2
Renee stared at her phone, the text from her ex-husband both shocked and saddened her: He's in. Get her here A.S.A.P.
She took a deep breath before she replied back that they would be on the road in a matter of minutes, knowing no airline would ever allow her to take Bella on a plane. Not in her condition. She stowed her phone into the back pocket of her jeans, her eyes landing on the suitcases that had been packed and sitting next to the door for three days, since Charlie informed her that he had enough information to finally make his move.
Renee inhaled through her nose and exhaled through her mouth before she made the short walk down the hallway, carefully and quietly opening the door to Bella's room. Her room was dark, silent. The only way Bella could handle it at the moment.
Her daughter, her beautiful amazing daughter, was curled up in a corner, her hands pressed against the sides of her head, her fingers tangled in her long dark brown hair. She needed a shower, but even the sound of the water had her screaming in agony.
"Hey, honey," Renee whispered, slowly walking over to Bella and kneeling in front of her. "It's time to go."
Bella tilted her head back, and Renee stifled her gasp, though why her appearance shocked her anymore was surprising. Her eyes were dark, with heavy purple circles seeing as she rarely slept more than an hour thanks to the pain. Her skin was pale, ashy, and thin. She'd lost so much weight over the last few years, she looked almost like a skeleton.
"To see Daddy?" Bella whimpered, her dry, cracked lips pulling over her teeth as she smiled. "I get to see Daddy, right?"
Renee's eyes flooded with tears as she nodded. "Yes, honey, I'm taking you to see Daddy."
"I miss him," Bella murmured, her eyes closing.
"I miss him, too." Renee wrapped her arms around Bella, heaving her to her feet. She wasn't heavy, barely weighing ninety pounds. Bella groaned, though, as her body straightened. Renee knew her joints ached, her muscles were weak. The treatments, she thought, did more damage than good, but she kept that opinion to herself. "Hold on, baby girl."
"Momma," Bella cried as they stumbled across her bedroom, down the hallway, through the kitchen to the attached garage.
Renee held Bella tighter as she opened the backdoor to the car and helped her inside. She helped Bella adjust so that she was laying with a pillow and blanket, before she closed the door and hurried back into the house, grabbing their suitcases, her purse, locking the front and back doors before hurrying back into the garage. She piled their bags into the trunk of the car, and checked once more that Bella was comfortable, or as comfortable as one with a large, painful tumor could be, before she climbed in behind the wheel of her car. With another deep breath, she started the engine, raised the door to the garage, and backed out. As she pulled out of the driveway, and headed for the highway, she wondered what kind of mother would be willing to have their only child changed into a vampire. Her answer: a desperate mother.
—Stay—
It took Renee a little over a day and half to make the drive from Phoenix Arizona to Forks Washington. They had to stop every few hours so Bella could get out and stretch. They'd learned early in her diagnosis that being still for too long made the pain in her head and body worse. Of course, at this point everything made the pain in her head hurt.
They ate in the car, and Bella hid under a blanket during the day. Even with the dark tint Renee had had put on all of the windows, the sun was still too bright. Made her eyes hurt, her head hurt. Bella just always hurt. Had been hurting for the last one thousand, one hundred, and fifty-four days. Not that Renee had been counting.
They found the tumor just a month before her fourteen birthday. It was a miracle that they found it. One minute Bella was standing in the middle of the living room, singing along to her favorite song, and the next, she was on the floor in the middle of a seizure. Renee called 911 and they rushed her to the hospital, did a series of tests, and voila: a brain tumor. Glioblastoma.
Incurable, inoperable, deadly. They treated her with chemotherapy and radiation, hoping beyond hope that suddenly, they could cure her, save her, but nothing worked. And then Bella just said no. No more treatments. All she wanted now was to see her daddy, so Renee would take her, and hope that they convince her to let herself be changed. Become a vampire. Just the word had Renee tensing, but that was the only way to save her now. If Bella wanted to live, she would have to because a vampire.
Charlie had been the one to suggest talking to Carlisle Cullen. He'd traveled back and forth between Forks and Phoenix every other week for years, trying to help with Bella's treatments. It was during a particularly brutal evening just a few months ago that he shared his suspicions about the Cullen family. How Billy Black had warned Charlie that the Cullen family was dangerous, that he'd shared the story of the cold ones, the treaty they had made long before any of them were even thought. Renee was sure Charlie was insane, and then she showed her his evidence, the reports that spanned almost a century. Yet they never changed, never aged. And they could give that life to Bella, save her from wasting away, from dying by changing her into a vampire.
It was almost eight in the evening when Renee pulled her car up behind Charlie's police cruiser. She'd barely turned the car off when the front door was opening and he was rushing outside, throwing open the backdoor, helping their daughter out of the car. Renee climbed out and watched as he cradled her against him. He was so gentle with her, always had been. It was one of the things about Charlie that she'd always admired, the way he adored his daughter.
"Hey," he said, pressing his lips against the top of Bella's head as he looked over at her. "Get her inside. I'll grab your bags."
"You take her," Renee insisted. "I need a minute."
Charlie nodded and slowly, carefully led Bella up the front walk, up the few steps, and into the small house he had lived in since the early days of their marriage. The only days of their marriage. Renee had hated the small, wet town. The same boring day after day. But over the last few years, she'd come to miss the small town, and Charlie. Especially Charlie.
Renee grabbed their luggage and headed into the house, finding Charlie kneeling in front of Bella, who sat on the couch. Her face was contorted in pain, her fingers clinched into tight fists. Renee dug her pain meds out of her bag before hurrying into the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of water, and returning to her.
"Open, Bella," Renee ordered, placing the pills at Bella's mouth. She pulled away, so Renee shifted so that she was forcing the pills in between her lips. "Swallow them, Bella. They'll help."
Renee placed the tip of the water bottle at Bella's lips, who drank as much as she could before she pushed it away and shifted so that she was laying on the couch. Charlie covered her with a blanket, sitting on the floor in front of her. Renee placed the cap back on the water bottle, and they sat in silence until Bella was asleep. The pain meds worked quickly, even if they wore off too quick, too.
"So are you going to tell me how it went?" she asked.
Charlie spared Bella a look before he spoke. "He didn't deny it. Said he would need to meet her first, of course. We expected that."
Renee nodded, shifting so that her knees were in front of her. "Do you think he'll do it?"
"Yeah, yeah, I do," he admitted. "If she'll let him."
"Are we making a mistake, Charlie?" Renee asked, shaking her head. "Asking him to change her?"
"No, no, we're not," he lied, or maybe not lying, but not being entirely honest with himself, either. "She can't die, Renee. We can't . . . We can't just sit here and let her die. She deserves to live."
"But we'll lose her either way, won't we?" she cried. "Either the cancer will kill her, or he'll change her, and we'll never see her again."
Charlie opened his mouth, but when he didn't have a solid argument, he quickly closed it. Renee laid her head on her knees, and looked back at Bella, who, for now, was peacefully asleep. At least until the drugs wore off and the pain came back. Selfish or not, she thought, Bella deserved a chance.
Thank you for all of the amazing reviews. I am blown away by the response to the first chapter. Do me a favor, and leave me a few words for this one, too.