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This chapter is actually dedicated for Erin: Happy B-Day bestie!
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Love you all!
CHAPTER SEVEN
BPOV
"Ho Hey, Ho Hey" I hear my phone ring in the middle of my nap. Ugh… I`ve always disliked when people wake me up in the middle of my naps and there's only one person who loooooves to do that (besides my lovely girls)… Alice.
"Hmmm?" I answer the phone in an obvious I'm still sleeping leave me alone voice and then I check my clock. 4 p.m! I obviously slept more than two hours, so I decide to get up and take the phone with me to go check on my girls. "Bella I need help! I was going to take Luke to the park because he has been asking me to go for a few days now but I totally forgot I have a meeting this afternoon at his school! Can you take him instead?" I think about it for a minute, I mean I've been out and about with the babies but I'm always with someone else. Now I am going to the park not only with them but Luke, too? "Bella, pleeeeease help me, I promise everything will be fine. Luke loves you and his cousins and he will be perfectly behaved! He knows that if he wants a happy meal this weekend he needs to keep mommy happy, right baby?" I chuckle when I listen to him clapping and yelling, "Hell yeah!" a phrase that he evidently learned from my dad. Before Alice gets distracted with the scolding of her child I tell her yes and that I'll be there to pick him up in half an hour.
I get to the nursery and see Emilia and Elizabeth awake and holding hands, something they`ve been going since they were newborns. This always makes me so emotional and happy, so obviously I take another picture of them. Then I pick Lizy up to change her diaper. "Oh sweetie this one stinks a lot! Let`s change you and then do the same to your sis! I bet she is exactly in this same state, what do you think?" I change her into another onesie and then put on a fuzzy jacket. I put her in the crib and repeat the process with Mily. I quickly return her to the crib and take the stroller out of the closet, practically running down the stairs with it so the girls don`t get upset while I'm gone. I grab the diaper bag and check that it has everything we may need, including a blanket in case it gets too cold outside. WhenI'm finally ready for the girls, my mom suddenly shows up to help. She's giggling and says, "You looked like a cartoon running up and down those stairs instead of asking for help!"
We go outside and secure my girls in their car seats before I drive to Alice and Jasper`s house. On the way I'm listening to some music and talking to my girls so they can hear me and don`t get scared. People in other cars must think I`m insane because it looks like I'm sure it looks like I'm talking to myself! I arrive to my sister`s place and see that Luke is already at the window waving to me. Before I even have a chance to get out of my car Alice is already at the door, taking her son by the hand and carrying a small backpack full of toys to use at the park.
"Thank you little sister! I thought about taking him with me but my poor kiddo needs some air! I will pick him up by dinner time. If it gets any later than that, Jasper will come pick him up. Thank you so much! I can't thank you enough!" She says everything without stopping or taking a breath, which is typical of Alice. Since the twins' car seats take up all of the space in the back seat, Luke rides with me in the front seat to the park. When we get there I ask him to help me with the diaper bag just for a moment while I unload the stroller and put the girls in it. "Aunt Bella, hurry! I wanna play and jump!" I take the bag and his backpack from him and put them under the stroller. Together we walk towards the bench where I'm going to sit and watch him play. He starts telling me all about his new school and how many friends he wants to have and then he screams, "Look who`s there auntie! Josh is playing here too! Can I go? Can I go?" Before I answer he takes off running to where Josh is playing in the sandbox. Right next to that sandbox, Edward is sitting on a bench.
I haven`t seen him in three weeks, the last time being that day we both heard Josh telling my mother that his mom was too sad to take care of him. Josh keeps coming to visit his "sisters". Everyone but his dad has brought him over for these visits. In a way I feel bad about it. I don`t want him to feel embarrassed of what we heard. On the contrary, I want to tell him he can trust us, he can trust me. I walk to where he is and I notice he is reading what it looks to be one of my books! Oh shit, crap, oh fuck. I always get nervous when people I know read one of my books.
He looks up and smiles when he sees me, then he looks at the girls in their stroller, "Hi Bella, long time no see. Please sit. I`ll move our stuff so you can sit comfortably." As he says, "How are you?" I blurt out, "Are you avoiding coming to the house?" Oh yeah the embarrassing question? That was me. Thank you very much big mouth. The he starts laughing which causes Mily to get scared and start crying. In a quick movement he frees her from her seat and takes her in his arms. He begins humming to her miraculously after a couple of seconds she is quiet. He looks at me again and says, "Sorry Bella I didn`t meant to scare her. At least she seems to like me. Look, she is very calm now!" I look at her again and I swear she looks so tiny in his arms and cute, he looks cute holding her, he… "Bella?" I look at him a little embarrassed. I hope he didn`t notice me staring at him like an idiot. "Yeah?"
"Actually I was in Chicago for a couple of weeks taking care of some things at the firm. We had a couple of projects I needed to supervise and I had to leave Josh with my parents for that time. It was… awful to be honest! And it seems it was like that for him as well. My mom says he was very content when he was visiting you guys, so that kept me calm but I'm sorry for relying on your family so much, you know?"
