I don't own twilight. What I own is my character's behavior, personality, background, and plot of the story.
Author's Note at the end.
Maybe it's the fuzzy edges of her vision, or a feeling in her gut that makes Bella know that she is in a dream the moment she opens her eyes. She pushes herself off her back and then the next thing she knows, she is out of her bed and by the door of her bedroom. She finds that occurrence strange but doesn't think much of it, and walks toward the stair only to hear a whistling that makes her freeze in her track.
A smile threatens to split her face, and she races down the stairs. She doesn't care if she trips, it's a dream after all. All she cares about is getting to the bottom of the stairs and getting to her mum. She can distinguish that whistling in a room full of noise and chatter. This is the sound that welcomed her every morning her mum made breakfast.
She reaches the bottom of the stairs, and slowly walks towards the kitchen to come to the most heart-wrenchingly beautiful sight she could ever imagine. Her mum by the stove flipping pancakes, and plating them for her two boys.
Bella ignores her sons and walks straight to her mum. A dream is probably the only time they don't get to be her priority. When her mum spots her, she walks to her and pulls her into a hug. Bella melts into the arms of her mum and closes her eyes, and breathes her in. Even in her dreams, her mum's smell is poignant and very specific; lemon and strawberries.
"I missed you so much cherry," her mum tells her using the nickname she appointed to her when she was two and obsessed with cherries.
"I missed you more mum," Bella replies as they pull away from each other and stand at arm's length. Her mum crasses her face then leads her to one of the chairs around the kitchen table.
"This isn't a social visit Cherry I am here to tell you to be careful of the Blacks," her mum tells her getting a serious look on her face.
"I am being careful mum,", "I know that, and I want you to stay on your A game. I don't want you to get complacent. I also want you to leave Forks as soon as possible."
Bella nods her head and her mum gets up. She looks up but instead of looking at her mum, she finds herself staring at a dark buzzing mass through the window. Against her wishes, she finds herself getting up and walking towards the window to get a better look at it.
The dark mass keeps getting closer to her and swallowing up everything in its vacancy. The buzzing gets louder and louder till it's the only sound she hears. Long gone are the sounds of her children and mum in the background, now the only sound she hears, the only sound she can conjure up in her mind, the only sound that matters; is this deafening buzzing.
Suddenly the black mass is no longer outside her window. It's inside and is wrapping around her making everything around her a void of blackness. One minute the buzzing sound goes down till it's silent, and the next it turns into a screeching that wakes her up.
"What the fuck," she mutters as she opens her eyes and sits upright. She looks around and finds herself in her bedroom, with the only sounds she hears being her loud breathing and her erratic heart. She puts her hand on her heart and breathes deeply to slow it. After a couple of deep breaths, it finally slows down.
I hope I didn't wake Peter up.
Her son Peter is less than a year old so she puts him to sleep beside her in the bed. She pats the area around her looking for him and finds it empty. Right as she is about to start freaking out, someone knocks on the door.
"Mummy are, oh you are up, come on Aunt Carmen made smoothie and muffins," Adam tells her peeking his head inside the small opening in the door that he just made.
"Come in baby," she tells him, and it's all he needs to open the door wide and run into the room. He jumps on the bed and hugs her. She hugs him tightly and the smell of his shampoo and body wash fills her senses.
"Mummy?" he asks looking up while still hugging her.
"Yes baby," she replies. Adam has what she calls his thinking face on. He gets it whenever he wants to ask her a serious question. At four years old, he is full of them, and she has no problem feeding his interest by always answering him and applauding him for his curiosity.
"Why did we move back here? I like our apartment more," he tells her. For the longest time, Bella lived in this house under Charlie's thumb. Until she uncovered some things that put the both of them on equal footing. It was that discovery that allowed her to move to the apartment above the garage without him stopping her.
"Before I answer I have to ask, did you tell anyone about our apartment sweetie?" she asks.
He shakes his head which prompts her to continue, "not even aunt Carmen?"
