In what might be might last update in the Twilight fandom I give you the piece from Fandom for No Kid Hungry. As a group we raised almost $4000 to feed little kids :0)
Link to Banner: tinypic com/r/sy574o/6
Banner Designer: Dontrun
Title: Confrontation
Author: Dontrun
Rating: M
Warnings: Talk of emotional abuse.
Beta: TwiDi
Summary: Outtake from the story Homecoming. Bella was abused for years by her Mother Renee, until she was finally set free to live with her Father Charlie. After time spent in therapy Bella is going to confront the monster that gave birth to her.
Bella's POV
"Baby, I think Liz has a point," Edward's sweet voice confirms my fear that my therapist is once again right. I just wish he was here instead of over three hours down the road, at college.
"I just don't know if I can do it," I say softly.
"It's time to let her go—to let her know she doesn't control you anymore. Show the bitch how great you are doing. Hell, you can even rub it in her face that while she is stuck in a five by five cell you are finishing high school, going off to college in the fall and have a wonderful group of family and friends. What does she have? Nothing!" His voice—as usual when he talks about Renee—is filled with anger.
"I have to talk to Dad, see what he has to say about this," I tell my boyfriend. I know talking to my Dad about this is just a stalling tactic, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to face the woman who made my life a living hell.
"Bella…" Just from the tone of his voice I know he is pulling at his hair by now. "Baby, talk to Charlie. Talk to Liz, me, Emmett or anyone else that you need to. Talk as much as you need to, to get ready to face her. Don't keep putting it off, and don't avoid going. Period. Think of it this way, if you can't face down the devil, then she wins. After all she has done to you, do you really want her to have any kind of victory over you?"
"No," I whisper.
"Bella, I have to get to my lab, we have a test tonight. I'll call you back as soon as I get out ok, baby?"
"Sure, talk to you then." Almost relieved to get off the phone for the first time when talking to Edward, I toss myself back on the sofa and flip on the TV. Noel wanders in from the kitchen; having just finished off her dinner. My little girl hops on to my lap and promptly goes to sleep. Just like Charlie, give them a good warm meal and they need a nap.
~0~
Charlie's face is set in a mixture of shock and anger. I just dropped the bomb on him about Liz wanting me to go up to confront Renee in jail. I'm thinking Dad is thinking this is a really bad idea; and I'm hoping he'll tell Liz this so I can get out of going there.
Don't get me wrong, Liz has valid points and reasons for me to go see the woman who gave birth to me and proceeded to abuse and try to kill me for the fifteen—almost sixteen years—of my life that I'd lived with her. Liz has the idea that if I can face Renee now, after healing and knowing love and see my mother with no power behind bars that it will help my fears of her to abate. Liz also feels that with me telling Renee just what I thought of her that it will be cathartic and freeing to me, she feels it will lift the burden of my childhood even further off my shoulders. Something—she feels—that needs to be done before I leave the safety of my Dad's home to head off to college in the fall.
Personally, I'd be happy to go without ever seeing Renee again.
Charlie jumps from the table and grabs the cordless phone off the charger, before pushing out the back door. Noel not sensing that Grandpa is less than happy follows behind him to play in the yard. The yelling that follows is nowhere near as scary as the whispered conversation that follows that. At least with the yelling, I could hear what my Dad was saying, so I had a semblance of an idea of what was going on.
An hour after his outside session began he and Noel came back into the house. Charlie pulls me into a bone-crashing hug; like he can't get close enough and I hug him back. My poor Dad. I know the idea of me being anywhere near Renee upsets him almost as much as it does me.
"If you," he stresses, "you decide that this is something you need to do, I will go with you. I'm not going to tell you to go, because I could live a long happy life knowing you never have to see that woman again. I will, however, support you if this is something you need to do; I want my little girl healthy and happy."
"I don't have to go, do I?" I whisper into his shoulder.
"No, baby girl, you don't have to go," he assures me again and I feel safe for the first time since Liz brought up the subject of confronting Renee.
~0~
Three weeks, six sessions, seven emergency freak-out calls to Edward later and I made up my mind to confront the beast that gave me life. Dad and Liz arranged it with the prison and both of them along with Esme road with me. Esme had insisted that she come as well, I know she was worried about what was going to happen, I was one of her little lambs and she was a fierce lioness protecting all of her lambs from the big bad wolves of the world.
