Dear Readers!

As in chapter 56 and 59, also in this chapter David's thoughts are ALL written in italics.

Verena

Chapter 62

A Few More Details ...

David

The children applauded and Bella let herself fall sideways onto the sofa, laughing.

She was so cute.

I held out a hand to her and pulled her again into my arms.

"You'll probably be rid of him once and for all!" I stated and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

Behind me I heard a noise that sounded somehow indignant.

I turned around and saw a charming young lady there.

The way Jake had her in his arms, there was no doubt that it was Becky. Pretty. Suited him.

"Hi. You're probably Becky ... I'm David. An old friend of the family," I greeted her kindly and shook her hand.

She nodded, said nothing, but looked around her.

First to me. Then to Bella. Then to Edward? She looked like she was standing at a loss. I did not understand.

"Weren't you going to her?" I asked Jake though, wondering why Becky was here now.

"Yes ... after dinner," he glanced past me to look questioningly at his mother.

Ah ... damn! I had kept Bella from cooking with my problems.

Bella once again bit on her lower lip in shock and immediately ran to the kitchen.

After quickly getting a sweatshirt, I followed Bella into the kitchen to help her.

After all, it was my fault that their children stood on the brink of starvation.

Meanwhile, the young people spread out over the sofa.

Bella and I were still a pretty well-rehearsed team in the kitchen from before.

Yes, I could actually cook. Thanks to Bella. For me, a woman didn't necessarily belong in the kitchen just because she was a woman.

"Tell me, David ... What was that about the scheduled vasectomy?" Bella asked, sounding casual and pointing the knife with which she was cutting tomatoes, accusingly at me.

The pot fell out of my hand in shock, clattering to the floor with a deafening crash, and somewhere in the area of my genitals I felt a distinct and painful twinge.

Why did Bella have to be so damn observant? That was the mistake that didn't fit into our conversation earlier. Why there shouldn't be this ultrasound recording at all! Why I myself was to blame for the whole disaster ... I gave myself a mentally slap in the face. THAT was me one way or the other!

"Would you please put the knife down!" I summoned Bella. Stammering. She was just giving me the uncomfortable feeling of wanting to personally sterilize myself. Right now. Right here on the kitchen floor.

"So, you haven't had it done yet!" Bella stated at my reaction herself.

I shook my head.

"Men!" she grumbled to herself and turned - thank God - back to the tomatoes.

I took a deep breath and stood still a moment until the pain finally dissipated.

I had agreed to the vasectomy without hesitation. In theory, it was easy. I had four children, three of them with the best wife there could be. She was not allowed to have any more children. Of course, I agreed! It was only the execution that was lacking. I had really missed the first appointment. My little 'smooch ball' had been sick. But then I had taken my time with a make-up appointment. When I finally did have it, I came up with many excuses not to go. The last time, Sonya and I had the house all to ourselves. A rarity! Somehow, we came up with something better than driving to the doctor's office. And this procedure continued since two years … I was a coward! Quite simply.

Bella said nothing more about it.

She knew that I was to blame for my current problems through my own stupidity. That was punishment enough for her.

I stood behind her and took her backwards in my arms.

"Thank you for not blaming me," I said gratefully, and she nodded wordlessly. What had I done to deserve her? Why the hell she was alone for such a long time?! Were the men in this town blind, after all?

The food quickly stood on the table.

Although Becky had already eaten at home, she helped herself to a little.

Thus, everyone ate. Except Edward.

I observed him more closely.

I still had the feeling I'd seen him somewhere before, but I just couldn't think of anything about it. Every now and then I caught a gaze that he shouldn't have at his age. Whenever he looked at Bella. And he often did. Then he seemed to try to avoid it, but he couldn't really do it. I thought about how I should probably have a serious word with him. Falling in love with Bella was not an art, but rather inevitable if you knew her a little. Bella stood too much in life to get seriously involved with such a young man, however sincere his feelings might be. I had dismissed the thought that he might be trying to get to Leah through Bella just as quickly as I had dismissed the possibility that he might want to move into the house here and just live off of Bella's money. His gaze was too longing for that. Too loving ... too honest.

Moreover, Bella was apparently wearing the ring of a man on her hand. She still hadn't told me about him. But I was not surprised. When should she have told me about him? Yesterday the kids were all over me narrative-wise and earlier I had a good cry with her. On the other hand, the fact that I had not yet heard the name Andrew was no surprise. He was clearly too insignificant to mention. Why had Bella even gone out with such a loser? He was out of her league!

