Hey fan-fic-ers! Sorry about the kind of slow update... Spring Break....

In this chapter, you'll get some big questions answered..... Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 10

When I finished the book, I went back downstairs to where the rest of my family, minus Rosalie and Emmett, were. Edward was still with Bella, upstairs too. I heard him talking to her, telling her his story. They came back down to see us.

We were silent for a while. Bella kept glancing at the piano.

"You play?" Esme asked, noting Bella's actions.

"Not at all. But it's so beautiful. Is it yours?" Bella said.

Esme laughed. "No. Edward didn't tell you he was musical?"

"No, but I should've known." Bella sighed.

We looked at her in surprise.

"Edward can do everything, right?"

Jasper and I snickered while Edward glared at us, but Esme gave Edward a reproving look.

"I hope you haven't been showing off - it's rude." She scolded.

"Just a bit." He laughed. Esme looked at him smugly.

"He's been too modest, actually." Bella put in.

"Well, play for her." I said. "I mean, Iwould, but I think Bella would rather hear you."

"You can play too?" She asked me.

"Not as good as Mozart here. Too many nights of free time gives you things to do. I mostly read or draw or listen to music rather than play it. In Carlisle's study, I made some of the ones of Volterra. Not to brag or anything." I added, noting Esme's look.

"Then it's settled." Esme said, pushing Edward to the piano.

He pulled Bella along and sat her on the bench beside him. He took a long look at Bella before beginning to play Bella's Lullaby.

"You wrote that?" Bella asked incredulously when he was done.

"You inspired it." Edward replied.

Bella blushed. "That's . . . uhh . . . thanks."

"Do you want me to show you around more?" I asked her. Carlisle wants to talk to you. I thought to Edward. Carlisle still hadn't told me what was wrong, protecting me again, but I would find out - I always did.

She looked at Edward, who nodded, then so did she.

"Come on, then. Let's go upstairs." She stood up and followed me.

"So, what do you think of the house? Esme redesigned it."

"It's beautiful and I'm not just saying that. Do you all have hobbies or something you do?"

I nodded. "Yeah, we need something to pass the time."

She suddenly stopped and stared at the end of the hall where Carlisle's father's cross was hanging. I would never tell Carlisle, but I hated his father. I never told him about the conversation he had with me after we married and I wanted to keep it that way.

I heard Edward mutter "What?!" from downstairs and I cut off my thoughts.

"You can laugh if you want. It's a bit ironic, I know."

She didn't laugh, but rather, put her hand out to touch it. "Why do you have this?"

"Nostalgia. It was Carlisle's father's. And that was my mother's." I said, pointing at a small wooden table beneath the cross.

"They must be very old."

I shrugged. "The cross, about 1630's, I guess and the table . . . I think my mother said something like 1590's"

"They collected antiques?" She wondered aloud.

I kept myself from laughing. "No, the cross was carved by his father. It hung in the vicarage where he preached and the table and the table has been in my family for ages. My great grandfather made that as a gift for his wife for their wedding and it got passed down."

"How old are you and Carlisle?" Bella asked quietly.

"Well, he just celebrated his 362 birthday and I will be 355 this November. Did Edward tell you about Carlisle and I?"

"A little, but he only showed me the pictures. I would like to know."

I gauged her reaction and spoke slowly and carefully. "Both of us were born in London, in the 1640's, we believe. Time wasn't marked very accurately then, especially for the common people, but I do know I'm several years younger than Carlisle and it was just before the Cromwell's rule."

She kept herself rather composed, much more so than Emmett had when we told him about us the first time.

"He was the only son of an Anglican pastor. His mother died giving birth to him." I closed my eyes, remembering my own fear of dying.

I heard Edward nearly bursting to come upstairs. I'll explain later, I swear."

He was intolerable, Carlisle's father. As Protestants came into power, he was all too quick to persecute any Roman Catholics and other religions. He believed very strongly in the reality of evil. He led many hunts for witches, werewolves and vampires, all of such that my father was quick to follow in his example."

I took a deep breath. "They burned a lot of innocent people, many of whom we grew up with and known our whole lives. As the pastor got older, Carlisle was put in charge, much to my displeasure. We were friends and I thought the hunt for mythical creatures was silly, but none the less, I didn't want anything bad to happen to him. At first, Carlisle was a disappointment. He wasn't quick to accuse, but he was persistent and he found a true coven of vampires. The night he went after them, his group was attacked and all killed but him. Carlisle knew the only way to protect the others was to hide so he dragged himself into the forest where he completed his transformation. He was always . . . protective of me, so when he had enough resistance, he hid in the woods to watch me, make sure I was fine."