He seems so broken while saying this that I tell him the same thing my sister told me when I called her crying from New York one night, "You know Edward, my sister told me once that we are never alone. It might seem like that to us but we are always surrounded by people who care about us, who love us, and would do anything to help us feel better. My family and I love Josh and we are happy whenever he visits us, so really, don`t feel bad about that. We love having him at home."
He looks at me smiling and thanks me, then he keeps talking, "You must be curious about what you heard that day. You love my son and my boy loves you guys so I guess I should share this with you…" I tell him that he doesn`t need to tell me anything he doesn't want to but he continues, "When I met Jane she was such a sweet girl, we started dating and got married after three years together. I was twenty-eight and she was twenty-five. We were extremely happy when we found out she was pregnant and when Josh was born I guess I was so happy I never noticed she wasn`t the same anymore. I thought it was post-partum depression, and then she started connecting more with him so I thought everything was okay. I worked a lot at the firm and when I got home I was focused on my son. Most of the time so I failed to notice how her moods changed constantly or how she seemed to adore him one day and couldn't stand him the next. We always had a nanny because she said she couldn`t take care of him by herself, so I hired one. She was the one to tell me one day how my wife was acting. Starting then, I took a long vacation and began working from home more. That's when I realized things weren`t okay with Janie." His eyes get all teary and without thinking I took his hand between mine.
"I decided to talk with her parents, I wanted to take her to therapy but she insisted she was fine. But I knew she wasn`t! When I talked with her parents, her mom confessed to me that Jane had been that way since she was younger. That`s why they didn`t seem happy when we announced we were expecting Josh. I am not going to lie, I felt betrayed. Mostly because she never said anything and she kept refusing to go see a therapist. Then, when Josh was around two years old, she started acting like the Jane I met. The sweet girl I fell in love with. She and Josh became best friends! She was amazing as a mother, she played with him, she taught him a lot of things, for a long time everything was almost perfect. And then, less than a year later, she started being very depressed again. One day she was euphoric, other days she wanted nothing to do with Josh. In that moment I took her to a psychiatrist and we got a diagnosis: bipolar disorder. She started taking her meds, I hired the nanny again, and I kept working more from home in order to take care of both her and Josh. I really thought she was going to get better. She was taking her meds, talking with her doctor; we even celebrated Josh`s third birthday with our families. And then, four months later… Oh my God Bella, it kills me to remember this. I had a meeting at the firm, so the nanny went grocery shopping and left Josh with Jane because he was napping and shouldn't wake up for a while. When I arrived home Josh was screaming. It broke my heart to hear him screaming at his mommy's side, who was unconscious on the floor of the bathroom after taking a bunch of pills..."
He covers his face with his hands so Josh and Luke can`t see him crying. I look at them and see that they aren`t paying us any attention. The girls are sleeping again, so I hug him and start telling him it wasn`t his fault. Things really seemed to be improving and what happened was an unfortunate situation. He cries for a couple of minutes and I apologize, saying that I'm so sorry he and his son had to go through this terrible situation. He looks up and continues to speak.
"The nanny was just behind me so she started running when she heard the commotion. She took Josh to the other room while I called 911. Jane stayed in the hospital for a couple of days and was admitted to the psychiatric wing. When she was there I was so confused, so hurt, so broken hearted. I didn`t want to leave her because I felt my son needed his family to stay together but when that happened I didn`t know what to do. After a few days, Jane's mother told me that Jane wanted to talk to me. When I arrived, she already had spoken to the family lawyer. She signed her rights away and asked me for a divorce. She said she wasn`t any good for her son and that she didn`t want to see him anymore. That she wasn`t happy, that it was Josh`s fault because she was perfectly content before he was born, and then finally she told me she didn`t want to say goodbye to him, that it was better that way. I swear I almost slapped her. I was so furious! So I took the papers and left. I went home and trashed the place and got wasted. My parents had flown into the city when everything happened and were taking care of Josh. My brother, Emmett, found me the next morning and talked some sense into me. He asked if I wanted my son to have both parents throw everything away and forget about him. That did it. My mom moved in with us for a couple of months, but then I decided to come back home. Josh was miserable there. Honestly, I was too. I didn`t want my son to get more heartbroken than he already was. Then we met you and I swear since Mily and Lizy are here he has been acting like the happy Josh he was before everything happened. But that day hearing him telling your mom about his own mom killed me. I mean he is just a little boy and he was already so worried about your girls and you being sad! It's not fair, you know? We are taking therapy and I really hope that helps him be the happy boy he can be… I really, really do. Bella that`s all I want."
This time he doesn`t cover his face. His tears are falling freely, so I reach out to him to wipe them away. I tell him that it will take time and patience but Josh will be a completely happy boy and that no matter what he will always have the Swans to love him and cheer him up. Plus, he will need to get better in order to take his "sisters" to the park with him when they grow up. That makes Edward smile and after the heavy, emotional moment he shared with me. I think that`s what he needs, to smile a little. Then he takes my face with both of his hands and plants a tender kiss to my forehead after saying, "Thank you."
I am about to reply to him when we both hear him,
"Daddy… why are you kissing Miss Bella?"
A/N Thoughts?
Sorry for the heaviness. I hope you like this chapter. Send me your thoughts via reviews!
Love you guys. I have a rec for you: The Boy at table seven by LyricalKris. She is amazing and so are her stories!
Have a nice day everyone