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Ch. 8 Full Disclosure

There was a pregnant pause in the room as I looked each present member of the Cullen family in the eye, stopping when I reached Edward. He had seemed the most upset at my admission. "We're ready for your explanation whenever you are." Edward's voice was even colder if that was at all possible.

I swallowed back my fear, took a deep, calming breath, and began. "Firstly, I want say that I'm sorry for lying to each of you. I'm typically not a deceptive person. I value honesty and integrity from others, so please understand that I never would have lied if I didn't think it was in everyone's best interest. I know you all don't know me that well, yet, but I hope that, in time, I might be able to change the awful perception of myself that I have cast onto you." The only sound in the room was the slow, steady inspiring and expiring of my own breath. Well, I'm sure they could hear more than my human ears.

I realized they were waiting for me to continue, so I followed suit. "This is going to be really difficult to explain, and I feel horrible that you may not believe me because I have so much information and so little information at the same time—"

"Would you please get to the point?" Edward's voice was sharp, and I flinched. I deserved that I supposed.

"Son, let her explain, please." Carlisle looked pointedly to Edward, probably having a mental conversation with him. He always had the voice of reason, a true father and coven leader.

"The point is...that I'm not Isabella Marie Swan from Phoenix, Arizona, although I do look like her. I am actually Iris Elizabeth McGee from Atlanta, Georgia." There were looks of confusion, shock, and irritation—that one was mainly from Edward—written across their extraordinarily beautiful faces.

"What do you mean?" Esme's voice was the first to break the silence. Her round, soft face was a mixture of confusion and concern. She probably thought that I was off my rocker.

"I mean that I am a 29 year old woman, who woke up one day trapped in a seventeen year old's body." There was a gasp from somewhere to my left, but I didn't acknowledge it, knowing that the next thing I said would really bring an emotional outcry. "And the reason I know about all of you and what you are, is because where I'm really from, you're all fictional characters in a very popular book series." You could have heard a pin drop in the seconds after I dropped that bomb, but that didn't last long.

I heard an incredulous huff of laughter across from me and looked up to see Edward pinching the bridge of his nose while he smiled bitterly at the ground. "What? You expect us to believe that you're from some other place where we are book characters? You're insane." He was very opinionated tonight—as always—when he dismissed my explanation.

"That can't be right." Carlisle murmured searching for the sincerity in my eyes.

"She's putting off some pretty truthful vibes. She's either telling the truth, or she really believes her lie well enough to cover herself. She might just be delusional, Carlisle." This was the first time Jasper had spoken.

Well, I could make him a believer. "Jasper Whitlock, the youngest officer in the Texas Calvary." He narrowed his eyes at me, instantly suspicious. "Maria turned you during the Civil War and you spent nearly a century fighting and doing her dirty work in the southern vampire wars. That is, until you found Alice, or rather, she found you with her gift of foresight. You have the gift of empathy, so you can sense other's emotions and alter them as well. You only recently joined the vegetarian lifestyle that the Cullen family lives by, so you struggle the most with it. Sorry if my presence bothers you. I'd be happy to leave..." I looked pointedly at Carlisle.

Every eye in the room was gawking in my direction. "How did you—" Carlisle began.

"Carlisle Cullen. Forgive me for not remembering the exact year that you were turned, I think it was sometime in the 1660s in London, but anyway, your dad was a fire and brimstone type preacher who wanted to go after all the vampires. He didn't find the right guys, but you did, unfortunately, so here you are. That giant cross I passed in the hall belonged to your father. You've never fed from humans. You somehow managed to stay quiet long enough in a pile of rotting potatoes that no one noticed you while you changed. Then you did the near impossible by avoiding humans once the change was completed. Once you realized what had happened to you, you tried a hundred different ways to kill yourself which proved rather difficult. However, eventually you grew weak, desperate, and thirsty enough to drink animal blood. Now, thanks to you, your wife and adoptive kids know a better way to live than mindlessly murdering humans for all eternity. Your family surmises that you have the gift of extreme control and compassion for others. You have dedicated your life to helping your patients, working as a doctor in the hospital. All this brings me to Edward, your first son for all intents and purposes." I shifted my gaze back to Edward again, and he narrowed his eyes. He was gorgeous, maybe even more so, when he was angry. I wished in this moment that he could read my mind. It actually would have made this all much easier from the beginning. Maybe I should have just told the truth when I arrived here. It was too late to go back now though. Hindsight is always 20:20.

