"Bella, you have to come up with a plan. You can't just let her win that easily." Rosalie urged. "If she ships you off to England with her, there's a great chance that she makes sure you cut off all communications with anyone in New York, including me & Alice even if she's your sister. She won't want anyone who knows Edward personally to get in contact with you."

I was at Edward's, and since my house was being cleared out without permission, I called Rosalie & Alice to come over. Emmett was with Rosalie the moment I called her, so he came along too. When they first saw Edward, they were wary around him since they knew about him, but the news of my getting migrated to another country diverted their attention.

"That's actually true," Edward commented on Rosalie's words. "Judging from the conversation just now, she'd actually do that to keep you away from me. She's probably more resourceful than the local police."

"Of course she is. This is our mother, we're talking about. Everyone in this family has more freedom for getting whatever information they want. We get unlimited information from our databases and classified information is open to us anytime." Alice replied. "And soon, she isn't going to let you through all of this, Bella. She'll be monitoring you."

"Man, this is even worse than I thought." Emmett remarked. "I can just imagine how bad your father can be."

I shook my head. "Dad isn't worse than Mom. He's a little more cooler with everything, but Mom's just uptight."

"Dad feels for you, Bella. He's worried." Alice told me. "He thinks that Mom is going overboard with this."

"Then why hasn't he done anything?" My voice broke.

"He tried. He wanted to appeal to the judge to take you in too, but Mom wouldn't let him. He saw how you felt about Edward and kind of accepted the relationship." She replied. "Dad's hands are tied. There's nothing else he can do."

I sighed, closing my eyes. For the first time in my life, I felt like I was powerless. My energy seeped away. As I felt hands on my shoulders, I opened my eyes and ran my hand through my hair. Alice looked at me deep in my eyes as she held me steadily.

"Come on Bella," she whispered. "What are we?"

I cracked a smile as I knew what she was doing. "Swans."

"And what are Swans?"

"Graceful and beautiful, but we show our strength and endurance to those who don't believe in us." I replied. I had the whole thing memorized since it was our family's motto.

"There," she smiled. "We'll get through this. Endurance, remember?"

She continued putting her arm around me as we sat beside each other on Edward's ottoman. The rest were standing, thinking of ways to stop my mother's plans.

"She'll probably ask you to throw your cellphone away," Rosalie spoke up. "Remember, she's trying to make sure you cut off all ties with anyone you know who personally knows Edward. She'll change your phone number to an English one and then make sure our numbers are blocked."

"But then I can still see those blocked calls." I told her.

"I know, but if you pick it up, it'll probably alert her and it'll put you on much tighter restrictions." She said. "That means that there's only one way to escape from her. She's like quicksand— if you continue struggling and trying to escape, she's only going to restrict you even further. You've got to not fight her and then she'll finally let you go your own way."

"We're trying to find ways to not get Bella to go to England, Rose." Emmett reminded Rosalie. "This is frankly the opposite."

"But that's the only way to get Bella back to New York." Rosalie replied. "Renee's a difficult person to fight with. She's nearly impossible. If Bella cooperates, she'll be back after she turns eighteen, most probably when she's twenty."

"You do realize that that's four years, minimum, right?" Alice pointed out. "By the time that happens, there will be so much we'll be missing out in her life and Bella won't be able to stand Mom anymore."

"As Bella grows older, Renée will lessen the restrictions. In her eyes, Bella's maturity level is still that of a teenager when we've all actually experienced more than an average adult has. Look, I know more about Bella than most of you do, so trust me on this." Rosalie pleaded.

"Guys," I spoke up. "I think I got a plan. Rose, do you still have the keys to your house in Monte Carlo?"

Rosalie gave each of us duplicates of the key to the main entrance of the house in Monte Carlo after going to a key specialist somewhere. My idea seemed to have worked for everyone here, and the only thing I hoped for was that there wouldn't be any complication in this plan.

"If anyone of you comes first to the house on our designated dates, at least you'll get to come in without any hassle." She said. "We'll be in Monaco once a month, for a few days just like what Bella said. That way we all can see her."

"Are you sure Renée won't suspect?" Emmett asked me.

"Assuming that she continues her career, I'll continue mine too. I'll just say I'm on a mission. She wouldn't mind about it." I told him. "Monaco would be closer to the UK. You guys will be taking the SIGO private airplane and I'll ask Aunt Siobhan about it. She owes me, so she'll agree to that, at least."

"I didn't know Miss Swan had favors to return." Rosalie raised her eyebrows.

"Well, everyone has. It comes in handy when you most need it." I told them. "I'm going back to headquarters. Anyone?"

Edward took my hand. "I'll follow you."

I frowned. "What? Edward, you can't just go to headquarters—"

Rapt knocks on the door had everyone frozen in their tracks and their heads facing the door.

"Were we supposed to expect more visitors?" Alice asked quietly.

"No," I replied, walking to the door. My fingers twitched towards my gun behind my back as I opened the door. I didn't expect to see who was on the other side of the door.

"Mom?" Edward stepped forward. "What are you doing here?"

"I just... wanted to talk to you about something. Am I interrupting something?" Esme asked, looking uneasily at us. She looked as beautiful as always, with her caramel-colored hair twisted in a side bun. Her makeup was light and she was wearing a simple gray long-sleeved dress with low black heels. She didn't look as fresh as she did the first day I met her, and she seemed to have aged a bit.

"No, you're not. We were just about to finish up with something here." I smiled a little at her and glanced at Alice, Rosalie & Emmett. They got the message.

"Actually, I prefer if I could talk to the both of you alone?" Esme requested.

Esme's conversation with Edward & Bella will be up next! What will she want to talk to them about? Leave your comments below!

xx