46

"How could you not tell us?" Esme asked the hurt in her voice almost bringing Bella to her knees.

"We were going to, Mom. It just . . ." Edward blew out a heavy breath, his eyes shifting to Bella for help.

Once again, they were seated in the very back of the black SUV while Carlisle drove them out of Los Angeles toward San Francisco to the first of two stops on their schedule. These visits were crucial to Bella and Edward. They felt they couldn't move on with the rest of their lives until they were completed.

His mother and her father had been hounding both of them for details on their engagement ever since they walked off the stage of Studio Seven after baring their souls to the entire world. In hindsight, they knew they should have told their families before announcing it on live television. But Bella found it impossible to sit there and pretend that Edward was anything else than her entire life, her world.

"We're sorry we didn't tell you. We planned on it, I swear, but . . . We just weren't ready yet?" Why she made that sound like a question wasn't something she understood, but it was what it was. "We're sorry. We are so, so sorry."

"It's fine," Esme lied as she turned back around in her seat. "You're sure you're ready to get married?"

Bella looked at Edward, both smiling before saying, "No."

"No?" Charlie barked out, looking back at them from the middle seat, ending his silence. "Then why are you engaged?"

"Because we want to spend the rest of our lives together, and . . ." She paused before she said, "We've already lost so much time, and we don't want to lose anymore. Surely you can understand that."

"Of course we do, dear." Esme reached back for her hand but stopped when Bella pulled away. "Sorry."

"It's okay. I just . . . it's going to take me some time."

"Look, we just want you both to be happy," Carlisle said, drawing their attention to him. He peeked at them through the rearview mirror and smiled. "You've both been through . . . a lot, and you're doing amazing, all things considered. Just . . . You know there's no rush, right? I mean, you have a lifetime together."

"We know, Dad, but . . ." Edward glanced at Bella, asking the silent question they had both been debating since they announced their engagement to the entire world.

Biting the inside of her lip first, she glanced at her father before nodding and giving him permission.

"But what, son?" Carlisle asked.

"But, we don't have a lifetime. I mean, we do, but we . . . Well, we . . . Bella, I mean, is . . . she's pregnant."

Carlisle slammed on the brakes, causing them to lurch forward and then fall backward — hard. He shifted into park, and turned and looked at him and Bella, his lips curling into a smile. "You . . . Are you serious, Edward?"

"Yeah," he grinned. "We're going to have a baby."

"Bee," Charlie whispered.

Feeling her cheeks warm, she fidgeted as she said, "It was, you know, right before they . . . We didn't plan it, or anything."

Esme put her hand up. "You don't have to explain yourselves to us, dear. Your private life, is yours and Edward's business. No one else's. Okay?"

She nodded as Emmett and Jasper came running over to the driver's side of the black SUV.

Bella tensed, but Edward lifted their hands to his lips, reassuring her everything would be okay. They hadn't planned on telling their parents about the baby, and they certainly weren't ready for everyone else to know, either. There were just some things they wanted to keep close to their chest.

"What the hell, Dad? Everything okay?" Emmett asked once Carlisle rolled down the window. "You're in the middle of the Goddamn road."

"Yeah, I thought I saw a, um, rabbit," Carlisle stammered. "Didn't want to kill it, so . . . so I stopped."

"A rabbit?" Jasper scoffed. "You nearly caused an accident because you didn't want to kill a rabbit?"

"Yes, Jay, unlike you and your brother, I believe all lives are worth saving, even animal lives."

Jasper laughed and shook his head while he and Emmett looked back at Edward and Bella before turning to their father. "Okay, Dad, try not to drive like a manic."

"I'll do my best, son."

Jasper and Emmett hurried back to their car, where Rosalie and Alice stood. Edward looked back and watched them wave in their direction, clearly repeating Carlisle's lame explanation.

"Are you happy?"

Edward looked at Charlie, who was staring at Bella with tears in his eyes.

"Are you, Bee? Are you happy?"

"I'm trying really hard to be happy. I love him, Charlie, and I . . . I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I'm not terrified to have a baby or that I don't worry whether we'll be the kind of parents our baby deserves. But we're trying, and we'll never stop. Not ever."

He smiled. "There's not a parent out there who hasn't experienced those same feelings, honey."

