Author's Note: I don't own Twilight. Okay? Okay.

Bella's POV-

It's been a month since I had last seen the Cullens. The thought sounded bizarre to me. A month—a little more than four weeks—since the Cullens were here. It felt like it had been a much shorter time. Every time I had a free second to think, his face filled my mind. I'd only seen it for a matter of seconds, but the effect those seconds had on me was more than I'd ever care to admit. A hundred years of nothing—no communication, no visits to Volterra—hell, I didn't even know if they were still alive, and in a matter of seconds, every old wound that I had struggled to recover from was suddenly ripped open again. Only this time, it was worse because my daughter was involved.

I hadn't even known how to react. I was angry, sad, hurt, embarrassed, frustrated—you name it. I ended up just shutting down. Sadness and betrayal took control and I couldn't even bring myself to be outwardly angry. I was lost. I should have known she'd want to meet them. She's always had an overwhelming curiosity about the other part of her family. I just didn't know how to explain to her that the hope was a lost cause. They didn't want us. They never have, and that was the end of it.

As I said, that was a month ago. Since then, I had been avoiding my daughter like the plague. Was it the best decision I've ever made? No, but for my own sanity right now, it was necessary. I had so many emotions mixed up in my head, I didn't even know where to start. For starters, I was angry. Renesmee deliberately went behind my back and brought the Cullens here. She knew that her decision would upset me, and that I would never approve and she did it anyway. I was also angry with the Cullens for not only leaving me to raise Renesmee on my own, but because now they seemed to be playing her just like they played me. I was sad knowing this. Renesmee was so naive! I was still angry but another part of me felt guilty. If I had just told Renesmee the truth all along, it would have saved both of us a lot of hurt in the long run. Those emotions were just the tip of the iceberg. It'd be far too complicated to explain everything I was feeling. Long story short, it was too painful to even look at my daughter, let alone speak to her right now, so I made a selfish move and pretended she wasn't there.

I'd been doing that for a month now, and nothing had gotten better. There seemed to be a divide in the castle. Something had gone down between Jane and Renesmee. I didn't inquire as to what actually happened because I'm sure that it would just add more emotions to the mix, but I knew that whatever it was, it was bad. I could barely spend time with Jane anymore because I was so torn inside, and I couldn't deal with her not so subtle digs at my daughter 24/7. Demetri and Felix also sympathized with me, but they didn't approve of my decision to completely ignore my daughter, nor did Alec who regularly tried to convince me to talk to her. Everyone else seemed to be passive. They didn't want to get involved and I didn't want to talk about it, so we didn't. The only one other than Renesmee that I was trying to avoid was Aro. He'd helped her with her little scheme and he knew the whole story. That pissed me off to the max.

It wasn't until this morning that I'd even realized it'd been a whole month since Renesmee's birthday, and I'd only figured that out after Renesmee called me out on ignoring her for the past month. Needless to say, that ended horribly. I fought with myself for hours after that on whether or not to find her and give in to talking to her. The fact that it'd been an entire month and nothing had changed made me more perceptive to the idea that unless we talked it out, things might not get better for a while.

It was the late evening by now, and I'd finally decided to at least make an attempt at trying to talk to my daughter. I walked out of my room slowly, my mind telling me that it'd be much easier just to go back and hide in my room. I fought against my mind and walked in the direction of Renesmee's room. I didn't hear her heartbeat, so I walked toward the base to try and find her. As I approached, I heard hushed voices speaking quickly and tried to listen to what they were saying.

"I'm telling you, Felix. She's gone—nowhere to be found—missing." Alec whispered angrily.

"Are you certain she's not just with Sulpicia again? She goes up there a lot." Felix responded.

"Of course I'm certain, you doof! I've checked all over, and she's gone." Alec responded sharply. I could feel my chest tightening and I prayed to myself that they weren't talking about Renesmee.

"Have you asked your sister? Maybe they got into another brawl and she went out to blow off steam." Felix suggested. "Or maybe she went hunting! That's a reasonable explanation." I could hear Alec grit his teeth.

"No, I'd have heard it from Jane if Ness pissed her off again, and Ness wouldn't go hunting alone. She always takes someone with her." Alec defended. I walked the rest of the way into the base, now that my fears were confirmed.

"Alec, when was the last time you saw her?" I asked, not trying to disguise the evident worry in my voice. Alec seemed panicked when he saw me, but he knew that I'd heard what he said, so there was no getting around it.

"I saw her this morning, but only briefly. She was in the kitchen getting herself breakfast. We didn't talk." He told me. So I'd seen her more recently than he did. I asked Felix the same question but he said he hadn't seen her today.

"Where's Demetri?" I asked, hoping he'd be able to track her down.

"We haven't seen him since last night." Alec spoke for the two of them. I sighed angrily, and started walking away.