"Edward Anthony Masen, you were born in Chicago on June, 20, 1901. Your father, Edward Sr., was a lawyer, your mother, Elizabeth, a philanthropist. You wanted to be a soldier in the First World War, but your mother was not very keen on the idea. Being only seventeen, your dream never came to fruition and wouldn't since your father contracted the Spanish influenza in the fall after your seventeenth birthday, passing it to your mother and you, which led to the untimely deaths of each of your parents, mere days apart. You also likely would have died then in 1918, but Carlisle was working at the hospital in the city at that time. Your mother begged for him to save you in the way that only he could before her death which convinced him to make the decision to change you, an idea he had been toying with in his extremely lonely state for years. You can hear other's thoughts." Edward opened his mouth, but I spoke the words I knew he was about to say. "Except for mine." I smiled guiltily. I really didn't enjoy watching the Cullens squirm this way.

"Oooh! Do mine next!" Emmett didn't seem the least bit disturbed. Of course he thought it was cool.

"Emmett." Esme quieted him with just his name in a way that only a mother could. Then she turned back to me. "How?" Her eyes were filled with venomous tears which would never fall.

"I told you. I'm not from this world. I don't mean any of you any harm, though. I never have, and I would never tell your secrets. If anything, I love each of you and owe you all so much. The times in my life that I spent reading the novels were some of the toughest I have ever experienced, but your story helped me through it all, allowed me a literary escape." I looked away, laughing humorlessly at how accurate that description was of my current circumstance...a literary escape indeed. "But the whole time I've been here, it's been one string of dangerous events after another where I've either been injured or almost killed, so I tried to avoid your family to limit the risk. I'm starting to think that's not possible, though. The story will have its way whether or not I like it..." I shook my head, dazed by the realization. "I know I've acted so selfishly, maybe more so than anyone realizes, but I'm hoping that since you now know why I've done what I've done, things can be different."

Edward stood up, pacing back and forth and running his hands through his thick copper locks. "So you've known about us this whole time? When did you arrive here? How did you get here?" I had never seen him so stressed.

"I woke up the first day that I—Bella—was supposed to start school in Forks, the day I fell out of the window. I have no clue what spawned my trip here, only that one second I was going into work, and the next I was waking up to Charlie Swan, Chief of Police of Forks, standing over me."

"Where did you work?" Edward asked the question as soon as I finished answering the last.

"Emory University Hospital as a nurse."

"The Toradol..."Carlisle said to himself.

"Yeah, sorry, I kind of forgot who I was supposed to be when I was talking to you that day." I said blushing.

"Why didn't I see this?" Alice had been sitting, keeping to herself, and being uncharacteristically quiet the whole time we had been talking. Jasper rubbed her shoulders in comfort as he stood behind the sofa by her.

"Honestly, I don't know, but you've seen some stuff, right? Like when you tried to stop me from leaving town?" Her head turned sharply to face mine.

"How did you know it was me?" Alice was shocked. I bet it was nearly impossible to surprise her.

"Who else would have known where I was going, or rather, that I was even leaving Forks without the intent to return? Come on...an anonymous tip?" I rolled my eyes at her.

"Why were you leaving?" Edward questioned then paused, appearing to be thinking of something before he asked, "Why would you try to kill yourself?"