"Yeah?" she said quietly, and he nodded. "You know this means you're going to be a grandpa, don't you?"

He cringed. "I don't want to be called grandpa. I'm too cool for that. I'm thinking more like PopPop, or just Pop."

Bella, Edward, Esme, and Carlisle laughed.

"What?" he asked, grinning.

"You don't look like a Pop, or a PopPop. You look like a grandpa. Sorry," Bella said, shrugging her shoulders.

"Yeah, well, whatever. I'm too cool for that. I'll keep thinking up a name that fits. You'll see."

"Whatever, Charlie. Whatever you say."

Carlisle shifted into drive, looking at Edward through the rearview mirror and winking. "I'll be Grandpa. Yeah. The kid can call me Grandpa."

—TB—

Jessica Newton lived in a condo on Stout Lane in San Francisco. As they climbed out of the vehicles, Edward automatically reached up, pulling the baseball cap down over his face. Even though the sun had already started to set, their interview on Carmen Santiago's talk show had gone viral.

For the most part, people seemed . . . almost sympathetic. News and entertainment channels had been digging up every available piece of information about the Gathering of Twilight, confirming in great, horrifying detail what Edward, Bella, and Felix had gone through. Two of the nurses who had taken care of Bella in weeks following the explosion had also given statements to the press about her condition when she was brought in and how fragile and pathetic she had been at five years old.

Others, however, called their story a fable, too unbelievable to be true. A farce, they said, to draw attention away from the two dead bodies found in the ruins of Bella's house. They seemed to believe Bella had more to do with the deaths of Mike Newton and Kate Denali than the police were willing to admit, even though the Los Angeles Police Department issued another statement clearing both Bella and Edward of all wrongdoing.

Sin Records had called Rosalie less than twenty minutes after their interview aired, insisting on a one-on-one meeting with America's Sweetheart. However, Bella hadn't been ready for that and told Rosalie to tell them she needed another week. Seven days, and then she would go in and sit down with whoever she had to. First, they needed to speak to Jessica Newton and then Tanya Denali.

"Jessica lives on the fifth floor, unit five-o-nine." Carlisle shoved his hands into his pockets, his eyes flickering around the area. Cautious, Edward thought, always careful of his surroundings. "You don't have to do this. Neither of you owes her anything."

"Yes, we do." Bella adjusted the sunglasses over her eyes. "I know you don't understand, but she shouldn't live the rest of her life thinking he didn't love her, Carlisle. That's . . . that would be the worst kind of torture."

"She's right, dear. Jessica deserves better," Esme said.

"Okay." He paused and looked at Emmett and Jasper. "I want you two out here."

"Yeah, all right, Dad." Emmett nodded. "Ro, you should go with them. You knew Mike, too."

Rosalie nodded and followed Edward, Bella, Carlisle, Charlie, and Esme into the condominium and straight to the elevator. Edward kept his hand on the small of Bella's back as they stepped inside and settled into the corner, where they felt the safest. Rosalie glanced back at them before she pressed the button for the fifth floor.

"So, it's safe to say they know," Rosalie stated, glancing back at Bella. "A rabbit, Bee? Really?"

"I didn't come up with the lie," Bella argued, pointing to Carlisle. "He did. Apparently, finding out he's going to be a grandpa was just too much for him."

"Was not," Carlisle muttered at the same time Rosalie laughed. "Do the boys and Alice know?"

"No."

"You didn't tell them?" Edward asked.

She smiled and shook her head. "It wasn't my news to share, Edward."

"Oh, well, thanks. We'll tell them. We just . . ."

"I know."

The elevator stopped with a jolt and a moment later, the doors slid open with a loud, echoing creak. They stepped off and walked down the hallway until they were standing in front of a sage green door with a floral wreath. Rosalie looked at Bella and Edward before raising her hand to knock. But before she could, the door opened, and they found themselves face-to-face with Jessica Newton.

In her late twenties, Edward estimated that she stood just over five foot two inches. She had long, curly brown hair and bright blue eyes, which shifted from Rosalie to Esme then to Carlisle and Charlie before turning to Edward and then landing on Bella.

"I didn't think you would really show up," Jessica said before stepping backward. "Come in."

"Thank you," Rosalie answered and was the first to enter the condo, followed by their parents, then Edward and Bella. "We appreciate you taking the time to meet with us."

