We're switching back to Bella for a little bit now! And you get to read Edwards letter that he put in the back of the photo album. I hope your excited to learn a little bit more about Maria!

BPOV

For the rest of the week, I felt like I was wading through mud. Every step dragged, leaving me exhausted. I had to work to keep a natural smile on my face at work, struggling to keep the facade up long enough until I could be in private once more. My brain was overloaded, ready to short circuit, trying to come to grips with bomb that had just been dropped on me. I'm sure there was so much I hadn't even considered yet about the sudden revelation of a long-lost identical twin, dead before I ever knew she existed, but I was still grappling with the raw wounds to my soul to think about them.

When I reached my desk at the end of the day on Tuesday, there was a message on my phone from Rose that had only been sent twenty minutes earlier.

R: I hope you're coming back here this evening. Even if it's just for dinner. Love you

My eyes filled with tears, thankful for having a friend like Rosalie. She was more than just my friend. In the years that I had known her she had truly become my sister. She was there, through thick and thin, and I wondered if this is what I could have had with Maria.

B: I don't feel like staying here much longer, so I'm going to see if I can convince Jaz to duck out early and we can come over

It didn't take much persuading to get Jasper to leave early with me. He questioned me about it on the drive, but I didn't really know what to say. I'd been hoping to have Rose's support when I retold the story again, so I just mumbled something about telling him when we got there. Picking up on my mood, Jasper sighed and fell quiet, leaving me to my thoughts.

To say he was surprised at the news was an understatement. His reaction had been similar to what mine was initially, going very quiet and staring at every picture in the photo album as if they held yet undiscovered clues. I didn't know what I'd been expecting, maybe not the loud outburst of anger Em has displayed, or Rose's instant understanding, but I didn't anticipate the complete silence and concentrated brow. Jasper sat absorbed on the sofa until Emmett came home, bringing news from what his partner had been able to find on Edward since last night.

"It seems everything he told you is the truth," Em said to the three of us. We sat on the sofa, looking at a printout of Maria Cullen's license photo that was included in the folder Emmett had handed me, while my brother stood before us with his hands on his hips. "Everything Mr Cullen told you, and what he put in that letter, was confirmed in the background checks Garrett ran last night."

"Why do you look like that's bad news?" Rose asked her husband, crossing her arms over her round belly.

"It's not bad," Emmett huffed, sitting down beside her. "It's just news."

Rose raised an eyebrow at him. "Isn't it a good thing that he checks out? As improbable as it may seem, we can rule out this whole thing being some sort of scam."

"Yeah, I know," my brother conceded with a grumble. "I still don't like it, and maintain this guy is hella suspicious."

Tuning out their bickering, I couldn't take my eyes away from the grainy photo the DMV had on file. It was good to know that the information in the thick folder Emmett had given me matched whatever Edward hadn't written in the letter, not that I had read through either yet. Seeing her face was still a lot for me to handle, even when it was practically my face. Looking through the photo album that chronicled my sister's life was like looking at a bizarro version of my own - like it could almost be a fabrication. But seeing proof of her existence from a government issued document brought it all into one reality.

As I'd been staring at the small photograph and looked over the information on the sheet of paper, most of which I'd already known from what Edward had either said during two meetings he's been to or during our brief conversation at the diner, Jasper had taken the rest of the file and was skimming over it.

"You know, I think I might have met her," Jasper said suddenly, cutting off the others. Looking up, he found us all staring at him in different variations of disbelief. "Well, maybe 'met' is too strong a term for it."

"What do you mean?" I demanded. "When would that have even happened?"

"It was the summer after we'd just broken up. I'd come back from Texas early to organize my off-campus accommodation, you know I had to scramble last minute that year," he said, getting side-tracked from his explanation. "Anyway, I was looking at places near campus when I saw a girl, who I thought was you, standing at the end of the street looking at her phone. She had shorter hair than you, so I thought you'd gotten a haircut. I called out to you, and she didn't respond. So, I called out again, louder, and she looked up. I waved, calling out that your hair looked really good, and took a step in her direction. But she looked so puzzled, that it made me stop. Then this guy and girl I'd never seen before came out of the building, and she turned and walked off with them. When I saw you later that day, your hair hadn't changed, so I just assumed I saw someone who looked kinda like you from a distance, and made a fool of myself, so didn't say anything."

