Where the Streets Have No Name
Chapter 97
We're back to Bella...
"Oh wow! This is huge!" Bella exclaimed as her mother gave her a quick tour of the Cullen house.
Renee smiled in response. "Yah, I know. This sure is a big house for just the two of them. Well, they had Ella. And who knows, maybe they wanted a big family."
"Big family? More like an army," Bella teased. "You told me the house was big, but I had no idea these people were this loaded. This place is like a museum! I swear my feet are hurting. Please don't tell me they make you clean too."
Bella's exaggerated jest made Renee laugh. "Nah, there's a cleaning service that comes by once a week. The house isn't that big! You're just tired from the flight. And the time switch is messing with you. You'll be a lot less achy after dinner," Renee said as she led Bella down the stairs to her temporary quarters in the basement.
"Whoa, you weren't kidding. The basement is a whole separate place! It even has its own deck. Mom, you didn't have to set all this up for me. I'm only gonna be here for a couple of days," Bella said, looking around the spacious area.
"It's no trouble. I knew you'd be shy about staying in a strange house. So I picked the place where you'll have some privacy.
"Now, would you mind telling me what this is visit is really about?" Renee said with a knowing look as she sat down on the bed, patting the spot next to her for Bella to sit.
"Is it about Paul?" she prodded.
Bella sank down next to her mother, not completely surprised that Renee managed to hit the target so seamlessly.
"Want to tell me about it? I do have a few years' advantage here," Renee said soothingly, picking out a speck of lint from Bella's shoulder affectionately.
Bella mulled over the offer. She loved her mother. In the year or so before she left home, they were both far too stressed about her father's failing health to indulge in light-hearted frivolity such as boy-talk. Neither was in the right frame of mind to bother. But she sure was in desperate need of counsel to find a way out of the predicament she faced.
She nodded her head almost imperceptibly with downcast eyes.
"You can tell me anything, honey," Renee encouraged gently.
In a slow, halting pace, censoring the inappropriate, Bella recounted the life altering decision she faced.
Thank you Lulabelle98, HeidiJoVT, and Dinx.