And now I'm glad I didn't know the way
it all would end, the way it all would go.
Our lives are better left to chance. I
could have missed all the pain but I'd
have had to miss the dance.
~Garth Brooks, The Dance
I stared at the people I never thought I would see again. The Cullens all looked the same. Carlisle and Esme in their classic beauty and the aura that rolled off them marking them as the leaders. Rosalie and Emmett had changed from their modern way of dressing. Jasper was still enigmatic. His face gave nothing away but there was a kindness in his eyes that made you feel at ease. I wondered for a moment if he always been so good looking. Of course the Cullens had always been stunning but Jasper was breathtaking but I quickly pushed those thoughts away. I was not going to get involved with another Cullen and besides I had six kids to take care of. I didn't have the time or the freedom to be having such thoughts.
"Why are you here?" I asked carefully. Trying to keep my voice cold but not managing it as my fear betrayed me. I worried that Edward might have joined back up with them and that he might to be here hiding. There was a secret about me and Edward's relationship. A secret that no one had known and that I had been to afraid to tell. For he had threatened me and with his Vampire abilities what hope had I had as the human girl.
"We smelled vampires along with your scent so we decided to come and investigate. Because for one if there were vampires here we wanted to let them know that we were only passing through and two if the scent that we smelled really was yours we wanted a chance to see our daughter again." Carlisle said softly. At the mention of being one of their daughters I couldn't help but feel a lump grow in my throat.
Carlisle and Esme had become my second set of parents and in a lot of ways my only set. I had left more then Charlie and Renee behind I had left a whole other family behind as well.
"Well you found both. Is Edward with you." I asked. Fear and anger was plainly heard in my voice and I noticed their looks of shock at the sound.
"We haven't seen him since the day before you left. Why?" I let out a sigh. Relief spreading through my limbs. They hadn't seen him since the day that it had happened.
"Because that would be a very bad thing indeed if he was here with you. It would be a very bad thing for everyone." I knew my answer was vague and that they would want to know what I meant. I knew that I should have kept my mouth shut but something told me that they weren't about to leave now that they had found me. And I couldn't leave my kids in the cellar indefinitely.
"Are you being vague on purpose Bella?" Emmett asked laughing.
"Its Isabella now and yes and no." I shrugged but held my ground looking all of them in the eye, never wavering.
"Again with the vague thing." Emmett teased. A part of me was glad that he hadn't changed and that he was still my big brother. But another part of me wished that he and the rest of his family could have stayed in the past and have been nothing more then a memory.
The trill of a bird caught my attention and I knew what it was asking for it was no bird at all. It was Caleb asking if it was safe to let the little ones out. I knew there would be no going back after this I only could hope that they would listen before they made their own conclusions.
"Mommy?" Called the soft voice of Jayden. Turning around I saw her head peaking out from inside the barn while Aiden stood a few feet in front of her, nearly blocking her from view. I could tell from the look on his face he knew who these people were and he wasn't happy about them being here at all. His lips were in a thin line and his eyes were ice. I groaned inwardly it was just my luck that on the day my past shows up my oldest son decided to embraces his overly protective macho side of himself. I could not blame him though we were his family and in his mind these people had hurt one of his family members. A crime that could not be forgiven.
"It ok Baby. You can come out." I told her softly. My voice caring over the distance to her weaker hearing ears. I heard shuffling and whispers and within seconds Jayden, Akira, Aaron, and Makayla came to stand behind Aiden. I noticed Makayla had tears in her eyes and I felt my heart clench.
"Isabella?" The question was unmistakable in Carlisle's voice and in the air that hung from the air heavily coating everything and everyone.
"Perhaps this would be better discussed inside." I told them firmly, my voice allowing for no argument.
"Come on inside and to your rooms." Aiden told the younger ones gently as he pushed, the ones who looked like they were about to reply, softly towards the house.
He glared at the Cullens for a minute before turning to me with a look of pure anger, confusion, and hurt. Guilt rushed through me.....I always saw him as a an adult because of the way he handled the responsibility he had being the oldest and the two that could help keep the family above water. But that look reminded me once more that he was just a kid. A kid who saw the world differently because of how fast he had aged and what that aging meant. But a kid nonetheless.
Before I could speak he was already inside the house and the yes of the Cullens were burning into my back. Turning back to them I nodded softly towards the house and began walking up to the home that had been my haven since I left these people and their world behind six years earlier.