"I don't have time for this! We need to find her!" I yelled as I stormed away. I ran toward Renesmee's room. I was frantic. I couldn't think about anything that happened in the last month, all I could think was that Renesmee was missing and nobody had the slightest idea where she went. I opened the door to her room and started looking for some kind of clue or something that would indicate where she was.

I checked her closet and saw that her large duffle bag, and a handful of clothes were gone. I checked her bed and bedside tables for a note of some sort but found nothing. I couldn't even call her because Jane convinced me to take away her phone like a teenager if she was going to act like one. I scoured her whole room and found absolutely nothing. I sat down at her desk and dry sobbed into my hands.

As mad as I was, I loved my daughter more than anything in the entire world and not knowing where she could be killed me. For all I knew, she and Jane could have gotten into an argument and she could be ten minutes away at a hotel or something, but the uncertainty killed me more than anything. I wished I had spoken to her today. I have always tried to make it a point to let Renesmee know that she could come to me, but now that she actually tried to, I turned her away for selfish reasons. I was a failure for a mother.

I longed to see her face. I needed to know that she was safe. I would give anything for her to be here talking to me right now. I couldn't give up. I had to have missed something. I checked her shelves, her closet, her bathroom even, and still nothing. I wonder how mad she would be to find out I was going through all her stuff, especially if she's perfectly safe somewhere around here.

I looked at her desk and then went through her drawers. Most of them had art supplies in them, but another one was locked, unlike the other four drawers. She'd probably kill me for this later, but I broke open the drawer and looked inside. Inside was a small and medium sized book. I looked at the first one. It was her diary. I flipped it open to the last page and was displeased to find that she hadn't written in it for a few months.

Then I opened the second book. It wasn't as much a book as it was an album. It smelled distantly of her. Granted, her whole room smelt like her, but this seemed a bit stronger. There were pictures taped on every page with captions written underneath them. Some were of us. Some were of places we'd gone or wanted to visit. There were some of the rest of the guard, along with Aro, Marcus, and Caius. I flipped to the last page and my heart sank. The picture was of Renesmee and Edward. She was in the front of the picture smiling a huge, dazzling grin and he was sitting right behind her on a bed smiling crookedly like I used to be so fond of. I couldn't bring myself to read the caption. Also on this page, sticking out of the top like a bookmark, was a small note with phone numbers and an address written on it. It had all of the Cullens names written on it.

I grabbed the note and slammed the book shut. Of course she would go to the Cullens! As far as she knows, the Cullens are the kind, caring people they pretended to be with me. She has no idea what they're capable of. She thinks that I'm the one who left and rejected them, just like I was doing with her, so why not go where she feels appreciated? Damn it! Why did she have to be so naive and impulsive?

I immediately headed for the airport. I was going to get my daughter back before the Cullens could break my daughter's heart just as they did mine. I felt the guilt pinching at non-beating heart. If I had just been honest from the beginning, she would be here in Volterra—safe, with me. That's all I've ever wanted. I never want her to feel the same heartbreak that I felt, which I knew was a healthy possibility considering how curious she'd always been about her father. I just wanted her to be safe and happy and mine. She was my rock, the only thing that kept me going for the past hundred years. Sure, I'd gone the past month without talking to her, but I always knew that she was safe and close to me.

As time went on, my anger at my daughter lessened and reflected back onto myself. While she knew that getting to know the Cullens would upset me, she didn't understand why. If I'd had the courage to tell her, I'm certain she would have acted differently. Renesmee has always been very smart and mature, so it's easy to forget the fact that she's still part human. No matter how old she gets, she is still influenced by her human nature—that of a sixteen year old. She gets moody and emotional and dramatic sometimes because that's who she is. I should have tried to understand her more. It's my job as her mother to try to understand, even when I don't want to.

I hoped that I wouldn't be too late. It would shatter my baby's heart to find out the truth about what her father had actually said, and I'd prefer it came from me rather than one of them. I didn't want to imagine the even worse situation if they decided to say the same things to her that they did to me. I grew fearful and sad at the thought.

No! Pull yourself together, Bella! You are not some weak little human anymore. You are a strong, protective mama bear! I told myself. I boarded my plane and took my seat in first class. This would be an agonizingly long plane ride, but it would be the quickest way to Washington. I was on a mission now, and I promised myself that if anybody was getting hurt, it was not going to be my little girl.

Author's Note:

Mama Bella is back and she is on a mission! I'm sure many of you won't be happy with Bella's thought process right now, but I assure you Nessie is not forgiven quite yet and I feel like Bella's response is rational. Her reason for existing (as mad as she was) is gone, and could be in danger—things are suddenly put in perspective.

Review goal is 550 reviews for this one! Be sure to let me know any…

1. Predictions (next ch. is Nessie's POV)

2. Suggestions

3. Thoughts on this chapter/plot in general

Also I'm pretty sure there will be no Jacob. I never planned for him to be a big part anyway. It was only going to be like a paragraph describing him, not even dialogue. I might write an outtake for those who really want to see him.

Until next time, Taylor

***PM with questions