Edward, Emmett and the others were told not to come with us—not only for security reasons, but also Liz had feared that it would be too much stimulation with that many people around. So, they all came home the weekend before and were waiting at the Cullen dorm for when we're done here. Jasper assured me that he slipped his lucky tire iron into Dad's trunk in case I needed it today. While I thought he was kidding, I found out differently when Dad went to load our overnight bags into his trunk and found a tire iron with a big pink bow and a note taped to it that told me to 'go get 'em'.
"Charlie," A man's voice calls, and Dad turns and gives the caller half a smile.
"Victor, good to see you." They shake hands and a large bear of a man appears behind Victor. "Bella, meet Victor Brady, the warden. Esme, Liz, you both probably remember Vic from school?" They nod and shake the man's hand.
"Nice to meet you, Bella, and see you again ladies." With a worn face—looking older then Charlie—Victor Brady showed the signs of a rough life. Clearly working in a prison wasn't fun work. "Frank, is the inmate ready?" The large bear of a man nodded in confirmation; and Victor grunted back at him. "We've put you in a private visiting room, with a two-way mirror, Bella, your Dad and these ladies—with your consent—will be there to watch everything. Frank here will be in the room with you in case the inmate causes any trouble." Frank looked like he hoped Renee would act out so he could take care of the problem.
"They can watch." I'd feel better with them watching. Plus, later I wouldn't have to go over everything to fill them in on what has happened, since they'd already know.
"Good. Now, for formalities' sake, we need your IDs and anything that could be used as a weapon… and your sign-in signatures."
He made quick work of the formalities and soon we were following him down a long grey hallway. I was shocked by how quiet the area was. Every prison movie I had watched—to work myself up to this—had shown prisons as noisy dirty places. While drab, this hallway was perfectly clean and the paint wasn't chipped or faded. The few prisoners I came across were cleaning with guards nearby. They too shocked me, I was expecting bright orange jumpsuits, instead they wore grey ones, the color only slightly darker than the walls. Victor stopped outside a door and used a key to unlock it. He then ushered us into the room. Six metal chairs were facing a window that looked into the other room. There was a phone, and some technical equipment, other than that the place was empty. The other room, however, wasn't.
Her hair was shorter, and for once her natural color of almost black. She wore the same grey jumpsuit that the other prisoners had on, with a set of numbers written across the right breast pocket. Her hands were in cuffs on the table, and her face was pinched with irritation. Two large guards glared at her from opposite corners; clearly they were not fans of Renee. Rolling her eyes and huffing Renee leaned back in her chair. Her usually well made up face was clear of makeup, but her right eye held some faint yellowish tinges, looking like a fading black eye. I would know since she had given me a few over the years.
"Are you ready, baby girl?" Dad asks as he pulls me back into his arms, his chin leaning against the back of my head.
"Yes." I hope.
"Remember, Bella, anytime you are done just stand up and leave, you are not the prisoner here—she is. Frank will be in there with you and a guard posted outside the door as well. You are the one in control, not her." Victor Brady's voice is firm. He reminded me of Charlie and that made me feel even better. Two Charlies. Renee didn't stand a chance right now. I wouldn't let her win.
"I'm ready." I looked to Liz whose nod of reassurance warms my heart, and Esme's double thumbs up almost makes me giggle. I swear Alice is more like her Mother than anyone realizes.
"Follow me, Ms. Bella." Frank gives me a soft smile and leads me out of the room. He taps a code in the other door and turns his key.
The two large guards stand at attention, both giving me encouraging smiles as they walk out. One reminding me, or rather reminding Renee that he'd be right there on the other side should I need them. For Renee's part she didn't move, didn't acknowledge the change of guard, or my entrance. I knew enough about psychology from the things Liz had told me about to know that Renee was trying to show me that she was still the one in charge. That my visit was at her convenience only, that she and she alone held all the cards.
Mentally I'm trying to calm myself, hiding my shaking hands in fist so she doesn't see my weakness; and I try reminding myself that I was no longer her little pet. Taking a deep breath, using the positive reinforcement trick that Liz taught me, I go through the positives in my life. I remind myself that I am a confident almost an adult who had a loving family, friends and the hottest boyfriend on the planet. On top of that I'm going to a great college in the fall on a partial academic scholarship, which is something Renee could never claim.
