A/N:

If you don't have a box of tissues or a roll of toilet paper close by, I recommend you go get that before you head into this chapter.

Title: The Death of a Prince

Author: MarieCarro

Beta: Alice's White Rabbit

Pre-reader: brierlynn03, AgoodWITCH, LunaEclipse17

Genre: Crime/Family/Drama

Rating: NC-17

Summary: At age 7, Edward Cullen witnesses his father's death. Traumatized and terrified, he blames himself and runs away.

Two minor league criminals stumble upon him when he wanders the streets at night, freezing and starving, and they decide to take him in.

Years later, Edward is confronted by his past and must decide if he'll take his rightful place as the head of the Irish Mob, or remain with those who raised him. Based on the plot for The Lion King, which belongs to Disney.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

CHAPTER 23

Edward's hesitation was palpable after the Swans laid out the plan for him, but Bella was the one who called it out.

"What's wrong with it?"

He met her eyes and let out a sigh. "It's not that the setup isn't perfect, but do you really want to use your birthday like that? Turning twenty-one is a big deal."

She nodded. "It is, and I couldn't wish for a better birthday gift than pushing Caius off his throne of make-believe. I'll have plenty of time to celebrate once we've dealt with him."

"We need most of the family present at the mansion for a successful outcome," Charlie said. "If we can rid ourselves of as many of Caius' sentinels as possible in one sweep, your transition to become the new head will be much smoother."

"I get that, and if Bella's okay with it, I really shouldn't complain." He leaned back in his seat and took a deep breath, but a snort escaped when a thought occurred to him.

Bella gave him a questioning look. "Something funny?"

"Not really. I just realized neither of our birthdays could be called traditional in any way and involves an unusually high amount of violence."

She smiled reminiscently. "Are you referring to the fact that I almost castrated your brother and broke your arm?"

He chuckled. "It's a birthday I'll never forget, that's for sure."

Charlie looked at his daughter. "You found him on his birthday? But that was only a week after you left home. Why didn't you let us know he was alive?"

"It was a very complicated situation, Dad, and we can all talk about it later," she said and didn't give him any room to protest. They wouldn't have had much time for that particular conversation anyway because they all heard the sound of a car pulling into the Swans' driveway.

Bella looked at Edward, and she could see how nervous he was by the sudden tension in his shoulders.

"That's Esme," Charlie said and also looked at Edward. "Do you want us with you at first?"

"No," he said and shook his head. "I need to apologize to her, and everything will already be overwhelming enough without everyone being in the room at once."

"You can use the sunroom, if you want," Renée offered. "No one will disturb you there."

"Thank you," he said and stood up to head into the offered space so he'd be in there when his mother entered.

"Edward?"

He stopped and turned back to Renée, who was holding a box of tissues out for him.

"I'm quite certain you'll need this in there."

"Thanks," he said and accepted the box with a small, grateful smile. He was just about to continue on his way when Renée stopped him once again.

"Don't be too alarmed by her fragile state. She's … she's been through a lot, and she doesn't resemble the mom you remember, but she's still in there. I promise."

Edward swallowed hard and nodded. He'd already come to the conclusion that his mom would look different, and not only because she was older than she was in his memories. The traumas she'd lived through were bound to have left their mark on the bright, happy, and spirited woman she'd been, and he was as prepared as he possibly could be for that. It wouldn't be enough, he knew that, but he hoped the shock wouldn't weigh too heavily on him.

He found a seat in the corner of the room and leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. His heart was pounding in his chest, and he found it somewhat difficult to take a deep breath, so he started to silently count down from one-hundred to calm down.

Steps on the hardwood floors alerted him of her approach, and he took one last deep breath.

"But who is it?"

"It's something you have to see for yourself."

Edward kept his eyes trained down on the floor until he heard the approaching steps stop. He knew she couldn't see his face, but he could also tell that she already knew who he was without looking at her.

Not a word was uttered by either of them. The room was completely silent until her shoes started clicking against the floor again with her every step, and she didn't stop until he could see the pointy toes of the red high heels she was wearing.

