AN – I'm updating this story cos of the big live episode of Eastenders that was shown earlier tonight!!! Omg! Omg! What did you think of it? I personally thought it was epic! I loved Jack messing up his lines and Bradley dying was so heartbreaking! Sorry I'm a tad giddy lol anyway down to business- Thank you to the few people who reviewed :) I really appreciate it and next chapter you will all get what you wanted…the revenge on Adam.
Disclaimer – I don't own twilight :(
Chapter 7 – Carlisle POV
I was sitting in the lounge pretending to read one of my medical journals. It was early afternoon; Esme and Alice were sat in what we called the Dining Room. They were discussing how to get Rosalie to come back. She had gone yesterday and we were in trouble if she didn't return as we had put both our home and our business up as collateral. She was supposed to be going to the station later on today and if she didn't turn up then they'd come looking for her, realise she wasn't here and we'd have to give up our home and our business. I was worried for Esme more than anything. She had dreamed about owning her own restaurant for years. Since she was a teenager, before she married her abusive husband and lost her baby. After she was changed she confided in me about her dream and I had been determined to make it come true. I financed it and she ran it, we were a perfect team. We named is EsCarlMe which was a combination of our names. Then after Jasper, Alice, Emmett and Rosalie came along we renamed it Casa De Cullen. Esme put her life and soul into that restaurant and it was the only thing that had kept her going when Edward left, Emmett was heartbroken and Rosalie was sectioned. I did all I could but the restaurant was somewhere were she could work hard and forget about her personal troubles.
I was distracted by my thoughts by a knock at the door, I put my book down and watched as Alice and Esme walked to the door and answered it.
"Oh, hi Victoria" Esme smiled as she answered the door. "Come on in!" Victoria stepped through the door
"Hello, I just thought I'd drop by as I heard about Rosalie and wondered if there was anything I could do to help?" she asked
"Well not unless you have a million dollars!" Esme laughed bitterly and then frowned "I'm sorry Victoria for snapping it's just been stressful, come into the lounge" Esme said leading her into the room where I was sitting. I stood up and walked over to her
"Hi Victoria, Thank you for coming here. It's very kind of you" I said hugging her gently. She was very kind
"Well I can't believe Rosalie would put you in this kind of situation" She said frowning "It is very selfish"
"Well, she was scared!" Alice piped up frowning "Anyway, It's all done now and now's not the time to bring up the past and insult my sister!" Alice growled
"Ok, I'm sorry" Victoria apologised sadly "What did you put up as collateral?"
"The restaurant and this house" I admitted
"Oh no!" She sympathised "It's such a mess"
"Yeah" I admitted
"Well" She hesitated "I might be able to help but I need a little time to talk to a few people"
"What do you mean?" I asked
"Well, I know a few people who have that kind of money. They are not loan sharks and the interest will be payable" She said
"Errr…." I stuttered. This seemed too good to be true. We needed to think about it but Esme cut me off
"Oh Victoria! Thank you so much!" Esme squealed throwing her arms around her "Would you really be able to do that?"
"Well, I'm not promising but give me a couple of hours and I'll know more" She said. I didn't stop her as she turned and ran out of the house. I didn't have the heart to crush Esme's dream. For the next few hours I watched as Esme paced nervously around the house. I however wasn't as optimistic, why would Victoria offer us a loan? Why did she care about our house? It didn't seem right and my instincts were almost always right.
Eventually after a very long 3 hours Victoria returned.
"So?" Esme asked as soon as Victoria stepped through the door "Alice has checked the stock market and we can make $500,000 next week but if we don't get this loan then we'll lose the house and the restaurant. Please give me good news" Esme babbled
"Calm down" Victoria smiled "You can have the $1,000,000 in your account at the end of the day but there's a catch" Victoria began and paused dramatically. "You will have to sign the restaurant and the house over to me"
"Why?" Alice immediately said "You know we'll pay back the loan, You'll get your money back with interest by the end of the month.
"I know that but my investor doesn't. He needs collateral" She explained
"Who is the investor?" I asked her
"He's a …old friend. His requirements are simple. He will give you your property back once you have paid $1,000,000 plus $500,000 interest in total. There is no time limit on repayments. You just pay what you can when you can and when it's all paid then you get your property back. You can carry on living in your home and running the restaurant"
"Fine" Esme nodded
"Right, Well I have the documents here" Victoria said pulling the documents out of bag "Now all you need to do is sign on the dotted line and it'll be done and dusted"
"Easy as that?" I asked her
"Easy at that" she nodded "I got my lawyer to draw the papers up which is why I was so long" I took the papers off her and read them. Basically they said that she now owned the restaurant. Esme then snatched the papers of me and signed them with only a small glance. She passed them to me and I hesitated but after looking at Esme's face I couldn't disappoint her so I reluctantly picked up the pen and tying to push down the bad feeling in my stomach I signed my name on the papers.
Rosalie POV –
It had been two days since I gone and I had realised I made a big mistake. I missed the family like mad, not to mention I had left them in a whole heap of financial trouble. I was on a plane back to forks. I didn't know what I was going to do about the police charges but I could talk about that with Carlisle and Alice. Maybe they could come with me. I didn't know what I was going to do but what I did know was that I needed us all to be a normal family again. I wasn't going to tell them that I was returning as I was scared they would be mad with me.
