9 months later
"Mum?" I asked as I entered my mother's office in Paris.
"Sweetie, what are you doing here? I thought you were staying in tonight," mum asked, barely looking up from her work.
I'd never felt unloved in my childhood. It was undeniable, both of my parent's adored me. Just as much as they adored their work. My father was a criminal defence attorney, working with some… unsavoury kinds of people. He moved over to the UK to be with my mother when they were in their twenties. They were never married. My mother was too much of a free spirit. I guess my father and uncle Charlie were both genetically predisposed to be attracted to the same kind of woman. My aunt Renee operated on a similar kind of wavelength.
My mother worked in fashion, splitting her time between the UK and France. It was a demanding job that left little in the way of spare time.
As much attention as I had received when my parents were together, after they split it became harder for them to manage their work commitments and me. So I become a boarder at my school. We were a tight-knit group of friends, me and the other boarders, and we all got to head home for the holidays. I'd spend the Summer holidays in the States with my uncle and cousin and split the rest of my holiday time between my mother and father.
"It's Tuesday…" I answered her after a stunned pause.
"And?"
"And you promised me we'd go out for dinner together on Tuesday."
"Oh, sweetheart I just don't have time tonight sorry. Maybe another night."
"Mum!"
"I have work to do."
My bottom lip quivered slightly before my rage set in. "No."
"Pardon?"
"I said no mum. We're going out for dinner, and we're going tonight. You've been working the entire time I've been here. I've had nothing to do. You barely ever see me, yet you can't take one single night off work to come and have dinner with me? No. No. We're going, and that's not negotiable.
"Ok," mum agreed. "If it's that important to you, we'll go," she nodded as she began packing up her desk.
My eyebrow raised in confusion. That ended up being relatively easy. I'd never struggled to get what I wanted from my parents. One tear in my eye and my dad was putty in my hands. My mother would yield, but you just had to tell her directly what you wanted.
"Ok. Great, I'll meet you at the restaurant around the corner," I smiled gently, not wanting to devolve back into an argument. "The one we went to for my birthday last year?"
"I'll meet you there in ten," she agreed.
As soon as I started walking down the stairs, my phone rang.
Alice Cullen.
I hadn't spoken to any of the Cullens, not even Bella since I left Forks in the New Year. How bizarre that Alice would be the one calling me, not my own cousin.
"Hello?" I answered.
"Willa? Where are you?"
"Alice?"
"Are you in Paris? Please tell me you're not in Paris."
"Yeah, I… wait how did you know that?" I demanded.
"Bella told me," Alice lied.
"I haven't spoken to Bella in months. Sorry Alice, but why are you calling?"
"Don't walk anywhere."
"Huh?"
"Don't walk around Paris. It's not safe. Take a car to the restaurant, wait for your mom, it doesn't matter. Just don't walk alone."
"You can't tell me what to do," I snapped irritably. "Are you stalking me?"
"Willa please, we're just trying to protect you…" she started to plead before I hung up on her.
I know it wasn't fair to resent the Cullen's. They'd done nothing against me personally. But in truth, I did resent them. Within the span of two years, they'd stolen my only cousin's attention. The first Christmas I spent with Bella after meeting the Cullen's, she'd been an empty shell following their temporary departure from her life. Devoid of emotions that were so integral to her character.
The second Christmas just passed, I'd felt like an intruder in Bella's new family. An unnecessary piece of a puzzle that just didn't quite fit. Perhaps it wasn't fair to feel resentment. I'd only get to see Bella once a year anyway, but having that one constant family member in my life, one who would always answer when I called, was reassuring.
And now it was gone.
Alice's strange phone call didn't deter me from walking to the restaurant. In honesty, I often thought about how different my life would have been if I'd heeded her warning and waited for my mother. It never did me well to dwell on the 'could-have-beens', it would never change the outcome, merely prolong the suffering.
So off I walked, to the restaurant around the corner from my mother's office. Perhaps if I'd known that'd be the last time I'd see her I would've said one final, "I love you," indulged in one last hug. But it was not to be.
I decided to cut through a laneway, a shortcut I'd taken numerous times before that would see me to the other side of the block in mere seconds, as opposed to minutes.
As I entered the laneway I heard the rattle of a metal trash can. I turned around to survey the area but found I was alone, but that didn't stop the feeling of dread from creeping up on me. Slowly turning back to face the exit, I froze when I noticed a hulking figure lurking at the end. I quickly spun around, to go back the way I had entered, only to jump at the appearance of a man and a girl. They hadn't been there previously and had managed to sneak up on me in only a few seconds. Nervously I took a step back, only to collide with the chest of the large man from earlier. He'd managed to make his way across the entire path in mere seconds. As soon as my back hit him, I let out a startled shriek that only served to make the girl giggle.
"You're right Felix, she does smell good," the girl mused.
"It's Marc Jacobs," I snapped. "Now if you wouldn't mind, I have somewhere to be." I tried to calm my heartbeat as I went to step around the large man. I had no such luck as the man stuck his arm out to stop me, only his arm was as heavy as concrete and sent me falling to the ground.
"There's something familiar about her," the smaller man mused as he looked down at me. "Her tenor there's something about it."
"You've never met her directly?" the girl asked and the man shook his head.
"I have a bad feeling about this," he muttered.
I slowly scooted myself away from them as they bickered. I thought I'd escaped their notice until I felt my body fly into the wall. Groaning in pain my hand grabbed the side of my rib cage, trying to compress the pain radiating through my body.
Before anybody could make their next move, the ringtone from my phone rang through the alley. The phone had landed a few feet from my hand, but before I could crawl forward to snatch at it, it was already in the girl's hand.
"What is this?" she hissed enraged.
"A phone, Jane," the smaller man sighed.
"I know what a phone is Demetri!" Jane screeched. "But why is Alice Cullen calling this human!"
The two men were by Jane's side peering at the phone before I could even blink. Their speed was unnatural, so much so that my brain was unable to comprehend what was going on.
"What do you want?" Jane hissed into the phone as she answered it. "We've already caught this human, she's seen too much."
I couldn't hear what Alice said in response, but Felix and Demetri seemed able to. Whatever it was didn't please Jane, and she responded by crushing my phone in her bare hands. She appeared crouched in front of me and roughly grasped the chain around my neck, tugging the pendant out from under my sweater.
"Where did you get this?" she demanded. When I refused to answer she pulled the chain tighter. "Tell me."
"Get off me you psycho bitch!" I fought back, slapping at her hands, though it seemed to have no effect.
"She's English Jane. You know Aro had his eye on an English girl. He told us not to hunt teenage girls in England, maybe this is her," Felix suggested.
"Well we're not in England," Jane growled, immediately silencing him. "Where did you get this crest? This is a Volturi crest, it does not belong on the likes of you, human."
"It was given to me as a gift, now let me go!" I screamed.
"Jane… you heard what the Cullen girl said. She said he'll be angry if the human is hurt. Perhaps Felix is right. The girl has the Volturi crest. Perhaps this is a form of protection."
"Perhaps," Jane hummed. "Felix, knock her out," she instructed as she stood up.
"What! Get away from me, get away!" I panicked as my legs flailed about in an attempt to keep the large man from getting any closer to me.
"Now Felix," Jane demanded, and I noticed Felix's expression immediately harden. Jane was very clearly the one with the authority. He no longer respected the space my kicking legs had created. He chose instead to push through, and all it took was one forceful tap of his fingers against the side of my head, and my vision turned to black.