[Disclaimer] Everything Twilight belongs to Mrs. Stephenie Meyer.

[A/N] Blows kisses to all her lovely readers out there. Your encouraging feedback means so much to me, so thanks a lot for it.

This chapter here is dedicated to Fuzzyfeelins and Assassin718. Hope you'll enjoy

#FAQ

How many more chapters will this story have?

My original plan was to end it with chapter 100 but I highly doubt that I'll be finished with it at that time. There is still so much more that I want to write. I hope people won't start getting annoyed by the length of the story.

**Chapter 91**

"She would never do something like that." I told him, trying to keep my voice calm. My nerves were so terribly tensed that I constantly had to fight the embarrassing urge to cry all the time.

His lips twitched into a small smile while he sipped on the glass of water in front of him.

"Maybe that's just because you don't know her well enough."

"Look, I know that you don't want to hear it but things are exactly the other way round. Jane is the one who influences Lilly all the time."

"But my principessa…,"

I cleared my throat nervously before I spoke up again.

"Did Jane tell you that Lilly suggested stabbing their teacher into her hand?"

"Of course not, my principessa is way too protective of your little rossa that's why she told me that it was her idea. But I refuse to believe that my daughter would harm her poor teacher."

"Nobody wants to believe that their child did something wrong."

"Hmm, probably,"

He stood up from the armchair and sighed deeply.

"Maybe we shouldn't let them spend so much time together. They are…too close to each other."

"Yes, no…well, I'm not sure about that. But we should definitely talk about things with them."

When they walked down the stairs, Jane had her tiny arm wrapped around Lilly's shoulder. I couldn't help but think that she truly reminded me of an evil little witch.

"Are you still angry at us?" Lilly asked me worriedly.

"Lilly non ha colpa. How often will I have to tell you that?" she snarled at her father, her grey eyes turning into small slits.

"Janetta, please stop defending her all the time. I'm getting tired of it. I'm sure it was her idea."

"No, it wasn't. She had nothing to do with it. Do you hear me? Niente!"

Lilly started biting her fingernails nervously until Jane grabbed her hand around her wrist.

"Stop doing that all the time. No one is going to hurt you. I won't let that happen."

"But your dad is so angry that you are not allowed to go to school because of me."

"It's not because of you, but because of our stupid teacher. She shouldn't have made you cry."

Her tiny mouth curved into a half-smile before she put a wisp of Lilly's hair behind her ear.

Aro shook his head and sighed deeply before he kneeled down in front of his daughter.

"Principessa, you need to stop defending her all the time. If she's so innocent like you say, how can it be that she got detention too?"

"That's just because our stronza teacher can't stand her. You should really allow me to switch to the school Zia Didyme suggested. They even have horses there for the kids to ride on."

"Janetta, we can't afford sending you to a private school."

"But Zia Didyme said she would pay for it."

"Principessa, where's your pride? There is no way we're going to accept money from your aunt."

"Too bad,"

"I don't want you to go to another school, Jane." Lilly mumbled towards the floor.

"If you aren't there anymore, who's going to protect me?"

XXXX

"How are you feeling?" she asked me, circling her dainty fingertips over the skin underneath my belly button.

"Are you asking me or the baby?"

"Both of you,"

I cupped her face between my hands and planted a soft kiss on her ruby tinted mouth.

"I think, we're doing okay, concerning the current…situation. Dr. O'Hara thinks that I'm not going to lose the child."

"That's good news."

She leaned down to blow feather light kisses all over my face.

"I love you and I really wished that I could protect the two of you better."

"It's not necessary to protect us. I just want you to love me…us."

She rested her head against my lap and I started playing with the spikey curls of her hair.

"I'm sorry." I whispered, stroking down her cheekbone with my fingertips until I reached her full lower lip.

"What for?"

"For yelling at you when you told me that you didn't believe that Esme killed Charlie. I really shouldn't have done that."

"Shhh," she murmured, putting one finger against my mouth to silence me.

"You don't have to apologize to me."

I took her hand in mine and squeezed it gently.

"Is she still refusing to talk about what happened?"

"Yes, she is. Dad hired two lawyers for her but she insists that it isn't necessary. How can she stay so damn calm about this? It is like she isn't afraid of staying in jail at all."

"Maybe she isn't really grasping her situation fully?"

"I don't know. But I hope she'll start talking soon. Zafrina suggested that we should let her see a psychologist just to be sure there isn't anything wrong with her…in that way."

XXXX

"Your mother is not crazy. Esme knows exactly what she's doing." Jasmine assured her while she continued running her fingertips over the edge of her glass, making it cling underneath her touch.

"Stop that! It's so annoying." Ali snarled at her honey-blonde friend.

"She's just doing that because she's nervous." Zafrina mumbled, shoving the empty glass over to the other side of the table.

"I can speak for myself." Jasmine stated, twisting her messy curls into a sloppy ponytail.

"Well, to come back to Esme. I think that she's hiding something."

"Oh really? I thought maybe she just likes staying behind bars." Zafrina whispered, sipping on the cup of coffee in front of her.

"Didn't they tell you how to get people to talk during your study?" she asked Jasmine who had placed one arm around Ali's shoulder now.

