[Disclaimer] All things Twilight belong to Mrs. Stephenie Meyer

[A/N] Hello my lovely readers out there. Thanks so much for taking the time to read & review my little story. Your encouragement means more to me than you'll ever know.

*This chapter was difficult for me to write and I really hope that I didn't mess things up too much. I actually managed to make myself cry again…

I also wanted to let you know that I have zero knowledge about psychology and stuff like that. This is pure fiction.*

**Chapter 19**

I can't believe, I'm actually doing this, I thought while we entered the main entrance of the hospital.

"Are we going to see Grandpa?" Lilly asked me curiously and squeezed my hand for a moment.

Quickly I shook my head.

"No, honey, we're not here to visit your Grandfather."

I took a deep breath through my nose to calm myself down again. Hesitantly I knocked on the wooden door of Jasmine's office.

"Hello Bella." She greeted me cheerfully.

Then she kneeled down in front of my daughter and a smile flashed over her face that didn't reach her eyes.

"Hi, I'm Jasmine. You must be Lilly?"

She nodded her head.

"Are you a doctor?"

"No, Lilly, I'm not a doctor."

"But why do you work in the hospital when you're not a doctor?"

"Lilly…,"

Jasmine chuckled slightly and sat down on a red leather sofa behind her.

"Don't worry, Bella. It's okay, that she's so curious. That's normal for a child her age."

She cleared her throat before she spoke up again.

"You see, Lilly. Sometimes people come and talk to me about things that they don't want to talk about with someone else."

Yes, I thought. Sick people that have mental problems…my child is not wrong in the head, damn it.

"Hmm,"

"Lilly, do you know what a fairytale is?"

"You mean like Cinderella and Snow White?" She mumbled and started biting her fingernails nervously.

I fought the urge to tell her to stop it but instead I put a wisp of her copper hair behind her ear.

"Yes, that's right, Lilly."

"But the evil witch is real, Jasmine."

"Lilly…for the last time now…she's not a witch. Her name is Tanya." I tried to make my voice sound calm but it almost cracked at the end.

"Bella, if you can't keep your mouth shut, I'll make you wait outside."

I cringed slightly and crossed my arms in front of my chest. This was ridiculous and I shouldn't have agreed to it in the first place.

"Lilly, why do you think she's a witch?"

"Because I know she's a witch. She's so evil and my Mommy won't allow me to let Fido sleep with me at night to protect me." The reproachful tone in her voice sent an unpleasant feeling through my heart.

"Who's Fido?"

"He's Auntie Rosie's dog. Do you want me to draw you a picture of him?"

"Maybe later, Lilly… does Fido know that she's a witch?"

"No, but the witch is scared of him because he's so big."

"How do you know that she's scared of him?"

"Because when we went to see my Daddy he told Auntie Rosie not to bring him with her again because Tanya is scared of him."

What the hell had Rosalie had been doing with her at Edward's office?

"I don't like being there. Daddy only has boring books without pictures."

"Lilly, honey, why were you there?"

"Because Auntie Rosie bought too many eggs,"

Jasmine raised one eyebrow in confusion.

"She bought too many eggs?"

"Yes, she was angry and told my Daddy that she doesn't want to waste all her eggs again."

Her words still didn't make any sense to us at all.

"Lilly, what did you do while your aunt talked to your father?"

"He made me stay with the witch," she mumbled while her eyes stayed focused on the grey linoleum floor. Tears started falling down her cheeks and I pulled her onto my lap. Slowly I started rocking her back and forth and rubbed her back in small circles.

"Lilly, honey, you don't have to be afraid of her. She can't come here."

"Yes, she can. She'll come back at night and hurt me."

I bit my lower lip so hard that I tasted blood on the tip of my tongue. What the hell was happening here?

"Lilly, why do you think that she would she hurt you?"

She sniffed and wiped her running nose on the back of her hand.

"I can't tell you because it's a secret."

"Has anyone ever told you that there are two kinds of secrets, Lilly?" Jasmine asked her and kneeled down in front of her again.

"No."

"You see. Some secrets are fun…like not telling about a present to surprise someone. But not telling about something that scares you is not a fun secret. Do you think that you can understand the difference?"

She nodded her head.