I looked at Bella. She was a bit unsteady.

"Are you alright?" I asked. "I'm sorry if it was too much for you."

"No, I'm fine." Curiosity was in her eyes.

"I suspect you have a few more questions."

"A few."

"Then let's go downstairs and I'll tell you my story."

As we headed back down, my thoughts were everywhere.

Keeping my story hidden for centuries is an amazing feat with a mind-reader living with you. They only person in my family that knew the entire thing was Carlisle because he was there and he never told anyone else. I blocked it from my mind because it was painful to remember what I had done . . . how foolish I had been then.

"It's the right thing, you know. I'll tell everyone so you only have to tell it once." Alice had said to me earlier when I told her my plan.

When we were downstairs, I realized everyone but Edward was gone.

"We'll leave you alone for a bit." He said and took Bella into the next room.

I could tell he was doing his best to hide the shock he was feeling from the scattered thoughts I was having about my life.

When Carlisle came downstairs, I cut him off before he could go outside.

"You're working tonight?" I asked.

He nodded.

"Don't go, please. I can't do this without you here. It was hard enough telling Esme that one thing, but all of it . . ."

"Don't worry, Esme will be fine. I'll explain everything to her later if she still doesn't understand. Don't regret it, Ruth, we had no choice." He said as he hugged me tightly, reminding me of when we were still human.

He called the hospital to tell them that he would be a bit late.

I was holding tightly onto Carlisle's arm with the force strong enough to break any human's when everyone came into the sitting room. He pulled his arm from my grip and put it around my shoulder's. Esme came over and he put his other arm around her waist.

He looked down at me and said, "Are you sure you want to do this?"

I looked up at him and nodded, trying to think of how to word everything right.

He addressed everyone. "Ruth is going to tell her story. Bella, she's telling it because of you."

Bella blushed. "You don't have to because of me . . ."

I shook my head. "No, Bella. It's agood thing I'm telling everyone. You haven't only changed Edward, you've changed me too. I don't know how and I don't really care, but you have."

Everyone sat down except Carlisle and me, his arm still protectively around me. They all seemed interested, even Rosalie, who only cared for herself.

"Remember what I told you about Carlisle and I?" She nodded. "That's what we told everyone so we could keep any major events about me hidden. Before I begin, Esme, I'm so, incredibly sorry for what I will say. Forgive me, please."

Everyone just stared at me, waiting.

I took a deep breath and began with the beginning. "I was born in November, seven years after Carlisle, in London, England. My parents were loyal Protestants and my dad was the local blacksmith and worked with the local pastor in his search for vampires and other creatures. I lived a pretty normal life of any girl in that time."

I paused, looked at Carlisle, who nodded for me to continue.

"When I was 14, my parents arranged a marriage to the pastor's son, who was a fair bit older than me."

"Hey, I wasn't that much older." Carlisle protested.

I glared at him and continued. "That I was fine with, I could've been married to someone as old as the pastor himself in those times, and the son was my friend. Everyone in our area was saying what a great match it was, Ruth Bennett and Carlisle Cullen, absolutely perfect for each other." I added the last sentence with a bitter edge in my voice.

"I hated all those who said we should be married, except for my parents, they didn't know what that marriage would bring to their only child, but unknown to everyone but Carlisle, I'd always been in love with him as a human, as soon as I changed, the feeling wasn't completely gone, just hidden too deep to come back."

Edward broke the heavy silence that fell over everyone when I paused, preparing myself to continue.

"You mean you and Carlisle were together?"

"We were never wanted to be more than friends." Carlisle said calmly. "But our families forced us to be more. I think I was a little in love with her all along as a human."

Esme was taking this pretty well. Her husband had just admitted to being in love with her daughter-like figure and best friend as a human, but she just seemed a bit dazed.

"What did you think of Carlisle, Ruth?" Alice asked.

"Well, I must admit, he had always been good looking and by the time of certain later events, I was fully in love with him. I lost all that love when I was changed though. It went back to just being friends." I shrugged. I was lying; I still loved him a bit and hated myself for it.

"We were married the February of the year I was turning 15, Carlisle was 22 that year. We were hoping we could get away with just being married for a year or so, but my parents and his father were ratherinsistent we . . . ummmmmm . . . carry on the Cullen family name." Did I honestly just say what I thought I did?

"Emmett, I wouldn't say that if I were you." Edward warned, but it was a futile attempt.

