WRONG DECISIONS

Disclaimer: The Cullen's, the Swans, and most of the characters mentioned in the story that are known from Stephanie Meyer's beloved Twilight Saga, are all hers and hers alone. I neither have nor wish to pass them off as mine. I do appreciate the fact that she brought them to life and allows us to play with them in our imaginations. The only thing I will claim is the current storyline.

The awesome and talented dowlingnana searched out my errors and corrected them.

Once Marcus was sure that Bella was away safely out of the area he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He dialed Carlisle's number and informed him that he had discovered James and would wait for someone to come pick him up.

CHAPTER 24: FACING SOME HARD TRUTHS

"You did what?! Why the hell did you do that, Marcus? You knew that we wanted to help my grandchildren! To save them and to get them away from a monster." Carlisle was yelling into his phone while Edward, Emmett and Jasper were standing by wanting more details of what set Carlisle Cullen off into such a rant. The one thing they did gather from what they were hearing was that it had to do with the children and something Marcus had done.

As soon as Carlisle got off the phone Edward demanded to know what was going on with the twins. But before explaining Carlisle ran his hand over his face and then told the three men what Marcus had done about returning the children to Bella.

"Although I'm not happy about that taking place, I can understand him doing it. He did tell us that he had promised Bella to return the children to her and that is exactly what he did." Edward told his father with disappointment being evident in his voice.

"Son, aren't you upset about this?" Carlisle asked with some puzzlement but his anger against Marcus still being present in the tone of his voice.

"Yes, but the main thing is that the kids are safe now." Was Edward's simple answer. Then he asked, "Dad, why don't you tell us all that Marcus Volturi told you?"

Carlisle went ahead and told them all that Marcus had told him, repeating what had been said about returning the children to Bella but also about having James Hunter under control and tussled up. "That he is waiting for us to arrive at the motel where Esme and Victoria are at the moment. And that he'll direct us back to where he and James are." Carlisle finished telling them.

"Okay, then what are we waiting for?" Emmett asked, then as he looked around, he finished by asking, "What the hell are we going to do with these assholes?"

"Marcus is sending over some of his men to take over guard this bunch of nothing. Once they arrive then we're free to leave and go over to this motel." Carlisle informed everyone.

XXXXXX

"Caius, since Marcus is now off the grid and no one else has been able to get any more information about where the Cullen brats are located, I need you to use your influence with that stupid bitch that you're dating to see what you can find out." Aro told his brother almost, it seemed, without drawing a breath.

"Aro, we didn't even know her connection to the Cullen bitch or her brats until I started getting serious about her and you insisted on running an in-depth background check. And that has only been in the last couple of weeks when I told you that I was thinking of asking Irina to marry me."

"When you told me that what the hell did you expect? How could you even imagine that I would allow a marriage when nothing was known about this woman that you had chosen to fuck?"

"She hasn't even been a threat to us since she has no idea who I really am or about any of our business dealings. I've been very careful about keeping all of that away from her." Caius angrily retorted back to his brother.

"Look, Caius, I know that you have some feelings for this woman, but there is no way that you can bring her into the family; she's connected to the Cullen family, even if it's indirectly." Caius opened his mouth to interrupt Aro, however, Aro held up his hand to silence his brother as he continued speaking as if he hadn't been stopped, "Use her for the information that we need then get rid of her permanently. We can't afford to have any loose ends." Aro finished and then turned and left a silent but extremely angry Caius.

Caius just stood where Aro had left him, thinking about all that his brother had said. The thoughts that were running through his mind were, "how did we get to this point?", "why did Irina have to be the connection to the Cullen assholes?", "why is everything starting to fall apart and going to hell in a handbasket?, "is there a way that he can still keep Irina in his life without her constituting any sort of threat to anyone?"

He truly had no explanation for any of what was happening now. He did also wonder if Aro was starting to get out of control and needed to be dealt with. Then he asked himself if he was even able to deal with getting rid of his brother and taking over the family? That was something that he couldn't answer right then.

Finally, Caius walked out of the room as he began to pull his phone out of his pocket.

XXXXXX

Bella couldn't believe what she was seeing, her guardian stranger was indeed keeping his promise and returning her babies to her. She dropped to her knees with arms spread wide as the twins walked through the door, saw her and took off running into her arms.

She hugged them close, thanking God and the stranger standing before her as tears ran freely down her face because her children had been returned to her safely.

After taking some time to regain her composure Bella was able to listen to what Marcus had to say. He introduced himself and then told her to take the car that was parked outside and get the hell out of there. But before she left, he asked how she had been able to overcome her prisoner.

Bella quickly explained and that was when Marcus told her who James was; the person that had her children. Without saying another word Bella walked over to James and was in the process of drawing back her foot when Marcus stopped her, "You don't have time to deal with any of this as the Cullen men are on their way here to get him. I suggest that you leave now and take some time to make some hard but fast decisions about how you are going to handle the situation between you and the Cullen family. I'm quite sure you know what type of family business they have had since you went to them for help to retrieve the children. And before you ask yes, my family is in the same business."

After Marcus had started to turn toward James's unconscious body, he noticed that Bella had quickly snapped to a frozen state. He wondered what the cause might be but didn't have long to wait to find out as she asked, "Aren't you one of the Volturi brothers?"

Marcus nodded in the affirmative and continued to explain, "I don't agree with my brothers on a lot of things that they might want to do. This happens to be one of those things."

Bella saw the honesty reflected in his face and the fact that he was being truthful with her so with a quick nod of her head and a hug with the man that had returned her children to her without asking for anything in return, Bella took her son and daughter by the hand and walked out of the cabin, put them into the car and left.

