Chapter 13

Carlisle and I were both smiling and laughing when we walked back into the house an hour or so later, I'd missed this, having a family. It wasn't the same as before though, after whatever needed to be done here was over I'd have to go again, I was part of the Volturi now and the thought created a familiar sick feeling in my stomach. He was halfway through his retelling of Jasper and Rosalie's fight, it wasn't like some of the fights that had happened back in Volterra, no one was killed, and it was just to vent their anger, Jasper had dented Rose's new car and she hadn't exactly been too pleased, it was then that I came face to face with Edward.

All my breath was knocked out of me momentarily, I quickly composed myself. He was still as handsome as ever, his copper locks in a crumpled mess around his head, his golden eyes, his tall lean figure, it was all the same just in more vivid detail than before thanks to my new improved vision, I couldn't quite decide if this was a good thing or not. "Bella." He said, his voice was cold, and it broke me out of my trance, this wasn't the same Edward I'd loved and that thought made it somewhat easier for me.

"Edward." I nodded, curtly before scanning the room for Alec. Where is he? I could smell him, I knew he was in the house so I tried to listen to the movement around the house to locate him. It was only when Carlisle gave me a small nudge I realised I was frozen in the doorway. "Sorry." I muttered, and stepped further into the house and closer to Edward.

"Well, I think we all need to have a long talk." Carlisle said, giving Edward a look of disappointment. He believed me, Carlisle believed me over his son. It made my heart swell; maybe I hadn't lost my family completely.

It only took five minutes to get all the Cullen's assembled in one room; it seemed everyone had waited for this, Carlisle sat at the head of the table with Alec opposite him. The Cullen's and myself filled the remaining seats around the table, thankfully Esme took the seat to my right, she made me feel comfortable like Carlisle did, I'm not sure I would have coped if Edward had chosen to sit next to me. I felt someone squeeze my hand, Alec, trying to comfort me, he smiled at me apologetically as if he knew he was about to do something wrong. Any comfort I'd previously felt disappeared now, what was he going to do? Did he know something I didn't or did he just know this was going to be hard for me? Though I wished it was the latter and I had feeling it wasn't that.

"Right," Carlisle said standing up. "It seems as if we haven't given Bella the benefit of the doubt, I think it's only fair we hear her version of events. I have a feeling Alec and Bella may be here for a while and it'll be easier on all of us if we can put this all to rest." He said then nodded to me as if he expected me to stand up and make some great speech. I felt like my stomach had coiled into a huge knot, how was I meant to do this? Everyone was watching me, even Alec, and I knew that if I was a human I would have blushed.

Pushing myself up from my chair, I felt a wave of calm wash over me, I'd forgotten how helpful Jasper could be sometimes. "I know you think I left Edward then ran to Italy but that's not what happened." I forced myself to say, I forced myself to look at the wall rather than my shoes as I said this, I didn't want to admit it but I was terrified of saying this while Edward was here. "Edward." The name was forced from my mouth and I felt a horribly familiar pain wash through me, Jasper cursed silently from the other end of the table. "Edward left me." I said, trying to ignore the pain that was growing worse by the second. I felt shaky on my feet, so much for being a new person. "I couldn't cope." I admitted and I felt pathetic as I said it, "I didn't know how to live without him so I ran to Italy. They changed me and accepted me as part of the guard." I told them, they didn't need to know quite how well I had been accepted by some members of the Volturi.

"Liar." Edward spat from the other end of the table, he was sitting next to Jasper who did something I never expected him to. He grabbed Edward by the throat and slammed him down into the floor, the wooden chair shattered to pieces beneath Edward. No one in the room moved to stop Jasper as he smashed Edward into a wall, I didn't know how I should feel about this. Happy that Edward was finally getting some kind of punishment for what he put me through? Sad that the person I once loved had become this horrible selfish person? Shocked at how angry Jasper was?

Growls erupted from Jasper's chest as he released Edward letting him drop to the ground before sitting back down in his chair. "Sorry." He muttered, it was obvious he didn't mean for hurting Edward, more for breaking Esme's furniture. "Bella's telling the truth." He said, more clearly this time and looked up at me, he offered me half a smile then turned to Esme. "I'll replace the chair." I could tell from the way Esme was tensed next to me she wasn't pleased and not just because a chair had been crushed into tiny pieces.
"Well, Edward. What do you have to say for yourself?" Esme asked, anger and disappointment showing on her face, it was showing on all of the Cullen's faces, well nearly all, and I felt guilty it seemed as if I was taking his family from him, I knew how that felt.