But wearing this ring was really something else. I had no doubt at all that there was indeed a man behind this ring. It was not a pretty decoration for a delicate lady's hand. This ring was a declaration of love! Both the presentation to Bella, and also that Bella did not really take the ring off.

Then the fork fell out of my hand in shock.

Bella looked at Edward with the same gaze!

For a short moment I was confused ...

I would have to talk to HER, not to him!

I hardly took my eyes off of Bella now, looking for the clear sign that I was just mistaken or deceived.

As long as I knew Bella, she had never really had a boyfriend. Always just a few dates. Her last real relationship was with Jacob Black. And then the last sex she had was with me apparently. Over eleven years ago. Bella was not a woman who went to bed with a man after one or two dates. She didn't do things by halves. For Bella, it was love or nothing. With me being the only exception. At least as far as I knew. However, I could not imagine that she would not tell me something like that. Maybe she had been alone for too long. I didn't want her to throw herself at a man out of desperation, especially if he was still so young ... On the other hand ... if it would make her happy ...

"How did you guys actually get to know each other?" Jake interrupted my musings.

I paused for a moment until I remembered that Jake and Leah were far too young to remember at it. It must have seemed to them as if I had always been there.

I smiled teasingly at Bella.

Her missing sense of balance had brought us together.

"You two were the best-kept secret at the university. It was a few weeks before your second Christmas..." I began and told them about that time.

Bella came to the lectures and left again. She declined any invitations. Any! Whether one wanted to have a coffee with her, a little chat in the campus dining hall, study groups, car pools, and let's not even get started on parties. It also didn't matter who made such suggestions to her. With men anyway and also with the fellow female students, she was soon in disfavor with them because of her dismissive manner. At some point everyone had left her alone. So did I, and I had been really persistent. Bella was pretty, smart, and very nice. Pretty much every male wanted a date with her - certainly some women too - so I was no exception.

One day I saw her stumbling down the stairs, which happened quite often, and saw her wallet slip under a radiator. She didn't notice it herself. I ran after her, but she was already gone. So, I looked in her wallet, found her address, and drove there. And there I saw the reason why she kept refusing any socializing. Her children - Jake and Leah. I hadn't understood yet back then why she didn't say anything about the two of them to anyone. After all, having children, even if one was still young, was not a crime. But she had insisted that it should stay that way and demanded that I promise not to tell anyone.

It wasn't until I had become a father myself that I had experienced her reasons firsthand. Still, I not only promised, but then I also helped her. Played with the children so that she could study, brought her my transcripts or later those of others when she couldn't make it to the university, relieved her mother a little, who had laid out her life according to her daughter and her grandchildren, studied together with Bella, did things with all three of them and so on. It was a good time. What I didn't tell was how that first afternoon had gone on.

I was curious. I asked about the father of her children. It was our first quarrel! While she refused to give me any information on the grounds that it was none of my business, which she was also right about, I kept on asking. Somehow, I had the feeling that I had to make her talk for her sake. At some point she dropped her protective shield.

It was already late; Renée had gone out with Phil and the children were asleep. Bella lay like a lifeless shell in my arms, dissolved in tears, her eyes red and swollen and her voice hoarse from sobbing. She had gotten EVERYTHING off her chest. About the two men she had lost. One had left and the other had died. How she thought she was going to perish from this pain and was even looking for a way out of this life. How it bothered her - despite knowing better - how people in her hometown talked about her, made fun of her, and ostracized her. Because she mourned her first love, because she was pregnant at eighteen, because she had run away - which was not true. How she saw herself as ballast for her mother.

In the course of that evening, I had decided that I would never ask Bella for a date again. I never wanted to find myself in the turmoil of a relationship with her, which all too often ended badly. After all, I didn't know Bella very well. I wanted to be a friend to her who would never leave her alone. But things had turned out a little differently. Bella wanted only one thing that night: the feeling of being loved. How could I have refused that, broken as she was in my arms?

The next morning was a bit awkward. We both didn't really know what to say or how to behave. Bella didn't want a man at her side, and I wasn't the type who just wanted to go to bed with a woman and had forbidden myself to begin anything with her the evening before. I wanted to hold on to it. And still we laid there together. The children saved the situation. That morning I had fallen in love with the twins. They climbed onto the bed and were heart-brokenly surprised that their mommy was not lying there alone. A condition that was completely foreign to them. They accused me that I had no business in this bed and even tried to push me out of bed. But only after they had also given me a 'good morning' kiss. I let them kick me off the bed, and they both peeked over the side of the bed cautiously at first, before starting to chuckle. And Bella was watching along. No less chuckling.

