CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Charlie was right. Although Billy was the only one invited, Jacob pulled up behind him on his motorcycle. They were met with Edward on the porch, and Jacob didn't hesitate to get into his face.

"After all this time, you're still angry? I did nothing to you, Jacob, I was just there to pick up the pieces." Edward whispered calmly. "Now, if you want to meet my son, you need to cool down."

"You have some nerve calling him your son." Jacob spit at Edward, not backing down. Edward simply maintained his composure and assisted Charlie in getting Billy's wheelchair up the porch steps.

"Jacob," Billy scolded. "You better take it down. Don't mess this up."

Taking the order from his father, Jacob moved to sit down on one of the wooden rocking chairs, silently looking into his lap.

"I'll go get Bella." Edward whispered, then disappeared into the house. Moments later, he was leading a very pale Bella outside. She seemed to freeze as she saw Jacob staring at her in awe.

"You don't have to do this," Edward whispered into her ear, his hands on either side of her incase her legs decide to give out from under her.

"No, I'm okay." Bella whispered, then continued to sit in the empty chair next to Jacob. Edward stood beside her, while Charlie stood by the door.

"His name is Ezra Julien Cullen." Bella started with, mainly looking at Billy. Every so often, she would let her eyes glance at Jacob, but never long enough to maintain eye contact. She told him about her pregnancy with him, his birth day, his first words, his first birthday party, and everything between then and the present. By the time Bella was ready to give the Blacks her conditions, Jacob had been scrubbing his face from tears.

"Edward is his dad." She started, her eyes looking at Jacob solely. "He's his dad on paper and in his heart. You can't claim any rights on him. I won't let you. I don't know what relationship you'll have with him, that's something he needs to make, but he has no idea who either of you are. I'm okay with telling him the truth, because I know that your culture is very important to you, and I want it to be important to him one day, if he wants it to be."

Jacob only replied with a nod.

"Edward and I will be the ones to tell him, only when he's old enough to understand. If today goes well, I'll let you see him, but on my terms." Bella continued on, now looking between both of the men again. She hated being this harsh to Billy, but it was necessary. "He's not going to the reservation without me, and, honestly, I don't think I can go back there, Jake. Not after what happened."

"Bella," Jacob choked out, but was unable to say anything else.

"I don't want to talk about it right now, but maybe we can later." She replied, then turned her head to look at Edward, nodding at him to go get E.J.

"How far along are you, little Bell?" Billy asked, a friendly grin on his face. Billy had always been in Bella's life, even when she was younger.

"Six months." Bella smiled, placing a hand on her belly. She knew that she looked awful, but she still thanked Billy when he told her that she was glowing.

"E.J. is pretty excited to have a little sister." She nodded, then turned her head as the front door opened. Edward was tickling E.J., causing him to erupt in giggles, but that stopped immediately when he noticed the strangers on his grandfather's porch.

"Mama," Ezra said softly, reaching for Bella. Edward immediately lowered him in Bella's lap, where she allowed him to hide his face in her shoulder.

"Hey, I want you to meet my friends, can you look?" Bella asked her son quietly, earning a small brown eye to emerge from the fabric of her shirt.

"This is Papa's best friend, Billy." Bella said in a calm, yet excited voice, pointing with one finger at the man in the wheelchair. "And this is Billy's son, Jacob." She then continued to direct his attention to his biological father.

E.J. only looked like Jacob when they were sitting next to each other. Ezra's hair was just as dark as his, and the older he got, the darker his skin got. His lips were rounded like Jacob's, but they were pink and soft like Bella's. He had the light brown eyes his mother gave him, and the same soft, upturned nose as her.

"Hi," E.J. said softly, looking at the men, then reaching down to rub his mother's protruding belly. "This is my baby."

"Yeah?" Jacob asked softly, tilting his head. "What's your baby's name?"

That struck a nerve in Edward. That was his only concern in this experience; Jacob showing too much interest. It would be so easy for him to have Jacob gone, but he couldn't do that to his family.

"Nesmee." Ezra said matter-of-factly. "Yeah, she's a girl, and she's my sissy."

That earned a round of chuckles from the people surrounding him.

Everyone was pretty quiet for a while, so Ezra turned his head to Edward. "Daddy, can you hold me?"

Edward took two steps towards his son, not ignoring the angry glance he got from Jacob, then scooped his son up out of Bella's lap. He whispered something into his dad's ear, then Edward nodded and walked inside with him.

"So, you just let him call him dad?" Jacob asked Bella angrily.

"Yes, Jacob." Bella replied, as if Jacob were being ridiculous. "Edward is his dad. He's an amazing dad. He takes care of us, he raised Ezra since he was a baby, what more do you need?"

