Chapter 23
EMMETT
Bella's room was not what I was expecting. It was small and had no real sense of her personality. The walls were painted a sea blue and were covered miscellaneous posters. An eye-catching orange paper lantern was hanging above a standing mirror. It gave the room a dim light, making it even more unique. A string of dragonfly lights ran from corner to corner above her bed. It was the only other source of light in the eccentric room.
Let's be honest, the room didn't scream Bella. It was a damn hodgepodge of a little girl and a teenager. Soft purples and grays could be found around the room with teddy bears and dolls dotted throughout. My gaze drifted from the wood-framed bed to the rest of the room.
The small white desk and the shelf above it caught my attention next. Bella was bright and knowledgeable but there were no more than twelve or thirteen books on it and looked to be second-hand. There wasn't much of anything on her desk save a few pens and pencils. Who doesn't have a computer or a laptop?
I met Edward's bewildered eyes. He shook his head as he once again looked around the sparse room, speechless.
When Bella pointed to the desk and shelves, I again looked at it. She had to be kidding. She wanted me to pack it. I wasn't about to suggest trashing the whole desk and got to work, taping boxes for us all to start with. Turning back to the pathetic piece of furniture, I opened the long drawer. Hidden within was page after page of school awards—perfect attendance, honor roll, citizenship, to name a few. Mixed between all the accolades was a partial scholarship to—my eyes widen and a looked over at Bella. She was Harvard material.
Yeah! I could see her walking the halls of an Ivy League school. I pulled more paper out. Finding another partial scholarship for Stanford. Damn!
There were six more offers of partials in the drawer—Yale, Columbia, Duke, Princeton, MIT, and Cal Tech. Why in the hell was she not at one on those universities? Did Edward know? I shook my head. He probably had no clue.
Leaving my task for a moment, I ambled over to where Edward stood in front of the closet. With a hand on his shoulder, I showed him the letters. "I wasn't prying," I whispered when he glanced over at me.
He took the pages from me and flipped through them.
"Any idea?"
He raised his hand slightly, palm up and rubbed his thumb over two fingers.
Money? My head fell forward until my chin touched my chest as understanding came to me. Even with a partial scholarship, Bella would be serious in debt once she graduated.
He folded them, sticking them under some of the clothes in the box at his feet. I took that as my cue to get back on task.
Five small boxes later, the desk and small bookshelf were packed away. One was in no means full. My gazed drifted around the room before moving and grabbing some of the teddy bears.
Bella turned and started getting on Edward about him folding her clothes. "Just throw them in the boxes."
"You have some silk pieces and they'll wrinkle."
She stepped front of him and started pulling clothes off of hangers. She dumped them in a box before kicking it out of the way and grabbing another. All the while telling him how she knew how to do laundry and cook and bake.
Edward turned and gave me a dumbfounded look. I shrugged and dug my phone out of my pocket, pulling up the pictures Bella had me take. Holding out my phone, he took it and swiped through them. His mouth was set in a hard line as he handed my phone back.
"Send me those, and I will have Jasper petition the courts for those records."
I attached the pictures to an email and entered Edward's email address, sending it. Picking up the tape gun, I started closing some of the boxes.
He subtly motioned to the door without glancing at me. He wasn't going to be stupid and ask Bella about the images or paperwork I found was he?
Grabbing two boxes, I left them staring at each other. The walk down the hall to the stairs was a short one and once my feet hit the ground floor, I heard Charlie get up.
"Bells," he called. "It that you?"
I thought about not answering. "She's still upstairs," I said, stepping into the den and setting the boxes down.
I took time to look around the room. The safe was out of sight and the cabinet was closed. The walls were sparsely decorated with sports paraphernalia—the Seahawks and the Mariners. The television was on and turned to a college football game. The volume was low. It made me thinking he wasn't watching it, but was giving the pretenses of watching.
"She doesn't want to talk to me, does she?"
His gaze moved the doorway. The action was a bit strange, given what I've been told.
That isn't the half of it, I thought, nodding.
He moved over to the end tables next to the lazy boy and picked up a folder.
"Would you see that Bella gets this? There's information in there she needs to know. Stuff I should have told her long before now."
"Like?" I prodded big brother style, not accepting it. Bella's safety was a concern, and I needed to hear why he never told her about the documents I took pictures of.
His gaze moved to the doorway again. "The answers to every question she's ever asked me about her mother. I sugarcoated my answers, not wanting to hurt her. It's past time she knows the truth."
Something wasn't adding up. "Will knowing hurt her?"
He sighed. "Bella won't like it, but I can't say she won't be hurt by it."
Keeping my voice low and even, I said, "I think she's been through enough. You kicking her to the curb hurt her more than you know." I paused and he motioned for me to go on. "When Edward ran into her the next day, she was a barely able to tell him what happened."
His chin fell to his chest. "Edward didn't say anything about that day." His voice was filled with sadness. There were tears evident in his eyes when he lifted his head. "What else can you tell me?"
I didn't know what I could tell him. "It took Edward time to convince her to confide in him. I don't know all she told him, but they talked for hours one night. The next day she told me and three others about Jacob and his involvement in getting her fired. She didn't say much about you, other than to say you didn't take the news about becoming a grandfather well."
We'd both been standing until then. Charlie swiped a hand down his face, moving to sit done. "She could have called me."
