Chapter 16 – Evidence

As much as I would have loved to stay in that shower with Edward forever, it was a school day and that meant we had to actually get dressed and finish getting ready.

"How do I look?" I asked after spending a few minutes in Edward's closet.

"Uh…You're seriously going to wear my clothes to school?"

I giggled. "Why, do I look stupid?"

"I don't think it's even possible for you to look stupid, but…you do look like you're about to audition for some hip-hop band with how baggy it all is on you. Can you even make my belt tight enough to keep my pants from falling off of you?"

I wiggled my hips and then laughed as the pants slipped right down. "I guess not. But I don't have time to go home and change before class starts, and I have a test today…Besides, this smells like you," I said while pulling the T-shirt up to my nose and inhaling deeply.

"Then why don't you put on your pants from yesterday, and just wear my shirt," he suggested.

I sighed. "I hate wearing the same pants two days in a row, but I suppose it would be better than this," I said while looking down at his pants around my ankles.

He smirked. "Well, I personally like your pants like that, but I don't think I want everyone else looking at you in that way."

I giggled. "Wow, that's a very possessive comment. I thought we were just friends?"

"As your friend, I'd hate for everyone to see you walking around with pants around your ankles. Besides, it's dangerous…you could trip."

I laughed again. "You're probably right about that."

"Speaking of which, what happened to your hand?" he asked unexpectedly while grabbing it gently to examine it.

"Nothing," I said while trying to pull it away, but he wouldn't let it go.

"Something. It's bruised and looks a little swollen."

"Oh…Yeah, I think I bumped it on my car door last night…Just further proof of my clumsiness."

"Do you want to go have Carlisle take a look at it?" he asked concerned.

I covered my bruised hand with my other one, so he finally let me pull it away from him. "I'm fine," I said confidently. The last thing I wanted to do was focus on my self induced injury from punching Jake; I didn't want to think about Jake at all, so I quickly tried to change the subject. "This is going to be really awkward, isn't it?" I asked as we left his room and headed downstairs.

He chuckled. "Most likely. Just some advice though, if you turn down whatever Esme offers you, she'll just get this really sad expression and make you feel like shit."

"Um…okay."

Thankfully Esme was alone in the kitchen and I didn't have to do the whole 'walk of shame' thing in front of the doctor or Edward's foster siblings, but Edward was absolutely right about her guilt trip…

"Is everything alright, sweetheart?" she asked me first. When I assured her I was fine, and graciously told her I wasn't hungry for any breakfast, she gave me the most piteous look I had ever seen on an adult before. "Um…maybe I should eat," I conceded.

"Oh wonderful!" Esme said excitedly, and then she proceeded to name off everything she had to cook.

Edward and I settled on eggs and toast, and then we thanked her and left for school. I was grateful she wasn't upset about me spending the night, but I doubted she would be so nice if I made a regular habit of it.

On the way to school Edward and I did our normal playful fight over the radio, but then my phone rang once and it commanded all our attention.

"That was weird," Edward said as he picked it up off the bench seat between us, and handed it to me.

"Yeah…weird," I said anxiously. When the phone rang once again, Edward looked at me suspiciously. "What's that about?"

"I don't know," I lied. I went to turn the damn thing off, but it rang again and then I noticed that there were twenty two missed calls…all from Jake's secret number.

"Why don't you try answering it?" Edward suggested.

"Uh…it's illegal to talk on the phone while driving," I said nervously as I fiddled with the power button. Right before I was able to turn it off completely, it rang one more time. Fucking Jacob!

"Bella, what's going on? You look…flustered," Edward questioned.

"Nothing is going on…I just hate when it rings while I'm driving. Someone must be prank calling me or something. I'm going to talk to Charlie about getting my number changed."

"Why don't you let me answer it? Trust me, I'll make sure they don't bother you anymore," Edward said protectively.

"They'd probably just hang up on you. It's fine, really. I'll change the number; no big deal."

"If you say so," he said skeptically.