"Didn't they tell you how to make sure how the right people end up in jail? Or did you spend your entire time in law school flirting with everyone around you?"

"Unlike you…Miss Whitlock some of us had to work to afford going to university and then I had my brother who scared off most of my…admirers."

"Is your brother a lawyer too?" I asked her, wrapping my arm around Ali's waist. When I leaned over to plant a kiss on the exposed skin of her neck she seemed to relax a tiny little bit.

"Derek is State Attorney,"

"That explains why he act-ed so stiff when you introduced us."

"He only was like that because he can't stand you, Jasmine."

"Let me guess. He doesn't like me because I told him to stop torturing the poor bike?"

"No, it hasn't anything to do with that. My brother doesn't like you because you're white."

"Excuse me? Is this supposed to be a joke?"

"I'm afraid it's not. Look, I'm not really proud about his attitude but that's just the way it is."

"Whatever. It's not like I was planning to spend a lot of my rare free time with him."

Zafrina giggled and started playing with the rubber bands around Jasmine's wrist.

"Do you honestly think that you are so much better than him?"

"I'm not a racist."

Her face paled for a moment before she cleared her throat nervously.

"You don't think, I'm one, do you?"

"I know you're not. But you and he are both full of prejudices. The way you think about bisexuality is based upon nothing but that."

"It's not. I have reasonable arguments that I've told you about over and over again."

"Yeah I know, I'm supposed to fuck around all the time and to catch all kind of STD's. Oh and don't forget the whole threesomes and foursomes and the rest of the kinky stuff. Sometimes when I wake up in the morning I have to throw a coin to decide whether I like cock or pussy for breakfast."

"The thought of a guy touching you makes me want to vomit in my mouth. Why the hell do you have to be that way?

She sighed deeply and stood up from the couch.

"Grow up, cowgirl. The world is not just straight or gay. People screw up no matter which team they're playing for. And you are just scared."

"I'm not scared."

"Oh yes you are. You push every chance of getting happy in your life away from you and prefer mourning over something that was never meant to be."

"How dare you, tell me what is or isn't meant to be for me? You're just jealous."

"Don't be ridiculous. You know what? I'm tired of discussing with you all the time. I have to do that at work all the time and it's too exhausting to deal with something like that in my private life too."

She cleared her throat and tried to keep her voice calm when she turned to me and Ali again.

"I'll call you later. Try to keep your nerves. You may need them for what is coming."

When she was out of the room, Jasmine's mouth opened and closed for a few times but not a single noise came out of it.

"Are you okay?" Ali asked her worriedly, shaking her forearm for a moment.

"She's pretty pissed at me, isn't she?"

"Does it matter?"

"Of course, it does. I don't want her to be angry at me. I like her."

"You have a strange way of showing her that you like her." my pixie-like wife stated reproachfully.

"I'm not showing her anything. I don't like Zafrina …at least not in that way."

"Are you fucking stupid, Jazz? It's obvious to everyone around you that you like her. I see the way you keep looking at her when you think no one is watching you."

XXXX

I stuffed another one of the deliciously tasting almond cookies into my mouth where it almost instantly melted on my tongue.

"Why was Aro here?" Ali asked me when she handed me the cup with my hot chocolate.

"To talk about the detention of our daughters,"

"Oh that. I'm sure he wasn't too pleased about what his little principessa has done."

"That's putting it mildly. Like I need dealing with that too. Best thing was that he assumed that Lilly made Jane stab her teacher's hand. It's his evil, little witch of a daughter who is influencing Lilly all the time. She's the one who hangs on every word that comes out of Jane's mouth and I really would like to know why it is that way."

"Because Lilly feels like Jane is protecting her all the time and she's still too young to understand that it hasn't got anything to do with protection when Jane hits other kids…or her teacher to defend her."

I took a sip from the hot chocolate and sighed deeply.

"Do you think I should tell Lilly to stay away from Jane?"

"If you want her to be mad at you,"

Ali took one of the almond cookies and waved with it in front of my mouth.

"You really like those, don't you?"

"Hmm,"

"Can I tell you something? I actually think, it's cute how they act around each other. When I picked Lilly up from her headmaster's office she asked him over and over again not to punish Jane for protecting her."

"And he?"

"Said that it doesn't matter to him why Jane acted like that. He told Lilly that she needed to learn to defend herself on her own for there won't always be someone who will keep unpleasant things out of her way."

My hands started quivering so much that I dropped the rest of my cup of hot chocolate on the floor where it left a dark mark on the carpet.

"Bella? Are you feeling dizzy again?"

"Yes and no. I think that I might have figured out why Esme refuses to tell anyone that she didn't kill Charlie."

"Bella, I don't want to fight with you again but no matter what you say. There is no way I'm ever going to believe that my mother is a killer."

"I know."

I took several deep breaths through my mouth before I managed to speak up again, my voice trembling slightly.

"Esme is trying to protect the real murderer."

"What kind of nonsense is that supposed to be? She would never, ever protect such a dastardly person."

"Probably not, but there is someone that she would always protect, always no matter what."

[A/N] I really love reading all your theories about things. Some of you have such brilliant ideas. I'd like to know how many of you would be interested in reading a flashback scene of the night Charlie died.