I took a deep breath. This wasn't something I wanted to talk about, but it was necessary. "Well, when I first woke up here, I thought it was a dream. Then after all the bad stuff that was happening, I thought it was a nightmare. I believed that if I waited this whole experience out long enough, I would have to wake up eventually. I tried to leave because I thought that if I could just get some distance between myself and this town, maybe I could be safe from Bella's danger magnetism until that happened. That's one of her problems in the story, but she didn't seem to suffer from so many near-death experiences in the book until she came to Forks. Then when my plan to leave foiled—" I winked at Alice to show her that I wasn't mad at her, "—things in my mind took a dark turn. I was desperate. I felt like a caged animal, out of my natural environment and out of control. I thought if I killed this body, then surely I could somehow return to my own. Don't worry, I know how wrong I was, and I understand now that you're not just a bunch of imaginary characters from a book. You're all just as real as I am, and I'm here for some reason. I don't know what that reason is, but there just has to be one." I was talking more to myself by the time I reached the end of my story.

"Well, thank you for your honesty now." Carlisle still seemed confused, but I didn't know if that was the result of my story or my explanation of my thought process. "So, what information do you have that you think will be helpful to us?"

"The plot of the books."

"Ok...what are these supposed books about?" Carlisle was always the inquisitive one.

"They follow the events of the next two years of your lives." I purposely side stepped telling them about Edward and Bella. How could I look at Edward and tell him that I replaced his true mate? He would be so angry and heartbroken that he would hate me forever. The thought upset me enough that I wished now more than ever that I could leave and allow Bella her life back. Edward deserved his true mate, his true happy ending. I decided then that I would have to tell him, but now, in front of his family members, was not the time. I would wait until we were alone—that is if he ever wanted to speak to me again after this.

"And Bella? How was she involved?" Edward asked, finally he had stopped pacing. Of course he had to ask that question. Fuck.

I sighed heavily and placed my face in my hands. "I promise I'll tell you, but I think we should be alone when I do."

"We don't have secrets in this family." Edward still looked pretty upset.

"No, it's not a secret. I just think you might want to be alone when you hear it. You can tell everyone once you've had time to process, and then I'll leave if you want me to. I'll leave Forks and tell Charlie that I'm going to live with Renée in Jacksonville. Then there will be no more threat for you guys." There were tears in my eyes at the thought of all of the Cullens finding out that my existence here had ruined their lives in such a significant way. Just by my presence I had destroyed a family's potential happiness, but my heart broke for Edward most of all. I wasn't Bella, not really, so he could never possibly share that bond with me. I didn't read the classics. I wasn't overly kind or self-sacrificing to the point of near suicide, literally killing herself for others. I was nothing but an anxious, depressed, and jaded almost-thirty-year-old with mommy and daddy issues. He wouldn't want me if he knew what he could have had with her.

Edward stared at me for a long moment, deliberation in his eyes, then he simply nodded, and walked out of the room.

I assumed I was supposed to follow him, but when I moved to stand, Alice placed a hand on my elbow, holding me in place. "Give him a minute." She smiled gently at me. Well, at least she didn't seem to hate me, or not yet anyway.

"So what would you like to know?" I asked, sitting up a little straighter. "Now that everything is out in the open, I would like to be as honest as possible. "The storyline is already so crazy, unfortunately, thanks to my intervention, that I'm not sure how much will stay the same, but it will probably help you to know the gist of things."

"Where does the story begin?" Esme's eyes were kind, full of love even for me despite me being a practical stranger who's knowledge threatened her family's existence. Although, I'm sure that if it came down to me versus them, Esme would turn me over to the Volturi in a second if it meant keeping her family safe, which I wouldn't blame her. She was everything I could want in my own mother. My mom wouldn't take off work or put down her martini long enough to even eat dinner with me. She probably didn't even know I was missing from my world yet, if that's what happened. I hadn't seen her since I was eighteen.

"It starts when Bella comes to Forks. I arrived about the time the first chapter begins. The only thing I missed was the plane ride from Phoenix. Then it follows Bella through her first day of school, she meets some friends—Jessica, Mike, Angela, Tyler, Eric, Lauren, and Ben. She also is introduced to your family. She becomes...close to you guys, and ends up in a bit of trouble."

"How does she become so involved with us?" Jasper spoke up. "I can't imagine us just welcoming a human into the family so easily, especially not Rosalie." There were smiles in agreement around the room at that remark.

