Chapter 30 – Tested

Now that Charlie was in the know and was being supportive, I was anxious and excited to see how my two favorite men were going to interact. Of course, my expectations never seemed to match with reality…

"The way I see it, I can shoot you now and have my daughter never forgive me, or I can wait until you break her heart again, and then shoot you with her blessing," Charlie said straight-faced to Edward the moment we got back. There was no greeting, my dad just went right into threaten mode; it was almost comical.

Edward smiled. "How about we go for the second one, and we can all be glad that you'll never have to shoot me," Edward told him confidently, though there was a trace of humorous fear in his eyes .

I nearly squealed when I saw them shake hands, but my beautiful moment was immediately dampened.

"What? You're just okay with this?" Jake spat incredulously. "Charlie, you can't be serious?"

My dad huffed, and then turned to Jacob. "Listen, kid…I know you've been through a lot; in fact, I bet you feel like the world is constantly caving in on you with everything you've been through these past few years, but it's time for you to move on."

"Move on? Charlie that prick is going to fuck her up again. How could you allow that?" Jake argued.

"She's an adult."

"She's not right in the head," Jake rebutted.

"Okay, that's enough!" Charlie yelled at him. "I'm sorry that you are heartbroken, but you need to stop speaking about her like that. She went to that hospital willingly. She got herself help, and she has continued to strive to be focused ever since. I trust her decision, and if you can't then you need to just stay away from her."

Jake threw his hands in the air. "I can't believe this."

"Well son, maybe that's your problem. Maybe it's time you get yourself some emotional help as well. You lost a lot, and you probably never dealt with any of it…"

Charlie took Jake to the side and continued to try to talk to him about getting therapy, and I had to admit, I was grateful. I wasn't in love with Jake, but I did care, and the poor guy had no one left to watch out for him the way I had my dad and now Edward and the Cullens. Everyone needed someone in their corner, and I didn't have a doubt that my dad would make sure he was taken care of.

By the time everything settled down the party was pretty much over, so Edward and I went back to the Cullen's. For the next hour or so I pretty much talked his ear off and told him absolutely everything that happened that day. From the annoyingly nosey party guests, to my dad's reaction to the news of us dating, and finally I told him about the car - which he was shocked and mortified by…

"Why the hell would your dad take you there to see that?" he asked, concerned about my mental state first and foremost.

"I think…I think he wanted to shock me into opening my eyes about the kind of trouble that seems to follow you," I said carefully. "I probably wouldn't have believed him or even listened if he didn't show me that."

Edward got quiet, and I immediately regretted saying what I did.

"But…whatever trouble does follow you, we'll handle it together," I tried assuring him.

"He's absolutely right," Edward said with a sigh. "God, what the hell is wrong with me? I honestly don't know why this keeps happening. I mean, I've done a lot of shit in my life, but seriously…I'm so fucking tired of constantly having to fight and defend myself."

"I know," I cooed while pulling him into me and rubbing his back gently.

But he didn't want to be comforted right then, so he pulled back. "Bella, what kind of selfish prick would I be if I let you handle this with me?" he said frustrated. "If I was a better man I'd end things with you, just to protect you from all the shit that constantly comes at me."

"No, running away from me would make you a coward," I said strongly. "We have to stay together. We have to always support each other because it's the only way we're going to survive anything."

He smiled half-heartedly. "No, I'm pretty sure a better man would save you by leaving you in peace…God, I'm so grateful that I'm not a better man," he said while basically collapsing over me, causing us both to fall onto his bed. He didn't move, or kiss me, or even talk anymore, he just laid there on top of me and we stayed like that for a good long twenty minutes. It was actually really nice; a part of me wanted to lay there and be squished by him forever.

