36
Jasper, Renee, and Carlisle stood next to Emmett, who was sprawled out on the ground with looks of disbelief and shock on their faces. Hell, so did I. Bella had just sent her older, much larger brother down to the ground, leaving him unconscious. Though not for long. Barely ten seconds passed before he was groaning.
His eyes opened and he looked up at Bella, and the expression on his face turned to match those of his brothers and older sister. He sat up and opened his mouth to speak, but Bella turned and started walking away before he had the chance. I tried not to laugh. I really did try, but it was fucking hilarious. She'd warned him, all of them, numerous time about interfering in our lives, but they just didn't listen. The only one who seemed to have wised up was Carlisle.
I wrapped my arm around Bella, who sighed and leaned against me as we walked across campus toward the dining hall. There were hundreds of students milling around, trying to decide what they wanted for lunch. Bella and I opted for salads, knowing that we had a heavy day of training this afternoon and didn't want to risk overdoing it with a heavy carb meal. We'd just sat down with the rest of our team when Phil cleared his throat, causing us to look over at him. He, however, was looking over our shoulders. When we turned, we found Carlisle, Emmett, Jasper, and Renee — again.
Bella growled, but didn't say anything to them. "Ignore them."
"Yeah, I don't think that's going to be possible," Phil said, but before we could question him on why, someone was dragging Bella out of her chair. I looked and saw Renee's hand wrapped tightly around hers, a glare pointed at my wife. Bella reared her arm back once again to hit her, but I caught it, stopping her from hitting another of her siblings, though it was tempting to let it turn into a free for all. I was sure she could take each of them out singlehandedly. However, there were too many people around and someone would call campus security. It would get messy, and we didn't need messy right now.
"Let her go," I said, sliding my other arm around Bella's waist and pulling her away from Renee, who wisely released her hold on her baby sister.
"Let me hit the bitch," Bella snarled, trying to free her fist from my hand. "She's had this coming for years!"
"Wife, calm down," I whispered, bringing my lips to her ear. "Please."
Though I could tell it took a great deal of strength, Bella dropped her arm. "If all you came here for was to give us shit, then you might as well turn and leave now."
"Oh, I don't think so," Renee groused, folding her arms in front of her choice. "You got married."
"Yep, we sure did," she replied, matching Renee's stance. "And it was beautiful and amazing, and you weren't there to ruin it."
A look of hurt filled Renee's eyes. "You think I would have ruined your wedding?"
Bella nodded. "It wouldn't have been our wedding if we hadn't eloped. It would have been yours and Mom's, Alice and Rose's, Elizabeth's and probably Esme's, too, but not mine and Edward's."
"So instead, you just stopped in Vegas and got married without even giving us the chance to be there for you," Jasper said, causing everyone, and I do mean everyone sitting in the upper dining room, to turn and look at him.
"You would have tried to stop us," Bella told him. "Marriage is idiotic, right? We're babies, remember? Barely able to wipe our own asses."
"You're nineteen, Bell, and you're barely that," he quipped. "You've been on your own for what? Not even five months, and you've already had a major breakdown, gotten disqualified from a major tournament because you couldn't control your temper, and got married on a whim. Doesn't sound like you're ready for shit."
Bella tensed up next to me and looked over at Carlisle. "You told them? About my breakdown after school started?"
"No," he insisted, his eyes widening. "I swear, I didn't tell them anything."
"He didn't need to," Jasper exclaimed, throwing a hand in the air. "Phone calls in the middle of the night, him and Esme taking the first flight out. I'm not stupid, Bell. I've been there with you, too, you know? Since day one, I've been there holding on to you, too."
"I know you have, Jas," she whispered.
He shook his head. "Did you not think that maybe we'd want to be there for you and Edward? That all we've ever wanted was for you to be happy and healthy?"
"No, I didn't," she admitted. "Because if you did, you and Em wouldn't have jumped his ass over Thanksgiving, or made him feel like he wasn't a part of our family."
"They're the ones that hit you?" Phil asked, causing everyone to look over at him. He was standing, a glare in the direction of Bella's brothers.
