Chapter Thirty Eight
Carlisle
I would be eternally grateful to Aro for this call, giving me a way of saving my family and Bella. I went quickly downstairs to find Esme working in her room, on her latest commission. She looked at me as I came in too quickly and dropped her pen rushing over to me.
"What's the matter Carlisle? Is it one of the children?"
"No Esme not exactly. I just had a call from Aro."
"The Volturi? I never heard the phone ring."
"You wouldn't have, it was my cell phone, the small silver one."
I emphasized the color and her hand flew to her mouth in horror, she knew this was an emergency line between Aro and myself.
"What's happened? Are we in trouble?"
The hand at her mouth trembled now and her eyes grew wide, and then she worked it out.
"Someone told the Volturi about Bella didn't they?"
"I'm afraid so but luckily they spoke directly to Aro himself and he rang me with a warning. We have to leave Esme, I'm so sorry but it's the only thing we can do and Aro in return will keep our crime a secret."
"What about Bella though?"
"He will allow her to live so long as she keeps our secret."
"But how will he know Carlisle? Will he send someone to spy on her? And why would he allow us to get away with breaking the most important of his laws? Who would do such a thing? I blame myself Carlisle, we were so sure we were safe we never gave a thought to the consequences of our actions."
Esme was babbling in her terror and I wrapped my arms around her trembling body and tried to comfort her.
"I don't know all the answers Esme but he gave me his word he would see Bella was safe if we leave immediately. As to who made the call he didn't say and I was too busy listening to him to ask. Besides does it matter who it was? Now listen to me carefully, I need you to ring the school and tell them there is a family emergency, that we have to leave urgently with the children. I'll pack the essentials we can arrange for the rest to be collected later. I need to contact the clinic and request a leave of absence. As soon as the others arrive we leave, no hanging around."
Esme nodded trying desperately to pull herself together.
"We should take Bella with us, she's not safe if she stays Carlisle, whatever Aro says, he will always be suspicious of her."
"No Esme, just think what would happen if she went missing at the same time we left. We'd have the police after us and that would make matters even worse. Aro might not be able to protect us then. I trust Aro and my concern now is you and the children. Where did Edward go? Have we heard from him since he left?"
"No but he's not in Denali, I checked with Carmen only yesterday and they haven't heard a word from him. I'll ring and leave a message on his phone."
"He might already know Esme."
She looked at me aghast,
"You can't really believe that Edward rang Aro and told him?"
"I don't want to think so but he was extremely angry when he left last week and we both know how rashly he can act."
"I don't believe it Carlisle, he wouldn't put us all in danger, not you anyway."
"Well its something we will have to face later, For now you need to ring the school."
Alice
As soon as I saw the secretary walk in I knew something was wrong and that whatever it was it concerned me. When she asked me to follow her and passed on the message from Esme I understood something extremely dangerous had happened. I met Rose and Emmett outside in the parking lot and we drove back to the house speculating what could be wrong. Unfortunately everything we thought of concerned Bella. Had Edward done something stupid since breaking up with Bella? Had the Volturi found out about her?
"You don't think Edward told the Volturi about Bella do you?"
Rose hated to think she might be right but Em shook his head,
"He wouldn't do that, it's like sending us to the gallows. More likely to be that nomad Nathaniel but its probably got nothing to do with Bella. Maybe Carlisle slipped at the clinic and gave himself away."
"Carlisle? How likely is that Em?"
He turned to Rose angrily,
"About as likely as the Volturi finding out about Bella Rose so lets stop speculating, we're almost there."
When we pulled up at the house Carlisle was throwing bags in the trunk of his car and a pile more were on the porch. Seeing us he came over.
"We need to leave now. I'll explain later. Esme is finishing packing the important things. Alice, Em take your cars too, fill your trunks and then head out on Highway 101. don't stop until you reach Olympia then take Interstate 5 to Sumner. Book in a motel under Watson and we'll catch you up. Now go."
It was even more dangerous than we had thought so while he went inside to help Esme I filled my trunk and set off with Emmett and Rose hard on my heels.
I cursed my vision which let me down just when I needed it most. I had come to rely more on my gift to keep us safe and it had failed us, as it had done in the past sometimes. I couldn't think of anyone or anything apart from the Volturi that would have us fleeing so precipitously. When my cell phone rang I answered quickly hoping it might be Carlisle or Esme but it was just Rose asking if I'd seen anything.
"No, I'm sorry, I wish I had but I'm as much in the dark as you Rose."
"I'm scared Alice."
"Me too but lets get to Sumner and then maybe we'll find out what really is going on. The only consolation is that if we were running to hide I doubt we would stay so close, we'd be across state lines and still going. So maybe it's not quite as bad as we think."
"Where are you?"
I had to think fast to explain why they were now in front of me. My quick detour to leave a note on Bella's windscreen had cost me. I was saved by Em whose phone went off then.
"Call me back if it's news."
It was only a text message and I received the same with the name of the motel, Sumner Motor Inn, one room in the name of Watson and the other Holmes. I had to smile, even in danger Carlisle's sense of humor shone through.
Four hours later I pulled into the motel parking lot to see Emmett's truck already parked up at one of the rooms so I pulled up next to him and rushed inside. Rose flew at me as I got through the door.
"Where were you? I expected you to be here ahead of us. What happened?"
"I had to stop and you must have passed me, I needed gas."
I just hoped she wouldn't check my gauge which was now only on half full but she just hugged me in relief and I realized she had been terrified I had been caught by whoever we were running from.
We sat together mostly in silence until we heard Carlisle's car pull into the lot and minutes later he and Esme joined us both looking worried. They explained what had happened and we all expected Rosalie to say she had told us so but to her credit she just shook her head.
"Do you think it was wise to leave Bella behind? After all she's broken the law too."
"Aro promised me she would be safe if she kept quiet and I think Bella knows enough to understand that. Besides if we had brought her with us it would be classed as kidnapping, or that's the way her father would see it and we cannot afford to come to the notice of the authorities, especially the human ones right now."
"So what do we do?"
"We find somewhere else to live. As far from Bella and Forks as possible and hope Aro can keep our actions a secret from Caius and Marcus."
"And Edward?"
"I left him several messages Alice so all we can do is to wait for him to get back to us."
As Esme spoke Carlisle got out a map of the country and spread it across the table.
"Choose somewhere while I arrange for our furniture to be put in storage for now."