Chapter 12: Oh Hell

Edward's POV

I stood there frozen in fear. I had hoped that this day would never come. Nessie knew the truth about what we were. Now she knew who I was. I'd hoped that she wouldn't remember that I had been the one that saved her all those years ago. I'd hoped that time would make the memory completely fade from her mind.

Alice glanced nervously at me before looking away. She was scared to. Her mind ran through a million different possible outcomes and none of them were good. I decided that I wouldn't implicate my sister in this matter. She had known all along after all. She was the one that had foreseen that I would make the decision to leave Nessie where she was and that I'd keep Nessie's whereabouts a secret from everyone. She had confronted me about it at the airport when I had arrived back home. If it ever came to light how I convinced Alice to keep my secret there was no way the family would ever forgive her.

"What are you talking about Nessie?" Bella was confused. It was only a matter of seconds before that confusion would turn into anger. When Bella found out the truth.

"I know all about you guys now. I know that you're all vampires. I know that your my mom and that Edward's my dad. Now it makes sense why he saved my life ten years ago,"

"Nessie we never knew where you were all this time,"

"She's right Nessie," Carlisle said. "If Edward had saved your life ten years ago that would mean that he's known where you were all this time. He wouldn't keep that kind of secret from us. He would have told us,"

"But I know it's him. I remember him clearly now. If it weren't for him I would've been stomped on by one of my horses. He pulled me out of the way. I remember it clearly now,"

"Nessie-"

Then I said the words that I never thought I would ever say out loud. "Nessie is telling the truth. I did save her when she was only seven years old. I did pull her out of the way from a spooked horse that was about to hurt her. It's all true,"

Now that I had said the words out loud there was no going back now. Silence. There was nothing but dead silence. Everybody's eyes were on me now. They were all waiting for my explanation.

"What are you saying Edward?" Bella was starting to get angry. Oh hell. This was not going to end well for me.

"Let me start from the beginning," the words came out in a rush. "Ten years ago I decided to hire a private investigator to find Nessie. When the investigator found out that she was living in Kentucky I went down there to see if it was really her. From the moment I saw her I knew it was our daughter. I was watching her when she led a horse outside. The animal reared up onto its hind legs and would have stomped on her if I hadn't pulled her out of the way. I observed her and her family for the rest of the evening and decided not to take her away from them,"

"So you're telling me-" Bella was struggling to control her anger and that was not good. "You're telling me that you have known where our daughter was for an entire decade and you never once thought to tell me?!" Bella roared.

The others watched on in shock. "Is that true Edward?" Esme asked me. I could see how disappointed she was in me. I couldn't speak.

"Why Edward?" Carlisle asked.

"Because if I had told you Bella you wouldn't have understood my reasons for making that decision. You would have wanted to go remove her from her family and-"

"So you made a decision regarding OUR daughter without even thinking to consult me?! You have known how much I have suffered all of these years and you willingly chose to keep me in the dark regarding OUR daughter's whereabouts!"

I glanced at the rest of the family who are angry and couldn't believe what was happening. Jacob was so furious that he was dangerously close to losing control. He couldn't even form a coherent thought because he was so angry.

"I did what I thought was best for our daughter-"

"You don't make a decision like that without my input! You lied to me for ten years! How could you do that to me Edward?! You chose to watch me suffer instead! You chose to keep our daughter away from me!"

"That's not what I did!"

"That's exactly what you did!" Rosalie jumped. "You kept Nessie's whereabouts a secret not even caring at all about your wife's suffering!"

"Don't you dare tell me that I didn't care about my wife's suffering!"

"If you had cared at all about Bella you wouldn't have betrayed her like this," Rose sneered.

"I'm so disappointed in you Edward," Esme sighed. "I never thought that you would do something like this,"

"Something like what?! I was thinking about Nessie's best interests,"

"That's not the point Edward!" Carlisle shouted. He was angry now. Carlisle never got angry. "You should have told us the moment you found out where she was. This was something that should have been decided as a family. That was not a decision that you should have made on your own. At least we would have known where she was for the last ten years,"

Bella suddenly glared at Alice. I saw where this was going and I interceded quickly. "Alice didn't know a thing. She never saw the outcome of my decisions,"

"No Edward," Alice shook her head. "I'm just as guilty as you are. Don't try to cover up for me,"

"You knew Alice?!" Bella screamed. All eyes were now on Alice.

"I did. When I saw his decision to leave Nessie with her human family and not to tell you I decided to confront him about it. I met up with him at the airport that night. I didn't like his decision at all but then he convinced me that it was better to leave things as they were,"

Then Bella asked the one question that Alice and I had fervently hoped would never be asked. "How did he convince you to keep his secret?"

We both went silent. We both knew that if this got out there was no way we'd ever be able to fix things ever again. This kind of betrayal would run so deep there was no way we'd recover from it.

"How Jasper?" Bella turned to him. "How did he convince her?! I'm sure you know to!"

"I don't know anything Bella. I swear. Alice has never told me anything about this," He quickly responded. Jasper was telling the truth. He didn't know anything. Alice had kept him in the dark about this to protect him.

"Jasper doesn't know anything," Alice said. "I didn't tell him,"

"The truth is-" Alice took a deep breath. "He offered me money. He offered one hundred million dollars. Which is exactly how much money I still needed to start up my clothing line. Remember when I told you all that I won that money by predicting the outcome of some gambling events? Well that was a lie. The truth is that Edward offered me the one hundred million dollars in exchange for my silence and I accepted it,"

Oh hell!

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