AN: It's time for Jacob to tell the truth. It's a shorter chapter but the next one will be longer.

Stephenie Meyer created the wonderful Twilight world, I'm just playing with her characters. No copyright infringement intended.

How Can I Help You?

Chapter 23

EPOV

When Bella told me that she'd arranged to meet Jacob at the diner, alone, I was livid.

"Edward, everything will be fine. The diner will be full from the lunch crowd. Nothing will happen to me there."

Did she really not understand that she and Riley, along with my daughters, were everything to me? I don't care that there is some reason he says he needs to speak to her, after what he did…he's not going to be alone with her.

"Bella, love, I want to be there. Kate and Irina can watch Riley while we go into town. I deserve a chance to confront him as well."

She was worrying her bottom lip between her teeth before saying, "I'm afraid if you go, you'll hear something that will cause you to lose it with him."

Was she actually worried I'd hurt the bastard? "Bella, I won't kill him." She wrapped her arms around me and looked up. "I'm not worried about him. I just don't want to give him anything he could hurt you with. If you hit Jake, he could press charges, causing trouble for you."

"Don't worry about me. I'm going today, I have a right to be there with you and I need to be there for you." For a moment she looked like she was going to argue further, but then just nodded.

"Alright."

Bella called Charlie to let him know our plans for the afternoon. It was Charlie's added support for me to go with her that finally had her relaxing.

"Bella, after everything you both have been through, Edward needs to be there not just for you, but to drive home the reality of what Jacob did to him."

My love was conflicted and worried, worried about everyone but herself. Bella finished getting ready as I went over things with the girls. We wouldn't be gone long and both Kate and Rini would take care of Riley. We were to meet Jake just before noon at the diner.

Bella and I arrived first, so we sat at a table towards the rear of the dining room. I wanted a table as it would be less confining, Bella had other ideas. She moved the chairs so she was seated beside me on one side, facing the door.

Brandi came over and took our drink orders, neither of us felt like eating. "Everything will be fine, love. We'll talk to him then go home get the kids and take them somewhere. You'll feel better with a little family time. I forgot to tell you, Jenks called and has a list of things for us to do to get the ball rolling to change Riley's birth record."

This news gave us a much needed distraction and I briefly went over having to get a paternity test to have written proof that I was indeed Riley's father. The only disheartening information was that it would not be a "quick fix". Jenks informed me that after all the paperwork had been filed it could take as long as seven months to a year for the change to take effect.

As we were talking everything over, the bell on the diner's door chimed, and in walked Jacob Black.

BPOV

As Edward and I were waiting for Jake, he started telling me about his plans to file for an amendment to Riley's birth record. I was so excited that we were at this point. I knew California law would require him to take a paternity test, but when Edward said it would take seven months before the change was made, I was sorry again that I didn't list him when I was given a chance. Jake found out what I had done when the official copy arrived at our house by mail. At that point he was already aware of everything, but it was more salt in his wounds. I had felt bad for hurting him, but I knew now that he had always known.

The chime of the door drew my attention and I saw Jake standing just inside the doorway.

Jacob walked into the diner and scanned the room until he spotted me. He looked shocked to see Edward sitting next to me at the table, but continued to walk over.

"I wasn't expecting to see you, Cullen. Bella, I thought this was going to be a private conversation."

I felt Edward tense and gently squeezed his thigh, trying my best to soothe him. "Sit down, Jake. Edward is here because there are things we both deserve to hear from you."

Jacob sat down and looked at the both of us. "Where do you want me to start?"

I was about to begin when Edward leaned forward. "I don't know, Jake, why don't you start at the point you really learned about Bella and I. Then maybe you could explain why you felt it was your right to keep me from my son."

We had just started and already Edward was about to lose his cool.

Jake's eyes flashed. "Really you want to start there? What about the fact that you slept with my wife? I've loved Bella since we were in grade school. We were each other's firsts in everything."

