Toxic Rose

Chapter Ten: The Morning After the Pact

A/N: Hey guys, so chapters focusing on Bella are back! This one introduces a major plot point that will come into play later on.

Bella couldn't sleep. Ever since she had come back from the Cullen's house she was restless, buzzing with some weird energy that left her body and mind at odds with each other. She was horrified by what she had just done. She had kissed Rosalie Hale, the Rosalie Hale, of her own accord. She hadn't been forced to do it, neither had she been threatened to do so like all the other times. Now she could never admit to Alice that there was anything between her and the blonde because if she did she had to confess that she had kissed Rosalie and enjoyed it. In fact, she had almost begged for the kiss. What had she been thinking? How could she stoop so low as to actually beg for it? She was so mortified, how could she ever face the blonde again? And she was so mad at herself! How could she do this? Just because she was gay she was going to jump at any girl that presented some sort of interest in her, no matter how unhealthy?

Bella groaned into her bed's pillow and buried her face into it. Charlie was asleep, as she should be too, since it was two in the morning, but her mind could not stop replaying what had happened. It would loop the same events over and over again and each time she thought of the way the blonde's body had felt against her own skin, how her lips felt just right on her own and the sounds she had let out as they were kissing. It was enough to make Bella's body blush as if it was feverish. Her stomach coiled in want and the apex of her thighs throbbed painfully in reminder. She let out another groan into her pillow. She wasn't going to give into this feeling. She was going to ignore it, she was, she was, she was. She wasn't going to think about what had happened, she wasn't going to think about how good it all felt. And she most definitely wasn't going to think about how much she liked Rosalie.

Bella froze, her head slowly lifting up from her pillow, her eyes wide in revelation. Wait a second, had she just, had she just mentally admitted she liked the blonde? Bella let out a shaky breath. Oh god, she had. Cold dread filtered through her veins.

Holy shit.

Why?

Why was her body so stupid? Was she really so desperate for a relationship that she would eagerly rush into the arms of an unstable person? Bella let her face sink back softly into her pillow and screamed out, her feet kicking into the mattress because she knew the answer. It was so obvious. Stupid teenage hormones! She growled out to herself. Stupid, stupid, stupid Bella. Stupid body.

She needed to stop liking the blonde right away. Nothing good would come out of this. She needed to start hating her, but how? If all the times she had terrified Bella hadn't made the brunette hate her yet, then what would? Maybe she could find some information out on the web about the her past? If Bella finally knew the full extent of the horrors Rosalie had committed then maybe she could truly hate her.

Bella got off her bed, and in the moonlight that came from her open windows, she sat down at her desk and opened up her laptop. The Google search bar stared back at her and her hands hovered over the keyboards. What did she start with?

Maybe with Carlisle? He was a famous doctor so he had to have a couple of articles in the very least about him. Typing in the doctor's name several articles came up about the man, most news, and just one wiki page about him.

Miracle doctor saves five year old child's life with highly complicated surgery.

Carlisle Cullen, donates money to a small town hospital to provide better equipment.

Dr. Cullen heads to Chile to set up clinics for low income families.

Dr. Cullen travels to the Amazon to study a mysterious plant that can provide new cures.

Bella let out a huff of annoyance. Similar stories like this continued on no matter how much she scrolled. Maybe she could find something on his wiki page? She clicked on that link and was sent to a page that had a short biography of his life; his early school, various medals and awards, and achievements in the medical world. And there at the bottom was a small paragraph about his kids.

Carlisle Cullen and his socialite wife Esme Cullen have a household full of teenage children, only one of which are their biological offspring. The Cullen matriarch says that she loves helping children in need and that all the children they had adopted came from troubled backgrounds. They are given all the love, attention and help they need to reinstate themselves into society. When asked about the kids backgrounds, Carlisle stated that it didn't matter where they came from, just who they were shaping up to be.

Bella sat back in her chair, arms crossed over her chest. Well, this article was certainly enlightening, she thought sarcastically. It said almost nothing about where the kids came from or what they were doing now. Looking at the date of the wiki she saw it had last been updated two years ago. You'd think that there would have been some update at this point but apparently not. Maybe if she googled the kids themselves?

She googled each kid, starting from Emmett. There were articles about Emmett helping out at community centers around town, one article about him getting a speeding ticket, him doing well in the high school football team. Bella never knew Emmett played football. He was big, all muscle and power, the perfect jock body, so it should have been obvious. But she had never seen him in his gear or heard him mention anything about it. Although to be fair she wasn't close to him like that, only talking to him when Alice was around.

