Chapter 3: Identical

Bella

The pain of losing my daughter was as fresh today as it was the day we lost her. They say that time heals all wounds. That wasn't true. There were some wounds that would never ever heal.

Edward never talked about it. I wished that just for once he would let me into his head so that I could know what he was thinking. I think Edward blamed himself for what happened. He'd allowed Nessie to wander off just beyond his range during a father-daughter hunt. She disappeared that day and we never saw her again.

We searched for her frantically. Jacob was beside himself. He had the packs searching day and night. We never did find her. At first we thought the Volturi were behind her disappearance. But when we broke into the castle we found they were completely innocent.

Things were never the same after that. Jacob ended up marrying Leah a few months later. Although she wasn't his imprint she was good for him. I thought maybe they could be happy together. Then tragedy struck again. Leah had gotten pregnant. But things went horrible wrong during the delivery. While the doctors were able to save their daughter it was too late to save Leah. Jacob had lost his imprint, and then his wife. He nearly lost his will to live. His newborn baby girl was the only thing that kept him going.

If it weren't for Edward and the rest of my family I wasn't sure how I would have been able to keep going. We were never the same after that but somehow we all kept going.

We'd all but given up hope of ever finding Renesmee. That is until we got a certain call from Carlisle earlier. We had a hard time believing what he was saying. That he'd found our now teenage daughter trying to rob a pharmacy at the hospital.

Finally our daugther was going to come home. We'd been expecting Carlisle to return with Renesmee. But what happened instead was even more shocking.

When the door opened and not one, but two Renesmees, walked through the door my brain could not process what my eyes were seeing.

I listened as one of the girls, the one who introduced herself as Renesmee, explained that the other girl, named Elsa, was her twin sister. Except Nessiw didn't have a twin. We were all very much well aware that Nessie had been a single baby.

So where did this other girl come from? Why was Nessie trying to claim that she had a twin? What was going on here? The two girls were identical to their very core. Even their scent was indistinguishable from one another. We'd met identical twins before and their were always some differences that were their to tell them apart. Scent was never identical either.

The shock of seeing two Renesmees overwhelmed the joy that I felt at finally finding my daughter. We barely even noticed the baby until he started to cry.

Edward and I had a grandson. I'd never imagined myself as a mother, let alone a grandmother. I suddenly felt very protective of my grandson. All it took was one second for me to love him as much as I loved my daughter.

I looked at both girls and that protectiveness grew to cover Elsa. The urge to love and protect this girl was as strong as it was foreign.

Perhaps the worst and most painful thing was realizing that my daughter didn't have any memory of who I was. After eating the nice warm dinner that Esme had cooked for them we took the girls upstairs to show them the spare bedrooms we had available for them.

I made a mental note to go shopping for baby things tomorrow. The girls and the baby seemed happy as they went to sleep that night. I watched from afar until they fell asleep.

"The other girl is a clone," Edward said before anyone else could speak.

"A what-?" I blurted out.

Edward rubbed his forehead. "I was listening to their thoughts all evening. The other girl, Elsa, is her clone. She was made using Renesmee's DNA. That's why they are completely identical,"

"A clone? How is that even possible?" I asked.

"Nessie's adoptive parents were scientists. They purchased our daughter off of the black market in order to clone her illegally. They just use the cover story of being twins. But really that other girl is nothing more than a genetic copy of our daughter,"

"So humans cloned her thinking she was an ordinary human girl," Carlisle added. "How fascinating,"

"So now we have two daughters,"

"No Bella we do not have two daughters. We have a daughter, a grandson, and a girl who is just a genetic copy of our daughter. She is not even a real person,"

"Edward!" I shouted.

"What? I'm just stating a fact,"

"Son whatever she is she's just a child," Esme said. "and we are not going to treat her any differently,"

"I agree with Esme. We shouldn't treat her any differently. She is still a person no matter how she came into this world,"

Edward left without saying another word. I wondered what on Earth could cause my husband to behave this way. I wasn't in the mood to deal with his childish behavior right now.

I went to our bedroom and walked right past him to get my phone. I walked out of the house with the phone in my hand. I paused for a second with my finger hovering over Jacob's name. It had been a few years since we last spoke and I wasn't even sure he still had the same phone number.

Jacob answered on the second ring. "Bella?" Jacob asked in shock. "Bella is it really you?"

"Yes Jacob it's me,"

"Wow. How have you been?" he asked.

"Jacob we found Renesmee,"

There was dead silence on the other end of the phone. "What?"

"Jacob we found her. She's at the house right now. She doesn't remember us but-"

"Where are you? I'll book a hotel and a flight out there right now and-"

"Jacob we are in New York City right now,"

"I'm booking a flight and a hotel right now-"

"Nonsense Jacob don't book a hotel. You can stay with us," I probably should've asked Carlisle and Esme first but oh well.

"Are you sure? I don't want Valerie and I to be an imposition," Valerie was his daughter. She'd probably be about 11 years old now.

"It's fine Jacob," I said.

"Thank you Bella. Thank you so much for letting me know," I'll send you the flight details as soon as I can.

"You're welcome Jacob,"

"I cant believe it. She's alive! She's really alive! I have to go now but I will talk to you later! Bye!"

"Wait Jacob there is something else I have to tell-" the line went dead before I could finish. I was going to call him back to tell him about Nessie's baby and her clone. But then I decided not to. Jacob wouldn't believe it anyway.

Besides it would be fun to see how he reacted to the baby and to Elsa.