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Chapter 22 – Oh, Brother

EDWARD

I was relieved that Bella had allowed me to hold her while we slept. I was worried that she wouldn't, after Jacob's reaction this morning. I truly didn't see a problem, as he was much too young to know what was going on. She, however, was mortified and refused to let me do anything more than kiss her in his presence.

I was determined to get the cave baby proofed and separate bedrooms set up as soon as possible. I was relieved, when that seemed to be her goal as well. After breakfast, she folded one of the larger sheets in half and started sewing it together to make a mattress for Jacob, and I guess now Oliver's room.

I still didn't trust that monkey. I didn't like the way he looked at me, but he was always the picture of innocence when he was in Bella's arms, sneaky little bastard. He hung onto her as if she was his mother and even acted as if Jacob was a sibling, grooming him when they played together.

I did smile when he was scolded for chasing the chickens. Little bastard thought it was funny to leap out at them repeatedly, making them freak out. Jacob found this humorous and encouraged the bad behavior. Polly, however, suddenly found her voice and took it upon herself to repeat Bella's scolding, which was just freaking hilarious. Damn bird became a word and sound sponge, even picking up on me telling Sam he was such a good boy. Later, I was bent over with my ass in the air, working on clearing the dirt from the roof cave in, when the cheeky bird pointed out that I was such a good boy, too. Bella looked up and took a long appreciate gawk at my ass. I caught her staring and winked at her, causing her to blush and smile. I think I liked Polly.

EMMETT

I looked at the number in my hand several times. Was I really going to do it? Alice was in the loony bin for a reason, right?

I shook my head at myself. She really didn't seem all that crazy, except for the occasional spacing out, and she insisted my brother was still alive, along with another woman and a baby. I felt sorry for those two. I loved my brother, I truly did, but he was a tough guy to be around sometimes.

He could read minds, and sometimes I wished he wouldn't. He never really commented on what someone was thinking, but I could tell by his actions that he was judging.

He'd never approved of my fast and loose lifestyle, so it fucking shocked me when he stood up for me against Tanya's accusations. We both knew for a fact that she'd been full of bullshit, it had been blatantly obvious, but for some reason, the judge didn't see it that way. What was fucking sick was, once they locked Edward up, they started questioning everything he had done or tried to do.

He had developed some awesome revolutionary surgical techniques, and they were no longer being put to use. People would rather die than use a crazy man's technique. The world was not a better place with him put away.

I'd always thought he was nuts for becoming a doctor. It was just too much schooling for me. It took too much time, and brain power, that I just didn't have. I'd admit I envied him. I'd wished to God I could change the way things had turned out. He was needed in the free world much more than I ever was. What he'd done with his life made my stupid football career seem like shit.

I wasn't through college yet. I didn't have the focus Edward did. I had originally wanted to be a football star, but after what Tanya pulled, no one would touch me. The bitch got her way, even though she lost her case against me. She had ruined my brother's life and mine, and I wished I could find a way to take her down. Edward could have, I was sure of that. He knew everyone's deepest, darkest secrets, and he was always good at keeping them.

I got up from my desk and flipped the phone in my hand a few times, before gaining the courage to dial. If there was a chance my brother was still alive somewhere, I had to do everything in my power to find him.

I dialed and waited as the phone rang several times. I thought, fucking great, I was going to have to leave a vague message, because nothing I could have said would sound remotely sane.

I was surprised when a stern male voice answered. "Who are you?"

I was startled, but tried to pull myself together to respond. "I…um…I'm Emmett Cullen. I was looking for Rosalie Hale. I think I may have misdialed. I'm sorry."

"No," the voice snapped.

"No?"

"You've not misdialed. What business do you have with Ms. Hale?"

"Her sister, Alice…she…um…she told me to call her?"

The line was silent for a few seconds, before a beautiful feminine voice came on.

"Hello?"

"Ms. Hale?"

"Yes, you said you'd spoken to my sister, Alice?"

"Yes, Ma'am, she's friends with my brother, Edward."

"Oh, yes, she'd mentioned him on a few of my visits. What does she want?"

"Actually, I'm not entirely sure. She didn't say what to ask you or tell you, just that I needed to call you, and well, if you know Alice..."

"Yes, it was smart of you to heed her advice and call. Did she mention anything else during your visit?"

"Um, well, I don't know if she told you this, but my brother was on Flight 325 that went down in the ocean off of Florida."

"Oh, I'm so sorry, didn't he listen to her?"

"She told him to go ahead and go on it. She said he's still alive, along with a woman and a baby on an island somewhere."

"That's wonderful! Have you pulled a search party together yet?"

"See, that's the thing. I don't have a lot of pull with that kind of stuff, and well…" I let out a huff; no one would take the word of Alice.

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"She says there's a captain that's crazy enough to take his ship to the island, but he won't go nuts until February."

"My heavens, that's a long time to be out on an island."

"Yeah, but I don't really know what to do. I kind of want to take off work and set it all up and go find my brother, but I'm terrified I'm going to throw my life away going on a wild goose chase, only to find that my brother's been gone all along."

The line was silent for a moment, and then she let out a sigh. "I think I know why she had you call me. We'll have to meet. I'll give you back to Demetri. He can give you directions to my home. We'll need to talk in person for this."

"Um, okay?" That was not what I'd expected, and I wondered what the hell she had figured out and what she would tell me. Alice had said I would like her, and I hoped she was right. I would really hate for this to turn out badly.

God only knew I'd had enough of that already.

A/N: Thanks for reading and please review!