Bella and I talked it out, forced to be cheerful because we didn't want to upset the kids. The sex didn't mean anything. She was ashamed of the previous evening and even apologized for seemingly coercing me into it. But how could I have been angry with her. It was beautiful. Besides, it still involved two people. I could have said no or just left. But I didn't want to leave Bella alone that evening, as desperate as she had been. Everybody needed the feeling of being loved now and then. Especially after all the suffering Bella had experienced. In the course of a very short time Bella became the best friend I have. Until today!

After dinner, the kids adjourned to their rooms and at Jake's I listened to music.

What was he doing with Becky now? Well. He was old enough.

Only Edward was still with us and I saw a very affectionate gesture between him and Bella while clearing the table, just as I was getting the last bowl. They stood quite close together and he tenderly pushed a strand out of her face. He left his fingertips on her cheek for a relatively long time, touched her temple gently with his lips and Bella seemed to enjoy this short moment with closed eyes. In the subsequent gaze of the two I thought I saw nothing but adoration and love. I only saw it as a reflection in the bar display case and immediately turned back towards the kitchen.

I must have been mistaken.

But they immediately detached themselves from each other and actually appeared caught. They avoided looking at each other or touching ...

Was it possible that the ring was from Edward? ... I would ask Bella about it ... but should perhaps otherwise keep my mouth shut.

"David ..." Bella then sat down with me and handed me a cup of coffee just as I turned on my two laptops.

I had two. The small one was private. It basically contained my whole life. The other one - quite big and expensive - was just for work.

"About Sonya. I know a very good doctor ... If I'm honest, it's the best doctor I know anywhere," Bella began to say.

Unfortunately, her judgment of doctors could be trusted, I smirked to myself. Was Edward also suppressing a smile right now?

"He'll be by any minute. Maybe you should speak to him about Sonya sometime. Maybe he has some advice," she continued.

I nodded.

I didn't think another doctor could help, but it also couldn't hurt. With Sonya, I had been to just about every doctor we had in Philadelphia. And they all said the same thing: Sonya is perfectly healthy as long as she doesn't have a baby.

I looked through my emails and smiled.

Sonya had sent me a little video. Our sons were standing next to Sonya and my little mouse was on her lap. With the words 'Hello, Bella!', which they all said in chorus, the recording began.

I paused the video until Bella was standing behind me.

Sonya avoided concrete terms. Probably for the sake of the children. Sonya was sorry she had said that nasty D-word. Divorce. She would know that she had gone completely over the top. She'd blindly gone into her despair, afraid I'd reject it out of hand, and just wanted to defend this little defenseless something. Sonya wasn't mad at me for just leaving, but said that she could understand. That she had not been fair with her reaction and that I probably needed some distance. And she apologized on my behalf to Bella because I had shown up so hastily.

The video was over.

Bella's hand was still on my shoulder. She squeezed it encouragingly and left me alone at the dining table.

I braced myself with my elbows on the table, hid my face in my hands, and closed my eyes.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

The divorce no longer stood between us like a threatening wall. One less problem. I would so love to call Sonya, to hear her voice. I missed her. Her and our children. But Sonya would not be at home. She was at her sister's today, who would be on a plane again tomorrow with her husband. Our neighbor would probably be discussing with Emma that she should go to bed, while the boys would be sitting in front of the TV. And Emma would win. In the email she said that she would contact me tomorrow evening, as soon as the children were in bed.

I then worked some more until the doorbell rang.

An intimidatingly handsome man walked in and I greeted the doctor named Carlisle in a friendly manner.

A cold hand with a firm handshake.

That was the doctor? He was damn young! Late twenties. At the most! He could have just finished his studies. But I was willing to listen to him. Bella wouldn't have called him in if she wasn't convinced of his competence. Whereby … when had she called him?

I put that little consideration aside.

Maybe she had been on a meeting with him before I arrived. I couldn't help but think that he might be related to Edward. No idea how I came up with that. They didn't really look alike, but somehow they did. Neither of them had said anything about it. I was surprised that he already knew what it was about. When had Bella told him all this? I had only gone upstairs to put on a sweatshirt. That had been maybe two minutes.

My first impression was obviously wrong. He used exactly the technical terms that were in our various medical reports.

Not that I could do anything with it, but I had read them so many times that I knew their contents by heart by now.

