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

[A/N] Thanks to all of you who keep reading and reviewing my story. Your support means a lot to me.

This chapter is dedicated to venice m. and Voshela. Hope you'll enjoy

**Chapter 68**

"No! I don't want to go. You can't make me!"

I put my arms around her and pulled her on my lap, while she continued kicking her legs against my knees to get free again.

"Lilly, for heaven's sake, stop doing that!"

"I don't want to see him and you are mean because you're making me! All of you are so mean!"

"Lilly, please…don't be like that. I've already told you that the judge decided that your father can visit you every second weekend if he wants to."

She frowned and searched for something in the pockets of her jeans.

"Fido!"

The dog raised his head as she waved with the biscuit crumbles in her hand.

"I'll go, if I can take Fido with me."

"Lilly, we can't take the dog with us. You can play with him when you come back."

"I don't want to go at all!"

"You have to. Look, it's not…,"

"You are so mean!"

"Lilly, please try being a big girl and don't make this any harder for mommy than it already is."

I swallowed hard to keep the tears from falling; knowing that crying in front of her wouldn't help to calm down the situation.

I loosened my grip around her, and she jumped from my lap, instantly grabbing the dog at his collar.

"Stay here! We're already late. Stay here! That goes for both of you!"

She rushed up the stairs to her room and a few moments later I heard the key turning in the lock.

"You're better not doing what I think you're doing, young lady! Come back down here so that we can leave."

I tasted something salty on the tip of my tongue and realized that I had started crying. God, how much I hated scenes like that. And it was all because of him, because he was sure as hell going to sue me, if I didn't show up with Lilly. Damn it, why is she so stubborn?

The front door opened and I blinked into the surprised faces of Ali and her blonde sister.

"What's wrong? We heard you and Lilly yelling at each other from across the street."

I swallowed hard but my voice was still trembling when I managed to speak again.

"She's throwing a tantrum because she doesn't want to see her father. And now she hates me for forcing her to go."

Ali wrapped her arms around my middle and pulled me close. Her dainty hands started rubbing circles up and down my forearm in an attempt to calm me down again. It wasn't really working.

"It's going to be okay."

Rosalie walked over to the stairs.

"Lilly, honey, please come down here."

"No, I won't and you can't make me!"

She sighed deeply as she walked up the stairs and I couldn't help but wonder if her once so perfect shaped ass was almost bigger than mine now. God, I was mean and pathetic, comparing my body with a woman who was pregnant with twins.

"Open the door, Lilly or I'll break the lock."

"Shhh," Rosalie mumbled, putting a finger on my mouth to silence me.

"Won't be necessary,

She pulled a hairpin out of her blonde hair and started fumbling on the lock.

"I didn't know that you could do that." Ali whispered in surprise.

"There's a lot about me that you don't know, Tinker-Ali."

Moments later the door finally opened with a loud squeak.

Lilly was sitting on her bed with the dog next to her, wrapping her arms around his russet colored neck as if it was a life vest.

"Let go of him. Please, Lilly, we have to go. You're trying to make this harder for me than it already is."

She started sobbing and buried her face into the fluffy fur of the dog.

Rosalie kneeled down next to her, almost stumbling over her own feet. She was way bigger than I had been during my pregnancy with Lilly, way bigger. Her fingers were so swollen that the metal of her rings cut into the pearly skin.

She took a deep breath and reached out her hand to stroke over the copper curls of Lilly's hair.

"You're pretty angry at your mother, aren't you?"

Lilly sniffed and raised her head, wiping her running nose on the sleeve of her shirt.

"She's so mean. I told her that I don't want to see my daddy and she's making me. I don't want to go! I don't want to go!"

"Lower your voice. Why don't you want to see your father? You haven't seen him since…, well since a long time ago."

"Don't want to tell you."

I had never thought that this thought would ever enter my mind, but I really wished that Jasmine was here. Damn it, why could a stupid shrink make my child spill out the creepy things my stupid ex might have told her and I couldn't? What did that say about me as a mother?

Rosalie pulled out a tissue and wiped away a few tears from Lilly's face.

"Look, your mother isn't forcing you to see your father."

Technically she is, I thought bitterly.

"But she's going to make me!"

"Stop yelling, Lilly. I'm pretty sure that your mom and Ali have explained the custody thing to you, haven't they?"

She nodded her head.

"Look, Lilly, if your mother doesn't bring you to the meeting with your father the judge will be angry at her."

"Will she have to go to jail?"

Rosalie chuckled and sat down on the ground, cradling her rounded middle between both hands.

"Probably not, but it would still cause her a lot of trouble."

Lilly stood up from the bed and sighed. I put my arm around her shoulder and planted a kiss on her forehead.

"I'm sorry, honey. I know that you don't want to go."

XXXX

The next four hours were one of the longest in my entire life. I spoke briefly to the shrink, a blond haired guy named Peter that gave Ali a strange look when she told him who she was. What the hell was wrong with him? Then he guided Lilly who refused to let go of the dog until the very last moment, into the room where she was supposed to meet her father.