Cautiously, without acknowledging her either I sit in the chair opposite her and steeple my fingers in front of me, lifting my eye brow and leaning back in my chair like I had all the time in the world. I'd seen Rose use this method when getting Em to bend to her will, and was trying my best to channel her at this moment.
"Hello, Bella." After moments—of looking anywhere than at me—she acknowledges my presence. Her voice is like a million razor blades ripping into my new found confidence at once. It takes all I have to hold it together. "Have you finally come to apologize to Mommy for killing your Step-Father?" She turns her cold eyes on me and a chill flashed down my spine. "Or maybe you're here to recount your awful lies so that I can get out of here. You know it's only a matter of time before everyone realizes that you were just fibbing and they let me go."
"Renee…"
"You will call me, Mommy." Her voice hasn't warmed a bit, her eyes reminding me of the times she held my life in her hands. The woman who had always made me call her Renee was now demanding I call her 'Mommy'.
"I will call you Renee." I was proud that it came out above a whisper. The meaner she was, the more Renee like she was the angrier I was getting. "You are not a ' mommy'. You are nothing more than a… a… womb donor." I don't yell it at her, I am able to stay calm. Yelling would let her know she had rattled me.
"Womb donor my ass I had to carry you around and take care of your miserable self for fifteen years. I should have just sold you to that nice man when you were four. He offered me fifty grand, only he was arrested before he could deliver the cash and pick you up." Oh my God. My breath stops and I swear I hear a loud bang in the room beside me.
"You were selling me to a pedophile?"
"Don't be stupid, Bella, he was a nice man who wanted to take care of you and maybe make some movies." She was delusional.
"Why not send me back to my Dad?"
"Please, like he really wanted you? He would send me money every so often so I wouldn't dump you on him."
"Liar!" I growl. I'd faced this, this fear my Dad didn't want me and not only had he shown me proof that he did in words and paper work. He'd also given me the best life that I've ever had. "My Dad wanted me." Charlie's love was giving me a strength that I didn't know I had to face down Renee.
"Keep telling yourself that." She laughs, it's the type of laugh you'd expect from a wicked witch, or in her case a wicked bitch as Alice calls her.
"I will, and so will he." I tell her politely. "Did you know that each letter, each phone call you made to offer to trade me for large sums of cash was kept, a recording here a letter there. I've seen them and heard them all, Renee." Her eyes widen in surprise and a surge of power goes through my veins. For the first time I'm beating down the devil of my childhood. "I wonder what the statute of limitations on extortion is?" Fancy words that Alice had been throwing around lately, since she has decided to become a lawyer. I'm not sure I can take another Law and Order marathon. Criminal Minds, yes. Law and Order… no.
"Bitch," she hisses at me.
"Pot, kettle," I tell her, using one of Jasper's favorite phrases.
"You think you are so much better than me, do you, you little cunt?" Her eyes wild, she leans forward. "You. Are. Nothing," she tells me. "I should have just taken those pills when my Mom gave them to me. 'He's just a cop, Renee,' she kept telling me, 'he can't afford the lifestyle that we want, don't bother bearing the burden of his lowly seed in you.' I knew he had money though. My ace in the hole was going to be you, but he could careless, he had that boy with his perfect Hope and no one, no baby that wasn't hers was going to mean anything to him." She leans further toward me. "You should have never been born, you've caused me nothing but trouble."
"You could have just given me to him and saved yourself a lot of trouble then." I spat, "or given me to Collin and Liam like you did Claire." At the mention of my sister/cousin Renee growls.
"That asshole, one of the conditions of his getting his precious child for his barren wife was that he stayed out of my affairs." I tried to hide my worry that she would somehow retaliate against my Uncle for something I said in anger. Her eyes snapped shut before opening and glaring at me, I could swear they were almost black with fury, "He told you, didn't he? That's why Charlie was brave enough to bring you here. That big-mouthed bastard is trying to take me down! Well, it won't work. I have more irons in the fire that he'll never be able to stop."
"Huh?" Is all that slips past my mouth and she rages on mumbling about something.
"So the good Chief gets to keep his daughter and his precious reputation. So fucking what, he will still pay for killing Phil. Who fucking cares that he found out my little secret because my saint of a Daddy told him all about me."