I told him about the pregnancies that went like a textbook every time. Without any incidents. Only when labor began did Sonya's condition deteriorate rapidly.

I opened the doctors' reports on my laptop and Carlisle skimmed them.

Bella then sat down with us now, presumably just as curious about his opinion.

Edward stood behind her with his hands on her shoulders and if I wasn't mistaken, his thumbs were driving along the back of her neck.

I hadn't finished thinking about it when he stopped.

He had to be even more attentive than Bella, if he only noticed such observations with a fleeting gaze.

Overall, I had to say that I was encouraged by Carlisle's words.

He suspected that the physical tension during labor caused uncontrollable internal bleeding throughout her body. That veins and blood vessels burst in the process, which could not all be found and repaired by subsequent surgery. It would not have to cost Sonya her life if - as soon as the natural contractions began - she was treated properly. Possibly it was already enough, since I was now forewarned in certain respects that at the first signs of labor Sonya would have a Caesarean section. Since up to this point, everything had always been normal.

We had never considered that before, because it was always an additional burden for mother and child, and Sonya wanted a natural birth from the start. With Luces, there was no reason to think about it. The birth itself was of course painful, a pain I could neither imagine nor wanted, but according to the midwife and the doctor, not necessarily extraordinary. The first child is usually the hardest. Also, with Deacon we had seen no reason to refrain from natural delivery. The contractions had dragged on forever and Sonya got weaker by the hour, but also that time there was no compelling reason to deliver the baby surgically.

Only with Emma did everything go so wrong. She said she was in pain and had no more strength to walk, but one still shooed her down the aisle so that the baby would slide lower and then be born faster. She collapsed in the hallway, bleeding like crazy and I didn't know how, but somehow she had scraped together all her reserves of strength yet again for the birth itself. A C-section was considered immediately after her collapse, but by the time the anesthesiologist got there, Emma was already born and Sonya was almost on her way to the ICU.

Carlisle could only make assumptions without a personal investigation, but all in all, he really gave me hope.

"And if there's really nothing left, there's still one last option," Bella then told me seriously.

I had no idea what she meant. A gaze to Carlisle, with the prospect of a little more input, led only to an affirmative nod.

Edward went to the bookshelf and pulled out a book from the top shelf that I hadn't seen in a damn long time.

I knew what Bella was hiding in it and wondered, first, how Edward knew and, second, why he was bringing it out now. Something rang in my head. Quietly. What was the name of the guy who had left Bella? An old-fashioned name, but I couldn't remember it.

He handed Bella the book and she flipped through it. The photos were crumpled. She handed me one of them and I looked at it. In disbelief, I stood up from my chair, not taking my eyes off the picture.

That was the guy. Edward had left Bella.

Angrily, I yanked Bella up from her chair by one arm.

"Are you dumb to get involved with that asshole again? Do you want him to almost kill you again? Have you forgotten how you cried in my arms?" I asked her, upset and seriously doubting her soundness of mind.

Then I paused and looked at the photo again.

It was Edward. Absolutely no doubt. I looked up from the picture - into Edward's face. He looked the same? The same as on the photograph? A photograph that was twenty years old?

I dropped back in my chair, stunned, and almost toppled over backwards if Carlisle hadn't caught me.

Bella slid the second photo to me.

I looked at the pictures in turn.

"I've been in love twice in my life. And both men were ... not humans," she said quietly.

I tried to understand what she was telling me. But I succeeded only slowly.

Edward fetched me a whiskey from the display case, which I emptied in one gulp. He had brought the bottle to the table.

Good plan!

Edward poured generously.

I walked purposefully toward a drawer.

Bella could be counted on.

I took the cigarettes, grabbed the glass and the bottle, and went to the terrace.

I had to let this sink in.

I sat down with my back to the house on the small wall that separated the patio from the lawn.

Not humans! What were they then? I had no doubt at it that Carlisle and Edward were of the same species. They looked like humans, only frankly impressively handsome. And cold. And apparently they didn't get any older. The way Carlisle expressed himself at times, one could easily get the idea that he had a soft spot for old movies. Maybe he was just from another time. Not humans! I wasn't sure if fear was appropriate. Whether it would have been the natural reaction. But I felt none. The situation as such already frightened me, but I had none before these two ... persons? Creatures? Whatever they were.