"Yeah," I admitted.
"You stupid assholes," Phil hissed. "Do you realize that you could have cost him his entire season, effectively ending his college career before it even started?"
Neither Emmett nor Jasper said anything, which just infuriated Phil more. He shook his head, muttered something about him being glad they weren't his brothers, and left. Missy gave me and Bella a look before she followed him.
"Look, everyone needs to calm down," Carlisle said, moving so that he was standing between me and Bella, and Renee, Jasper, and Emmett, who was standing behind them quietly. The swelling on his jaw was already starting to show and I could tell that he was embarrassed about being taken down by his younger sister. Not that I felt sorry for him. As usual, he pushed too far, because in his mind, Bella having my child would be ruining her life. Yeah, that hurt a little.
"I don't want to calm down," Bella argued. "Christmas morning, when we were sitting around the table having breakfast, was the first time in three years that I had woken up and the first thoughts in my head weren't about how was I going make it through the day without losing control." She placed her hand on my chest. "He is the man who loved me enough to know that I didn't want the flowers and the puffy dress and the ridiculous music. He makes me better. He is everything to me. And the fact that none of you can see that just proves that you don't give a fuck if I'm happy, or that for the first time since . . . Mom and Dad were taken from me, when I was left for dead, that I don't blame myself for not being important enough for them to come back."
She shook her head, looking from each one of them. "Edward is my husband, and if you can't accept that, then you can't be in my life anymore."
Sliding her hand down into mine, she led me past them, down the stairs, and out of the dining hall. It wasn't until the door closed behind us that she turned and threw herself in my arms, sobbing against my chest. She'd drawn a line, and now the ball was in their court.
Holding her against me, I led Bella across campus to the gym, knowing that she needed to get her feelings out and the only way she could right now was by hitting something. Phil and Missy were sitting on the mats when we came in, both of them looking over at us with frowns.
"Get her some gloves," I said, grabbing some tape and started wrapping Bella's hands.
My fingers grazed over her wedding ring, causing her to look up at me. "You're pretty amazing, you know that?"
"I do," I laughed. "How's the hand feel?"
"It's fine," she said, looking down at her red knuckles. "Do you think they'll listen?"
"Nope," I admitted.
Once I had her hands taped and her gloves on, we walked over to the punching bags. I stood behind it, holding it still while she began to hit it. A left, a right, a left, followed by another right. Over and over, again and again, she laid her fists into the polycanvas bag, her eyes focused on the large, red x.
She'd just sent a hard left jab to the bag when the doors to the gym opened and we looked over, finding them coming in. Carlisle looked smug while Renee, Emmett, and Jasper looked ashamed. Bella took a step back, panting from spending the last hour beating her fists against the punching bag.
"You want some more?" she snarled. "Get some gear on, and we'll settle this like Cullens. In the fucking ring!"
None of them said anything.
She screamed and turned back to the punching bag, slamming her fist into it again. "I'm finally happy! I don't spend every minute of every day worrying about not being good enough, about not being strong enough. Edward gave me that. He gave me the time I needed to heal, and all you see is a man who is trying to ruin me!"
She grabbed the sides of the bag, leaning her forehead against it. "I proposed to him. I asked him to elope. He didn't want you being pissed with us for not having a wedding, but when I told him how all I wanted was to be his wife, he understood and gave me what I needed because he loves me."
"You think we don't love you?" Emmett asked, causing her to look over at him. "Two years, Bell. For two fucking years, me, Car, and Jas held you while you screamed every night. We watched while you struggled to breathe, to live, to fucking do anything other than train. Don't we have the right to be there when you got married?"
"No," she said. "I have thanked you every way I know how, Em, for taking care of me when I needed you. When are you going to stop holding it over my head that I was fucked up?"
"That's not what I'm trying to do," he insisted, taking a step toward her, but stopping when she slammed her fist into the bag.
