[Disclaimer] Everything Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer
[A/N] Welcome back, my dear readers. Thanks for your reviews. I cherish your support so much.
Today's update is dedicated to xXhiddenbeautyXP for being the 500th reviewer.
**36**
Bella had almost fallen asleep next to Rosalie on the couch when the phone started ringing. It was Charlie who picked up. He murmured into the phone for a few moments before he handed the phone to his daughter.
"Some Edward Masen for you, Bella." He said, walking off into the kitchen to grab another beer.
"Who is Edward Masen?" Rose asked, sitting up a bit straighter on the couch. She was glad that she was only starting work tomorrow afternoon, so she and Bella would have a few more hours together.
Bella cleared her throat. "Good evening, Mr. Masen." She said, trying to speak in a voice that would hopefully sound professional.
"Hello Bella. How are you?"
"Fine, thanks for asking." Bella responded politely. "How about yourself?"
Through the phone she could hear him coughing and ordering a coffee. Was he in some café?
"We have some news on the case we're working on. I thought I let you know that someone's been arrested."
Good Riddance! Bella felt an instant wave of relief. She hated men that lurked after innocent children more than she had words for it.
"Are you still there?" Edward asked. "I'm not disturbing you with anything important. Am I?"
"No, no." Bella mumbled. She went to the kitchen and leaned back against the counter. "It's great that you arrested the sick fucker."
Edward laughed bitterly. "He's just a small fish. We need to find out where he ordered this stuff."
"Will he tell you?" Bella asked. "You could make him tell you. Couldn't you?"
"Well, we can, if we manage to keep him behind bars long enough. That perv is obviously trying to talk some friend of his into bailing him out."
Crap, Bella thought. But who would be so dumb to bail out a child molester?
"What are you going to do now?"
"We'll run the pictures we've found through some search machines. Then we'll have some poor parents, whose children have been abducted have a look at the pictures too. Maybe someone will recognize their daughter."
"God, this is horrible." Bella groaned. "If my— I mean, it's horrible for those parents."
"It is, Bella. It is. Look, there's a reason why I contacted you. Does the name Royce King ring any bells for you?"
Royce? Bella wondered. Why was Edward mentioning Royce now?
"Uhm, he's friends with my girlfriend's mother. Why are you asking about him?"
Edward cleared his throat. "Well, I'm asking because Royce is the man who got arrested. The woman who he called to ask her to bail him out is called Lucy Hale."
Bella could feel her stomach beginning to cramp. Her knees felt weak, making it difficult for the young woman to keep her balance.
"Can I c-c-call you back?" she stuttered into the receiver before she disconnected the call without waiting for Edward's response.
Royce King was a child molester? And what in heaven's name had Lucy to do with him?
"Bella, honey, are you okay?" Rose asked, walking towards her pale looking girlfriend. "Bad news?"
Bella took a deep breath. "That was someone from the police in Seattle. They arrested Royce King."
Rosalie's mouth trembled. A feeling of relief spread through her. She hoped they would let that pig rot behind bars for a very long time. "Good," she whispered, the word barely audible. "It's good they arrested him."
Bella raised one eyebrow. "Aren't you going to ask me why they arrested him?"
Rose's face turned white like a ghost and it took Bella only a second to put two and two together.
"You know? Don't you? You know why they arrested him? How?"
Rosalie's voice cracked. "Mind your own damn business, Bella. I don't want to talk about this. I can't. I fucking can't!"
The blonde woman could feel a strong wave of nausea beginning to spread through her. She felt dirty. Why the hell did Bella have to get involved into this?
Rose rushed up the stairs. She locked herself into the bathroom and curled into a ball on the cold floor. I can't tell Bella she thought, feeling tears pour down her face. What if she doesn't believe me?
"Rose?" Bella asked, knocking at the closed door. "Beautiful, are you okay? Don't make me break this door open."
Rose sighed. She wiped her eyes at the sleeve of her shirt before she opened the door again. "Don't look at me."
Bella kneeled down next to Rosalie on the floor. "Rose, you're scaring me." She wrapped her arm around her girlfriend and pulled her closer. "Why do you know why they arrested Royce?"
"Because…because I sent the pictures to Esme's house." Rose sobbed. "I b-b-broke into his house and stole them."
Bella reached for a roll of toilet paper and helped Rosalie to clean her nose. "Why did you do that? How did you know he had this sick stuff at his place?"
Rose laughed. A shrill, hysterical sound that sent shivers down Bella's spine.
"How I know? How do I know? Oh my God!"
Bella pulled Rosalie closer and started stroking her blonde hair very gently. "Honey, please. You need to tell me what you know." Bella demanded. "Are you scared of Royce?"
Rose shook her head no, unable to give Bella a verbal response to her question.
"Of course, you're scared." Bella stated after a moment of silence. "Just look at you. Your hands are quivering. I just don't understand why?"
Rose inhaled deeply between her teeth. Then she stared down at the tiles on the wall across from them.
"If I tell you, you can't tell anyone else." She started hesitantly. "Promise me, you won't tell anyone. Will you?"
Bella nodded. "Just tell me, darling. You can tell me everything. Don't you know that?"