Oh God…Oh God…this is going to be bad, really, really bad. I was trying to hold Edward in place with my hand on his leg, but he was already rising. "You son of a bitch, the only reason you were her first is because you practically raped her after her prom. You got her so drunk she didn't know where she was. She called me sounding so scared. You gave her nightmares for a week after that."

Edward was up, pulling me beside him, "We can't do this here. I don't want to give the population of Forks a show." He threw money on the table to cover our drinks and a tip before leading me outside and pulling me into his arms.

"I'm sorry, love. I guess I lost my cool in there, but it's time everything was laid on the table." Jake came out a few minutes later, looking like he was trying to calm his own temper.

We all walked over to a table that sat in the shade from the diner.

"Jake, you lied to me, you lied to Edward. I know I hurt you, but when I came up here while Mom was in the hospital, we were separated. We had already spoken to a lawyer about starting our divorce proceedings…why would you go to such extreme measures to keep us both locked into a marriage that was unsalvageable? I want to know when you found out and who told you?"

Jake looked broken as he sat down. "Bells, you have to understand, when you left to come up here…when Renee was so ill…I thought by the time you were home we'd be ok again. My Dad called me after stopping over at the hospital one afternoon."

"I never saw Billy there. Why didn't he ever say anything to me?" Edward squeezed my hand, offering me his never ending support.

"Dad was just arriving at the hospital as you were leaving with him. He knew you hadn't seen him and was surprised by what he saw. We weren't really speaking at the time, Bells, and I knew how you felt about him. You've always loved him in a way you were never able to love me. I knew then that whatever we had was over. I was so angry. I wanted to hurt you both as much as I had been hurt. So I told a few lies. I figured if you discovered the truth I hadn't really lost much, but I wanted to find a way to make you stay. With the history you two had, I knew I could play on that. All I really needed was a week or two if silence for you to believe what I was telling you. I used your phone and called Cullen's house. I told him you were pregnant and that we were working everything out. I programmed your phone and got his brat to do the same to his and after that it was simple. Imagine my surprise when you actually were pregnant. There was a glimmer of hope that you were carrying our baby, but after that doctor's appointment, I knew it wasn't."

My jaw had dropped long ago and I could feel Edward shaking with his anger. "Do you realize how much damage you have done, Jake? You took advantage of a vulnerable CHILD. Irina had already been lied to by someone that was supposed to be her family and love her unconditionally. Then you lie to her and bring her into your game…I could almost forgive you for whatever you did to keep me apart from Edward, but I will never be able to forgive that. I loved Irina from the moment I met her, I only ever wanted to help her, but you made it easy for her to hate me and make her father miserable. I tried for so long to be the kind of wife you wanted and needed, I'm sorry that I could never give you my whole heart, but I didn't have it to give." I had to move around, I couldn't sit still having this conversation. Edward was looking at me, concern evident in his eyes. I stood in front of Jacob and continued what I was saying.

"You know we were miserable, and it would have been wrong to bring a baby into that. Maybe it was God that prevented us from conceiving. Though I never would have regretted a child from you, to bring a child into a marriage for the sake of saving it would have been an even bigger mistake."

Edward walked over to me, pulling me back and into his arms. "As horrible as it would have been to you, I wish I had just remained here and asked you to send my things. Maybe then things would have been different for both of us, for Irina, and I know Edward and I … I've caused so much hurt. I'm sorry, Jake. I never wanted to hurt you. You were my best friend for so long, and I should have kept it like that. I knew… hell you knew, what my feelings were for Edward. You were the one to tell me." All of my old insecurities came back. I knew deep down I was the root of all the problems that have occurred.

"Bella, love, look at me." Edward whispered in my ear. "We are together now. Everything is as it should have been. This wasn't your fault. You and I made mistakes, but we never set out to purposely hurt anyone. That's what Chelsea and Jake did. Jake wanted to hurt us because he felt betrayed and he didn't want to lose you."

Jake was watching us closely. I could see it the moment he truly understood the depth of feeling that Edward and I had.

