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.

"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."

CHAPTER 25: SURPRISE!

To say that Edward was surprised to hear the voice of his ex-wife on the phone would be a gross understatement. Then, to add in her request his brain seemed to go into a frozen state to the point that he wasn't able to immediately give her a response.

"Edward, are you there?" Bella asked since she hadn't heard anything from him.

"Uh, yeah, I'm here. When?"

"As soon as you can get here."

"I'll be there first thing tomorrow morning. We still have a bit of cleaning up to do here that I'm sure you're aware of." He told her and knew that he didn't have to explain any further since she knew that Marcus Volturi had been working with his family to save the twins.

"If you do try to bring anyone else, which I would prefer at the moment that you don't, then you can bring Esme, but no one else. Until then." Bella finished saying and hung up the phone without saying another word.

XXXXXX

"Son, who was that on the phone?" Carlisle asked Edward as he had watched the changing expressions on his son's face and also hearing the hesitation of his speech while speaking with whoever he had been talking to on the phone.

"Dad, it was Bella, and she was asking me to meet with her tomorrow."

"Okay, so where do we meet with her and how soon can we start to get the children?" Carlisle was quick to ask as he was anxious to get the twins so they could begin getting acquainted with their father and the rest of the family.

"What do you mean about "getting the children"? Edward asked his father, not quite understanding what Carlisle's objective might be.

"I mean for helping you to get custody of your children since Isabella has proven to be ineffective as a parent. She took away your rights to be able to have knowledge, let alone being able to have time with them."

"No, Dad, we aren't going to make any plans to take the twins away from their mother. So, you can forget that, and if you think to try to bypass me on this decision then I'll see what Mom and the others have to say about the situation." Edward firmly told Carlisle.

"But, Son,-"

"There are no 'but's', Dad. This is something that you, all of you, have to trust me to handle on my own. This is between Bella and me, no one else and I won't stand for any sort of interference that might make things more difficult to try to get this all straightened out and onto a firmer footing." Edward stated as he looked Carlisle straight in the eyes.

Then he continued, "Dad, you all have trusted me to move us into a more legal footing where our businesses are concerned, so I'm asking you to trust me to know what I'm doing where my personal life and business is concerned." And, with that said Edward turned to walk away in an effort to cool his temper.

Carlisle stood for a moment or two watching his son turn away from him and then with a heavy sigh he turned around to start looking for what he needed to take care of next.

XXXXXX

Once more, as James was beginning to regain some sense of consciousness, he became aware of several things. His head felt like hell, then he realized that he wasn't alone as he heard several male voices and finally, as he tried to move his hands to raise himself up, he became aware that his hands were tied behind his back. With a moan and a groan, he felt hands grabbing hold of each of his arms and he was jerked into a sitting position.

Finding himself being dropped into a chair and feeling a hand grabbing a handful of his hair to jerk his head back, James found that he was staring into the face of a very irate Carlisle Cullen and Marcus Volturi.

After recognizing those two men, James became further aware of more men being in the small cabin as well. Men he knew as well as he knew the two older men standing directly in front of him.

No words had been spoken but James felt a moment of fear before he shook it off because he knew in his mind that he still had the upper hand since he still had the brats, and these people didn't, nor did they know where to find them. That information was his protection around this bunch of men.

So, with that cocky attitude he decided that he had his out figured and demanded, "I would suggest that you let me go NOW, or you'll never see those brats ever again, Cullen. And as for you, Volturi, don't forget that I have control of your precious daughter. I've left the care of all of them in the hands of some of my trusted men and if I don't get in touch with them soon, well, what can I say; it might be hard to guarantee what condition you might find them in. That is if you do ever find them."

"Think so, asshole?" Carlisle asked as his hold of James's hair tightened to the point of being painful both for James and for Carlisle as it was causing cramping in his fingers and hand.

Carlisle Cullen's question gave James another moment of fear but once again he shook it off, still thinking that he had control of the whole situation, and they didn't. Too bad James was unaware that all his men had been taken by the Cullen/Volturi raid. He wasn't even aware that Marcus had already sent his daughter to safety, as well as, gotten Bella reunited with her children and out of the danger zone.

There was a lot that had taken place while James had been unconscious so he was uninformed but if he had had knowledge of those facts he might not have continued with his cocky attitude.

"Just who are these men and where are they that you seem to be referring to?" Carlisle demanded to know from James. But all James did was smile until Carlisle was gently forced to step aside to make room for Emmett.

To look at Emmett you would see a very well put together male with the build of a wrestler, a lumberjack and a bear all combined into one body. He was tall with muscle upon muscle and a boyish looking face that sported dimples when he smiles a true smile. But he could be very intimidating when he chose to be and now, standing in front of James was one of those times.

Standing and slamming a fist into his other hand over and over, Emmett looks at James and asks, "Do I need to teach you a lesson or two, or do you feel like cooperating with giving us some answers?"

James takes his time looking at each person that was in the room before he tells Emmett, "Lay a hand on me and you'll never see the brats or the bitch ever again." That comment alone earned Emmett's fist being smashed into James's face.

