5

Though Bella's instincts told her not to, at one o'clock the next afternoon, she found herself standing in front of her car, which was now parked in front of the designated meeting spot. The Oasis had been around long before Bella was born. Back when she was a regular, it was owned and operated by an older man named David Banner, who looked the other way when minors came in. He was strict and never allowed them to drink, but told them as long as they didn't violate his trust, he would let them hang out. Seeing as there weren't many places in Woodbury for them to hang out, Bella and Carlisle were regulars.

They, along with Jacob, Edward, Emmett, and Rosalie, went almost every weekend to play pool, throw darts, and dance. Though she was classically trained as a ballerina, she loved all forms of dance, especially when Carlisle was holding her, his hand planted on her ass while the other was tangled in her hair. He would tilt her head back and kiss the underside of her chin, down her neck to the top of her cleavage. If she closed her eyes, she could still feel his lips against her skin, the warmth of his breath, and the delicate way he used his tongue against her skin.

Bella opened her eyes and had just turned to get back into her car, but stopped when she heard the door to the Oasis open. She looked back, finding Edward standing there in a pair of jeans with rips in the knees and a black T-shirt with a large, white 'O'. His auburn hair had been pulled up into a man bun that few men could actually pull off. Carlisle always kept his hair short, neat, and orderly, unlike Edward, whose hair was wild and uncontrollable.

"You coming in?"

"I don't really want to," she said, sighing as she turned and leaned against the front of her car.

Edward stepped outside, letting the door close behind him as he walked across the parking lot to stand just a few yards from her. He folded his arms in front of him, the sleeves of his shirt pulling against the tops of his arms.

"I've been clean and sober for nine years, six months, and eighteen days, Izzy."

She just stood there, staring at him.

He sighed, gripping the back of his neck. "I just want to talk."

"And we have to do that in there, surrounded by all that alcohol."

"Well, that's where I left the food."

"What'd you get?"

Edward smiled. "JT's, of course."

"You get any spicy curly fries?"

"Duh," he scoffed, waving his hand toward the front door. But when she shook her head, he dropped his hand to his hip and said, "He was my brother, Izzy."

"I don't trust you."

"I know you don't," he admitted, frowning. "I gave you plenty of reasons not to, but I'm not the same person I was when you and Carlisle left, Izzy. Just . . ." He paused, looking away as he sniffed, and she wondered if he was trying to keep his tears from falling, too. "Just give me a chance, okay? Please?"

Bella bit the inside of her lip before she nodded. Edward smiled and stretched his hand out toward her, but she just looked at it and shook her head. There was no way in hell she was holding his hand. It was hard enough for her to agree to go inside with him. Touching him wasn't something she was going to do anytime soon.

"After you," he said, gesturing for her to make the first move, which she knew was because he was afraid she would bail before they had a chance to sit and talk. Though, she wasn't sure they had anything to talk about at this point. Edward had made decisions in his life she would never understand. He and Carlisle had grown up in hell, with parents who treated them like burdens and neglected them while chasing the next high. This was why she never understood how Edward could turn to drugs and alcohol when those very things had ruined their childhoods.

When she walked into the Oasis, the feeling of deja vu washed over her, and it took every ounce of control not to bail, not to run back to her father's house and lock herself back in her bedroom. But she couldn't, because Charlie had been stalking her bedroom door since Jasper dropped her off the day before. She understood why he hadn't told her he was sick, and had a stent put in his heart. But at the same time, she felt betrayed that he didn't tell her, that Jasper didn't tell her. But then again, she hadn't made any effort to be a part of their lives, had she?

Jasper and Charlie always came to them in New York. When Jasper and Alice got married, their wedding was in Georgia, so she and Carlisle had made the trip there to attend. After they relocated to Woodbury, they came to New York and brought the girls to them to see. Bella had checked out on her family and let Carlisle become her entire world; now, she was alone.

The sound of the door closing surprised her, and when she looked back, she found Edward leaning against it. He turned and locked it, saying, "We're not open yet, so . . ."

