BPOV

Charlie clasps my arm in his, running his fingers down my skin possessively. His tracing and tickling finger illicits bone-chills from me; I feel as though my body has turned to ice. "I'm just so happy you're okay, Isabella. You were gone for so long."

I nod, I'll be good Daddy I promise. I try to say the words but my lips will not move. I want to break my silence but I am kept back by every fiber of my being. I am grateful now for the catheter.

I do not know how long he will keep up his act of the concerned parent, but we have been alone for some time now. I have been assured again and again of the guard outside my door, but I do not think I could yell for help before Charlie could do something to me… or to the babies.

I am displayed for Charlie, in all my whoreish glory. He can see plainly my belly, he can see that I have been punished for something. A lot of somethings. I wonder what my punishment will be for leaving home? For spending over a year as a slut? I know he will see it this way and I do not blame him. I try to smile at my father, but it is a painful grimace.

"Now Isabella, I'm going to go get some coffee. Tell Daddy you love him." he grins at me, tilts his head for a peck on the cheek.

"I love you, Daddy." I sigh, and strain to reach his face. My restraints remain however, and my effort is made in vain.

"I thought, if anything, you would've learned to do what you're told you little bitch." Charlie hisses under hot breath, mask dropped for a moment. He pinches my wrist painfully, twisting the skin he was grazing over a moment ago.

I stifle my whimper, knowing it will only egg him on. "I'm sorry, sir."

He scowls at me, stalking out of the room. I glance down worried at the little mark, but he pinched me just where it could have been my restraints. Lucky me.

I considered protesting when he came into my room for the first time. But everyone was expecting a joyous renunion, and my increased heart rate and tears were normal for a girl who has gone over a year without seeing her father. I do not know how to tell anyone, no more than I knew how when I was just a girl.

Staying at the hospital has gotten easier over the past couple of days. No one can, or maybe will, tell me where Edward is or even if he is safe. I have panicked about it enough that the doctor forbade me to speak of him until the babies are born. Dr. Ben told me I was doing my own health no favors, but I was bound to cause an early delivery if I did not calm down. That shut me up.

I have gotten back some of my strength. Just before the raid, I was scarcely able to lift my own leg. I am exhausted of course, weary and glad of my bedrest. This makes sense, considering how lazy I am. Charlie would agree. But I do feel stronger. I am awake more often, and the tangle of life in my belly moves more now. I feel like a shell around them, curving around them and keeping them safe. I only wish I could protect them from the outside world for even longer.

So far, I have spent a week inside the hospital. A calendar and clock were brought in, a request I was terrified to make but also desperate. I could not stand the thought of more time slipping by with me unaware. Time took on such a dangerous fluidity while we… while I was captive and I need to gain that part of life back. Living without a home even before that, time was reduced to only night or day. It pains me to take ownership in this way but I found it hard to breathe when I woke up a few mornings ago and had no idea of the time. The curtains are always drawn in my room, in an effort to keep me resting and calm.

This is the strangest thing about being in the hospital. My life is reduced to my health and the health of the babies. I have a gut-wrenching urge to protect them and sacrifice my own freedom, but I cannot help but feel some of the powerlessness I felt as a captive. Some of the… the sense of being livestock. A broodmare.

I shift uneasily. There is a television in the corner of the room, meant to entertain me. They keep the sound off but subtitles on, and they keep it on some sort of nonsense channel. I pay little attention, since what really interests me is the news. I am terrified that Edward will stare back at me from that television, from a mugshot in a jumpsuit. Or worse, that I will read a headline that tells me the voice is still at large. I know this is why they keep me from seeing, but the not knowing is almost worse.

Charlie comes back through the door. He comes in gently and slowly, likely for my guard's benefit. I give a little start despite this. I do not trust him. I know that I need to be a good girl, but I do not much feel like a good girl right now. I feel like a girl that has been used completely up and spit back into a world where I am not asked what I want. I feel as though I have been a captive in my childhood, a captive of a madman, and now my own health holds me captive. The babies do, in some way. I feel a spark of resentment, and immediate heart-breaking shame.

Charlie can read me like a book. He doesn't know what thought I've just had, but he knows I am embarrassed and shocked by it. He shoots me a snide grin and takes a pull of his coffee. I hope he drops the cup and it fries his lap.