"Where is Rosalie? I'm not mad at her for earlier. I caught her mid-hunt. It was my fault for wandering around in the woods alone." Everyone grew tense, shifting awkwardly from one foot to another.

Emmett spoke first. "Rosie went to visit some relatives. I'm going to meet her after we figure out what to do with you."

I wasn't sure what he meant by "what to do with" me but the other part of his response peaked my interest. "She went to Denali? Why?"

Carlisle looked at me strangely. "Is there anything you don't know about us?"

I laughed. "Your favorite color..? The Denali Coven starred in the books a little. But really, where's Rosalie? Based off what I think I know about her, she should be here fighting with me. She never liked Bella much."

"She and Bella knew each other?" Esme asked.

"Well, sure. They weren't on the best terms, until the end of the story at least, but they tolerated each other ok, I guess."

"Tolerated..." Jasper said to himself.

"What's going on?" I was genuinely confused now.

"What do you know of our...bloodlust?" Carlisle hesitated on the last word.

"I know that you always feel a burning in your throat that is only fully quenched by human blood, but since your family abstains, you have had to learn to live with the burn." His question was bewildering. What the hell did that have to do with Rosalie? I knew why she came after me. She was hungry and I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Yes, that's fairly accurate, it underestimates the amount of control it really takes to build up the ability to resist, but it will do. But did you know that there are certain instances when a particular human's scent is a good deal stronger than any other's to one of us, so strong, in fact, that it's almost impossible for that vampire to resist that scent—"

I saw where this was going, and I didn't understand it in the least. "Are you telling me that I'm Rosalie's singer?! 'La tua cantante' or whatever? What about Edward?" My voice shot up about three octaves.

"Her singer..?" Carlisle wasn't familiar with the phrase.

"It's what Aro said Bella was to Edward in the books." I said nonchalantly as my mind was still reeling from this discovery. What did this mean? How was this possible? Was I still Edward's singer?

"You know about Aro too?" Carlisle seemed more shocked about that then anything else.

"Yeah all the Volturi. They end up making a visit to see you guys a couple of times." Esme, Carlisle, and Alice gasped in unison. "Don't worry, it all works out."

Edward showed back up at that moment, angry as ever, but it was Emmett who chimed in addressing me.

"Whoa, dude, back up. You need to start over, and now. You can't just tell us that the Volturi get involved in our lives and not tell us why. My Rosie is off hiding in Alaska. I want to be there with her, but I can't do that until you spill. So go." That's not good. Emmett's always in a good mood.

"Well, after Bella gets involved with you guys, she figured out what you are—"

"How?" Edward demanded.

"You saved her from Tyler's van, the way Alice saved me—thank you again, Alice." She smiled reassuringly and seemed calmer. She must be able to see what I was going to say now that I had decided on full disclosure with them. "Bella is very perceptive and can be resourceful when she's determined. She notices all the differences between you guys and the humans, and when you wouldn't admit to her what you were, she asks her friend, Jacob Black, about the treaty, which he tells her all about—"

"Ephraim Black's great-grandson breaks the treaty?" Carlisle asked incredulously.

"Yeah, but he's just a kid trying to impress a girl he likes. He doesn't really believe any of it. He just tried to tell me about it on the beach the earlier. I already knew, of course, but still. Someone really needs to talk to him about that." I frowned at the thought of a bunch of human girls walking around knowing the Cullen's and the Quileutes' secrets. "But anyway, she pieces it together, and confronts Edward about it, and he confesses." My eyes met his. He only frowned and looked to the floor.

"Why would I do that? I would never put my family at risk that way." He murmured almost to himself.

"Well, that has to do with what I wanted to talk to you about. Could I speak with you alone somewhere?" I wasn't looking forward to this conversation, but it was necessary.

Edward looked up, and met my eyes, a million questions swimming in his own Amber eyes. His frown lessened, his expression changing to one of stoic resolve.

He nodded curtly and answered simply. "Alright." And with that, all the other Cullens disappeared to give us some privacy. Suddenly, I wanted them all back with us.

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