EDITED 30/05/16. I have combined a few chapters together so it's longer and I think it flows better.
DISCLAIMER: Everything Twilight belongs to SM, plot belongs to me.
Chapter 3-
Bella is in one of the Cullen's guest rooms asleep with Charlie in a cot next to her. The room is a soft grey across three walls and the wallpaper is a light cream with a Paris decal on one wall behind the bed. The bed she's on is black and ornate with swirls along the headboard coupled with a memory foam mattress. Charlie's cot is a deep brown and made of pine with a beige blanket hanging over the side and a mobile with clouds and rainbows spinning slowly hanging above it.
Charlie begins fussing and Bella gets up before she starts screaming and disturbs the entire house. She doesn't know what time it is so she walks to the window and pulls back the grey floor length curtains. Seeing that it's light across the garden outside, she breathes a sigh of relief as she doesn't think she can sleep anymore and has no idea what she would do otherwise. Hearing a shout that sounds male and vaguely like her name, she walks out of the room with Charlie in her arms. She rounds the corner and is met with the blonde haired girl from yesterday holding clothes in her arms.
"Oh, hi." Bella says.
"Hi, mom sent me up with clothes for you. We didn't know if you were awake or not. I'm Rosalie by the way, but you can call me Rose." Rose replies smiling.
Bella smiles at her, thankful she won't have to go downstairs in her pyjamas.
"There's also clean clothes for Charlie there too and there are some diapers in your room."
Rose and Bella begin walking back towards her room Bella and Rose puts the clothes on the bed. Rose looks up at Bella.
"Um, if you'd like, I could clean and change Charlie while you get changed? You could get changed here, or you can go in the bathroom if you'd like. It's just through here." Rose says walking towards a door in the room and opening it to show a fully stocked bathroom, complete with a sink, toilet, bath, and separate shower cubical.
"Thanks, um, yeah." Bella says with an awkward smile, before picking up her clothes and making her way to the bathroom.
"There are clean towels on the back of the door if you'd like a shower." Rose says suddenly.
Bella smiles. "Thanks." She says before closing the door.
Rose hears the shower turn on while she changes Charlie and calls through to Bella. "Bella, I'm going to take Charlie downstairs while you finish getting ready. Take as long as you need, we love babies in this house."
Bella looks up for under the spray of the shower and calls back. "Okay, I won't be too much longer."
She then hears the door to her bedroom close and gets back to her shower. She looks down again and sees the scars of her relationship with James on top of the scars from the night that took her family from her. She starts to cry, what if he find her and takes her away from her baby girl. She laughs at the irony of that thought because less than 24 hours earlier, she was leaving her daughter in the care of strangers with the intent to never return. Finishing in the shower, she steps out and wraps the towel around her body. She looks around the room, painted a sea blue with a nautical theme, almost like something you'd see in a seaside home. Bella smiles at how cute it looks and then opens the door leading back to her bedroom.
She gets dried quickly and walks back into the bathroom to brush her teeth and sort out her hair, looking at the mirror, she rubs the condensation from it and notices how much happier she seems already, lighter. She spots a medicine cabinet and opens it to find a hairbrush, hair ties and copious amounts of hair products for every hair type and need. She also spots a cupboard which holds a hairdryer. Going back to her room, she finds a socket and sits by the vanity to dry her hair. When she's finished, she put her hair up in a simple ponytail, moisturises her face and neck and exits her room.
She makes her way downstairs and towards the room where she can hear voices coming from. She stops in the door way and watches as a large group are scattered all around the living room watching her baby girl. Charlie spots her mother and smiles prompting the others to look towards her. Alice beckons her over towards her and pats the space next to her. Alice is sat cuddled up towards a man with short curly blond hair and a kind smile. She walks over and tentatively sits down. Charlie begins to cry and Bella recognises it instantly as her hungry cry. She stands up immediately and reaches for her baby girl who is laying under a mobile on the floor and picks her up. She turns around.