There was no sight of my kids as I walked into the living room from the front door. From the sounds coming fromt he upstairs I could tell they were in Aiden's room.
The living room was a plain white walls and there was only soem older couches and one rocking chair. I felt a tingle of embarrassment spread through me fore I knew what type of living arrangements they were used to and this was noting like it. Looking back at the Cullens I didn't let them see my embarrassment as I looked Carlisle in the eye and I felt my shoulders relax slightly as he smiled.
Glancing at the other Cullens I saw Emmett and Rosalie looking a the obvious signs of the children that lived here. Toys, and bags littered one corner of the room where everyone threw all their stuff. Esme and Jasper were looking at the walls that were covered in pictures some of which were in frames but most were not, merely being taped up there. Esme was glancing at them all with a small smile that seemed bittersweet to me alighting her face. While Jasper merely stared at one picture that was of the seven of us in it. He looked at if her were trying to memorize every detail from it, from our homemade tie dye shirts to our huge smiles that radiated happiness and love.
"Please sit down." They did so, though Rosalie looked a bit reluctant although for her credit tried to hide it.
"So what happened back then? One day Edward's gone the next so are you which left us in a pretty tight bind......"Emmett trailed off but I knew what he meant. It could look no other way but suspicious that both Edward and myself disappeared around the same time. I almost felt bad for leaving until I remembered why I had left.
"Well, you probably won't believe a lot of this because its your son I'm going to being telling you about. A part of your son I'm sure you don't know about. When I first started dating him it was exactly as it seemed. I was as love struck as a seventeen year old can be and Edward was the perfect gentleman. But I'm sure you know that Edward also had a temper, right?" They all looked confused but they all nodded as well. They couldn't deny it Edward was famous for two things his temper and his stubbornness.
"Well, he also had a jealous side that he couldn't and sometimes didn't want to control. At first when guys would flirt or talk to me he would put a hand on my back and glare before leading me away. It was a little to possessive for my tastes but understandable and just a quirk that I figured he had. I was in love with him and so I could find logic in everything he did, some type of reason no matter how twisted that logic or reason was. Then it became a hand on my arm forcefully yanking me away, then just little remarks about how Jessica was a little slut and that I was starting to act like her.
Of course he never hit me at his full strength or else I wouldn't have lived but he did hit me enough to draw blood and bruises just not in any place you could see. And if he did leave them in places that could be seen I used the oldest excuse in the book, I fell, and me being the Klutz I was could get away with it without anyone suspecting.
He kept getting more violent more unpredictable and yet there were times when he was still the same sweet caring gentleman he had been in the beginning. And I loved him, I truly think I did, not in the be with you forever kind of love but the type that you don't really see as doomed from the beginning but is already marked to fail within the very things that make the both of you up. It was because I loved him that I didn't tell and that reason turned into fear...." I trailed off taking in their looks.
Esme Looked heartbroken and as I caught her eye she gasped softly something in my eyes told her that I wasn't making any of it up. Carlisle looked every kind of devastated but he to seemed to recognize something in my face that showed that I was telling the truth. Rosalie looked sickened and I knew that if tears could fall from her eyes they would be. I felt the lump in my throat grow that she would cry for the human girl she used to not be able to stand. Of course I was no longer a human and no longer posed that threat. Emmett no longer had a smile on his face his features cold and stoic and that perhaps to me was the biggest sign of how hard they were taking this.
With a heavy heart I faced Jasper knowing he felt everything in this room. That he felt the anger, the sadness from everyone and from me the shame. I had long ago stopped wallowing in self pity, I had long ago stopped blaming myself. What was done was done and it had led me to my kids and for that no matter how much it destroyed the old me and everything I had, had, it had given me my kids. And that was the greatest gift I could have ever been given.
Jasper was looking at me with a mixture of deep rooted sadness and....respect. Where the last one came from I wasn't sure their was nothing respectful about what had happed to me.
"Why did it turn to fear only then?" Carlisle it seemed was the only one able to form a coherent sentence though he to barely managed as he had to choke out the words.