Edward had stood to one side listening to the exchange between the others and James until James uttered his last statement. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. He couldn't stand for anyone to call a woman a bitch but to refer to his children as brats as if they didn't deserve to exist unleashed the hidden fury that he had been trying so hard to keep in control.

Edward stepped forward, shoved Emmett to one side and bent down to be eye level with James. It was then that Edward told him, "You have no leverage left since my CHILDREN have been returned to their mother and Mr. Volturi's DAUGHTER has been returned to him.

"So, if I was you, I would want to start being more forthcoming with the requested information in hopes that I would walk out of here in some kind of reasonable state."

"You're bluffing. So, the choice is yours as to what condition you find the brats and the bitch in." James retorted only to feel instant pain as Edward slams his fist into James's face.

"Now, you want to tell us who is involved in this scheme of yours that might still be a threat to my children and Ms. Volturi? Or would you rather continue being the asshole that you are, and we continue with the current type of inquiry until you do tell us what we want to know." Edward commented as he continued ramming his fist into James's face, chest and stomach in a rapid-fire action. Edward wasn't paying any attention to the fact that his hands were also taking a beating with each hit he made to James's body.

Carlisle signaled for Emmett to pull Edward away from James before he ended up beating James to death. "Let me go. I need to make this bastard tell us who else might be a threat to everyone." Edward shouted as he struggled to get loose from Emmett's hold.

It was at that point that Jasper moved forward and got a hold of Edward to help Emmett pull him away from James.

"Emmett, Jasper, will you both escort this gentleman back to the place we're using to interrogate the rest of the riffraff that he seems to prefer." Carlisle instructed before turning to talk with his son.

So, with that detail handled, Carlisle stepped over to Edward who was standing next to Marcus Volturi. He reached up to put his hand on Edward's shoulder before he told him to take a walk back to the motel to update his mother on the current set of circumstances.

As soon as everyone had left except for Carlisle and Marcus, Carlisle turned to Marcus and demanded, "Why did you turn the children back over to Isabella? You knew that we were here to save my grandchildren and your daughter.

"Isabella hasn't proven herself to be able to keep them safe."

"I told you before that I had made a promise to both the ex-Mrs. Cullen and to my daughter. My honor was at stake to make sure that I kept my word to both.

"However, I don't agree with your assessment of the situation where the mother hasn't been able to keep her children safe. In my opinion, she has done a very good job up until now.

"What occurred could have happened at any time or any place, making no difference to who had taken care of the children at the time. So, it isn't right to lay blame for this incident at the ex-Mrs. Cullen's door." And, with that said Marcus turned and left the small cabin to return to get Tori and to take her home.

Carlisle stayed behind to give himself space to get his temper and disappointment under control. It wouldn't help anyone if he gave in to total emotion.

XXXXXX

No matter what he tried Caius had been unable to find out where Aro had taken Irina. He needed to decide what steps to take to be able to rescue her.

After one final attempt to get Aro to discuss the matter with him Caius knew that he was going to need some help, but who would help him? That was when he made the decision to call Marcus to see if help could be had from that direction.

He knew that he needed to do something quickly or he would lose Irina forever. Aro would have her tortured and killed since he had no respect for human life be it man or woman. Any means would be used to get the information or object that he wanted, and he would remove anyone that got in his way. That was just the way Aro was, and he refused to change.

XXXXXX

Edward and Esme were nearing the outskirts of Forks, Washington and both were nervous as hell about how this meeting would go. It was a given that Esme would be making the three-hour trip from Seattle with Edward once he had explained everything to his mother.

The entire family had demanded to come but Edward had stood firm answering "no" when they all kept pushing the issue. Finally, Esme stepped in and told all of them to shut the hell up, that things would be handled as Bella had requested and no other way.

"I'm sure all of you will be included in the future but not at this moment when we aren't even aware of what the children have or haven't been told about any of us.

"You have to remember that these babies have gone through a traumatic experience and are about to have more strangers introduced to them. I understand what Bella is doing and I do agree with how she wants to do it. Also, there is a big trust issue that is staring us in the face."

So, after that plans were made for just Edward and Esme to make the trip and as Edward is now about to turn into Charlie's driveway mother and son are feeling an increase in nerves. They were feeling tense with not knowing what to expect.

As Edward turned off the ignition, he glanced up to see the curtain in an upstairs room falling into place. Evidently, Esme saw the same and asked if he had any idea who might have been peeking.

"No, Mom, but I can tell you that that room is Bella's childhood bedroom."

"Oh." Was all she said.

Edward exited the car and went around to open the door for his mother and aided her in getting out. They both walked toward the front door, and it opened before either of them had made it to the front steps. Standing in front of them was Bella and two small children.

Before anyone could say anything the two children took off at a run, arms wide open and hollering, "Daddy! Daddy, you came home. And you brought Grammy."

AN: James has been taken by the Cullen's, Marcus makes no excuses as to why he handled things the way he did, and Caius is desperate to find Irina. Also, Edward and Esme receive a surprise when they come face to face with Annabella and Anthony.

Thanks for reading and looking forward to your comments.