I left my phone off for the rest of the day, but when I got home from Edward's place that evening I could no longer ignore Jake.

"Bella…Long time no see," Charlie said angrily when I walked through the door. Jacob was standing in the kitchen with him and it looked as though they had been having a heated discussion. "Why the hell didn't you come home last night?" Charlie shouted. His face was so red that I worried he'd have an aneurysm. "Do you have any idea how worried I was about you? I almost put out an APB!"

"Sorry….I should have called," I told him evenly as I glared at my ex. "What are you doing here, Jacob?"

"What? I can't visit my girlfriend?" he said brazenly. "Don't worry, I told Charlie that we only pretended to break up."

I huffed. "Well consider us broken up for real!"

"Bella, you need to stay away from Masen," Charlie demanded.

"Last time I checked I was eighteen and could do as I pleased," I retorted.

"Damn it, Bella, he's dangerous!" Charlie fumed.

"Dangerous how? Behind the wheel? Well, you don't have to worry because he doesn't drive anymore!"

"He belongs in jail!" Jake interjected.

"And why's that?" I asked condescendingly. "There's no proof he did anything wrong."

"Can you even hear yourself right now?" Jake said angrily. "You've gone fucking mad. He was probably drunk and swerved into my dad's lane, forcing him off the road and into a fucking tree. Your mother's neck snapped on impact!"

I squeezed my eyes shut from the violent imagery; and my father reacted. "Now that's enough!" he shouted at Jake. "Say whatever it is that you came to say, but watch your fucking mouth about Renee."

"I'm sorry," Jacob said gently. "I didn't mean to sound so heartless. Bella, we really need to talk…in private."

Charlie took a step closer to him threateningly. "I'm serious. Watch your mouth, son." Jake nodded so my dad walked past us towards the door. "I'm going to work. I'll be back a little after midnight. You better be here when I get home, and I may just stop in a few times to check on you before that."

"I'll be here," I told him quietly.

When Charlie left, I was left feeling extremely defensive. I knew Jake had some kind of plan to get me to do whatever he wanted me to do, but I never thought it would actually work. Edward had become my entire world, and there was no way I'd turn on him – except, what if I didn't have any other choice…

"What the hell is that?" I asked horrified as Jake placed what looked like a small crack pipe on my kitchen counter.

"Evidence."

"Evidence of what?" I asked slowly.

"Evidence that Edward is a crack-head; and trust me, there's a lot more where this came from."

I scrunched my face at him. "What the hell are you talking about? That's not Edward's."

"Well, this particular one isn't…. We agreed, Bella, we agreed that our last resort would be planting things in Edward's room if we couldn't find a way to link him to the crash. Well, I just hired a couple of guys to do just that."

I absently shook my head. "A drug test can prove he's innocent of that."

"Innocent of taking drugs maybe, but not of dealing. We've manufactured all the proof they'll need to link him to drug rings all over Washington and Oregon. He'll get ten to twenty years for the amount of crap we've hidden at his place."

"Wait, you've already done it?" I asked as angry tears distorted my vision.

"Yep, while the house was empty this early afternoon. All that's left is for me to call in the anonymous tip into the police department. I'm sure Charlie will gladly get a search warrant."

I began to breathe heavily as comprehension seeped in. Jake wasn't just there as a friendly warning, he wanted something from me, and he was blackmailing me to get it. "What do you want?"

"I just wanted to tell you to stay clear of him while this all goes down," he lied.

"Bullshit!"

"Fine," he took a deep breath and suddenly his features softened. "Look Bella, it's obvious that you have feelings for him, and since I still love you I'm willing to make you a deal."

I clinched my jaw. "What?"

"I know you must have something on him. How could you not after all this time? Give me some proof of his part in the crash, anything we can turn into the police, and I'll send my boys back into his place to collect all of the drug stuff."

The haunting memory of Edward's journal flashed through my mind. I was sure there was a confession of his part of the accident written inside the pages, but how or why would I ever give it to Jake. - "Why? What difference does it make whether he's arrested for drug dealing or the crash. Why would I give you anything if he's going to go to jail either way?"