Her breathing hitched, and with the knowledge that she was crying, he couldn't deny her the sight of his face any longer, and he looked up until their eyes met.

Green eyes so similar to his own, swimming with tears, stared back at him, their depths haunted by years of grief, and the face they were situated in was so familiar and yet, at the same time, so different. Age had barely touched her, but she looked gaunt, as if she'd lost a lot of weight, and her once warm and rich caramel hair appeared limp even in its styled state.

Esme Cullen reached out with a trembling hand until her fingertips touched the edge of his jaw. With that first physical touch, Edward's vision blurred, and he almost missed the overjoyed but heartbroken smile his mother gave him.

"You look so much like him," she said with a voice barely above a whisper. Her tears spilled over and ran down her cheeks as she bent her knees to crouch down to his level. Her hands became braver as both of them fully cupped his face, and her eyes swished over his features to cement them into her mind. "My beautiful boy."

Edward barely noticed his own tears had started falling until Esme's thumb wiped them from his cheeks. "Mom …"

It was the only word he got out before Esme collapsed into his arms, and she let out the most soul-crushing wailing sound he'd ever heard in his life.

"My son! I have my son!" she cried out and held him even tighter. "He's finally home."

Her words became less and less intelligible until the only words Edward could understand were "thank you" and "God" and "son." He held on to her and just let her cry while his own tears ran silently down his cheeks. He didn't need the comfort as much as she did, and by the time she started to calm down, his eyes were once again dry.

"Mom?"

Her arms tightened around his neck in response.

"Mom, I'm so sorry," he said, and she immediately leaned away from him.

"My darling, what could you possibly have to apologize for?" she asked and did her best to rid her face of both old and fresh tears. Edward offered her the box of tissues, and she gratefully accepted a few.

"For staying away," he said, and his body filled with shame. "All of these years I've been gone. I could have reached out, but I didn't."

Esme grabbed his hand, which was nervously fiddling with the tissue box. "Why didn't you? What happened that horrible day?"

When telling the story to Renée and Charlie, he'd kept to the bare necessities so they only got to know what they needed to, but with his mom, he gave her the same detailed story he'd given Bella and his brothers.

Unlike that first time though, he didn't have a full mental breakdown—although tears still forced their way out when he related how terrified he'd been and how much guilt he'd placed on himself over the years for not listening to his dad's heeding and stayed in the car.

"For so many years, I told myself that you all hated me for what I'd done and that it was better for me to stay away since you probably didn't want me at home anyway. I was able to convince myself so thoroughly that even when Bella found me, I didn't want to believe what she was telling me." Esme sat completely silent as he talked and just held his hand in hers until he was finished.

"I could never hate you," she said earnestly, but the corners of her mouth were downturned and her bottom lip trembled. "You're my sweet boy, and I love you so much it hurts. You were forced to witness something no one should ever have to. The pain you've lived with has weighed heavily on you and drowned the excited curiosity that used to drive you every day."

"I can see you're disappointed though," he said cautiously, but she immediately shook her head.

"Not with you. Never with you. I'm sad because you didn't feel safe enough to return home. It makes me feel like I failed as a mother." She grimaced and looked away, but Edward had to protest.

"No, Mom, no. You didn't fail at all. All the memories I have of home are of you making me feel safe and loved. I don't know why my first instinct was to run, and I don't know where I got it that you would hate me. To be honest, that day is so chaotic in my mind that I can only remember the shootout with clarity. Everything else is just sort of blurry."

She nodded and gave him a tight smile that she probably intended to be reassuring but came across as an attempt at masking her true emotions instead.

They fell into silence and just sat across from each other, still keeping physical contact through their hands as they let everything sink in.

Esme continued to look at him in awe, and eventually, she let out a small, content sigh. "You really do look so much like your father."

Edward's heart clenched but in a pleasant way from the compliment. "I want to make him proud of me. When Caius is gone, I want to become the leader he would've wanted me to be."

