I don't own twilight. What I own is my character's behavior, personality, background, and the plot of the story.

Author's note at the end of the chapter.

Bella walks silently behind Cece and Edward. He is covering Cece's eyes as he leads her into his backyard.

"Are you ready?" He asks her. Cece nods her head excitedly.

"Ta da!" Edward exclaims removing his hands off her eyes.

Cece looks around in confusion but before she can ask him about her gift he answers her, "You see this backyard?"

Cece nods her head still confused. "This backyard is all yours. You once told me that you love helping your mum in the backyard but your mum is the one designing the place. This backyard is all yours. You will have my help and your mum will tell us what we shouldn't do, but aside from that, i's all yours."

Cece watches both of them to gauge if either is lying at her. She turns to her mum and finds an encouraging smile and that is all she needs to get excited. She starts jumping up and down in excitement and then starts running around the yard while shouting to them what she will do with it.

All of a sudden, she freezes in her place and turns slowly toward them. "Cece, is everything okay?" Edward asks.

Bella doesn't wait for Cece to answer and runs to Cece and kneels so that she is at eye level with her. "Are you hurt baby? What's wrong?"

It's as if then Cece realizes that both of her parents are in front of her. She turns to Edward and asks, "Does that mean that I have to stay at your place?"

Edward looks at Bella unsure of what to say. That was his hope, for her to stay at his place on the weekends and maybe down the line spend every other week at his place, but her visible fear of doing that makes him realize that just because he wants something, it doesn't mean that it will happen.

"If you want?" he tells her but it comes out sounding more like a question than an answer.

She turns to her mum and hugs her then whispers, "I wanna go home."

Bella looks at Edward apologetically as she answers her, "Of course sweetie."

She picks up Cece and carries her to the car and then after locking the door, she turns to Edward who has been silently following her, and tells him, "I am so sorry about that. I will try to talk to her at home and tell you what's wrong."

Edward nods his head and leads her to her door as he tells her, "It's fine. I understand. It must be hard on her."

"Yes, it's hard, but not impossible so don't write off having a relationship with her, okay?" she tells him as she stands with her back to the driver's door.

Edward opens his mouth to tell her that he won't but something in her eyes compels him to be honest. "I'll try," he whispers back.

She nods her head in understanding then gets in the car and pulls out of the parking and watches Edward grow smaller in her rearview mirror until he disappears.

She doesn't approach the topic with Cece on the way home. Her thoughts control her as she remembers what she talked to her therapist the last time she saw her, a week ago. There she was worrying about her daughter accepting Edward and having her fears triggered, only for her daughter to press the brakes and halt everything.

Bella isn't happy about Cece's reaction, but she isn't sad either. She knows that she needs to talk to Cece about this and fix it, but for a couple of hours between now and then, Bella will enjoy being the parent Cece wants when she isn't happy.

"How do you feel about watching a movie?" Bella asks Cece as she helps her get out of the car figuring out that some comfort movie will calm her down.

"Can we watch Brave?" Cece asks timidly.

"Sure," Bella tells her as they climb up the stairs of their front porch.

Two hours later the two of them watch the credits roll in silence until Bella breaks it. "Did you like Edward's birthday gift?"

Cece shrugs her shoulders in silence.

"What about it did you like and dislike?" Bella continues probing.

Cece just continues shrugging her shoulders.

"Baby, come here," Bella tells Cece opening her arms. Cece quickly crawls into them and hugs her mum.

"Do you know how much I love you?" Bella asks rhetorically.

The purpose of the question flies over Cece's head and she answers her, "To the sun and back?"

Bella kisses her forehead and answers her, "That wouldn't even be a quarter of my love for you."

"Quarter as in one out of four, right?" Cece asks looking up at her mum.

Bella nods her head and tells her, "Exactly, which is why I will always listen to what you have to say and never judge you about your feelings or fears."

Cece is silent for a moment and then tells her, "I don't want Edward's gift."

"Can I know why?" Bella asks gently.

"You always tell me when I tell you that I wanna go over at my friend's place that I need to be ready to help you clean the house so they can come over. If someone does something for you, you need to return the favor. I think the favor Edward wants is for me to stay at his place," Cece answers simply.

"And you don't want that," Bella finishes.

"Yes!" Cece exclaims happy with being understood.

Bella takes a deep and takes over her next words. "Sweetie, that's not true. He is your daddy. You don't need to return the favor. Parents don't do things cause they want something in return. They do them because they love you. As your daddy, he wants to do these things for you."

"But he doesn't feel like a daddy to me," Cece argues.

Bella smiles at her and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear then tells her, "That doesn't change that you feel like a daughter to him. You have to tell him how you are feeling."

Cece shakes her head frantically and tells her mother, "No. You tell him. You are the grown up."

"He isn't my daddy," Bella states shrugging her shoulders.

"He doesn't feel like my daddy," Cece states repeating her previous sentiment.

"He does not have to feel like your daddy for you to tell him."

Cece lays her head on her mother's shoulder and asks her, "What if he doesn't like that?"

"If he hurts you and you tell me that you don't want to see him again, I will make sure you never see him again," Bella promises her.

"Thanks mummy," Cece mumbles and hugs Bella tightly.

"You are welcome sweetie. I am very proud of you."

"I don't feel like that about myself," Cece whispers.

"How do you feel?" Bella asks her frowning. She hates that Cece is the one that will struggle to adjust the most.

"Like an octopus with eight hands and I don't have control over them. Every arm is pulling me in the opposite direction of another arm, and I can't move."

Bella hugs her tightly and states, "It's okay sweetie. We all feel like that sometimes."

Hello lovely people,

I hope the chapter was worth the wait.

Something my mum taught me as a kid that grandpa taught her was don't accept an act of service or a gift unless you can repay it or do something in return.

Please leave a comment in the review section. It could be your favorite part, thoughts, feeling, or even criticism. Any and every comment you leave is read and taken into consideration. Your comments motivate me to update faster, and help me grow as a writer.

Until my next update,

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