No, no, no, I mustn't think like that.

I study him from where I sit, careful not to reach for his eyes with my own. Eye contact has always provoked him, earned me a slap for being a cheeky little thing-bitch-whore. Wince.

I wonder after Jake, sweet Jake. One of the nurses whispered to me yesterday that they found me through him. He searched high and low, dug up all the information he could and passed it onto the police when he had proof of the voice conducting a big operation somewhere in the city. They found us… they found me, from there. I want to shake my memories from that time and that day out of my head. I do not think I will ever see Edward again. Not with the proof of my transgressions large under my blankets, between my father and I.

Dr. Ben enters the room. He looks a little concerned, and very serious. I am on alert instantly, since he normally makes such a studied effort to be pleasant and calm around me. My breath quickens and I flash my eyes over to Charlie. He has bristled, but grins his teeth in a garish attempt at a friendly grin. Perhaps that is just my imagination, though. Charlie has kept up appearances with me for years. He knows how to spin me as the unruly child in need of a… in need of a firm hand.

I tremble slightly and clench my right hand nervously. Dr. Ben sits beside my bed, meeting my eyes with his soothing grey eyes. I lock onto them.

"Bella, your father and I-"

"Isabella." Charlie's voice rips into the room.

"I'm sorry?"

"My daugher prefers Isabella."

Dr. Ben frowns. "I'm sorry Mr. Swan, would you mind stepping out of the room? I have sensitive information I need to speak with your daughter about." My heart sinks.

Charlie crosses his leg over his knee, clasps his hands before him and leans back. His smile is cool and predatory. "Dr. Cheney, anything you need to say to her you can say to me."

Dr. Ben snaps up tall, looming over the bed. I whimper at the sudden movement and flinch. "Mr. Swan, I am happy to call Bella's security detail in here. I need to speak with her alone."

Charlie is cowed. He does not want to break appearances, I know this. "Fine. I need to use the men's anyway." He still snaps a little, and stalks out of the room.

The door whooshes closed behind him and I catch a whiff of hallway air.

Dr. Ben sighs and beings to undo my restraints. I start to protest, but bite my tongue. I can behave. If he wants this done to me, it's not up to me.

"Bella, Charlie has asked for paperwork to be brought up for you. He wants you to sign away rights to your children."

My heart plummets and tears begin to flow immediately. My breath picks up, and I try to catch it. Dr. Ben looks sternly at me. "You calm down, now. Come on, I am expecting to be able to speak with you."

I gulp and nod, wiping frantically at my eyes with my newly free hands. I shift to sit a little taller and listen to him. Dr. Ben expects more than a snivelling coward from me, he expects a mother.

"I need you to tell me now, Bella. Charlie has been abusing you for some time, hasn't he?"

I nod.

"Bella, I need you to say it out loud."

"Yessir."

"You know you do not have to call me that."

"Sorry… Dr. Ben. Sorry. He can't take them, can he?" My voice quivers though I try to keep it strong and steady.

"You're 19 now Bella, so he has no direct guardianship over you. However, if you cannot get your anxiety under control, he will make the argument that you need to be legally put under his care after the birth. I know he has power over you, and I have a plan for how we can help that."

I am lifted by hope. "How?"

"You need to speak to the police Bella. I know, I know, not about your experience just yet. But you need to tell them that Charlie hurt you before you disappeared and he cannot be allowed near you now."

Dr. Ben cannot possibly know what he is asking of me. To go against the man I fear most in the world… to betray the man I have worked my whole life to obey. Conditioned, trained, kept bent to his every will. It took every ounce of strength I had in me to run away from my problems before I was taken. How could I possibly face him?

"He's a cop, sir, I can't-"

"You can, and you have to. If you have any desire to keep your children under your care, you need to. We have not been telling you anything about Edward for a reason, sweetheart. I must leave it for now by saying that Edward will not be in any position to pursue any parental right. Of course, paternity has not even been established-"

I cry out and he looks instantly sick to his stomach. "I'm sorry Bella, but those are the facts. We cannot know what happened while you were being held, you were drugged the vast majority of the time, and…" his face ripples with many emotions.

I bite my lip and stare up at him. "I can do it. How can you help me?"