Ch 2. The Bombshell Explained.
Bella's P.O.V...
At this revelation, the room explodes into a fury of yelling. I look around, Edward is livid. Jasper, James, and Emmett have moved to restrain him. Alice is searching the future, looking for a peaceful solution I hope.
Rosalie, and I lock eyes, our expressions mirror our disbelief. How could Carlisle have kept this from us all these years. He'd known I could get pregnant yet he didn't warn me or Edward of the possibility.
As much as this hurt, I was willing to hear him out. There has to be a good reason to why he never told us. I whistled, loud and shrill to be heard over the din of voices. Everyone fell silent and looked at me. I moved from where I'd been to stand in front of Carlisle. Only Esme had remained calmly by his side, so I knew she already knew about this.
"Give him the chance to explain. As much as I know this is a shock to all of us, we need to hear Carlisle out. We all owe him that much." I say, looking pointedly at everyone. Slowly everyone retakes their seats.
I am not about to let this tear apart my family. Charlie's been gone for six years now. He was killed in a hit and run by a drunk driver. Renee thinks I died in the same accident that took Charlie.
Carlisle has always been like a father to me, so I want this resolved. I turn to look at him, and I don't need Jasper's empathy to see the pain this is causing him. The anguish is clear in his honey colored eyes.
"Please." I whisper though everyone will hear anyway. He knows what I want.
"Thank you." he mouths to me. In a show of support for Carlisle, I turn to take the seat Edward had vacated. Edward sits on the far end of the table, James stays standing behind him. Carlisle remains standing, hands on the back of his chair. Esme sits in her seat after smiling at me.
"It was the spring of sixteen eighty four, and I was traveling through Scotland. I'd been a vampire for almost twenty one years, already I was having problems with the loneliness that comes with being a nomad. I was studying everything I could by day and traveling at night to avoid the sun revealing me for what I was. Late one evening I was passing through a small town when I heard a cry for help. Turns out the town was having an epidemic of what I learned later was smallpox." here he pauses, lost in his memories. We all know that ever the doctor he had to stop to help.
"It was a young woman, she'd already lost her husband to the disease. Now her children were sick, A little boy, no more the six. I did all I could in efforts to break the fever, but I was too late and he died within hours. Her youngest two, were little girls both dead when I got there. The last child was a five year old girl. She wasn't sick yet, but I knew it was a matter of time before she was. When I took her temperature she was hot. Even her heart rate was fast, so I thought for sure she was starting to get sick. The mother collapsed so I had to leave the girl to take care of her. She'd nursed her husband and all her dead children, she'd tried to get help but since she wasn't the only one, there was no help to be had. Most of the town would die before summer came that year. I did all I could for the mother but it was like when Edward's mother was dying, there was nothing I could do. I watched over the woman till mercifully she died, two days after I arrived." he stops again, and there's not a dry eye in the room, except maybe Edward's. He's to angry to be sad. We can all feel the pain Carlisle felt, the helplessness of watching people suffer. Unable to do anything to ease their passing.
"I wrapped all the bodies, and buried them together in the woods behind the house. I used a stone to mark the grave, and carved the family name into it. The Galloway family. The stone is still there to this day, I go there once a year."
"What about the other girl?" Edward asked venomously.
"Rebecca was that little girl. The woman was her Aunt. After the burial, I went back to the house, expecting her to be next to go. However when I went into her room, she was awake. She showed no signs of illness, other then her temperature. She was fine to my amazement. She already knew that her family was gone. Rebecca I learned was a very advanced child, for all that she was only five. She could read and write, speak perfect English. I spent the next two days with her while I mulled over what to do next. I knew she was more then human, but I didn't think I could take her with me. I had no idea how to care for a child. When she realized I was planning to leave her there, she became very upset. She knew what I was, and had heard her Aunt and Uncle talking at night about vampires. About how her father was one. She had thought that since I was a vampire, I was her father. She was so upset that I did the first thing that came to mind. I lied. She of course knows now that I did, but it hasn't changed the bond we built. She traveled with me from there to Volterra four years later. By then she was fully grown. Fluent in several languages, and very well educated. She was also a beautiful young woman, she would attract attention wherever we went. Upon arriving in Volterra, she gained Caius' attention immediately. Aro too took a liking to her, but she wasn't interested in him.
"I thought his mates name was Athenodora." Edward sneers.
"No. Thena, as we called her, was in the harem. She wanted to be his mate, and they had an affair for awhile before Rebecca arrived. Hell before she was even born for that matter. But he never liked her enough to fall into her trap. She became very jealous of the attention Caius lavished on Rebecca during their courtship. Thena attacked Rebecca. Tried to kill her. It took Jane and Alec and half the guard to restrain her. As soon as Caius discovered what had happened, he ripped Thena apart with his bare hands. Rebecca has developed close ties with the guard, and Marcus. Aro she tolerates, but she isn't close or even friendly with him."
"Then why does he want her to come here?" again Edward spoke.
"Aro has been going slowly crazy for the better part of the last five hundred years. He wants you, Bella, Alice and Nessie bad enough that it has become an obsession to him. That confrontation we had with them, when they lost something in Aro snapped. Cauis told me the last time I saw him that he had reason to fear for his life. He was right, two years later he was killed during what should have been a routine clean up in the South. I suspect as do some others that he met with foul play. Cauis may not have been gifted but at his age he was a very skilled fighter'. He was an excellent military strategist. There's no way a newborn got the drop on him." Carlisle finishes as he retakes his seat.
"And you would know that how?" Edward snaps.
"Edward." I warn, finally tired of his belligerent attitude.
"No Bella. He lied to us. All the time he knew it was possible for us to have Nessie, he knew and he never said a word. How can you sit there and defend him?" Edward stands, and in a flash James and Jasper have him so that he cannot advance on me. I stand up, locking eyes with my husband.
"Cause I know there is a damn good reason. However hurt I know you are doesn't change the fact that this is still our father we are talking about. Without him none of us, save Alice Jasper and James would exist right now." I manage to refrain from yelling, just barely. I can't believe Edward's acting like this.
A.N. Yes I know another cliffie, kind of. Hope everyone's enjoying it so far..