"No mummy. A deal is a deal. I promised to not tell anyone so that you would get me an iPad. Are you changing your mind mummy?" he asks looking suspicious.
Bella throws her head back and laughs at him, "No I'm not."
"Okay then answer my question," he demands.
"Someone is being bossy I see, he needs to be taught a lesson by the tickle monster!" she exclaims and starts tickling him.
Not one to let anyone get to him, and despite his laughter, Adam retaliates and tickles her back until Bella pins both his arms above his head," Truce?" she asks.
"Truce," he says so she lets him go, and once he is sitting upright he says, "you haven't answered me yet mummy."
Bella takes a breath and then replies, "why do you not like this place?"
"Because Grandpa was always angry and yelled at you here. He also made you cry a lot here. He never did that at our apartment," he answers simply and it breaks her heart. No kid should mention his mum's abuse as casually as he did.
"Well, grandpa Charlie passed away so he will never be angry at me again."
"So we are gonna live here forever?!" he asks in horror.
"No. We are moving to New York," she replies smiling widely.
"Where is New York?" he asks his eyes wide with wonder.
"It's where grandpa Phil lives,", "what? Another grandpa? I don't want another angry grandpa. Why did you never tell me about him?" he cuts her off and demands answers his face red in angry, and his eyes fearful.
She kisses his forehead and runs her hands through his hair before she replies, "there will never be another angry grandpa again, okay?" she tells him reassuringly.
He nods his head in understanding which prompts her to continue, "the reason I didn't tell you is I forgot," she tells him. The real reason is that she was worried that he would mention Phil in front of Charlie, but there is no need for him to feel responsible or guilty for Charlie's action, so she doesn't tell him the truth.
"So when grandpa Charlie and grandma Renee got a divorce, grandma and I moved to New York together,", "wait, so when you were a kid you lived in Forks?" he asks. She nods her head patiently despite how much she hates that his curiosity is always driving him to cut her off.
She doesn't want to make him think his curiosity is unwanted, or distroy his confidence. His mental health is not that great as it is, so she shuts up when all she wants to do is throw a hissy fit over him interrupting her.
The constant images of Charlie beating the shit out of her for the littlest things doesn't help her case, but if there is anything she promised herself to do when he was born, it is to make sure that she is a better parent to her children than both her parents combined. With Charlie it's easy, all you need is some human decency. With Renee on the other, she has failed miserably, but she never thinks of that for more than two seconds because the last thing her kids need is for her to have a mental breakdown.
"And I am moving to New York?" he asks, "what baby? What did you say?" she asks her head is too far in the clouds to register any word he said.
Snapping his fingers in front of her face, he mutters impatiently, "Mummy listen and focus. When you were a kid you lived in Forks," he pauses for her to nod then continues, "And, I am moving to New York," he continues and she nodes.
His face lights up and then he exclaims throwing his hands in the air, "Don't you see? we match. Mummy we match! We both grow up in Forks as kids then move to New York."
She laughs with him at his excitement, "You are so smart baby. How do you figure it out?" she asks. It would have never crossed her mind to think of things this way, but then, she isn't a kid.
"Simple, I used something called a brain," he says smirking cheekily at her.
She rolls her eyes and says, "Okay smarty pants, can I continue my story?"
He taps his temple theatrically and then nods his head, so she resumes speaking, "a couple of years after we moved to New York, grandma Renee met grandpa Phil and they started dating,", "and kissing?" he cuts her off in shock.
"Yes," she replies confused by his question.
"Eww, didn't they get cooties?" he exclaims with disgust.
"Baby, I would love to explain to you all about how you will change your mind about kissing once you are an adult, but I need to finish the story, so that both of can us go down to have breakfast with Aunt Carmen, okay?" she tells him feeling very close to her breaking point.
He nods his head, so she continues, "Then Grandma Renee and grandpa Phil got engaged and wanted to get married, so grandpa Phil became like a dad to me. My mum died before they got married, but still, I consider Phil like a dad which is why you will treat him like a grandpa, a nice grandpa."
