Chapter 3: At Death's Door
Edward
I knew that Alice was up to something when she sent me to that grocery store by myself. She had been trying really hard to keep me out of her head since we landed in Hawaii last night. She had been translating the battle of the hymn of the republic and foreign languages. That little pixie had gotten good at keeping me out of her head.
So when she made that seemingly innocent request to go to the market I didn't question it. Though the supermarket was a strange place to send a vampire to. We never ate food. We hadn't had human food in the house since, well, since Renesmee. As soon as I saw my daughter in the parking lot I knew it was her. My sweet baby girl. She is all grown up now. Physically she was the same age as a 17 year old girl.
Losing her had been very hard. It had been especially hard on Bella who blamed herself for Nessie going missing. It wasn't her fault though. We all should have been watching Nessie more closely on that fateful hunting trip. Nessie wandered just a little too far out of my hearing range and then we never saw her again. We searched for her everywhere. Jacob had the packs looking for her day and night for months and all of it was to no avail.
After hearing my daughter's thoughts I thought I understood perfectly why Alice hadn't just told Bella and I that our daughter was here. Bella would've reacted to Nessie's presence not knowing that she was suffering from amnesia and had no idea who we were. Had I not heard my daughter's thoughts when she noticed me I wouldn't have known that she didn't remember who I was. It was painful to see that she had no recollection of us. All I wanted was just to hug my daughter and never let her go ever again.
I watched as my daughter took a small baby boy from out of the backseat. The boy's heart was beating very erratically. I gathered right away that the baby boy had a serious heart condition. It wasn't just the baby that had health issues. My daughter's scent was off. There was no other words to describe it. Her scent still smelled like scent but it also smelled, well, tainted, was the best word that I could think of to describe her smell. She looked sick. That worried me.
I followed my daughter into the market and watched her as she did her shopping. Then I watched in shock and anger as the cashier embarrassed her in front of everyone when her card didn't work. It was a food stamp card and for some reason he felt the need to embarrass my daughter for using one. Nessie ran off in tears and that was when I went to confront the man and his supervisor for what happened. I paid for the groceries myself and went after my daughter.
That was what eventually led to me being in her apartment. It was a very small apartment. One that wasn't in the best of neighborhoods either. The building itself looked run down and in need of repair.
I spotted a lot of medication bottles on the kitchen counter. Several of them had Kayden's name on them but there were plenty that had my daughter's name on them as well.
"This is a lot of medication that you have here," I noted hoping that would lead to more information.
"It's Kayden's. He has a heart condition that will likely kill him in the near future. The medicine is just to help prolong his life. But, what he really needs is an expensive surgery that we can't afford. That's why no one wants to adopt him. Because he is a sickly baby as they say," I could hear the sadness in her thoughts and in her voice as well. It was very clear that she loved Kayden even though she wasn't related to him biologically.
"Some of these have your name on it," I said. It did not escape my notice that she didn't acknowledge that some of these medications belonged to her.
"It's pain medication that the doctor prescribed to ease my suffering,"
Suffering. That word stuck in my head like glue.
"Ease what suffering?" I asked.
She hesitated and I heard the answer in her head before she even had a chance to say it out loud.
"A few weeks ago I was told that I have terminal cancer. Leukemia. I was only given a few months to live. Treatment is not an option for me. My family can't afford it and our insurance will not pay for it. So paid medication is all I get. So I am just trying to make the best out of what little time I have left,"
I didn't want to believe it. My brain had trouble processing the words. But now slowly it was all beginning to make sense. Her blood was tainted, severely so. She looked sick as if the cancer had already begun to eat her alive. How could fate be so cruel? How could fate hand my daughter back to me and then just snatch her away again? How would Bella take this? There were so many questions that were running through my mind.
"Are you okay Edward? You look like you're about to pass out or something," she looked concerned for me. She was the one dying of a terminal illness and she was concerned about me. I shook my head.
"I need a few minutes. I'll be right back,"
I walked out of the apartment not really sure where I was headed. I just needed to clear my thoughts. Then my phone rang. I was going to ignore it until I saw that it was Alice.
"You knew this was going to happen!" I tried my best to keep my temper at bay but I was too angry over the injustice of the entire situation.
"Yes, I foresaw that she was going to tell you the news,"
"So what do I do now?! I can't let her die!"
"For now just bring her and the baby over. Let's introduce her to the family. I'll forewarn them ahead of time about her amnesia," Alice said.
"Why the baby?"
"Well because first of all she can't and won't leave him alone. Second of all that baby will be our nephew soon,"
"You're not making any sense,"
"You'll figure it out soon. Just bring them both over,"
"One last thing Alice. Don't tell Bella that Nessie is dying. She doesn't need to suffer more,"