"Um, is there somewhere I can go to feed her?" Bella askes.
Esme jumps up. "This way dear."
Esme walks towards another doorway and leads her into the kitchen. "When you're done, just come back through and I will start to make breakfast for us all." She smiles at Bella and walks back onto the living room.
Carlisle looks at his wife as she sits back down next to him and cuddles into his side. "She's looking better." He comments.
Esme looks at him, then around the room. "She's been through a lot and just needs love, and we're going to give it."
Everyone nods their heads.
"Don't take my baby!"
Is heard from the kitchen. Edward draws his gun and runs in there first, Rose and Alice close behind him with Jasper and Carlisle running out of the house to go through the back door. Esme grabs Jacob and runs to their 'panic room'. Seeing James, not only out of the basement Edward and Rose had locked him in last night, but having pushed Bella to the floor and grabbed Charlie, again, Edward shoots him in the arm. Jasper has just walked in the back door and saw the look Edward gave him before he pulled the trigger, and grabs Charlie before she hits the floor. Rose and Edward walk over to James and Rose steps on his gunshot wound. Alice runs out of the room, grabs a blanket and gives it to Bella to cover herself up, as she had been in the middle of breastfeeding, and helps her up and out of the room.
Alice wraps her arms around Bella and holds on as Jasper walks into the room cradling a screaming Charlie in his arms.
"I think she wants her mommy and is angry she was interrupted in the middle of her meal." He says trying to diffuse the tension in the room.
Bella looks up and holds her arms out for Jasper to put Charlie in. "It's okay baby girl. Mummy's here."
Jasper shoots Alice a look that tells her to stay with Bella while he goes to help the others. She nods once.
"One second Bella, I need to go tell mom and Jake they can come out." Alice tells Bella.
"O…okay."
Alice walks away and Bella gets Charlie in the correct position to feed again, this time under the blanket. A little boy around the age of 7 or 8 comes running into the room.
"Hi, I'm Jacob." He says holding out his hand for her to shake.
Bella gets a secure hold of Charlie in one arm while she happily sucks away and shakes Jacob's hand.
"Hi, I'm Isabella." She leans in as if she's going to tell him a secret. "But you can call me Bella." She whispers the last sentence and smiles at him.
"Well, in that case, you can call me Jake." He beams at her before tuning and sitting on the chair he had just vacated.
Feeling Charlie unlatch, Bella makes herself decent and puts her back under the mobile.
"Nana, where's mom?" Jake asks Esme.
"In the kitchen." She tells him. "Do you want her?"
He nods his head vigorously. Esme smiles at him and walks into the kitchen. A few seconds later Rose walks around the corner.
"What's up baby boy?" She asks him, so much love filling her voice.
"Can I watch TV please?" He asks her.
"Just this once, and not for too long. You have work to do. When I'm done in there, Uncle Eddie and I will help you with your project."
He runs up to her and wraps his arms around her.
"Thank you mom!"
He pulls away and runs to the TV, switching it on to his favourite Cartoon and he's engrossed in about 5 seconds flat. Shaking her head at her son's antics, she turns around and walks back into the kitchen. Bella looks up.
"Esme?" Bella asks.
Esme looks over at her. "Yes dear?"
"Um, what are they doing in there? I saw one of them shoot James. Why is he here? How has he found me? Us?" Bella asks one question after the other and starts to hyperventilate.
Esme runs over to her and calms her down. "They are taking him back to the basement. They got him last night." She sighs. "Bella, I need to tell you what the family business is. We're an organised crime family. The most powerful, so also the most feared organised crime family in Washington State. Edward was out on a job when he saw you and Charlie walking down the road and then James follow you down the road. He ran towards you when he first saw James hit you, he got to you both when you had hit the ground. Apparently, James picked up Charlie and Edward pulled a gun out and threatened James. He got him to put Charlie back in your arms, get in his car and drive away. He did, and we got you and Charlie back here and are helping you get better. Last night, Edward and Rose sent three men to James' home to get him. My two children heard the tail-end of your story yesterday and they conflicted pain on James accordingly.