He nods his head looking solemn, and then he gets off the bed and gives her his hand to hold. They walk down the stairs together until they reach the kitchen where she finds an eerily similar scene in the kitchen to the one she dreamt of.
There is a blender with smoothie in it and a French press on the counter. Carmen is checking on the muffins in the stove, and there are fresh ones on the table. Peter is drinking from his sippy cup and munching on a muffin in his high chair. Although a good portion of the muffin is ending up everywhere but his mouth.
"Morning baby," she tells Peter as she kisses his forehead. He reaches out to clasp her hair like he usually does, but she has learned the lesson as it is in a bun at the top of her head.
"Morning Carmen," she says. Carmen is only ten years older than her. It feels weird to refer to her as her aunt, or be formal with her.
"Morning dear, I made smoothies, and muffins," Carmen tells her.
She takes out a mug from the cabinets and pours smoothie in it and starts drinking, "Why are you standing? Sit," Carmen berates her, so she sits while giving Adam a dirty look for laughing behind his hands at her.
She finishes the smoothie and bites into a muffin, when the doorbell rings, "I will get it," she tells Carmen. She dusts her fingers off and gets up and goes toward the door.
She looks through the peephole and finds two police officers, so she puts on a smile before opening the door, "how can I help you gentlemen?" she asks.
"Miss Swan?" the taller one asks to which she nods her head, "you are under arrest for child endangerment," the shorter one speaks.
She recoils backward as if she was slapped in the face. She expected them to go after her, but not this swiftly, and not this way.
"Can I at least talk to my kids and change my clothes before I go with you to the police station?" she pleads. She doesn't need to pretend that she is holding back tears. She should have expected this, but she didn't. She is prepared, but for different things. Hopefully, the things she has up her sleeve can help her now.
"You don't need to change. This isn't a social visit," the shorter one sneers.
The taller one gives him a look that shuts him up and says, "since you aren't a high-risk flee case, it's okay. Just make it quick."
She nods her head and closes the door and goes to the kitchen, and drags Carmen out of it, "What is going on?"
"The police are here to arrest me for child endangerment," Bella states emotionlessly.
Bella feels the exact moment Carmen's blood boils as her hand shoots to hold her back, "I'll show them real endangerment,", "No you won't. I need to get this done as cleanly and swiftly as possible. You getting arrested won't help."
Carmen shows her displeasure by huffing loudly before she mutter, "Fine, I won't. I will keep an eye on the boys. All you need to worry about is making sure they don't get taken from you."
Bella thanks her and then jogs up the stairs toward her room. She changes quickly out of her pajamas into black cigarette pants and a long-sleeved black button up shirt, and then turns the bun her hair is in into a ponytail.
She runs down the stairs and then tells the boys that she needs to go out. After some whining from them, she manages to leave the kitchen and heads toward the coat closet beside the door. She steps out of the house and walks straight toward the cruiser parked in their front yard.
She will be damned if she gives them the chance to handcuff her. She will be damned if her dad left the police station to become the Mayor of the town only for her to return to it handcuffed after his death.
She might hate that son of a bitch, but that doesn't mean she won't continue his legacy of grace and honor. Regardless, of his legacy being a house of glass.
Hello Lovely people,
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Let me know your thoughts in the review section. I enjoy reading them.
This is why Jacob and Billy didn't get as vocal as you expected them to in the previous chapter. They had this up their sleeves. I hope their actions in the previous chapter make more sense now.
I wanted to take this chapter to introduce to you Bella's children, particularly Adam since he is the more active and established character in comparison to Peter isn't even a one-year-old, to begin with.
The next chapter is halfway written, so hopefully, I will be able to update it earlier. I am trying to get my work edited hence me taking time to update. This isn't Beta'd, but I am working on making the future and past updates be Beta'd.
Until then,
Stay Safe