The man before me didn't match the picture of an uncaring, unloving father Bella and Edward had painted. He was broken, and it was clear to me he loved Bella. He wanted to be a part of her life, a part of his future grandchild's life.
I sat on the couch, looking up at the ceiling. What I was about to say was going to be hard and even harder to hear. "Bella felt like she couldn't call you. She was devastated and if it wasn't for Edward, she probably would have ending up at a homeless shelter or worse."
He met my eyes. "Kicking her out that night was the hardest and worst thing I've done. When she drove away, I regretted it. I couldn't bring myself to rush after her and tell her she could stay, that she could stay." He fell silent as he gaze moved to the doorway.
There was nothing I could say. I stood and headed back to the entry hall. I stooped and picked up the boxes.
"Does she love Edward?" he asked.
Blowing out a breath, I looked over my shoulder. Charlie was a few steps behind me, I hadn't heard him get up again. "I think she very well could," I answered. It was vague but truthful. "Edward had tried to get her to call you. He even offered to send his jet, pay for your airfare so you could walk her down the aisle. She wouldn't hear of it."
"Did she say why?" He sounded hurt that she hadn't at least called.
Yeah! He cared about his daughter, but I trusted initial Edward's assessment of Charlie, but something had changed in the man from Bella's stories to the one standing in front of me.
What little Bella said about Charlie, I knew the answer. I didn't want to hurt him. I wanted him to mend fences with his daughter. That would only happened if they would sit down and talk. Maybe knowing would help when that time came.
"She feels you don't care about her. That you don't love her."
He stumbled backward as shock appeared on his face. After a moment, he pulled out a cell from his pocket and turned his back on me.
"Sue, you were right…" I heard him say as I walked out of the house.
I continued toward my truck, placing the boxes in the bed. Charlie was nowhere in sight when I entered the house again. Taking the stairs two at a time, I went to in the room to grab a couple more boxes.
Edward had his brow furrowed as he stared at Bella. That could be good or bad. I was clearly interrupting their conversation, and they were waiting for me to leave before continuing.
I stopped out of sight and listened. What in the world did Bella mean by Felix? Was he another bully hurting her? Edward's comment about a book didn't help and neither did Bella's reply.
I rushed down the stairs and out the door, depositing the boxed next to the first set. When I turned, Charlie was coming down the front steps.
He tossed me a key and handed me the folder. "Please lock up when you're done and give the key back to Bella. She's welcome here."
A blue sedan pulled up to the curb, and Charlie got in without waiting for my reply. Sighing, I turned and looked up at the house. How was Bella going to handle this latest blow?
"Charlie had to leave," I announced, coming back into the room. "Asked me to lock up when we're done."
Edward spun and faced me.
I grimaced at the look of disbelief on his face. He grabbed a box.
"Stay up here," he said over his shoulder.
Bella moved over to the window, peering out on the poorly lit front yard. Standing behind her, I watched. The sedan was still at the curb. A heartbeat later, Edward came into view. He went straight to my truck and tossed the box inside.
He braced himself against the side of the truck. I felt for him. He and I had talked while Bella, Alice, and Rosalie went shopping in Vegas, so I knew he had strong feelings for Bella. If I hadn't fallen hard for Rosalie the moment I met her, I would've refused to stand with them as they wed. He had guts—marrying a woman who was carrying another's child and days after meeting her. Sure, Rosalie and I have talked about marriage but neither of us were ready to tie the knot.
Edward slammed his hand against the side rail. I had never seen him that way and it was concerning. The source of his mood had to be the conversation he had with Bella while I was gone. I thought about what little I had heard. Felix.
Shit! I thought, my gaze moving from Edward's prone form to Bella. I knew where Edward's thoughts had gone.
"Bella, did your dad ever hit you?"
In a move I was coming to see as Bella avoiding the situation, she turned from the window and gathered the bedspread up. I watched as she folded it.
"Bella, I need an answer."
With her lip between her teeth, she looked over at me. "He never raised a hand to me." Her shoulders moved up and down as she breathed. "Whenever he was upset, angry, or whatever, he would leave the house. He did yardwork most of the time. Chopping firewood was a favorite stress reliever for him."
My gaze moved back to the window. Edward was still leaning with his head down against my truck. "You didn't happen to tell Edward, did you?"
A dazed look of bewilderment appeared on her face. It was as if she didn't know what I was trying to tell her.
"I think Edward believes your father physically hurt you," I said, crossing my arms and leaning on the wall next to the window.
Her eyes widened as footsteps could be heard downstairs. "But he didn't," she whispered, pulling her lip between her teeth.
Bella said nothing as she placed the bedspread in a box after Edward came into the room. She spewed some nonsense about packing some items from the bathroom, items I was sure weren't necessary.
Edward was quiet, too. Whatever had him rushing outside... hell, I didn't want to pry by asking. He'd seek my council if he needed advice, not that I would understand what he was feeling.
He picked up another box and I followed him out of the room with a couple more. My truck was loaded fast after the heavy boxes and those containing breakables were dealt with. Edward opened the window and tossed the boxes with clothes out to me.
A neighbor walking their chocolate labradoodle stopped and asked what was going on. I explained Bella was moving out and hire me and my buddy to help her. They smiled and moved on down the street.