Rose and Edward run the violence side of the family business. They control everything. Alice and Jasper are in charge of the technological side of it all, they make sure there is no electronic trace of the activities of the family and wipe any information they need to from where ever they need to. Carlisle, my husband, is in charge of any trade and transactions- drugs, arms; things like that. He is also a doctor. I am occasionally a nurse, as you know, but I oversee the shutdown of sex rings and forced prostitution of other families, that is something we don't tolerate. I help the girls recover and get them safely back to where they were taken from and oversee their lifelong protection. We protect girls and anyone forced into anything they don't want to do. Everyone that works for us are here because they want to be, no one is forced.
Just me telling you this means that we all consider you as family, we love your little girl and we love you as well. Bella, we aren't afraid to do what it takes to protect you. Something happened years ago to a member of this family and it lead to one of the best things we have, but it was horrible and we all acted accordingly. I won't say any more than that, it's not my story to tell."
Bella looks at Esme. "Thank you for telling me that. I know you won't hurt me and you won't hurt anyone that doesn't deserve it. I won't tell anyone, but don't hurt James, it was my fault."
"No it wasn't!" Esme says quickly with conviction. "It was him and his sick mind. Don't take the blame for this. He is a horrible, horrible man and my children will cause him pain like he's caused you and two others."
Bella looks at Esme in shock. "What?"
"Yes, two others. Emily and Leah. They were both killed, and Leah had a little boy, from another relationship. He was forced to watch his mother beaten and raped for years. She was killed 4 years ago and he was left in a church. He now lives with his grandparents in Germany. He deserves this Bella, believe me."
"I want to see him." Bela says suddenly. Esme looks at her in shock.
"I want to see him." Bella says again with more force behind her words.
"Okay dear. Alice, can you take Bella down to James please."
Bella forgot Alice was still in the room. Alice walks over to the doorway and Bella follows her down the hallway and towards the steps leading her towards the basement.
Bella walks down the staircase leading towards the basement with Alice close behind her. She reaches the bottom, and comes to a large corridor with five doors spaced along the walls. Alice links arms with Bella in a show of solidarity and leads the way to the furthest door on the right. Alice knocks once, sings "Housekeeping" and laughs at the joke as she opens the door, revealing Edward, Rose and one other man that she had never seen before standing around an object looking intimidating with their arms crossed. All three turn towards Bella and Alice as they walk through the door, and Bella spots Jasper in front of Edward, Rose and the stranger. He appears to be holding something down. Bella looks down and spots a beaten James, he looks right at her and smirks. Edward looks back down at James as Rose starts walking over to the two girls standing in the doorway.
Edward sees the way James is smirking towards Bella and kicks him hard in the shin and punching him once around the face.
"Don't you fucking look at her your worthless piece of shit!" Edward screams at him.
This startles Bella because she's never seen him like that before, which isn't surprising because she only properly met him this morning, this must be his business face. James leans forward, fighting against Jasper's hold on him and spits blood in Edward's face. Rose recaptures Bella's attention.
"Alice, why have you brought Bella down here?"
Before she can reply, Bella says in a surprisingly calm and unaffected tone, "Because I want to speak to him."
She points in the direction of James. Rose and Edward share a look while James looks satisfied at her attention of him.
Bella is beckoned over by Edward who whispers in her ear when she's close enough, "If it gets too much, reach over and squeeze my hand and I will get you out. I will trust you to know when it gets too much and I will let you say what you want to him, but if I believe he's overstepping the boundaries, I will take action."
Bella nods at him in understanding and takes her place in front of James and next to Edward. Rose and Alice stand on her other side and the stranger helps Jasper keep James in his seat.
