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A/N- Capricorn75 has bullied me into posting the rest of it. Thanks.


I met Angela in Port Angeles.

"Why are we here, again?" she asked as we sat in Panera Breads, sipping green teas. I had planned a mommy's weekend out in a cabin without the kids around, making it sound like we both needed it.

"Ang, I have a huge favor to ask of you," I said.

"Bella, you look worried."

"I know," I said. "Once we're done with breakfast, I want to take you somewhere. I need your support."

"Are you getting a haircut or something?"

"Yeah, it's something pretty drastic," I said. As we ate breakfast, Angela tried to bring up safe subjects, but I was so distracted, I couldn't concentrate.

"Can't you tell me what it is?" she asked. She sounded serious.

"Not exactly," I said. "Come on, let's go."

I took the wheel and drove around for a few minutes. I had an eight o'clock appointment. I finally pulled up at the Women's Clinic at seven-thirty. Luckily, no one was protesting.

"Bella, what are we doing here?" Angela cried. She looked scared.

"Angela, I said I need your help," I said. "I've been referred here by Dr. Carter, my OB GYN."

"Bella, no!" Angela gasped. "What? Why? Are you and Edward-"

"It's not Edward's," I said. "He can never know about this."

"I know you too well," Angela said.

"Ang, I'm dirt-poor right now," I said. "It's hard enough making ends meet for Jeannie. If it were to come out that I've gotten pregnant, people would try to ruin Edward's good name by accusing him. That would scandalize the Cullens. It would hurt Alice immensely. So much. And Jasper and Emmett are such good friends with him, now, it would hurt them, too. I can't show up pregnant, now."

Angela's eyes had filled with tears by now. "Bella, you can't. It's a life. A human life inside you- why are you asking me? Because I'm the only one that's not pregnant?"

"No, I'm asking you because I know you can keep a secret."

"Bella, this is a baby!" Angela cried. "You can't expect me to carry this secret, honestly?"

"Angela, it's not a baby, yet-"

"It is, too. Bella, you know it's wrong. Edward is more than willing to help you take care of this one. Charlie told you to get remarried so you could have more babies, didn't he?"

"He'd be so ashamed of me."

"Only for a while," she said. "Lots of women have babies outside of marriage these days. It's not a scandal any more."

"I don't have the money to support two babies."

"Ask Edward for child support."

"It's not Edward's!" I cried.

"Bella, you must think I'm stupid or something, of course it's Edwards!" Angela cried, which was completely out of character for her. "I know you've been sleeping with him! I see the way you two look at each other- everybody knows it!"

"Ang, just come in with me."

"OK," she said in a tiny voice.

It was the longest walk of my life. Angela was shaking more than me when we got inside. When they called me, I turned to Angela. "You'll come in with me, won't you?" I asked.

"If you want me to," she said. She took my hand. The nurse offered us a sympathetic smile.

They weighed me, took my blood pressure, temperature, all the basics.

"Bella, you can always change your mind," the nurse said. "At any time."

Angela didn't say anything, just looked grim. I wished she'd say something. I knew she was trying to support me, but why had I chosen her? Rose, as unemotional as she was, was a close second, but she'd most likely let it slip to Emmett, who'd go after Edward with a shot gun. Angela knew how to keep a secret- she kept secrets for me from Jacob, I knew that much. Jacob, like Emmett, was like a brother to me. Alice was like a sister, too. She would have been first on my list had this not been Edward's baby. I didn't want Alice knowing- EVER.

Would they really be that disappointed in me? When Angela got pregnant, they had all been upset at first, but had been so support of her choice to keep the baby. I couldn't imagine anything more humiliating than being a preacher's kid and wearing a purity ring for all those years and then popping up pregnant outside of marriage. Angela handled it so gracefully. She told me that abortion never crossed her mind. I wasn't from such a religious home. Neither Charlie nor Renée were shocked when they found out that Mike and I wanted to live together in college, I just got the standard talk about use at least two types of birth control from Renée. I couldn't believe that I had been so haphazard as to not use any- twice- with Edward.

"I just can't handle this," I said, jumping off the exam table.

Angela burst into happy tears. "Great!" she cried. She hugged me. "I love you, Bella, so much!" She cried happy tears for a moment, and then, I started crying, too. "I'm so proud of you! This is the right choice, trust me. We can tell Edward that you're not going through with this once we get out of here and get some cell signal."

"He doesn't know," I said, wiping my face.

"How can you do this to his child?" Angela cried. "Without telling him?"

"You can't tell anybody."

"Are you changing your mind?" she asked in a tiny voice. "Completely?"

"For now."

"Good. You'll tell him, won't you?"

"Yes, but you can't tell anybody," I said. "Promise you won't."

"OK."


It was while I was having a secret dinner with Edward while Jeannie was watching Baby Einstein in his house that I told him. He went very, very pale. "We'll keep it. We'll draw up legal custody papers and child support. I don't want to be that jerk father that runs off and has a separate life apart from my kid," he said. "I'll still be here for you and Jeannie, too."

"About that, Edward," I said. "We're not going to have to worry about that. I'm going to take care of it."

"What?" he cried, when it dawned on him was 'take care of it' meant. "No! You can't do that!"

"Why not? It's my body. My choice."

"And it's my baby in your body," he said. "I will take legal action against you to keep you from getting an abortion!"

Edward and I went outside and fought for a few hours before he wore me down. He wanted to protect his unborn child. There was no getting around it. I'd ruin both our lives if I went through with the abortion. He'd bring it up publicly that we had had a relationship and I had gotten pregnant. I'd ruin my own life if I went ahead and had this baby.

"I'll have the baby," I said. "As long as you don't tell anybody it's yours." Edward's good name would be OK if he'd just stay quiet.

"I can't claim my own child?" he asked.

"Not publicly," I said.

"People are going to figure it out, Bella," he said. "That's the dumbest idea I've ever heard!" We hadn't gone out in public together, I never told my friends of my plans with Edward, and I never stopped by the hospital to visit him. As far as I knew, nobody knew that we were together, not even Charlie.

"I'll have an abortion if you tell anybody," I said. "And after my first trimester, I have to keep it. You get what you want. What's more important? Your baby's life or being right?"

He sighed. "OK. OK, Bella. Have the baby," he said, dejectedly. "You're building a brick wall between us."


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