"It makes a huge difference, Bella. Drug dealing to the magnitude we've set him up for could put him in jail for decades, but vehicular manslaughter could only be a couple years with additional probation and community service."

"Why would you ever want to give him a lesser sentence?" I asked skeptically.

"Because I don't want you to hurt more than necessary. If you guys really want to be together, then after he does his time, you can be…. Bella, I just don't get it. I don't understand how you could have let yourself fall for the prick knowing what he did, but whatever….The god's honest truth is that the most important thing to me has always been that our parents get justice. I don't really care how long he's in jail for, as long as he's held accountable for his crime. I don't want to set him up for something he didn't do, but I will if it's the only way he's punished."

"So…If I find you something…anything that can implicate him as the cause of the accident, then you'll get rid of all the drugs. You'll remove every last bit of it from his house, and you'll leave him alone from now on? Even if he doesn't get sentenced to jail at all?"

"It has to be something real, something that shows his guilt beyond a shadow of a doubt…I want it documented so that anyone who ever looks him up will read about this… But I gotta tell you, I don't see how he could get away without doing any time. My dad said he was swerving around, so that means he had to have been drunk, and the fact alone that he ran from the scene is enough to have him locked up for a while."

"I get you real evidence, and you take away the fake?" I reiterated, not wanting to listen to anything else.

"I swear," he agreed. "But I don't want to wait anymore. I need it by tomorrow; it's time to finish this thing once and for all."

I thought about it for a minute, and silently prayed to come up with a way out of it, but when I couldn't think of a single thing the gravity of the situation hit me full force. "Please don't do this to me," I begged quietly, feeling like I was literally choking on my own grief. "Please Jacob, if I mean anything to you at all….if I ever did, please don't make me do this."

"It has to be done…and at one time you knew that. I'm sorry Bella, I do care, but I can't just let this go."

I closed my eyes tightly and tried to fight back my tears. "Fine….I'll get it tomorrow when everyone is at school and work," I whispered, feeling like a serrated knife was being thrust in and out of my chest.

"Call me when you have it. We should take it to the police right away…before he figures out you took it. Bella, I know you don't want to hear this, but I swear, I never wanted you to get hurt like this."

"Get out," I told him brokenly.

"Okay."

The moment he disappeared out my front door, I collapsed onto the ground and cried harder than I ever cried in my life. I couldn't do it, I couldn't betray Edward in that way, not again, not anymore…except, for the life of me, I had no idea what else to do.

After I cried all the tears I had inside of me, I spent the next few hours on the internet trying to research possible sentences for vehicular manslaughter. Depending on the circumstance it could be anywhere from community service, all the way up to life in prison. It was terrifying, but after briefly researching drug dealing, it was clear that was a far worse alternative.

I considered rushing over and telling Edward that Jake was setting him up; maybe we could leave town and disappear for a while, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that would never work. Charlie would hunt us till the end of the world, and running would have much greater consequences than staying. I also thought about getting rid of all the drug evidence myself, but I feared I'd never be able to find all of it and it would only make Jake's next attempt that much more vicious.

But then a thought occurred to me - If I broke into the Cullen house and stole Edward's journal from his room that would mean it was obtained illegally, which could never be used against him. Jacob was so stupid he may not have thought of that. All I had to do was show him the journal and then demand that he remove all of the drugs from his place before I give it to him. Edward would be free from the drug charges as well as from the vehicular manslaughter charges.

I felt so relieved knowing there was a way to possibly get him out of it, but I worried the police would still contact him and he'd find out I was involved. I hated that our relationship began with a lie, but I couldn't confess everything either because I was scared shitless that he'd never forgive me. I couldn't lose Edward; he was everything to me, and I had given up everything for him. Jacob would always be a threat, but I was sure I could convince Edward to dismiss whatever he said as nothing more than bitter lies from an ex. I knew it was wrong, but I was planning to take my secret betrayal to the grave, and I would do anything it took to make sure that still happened….