"How about his real dad?" He hissed at her.

"You know what, Jacob? All you did was rape me," Bella whispered, leaning forward in her chair. "You did nothing for him, and if you're not careful, you won't have the opportunity to."

"I'll take you to court." Jacob growled.

"Go ahead; you won't have a case. It'll just be a waste of time." Bella growled back.

"Jacob, stop!" Billy whispered angrily as the front door opened. Edward came back out following Ezra, who was carrying a plush blanket over his shoulders.

"He said you felt cold." Edward said softly as Ezra handed the blanket to his mom.

"Thank you, honey." Bella smiled, although she was fuming on the inside. She draped the blanket over her lap, then put her hands out for Ezra to take initiative and climb into her lap. They all sat in silence for a while, observing one another, then Ezra decided he had enough of the quiet.

"My Papa drives a police car." He said matter-of-factly. "He goes really fast and he turns on the lights."

Billy chuckled and continued to make small talk about things that Bella's son may be interested in. They found that he loved cars and fruit and peanut butter sandwiches, and sometimes, his Aunt Ali gave him gummies, but shhh.

They chattered about simple things, like what E.J. wanted to do for his birthday that was coming up. He, of course, wanted to ride in the police car "really fast, with the lights on". His parents had already arranged for Charlie to make his dream happen, and his grandpa was elated to do so. When Ezra decided that he was ready to go back inside, he tugged on Charlie's jeans, then pointed to the door. Charlie reminded him to say goodbye to his guests, which the young boy did, then opened the door for him.

"Billy, it was great to see you," Bella said with a grin, lifting the blanket off of her lap. Edward was immediately at her side to assist her in standing, but Jacob cleared his throat before she could get up.

"Will you sit out here and talk to me for a minute? Alone?" He asked calmly.

Bella looked at him for a minute, then to Edward. "I'm okay." She told him. "Why don't you help Billy get inside. I'm sure dad would love to entertain someone older than three for a little while." She smiled, giving Edward a reassuring squeeze on his hand.

Once the two other men got inside, Bella sat back in her chair, waiting for Jacob to speak.

"I'm sorry, Bella." He started with.

"For what?" She rebutted. She wanted him to know exactly what he was apologizing for, not just blowing smoke up her ass.

"For hurting you, all those years ago. I was young, I wasn't thinking."

"You should have thought, Jake. You have no idea how hard that was for me to live through. How hard it was for me to not be a statistic. I had to wake up every morning knowing that my husband, the person who was supposed to love me the most, was so weak, that he felt the only way he could keep me was forcing me to sleep with him." She said softly. She could see in his eyes that Jacob never put himself in her shoes. "I'm scared of you. I'm scared to be alone with you right now."

"I'm sorry, Bella!" He said again, his voice raising not with anger, but with desperation. "I loved you so much, I didn't want to lose you."

"You lost me a long time before that day. I was tired of wondering if you were gonna be sober when you got home or not."

"I'm different now."

"I hope you are, because if you're going to be in my son's life, you better be. But, the ship of us has sailed. Edward and I got married a few months ago. And I'm happy, Jake, I'm so happy. Don't you want that for me?" Bella asked, letting her hand hesitantly reach out and grab his.

"You don't look happy, Bella." Jacob pulled his hand away. "You look sick. You look like you're dying. I hate looking at you like this."

"Wow," Bella muttered, sitting back in her chair. Her hands rested on her baby bump, rubbing small circles over the shirt that covered it. "Tell me how you really fell."

"Why don't you tell me how you really feel?"

"I feel good. I'm pregnant, its not like I'm running a mile every morning before I eat my smoothie bowl." Bella said, cutting her eyes at Jacob.

"It looks like you aren't eating at all." He replied, letting his eyes scan her. "I wish I knew you were pregnant with E.J. Things would be different." Jacob said softly.

"What aren't you getting? I don't want things to be different. We grew up, Jake, we aren't fifteen anymore. Why can't you just accept that?"

"Because, Bella, I love you!"

"You love the thought of me, Jacob. You love the thought of your high school sweetheart being your only love. Things change. You changed. I changed. I'm married now. I moved on, and you should to."

Jacob sat in the chair silently for a moment, then suddenly stood. That caused a spike in Bella's blood pressure, which would have been a bad thing if she was her normal self. However, because of her circumstances, the spike made her hyper-aware of Jacob's movements, like the world around her wasn't fuzzy anymore. She was so focused on Jacob that she didn't hear the front door open or feel Edward's hands on her until Jacob was off of the porch. Bella let out a breath that she didn't know she was holding, then let Edward assist her inside.