Edward later told me that he did know about the car being stolen from the shed, but assured me that no one had told him where it ended up otherwise he certainly would have let me know, but I could tell he was worried about it. So for the next two days Edward accompanied me to my house to spend time with Charlie. Oddly enough, despite their vastly different personalities, Edward and my dad got along fairly well. I honestly couldn't have asked for a better outcome with them, and I was beyond relieved. But of course the peace was short lived…

I should have known it was better to stay together, but one morning I headed back to Charlie's house alone while Edward helped Emmett work on his jeep, and that was when we realized just how big of a problem we had…

I pulled into my driveway, and as I walked towards the front door I saw an odd looking shadow so I instinctually turned to see what was causing it, and I immediately started screaming…

"What? Bella, what's wrong?" my dad shouted as he came running out of the house. All I could do was point towards the tree…where a mannequin was hanging from the branch by a noose around its neck.

"What the hell?" Charlie asked with a mix of confusion and anger.

"Why would someone do that?" I cried.

"I don't know, but it's harassment and I'm calling the station to report this."

"Dad!" I screamed again after I noticed something. When I first saw it, I immediately looked away, but after taking another look I became even more horrified. "It's Renesmee!"

"What?" he asked, not understanding.

"It's…It's Renesmee," I said in a panic. "Edward and I made her together senior year."

"You two made that?" he asked. "Well, where the hell has it been since then?"

I swallowed roughly. "Edward's dorm room in Seattle."

"Fine, I need to go talk to his roommate about this."

I shook my head slowly, suddenly feeling numb. "He doesn't have one, and I know he locked the door when we left."

Charlie was quiet for a moment, and I knew exactly what he was thinking. "Damn, that kid," he mumbled under his breath. He turned to go back into the house, and then came right back out with his car keys.

"Where are you going?" I asked robotically.

"I'm going to go kill that fucker…or at least beat his ass and then throw him in a jail cell."

My heart jumped. "Dad, Edward didn't do this," I said with a little less confidence than I intended. "I was with him all night, he couldn't have."

"He could have left while you were sleeping," Charlie argued. "Or he had someone else do it - Gah, I knew something like this would happen."

"But why would he do this?" I asked, hoping for some kind of reasonable explanation to jump into my head.

"I don't know, to make you crazy. Maybe this is still part of his payback scheme. Maybe he's been planning it all along. Waiting for you to build your life back up just so he can tear it down. Who the hell knows what goes on in lunatic's minds, but I'm not going to stand for it."

"Dad, Edward isn't responsible for this."

"Then who?" Charlie snapped back. "You said so yourself - no one else had access to his room where this thing was supposed to be."

"I don't know…But Edward loves me. He wouldn't try to hurt me like this," I said in denial.

"Between the car and this, I can't see any other possible culprit," Charlie said, becoming remorseful. "I'm sorry baby. I know this is the last thing you expected from him."

Charlie started walking to his car, but I called after him. "Dad, no! Someone is setting him up. I don't know how or why, but someone is doing this to us." Then an idea popped into my mind. "It's Jacob. He must have gone to Seattle and broken into Edward's dorm room. He's jealous and pissed, and he's trying to set him up again to tear us apart."

Charlie sighed. "Sweetheart, we found that mangled car way before Jake even knew Edward was back in town and dating you. And I can't imagine how he would even find Edward's dorm room, let alone break into it. Jacob has serious issues, but he's not even in a well enough frame of mind to come up with something like this."

I nodded. "Probably not, but if not him, then someone else with a vendetta against Edward is behind this."

"Well, if he's not behind it, then I can promise you that I'm sure as hell going to figure out who is. But first things first, I'm going to report this and then have someone at the station accompany me to question him. In the meantime, I need you to promise me that you're not going to contact him. Stay here, and don't call or text him. Just wait until the police do their job and make sure he's safe."

I bit my bottom lip. "I need to talk to him," I whispered desperately. "I already know he is innocent, but I need to hear him say it for myself. I just…I'm freaking out right now and he's the only one who can make me feel better," I said with tears streaming down my face. If anything was going to test my confidence in us as a couple, it was this. But no matter how much evidence got stacked against him, I knew I could never turn my back on him. When you love someone the way I loved Edward, there was no going back.

"Okay," Charlie murmured. "But I'm going to drive you there, and I'm not going to leave you two alone for a second."