Bella nodded and looked around. The place looked the same as it had the last time she was there. Ten years and the walls were still covered in the same neon beer signs, aluminum Coca-Cola and Pepsi Co. signs, antique model cars photos, and framed posters of some of the biggest musicians in the country. What drew her attention the most, though, was the picture of her, Edward, Carlisle, Rosalie, Jacob, and Emmett that hung behind the bar. Old Man Banner had taken it a few months before she and Carlisle left town, a few months before Jacob died, and things got harder. Things were always hard, but the Oasis had been their place.

"Maybe I should have taken it down," Edward said, hurrying over and reaching for the picture but stopping when Bella said, "It's fine. I just didn't realize you still had it, I guess. Figure you would have destroyed it like you did everything else."

Edward frowned but gestured for her to sit at the bar. She walked over and climbed onto the barstool, dropping her hands in her lap before watching as he pulled two brown paper bags out from under the bar and placed them on top. He pulled out two large containers of spicy curly fries and two burgers, putting the one with a toothpick in it in front of her and the other in front of the place to her right. Adding some packs of ketchup and two bottles of water, he hurried around and slid onto the stool next to her, angling his body her way.

"Aren't you going to eat?"

"Not very hungry," she replied, picking up the bottle of water and unscrewing the lid, taking a drink. "You wanted to talk, so talk already."

Edward frowned but nodded. "Can you tell me what happened that night?"

"Wow, we're just going to jump right into it, huh?"

"Sorry, I just . . . I need to know how he died."

"How he died?" Bella sighed and pushed herself off the stool, wrapping her arms around her torso. "Well, he, um, he wasn't supposed to work that night, but he'd called and said they were shorthanded, so he was going to pick up a few extra hours." She paused as she frowned and said, "I was mad."

"Why were you mad?"

She blew out a deep breath. "Because I'd just found out I was pregnant, and I planned to tell him that night. I had the whole thing planned, you know? I had gotten a little onesie made that said, 'My Daddy is My Hero.' I was going to put the positive test in with it. But then he called and said he was working late, and I was mad because I was excited. But I knew no matter how much I argued, he wouldn't change his mind. He never did. So I let it go. I figured I could tell him the next morning when he got home, you know? But there wasn't a next morning," she cried, and when Edward reached for her, she put her hands up in front of her. "Don't touch me. Please, just don't touch me."

"I'm sorry," he said quietly as he settled back on the stool. "So he was working?"

Bella nodded. "He, um, he'd responded to a domestic violence call. Apparently, he'd been called there before, several times actually, and, um, when he got there, he found a woman lying on the floor of her living room. She'd been beaten severely, and he was trying to help her when her husband came up behind him. They fought, and his weapon was taken from him. He was shot in the chest three times. They said it was fast and painless, but how could it be? He was shot in the fucking chest? There's nothing fast or painless about being shot, is there?"

"He was working alone?"

Bella nodded. "He didn't have a regular partner. He rotated wherever he was needed. On that night, he was the odd man out, I guess, and responded to the call and entered before backup got there. Apparently, it was something he did a lot."

"What happened to the man who shot him?"

"He turned the gun on his wife and then on himself. He and Carlisle died; she was alive last I heard." Bella brought her hand up to the top of her T-shirt. "He lied to me."

"What? When?"

"When he called that evening — when he called and said he was working a double," she whimpered. "He told me they were shorthanded, said they needed him, but after . . . afterward, I found they weren't shorthanded, that he had asked if he could work an extra shift. He said he didn't want to come home, said he couldn't handle my bitching and complaining. He would have rather work than be with me, Edward.

"I thought we had a good marriage. Sure, things were hard sometimes. Our schedules were never the same. He worked nights, and I had rehearsals during the day, but I didn't think he was unhappy with me. But he told them he didn't want to come home — that he didn't want to deal with me. Turns out he had been picking up a lot of extra shifts because he didn't want to be at home with me."

"I can't imagine that Carlisle was unhappy with you, Bella."