For a while I just stood there, in front of the closed door, my fingers wrapped so tightly around Fido's metal collar that it was almost painful. The dog whimpered like a little puppy and didn't move one single inch until Rosalie whistled and he walked over to her, pressing his huge head against her belly.

"Good boy. She's going to be okay." I told him, hoping that my words would stay true.

We decided to wait in the cafeteria where I nibbled halfheartedly on a sandwich. I was way too nervous to taste what I was eating.

"Do you want another one?" Ali asked me, standing up.

"Or something to drink maybe?"

"Please, just sit down. You're making me nervous when you walk around all the time."

"She can ask the waitress if they have some more mustard for me. These sandwiches taste like crap without it." Rosalie mumbled while she rubbed her swollen fingers with her other hand.

"You should take your rings off when your fingers are swollen." Ali stated when she returned with the bottle of mustard.

"Do you want a spoon too? God, I can't believe how much of that yellow stuff you have eaten in the last months."

"Hmm,"

She tried to shove one of her rings down her fingers, but it wasn't working.

"They aren't going to turn blue, are they?" she asked me worriedly.

"No, they won't. Don't worry. Are your feet swollen too?"

"Haven't seen them in a while, but I'm swollen on every possible and impossible place on my body. My back hurts like crap."

She put one hand against her hip and sighed deeply.

"The worst is that Em thinks that I 'm fat. He doesn't want to touch me anymore."

"I'm pretty sure that he doesn't think you're fat. Plus most of the weight you gained is just water. After the birth it will all be gone."

Give her hope with the same, stupid lies they told you…

"Of course, he thinks that I'm fat. You should see me naked, it's scary."

She buried her face into her hands and sighed deeply.

"God, I'm such a horrible person. Instead of being grateful for finally being pregnant, I'm complaining about my ruined figure."

Ali poured her sister a glass of water and took her hand to squeeze it gently for a moment.

"Being pregnant doesn't change the way you are, Rose. Your looks are important to you."

"It's important to Em too."

"He's not as superficial as you think he is. Emmett really loves you."

She nodded her head.

"I didn't say that he doesn't love me. Hell, if he didn't care for me deeply, he wouldn't have supported me during this whole in-vitro crap, if he could have it everything the easy way…with another girl."

"Hmm,"

"He loves me, I know he does. But he doesn't find it attractive that I look like a whale right now."

"Did he make any stupid comments? I'm sure he didn't…,"

"No, he didn't say anything, but he doesn't want to….well, you know what."

"Maybe he's just not in the mood for sex right now?"

"Come on, Ali. We're talking about Emmett. And I caught him jerking off in the bathroom a few days ago."

Too much unnecessary information…

"Arg, Rose, that's gross. Please, I don't want to know any details about yours and Emmett's sex life."

"We don't really have one right now."

"Rosalie, I don't want to know it."

She sighed deeply and took another bite from the mustard covered sandwich.

"Much better that way, since eating is the only pleasure I'm getting right now."

"Rose…,"

I checked the time on the small silver watch around my hand, stiffening a bit when I realized that the time was already up half an hour ago. Where the hell was the stupid shrink with Lilly?

"Mommy!" she called out when she saw me. I kneeled down in front of her and wrapped my arms around her neck.

"Hi, sweetie, are you okay?"

The shrink cleared his throat before he spoke up again.

"Miss Swan, you don't have to worry. Your daughter is fine. It's normal that a child gets…agitated when it's going to meet with the other parent, especially when both of the parents are not really on good terms with each other."

"I didn't say anything bad about her father in her presence."

"Hmm, whatever, you should consider having her see someone professional."

"My child is not crazy and she doesn't need therapy."

"But she's going through a lot for a little kid. The divorce and the sudden change of her mother's…preferences and then there's the…,"

Fido nudged his head against Peter's side and whimpered.

The shrink chuckled, and pulled something that looked like beef jerky out of his pocket.

"You're hungry, aren't you?"

He petted Fido's head with his fingertips.

"Such a pretty dog, would be a good watch dog too, I guess."

"You're good with animals." Rosalie stated.

"Normally, he doesn't let strangers touch him."

"I was raised on a Ranch, so I probably just know how to handle them. Plus I like animals a lot. They're not as dishonest as humans."

Lilly waved with a stuffed animal in her hands.

"Daddy gave me that as a present, but I don't want to keep it. Auntie Rosie can have it for the babies if she wants to."

"Oh sure, sweetie, that's nice."

She handed her the stuffed animal, an incredibly ugly thing with huge eyes and pink glitter all over it.

Edward's new secretary – I was sure that he had send her to buy a present for Lilly – had even less taste than the damned strawberry-haired bitch.

Fido growled when Rosalie stuffed it into her bag.

"Stupid dog," she mumbled when he tried to grab one of the arms with his sharp teeth.

"Let go. That's just a toy. Fido, let go!"

He growled again but pulled back to use the opportunity to lick Lilly across the face.

She wrinkled her nose in disgust and wiped the trail of slobber he had left on her cheek away.

"My daddy is scared of Fido." she explained to Peter who had started writing down some notes on a tablet.

"Hmm, but you aren't afraid of him, are you?"

"No, of course not, Fido is my friend, my best friend apart from Jane."