My nerves grew as the plane landed and I almost chickened out as I walked out of the airport and hailed a cab. All the way home I just kept repeating in my head "They're gonna kill me" I arrived at the house and got out, I walked slowly even for a human towards the front door and knocked on three times. Each knock seemed amplified "BANG BANG BANG!!" The door slowly opened and Alice stood there in shocked silence for a few minutes,
"I'm sorry" I said to Alice and her face suddenly went cold. She slapped me right across my face
"You're sorry? Sorry?!?" she snarled "Sorry doesn't even begin to cover it! We are homeless and it's your entire fault! Esme has lost her restaurant and we are all living in a two bed house for the next 2 weeks until we get some money!" I stayed in silence and let her rant her anger out
"I thought Victoria was going to help you out financially, I'm sor…" I tried apologising again but Alice cut me off
"Yeah well she didn't. She sold us up the river; she never broke up with Adam at all and now he owns our property! And as for apologizing you better tell that to Esme and Carlisle, Tell that to Emmett! Rosalie you have some serious grovelling to do! You do realise that you have ruined Esme's dream that has lasted over a century?!"
"Yes, YES I KNOW!!! I am a complete and utter screw-up and I am so so so incredibly sorry that I have hurt you and Carlisle and Esme and Emmett. I am the worst person in the world. Is that what you wanted to hear?" I said to her nearly dry sobbing. Her face softened
"Of course not, and your not a bad person. You're just a person to which bad things have happened to" She said "Come on, we need to go down the restaurant and tell everyone you're here. You were lucky I was here, I'm only here to pick up the last of our things!"
"I'm sorry" I apologized yet again
"I know" She smiled putting her arm around me and leading me to her car. We drove towards the restaurant. I groaned as we pulled up in the car park though and saw what was happening. Emmett, Carlisle and Esme were in the car park watching a couple of men take the Casa De Cullen sign down. We walked over to them
"What's going on?" Alice asked
"Rosalie!" Emmett smiled "It's good to see you" I just smiled and nodded back. I turned to Esme who was watching them take the sign down. It was breaking her heart, She was leaning into Carlisle and I knew she was trying to be strong but it was so hard for her. I started crying
"Esme, I'm so so sorry! I didn't want this happen! I never thought this would happen!" I dry sobbed and Esme came over to me
"It's okay, it was unintentional sweetheart I'm just so glad your back, come on don't cry" she soothed me. I laughed through my sobs. I was the one who was causing all this and she was the one comforting me! It was crazy, She truly was an angel.
"Right this is crazy" Emmett snapped "you two have got five seconds before I MAKE you leave" He snarled at the two men. One of them was stood on a ladder. They ignored him "ONE TWO…FIVE!!!" He snarled before pushing the ladder over making the man fall. One of the men ran off with the other who had gotten up hobbling off behind him
"Emmett!" Esme gasped letting go of me "They were just doing their job! You do not throw your weight around just because you can! And you do not risk revealing who we are over something as stupid as a sign!" She scolded and he rolled his eyes. I couldn't help but smile, this was typical Esme and Emmett. What they were like before Adam had ripped this family apart. Suddenly Jasper came out of the door looking worried
"Carlisle, I think you should come and see this" he said before throwing me a shocked look and turning back into the restaurant. We all followed and were shocked at what we saw. Adam was stood behind the bar with his arm around Victoria.
"No, No Carlisle do something!" Esme begged desperately.
"I'll sort it" I assured her before stepping forward. He came out from behind the door and stood face to face with me.
"You evil piece of vermin! We kick you out of our family and this is the way you try and get back in!" I shouted
"I never wanted to be a part of that family and like it or not you are my daughter!"
"I will never be your daughter!" I snarled at him "You're just a sperm donor" He growled back at me then and stepped forward gripping me
"You're Mine!" He growled "Now give your dad a hug and a kiss and we'll forget everything!"
"Let go of her!" Emmett shouted stepping forwards
"Emmett, Leave it I'm dealing with it!" I said back to him. I then turned to my father
"I'll kiss your gravestone when you're dead!" I shouted to him and then I saw a fury in his eyes that had become all too familiar. He gripped me and slammed me on the floor leaving a crack in the floor. Alice gasped and Emmett went forwards to attack Adam but Jasper held him back. I stood back up and laughed "Now everyone can see what you're really like!" I shouted pointing around to all the humans who were watching us intently "You are nothing but an evil conniving pathetic bully! And we all know what happens when you don't get your own way don't we? You will NEVER be loved or respected by me. Understand that and everything will be ok and if you think you're taking Casa De Cullen from us then you've got another think coming. You will have to prise the bricks from our cold, dead hands" I shouted to him, he went for me again but this time Jasper stepped inbetween us
"Right, that's enough" he said firmly "We leave with out dignity" he said to me "It's the only thing we have left" he then turned to Adam "Ok here you go" he said handing him the keys "Well done Adam, you've got bricks and mortar! It's a shame you've had to give up the love of your daughter for it. It's pretty pathetic really. She's happy with a family who loves her and you're left with that" he laughed pointing to Victoria "Let's hope you stay in the money yeah? Or else you'll lose the only person in your life. Because I can guarantee that she'll not be around if you make a bad investment, like I said earlier though congratulations on your bricks and mortar though" Jasper took a look at Victoria laughed again and walked out with Alice following Emmett walked over to Adam
"Next time I see you, you're dead!" He shouted at him
"Emmett, come on!" Carlisle shouted. He and Esme left next followed by Emmett and me.
"Right come on everyone! First meal here is free!" Victoria announced as I walked out of the door. I smiled as I heard everyone get up and follow us out of the restaurant. One by One the people stood up and walked out ignoring Victoria's calls. I was so touched. We had the support of the whole of Forks and most importantly we had each other. We were going to be fine.
AN – Next chapter will be full of twists, turns and a surprise return! Adam's final chapter is the next one! Believe me when I say the Cullen's are now at their lowest and this is the point that things are going to get better for them. Plz Plz review. If you review I will resurrect Bella in the next few chapters! So tell me in your review whether you want me to resurrect her or not