Carlisle, in addition to his competence as a doctor, also made a very nice impression. He seemed to take an interest in my fate and honestly regretted not being able to completely erase my fear about Sonya. In contrast, Edward appeared cold and distant ... Okay. That could just be me, I had to admit to myself. If he was back together with Bells, he had no idea what to do with me. I liked that thought! The way I was acting here, the way I had been acting toward Bella and the kids since college, he was bound to feel pretty redundant unless Bella had told him about me. I kind of assumed that, since Bells hadn't told me anything about the ass yet, nor did Peter know anything about him. It couldn't have been going on very long between the two of them. Because of the age difference, Bella also would not shout the whole thing out into the world.

I calmed down a bit and Bella came out to me.

"How much do you want to know?" she asked quietly and sat opposite me on the wall next to me.

She also pulled a cigarette out of the box and I held the lighter on fire out to her.

"How much do I need to know?" I asked instead, and she recited exactly what I had already realized myself.

Immortal, pale, cold, and beautiful. There would be a few details that would not be completely unimportant, as well as a very unique term for them, but if I could do without that, it would be good for me.

I mulled it over and finally nodded.

I didn't want to know about the asshole who had driven my friend to despair. Whatever he was, at least he didn't seem dangerous. Otherwise, Bella wouldn't be so moronic as to let him get close to her and the kids. But maybe Bella had also been blindsided. With sentimental, nostalgic memories that have made her forget how much it took her back then. I had not forgotten how Bella looked when she had told me about him. Fragile, sad, completely at the end of her nerves. And back then it had been four years later.

"You're back together with Edward?" I asked. Fuck WHAT he was. How could she get involved with him again?

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because I can't live without Edward anymore," she said, looking me firmly in the eye.

I knew that gaze of hers. She would defend her conviction with her life.

"A bit overly melodramatic, don't you think?" I asked indifferently.

"Maybe, but it's the truth. I love Edward. I've loved him for twenty years. And he loves me."

"How do you know that? He left you. Maybe he just wants to see you completely devastated again. See what he missed last time!"

"No. He's staying with me. He promised!" she said, sounding as if one promise had always been enough.

Bella couldn't be that naive!

I put a hand under her chin and looked her straight in the eye.

"We also promised each other never to sleep together again. And how long did that mutual promise last that time?" I asked gently.

She blushed a little and chuckled delightfully.

"That's different! Besides, it'll hold this time!" Bella stated, with which she would undoubtedly be right.

As soon as Sonya had become a part of my life, these slips between Bella and me were over. Implicitly.

"Who tells you that he really won't go again? For what reason should it be different this time?"

"In short, it just wasn't our time then ... He didn't leave because he didn't want me anymore, but because he thought he was too dangerous," she tried to explain.

But I doubted every word of it and laughed unrestrainedly.

Too dangerous! A better excuse had not occurred to him?

"You don't believe me, hmm ...?"

"How could I?" I asked with a contemptuous undertone. I had looked at the photo very closely that time and was determined to beat Edward up if he ever ran into me. Well, it was a long time ago. Yet I was still angry. He probably hadn't given a thought to what he had done to Bella by it or had just made fun of her. And now wanted a repeat of it!

"Maybe you can believe him yourself?" considered Bella.

"I doubt it!" I said dismissively.

Apparently, she wanted to go into the house. But before she disappeared in the doorway, something occurred to me.

"You said both of them!"

"Excuse me?" she asked.

"You said: Neither of them were humans ... That means Jacob Black was also not human. But he was apparently something else than the two in there," I specified my statement.

Bella came back to me and stood next to me.

"Right ... You could say I chose the most opposite men there are on this earth. Natural enemies ... When I fell in love with Edward, I had no idea he wasn't human. And it was the same with Jacob."

Enemies? I did not understand.

"And what did Jacob ... have for special qualities?" I now asked.

"They are both preternaturally strong and fast. Each in their own way. But Jacob was warm. With him, it was in the genes. He was significantly closer to a human than one might think."

"In the genes? So, Jake and Leah are ...?" I asked doubtfully.

She nodded.

"And they know Edward is not human?"

She nodded again.

"Jake and Leah know everything. About Edward, about his family, about me. They accept my love for Edward!" Bella now said with an irritated undertone and had thrust her chin forward militantly.

I took her hand with the ring and demonstratively held it up between us.

"So that's from Edward!" I did not ask, I stated.

Her fighting spirit, which had flared up so suddenly, was extinguished and gave way to a face in love. She nodded. Smiling comfortably over both ears.

"Edward has asked me to marry him. And I said yes!" she announced, beaming with happiness.

I despondently dropped her hand and sipped on my glass.

Thanks for reading!