She wasn't sure at that moment about how she was going to handle Edward and the rest of his family. In fact, she hadn't even been honest with her father because of her fear that telling Charlie about the kidnapping would endanger her children's lives. But she did know that now was the time to start being honest with everyone.

Bella knew that once she told her father about what had happened and about who had been involved, he was going to blow a gasket. Right or wrong Bella knew that she should have told Charlie all about what had happened to his grandchildren.

It was with that thought in mind that had Bella driving to Forks and her childhood home. She needed to tell Charlie about all of the events that she had knowledge of and then she needed to decide how to introduce the children to their father. It was time to stop hiding and to do what was necessary. Her father would be able to give her good advice concerning that matter.

Bella never considered going to her home or calling Irina to let her know about all of the current developments. She had last spoken with Irina before leaving for Chicago and they hadn't communicated since then.

It did cross her mind to wonder how Edward and the rest of the Cullen family were going to handle the news that the children had been returned to her instead of them being able to get their hands on Annabella and Anthony. Bella was dead certain that had Carlisle been able to get to the children it would have been much more difficult for her to be able to get them.

All of these thoughts kept swirling around in her mind during the drive to Forks and it was as she pulled up into the driveway of her childhood home that she saw an old habit from her growing-up years; Charlie Swan had moved the curtain at the window slightly to one side to be able to peek out to see who was arriving.

As she got out of the car and then helped the twins to exit the vehicle Charlie opened the front door and walked down into the yard with arms wide open to receive both Bella and his grandchildren. "This is a great delight even though it is unexpected." He said with a smile spreading across his face.

"Granpa, we've had a great adventure." Both the children were yelling at him as they were running to greet him.

"Is that right? And what great adventure is this that all of you have been having?" Was his laughing response to them.

Just as the twins started to launch into telling him about what they were talking about Bella quickly interrupted and told them that they could tell the story later. "It's getting near time for dinner, and I thought we could cook outdoors." The kiddos were all in favor of that as was Charlie.

They raced quickly inside the house as a way to shortcut it to the backyard to play while the adults were busy getting everything ready for cooking on the grill. It was during this time that Bella took the opportunity to tell her father about the kidnapping and fill him in with all of the details concerning the event.

"I'm hurt that you didn't trust me enough to let me know what was happening to all of you and that you felt you needed to go all the way to Chicago to ask for help from that gang of cutthroats that you had married into.

"However, I can understand that you felt you had no other choice due to the circumstances and the conditions stated in the ransom demand.

"You're just lucky that a member of another cutthroat family here had enough honor to truly help you without any demands of his own.

"Now, Isabella, I'm going to say this, and it isn't a suggestion this time, but you need to let those two know their father. I don't mean with just pictures and flimsy excuses of why he hasn't been available to them like you have been doing these past few years. You need to get your head out of your ass and do what is right since you have finally let Edward know that he is a father.

"From what I've observed over the years since your divorce from him, and yes, I have kept tabs on his activities, Edward is working really hard to move all of their businesses into more legal avenues." Charlie with a lot of hurt, disappointment and anger sounding through in his voice and words, didn't hesitate to tell Bella about his feelings concerning the actions she had taken by cutting him out or about how she had withheld knowledge from Edward about him being a father.

Many times, during her pregnancy and even afterwards, he had told her that she needed to let Edward know about the birth of the twins; telling her that he had a right to know and each time she had refused for one reason or another.

"Dad, I just got the kids back today and I brought us straight here. I haven't even told Irina about all that has been happening since leaving here to go to Chicago. Maybe I should make that call after dinner.

"I just wanted to come home, here, to be with you and to tell you everything. And you're right about getting Edward involved with Annabella and Anthony. I've had to do a lot of hard soul-searching and have come to realize my mistakes. I'm trying to correct them." Bella quietly told Charlie as she gathered up the food for putting on the grill.

Father, daughter and grandchildren spent the rest of the evening relaxing and enjoying being together.

XXXXXX

Caius and Irina went to dinner and were quietly talking when he happened to ask her how her job was coming along. He was trying without being obvious to gather the information that Aro was wanting.

However, Irina only gave general answers to his questions. However, their quiet evening ended abruptly as Aro happened to show up at their table. He didn't hesitate to introduce himself and mention that he was Caius's brother.

Irina was aware of who Aro was as she had seen his picture in the news often enough, but she was unaware that Caius was related to Aro or that his last name was Volturi. Caius had told her his last name was Lancini but he didn't say that it had been his mother's last name.

With a frown on her face, she looked from Aro over to Caius and then back again before rising from the table and walked away without speaking one word to either man.

"Did you get any useful information from her?" Aro quietly asked Caius to which Caius only shook his head no.

"You just couldn't stand for me to find happiness with this woman. No, you had to interfere with it and now I've lost her." Without saying another word Caius stood and walked out of the restaurant only to see that Irina had been forced into his brother's car and was being driven away.

"Brother, I gave you a chance to try to get the information the easy way, but it didn't work out, so now we're doing it my way." Aro said before he walked away leaving Caius staring in the direction his love had been taken.

XXXXXX

After getting the twins settled for the night, Bella did try to call Irina but received no answer to her call. Next, she dialed Edward's number and he answered immediately.

"Edward, can you come by yourself to Forks and meet me at Charlie's?"

"Why?"

"Because it's time for you to meet Annabella and Anthony."

AN: What is Caius going to do about Irina? How are the Cullen's dealing with Marcus returning the twins to Bella? What is going to happen to James? Will Edward go to Forks?

Thanks for reading and looking forward to your comments.