us, and an entire world out there. If you look at our gifts we have even fewer. I'm running on two twelve-year-olds, one tracker, myself, Caius, Renata, now Marcus, and frankly, not a lot of others," he said with a bitter laugh. "Us against the world.

Our main capital is the fear vampires have of us, keeping them in line. I can't afford to issue laws I can't enforce, because that would only make it all so much harder, so much more impossible."

He rubbed a hand through his hair, "And this–oh, they would try to be very clever about this. If I outlaw it, nevermind the hypocrisy of it should Bella's child survive, then they do it on the sly. Beautiful young women disappear in very disparate locations, several years apart. It would take all my resources just to detect when this occurs, let alone stop it, let alone weigh in on whether it is noticeable enough to the humans to fall under the jurisdiction of Volturi law.

And then of course, there is what this entails. People accept the Volturi rule because it's been in place so long and those that are clever understand that the human species is a finite thing. People accept the edict against Children of the Moon because those that remember them have no qualms against their destruction. Even immortal children are universally recognized as a horrific act of desperation on the part of their makers. But this, Esme, is their children. Children who have a chance to be something other than bloodthirsty monsters. If I outlaw this–I may very well face revolt."

"And all the Janes, Alecs, Renatas, and Chelseas in the world could not help me if a coordinated effort set out to, say, wipe out the cities of Paris, Beijing, New York, Sydney, and attack Volterra, all at once. Oh, that's only an example. Now, perhaps I could strike them down, assuming, of course, that some clever coven out there hasn't been hiding an Alec of their own, but the irreparable damage to our world would be done."

"Empires do not last forever," Aro continued, "And–we are at peace, we have been at peace for thousands of years. But war could break out–and it would be… The world would become an unrecognizable place."

"And that, Esme, is why no one can know of this."

There was a very long silence.

Esme seemed to consider those words. She looked as if she didn't quite understand them, oh she got the gist, but she couldn't put what he was saying together. Her hands gripped Carlisle's tightly.

Bella, meanwhile, felt–

She'd never heard it put in those words until now.

Aro had said it before, though he'd been mostly talking to Carlisle at the time, when he'd first laid down his 'no one will know' edict, but they hadn't dwelled on it. Carlisle seemed to have understood almost right away the why of the matter.

More, there'd been too much to cover that night, and such an information overload, that the shush with the pregnancy part became an afterthought, a secret they kept because hello, alien palace, of course they're keeping secrets and doing wacky schemes where Bella now has to eat at fake breakfast with Carlisle and Renata to convince the ever dwindling group of NPCs that still had no idea what was happening, and not something so important.

The way he spoke… It was as if Bella's human world, with their human wars and their human sense of supremacy, only existed because Aro was sitting there at the top of the world playing whack-a-mole with renegade vampires.

As if, had Aro not decided this was absolutely necessary, then she would be in a world without universities, without human towns, and without art courses.

"Carlisle," Esme said, "We still–we still have to tell Rosalie. She'd want to know, even if she can't–if Emmett can't–"

"Would she?" Carlisle asked quietly.

"Yes!" Esme insisted.

"She'd never have that child," Carlisle told her in that same, quiet, tone, "It would require Emmett sleeping with a human woman. And even if the woman survived–Bella's pregnancy terrifies me. I–don't know what's going to happen to her."

Esme slowly turned to look at Bella with wide, horrified, eyes.

"I–may die," Bella admitted hesitantly, "Or miscarry."

"Esme," Carlisle said in a surprisingly raw voice, something in his burning as he looked at Bella, "you need to understand that even if we could guarantee that the woman Emmett and Rosalie chose for a surrogate survived the intercourse, even then, what is happening inside of Bella right now is so disturbing that I won't stand for anyone else being inflicted with it. Not under my watch. And Rosalie wouldn't either."

Bella felt an uncomfortable twisting in her stomach, she had made up her mind already regarding the child. She still felt that Carlisle was–choosing the darkest path, for lack of a better term. But the way he talked, it was as if something terrible was inside her right now.

Esme just shook her head, and then, eyes widening, she said, "But Edward will know. He'll find out and he would tell her and–We can't lie to our family."

Then almost desperately, she added, "And they can keep it to themselves. Even if Rosalie is–devastated, and she can't have a child after all, they need to know. Carlisle, you were scaring them, you were scaring me. If there's a real explanation of why you have to be here, how Bella does need your help, then they need to know–"

"They're with the Denali!" Carlisle interrupted. "Now, I may trust my family, but Esme, I know this may come as a shock to you, but I do not trust the Denali with this knowledge. I don't! And frankly, that would be ten vampires out there, out of Volterra, who know about this, and if even one of them lets up on the secret, it's all over. What Aro predicted, it will come to pass. Is that a risk you want to take, a risk that is in any way morally justifiable to take?"

"But what about Alice?" Esme asked, "If she finds out, and you don't warn them, then she won't know to keep it secret."

"Alice will know that if she makes such a decision," Aro said quietly, "Then I will assassinate her."

Esme clamped her hand in front of her mouth to muffle her scream. Her eyes, wide and stiff with terror, stared at Aro like he was a stranger.

"That is how her gift works, as I understand it," Aro continued, "She may see Bella, but if she does, and she considers informing anyone, then she will know my decision. She will see her death."

Then, in a gentler tone, he added, "That, Esme, prevents it."

"Not to mention, Esme," Carlisle said, "you said yourself that I was scaring you, and it has become clear to me that our children, right now, think that Aro is up to something nefarious, that the Volturi are sinister, that they can't be trusted."

Esme looked as if she wished she could deny that, but a guilty expression stole over her face, "Edward–he's very frightened. And he thinks you've been–compromised."

