Chapter 55 - One Enduring Element
BPOV continues ….
Bella sniffs back tears. Her throat bobbing. This is a tragedy. This is awful.
She is trying so hard to hold back the sobs. She shakes her head instead. "I don't know," is what she answers to Edward's mother. "I don't know where he is."
"You don't know?" Emmett asks perplexed, harshly, from the entrance to the living room. "How do you not know?"
Jen speaks up. "I'm sorry. Mrs. Cullen?" She asks for confirmation.
"Elizabeth. Please." She offers.
"We don't know where he is because he left. He ran away. And it appears that's historically a pattern." She looks over at Emmett. "We don't know because we're not his keepers." She lifts a brow.
Bella shakes her head. She interrupts. "He left before he was born. He left before I could tell him," she says. She looks at Elizabeth. "I'm sorry. I just wanted …"
Elizabeth nods.
"So, where has he been? Could you at least tell us that?"
Elizabeth glances back. "Emmett, please." He sighs loudly but grows quiet. "Come," she says, walking to the couch, inviting them to sit, then points back at him. "Go get them something hot to drink."
He leaves after a pause. The room deflates from tension. Bella sniffs at her tears, the photo still clutched in her hand.
"I assure you, I don't want anything. I just wanted to let you know, let anyone know. I wanted … to say that … he's still alive. He lived in the woods, literally twenty minutes from here. He said he lived there for almost ten years. I found him, and I got to know him." She lets out a chuckle, thinking. "Probably forced. He was … very reserved."
Elizabeth nods with lost eyes, aimed at a wall. "He always was. He was precious to my heart. Took after my father. Quiet. Thoughtful. But always wanted to be alone. I had to force Edward to speak to me at times, pry him open. I'd wait. Long hours sitting in the kitchen while I moved around it. I wouldn't let him leave until he did. Any troubles he had were like pulling up wine stains to get him to speak."
Bella smiles sadly. She'd like to know more. Every detail.
"In the woods?" She reiterates after a moment, like she's trying to absorb. A few of her fingers lift and curl around her other hand at her lap. "I always knew he'd do something out of the ordinary."
Jane brings a tray smiling big. Emmett leans at the threshold again.
"You heard that Emmett? Living in the woods that boy. Alone, all this time." She says as she pours tea in delicate teacups.
Emmett thinks quietly as he sips on his own bulky mug.
"Edward?" Jane lights up if more were possible. "He's in the woods? Where? Can I go see him? Is he coming to visit? Oh, I miss him. He used to buy me colors," she says, pointing toward the mural. I promised him to paint the flowers so nice."
Elizabeth smiles at her, but with sadness in her eyes. "Someday, Jane." She holds her arm tenderly. "You know what I'm in the mood for?" she continues. "Those cookies. The ones you made that time? You'd make Momma so happy. Go on." She nudges Jane to get her to leave the room. Jane happily obliges, anything to make Momma happy.
Jen watches with a heavy heart as Jane walks out. Emmett steps out of the way for her to pass, his hand briefly patting her back with the same tenderness his mother showed. Jen guesses he has a heart after all.
"Wonder what he did with the car. You think he ditched it there?" he asks Elizabeth. She frowns slightly around her teacup like she couldn't imagine the circumstance. "That bastard. Took years to shave off the bills for that, no car to show for it. I'll shave off his scrawny ass if I ever see him."
"You won't," she says, after swallowing the warm sip. "You'll thank heavens he came back with tears in your eyes." He scoffs.
"Now," Elizabeth says with a different sort of smile. "While I hold my grandson, you tell me all about how you got into Edward's stubborn heart, and every detail on how this one was born." She looks at a calm Elliot wrapped up on Mom's lap, curled up to her chest. Big eyes like her long lost son. She couldn't take her eyes away the entire time she talked. Her hands at her lap clutched, or they'd reach out. Well, she can't hold back anymore.
Jen looks at Bella, Bella looks at Jen. And that story about his birth is a long story. Jen bites her tongue to not laugh.
"May I?" Elizabeth asks, hopefully. Bella passes the bundle over with a relieved heart. This turned out far better than she ever thought.
Elizabeth, with tears in her eyes and a soft kiss to his cheek, says, "Like holding him all over again." The space between his brows scrunched a bit as he stares and stares. She laughs. Emmett comes closer behind her chair to watch him, too. "And his temperament." Emmett agrees with a slight smirk before it disappears again. Him not being a kid type of person, but he knew, from the moment he laid eyes on him at the diner, the boy was blood. Edward has the book smarts, but Emmett has the instincts.
Bella goes on to visit every Sunday when time allows, and on Elizabeth and Jane's insistence. Dinners. Warm kitchen visits. Parties and birthdays. She grows to love this family just as closely as her own. Elliot gets to nap in his father's old bedroom, meet all his uncles, and share hours of playpen time and toys with far too many cousins to count.
There's just one enduring element missing.
… Last of BPOV.