"Oh, sweetie, he was already so proud of you," Esme said. Her smile was sad, but Edward could see, to his delight, that her eyes didn't look quite as hollow as they had a couple of hours earlier. "From the day you first started moving in my belly, he would've moved mountains for you."

At the mention of her pregnancy with him, Edward's mind inadvertently jumped to the loss of his sister. He could remember just how excited he'd been as a kid at the thought of getting a sibling, so even though he never knew her, his heart bled for the little sister who never was. He couldn't even imagine how it had affected his mom.

"Something I took comfort in over the years was that I thought you weren't completely alone," he started carefully. He wanted his mom to know that she could share her grief with him and that, from that day forward, he would be there for her, but he was also scared bringing up the miscarriage would cause her unnecessary pain.

Their eyes met, and he could see she was slightly confused.

"I thought you still had her."

"Oh." Her mouth formed a perfect "O" but then she clenched her eyes shut and shook away whatever dark image had taken up space in her mind. "Losing your sister was my undoing," she said slowly. "I feel like I haven't truly lived since then." She tightened her grip on his hand. "But I'm hoping that will change now."

He nodded and squeezed back. "Everything will change now," he vowed. "And you and I will live for the both of them."

—{(DP)}—

Esme was reluctant to leave when it got late, but she knew she had to. Edward's eyes had darkened with hatred when she said his uncle always kept a close eye on her and that the only reason she'd been allowed to leave the mansion today was because she was only going to the Swan house to plan Bella's birthday party.

"I don't understand why he's doing all of that to you," Edward said, also reluctant to let his mom leave and go back to the monster who'd stolen his home. "You've been nothing but nice to him, and he's treating you like shit."

"Well, if what you all believe turns out to be true, I can only assume it's his paranoia. Perhaps a part of him knows you're alive. Or maybe he's just a psychotically evil man."

"If you ask my opinion, ma'am, the latter sounds like the most likely," Jasper said from his place in the very back of the crowd.

As both Esme and Edward had started to calm down from their heightened emotions, Bella, Charlie, and Renée had joined them in the sunroom, and then finally, so had Jasper and Emmett.

A lot of gratitude and a plethora of "thank yous" had been rained over Edward's brothers by Esme when she was introduced to them, and she realized they were the ones who had taken care of her son and kept him alive.

Esme smiled at him now, and it was actually filled with mirth and humor. It was the first time in what felt like forever since the Swans had seen Esme feel a truly positive emotion, and they were all beyond happy to see it.

"I'm very much inclined to agree with you, Jasper," she said and beckoned with her hand for both him and Emmett to come to the door where she was standing with Edward. When they were close enough, she wrapped her arms around them individually and gave them each a kiss on the cheek. "Again, thank you so much for taking care of my son. I will never be able to repay you for that."

"Edward's family," Emmett simply said. "We take care of our family."

"That you do," Esme agreed and turned away from them to face Edward. Without a word, they both enveloped each other in the thousandth hug they'd shared that day, but neither of them could get enough. "This day will help me get through the week until Bella's birthday," she said into the fabric of his shirt.

Edward leaned down and placed a kiss on the top of her head. "I love you, Mom. And I'll miss you."

She squeezed him even tighter. "Oh, I'll miss you, too. I won't be able to call every day, but just knowing you're here, that you're alive, and safe, and well is more than I had before."

Eventually, they parted, and everyone waved goodbye as Esme disappeared through the front door and climbed into her car to go back to the mansion. When her taillights had faded down the street, they all faced each other with newfound determination to end all of their griefs once and for all.

"Right, then," Edward said, and the rest waited for his decision. "Let's get back to planning."

A/N:

This chapter is one of those where I cried while I wrote it, cried while I read it again, cried while I edited it, and I still cry every time.

Esme's world got just a little bit brighter now. After 14 years on her own, she's got her son back. I can't even fathom how that would completely ruin my emotions had it been me.

And Edward is growing in the role he's been bestowed. The Swans and his brothers are already waiting for him to make the calls.

The Day isn't far into the future!

As usual, next chapter is on Wednesday!

Stay Awesome!