"You don't have to keep a secret that is not fun." Jasmine stated and twisted her honey blonde curls into a ponytail.

"Really?"

"Yes."

I felt a big lump in my throat and swallowed hard to keep the tears from falling. You can't cry now, I tried to remember myself. This will be so much worse for her if you cry now.

"The witch was angry because Daddy made her stay with me while he talked to Auntie Rosie. She said that I'm always in the way." Lilly sniffed again and I pulled a tissue out of my pocket.

"Blow, sweetie,"

"Stop distracting her." Jasmine whispered into my ear. "She's finally starting to talk about it."

"She ripped my hair out and said that it looks Daddy's."

Fucking bitch…you'll better make sure that I don't see you again. Wonder how pretty you will look like when you're completely bald.

"And then she said that she hates me and that everything would be fine, if I just were dead."

"Oh honey, I'm so sorry about that."

"Lilly, why do you think that she will come back at night?"

"Because she told me that…," she stopped abruptly and I pulled her closer to me when I realized that her entire body started quivering.

"What did she tell you, honey?" I croaked out, my own voice barely a whisper.

"That she would come to my room when I sleep and eat my heart..."

"Did she tell you why she would do that?" Jasmine asked her and I wondered how she could manage to keep so calm, while a little child told her something as horrible like that.

"I don't know…,"

"Honey, you don't have to be afraid anymore. Mommy won't let her come near you…ever again."

"But she can come to my room whenever she wants."

"How?"

"Because she has a key to our house…,"

XXXX

My hands were shaking so much that I had trouble to pull my cell out of my handbag. When I finally managed to close my fist around it, I dropped the entire bag to the hard asphalt of the parking lot.

"Lilly, Bella, what are you doing here?" Slowly I raised my head, knowing that my eyes would look all puffy and red now.

"Nothing," I croaked out and forced my face into a calm grimace.

"Auntie Rosie!" Lilly called out and wrapped her arms around her.

"Are you here to visit Grandpa?"

She shook her head.

"But I guess you were. Did he let you play with his stethoscope?"

"No, Mommy and I talked to Jasmine…but she's not a doctor. And she was nice and she believed me when I told her about the evil witch."

Rosalie raised one eyebrow.

"You made her talk to a shrink, seriously? Damn it, you're the one who should go and get professional help, Bella. Maybe the nice people at Weight Watchers can help you solve your problems…"

"Mind your own business!" I snarled at her while I felt a wave of fresh tears burning in the corners of my eyes. With trembling hands I opened the backseat of the Volvo and sat Lilly down in her child seat.

"Lilly is my business! She's my niece."

"See, that's the point Mrs. McCarthy. You're just her aunt, but I'm her mother. Of course, I can't expect you to know the difference…"

"Fuck you! That was below the belt..."

I nodded my head.

"Yeah, I know Rosalie, but the things you keep saying to me…they're not exactly compliments, are they?"

"Just for the record, Bella, you call yourself fat whenever the opportunity presents itself."

"That's different. You only do it because you hate me. Damn it, you hated me from the first moment we met…,"

She sighed deeply and rubbed her chin thoughtlessly and then to my immense surprise she started crying. I didn't even know that she had lacrimal glands…

"I don't hate you, Bella. In fact I never did."

"Why are you always so rude to me, if you don't?"

"God, Bella…can't you see that I envy you? Edward told us that you were pregnant the first time we met you and my parents were so thrilled and happy about that." She sniffed and pulled out a tissue to clean her nose.

"And then he put his ear against your belly to hear the heartbeat of the baby."

"Yeah, I remember."

"Emmett and I…we will never have that, never. Did you know that my chances of ever getting pregnant are under ten percent? Not even ten fucking percent! And you…you didn't even plan to have a child. It just happened to you. That's so unfair."

"Look, Rose…I'm sorry about that, but I'm not responsible for your misery."

"Yeah, I know that. But you don't know how it's like…to see everything you ever wished for…right in front of you…every, fucking day. I don't give a shit about how miserable you are because your ass doesn't fit in a size 10 dress."

"Mommy, are you and Auntie Rosie fighting?"

"No, honey, we're just talking. Stay in the car, Lilly."

Rosalie cleaned her nose again and wiped away the last tears from her cheeks.

"I'm sorry, Bella. I...I shouldn't let myself go like that. Must be all the estrogen in my blood, I guess."

