Chapter 7: Living Hell

Bella's POV

With each passing day, hour, minute, second, and even a fraction of a second my worry, my anxiety, and my desperation only increased.

How I had managed to stay sane after two weeks of constantly searching for my missing daughter who could literally be anywhere in the world was completely beyond me. I could feel the anxiety eating me alive with ever increasing intensity as more and more time passed without any sign of finding my daughter any time soon.

The desperation is something that I could not even begin to describe. My daughter could be in danger and I was helpless to protect her. She was young and knew absolutely nothing about the outside world.

For goodness sakes she was only three months old! What was I thinking leaving her alone like that!? What kind of mother am I that I leave my three month old daughter alone for even one minute!

Edward felt extremely guilty because it was all his idea to leave our daughter alone. He tried to shoulder all of the blame but I could not let him do that. It was my fault to for going along with it.

"We will find her. I promise" Edward promised many times over doing my more severe moments of distress. "If it is the last thing we do we will find her"

"But Edward she could be in danger" I said. "She could be in danger and we can't even stop it"

Edward didn't say anything because he knew that it was true. She could be in danger and we were helpless to stop it. We didn't even know where in the world that she was and on top of that we still had the threat of the Volturi.

We were searching as far and wide as we could throughout the whole country hoping that she was still somewhere within U.S borders but so far we had not had any luck. Edward and I had gone as far as New York City to search for her. The rest of the family were searching various other parts of the country.

Jacob had also gotten both packs involved in the search for his missing imprint. His desperation to find her just as great as ours. Speaking of Jacob he refused to speak to Edward and I as he personally blamed us both for Nessie's disappearance. He yelled at us for an hour straight about how we should have just asked him to watch her while we hunted instead of leaving her by herself. I remained silent and for once Edward had to. What could we say? Jacob was right. It was a stupid and irresponsible thing that we did.

Not only did I feel desperate and anxious but also depressed to. It was December 24th. Christmas Eve. This was Nessie's first Christmas and instead of celebrating it together as a family we were desperately searching for our half human little girl. If I could cry I would have cried a whole ocean's worth of tears by now.

When I looked at my husband I could see his sadness and desperation. He loved Nessie so much and he would literally do anything to have her back safe and sound again. Nessie was an unexpected blessing to both of us and all we wanted was to have her back safe and sound again.

"What are we going to do Bella? What if we never find her?"

"Edward don't say that. As you have told me a thousand times these past two weeks we will find her. If it is the last thing that we do we will find her. We will get her back safe and sound"

"I know. You're right. I shouldn't think that way. It's just that I feel so helpless right now. And tonight is Christmas Eve and tomorrow is Christmas and instead of spending the holiday together as a family we're out searching for our daughter and we don't even know where she is or if she is in some kind of danger!" he punched a nearby wall in frustration and left a huge dent in it.

I opened my mouth to say something when I was interrupted by the ringing of my cellphone. It was Jacob. Since he was still refusing to speak to me I was surprised by his phone call.

"Hi Jacob" I had to admit that even in my darkest hour talking to him had a way of calming me down.

"Bella why do you always have to do that?" Jacob asked, sounding extremely irritated.

"Do what?"

"Sound so damned happy every time we talk"

I didn't say anything because I really did not have an answer to his question.

"Look I just called to let you know that we found Nessie-"

"You what?!" I shouted.

"Jesus Christ will you let me talk? We just found Nessie a little while ago she's with-"

"Wait a minute where exactly are you?!" I shouted.

"San Diego, California"

I had never felt so much relief. She had been found. At long last my daughter she had been found. Yes she was all the way on the other side of the country, but she had been found.

"Well get her and meet us back in Forks" I replied.

"Bella it's not that simple-"

"What do you mean that it's not that simple?!" I shouted. "You found her. Now get her back home safely and we will meet you there!" I shouted in a harsh tone. Right now I wanted to punch Jacob. He found my daughter and he can't even get her back home!

"Bella she has been with another family this entire time. We can't just take her without arousing suspicion. Besides I think that we should thank this family that has been keeping her safe this entire time"

I gritted my teeth in frustration. I didn't care about any of that right now. All I wanted was my daughter back in my arms!

"Just meet us in San Diego and we will figure everything out. Seth imprinted and that complicates things quite a bit. We're going to call the others and ask this to come over here to"

"Okay, we will be on the first plane out there"

At long last I was going to see my daughter after two agonizingly long weeks.

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