Carlisle gave her the fondest, saddest, smile, and stood up, still holding her hands. "Then he won't trust a word I say to him. He won't keep this secret."

"I could–"

Aro let out a sigh, "He–ah–appears to think you've been compromised as well. While Alice, to my knowledge, has not yet seen the truth of Bella's condition… She did see our respective activities last night."

"And Edward cannot be trusted," Aro added when it seemed like Esme would burst into flames with the force of her mortification.

"Aro," Carlisle said in warning but Aro apparently wasn't going to hear it.

"Just so you know," Carlisle muttered quickly, "Rosalie has reasoned out that Alice's visions were fantasies."

God, that guy was the worst at comforting his wife.

"Edward is not the person you think he is." Aro continued, paying no mind to Carlisle, "More, when he is afraid, when his mind turns to dark corners, he will pursue terrible acts. He will not believe your story, and even if he does–he has a singular obsession with Bella Swan. The idea of her carrying Marcus' child would undoubtedly prompt him to attempt to relieve her of it, by any means necessary. I suspect he would prefer murdering her to leaving her to her fate. Which, at the very least, will mean that he would tell every vampire he's ever met."

Esme stared at him, utterly uncomprehending. "But–" she looked up at Carlisle. "You don't believe this? Please don't believe this," she pleaded.

"No," Carlisle said quickly then, at Aro's judgemental look, he added as if pained, "I–don't know. Aro's gift is… damning, it's hard to disagree with him when I–haven't seen what he's seen. On the other hand, everything I know about Edward disagrees with what he believes."

"And yet, when I touched him, my gift showed my madness. There are virtues in there, distorted ones, there's unflinching morality that will go to the ends of the earth to do the right thing, but the right thing eludes him. He wants to be good, to be like Carlisle, to be a kind, just, and upstanding man, but it's something he can never be, and that destroys him, eats at him like an ever worsening infection.

Esme, I understand this is coming out of nowhere, and you have only my word for it, but please, if nothing else, then believe me when I say that your son disturbs me greatly, and I don't want him in any way involved in this."

Bella cleared her throat awkwardly, bringing their attention back to her. "I–uh–can't say I really know Edward. We made eye contact one time, but–He did leave me a few voicemails."

Blushing, she brought out her cellphone, and quickly scrolled through until she found the most damning message.

Without another word, she pressed play.

"Bella, if you don't want to trust me, that's fine, I understand. But you can trust Carlisle. You've met him, he is golden, and he is beautiful. He rescued me once. I was very sick, Bella, but he found me, and like a god descended from Mt. Olympus, like Zeus himself, he stole me away into the night, where he made me like him. I am– I'm not human, Bella. But I'm not like the demons in Volterra, either, and that's because of Carlisle."

Edward's voice was like all of theirs, an oddly melodic, almost impossible to understand tenor. Bell imagined that it'd make the sweetest words that much sweeter. Of course, it made his mania that much more manic and his–she didn't know what he'd felt when he recorded this message, but whatever it was made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end.

Esme and Carlisle, while a bit confused by the tone, thought nothing of Edward's words. Well, Carlisle's brow might have furrowed a bit at Edward's description of him, at the Zeus bit, but so far Edward was just pleading with her to trust his vampire dad.

But Edward kept going.

"Without Carlisle, Bella, I would drink your blood as if it were ambrosia. It would be ecstasy, to me, and I would bathe in your desecrated corpse. I would hunt the world over for your scent and revel as I devoured you."

Carlisle shot Aro an alarmed look, as if Aro had somehow manifested this voicemail.

"Then, when I was done, I would seek out your relatives in the hopes of finding a scent that might live up to your memory.

Those are the urges within me, Bella, that is the demon that lives within my breast, that reaches up his hand to light a fire in my throat and seeks to consume my every thought, make me a base monster that cannot be stopped, cannot be contained, that only follows his lusts…" Edward's voice was distinctly rough as he recounted this, if the words had been a little less terrifying, Bella would have classified it as husky.

"But I persevere, I try in vain, to contain the monster that lives in my head. I suffer agony, every day, so that I might resemble Carlisle rather than what I truly am. And it is a futile struggle that I make all the same–"

His voice cut off, without a word, Bella moved to the next message, where Edward had picked up right where he left off.

"Sorry about that. Voicemails," he said, a hint of camaraderie in his voice, as if Bella was meant to laugh at that and agree. Yes, voicemails, oh yes, we've bonded now and I want to leave Volterra with you. "Carlisle, my golden, angelic, Carlisle, shines like the sun in the black and endless night of my life. He cast a curse on me, so that I may never see the sunlight - but sometimes I think the price I paid with my soul is worth it, if only so that I can have him in my life.

If nothing else, Bella, trust me that you can trust him. The rest–they are what I am, though they make no means to hide it nor to deny themselves their pleasures. Carlisle can save you, he can get you out of the city, please believe me."

The voicemail ended.

"Like I said," Aro told Carlisle brightly. "He wants to fuck you."

Carlisle gaped at him.

Esme held up a finger, as if she was a student and had a question, only to curl it back into her hand, where it descended towards her lap.

She looked up at Carlisle, her brow furrowed, almost expectant, as if she hoped that he would be able to explain this to her.

"And now I get to live in vague terror that Edward's going to hunt down and eat my mother and father," Bella said, "Which he's actually threatened on multiple occasions."

"But he wouldn't," Carlisle said, his voice oddly hollow, faint, as if simply by saying it he would make it true.

Bella just gave him a look, "I guess, all I can hope, is that he's so distracted by y'all fucking each other that he never gets around to that bit."

"Oh, you think that might work?" Esme asked, and looked to Carlisle, then Aro, for an answer.