a/n: Hello =)

I do not have much to say apart from thank you for the reviews and I hope you enjoy Chapter Nine of The Cullen Love-Child.

EC!0x

oxox

p/s This chapter was rushed so I didn't have time to check for spelling mistakes and grammar. I really do need a Beta =(

"Alice?"

"Bella? Bella, where are you?"

Bella looked around the bench on which she sat on. If her geographical skills were correct, the large park in the middle of Manhattan was Central Park.

"Central Park."

"I'm on my way." Bella could here sudden movement coming from the end of the receiver. Doors opening, keys rattling, doors being closed. She knew she could count on Alice. "You'll have to be more specific, where in the park are you exactly?"

She looked past the New Yorkers and tourists glancing at the pale girl crying on a park bench, and her eyes found what she was looking for.

"Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir," she read.

"Okay." Before she hung up, Bella could hear the purring engine of Alice's lavish car.

***

"Bella!" She heard the velvet voice before she saw the tiny figure rushing towards her. Alice stood out from the ordinary dressed crowd, huge sunglasses masked her face and a heard scarf covered her head, upon reaching Bella she took of one of leather gloves off and pulled her in for hug.

"I was beginning to think you would leave Reneesme and go back to Washington," she laughed. "I should call Edward tell him that I've got you."

"Edward?" He was the last person she wanted to see. The mention of his name made her doubtful of her decision to back to the house.

"Hard as it is to believe, but he's worried about you, Bella."

Alice didn't say anything on the drive to the house. She was giving Bella the space that she needed, and Bella was grateful for her benevolence.

"Edward asked me to marry him." She stated simply.

Alice's eyes never left the road. "I know."

"He wants to marry me to save your company."

"I know," Alice repeated her soft answer.

Bella turned to Alice. "Do you think I'm being selfish?"

"Of course not," Alice allowed her gaze to drift to Bella. Sincerity in her golden eyes Alice took Bella's hand, keeping the other on the steering wheel. The motion was comforting to Bella. "Bella, marriage is a lot to ask, especially if it's forced. Whatever decision you make, you can never be selfish in my eyes. You are here, living with us, aren't you? That is very selfless."

Bella sat back in her seat. "Thank you, Alice." The words were genuine as she spoke them. After leaving, or running, from Edward's office, Bella had spent hours walking around Central Park. It was only the previous afternoon she arrived in New York and already she missed the comfort of her home in Forks but she was also beginning to like the comfort that came from Alice too.

Bella followed Alice to the living room. Expecting all the Cullens to be there, she was surprised to see only Rosalie and Reneesme on the long sofa. Reneesme was lying on the sofa with her head on Rosalie's lap.

"Hey Momma." She smiled but did not move from her peaceful position to embrace her mother.

"Where is everyone?" Alice asked her sister-in-law.

"Carlisle and Esme called them to the dining room. They said not to be disturbed." Rosalie glanced at Bella before her gaze return to the large television that hung on the wall.

Bella didn't need interpretation. "Do they hate me?"

Her words took Rosalie by surprise. She paused the programme she was watching and turned to Bella, causing Reneesme to shift her position. "They are not upset with you. They are upset with Jasper, Emmett and Edward."

"Why? Doesn't Carlisle want this for your business?"

It was Alice who answered her this time as Rosalie went back to her programme. "Carlisle is not selfish like that, Bella."

***

It was getting late that night as Rosalie, Esme, Bella and Reneesme sat watching television after dinner. Emmett had asked to talk to Alice privately. He needed her to re-join the company in New York as the head of stock marketing; this was his plan b if they could not get the rights to the Swan name. Carlisle and Jasper were playing basketball in the indoor sports hall.

But where was Edward?

Why do you care? Bella asked herself. He hadn't come down for dinner and had refused Esme's attempts to get him to apologize to Bella. Bella fidgeted in her chair and realized Ness was asleep. She looked at her peaceful features, it had been a long two days. She stroked her face gently and her eyes fluttered open and then shut again before she slowly sat up and rested her head on Bella's shoulders.

Bella gently pushed her away so that she could face her. "Go and say goodnights to everyone. I have to make a quick phone call. I'll meet you upstairs, okay?"

Once in the solitude of the kitchen Bella dialed her mother's number. She needed talk to her mother frantically.

Renee answered on the first ring.

Thanks to caller id she knew it was Bella calling. "How's the big apple?" she asked, and Bella could hear the smile in her voice.

"From where I stand dreadful." She said.

There was a moment's pause. "And, why would that be? You've only been there a day and a half. I knew you shouldn't have gone. I told Charlie but, he just doesn't listen. His abhorrence for the Cullens -"

"Mom," Bella interrupted her mother. "No, the Cullens are really nice."

"Bella you sound like you mean that."

"I do, mom."

Renee paused again. Bella knew her mother was scrutinizing everything that she said, like she usually does.

"Then, what's wrong?"

Bella put her head in one of her hands as she went to sit on a stool on the kitchen island. "Edward asked me to marry him." A surprised gasp entered Bella's ears. "That's not all; he wants to use me to get right to our name. He even offered me money to do so."

This time Renee took a longer pause. "I – What did you say?" "I said no. I turned down his offer to make Jessica and Charlie's dreams come true and to give Reneesme the family that she needs." It made Bella feel worse to say the words that had preoccupied her thoughts aloud. "Do you think I made the right decision?"

"I raised you to always do the right thing, and you do, always. But what I forgot to teach you is that you can define for yourself what the right thing is."

Bella took in what her mother was saying, but denying her father, her best friend and her daughter of things that they so badly wanted was not the right thing to do at all.

"I have to go and put Reneesme to bed."

"Okay. I love you."

"I love you too."

When Bella climbed the stairs to go to her bedroom, she almost had a heart attack when she almost collided with a top-less Edward. Bella looked down in embarrassment and hoped the colour wouldn't run to her cheeks as all her anger melted away at the warmth of his near chest. She had to take a step back to calm herself. The wet bronze muscles were doing funny things to her heart beat.

"I thought you had an en-suite." She said hoarsely.

When he didn't answer she felt the need to explain herself. "I'm going to put Reneesme in bed."

"Can I help?" he asked in that velvet voice that made Bella weak in the knees.

No. No. No! "Yes."

She hated what he did to her. Angry at herself for the way her body reacted to his half-nakedness, Bella stepped around him and made marched to her room. She managed to change Ness into her night things before Edward walked in, scooped Ness in his arms and carried her to the bed.

Hating to be in close proximity with him, she went to observe from the doorway. As she watched him tuck their daughter in before kissing her forehead and whispering something in her ear that made her giggle in a tone of happiness Bella had never heard, something snapped inside of her.

"Edward?"

He turned to look at her.

"Yes."