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Chapter 58
Mother
Bella
By the time Carlisle spoke, I knew what was going on.
Corin.
"Damn!" said Emmett, who probably caught on as quickly as I did.
"Alice, why didn't you see it? Corin has Esmé!", I said to Alice.
She had to have seen it after all, if they were planning something.
"It was a red herring," she said, startled.
Presumably, she meant the appearance of Edward and Rosalie with us in the forest.
"But what did they distract Emmett and me for? Corin could have grabbed Esmé if we had both been at home," I said, confused.
Surely Corin had taken Esmé by surprise after she had taken my mom to Charlie. We couldn't have prevented that if we had been at home.
"No, it was a red herring for me! I put all my concentration on what they were doing with you two, and I couldn't see a right decision. I wasn't thinking about Corin. How should I!", Alice said excitedly.
The realization hit us all with a jolt and I felt Jasper trying to calm our tempers. Panic would clearly be a bad reaction now.
"Wait, how do you know it's Corin? She's one of the Volturi. Why is she connected to this?" Carlisle asked.
"Rose had mentioned her, right at the end. She said that HER was doing well with Corin. We didn't understand the comment until you told us about Esmé," I said.
I didn't know if it was because of Jasper, but Carlisle remained surprisingly calm. Almost impassively.
"Yes, I'm sure she'll be fine with Corin. Esmé will feel content and happy as a result of Corin's gift," Carlisle said more to himself than to us.
"What are we going to do now? We have to find them! Dearest, can't you see anything?", Jasper asked, looking over at Alice.
Her gaze wandered into the distance. Then she shook her head.
"No, she keeps deciding. But I can see they're somewhere in Seattle," she said.
Of course, Edward had told her not to make any final decisions to avoid Alice's visions.
"Well, let's go to Seattle and get Esmé back!", Emmett said full of energy.
I looked at Carlisle and his eyes were black.
Disappointment and anger were reflected in his face. It had to be painful for him to see what his own children were doing to him.
Alice's gaze went blank again.
"Esmé will be back with us in three days, safe and sound," Alice said.
"But why ...", Jasper started, but I cut him off.
"They want to stop the wedding. They don't want to hurt Esmé," I said.
The wedding would be in two days and of course we wouldn't celebrate if Esmé wasn't with us. They knew that. Why did they have to make our lives so difficult? Emmett and I had done nothing wrong. Why were they trying to destroy our happiness? Why Esmé?
I felt my eyes start to burn and I couldn't hold back the quiet sobs.
Why Esmé? She was always so good! She was the heart of the family.
Carlisle put a hand on my shoulder.
"Don't worry. We will not allow the wedding to be prevented," he said.
Apparently he misinterpreted my sobbing.
I shook my head and felt Jasper's hand touch my arm as well, reassuring me.
"It's because of Esmé. How can they do this to you, Carlisle. How can they do it to Esmé. I don't care if she's all right with this Corin. I don't care if she goes back in three days one way or the other. I know how I would feel if I was away from Emmett for three days. I'm not going to let them tear you guys apart. I'm going to Seattle to get our mother, the heart of our family, your eternity, Carlisle, back!" I said.
I didn't know where this determination came from, but I knew we had to get Esmé back.
No one said a comment about me referring to Esmé as our mother, which included me.
"Hell ... yeah!" said Emmett, taking my hand.
Like me, he was dying to go to Seattle.
Jasper was still holding my arm, but now I felt no waves of reassurance. He was as eager and enthusiastic as I was.
"Well ... and why are you all still standing around in the living room," Alice asked.
Her voice came from outside and she was already sitting in her yellow Porsche.
I hadn't even noticed that she went into the garage and got it.
We turned around and were already all at the car.
"Kids, you don't have to do that. Esmé and I can manage without each other for three days," Carlisle said, but his voice was empty.
"No, Carlisle. You are the best people I know, and I won't let you be separated from each other ... just because of a retarded revenge action by Edward and Rose!", I said and got into the car with the others.
Even if he didn't want to admit it, he already missed Esmé. His face revealed it to all of us.
"But we don't all have room in the Porsche. Once we have Esmé, we're one too many."
"I know, we're going without you. I can see how it would hurt you to meet Rose and Edward," Alice said.
Carlisle resisted, but eventually Alice made it clear to him that it would be better for him not to go.
So off we went.
The speed at which Jasper drove over the roads no longer bothered me. I could still see everything clearly, whereas as a human being I would have seen only blurred green in the woods.
Alice sat next to me and tried to concentrate on Corin the whole time. She still did not make any clear decisions.
Sometimes Alice saw them in a hotel, sometimes in a forest near Seattle, sometimes she saw them in a car. The visions always changed, but none pointed to Italy.
We were relieved that Edward and Rose did not go so far as to take her to Volterra.
Actually, they would have had no reason to do so. They had probably only asked Corin for a favor. Somehow they were still attached to Esmé, otherwise would they not have taken Corin, with whom she was doing well? If they didn't care, they could have asked one of the other guards.
An hour later, Alice finally seemed to have a vision, as she directed Jasper through Seattle - on to the Cougar Mountains. Jasper stepped on the gas even more and when we reached the edge of the forest, we got out and continued on foot.
We all took a deep breath and immediately smelled the beautiful warm and velvety scent of Esmé.
Next to it was another, slightly more unfamiliar scent, sweet and pleasant ... Corin.
She had to be only a few miles away and we all jumped in the direction from where we smelled her scent.
On the fastest way to our mother.