Where the Streets Have No Name
Chapter 102
Bella stayed awake through the remainder hours of the night, restlessly counting sheep and glancing at the clock every few minutes. When the timepiece signaled 6:30AM, she couldn't hold herself still any longer.
After a quick shower and change of clothes, she cautiously made her way up the stairs to the main floor of the house. She was eager and nervous in equal parts of meet Edward Cullen. She desperately needed to put her theory to the test. To be assured that in the stark light of reality the man would not draw such unwanted reactions from her.
On her way to the kitchen, which she thought was the likeliest place to find her mother, she stopped by the living room to inspect the framed pictures she had noticed the day before.
There were only three.
The first one was a wedding photo where the bride and the groom posed for the photographer with smiling faces.
Edward Cullen had green eyes she realized. And strange, shimmering-brown hair. He looked breathtakingly beautiful, as did Carmen Cullen. Bella kept looking at the picture mesmerizingly, wondering how she had failed to notice this yesterday.
In the picture, he was wearing the customary tuxedo with hair tamed back into a perfect slick. Nothing like the haunting spectre she had encountered last night. The dark haired beauty next to him was equally gorgeous. The honey-gold hue of her skin contrasted brilliantly with his ivory pale. Together, they were a vision of perfection.
He must love her so very much.
It was no wonder the violent separation was taking such a high toll on the poor man.
Bella's heart lurched at the memory of how broken and lost he looked in the nursery.
And then an unexpected wave of envy swirled through her mind. Envy because the woman in the picture held the key to fix him, while she herself didn't.
She tried to recall if her mother had ever imparted the details regarding Carmen Cullen's condition. Maybe she had, but quite possibly Bella had brushed them aside as irrelevant trivia at the time. Suddenly she was extremely curious to learn what exactly had happened to Carmen that had put her in a coma.
The second picture was evidently taken at the wedding as well, only it was a family photo with two pairs of elderly couples standing behind the newlyweds.
The tall, blond man standing next to Edward Cullen held a striking facial resemblance to be anyone but his father. And the woman with a kind smile had the same green eyes.
The couple standing by the bride looked somewhat stern, but the familial likeness was clear.
The parents and the in-laws.
The third picture showed Edward Cullen holding a tiny bundle in his arms, presumably his baby daughter.
This was the one that made Bella gasp for breath.
The picture was taken somewhere in this house, quite possibly in the very living room. The baby in his arms looked tiny; perhaps no more than a few days old. Edward was looking at the camera with a proud, dazzling smile. The unbelievable joy in his eyes was so palpable that it seemed as though it could jump out and touch the unsuspecting viewer from the two-dimensional confines of the frame.
He looked happy. Truly and completely.
The smile on his face reached every inch of his body, lighting up the six by twelve piece of paper with the brightness of the sun.
He was radiant.
Bella couldn't wrap her head around the extent of the sorrow that could transform a person so thoroughly in such a short period of time. Not even the soul crushing bereavement she had suffered when her father died could serve as a frame of reference to explain what Edward Cullen was experiencing.
Oh, poor you...
The overwhelming urge to protect and comfort this wounded man reared its head once again inside her heart. She found herself clutching the sides of her pants to restrain her hands from reaching out and tracing the picture frame with her fingers. She could feel the telltale sting of tears in her eyes.
"Bella, is that you honey?"
Her mother's voice coming from the direction of the kitchen jarred her back to reality. She quickly wiped her eyes and prepared to face Renee, and quite possibly the object of her inexplicable obsession - Edward Cullen.
Thank you Lulabelle98, HeidiJoVT, and Dinx.
A super special thanks to A is for Angel; my 5000th reviewer! Holy swear word, Batman!:) Love you, sweetie!
Thank you all, for coming this far with me. I don't have the words to say how much this means to me.
Much love...