Chapter Fifty Three
Bella
I saw Peters face as I walked over to him, whatever Charlotte had written he wasn't taking it well. He looked up as I touched his shoulder and passed the letter to me before walking out the hotel door and running across the courtyard to the dark alley mouth we had used only minutes earlier. Jasper came to my side as I unfolded the paper and looked at the words written there,
Peter,
I'm not coming back with you and the others. I know this will be a shock to you but I also know you are aware of my reasons. Please give my apologies to the others. I wish you all the best in the future, maybe things would have worked out differently if we had not gone to Forks, but who knows, maybe it wouldn't.
Charlotte.
I folded the letter back up and slid it in the envelope.
"Do you know what she's talking about?" I asked him
He shook his head,
"She didn't want to come to Forks I knew that but she never said why and I never enquired.
"So I guess we wait for him to come back and tell us."
Jasper
I shook my head at Bella's assumption,
"He's not coming back. Not until he decides what to do about that"
I pointed to the letter.
"In the mean time" I smiled and put my arms around her waist and nuzzled her neck,
"How about that holiday we were going to take"
Bella leaned into me and sighed,
"Is there nothing we can do for Peter?"
"No, sorry. Just give him time"
"Well then, it's about time we found somewhere to go."
Her voice was thick with meaning.
"I do have a small place in Oregon, up in the hills, Its basic but the views are spectacular and there's plenty of hunting."
Bella's hand snaked back to caress my face,
"I wasn't planning on doing much sightseeing outside".
I swallowed,
"Then let's make for the hills darlin'"
Peter
They thought I'd gone but I watched them from the darkness as they made their plans. I didn't begrudge The Major his happiness, after all he'd waited long enough to find Bella. I just wanted to make sure they weren't going back to Forks before deciding what to do myself. My first inclination had been to fly to Seattle and then drive back to Forks.
I thought about going back to Forks but I didn't think it would help and there was nothing I could do in any case. When The Major rang and called me to Forks I knew the shit was going to hit the fan. I'd hoped all along that Alice was the only one up there needing help which meant Char and I would be together looking after Shaun. When she heard my orders I could tell it wasn't over, all these years and it still wasn't over. There was nothing I could do about it, there was no way I was staying with Shaun and leaving her to go to Forks alone, that would have been asking for trouble. When I got there I was relieved to find Bella was my responsibility but that didn't last long and it was into the Cullen household. Talk about tension, it was almost palpable but I did my best with Alice, after all she had nothing to do with any of it.
I had a wait before I could get a flight, I didn't want to be on the same one as the others so I decided to ring and give our "friend" a heads up. The phone rang and then,
"Hello Cullen residence"
"Oh good, its you."
"What do you want Peter? Is there trouble with Bella?"
"No, Charlotte."
"Charlotte? I don't follow you"
"She's gone."
"Gone?"
"Stop fucking parroting me. You know what I'm referring to."
"You think she might come back here?"
"Why else would she leave?"
"I promise you I never gave her any encouragement. I was as upset as you when she turned up in Forks."
"Yeah well, things might get a little heated if she turns up on your doorstep. I thought about flying up and try to stop her"
"Good luck with that. I don't think she'll come back here anyway. There's nothing here for her."
"I'm glad to hear it. Just make sure it stays that way"
"Are you threatening me?"
"No. I don't need to, if she does you'll be in enough fucking trouble as it is".
Esme
I wish we could leave Forks, the family seemed to live under a cloud these days. I thought once Bella and the Whitlocks had left things might return to normality but it seemed I was wrong. I missed Alice the most and I have to say I was shocked when she went to Volterra but I guess even Aro was preferable to having no real family. I looked around the room, Rose and Emmett were both on their cell phones and upstairs in his study I could hear Carlisle talking too. The kids had finished at Forks High now so there was no reason why we couldn't move away. A fresh start would be the best thing for all of us and perhaps once we got established in a new home with no Bella or Jasper, Edward would come home. The house wasn't the same without the sound of Edward playing the piano.
When Carlisle came down I went with him for a walk in the moonlight and opened the subject of moving.
"It would be good to move now. Rose and Em have finished school so they'd have to leave Forks anyway and it's getting to the time we'd need to move on anyway. What do you think Carlisle?"
"I'm not sure it would be right to leave Charlie with no support"
"He's got the Quileutes for heaven's sake and probably the Whitlocks if he wants them."
"True. Well we'll talk to the others and see what they think."
"Edward might come home if we were away from Bella and Jasper."
"He might, but its odd we haven't heard anything from him since she got back. Perhaps he's ashamed of the way he acted."
"So he should be but that doesn't mean he wouldn't be welcomed back. I do miss him Carlisle, and Alice although I know she won't come home to us again."