She shifted her eyes back to Edward. "How would you know? You hadn't seen him in ten years. I lived with him every fucking day. For three thousand, seven hundred, and six days, I thought he loved me. But now, now, I'm not sure anything about him was real, or true."

"I may not have seen or spoken to my brother in ten years, Izzy, but there's no way he didn't love you. You were his world, his entire world, since you were fucking twelve years old."

Bella wrapped her arms around herself before she walked over and sat back on the barstool, turning and picking up one of the curly fries. She held it up before popping it into her mouth, grimacing. "They're cold."

Edward laughed before he stood and grabbed them. "I bought them before I came in at eleven. Had a delivery, and knew I wasn't going to have time to run to get food before you got here. Sorry."

"It's okay." Bella leaned forward and watched as he placed the fries in the microwave. "How long have you been working here?"

"I, um, actually bought the place from old man Banner a few years ago."

"You own it?"

Edward nodded. "I know what you're thinking, too. What's an addict and alcoholic doing running a bar?"

"Doesn't it make your sobriety, or whatever you call it, harder?"

"No."

"No?"

Edward opened the microwave and pulled her fries out, placing them back on the bar before he walked back around and sat beside her. "It took a long time before I could admit I hurt the people I loved the most, Izzy. When Carlisle told me he was done with me, done with my bullshit, I wanted to hate you. I was sure that you were the one who told him to cut me out, to move on without me, but you weren't, were you?"

Bella shook her head. "I tried to talk him out of it. I mean, not moving to New York, but I didn't want him to lose you, Edward. After what they put both of you through, I was scared he would regret losing you, too. But after the accident, after Jake died, and I got hurt." She picked up one of the fries, but didn't eat it. "He just couldn't trust you anymore."

Edward nodded, causing a tear to slide down his face, which he used his shoulder to wipe away. "I never meant for Jake to . . . to die. It was a dare, Izzy. We dared each other to do dumb shit all the time, but that night, we'd drank too much, got high, but I didn't ever think you would get in the car with him, Izzy. I never would have dared him if I thought you were going to be in the car with him."

"I was trying to stop him," she murmured, popping the fry into her mouth. It still wasn't hot, but she found herself reaching for another, and then another. "Jake never backed down from a dare, though. Never. But I thought he wouldn't do something stupid if I were in the car with him. You know how protective he was of me."

Edward smiled, though it didn't reach his eyes. "We all were, Izzy. Me, Emmett, Jake, and Carlisle, especially Carlisle . . . you and Ro were our people, our fucking people, and we didn't let anyone hurt our people."

Bella frowned. "I was your people until that night. I thought I was his person for the last ten years, but . . ."

She pushed away from the bar again, finding herself pacing back and forth. "After his funeral, when I was packing up our apartment, I found a secret bank account. Carlisle had been hiding money from me, Edward. I mean, we worked hard for every cent we had and budgeted our expenses, so we weren't hurting for money, you know? But he had a lot of money in this secret account, and I found paperwork indicating he'd been paying rent for someone else. For the last five years, he's been paying the rent for a woman named Esme Platt."

"Esme? He was paying Esme's rent?"

Bella shifted her eyes to Edward. "You know her?"

Slowly, ever so slowly, Edward nodded and stood, reaching into the back pocket of his jeans. He pulled out his wallet, pulling out a photograph. He stared at it for a moment before he held it out to her. She could feel her fingers trembling as she reached for it. The picture was old and worn around the edges, faded but still clear. The girl was beautiful, with long caramel hair pinned up on the side. She sat with her body angled toward the camera, a black fur shawl wrapped around her. It was a graduation photo, she thought. She turned it over and looked at the back, finding the words Esme Platt, Sr. Class of 2018.

Bella looked back at Edward before she asked, "Why do you have this, Edward?"

"Esme's is my sister, Izzy," he admitted. "Mine and Carlisle's sister. Half-sister, actually."

Thank you for all the AMAZING reviews! And a HUGE thank you to Sunflower Fran for reading through this chapter for me and being such an amazing friend! So we got a few answers, but there is still a lot of uncover, and our sweet, poor Bella is really struggling with her grief right now.