Chapter 3
Charlie Swan, like clockwork arrived home at six-ten. He was greeted with the smell of his dinner cooking. The Chief hung up his jacket, belt and gun and walked into the kitchen to greet his daughter.
In the short time since her sudden disappearance to the other side of the world, Bella's behaviour had been impeccable. She had not once fought him when it came down to his disciplining her. He had told her that she was grounded for the rest of her life - or at least until college. She had merely nodded.
Charlie had been utterly terrified. It wasn't the first time she had run off because of a boy. The same damn boy. If Doctor Carlisle Cullen and his wife Esme hadn't have been such wonderful and upstanding citizens, Charlie would have happily risked his position on the force by taking his weapon and shooting that little bastard in the nuts.
He wasn't stupid. He knew that he couldn't hold his daughter captive forever. She was going to stand up to him eventually. He wanted to keep her safe - but deep down he knew that it would only push her away.
"Hey Bells, smells great!" He greeted.
Bella responded with a smile as she finished setting the small table. "It's baked chicken. Didn't take me very long. There's extra for you to take for hour lunch tomorrow." She was so good to him. Charlie didn't realise, but Bella actually enjoyed taking care of him. She'd regularly tell him that she was happy that he was no longer living off pizza and Chinese take out. Charlie had never been a lover of grocery shopping, and thankfully Bella had insisted when she moved in with him that he just left some cash asides not a weekly basis so that she could stock the cupboards and refrigerator.
He would be lost without her, quite frankly.
After dinner, and after she had washed the dishes and set them down to drip-dry on the drainer, Bella excused herself to her room on the pretence that she had a tonne of homework to get on with.
It wasn't a total lie, she had homework, it was senior year, after all...but algebra and chemistry were the last things on her mind.
Bella fired up her laptop and waited for it to connect. She wasn't sure what exactly she was going to be looking for until she opened up her home page...and began to look for flights...to Italy.
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See you in a little while with chapter 4...