"Because it was then that through my love struck haze that a few things became clear, One being that he no longer seemed to care whether I lived or died when he got violent. Something had changed in his eyes. Two I realized there was nothing I cold do about it. I couldn't fight against him nto a mere human girl, nor could my father, a mere human man. And the law would mean nothing to a being who has the srength to not only break it but to destroy it utterly. As for you all well who were you more like ly to belive the man you had known for the last 80 some years or the human girl you'd only known for about one year? I knew who you'd believe and I can't blame you for that. He 's your son and brother I was merely his plaything. I understand that now and have for quite sometime." I finished my story with a sad smile on my face.
Before my mind was able to comprehend and what was almost to fast for even my eyes Esme had her arms around me, hugging me to her fiercely. I couldn't help but tense, it had been a long time since someone other then my children had hugged me but at the same time it was the hug of a mother. Which was something I had so desperately wanted and more then a little needed. Slowly I relaxed as she whispered nonsense words in my ear.
"Isabella, you look at me right now Edward Cullen may have been our son and family, and you have no idea how much I wish I could change that right now, You are also our daughter and sister. You have a place in this family and I was so lost when I found out two of my children were gone and now to know that it was my own son that drove my daughter away tears me apart. But know that it wasn't your fault you did nothing wrong. You did not deserve what he did to you." She had pulled back so she was looking me in the eyes. A ferocity had replaced the kind motherly feel that I had always thought of when I looked at her eyes. And a thought floored me into shock for a second. I realized she was not talking to me as a mother to her daughter but as a former battered woman to another formerly beaten woman. We were the same. And I was her daughter. I smiled softly at the thought, It had been a long time since I had, had a mother.
"Isabella," I turned towards Jasper to find him looking at me with an expression I couldn't quite place. "When you slept with Edward it wasn't consensual was it?" Gasps filled the room but Jasper remained calm looking. But I sensed in him an anger and hatred boiling up inside of him but he was squashing it back down. I understood this because it was the same thing Caleb did.
"I only slept with him once and no it wasn't consensual." MY voice sounded brittle and yet strong. Like an old tree that creaks to much but does not break.
My words caused an eruption Rosalie began cussing in every language she apparently knew, while Esme merely sat down on the floor head in her hands as her shoulders shook. Carlisle merely glanced at me before walking over to his wife and holding her, his face contorted in agony. Emmett merely walked to the window as silent as a graveyard at night. I saw Jaspers hands clench and anger flash through his eyes but he just sat there. Chaos churning inside of him and not for the first time was i glad that I didn't have the empathic ability. For the more I dealt with it, it seemed more like a curse then a gift.
A small whimper of a child brought us out of our anger filled grief. Turning around faster then what I usually could I saw Caleb standing there tears running down his face. But they were not normal water tears they were blood tears. Caleb cried blood when he got upset. I felt horror well up inside me as I stared at him blood was dripping from all ten of his fingers from in between his finger nail and finger. His White socks were red as I knew blood was coming from his toes in the same fashion as his finger nails. Blood ran down the side of his face from his ears as blood poured softly but constantly from his nose covering his lips crimson.
Then after only a few seconds he was turned and was out the door faster then what should have been possible for a human boy. But a wind was battering the house and had somehow managed to get inside. I knew that, that was what gave him his speed, the wind.
"What happened to him?" Esme asked sounding as horror filled as I felt.
"Caleb, is an Empath but also an earth speaker meaning he can talk to the trees, rocks, animals but he can also feel their emotions the same with humans. But he doesn't know how to control his ability when it comes to human emotions. They overwhelm him and because no one can usually see the pain and anger that he feels he bleeds to show everyone that hurt and anger." Standing up I started towards the door but had only taken a two steps before I felt a gentle but firm hand on my shoulder. Looking backwards I saw Jasper looking at me understandingly.
"Let me go and talk to him, please?" I nodded without knowing why I trusted him to go and take care of perhaps my most fragile and yet strongest son.
Without another word I walked back over to the couch and sank down into the cushions. An exhaustion that I had, had for to long lifted just a bit though it had no reason to. Suddenly a hand covered mine and looking to my right I saw the hand belonged to Rosalie. It was at that moment when are eyes met that I remembered her past and how it to was like my own.
A/N WOW! to everyone who reviewed never have I gotten that big of a response before to a chapter let alone the first chapter. Thank you so much!!!!! Hope you like this chapter. Next chapter will be a conversation between Jasper and Caleb along with the other Cullens meeting the rest of the kids. Please Review!!!