We were quiet for a few moments as that news sunk in, until the doorbell ringing broke the tension. Rose got up to go get the pizzas she'd ordered earlier, while Emmett began to question Jasper about where exactly this had taken place.

I remained quiet throughout the meal, still stewing inside my own head. I'd come to accept that, even though it sounded like a segment on a daytime tv show, I really had been separated from my sister before being adopted. I had so many questions that needed answering, and yet I was still so scared to read whatever Edward had written in that letter. I now had a folder full of information, but the idea of looking at any of it made me feel lightheaded. I gripped the manila envelope with my fingers tight the entire drive home, like it held both my doom and my salvation - a personal Pandora's Box.

"Let me know if you need anything, even just to talk," Jasper said once we'd arrived at my apartment building.

"Thanks, Jaz," I replied quietly, opening my door, and getting out, then moving to grab my bags from the back seat.

"See you in the morning, B," he called, leaning across the passenger seat to wave to me before pulling away.

~oOo~

I finally built up the courage to read Edward's letter after getting home on Wednesday. I'd been thinking about it since I'd gone to bed the night before, going so far as to find it incredibly hard to concentrate during my faculty meeting with the other English teachers.

The letter was sitting next to the folder with the background check information on my kitchen table, where I'd put them last night after I'd gotten home. I couldn't stop looking at it while I reheated and ate some soup I'd made on Sunday, it's presence almost taunting. After clearing away the dishes, I took the letter out into the living room, curled up in a call in the armchair, and read it. I probably read it seven times, back-to-back, before I spent the next hour staring at a spot on the carpet.

The more I'd read, the longer my list of questions got. But they were no longer just about how this had all come to happen, why we were given to different families. Now I wanted to know more about Maria - about my sister. From what Edward wrote, she sounded like I already knew her. Not in any actual sense, and I still wanted to know so much more, but on a deep level it was like I already knew the woman he was writing about.

She was in my dreams that night. I was walking through woods like the ones that surround my dad's house, and she was beside me, mirroring my every movement. Whenever I asked her something, she would answer, but no sound came out of her mouth. When I tried to touch her, her skin felt smooth, and she was ice cold.

Consequently, I didn't get enough sleep and I spent Thursday moving through the fog that had settled over me. Jasper was worried about me, but we talked in the car, both in the morning and in the afternoon, and I assured him that I was just exhausted, and I was still processing everything. When he dropped me off, I told him I was going to go through the folder Emmett had given me, and asked if he wanted to come in. He gave me a smile, saying that it was okay and that he'd see me in the morning, reminding me to call him if I wanted to talk about anything I read in the folder.

Emmett was right, the information found during the background check verified everything Edward wrote. There wasn't too much more to be learnt from the information, as Emmett wasn't legally allowed to share citizens personal details. Whatever he gave me was what an employer might get if they enquired about your record. One thing that surprised me that Edward hadn't included in his letter was the fact that Maria rode a motorcycle, or at least had a license. That small nugget of insight into her life made me want more.

On Friday I went back to Em and Rose's for dinner and ended up staying the night again. Rose and I stayed up late, after Jasper had gone home and Emmet had gone to bed, talking about everything that was in the letter and what I was feeling about it. Even though I had Emmett, and I knew he would do anything for me, knowing I had Rosalie to help me through this ordeal made me feel stronger.

She convinced me to think about contacting Edward, making the very good point that if I had so many questions about who my sister was and what she was like as a person, the best person to ask was her husband, who'd known her since they were babies. It thought about calling him or messaging him all weekend. But when I shared my thoughts to Rose in a text message, I soon received a call from my brother trying to talk me out of it.

After a long conversation, on speakerphone so Rose could join in with him, we came to a compromise. If I was going to talk to Edward, and didn't want to do it over the phone, I would have to meet him in a public space that wouldn't give him more details about my personal life, like my schedule or where I lived. I knew Emmett's paranoia came from a place of love, and also from having to see the horrific outcomes of situations where the guy turns out to be a scumbag. We eventually compromised with asking Edward if he'd meet me instead of going to the meeting the next night at the same dinner we went to last week. The one sticking point for Emmett was that he insisted he come with me, against any of my objections, and when I finally did relent, Rose vowed that she'd be coming too.

It felt like I held my breath the entire time I waited for Edward to respond to my text. As the minutes ticked by, I started to wonder if I'd left it too long to reach out to him. He'd said to contact him whenever, and that he also understood if I didn't, so I hoped that he would answer no matter when I finally messaged him. It felt like it took hours for my phone to ding, but when I looked it had only been eight minutes.