"Didn't really feel like I had much of an option," Jessica quipped before waving her hand toward the beige sectional in her living room. "Can I get anyone any coffee? Or tea? I have water, too."

"No, we're okay, but thank you," Esme said before they settled on the sofa. Edward and Bella sat in the middle, with Rosalie and Charlie on Bella's right and Carlisle and Esme on Edward's left.

Jessica nodded, pulled a chair from the small dining table next to the bay window, and sat with her knees crossed. "Well, I don't have all night. I have to plan for my husband . . . ex-husband's funeral."

Carlisle cleared his throat. "We're very sorry for your loss, Mrs. Newton."

"Stanley. I'm taking my maiden name back."

Bella leaned forward and said, "I didn't know him well. I didn't take the time to get to know many people from the label who were involved in my career, but the day before . . . the day before he died, I had the opportunity to sit down with him."

"So I heard." Jessica leaned her head to the side. "I saw your interview on The Carmen Show. That's . . . that's quite some story you told."

"Every word of it was true," Edward said, placing his hand on Bella's back. "Mike . . . We could sit here and lie to you, but you deserve better than that."

"Deserve . . ." Jessica shook her head. "He was my entire life since I was fifteen years old. We went to high school together, and let me tell you, all the girls wanted him, but he only saw me. He only saw me," she whimpered before taking a deep breath. "We were going to spend the rest of our lives together. We went to college together, got married, and . . . we were talking about starting a family when he presented me with divorce papers. Just out of the blue, he said he wanted a divorce. I thought maybe he'd met another woman, someone at the label, but he kept promising me that there was no one. He just . . . wanted to start fresh, he said. Ten years together, and he wanted a fresh start. But it's what he wanted, and I wasn't going to force myself to make him stay if he didn't want me anymore. So I signed the papers, left L.A., and tried to move on."

"He never stopped loving you," Bella said, frowning. "He had cancer."

Jessica's eyes widened. "What?"

"He had stage four lung cancer. He found out a week before he asked a lawyer to draft divorce papers."

"But . . . but why? Why would he not tell me?"

"We can only make assumptions at this point," Carlisle said, leaning forward and placing his elbows at his knees. "Sometimes, when facing the end of one's life, you think it would be better for those who love you if they weren't . . . saddled with the burden of taking care of you. Mike had been going through chemotherapy and radiation, but his . . . his odds of survival were very low, though he never stopped fighting."

"Cancer? He. . . Mike had cancer?" Jessica stood and walked to the window. "His mother died of cancer when he was in junior high. He told me watching her fade away were the hardest months of his life." She looked at Bella. "Did he suffer?"

"Yes."

Jessica closed her eyes.

"I'm sorry, I won't lie to you."

"I appreciate that." She sat down again. "He loved your music. No offense, but I used to tease him about being a teenage girl the way he fawned over you. But he would just laugh and turn the music up. He said your music . . . your music spoke to him."

Bella nodded, causing tears to slide down her face. "I wish . . . I wish more than anything I could have saved him from everything he went through. I never thought my stalkers would hurt him because of me."

"What you said on TV really happened?"

"Every bit of it."

Jessica shook her head. "But you're okay now?"

"No," Bella confessed. "I . . . I'll have to work hard to be okay. We," she placed her hand on Edward's knee, "have a lot to deal with it, but we're trying because we refuse to let Mike's death be in vain. He deserves better from us than that."

"Yes, he does."

Bella and Edward stood with Rosalie, Charlie, Carlisle, and Esme following. "I know it doesn't make up for anything that happened, but I would . . . I would like to pay for Mike's funeral."

"You don't have to do that."

"I know I don't, but I would still like to." Bella looked at Rosalie, who nodded and pulled a check out of her back pocket before she walked over and held it out to Jessica. "I am also donating in Mike's name to cancer research. I wish there were more that I could do."

Jessica's lips trembled as she took the check, a tear sliding down her face. "Me too. Can see yourselves out, please."

And with that said, she turned and walked into the kitchen, leaving Edward and Bella with their family.

As they rode the elevator to the lobby, he thought, one down, one to go.

Thank you for all the AMAZING reviews! Big shout out to Sunflower Fran for being an amazing Beta and friend. See you next Saturday!