She googled Edward next, getting similar articles about him helping out his parents and other boring stuff, but nothing at all about his past which surprised Bella. She would have thought the story of family cannibalism would make the news. He did say it was in a small town, his house away in the middle of endless fields but still...

She moved onto Alice next, finding nothing about her horrible past either. A furrow growing between Bella's brows, she pushed onward. Jasper's name too led to fruitless results. What the actual hell? It was as if the kids didn't start existing until three or four years ago. There was nothing even about Carlisle adopting them. Just him having no kids and then suddenly, boom, kids. What was going on?

Bella typed in the last Cullen's name, her frustration and confusion growing. She got the same results as before, but with even less. Rosalie had one or two articles about her being offered a modeling job and refusing it. There was absolutely nothing about her and the orphanage she had come from. How was this possible. It was as if something, or someone was purposefully-

Bella's train of thought was cut off when a new link appeared on her screen. She blinked, once, twice, caught off guard by its appearance, her cursor hovering uncertainly around it.

Two years after the controversial case: Where is Rosalie Lillian Hale and how is she doing?

Bella's mouth went dry. This link hadn't been here two seconds before. Controversial case? What did that mean? Had there been a case? Had it been on the news? Had Bella heard of it before perhaps? She tried to rack her brain but nothing came up. She didn't watch the news a lot, preferring to bury herself in the fictional troubles of fantasy worlds, instead of fretting about some new horrors in this one. She clicked on the link, sucking in a deep breath and preparing herself for what she might see. A notice went up that said she had to log in with her email to continue. How bothersome. She hated websites that did this, and normally she avoided them but now, now she really needed to know about the Cullen's, so she entered in her email address and clicked continue. The page went white as it was loading and loading, Bella's anxiety growing with each second. She bit her lip, chewing thoughtfully when a frowny face appeared on the screen. Link expired, the words under the face said. What? She clicked refresh, several times, each time ending up on the same screen. She clicked back, her leg starting to jiggle in annoyance. When she got back to the initial page she had started from she found that the link was no longer there. It was like it had never been there. What? Bella dug her palms into her eyes, rubbing harshly before opening her eyes and blinking in disbelief at the computer screen.

Something was not adding up. Why would the link disappear? Was someone trying to keep the kids past a secret? Was it to prevent trauma? To prevent the kids from being recognized and hounded down by news reporters?

Bella leaned back in her chair, eyes closed. Maybe she should respect their privacy then. They had already told her about their pasts and it had pained them to do so, even after all these years of getting help for it. How would they feel if people followed them 24/7, reminding them of what had happened.

Bella decided she had to go back to sleep. Her clock read four twenty in the morning and even though she didn't have school tomorrow that didn't mean she wanted to lie in bed until the afternoon, just trying to make up her lack of sleep. But thinking about bed reminded her of why she had first come to the computer. To hate Rosalie. And because she couldn't sleep. Bella sighed in frustration and flopped onto her bed, gazing up at her ceiling. Maybe if she counted sheep it would help.

There was a ding from her computer that signaled she had received an email. Probably junk mail, who even sends emails this late at night? Bella was going to turn onto her side when she froze. What if it was from that website? She had given them her email. Would they say something about the link's disappearance? She bolted up from her bed and opened her mailbox. And there, in her inbox was an email from the website she had logged into.

Want to know about Rosalie Hale? The subject line said and Bella had to sit down, her feet feeling unsteady. She clicked on it, her erratic fingers making the mouse zoom across the table top. The page loaded and she bit her lip in anxious waiting. The email showed up and she read it quickly, brain trying to absorb everything that was written there.

Dear reader,

I hope this email finds you well. I couldn't help but notice that you clicked on my article. Unfortunately such articles as the one I had posted up are all deleted by a mysterious source. I do not know why this happens but I feel there must be a good reason for this, perhaps because of some information that the person does not want to be leaked about the Cullen children, specifically Rosalie Hale. I would be much obliged if you, who seems to share the same curiosity as me, would help me in my quest to find the truth. I do not want to hurt the targeted person, I only wish to help her. I will share all I know with you if you will share with me what you know. Respond to this email as soon as possible but do not tell anyone that we are keeping in contact. This is to keep the information we are sharing private.

Best regards,

A concerned citizen.

Bella felt her arms trembling and wrapped them around herself to keep calm. Holy shit, someone else knew what was going on and they wanted to talk to Bella about this? A thousand thoughts ran through Bella's head and she sat there unsure what to do. She didn't know how long she sat there, lost in the workings of her inner brain. At last, with still trembling fingers she typed in Who are you?And sent it.

It was barely a second before she got a response back. Trying to steady her beating heart she opened that email as well, her jaw opening in shock. The words on the screen stared back at her, burning themselves into the back of her skull.

Her real father.