E: Yes of course I can meet you

His message was short, but it made my heart miss a beat. Whether it was from nerves or the lingering attraction I needed to quash, I wasn't quite sure.

~oOo~

I sat in the same booth we'd sat in last week, but this time I was on the side Edward had sat on, facing the door. Rose and I had spent the drive to the diner convincing Emmett that he didn't need to sit with me while I met Edward, though he tried to stick to his guns as long as possible. When we'd finally gotten here, I pointed out that he could sit at the U-shaped counter that filled the middle of the room, facing the booth I'd be in and watch the whole exchange. It was Rose complaining that she couldn't sit on a stool comfortably while she was pregnant that finally swayed him to find a booth on the other side of the diner. He was still able to clearly see me, but he was way less conspicuous.

I ordered a Coke from a different waitress than served us last week, needing to settle my nervous stomach. While I couldn't stomach the idea of eating anything at the moment, when the waitress returned with my drink, I gulped it down, feeling parched.

Needing something to do with my hands while I waited, I pulled out Edward's letter, unfolded it and smoothed it down on the table. I'd probably read it a hundred times since Wednesday, to the point where the creases were now all worn, and the edges of the paper showed the beatings it had taken as I poured over it. I'd read it so many times, I could practically recite it. Going over it again gave me some sort of comfort, allowing me to order all of my thoughts and recall everything I'd wanted to ask Edward when he arrived.

Dear Bella,

This letter is one of the hardest things I've ever had to write. I hope to be able to explain everything in person, but I also know that I find it hard to communicate when I am anxious. I wish I could tell you everything, but if I did I would probably need to hand you a novel instead of a letter. The center of the matter is what's most important, and what I sincerely hope I am brave enough to tell you face to face.

When I first saw you, waiting in the lobby at the hospital, I thought you were my wife, Maria, who had passed away a year ago. This wasn't the delusion of a grieving man, who saw in you a similarity to the woman he loved. Maria was adopted after she was born and as it was a closed adoption, she didn't know much about her biological family. So, at first I thought you might be blood relatives, perhaps even sisters. But you are identical to Maria in almost every way - your face and expressions, your height and weight, even your voices sound alike. After my sister found you on Facebook and I saw your birthday, I am convinced that you and Maria are identical twins. You didn't have a twin sister listed on Facebook, so it couldn't have been that Maria was swapped with another baby at the hospital. The only truth that seems logical to me now is that you were also adopted, and the two of you were separated at birth.

I don't expect you to believe me straight away. It sounds outlandish - like I'm trying to con you somehow. But I assure you that everything in this letter is the truth. Her facebook profile hasn't been deactivated yet if you wanted to find her. Just search Maria Cullen. But I'm going to include as much important information in this letter that I can think of.

Maria was born at around 3a.m on September 13th, 1989, at Tacoma General Hospital. She was adopted the following afternoon by Carmen and Eleazar Di Nali, through the Guardian Angel Adoption Agency in Seattle. Her birth mother had contacted the agency later in the morning on the 13th, and the adoption agent that was working with the Di Nali's went out to meet her. The birth mother chose a closed adoption, signed the papers after picking the Di Nali's, and was gone by the time they'd reached the hospital. Not much was known about the young woman, who seemed to have completely disappeared.

Maria and I grew up together, from the day she was brought home until the day she died. Before we were together romantically, we were best friends. As a child she was kind and compassionate, and incredibly smart (though that sometimes came out as cheekiness). She was friendly and outgoing, always drawing in people who wanted to get to know her. She was very competitive, often against me, and was almost always the top of our classes throughout school. There was a tight race, but Maria ended up being Valedictorian of our graduating class.

We began dating in high school, going on to attend Dartmouth together. She was pre-law there, and when we graduated, she was accepted to Law school at Northwestern University, in Chicago. We got married in Italy in 2011, the summer after we graduated from Dartmouth. Maria's father, Eleazar, is originally from Tuscany, so we got married there, in his family's church. It had been somewhere Maria and her parents had visited every summer, and it was incredibly special to her.

