I cannot say thank you enough for all the attention this story has received. I am astounded every time I get a new email. I have no words to convey my feelings.
Still not owning anything Twilight.
Chapter 18
Bella waited patiently for Dr. and Mrs. Cullen to arrive at the farm as scheduled. She had spent all morning reassuring Angela and the charwoman, Rosalie, that she was fine and that all was well. She knew she looked a fright but felt much better than she looked. A cold compress had taken down the swelling and Angela had provided a headache powder from her own stores.
All Bella needed now was a good cup of tea and to show the Cullens what she had found. Angela and Rosalie, both with a baby in one arm, tucked Bella into a soft chair by the fire and they gave her strict instructions not to do anything until the Cullens arrived. Bella found her self dozing on and off, exhausted from staying up all night.
When Carlisle and Esme arrived they found the house oddly quiet. There were no baby noises as there usually were. Bella was curled up under a blanket in the parlour, sleeping soundly. Although they were loathed to wake her they did want to know where their grandchildren were.
"Bella, Bella dear, wake up." Esme shook her shoulder gently. When Bella shifted and raised her head, Esme gasped. An angry looking bruise was on Bella's right cheek. Esme called for her husband.
Carlisle knelt in front of Bella and tentatively touched her cheek.
"What happened? Where are Kate and Beth?" They both wanted to know who could have done this to poor Bella.
"I'm fine." Bella said motioning for them to sit. "Angela and Rosalie took the girls for a walk. Your son came home last night."
Esme gasped as Carlisle swore under his breath.
"Did he leave that mark on you? Did he hurt you." They asked their questions at the same time talking over each other.
Bella nodded. She didn't know how to go about telling the story she had to tell.
"It wasn't his fault. He's been drugged." Both of the elder Cullens stared at her.
Bella began to tell them a story.
A story of a young girl who was quite insane, who saw things that weren't there and heard voices speak inside her head when no one was around. A girl who thought herself in love with a young man.
How she trapped and tricked him in marrying her by drugging him and crawling into his bed, making sure to be found in this compromising position. She continued to medicate him with out his knowledge until she found her self with child. She used her insanity and skill with medicines to create a puppet husband that danced prettily to her will.
Isolating him from his family, experimenting with different combinations of drugs purely for her own amusement all the while documenting the affects without remorse.
She started dosing the housekeeper and herself with small amounts of cyanide so that her puppet would have to take care of her.
In a moment of clarity, upon hearing that she did not produce the son she wanted, but rather two daughters who could take attention away from her, she decided to punish her husband by taking her own life.
"You see, he had not been your son, not been himself, for at least two years." Bella ended her story wiping tears from her face.
Dr. and Mrs. Cullen sat stunned, unable to speak.
Dr. Cullen, after clearing his mind of the torture his son endured, finally asked, "What happened last night"
Bella spoke to them about encountering Edward in his study and then again in the nursery. Although she was loathed to do it, she explained how he came to strike her and how she came to find the journal and medicine chest.
She showed them both objects and then pulled the final piece of the puzzle from her pinafore pocket.
"She laced his sweets with different concoctions and made poisoned pastilles. She used his sweet tooth against him, knowing he always had some on his person. She poisoned the tea for the housekeeper and herself."
Bella was quite exhausted from telling the tale. She rested back into the chair. She had never spoken so many words at one time and the weight of them was heavy on her heart.
"My poor child. I packed some of his sweets with his bags. They must have been tainted" Mrs. Esme was beside herself, sobbing, unsure what to do now.
"We'll have to find him, tell him what you found and show him the diary. He can't have gotten to far on foot but where could he have gone?" Dr. Cullen was at a loss.
"Boats." Mrs. Esme interjected. "Whenever he was upset as a child, he like to go to the river and watch the boats.
After re-confirming Bella's state of wellness, the Cullens set off first to find Emmett to see how Edward had escaped his watch and then to find their maltreated son.
AN: See, see, it's not his fault, really. Of course, he never should have raised a hand to her, but he was under the influence of several unknown drugs. Now, I am not a chemist/pharmacist, doctor, nurse or poisoner but I did find some research that stated that the incidental transfer of small amounts of cyanide to foetal rats from the mother's ingestion was not harmful and seemed to have no lasting effects. So, we know she used cyanide on herself, as for the drugs she used on Edward, who knows, maybe all of them. Please don't give me a lecture on medicinal dosing and side effects etc., etc., etc., take this for what it is, a bit of distraction for a cold winter afternoon when we all have to many other things to do. Like clean.