Chapter 12 — The Truth

Renesmee

I was running as fast as I could through the damp forest, trying to catch up with Jacob. But my stupid, slow, half-human body wouldn't keep up.

"Jacob!" I screamed, but he did not come back and I could not catch up. I had to be just human enough for my life to be infuriatingly slow, while still reaping the bitter consequences of being a half immortal. Finally, I stopped, breathing hard. My parents, who had kept pace with me easily the whole time, stopped beside me.

"Renesmee, what has been going on?" demanded my mother. "You met Jacob and… and you two fell in love?"

"One of us did," I sobbed. "Apparently the other one just had a reaction to his genetics."

"Imprinting is more than that," said my mother, quietly. "It is love. True love."

"Yeah, it really looks like it," I said with bitter sarcasm, gesturing into the open space where Jacob had run off.

"It doesn't matter whether it's love or imprinting or both," growled my father. "You're never seeing him again, is that clear?"

I whipped around to face my father. His stern glare meant nothing in the face of what I felt for Jacob. I looked at him incredulously and thought, what are you going to do? Keep me prisoner?

"If that's what I'll have to do, I'll do it," said my father. "Anything to keep my daughter safe."

"Do what, Edward?" said my mother, looking between us anxiously.

"Keep me prisoner," I translated.

"Edward!" my mother looked outraged. "You cannot keep her from him. If this is what's meant to be—"

"He's dangerous, Bella!" my father shouted. I had never seen him angry with my mother. "If he can kill one of us, he can easily hurt her."

"He wouldn't hurt me," I said, my voice shaking. A wave of doubt came over me. Would he? I felt like there was so much I didn't know about him.

"He couldn't hurt her, even if he wanted to — which he clearly doesn't," said my mother, coolly. "He's imprinted. It would go against everything in him to do any harm to her."

"And yet he was able to walk away," said my father. "Hurting her and defying his instincts."

"For now," said my mother, crossing her arms. "He can't deny them forever."

"This is what you want for our daughter?" my father demanded, angrily. "To be with a werewolf?"

"I don't have the same werewolf prejudice as you do," said my mother, shrugging.

"I'll remind you that it was the werewolves that drove us into hiding because they wanted to kill Renesmee," said my father.

My mother said nothing, biting her lip slightly.

I continued to stare off into the woods, their words still echoing in my thoughts. "I don't have the same werewolf prejudices as you do." My mother had known werewolves, had been friends with them, before I came along. Then, there was Leah, "Jacob was madly in love with her."

"Were you — did you —?" I breathed, not even looking at my mother.

I couldn't say it, but I didn't have to. My father read my horrified thoughts and answered for me, his voice hard and bitter.

"No," he said. "Never."

"What?" asked my mother.

"She wanted to know if you and Jacob had ever been together," said my father, his voice full of venom.

"Oh, no! Definitely not," said my mother quickly. "He was my friend — my best friend, really. But then everything got so, well, complicated."

"Like you gave birth to a half-vampire baby and almost died so you had to be transformed into a vampire yourself to survive?" I said, hollowly.

"Well, I was going to be transformed anyway," said my mother, uncomfortably. "And Jacob's feelings for me… I never really reciprocated them."

"So he did love you," I said.

"He had a crush on me. It was a long time ago."

My mother was a terrible liar. I could tell that she was downplaying it. I turned and began to walk slowly back towards the cemetery, back towards my car.

"Where are you going?" my father asked, his voice softer now.

"Home," I said.

"Do you want us to come with you?" asked my mother.

"No," I said. "That is the last thing I want."