Once she'd graduated law school, she began working for the D.A's office, but the job was hard, and it often exhausted her. After 18 months there, the last straw came when she was a victim of a shooting on the steps of the courthouse. She had been part of a team prosecuting an accused serial rapist, and as they were leaving with one of his victims who was testifying, he opened fire. He ended up killing the victim and one of the lawyers, injuring the others, as well as a few innocent bystanders. Maria was shot twice in the abdomen and spent nearly 2 weeks in hospital after surgery.

That was a turning point for her, and after taking 3 months off work to recover she began working in the Chicago office of her fathers' law firm. She was working in the family law department, dealing with custody battles and domestic violence claims. I think it was helping her deal with what she'd been through. She also started seeing a therapist to deal with PTSD she experienced after the shooting, but she was getting back into her regular routines - jogging most days, going out with friends.

The fact that things were seeming normal again was one of the reasons why her death was so shocking. Sometime between 2 and 3 in the morning on July 23rd, 2018, Maria passed away in her sleep. When I woke up at around 7, she looked like she was sleeping, but she wouldn't wake up. Waiting for the ambulance to arrive was the worst 11 minutes of my life, but a part of me still had hope that she would be okay. That hope was dashed within minutes of them arriving and declaring her dead on arrival.

The whole experience was incredibly traumatizing for me, and I haven't ever really dealt with that trauma. I don't tell you that to make you feel sorry for me. I tell you because I want to explain my actions since seeing you at the hospital.

When I saw you, I first thought you were Maria. Don't ask me why, or how, I thought that possible, but for a brief moment it felt like it could be true. Realizing that you were, in fact, someone else entirely brought up many things I hadn't dealt with yet, throwing me into a bit of a downward spiral. My family had asked me to move back to Seattle during that visit, worried about my mental health. After my emotional spiral plateaued, I decided that they were right, and began making plans to move.

I spent some time trying to figure out how to find you, but only knowing your first name, I didn't know where to start. Like I said, it was my sister that found you on facebook. She encouraged me to send you a message to explain everything, but it never felt right to me. I thought you deserved to be told in person that you could be in danger.

Due to the unusual circumstances of Marias' death, an autopsy was performed. Because she was young and healthy, they had to rule out any sort of foul play. It confirmed that her death was natural, possibly due to a blood clot that travelled to her brain, causing a deadly stroke. It would have been quick, and she never would have woken up. The only explanation they could come up with was that a residual clot, which formed after the surgeries to remove the bullets from her abdomen, had been the cause. But because it had been 15 months since the surgeries, and she'd had scans to check the site was healing since, it didn't seem the likeliest theory.

The other explanation was that it was a genetic abnormality that may have been inherited. But without any information about her biological parents, it could never be confirmed. If whatever it was that caused a clot to form in Maria's brain is genetic, and you two are indeed identical twins separated at birth, I urge you to please go to your doctor as soon as possible. Have a CT or MRI scan, whichever would show if you may also suffer from the same sudden symptoms that Maria wasn't able to detect. I pray that nothing like that would happen to you too, but if it's a possibility, I will sleep easier knowing that I was able to warn you.

Knowing now how much you have already lost; I hate that I am bringing you more. I wish Maria had been able to meet you. She always said she felt like she had more family out there - like she had an ache that wasn't able to be soothed by any of the people she loved and who loved her. She'd always dreamt of having twins one day. Even when we were really little and she was playing with dolls, I was always meant to be the daddy, she was the mommy, and her matching dolls were our babies. Knowing you were out there would have probably answered as many questions as it asked but meeting you would have been one of the best moments of her life.

I know this is a lot to process, and I wouldn't blame you if I never hear from you again. But if you do ever have any questions, or want to talk about Maria, my number is (555)872-0631. You could also find me on facebook under Edward Cullen. Please don't hesitate to message or call me if you need anything.

Sincerely,

Edward

I could feel my heartbeat slow a little more, and I tried to take a few deep breaths to center myself. Looking over at the booth where Rose and Emmett were sitting, I made eye contact with Rose, who gave me an encouraging smile.

The bell on the door dinging, and a gust of cool September evening air, snatched my attention from my sister-in-law and brother. Like a magnet, my gaze was drawn to intense, emerald green eyes set in a handsome face. Just like mine, Edwards' eyes were locked to me, and it was like we were the only two people in the room.

A little bit of a cliffhanger! I hope you like the chapter :D

I'm going to be working on a university block for the next few weeks, so the next update may take me a little bit to get through. I think it's also going to be a difficult chapter to write, with lots of dialogue, so please bare with me!