Yeah, probably, that and the fact that you're a natural born bitch…

"It will get better tomorrow, when they extract the eggs again."

Auntie Rosie bought too many eggs…

My legs suddenly felt too weak to stand up right and so I kneeled down against the car.

"Bella?"

"It's nothing. I'm just a little bit dizzy right now. "

"Hmm,"

I inhaled deeply through my nose and tried to control the slight trembling in my hands.

"Lilly…"

"Bella…is something wrong with Lilly? She's not sick or anything?"

A low sob left my throat and it took me several attempts until I was able to bring out something intelligible.

"You…you left her alone with that…that…witch who scared her to death!"

"Bella, breathe. I don't understand what you're talking about."

"Lilly told Jasmine that you went to see Edward because you didn't want to waste all your eggs again."

"I asked him to make a contract for a possible surrogate mother. Well, you know, how Emmett thinks about that. It wasn't a very smart idea."

"Leaving my daughter alone with that strawberry-haired whore, whom your brother calls a secretary wasn't that much smarter."

"Tanya? She didn't do anything to hurt Lilly, did she?" she asked me anxiously while her voice raised two octaves.

Her blue eyes met mine for a split second and I realized that the worry in hers was a weaker reflection of my own pain.

"Bella?"

"Damn it, Rose. Lilly is so scared of her and I didn't believe her. I'm such a horrible mother."

"No you're not. You're amazing. I know that I'll probably never be a mom…but if I could, I wished that I could be like you."

"If I were a good mother, I would have known that something was wrong with my child."

"What the hell did Tanya do to her?"

"She told her that she wished… that she wished that she was dead…that she would come to her room at night and…," my voice cracked at the end, making me unable to finish the horrible threats that Tanya had made towards my four-year old.

"You're kidding me, aren't you? How dare she?"

"She told her that she has a key to our house and could come there whenever she wanted. God, you should have seen Lilly's face when she told us."

"Do you think that she really has a key? Maybe she only made that up to scare her?"

"I don't know. Edward might have given her one."

Rose pulled her cell out.

"Whom are you going to call now?"

"My brother, we need to know if the key thing is true."

She dialed his number and put the loudspeaker on. Her eyes narrowed into tiny slits when a light female voice answered the phone.

"Denali,"

"What the fuck are you doing on my brother's cell?" she snarled at her.

"Edward, it's your sister." I heard her mumble in the background.

"Which one?" he asked, his voice sounding completely stressed now.

"I think it's the blonde one."

"Tell her, I'll call her back later."

"He has no time to speak right now."

"So he has no time to speak, that's too bad. What about the two of us of have a little conversation then instead?"

"Ahm...I don't know. What do you want to talk about with me?"

"Well, I don't really want to talk to you. There is no use in talking to scum like you. But I want you to remember something. Do you think you can do that?"

"Should I write it down?"

"If it helps you to remember, you can."

"Hmm,"

"If you dare to come near my niece ever again, it'll be your last fucking move on this earth."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You stupid piece of shit…you know exactly what I'm talking about. You told her some horrible things that scared her."

"Oh come on. The child probably only has a very vivid imagination."

"I see there is in fact no use talking to you. Bye Tanya."

She disconnected the call and sighed deeply.

"Fucking bitch, I hope that she'll stay away from Lilly now."

"Yeah, me too…but what about the key?"

"Hmm, you should probably get the lock changed. I can ask Emmett to do that for you, if you want to."

"Yeah, that would be great."

"No biggie."

"I should better go home now. Good luck with the…well with the egg thing."

She nodded her head and a smile appeared on her face before she turned around and walked towards the hospital.

I sat down in the car and started the engine that instantly roared to life.

"Mommy?"

"Yes, sweetie?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"Of course, you can, Lilly. Anything you want."

"Why do you never kiss Auntie Rosie like you kiss Auntie Ali?"

XOXXOXOXOXO

[A/N] For those of you who were wondering why Alice wasn't in the chapter. She's been busy preparing Bella's birthday present.

I also wanted to know of someone would be so nice and PM me how the whole divorce process (how long do they have to be separated until they can get divorced etc.) in the US works because I'm not sure if it's the same like in Germany.

Until next time, take care :-)