"But that's what you're doing," she exclaimed. "Look, I know that for a long time, I was in bad shape. I acknowledge that I didn't handle shit the way I probably should have. But in one moment, I lost everything. I was locked way in hell while I thought Mom and Dad were being murdered. You weren't there. Jas wasn't there. Ren and Car weren't there. Just me. I was fifteen years old and broken. Mom and Dad were gone, Ren and Charlie had left. You and Jas and Car were all I had, but I knew that I was hurting you, that I was keeping you from living," she whimpered.
"What?" Emmett asked. "No, you weren't."
"Bullshit," she cried. "You and Rose have been together for ten years, Em, but you haven't married her yet. Why?" When he didn't replied, she looked at Jasper. "What about you and Alice?"
"We aren't ready," he lied.
"Yeah, because that's not why she took over Carlisle and Esme's wedding or anything," Bella scoffed. "You three put everything on hold for me, because I needed you more than anything else in the world. And I will never be able to repay you for what you've done for me, for just being there for me. But Edward made me feel again. He made me smile and laugh and love and . . ." She paused. "I can't live without him. He is everything to me. I'm sorry if our decision to get married in Vegas without telling you hurt your feelings, but I don't trust you anymore."
"You don't trust us?" Jasper asked, his face contorting in pain.
"Not when it comes to him," she said. "You held him back, Jas, and let Em hit him. He loves me and you've told him over and over again that he isn't good enough for me. My brothers, the ones who held me every night for two years, would have wanted me to be happy."
"Bell," Jasper whispered, closing his eye. "It's not that we don't want you to be happy."
"It's just that you don't think I'm the man to make her happy," I said, causing everyone to look over at me. "I get it. I do. Bella's your family and you don't want anyone to hurt her. But she's family now, and I won't let you rip apart the wounds that have finally healed. I love her. I am in love with her, and she's . . . she's it for me. She's everything to me too. She gave me a reason to care, to trust that I could have friends, brothers even. And when you come here, and you say that my child would ruin her life, that we're idiotic and selfish for putting our love before your desires, all it does is clarify that you don't know me."
Carlisle pushed away from the wall he'd been leaning on and walked over to us, placing his hands on Bella's shoulders and facing his brothers and sisters. "She's happy, and he loves her. That's all that matters to me."
"Thank you, Car," Bella whispered.
"Yeah, thanks," I murmured.
He simply nodded.
"It's not that we don't want you to be happy," Renee said, frowning. "You're my only sister, Bell, and I've always imagined that I'd be there to help you get ready when you got married, but I wasn't because you won't forgive me for choosing my husband over you."
"I have," she said. "I've forgiven you for not being there. It was never about you picking Charlie over me, but about you not caring about me at all. But I've moved on from all of that. I don't have the energy to be angry about Aro Volturi, about Mom and Dad leaving me, about you and Charlie lying to us. I just . . . can't care about any of that anymore."
"I'm sorry, Bell," Renee cried, rushing across the gym and wrapping her arms around Bella. My wife looked up at me from over her shoulder, tears forming as she hugged her sister back. It was another step toward healing the rift between them.
"I'm sorry, too," Bella whispered. When Renee stepped away, Bella looked over at Emmett and Jasper, both of whom were glaring at the floor. "I guess that's it, then."
"We don't want to lose you, Bell," Jasper said, shifting his eyes up from the floor.
"That's up to you," she said. "I've given you all the chances I have left."
"So that's it?" Emmett asked, pulling her attention to him. "We're just supposed to accept that we don't matter enough that you've been married for two weeks but didn't even call?"
"What would you have said if I had called?" she asked.
He pressed his lips together.
"That's why I didn't call," she said. "I love you, Em. You taught me how to use my inner strength and fight for the win. That's what I am doing now, because Edward is the win for me."
His lips trembled as he nodded. "Yeah, I know. Just wish I could have been there, Bell. To see that moment when you stopped being scared. Because I saw it in the pictures."
"Look in my eyes now, and see it," she whimpered, causing him to look up at her.
Tears spilled down both of their faces, and while they didn't take a step toward each other, I knew they were on their way to fixing their relationship. It would just take time and a lot of effort. But one day, they'd get there, at least I hoped they would.