"What I want to know, is why? Why you took me away from everything I've ever known and away from every familiar thing to me, and took me here where you beat and raped me. I want to know why you tried to kill my baby before she was even in the born and failed to love her after she was. She may share half of your DNA, but she will always be mine. Never yours. You were just a sperm donor. If you so much as utter her name, not that you even know her name, I will get Edward to give you the beating of your life.
Why did you do it to other women? One of them had a child who is now motherless and had to watch you beat and kill his mother slowly. You tried to do it to me. You did kill me, my spirit, my confidence and my fight. But then I had my baby girl, and she gave me the extra strength, the extra fight to get away. Away from you. I am now in a place where I feel accepted, despite my size, despite my emotional problems, even in one day. I know here I will be able to get better and move on. I know I will get married someday to a man who loves me."
Bella steps forward, and before anyone can stop her, she slaps James across the face. Edward pulls her back so James's head can't hit her. It narrowly misses. He looks up at her and laughs.
"You really think you will be able to move on. Throughout every decision in your life, you will think of me, you will doubt yourself and others, because of me. You think you're free, but what you don't realise, is that I'm in your head. I've won."
He's cut off by Edward bringing his foot down on the leg Rose broke the night before.
After James has finished screaming out in pain, Edward says, "Watch it."
James looks back at Bella. "You think they accept you? No one does. It's pity. Pity for your fat size and the fact your family burnt to death. Their flesh melted from their bodies as they screamed in agony at the heat ripping flesh from bone. Pulling their bodies to pieces and boiling their blood. They died an agonising death, and you did nothing to save them. You're just a worthless pile of flab."
Bella reaches over and grabs Edward's hand, squeezing tighter than anyone would have thought possible. Edward immediately wraps his arms around her and begins pulling her towards the door leading to the corridor. Once in there, Bella just falls to the floor clutching hold of Edward the entire time. Edward pulls her towards him and holds her as tightly to him as he can. She sobs on his shoulder and he stays quiet, offering his support in the hug.
Once she starts muttering things like, "I am worthless, nobody loves me, why would they, I'm just a fat bitch who let her parents die",
Edward interrupts. "Bella. You are not any of those things. That man is just a hateful waste of space, not you. We are lucky to have you. Even though we've only just met you, we love you so much. You and Charlie. Don't ever feel like we don't, because you will always have one of us that will be there to prove you wrong."
Bella looks up and meets Edward's intense stare. He brings his hand up and brushes away the piece of hair that had fallen out of the pony tail she had put it up in, and lets his hand linger on her cheek. They're so close, they are almost sharing the same breath.
"You are a beautiful woman, inside and out. Any man would be lucky to have you. The man you marry will love you and appreciate you like you deserve to be treated, and they will have to be pretty damn special to get through us Cullen's; we protect our own."
Edward is speaking so softly, that goose bumps form on Bella's arms and his breath is fanning across her face, letting her take in the sweet aroma that is Edward. They stay locked in each-others gaze, until a door opens up. Bella and Edward pull apart, and after she gets over how dazed she is, Bella focuses enough to see another man she's never seen walk out of a room she's never been in before. He nods at Edward who nods back at him. The new guy then walks over to the room Edward and Bella exited an unknown amount of time before.
Edward quickly stands and hold out his hand to help pull Bella up. She takes it and they begin to walk up the stairs together. As they reach the top, they can hear shouts coming from the living room. Edward and Bella look at each-other and shrug before making their way into the room. What they see is a sight they never expected to see. Carlisle and Jacob in an intense game of Wii tennis. Bella spots Charlie and walks over to sit by her, and to get as much distance from Edward as possible after their moment a minute ago. Edward's about to walk to sit with Bella, craving her company, when Esme sits beside her, forcing Edward to the couch on the other side of Charlie. As the woman talk, Edward watches the game going on in front of him. He listens to the conversation between Bella and his mother.
"Did you get to say everything that you needed to say, dear?" Esme asks Bella.
