Stephie Meyer owns Twilight

*BPOV*

Sue and I finished up at Sunsets West Co-op, buying enough items to stock the cupboards and refrigerator. On the drive back to the house, I was staring out the passenger side window deep in thought about what I would say to Sue about what she had seen. I was extremely uncomfortable, and that told me that I had to just tell her. Because it was one thing for Charlie to be aware of things but it was another for him to actually have the visual like Sue had just gotten.

I broke the silence, "Charlie doesn't know how bad it is," I could feel the tears starting to sting my eyes as I thought about the night the finally was enough. "I mean he knows, but at the same time, he doesn't. I was afraid he would go back to New York and go after him." The tears began to fall.

"I told you when you are ready. If you aren't ready Bella, you don't have to tell me anything." Sue said as almost a whisper. She was staring out the window at the road ahead of us. I shook my head.

"No Sue, I need to tell someone. Even Jake doesn't know. I guess he had an idea, but he never came out and said anything. I don't know what hurt more, taking the beatings or not feeling like I could do anything about them. "The tears were falling with no end in sight. "He never touched the children; I would have killed him if he had. But for whatever reason the switch would flip with me and he would go from a great guy that everyone liked and wanted to be around to getting mad and taking it out on me." I wiped the stream of tears from my cheeks, from the corner of my eye I could see that Sue was beginning to tear up. She slowed the car down, and pulled over to the side of the road. I was glad because I didn't want to have this conversation at the house. I could still see Charlie hopping a plane and doing something we would all regret.

"The first time, I didn't see it coming. We had been out with friends, I had dressed up for the evening he had complimented me on it when he first saw me. But after a couple of hours he apparently felt that every guy in the place was looking at me like they wanted to take me home. He had one too many and before I knew it he was arguing with me outside when I told him he was wrong, and that I wasn't going anywhere with anyone else he pulled my hair and told me I better remember that . When he let go, he had a clump of my hair in his hand." My body involuntarily shook at the memory.

"Afterward I was getting ready to leave him and he begged me to stay. He promised it would never happen again. I should have known better. But it did happen again. And he made sure never to leave a mark where anyone could see it. You are the first to actually set eyes on his handy work." The tears had stopped and my knuckles were white from me clenching my fists while telling her about the abusive relationship I had left.

"The evening before I left with the kids, he was yelling about work. And I was trying to just listen and keep Emily busy and out of his way. Joey was asleep in the crib, and all of a sudden Em went up to him and said "just calm down daddy" I don't know where she heard the phrase or why she felt to say it, and I saw the look in his eye that gets just before he lashes out. I picked her up and walked out of the room and took her to her room and put up her gate. He followed me up after a minute and cornered me in the hallway. He confronted me saying I was teaching her to be a nasty bitch just like me, and then he pushed me into the wall. He grabbed my arm and twisted me around so that I was facing the wall. He kept twisting and my cry from it caused Emily to approach her gate. She basically watched him use one arm to hold me against the wall and punch me in the back and kick my legs above the knees until I couldn't hold myself up. I slumped to the floor and he walked into our bedroom and got changed then went out, calling one of his buddies on the way down the stairs. It took me almost an hour before I could stand up and go to comfort Em who was sobbing from the sight of him beating me. She cried, I cried and we fell asleep in the rocking chair I had in her room. When I woke around 11 o'clock I put her in bed and began to pack a couple of bags. I knew I would have until closing time at the bar to get some things together. I heard him pull in around 3 in the morning, and then he fell came in and fell asleep. I rested for a couple of hours and when the sun began to come up I carried the bags down to the car. Then I carried Emily down, and finally Joey in his car seat. Brian slept through the whole thing. By 6:30 in the morning we were on the road headed out of the city. Jake had agreed to move me out, glad that I had finally left."

I sighed feeling like I had let it all out, and the world had not crashed around me. Sue just looked at me, and then she reached over pushed a strand of hair off my face, and said "We are here to make sure that it never happens again. And those babies are young enough to not remember it as they get older. I won't say anything to Charlie if you don't want me to, but I do think you need to talk to someone else. Promise me you will think about it." And then she hugged me.

We continued down the road back to the house, and just as we pulled in the driveway my phone buzzed. I looked down at the number and realized it was Alice. I debated letting it go to voicemail. But thought better of it, she had my number and she would continue to call until I answered, or she would just show up at the door. I flipped the phone open, "Hi Alice, I thought you would have called hours ago." I laughed trying to let go of some of the tension that Sue and I still had hanging in the car.

"Oh please, look unload your things, have dinner with your family and then Rose and I are taking you out to Club 7 in Port Angeles. I am not taking no for an answer, and I am bringing you something to wear. We will see you at 7 o'clock. I can't wait to catch up." Alice sounded excited; I could almost imagine her bouncing around where ever she was.

"Okay, I will see you in a few hours." I could tell there was no point in telling her no, or trying to cancel on her. And besides, Sue had volunteered her and Charlie to babysit for a few hours. We got out of the car and brought the bags inside. I was floored by how much Charlie had gotten done in the amount of time we had been gone. He arranged the furniture, and unpacked a ton of boxes. He had feed Emily lunch, and was now giving Joey a bottle while she played with her Fisher Price doll house on the floor and was singing along with the Sleeping Beauty movie Charlie had on TV. Sue filled Charlie in on the places we had gone and some of the people we had seen. Then she told him that since he had done a great job with the kids this afternoon that the two of them were going to babysit for me for a few hours so that I could go out with Alice Hale and Rosalie Cullen. At the telling of the names I stopped and turned to Sue, she make face that confirmed what I now realized. My two friends had gotten married while I was gone, like me, and like I had done without them, they did it without me there. I wanted to cry, but there were no tears left.

I hadn't worn my ring since I had left that morning, hard to believe it had only been a week and a half. Since Jake's girlfriend was a lawyer she would be handling the divorce. Once I had gotten to safely out of Rochester, I took pictures of the bruises as best I could. I had only to send them to Leah via email and she would be putting a rush on things because of the fact that the lives of me and my children were at risk. She had told me that a judge friend was hard on men that beat their wives and he would probably end up getting the case. I trusted her. I looked around the living room, Charlie had done a great job, and there were pictures up and some of my knick knacks. I suddenly felt like I was home.

I made dinner for all of us; steaks and potatoes with some mixed vegetables. Charlie was in heaven claiming that he hadn't eaten so well outside of the diner since I had left. I gave Emily her bath and got her ready for bed. Sue gave Joey a bath, claiming she had always loved the sweet smell whenever she had used the baby wash on Leah and Seth as babies. After Charlie gave him another bottle Joey was asleep and Emily had been out for at least 30 minutes. It was shortly after that when there was a knock on the door.

Okay so now we know what happened that made her leave...and she told Sue, now what happens when they go to Club 7?