"Yes, Bells, that's what I did. I didn't think it out in the long term. I only wanted you with me. I never thought about what keeping you and Riley from Edward would do to you both. I am sorry I hurt you."

"Sorry doesn't really cut it, Jacob. I know if you had told me that you were in love with someone else I would have let you go and I would have been happy for you. You knew during my pregnancy and said nothing to me. Instead I felt worthless because I thought the man I loved had moved on and forgotten about the promises we made to each other. Even if that had been true and he'd found someone else, you denied him the right to know his son. I would have told Edward regardless and he'd have been there for the baby even if we weren't together. I will be trying to make up that lost time to him for the rest of our lives."

EPOV

I had been watching Jacob as Bella had her say. When she mentioned being happy for him and letting him go if he had found someone, his eyes changed. I wondered if this had anything to do with the reason for his visit in the first place.

Bella had fallen back into blaming herself for everything, but I couldn't let her. This was an open wound in our relationship that was taking time to heal. We had both made so many mistakes, me more than her, and its something we'd be dealing with for some time to come.

"Sweetheart, it's not necessary. We have to move forward and stop looking back so much." I looked over at Jake. "You said there was something you needed to tell Bella, do it now so we can get back to our children."

He looked up at us and just blurted out, "I'm going to be a father."

Bella didn't look shocked at all. "The girl you've been seeing? Is she the same one you went to while I was pregnant?"

Jacob looked shocked, "You knew?" My girl just shook her head laughing. "How could I not know Jake? After I shut you down completely, you stopped trying. You started spending longer hours at "work" then stopped coming home. I didn't care; I wanted you to find someone to make you happy."

"Nessa…that's her name, and yes we met couple of months after you came home. I didn't expect it to happen, wasn't looking for a relationship but I love her. She told me when you left that she was pregnant. That's why I wanted to keep the nursery. I just needed to come here to apologize and try to make you understand. I know now that we weren't meant to last. I think we needed to go this road though, because it brought me her."

He stood and walked over to us.

"Be happy Bella, and I see he makes you happy." I held Bella closer to me.

"So the hearing for the finalization of the divorce is next week, do I need to be there, Jake?" Bella asked.

"No, I'm not going to contest it, as a matter of fact I'm taking Nessa away for the week following the hearing and we're getting married. I'm selling the house Bells and even though you said you wanted nothing, I'm giving you half of the money. Do what you want with it, or put it in trust for Riley, just take it."

Not long after that, Bella and I drove back to the house. "So what will you do with the money?"

She turned her head to look at me as she said, "I don't want it. Maybe you could have Jenks put it into the Pacific Northwest Trust and give it to some other deserving college student." She looked at me with a smirk on her face.

"You are the one that arranged for the Trust to pay for Stanford, aren't you? I guess if I had put more thought into researching where the money was coming from I might have realized it was you before now."

I took her hand, hoping I wasn't about to be on the receiving end of her wrath. "I drove you away from a full scholarship. I had to make sure you were ok at school and could concentrate on studying and not worrying about how to pay for tuition."

"I love you for that. And I want to help someone else, someone that didn't have you to protect them."

She was truly a remarkable woman, my Bella.

We spent the rest of the day with the kids. Bella packed a bag for Riley and had Kate and Irina gather a couple of blankets, sunscreen and a change of clothes. We were going to the park and afterwards we were going to dinner, spending time as a family. Bella had filled her father in on our meeting with Jacob, and I knew she was much more relaxed knowing that there would be no delay in the divorce becoming final.

After the announcement that he was getting married, I started making plans for making Bella mine forever. I needed to talk to my daughters and as we got ready to go out for the day I asked them for a Daddy/Daughter day the next weekend. Bella thought it was a great idea and Kate and Irina were excited about it.

It was time to start planning our future.

O~O~O~O~O~O

So, the confrontation with Jake wasn't as explosive as I thought it would be, but things were said that needed to be. I know it was a short chapter, but the next one will be longer.

Let me know what you think. Was it too easy?