Not this, Rosalie thought. Not this. She opened her mouth and when she spoke up it didn't feel like she was telling Bella about herself. It was almost like she was talking about a complete stranger.
"You remember how Royce was my manager when I did beauty pageant as a child?"
"Yes, I remember that." Bella said, while she continued to stroke tenderly over Rosalie's head and back.
"So, I was at his house and he made me sing "I feel pretty" for what felt like a million times. I got thirsty from singing and Royce gave me some sweet grape juice. It made me sleepy. When I woke up again, I was in a room without windows. I could hear a camera clicking and clicking. Then I passed off again. When I opened my eyes again, my hand was covered with his….God, I can't even tell you. It's too much. I can't."
Bella could feel her heart cramping inside her chest with so much force, it knocked the breath out of her lungs. Royce had hurt her Rose. She didn't know how yet but somehow she was going to make him pay. Nobody hurt someone she loved and got away with it.
"You believe me. Don't you?" Rose whispered. "Please say you believe me. I'm not making it up."
Bella pulled Rose as tight against her chest as she could. "Of course, I do believe you." She kissed Rosalie's hair. "I'm so sorry this happened to you. I'm so sorry he hurt you."
"You're not going to tell anyone, right?" Rosalie asked, choking back another wave of tears.
"I won't." Bella whispered. "Don't be afraid anymore, honey. You're safe now. I'll keep you safe. No one will ever hurt you again."
xxxx
Lucy Hale's nerves were blank. She didn't know what to do. If Royce let anyone in about her past, she was screwed. But how could she bail out a child molester? If she only knew what to do, Lucy thought. If she only knew…
"Mom, are you on a diet?" Emmett asked while he watched how his mother pushed her vegetables around from one side of her plate to the other.
"No," Lucy lied. "I'm just not very hungry tonight."
"You're never hungry." He stated. "Women are strange creatures. I like girls with a healthy appetite."
He wiped his mouth on a napkin and stood up from his chair. "Excuse me for a moment. Call of nature."
On his way back from the restrooms, Emmett bumped into a raven-haired beauty, wearing a purple silk dress.
"Are you following me, dwarf?"
"Wow," Alice snarled. "Another dwarf joke. How creative."
"I'm sorry." Emmett mumbled. "I was trying to be funny. That's usually my strong point."
"Making fun of my size is not funny for me." Alice told him. "And why would you try to be funny? How about just being yourself instead of playing the buffoon nonstop?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know how that would be like. I've never tried it before."
"Maybe it's time." Alice suggested. "Now, what are you doing here?"
"I'm having dinner with my mother." He said. "Well, actually I'm having dinner and she's pushing her food around on her plate, pretending she's eating."
Alice giggled. "It's nice that you're taking out your Mom for dinner, whether she's eating or not."
"You ate when we went out." He said. "You ate almost as much as I did."
Yes, you moron, Alice thought. That's because the baby in my belly is such a hoggish little thing. Automatically her hands moved down to her abdomen again. She was convinced the bump was getting noticeable. Soon she would start looking like a bloated whale.
"I have to go now." Alice mumbled. "My father and Zafrina are probably waiting for me and wondering why I'm taking so long."
"Enjoy your dinner, Alice." Emmett told her, his lips curling into a smile. "Oh and before I forget it, this dress really looks good on you."
She granted him a wide smile. "See, you can be nice, if you just try hard enough. See you around, Emmett."
With that she walked off, carefully making sure to let her hips swing softly back and forth until she was out of Emmett's sight again.
"There you are again, sweetie." Zafrina called out. "Come sit and eat before your steak gets cold. Cold steak tastes awful."
"I'm starving." Alice stated, cutting through the piece of meat on her plate. "God, I'm so hungry."
"One could think, you haven't eaten a whole weak. "Alice's father said. "Are you spending all your money on clothes?"
"No, I'm not." Alice told him, chewing another piece of steak. "Can't I eat when I'm hungry?"
"Sure, sure." Her Dad mumbled. "Eat as much as you like. Look, honey, like I told you, I've signed a deal with Volturi Jewelry. That means, I'll be flying to Italy next week."
Zafrina cleared her throat. "What your father really wants to tell you is that he's not going to need a housekeeper in the next time. That means I get to stay here in Seattle with you for a while. Isn't that nice?"
"Really, Mammy? That's fantastic!" Alice jumped from her chair and wrapped her arms around Zafrina. "Oh, you and I are going to have so much fun here together."
Mr. Brandon coughed. "Zafrina is staying here to have an eye on you. Don't disappoint me, young lady. You promised to take your studies seriously."
"Yes, Dad." Alice mumbled. Crap, he was going to be so mad at her, when he was going to find out about how she had fucked up her academic career before it had actually begun.
A waitress placed a gigantic bowl filled with ice-cream, chocolate sauce and whipped cream in front of Alice.
"We didn't order this." Alice's father stated.
"I know." The waitress responded. "Some gentleman ordered it for the Miss. He said I should give her this note as well."
Alice dipped her spoon into the ice-cream and sighed. There couldn't be anything more delicious than ice-cream, could there be?
To a small girl with a big appetite – was written on the note. PS: Are you going to go out with me again? I promise to hold back with the dwarf jokes. Em.