"You and Carlisle did it . . . seriously?! Wait, isn't that rape?" Emmett asked.

If I could have, I would've blushed as dark as Bella was right now. Now the sex jokes from Emmett won't stop. I flicked my eyes over to Esme, who was also looking rather stunned at Emmett's comment.

Carlisle sighed and shook his head. "There was no law against that back then. As Ruth said before, she could've been married to someone my father's age and no one would've cared. Do you want me to carry on for a bit?"

I nodded and buried my head in Carlisle's chest, afraid to see everyone's face at what was to be told next. He kept his arm around me still.

He cleared his throat and continued on from where I left off.

"We put it off for as long as we could. My father threatened to ex-communicate us, and that was a big fear for anyone at the time, so we did as we were told. Around Ruth's 15th birthday, we had a son."

I instinctively placed my hand on my stomach the same way I had when my baby was there and heard a few gasps and Jasper saying, " Really? I never would've thought . . ."

I felt brave enough to look around at everyone. I looked at Edward and Bella, his arms wrapped around her protectively, then Alice and Jasper who looked entirely unprepared for what Carlisle had said, Emmett who looked like someone shot him, Rosalie who looked jealous and finally, Esme. I tried to gage her emotion; it was a cross of shock, hurt, happiness and sadness all in one.

Bella broke the awkward silence that fell upon my family. "What did you name him?"

"William. It was a rather common name then." Carlisle said.

"He looked very much like Edward." I said quietly. "Golden brown hair and emerald green eyes, but we never got to see him grow up."

"What was it like? To have a baby, I mean." Rosalie asked. Of course she'd only be interested in that.

"Painful. Unlike any pain I'd felt before, but it was worth it to see his little face and hold his little hands. I forgot every regret I had for marrying Carlisle the moment I held him in my arms." I said, relishing the memory. There were only a few memories I would never try to forget from my human life. That was one of them.

Edward smiled as he saw my thoughts.

Carlisle added, "For me, I was in pain for seeing her in so much. Her mother would only let me hold her hand through it all, I felt so useless."

"You weren't, just having you there was enough, telling me not to give up was all I needed from you." I smiled up at him. I still remembered the feeling of love.

"Enough of your lovey-dovey moment and get to the violence!" Emmett said loudly.

"Alright, alight!" I said, feeling the weight of the regret of my old love for Carlisle lift off my shoulders after admitting it out loud. "Not 5 months after William's birth, Carlisle was attacked by a gang of vampires. You know what happened then."

At this, I paused again. I remembered all too well how much I cried when I heard my husband was dead. The anguish of knowing my son would grow up without a father was unbearable.

"One dark, rainy day in the December after my 16th birthday, a stranger came to London. He had blond hair and was undeniably handsome. He came to my parents home where I had moved with my baby since I thought Carlisle had died and asked for me to come outside. I was wary, but his charm made me agree. He took me out to the forest where Carlisle had been hiding to watch me and his son. We walked far into the forest and I was getting scared by then. Suddenly he stopped and told me his name and what he was, a vampire. I tried to run away, but it was no use. He caught me and said that none of his prey ever escaped him. He threw me up against a large tree and I cracked my head open on it and I felt the blood trickle down my neck. He ran faster than any human could possibly to me and he bit my arm, drinking my blood. The last few moments of my human life I remember are him telling me how great I smelled, the sounds of fighting and the feeling of being burned alive."

Once again, no one spoke.

"Who fought that bad vampire?" Jasper asked curiously.

"Me. I fought him, but couldn't kill him. I followed her and I knew I couldn't interfere with what was planned. I was worried what Ruth may think if she saw me." Carlisle answered. "I still regret to this day that I couldn't save her from becoming a vampire. We had left our son to grow up without a mother and father. He would've been better off with one of us than neither."

"Do you know what happened to William?" Esme spoke for the first time.

"No, we never found out, but I want to know so badly." I said, moving away from Carlisle. I had to be alone.

We were quiet for what seemed like an hour. Bella had been crying, her eyes were red.

Maybe it's time for Bella to go home. I have some explaining to do to Esme. I thought and Edward nodded.

"Bella, I think it is time for you to go home." Edward said.

She nodded. I pushed Carlisle towards Esme to start explaining to her.

I went to Bella and hugged her. "Thanks for coming and listening to my horrible story"

"It wasn't horrible, sad, but not horrible."

I grinned. "Charlie will probably be wondering where you are by now. Good night, Bella."

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