"It's always about you isn't it, Renee?" I snap her out of her rant with my words. "I'm done, you're nothing more than a crazy, selfish bitch. You can't hurt me anymore, I won't let you." The words flow from my mouth as I stand up. I couldn't let her go on, her crazy was starting to weaken my strength, and I was worried if she said something else about my Dad I was going to pick up this chair and slam it into her head.
"You will leave only when I tell you that you can leave," she seethes, trying to stand up, only to find her chains are holding her firmly to the seat.
"Nope. I think I'll go now," I toss at her in a way I never thought I'd be able to. Laughing, I remembered what Emmett told me to tell her, "And, Renee, don't drop the soap." With that I walked out of the room and closed a door on the fear my womb donor had held over me for too long.
Charlie's POV
They held me down while the bitch went nuts on my strong, brave little girl. I couldn't believe how well Bella was holding up. When Renee told her about trying to sell her I tried to smash through the glass to end the pathetic excuse for a human sitting across from my child. Victor assured me that Renee would once again get hers for that little admission.
"So the good Chief gets to keep his daughter and his precious reputation. So fucking what, he will still pay for killing Phil. Who fucking cares that he found out my little secret because my saint of a Daddy told him all about me."
What the hell was the woman going on about now?
"Charlie?" Liz asks as she and Esme both look at me.
"I have no clue." O'Rourke had told me about Renee's childhood with her mother but that is about it. Nothing that could hurt my reputation or save it. I put the thought to the back of my mind as Bella tosses out a line about 'dropping the soap' that her brother had been obsessing about all over lately, before leaving the room and a very pissed off Renee behind.
Rushing out of the room, I hug my shaking baby girl in my arms and she sobs into my chest. I rock her gently, promising that it will be ok. I'd do anything to make it ok.
"Bella, how are you holding up?" Liz asks as she and Esme joined in on our hug.
"Free," my brave girl whispers, "… lighter."
"Good, good." Liz smiles at me, tears glistening in her eyes. "I say we go get some ice cream and leave Renee here where she belongs." Bella readily agrees, ice cream being her weakness.
I make casual conversation with Victor on the way out, his eyes promising that Renee will not be enjoying the rest of her stay in prison. His face when he watched that woman with Bella was enough to let me know that; and his eyes now reaffirming his thoughts.
"Oh my God!" Esme suddenly gasps. "Charlie, I think I've figured it out, think about the only thing she holds over you that could ruin your reputation."
"Huh?" My brain isn't really functioning at this moment, still traumatized by the things Renee had said.
"Charlie, she was 16 when she had Bella, her age could ruin you. Her father told you the truth, everything about her. What if…" she trails off as Victor rushes off with a 'be right back'.
As I stared at Esme, I realized how I'd love to think that she was right, that I would no longer have that hanging over my head but there was no way. I wasn't that lucky.
Victor came back quickly, a print out in his hands.
"While this isn't strictly legal, we'll list it under the freedom of information act," he tells me as he hands over a print out. On it, Renee's vitals and charges. Renee's actual birth date is listed there above her height and below her full name. In bold black print the numbers told a truth she never could.
"She's six months older than you!" Esme almost shouts before doing a silly little happy jig. Her words confirming what I had just read, making it real. Bella's smile is radiant.
"She's got nothing on either of us, kiddo," I tell her.
"Nothing at all," she agrees, "we're finally free of Renee."
AN: Thank you so much for reading and for contributing to F4NKH!
As many of you know I've had some problems with some rude/mean/crazies in the fandom so I stepped away. Anyways I was just starting to get back into the fandom drama hits and of course certain people take it out on others in the fandom. The whole Rob/Kristen drama hit and I shared some links about it because people keep asking, I was trying to share from only reputable sites, then it starts. People unfriending or sending me messages to stop spreading lies/to get the and this is a quote "Fuck out of their business" and some other hurtful shit about me as a person EVEN though I never said anything that bad other showing the links and saying I felt bad for the victims (the kids, the wife and Rob). So with this being said I'm going to walk away again, this time I'm not sure I'm coming back. So thanks for all the memories if my fb, twitter and stories disappear you know I'm not coming back. I'm sick of people calling me names or threatening me.