"Yes, and I slapped him. He said some things though. I don't want to repeat them, but they were…" Bella trails off, Esme sensing the end to the conversation pats Bella on the knee in a comforting way and makes her way into the kitchen.
A few seconds later, Esme is telling Edward to tell the others breakfast was done. At hearing the word breakfast, Jacob pauses the game, he's up by 15 points, and shout sings, "Breakfast, breakfast, food from the gods",
Before running into the kitchen; a laughing Carlisle following close behind. Bella stays sat down, looking at her baby girl, not noticing the other coming up from the basement and Rose shouting at her son for running in the kitchen, until a velvet voice at her shoulder startles her.
"You coming, Angel?" Edward asks with a smirk on his face but concern in his eyes. He holds out his hand for the second time in as many minutes, and Bella takes it, just like last time.
"Yep. But what should I do with Charlotte, I don't want to leave her in here by herself."
Edward smiles at her motherly concern. "Easy, bring her with us."
He walks over to the mat Charlie's playing on and picks her up gently before cradling her to his chest. Edward takes Bella's hand again, almost as if he doesn't realise it, and they walk towards the kitchen together.
"There you are! We were beginning to think you'd got lost!" Jasper jokes.
Edward pulls Bella towards the two empty chairs at the table and gestures for Bella to make her plate once they sit down. Bella notices there isn't anywhere for Charlie to lay, so she goes to take her off of Edward so he could eat. He pulls away.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"There isn't anywhere for Charlotte to lay, so I was taking her so you could eat." Bella says strongly.
He just looks down at her, then smiles. "That's what I'm doing for you. You eat, I'll hold and then we can switch so I have some company for my meal. Deal?"
Bella smiles back. "Deal."
A helpful Esme passes Bella a plate of food.
"Thank you." Bella says before she begins eating.
She feels awkward eating in front of them all, like she shouldn't eat in fear of being judged, but everyone acts normally, jovial conversation filling the room. She looks over at Edward who gestures for her to continue. She gingerly takes another bite of sausage and smiles at Edward who is smiling back at her and rocking her baby girl to sleep in his arms. Bella pours herself a glass of juice and carries on eating her bacon, eggs, sausages and baked beans. Edward is gently rocking Charlie who falls asleep in his arms and talking to Bella and everything and anything.
"What's your favourite colour?" Edward asks.
"It changes day to day, but I would have to say green. Emerald green." Bella answers looking down and blushing.
"Now that's my favourite colour" Edward says under his breath.
Bella looks up, "Sorry, I didn't catch that." She says.
Edward smiles at her as if she's the most adorable thing he's seen. "I asked, why the blush?"
Bella looks down at her plate again and pushes her cut up sausage around the plate watching the way the egg yolk spills out when it gets jostled. "No reason"
"Hey." Edward says kindly, gently lifting Bella's chin up so she's looking him in the eyes. "Eat up, I'm starving." He says in a jokey manner that she doesn't pick up.
"Sorry, I'm not really hungry, I'll just take Charlie from you and go and sit in the other room. Sorry" Bella rushes out in one breath while standing up and reaching for Charlie at the same time. The chair leg catches on the floor and falls backwards, Bella's foot catches on the table and her plate and herself ends up on the floor. Tears immediately fall from her eyes and she gets up reaching for Charlie. Edward, who has stood up to help her up, bends down at the same time as Bella stands up and they butt heads.
Bella looks up at him in shock and fear. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. Don't hurt my baby please. I'm sorry, Hurt me. It's my fault. I'm so sorry. Give her to me, please." Bella cries. Edward hands a still sleeping Charlotte over to Bella who then runs up the stairs leaving a confused and worried Edward watching after her.
Please review, it makes me so happy to log onto my email and see the notification I have a new review. Maybe we can get it to 5, if it's 6, I will post chapter 4 tomorrow, around midday(GMT). Thank you for the support. ~Megan xxx