"How do we even know she's telling the truth?" Rosalie demanded, suddenly. "Sure Jasper believes her but why should we?" She asked, causing Jasper to growl again.

"If you could feel what I did a minute ago you wouldn't question if she was telling the truth or not, Rose. I haven't felt pain like that in a long time." Jasper said, somewhat calmer now, as he forced himself not to attack another family member. "I'm going for a walk." He said, and then disappeared from the room; I couldn't blame him because he was doing exactly what I wanted to do. Run. Alec tugged on my hand then, I hadn't realised I was still standing and quickly dropped down into my seat.

Everyone went silent, something which would have been normal in Volterra but here it felt wrong. I scanned the faces of the people around the table, Esme's was clouded with disappointment, Emmett wore a simple frown no immense reaction shown until you noticed his balled fists under the table and something told me his anger was directed at Edward, Rose looked pissed but she'd always seemed that way around me; I had that effect on her, and Alice, well she looked like she was about to have a breakdown. My eyes were drawn to Carlisle next and what I saw made my stomach twist, he was looking at me like a victim though I was sat here destroying his home and disrupting his family. I couldn't fathom how he could muster up the selflessness to feel sorry for me right now, I hadn't wanted to out Edward to his family before but now it was starting to feel like a healing process for me, a healing process that involved banishing Edward's happiness. Carlisle had worked so long to get the loving family he wanted and now I was ripping it away for what? My pride or my revenge?

Alec spoke up, dragging me out of my self-destructive thoughts, this wasn't my fault. It was Edwards. Edward could have stopped this all by just explaining things properly to everyone.

"I think we should all get back to the matter of why we're here rather than talk about this trivial family crisis." Alec stated, sending me an apologetic glance, he needed to complete whatever task we were sent here to do, I understood that what I didn't understand was how he could think something as huge as this was trivial. I could tell I wasn't the only thinking this from the scowl Alec received from Emmett and Alice.

"Trivial?" Alice repeated in a hiss, her sides seemed to have clearly changed since the night before her chair had even been shuffled away from where Edward had previously sat, I wondered why Edward hadn't stormed out yet. "You think something that could potentially break up my family is trivial?!" She growled, her fists clenched, it was around now that Jasper would usually calm her down with a gently brush of his hand or a calm smile, he didn't need his gift when it came to Alice but from the slightly worried look on Alec's face I got the impression he might need Jasper's gift to calm her down.

"Maybe, trivial was the wrong word. What I mean is there are more pressing matters." Alec said, his calm mask was back in place, the one I'd seen him wear many a time when in the presence of Aro, Marcus or Caius, though it was usually Caius. "We came here to discuss the matter of your diet."

Carlisle rose from his chair, "We will not swap out diet." He said, not giving Alec a chance to continue. "It bears no effect on the Volturi if anything it makes us less of a threat." He said, his shoulders sagged slightly, he seemed worn out, I hadn't seen a vampire look like that before and now it was my turn to look at him like he was a victim and he was.

"That is true except I'm not sure you've all been keeping to this diet." Alec said, I let out a gasp which made Emmett chuckle, why hadn't he told me this? "You see, we have reason to believe one of you had strayed from this diet a little too often and is now risking exposure of our race." Carlisle had sunk into his chair again.

"And which one of us is this?" Carlisle asked though I think we all had a pretty good idea. I was torn between thinking it was Jasper knowing how he fought for control and thinking it was Edward who'd been wearing contacts since I'd arrived, I'd never thought it important until now.

"Edward Cullen." Alec said, a growl erupted from said Cullen's chest. "You lying son of a-" Edward's speech was cut off as his launched body smacked into Alec and they both landed on the floor except by the time they hit the floor Alec had paralysed Edward. I covered my mouth watching and I felt cool arms embrace me, Esme.

"I think you should get some air Bella, this isn't good for you to see. Alice can go with you." Even after all the trouble I'd caused today Esme was still mothering me and my heart swelled with warmth, I really had missed that. Shaking my head I move toward the door, Alec could handle himself, the Cullens wouldn't hurt him and Esme was right this wasn't good for me. My fight or flight instincts had kicked in and flight was winning, again.

Alice was rising from her seat but I shook my head at her, I needed to be alone for what I was about to do. I took a deep breath not sure if I could even pull it off before rushing out the door without a uttering a single word.

Authors note: I had half of this written and uncompleted for ages but I just couldn't think of how to end it but I've finally done it. Sorry about any horrific errors or mistakes toward the end I'm half asleep and I know there are things I've missed but I just needed to get this out of my system before all my inspiration escaped me again and ran off with the fairies. Thanks for reading.

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948