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Chapter 3

Betrayal

Bella

I sat on the Cullens' light beige fabric sofa; arms wrapped around my tightened knees.

Again and again my thoughts circled around my family - Edward, Alice, Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie. I couldn't stand to think that they wouldn't all come back. If one member of that family died, only because of me!

Esmé sat next to me and tried to cheer me up as much as possible.

But I saw in her eyes the same worries about her family.

She had her arm around me.

She was so motherly, so warm-hearted. I felt like even her skin was a few degrees warmer than the other vampires. If only Edward had turned me into one of them, then I could stand by them in battle or that James would never have noticed me at all.

Carlisle came in with a plate of spaghetti and set it down for me.

"Please eat something, Bella. Everything will be fine. Emmett, Alice and Jasper take over Victoria and chase her south. Edward and Rosalie chase James north. They'll call as soon as they make it."

I just nodded and ate the spaghetti.

I didn't want to let on, but it worried me that Edward was in the two-man team. However, Carlisle had told me that Edward thought Emmett should be in Alice and Jasper's group because he was worried about his favorite sister.

The next evening there was still no call, and my worries grew.

Edward was traveling only two ... and then with Rosalie. Then Alice, who seemed so small and fragile. And Emmett, who ran into every fight without thinking much.

"Come on, I'll take you up to bed, dear. It's getting late. If they call, we'll come get you," Esmé said to me as I was still pacing back and forth in the living room at one o'clock in the morning, eyes fixed on the phone the whole time.

I went upstairs with her, got into my pajamas and she gave me a kiss on the forehead.

"Sleep well."

"Thank you, you too," I said.

A weak attempt at being funny.

Only now did I realize how tired I was. Actually, I wanted to stay awake in bed so I could hear when someone called, but after ten seconds I fell asleep.

Dream

I couldn't see much, everything was black or completely dark green.

Like in a forest at night.

That's when I saw the two vampires.

The red eyes shone like fire in the darkness. They came closer and closer. James reached out his hands to me.

I wanted to scream.

Dream end

A cold hand touched my shoulder.

"Bella ... Bella!"

I woke up with a short cry.

It was Carlisle who shook my shoulder to get me to wake up.

I looked at the clock - it showed half past four in the morning.

"Alice' group just called. They killed Victoria."

He slightly contorted his face.

Carlisle was so kind-hearted. He could not bear to kill beings and be they as sadistic as James or Victoria.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Good, then they will definitely come home soon, right?", I asked.

"No, probably not yet. They haven't heard from the other team yet either. So they decided to go after them to help," explained Esmé, who was now standing next to Carlisle.

Emmett

SHIT YES! I was totally euphoric. Finally I was allowed to fight again - with a real opponent. We had defeated Victoria, with the three of us it was easy.

Now we ran with all our might and full speed through the forest to the others to help them with this dirty tracker.

We followed our trail back to the clearing and from there we followed the trail of Edward and Rose.

Edward should have hunted down the guy with his mind reading by now. Alice even said that she had a vision that Edward would reach James sooner than we reached Victoria. But they hadn't contacted us yet, so we went looking for them. It couldn't be long before we caught up with them. We had been running for half the day. I smelled that there must have been a fire nearby. Probably a campfire.

Suddenly, Alice stopped abruptly, her eyes far away.

Jasper had stopped right next to her, I about a hundred yards away.

"No, they didn't!", I heard Alice hiss softly.

"What is it, Alice? We're going to miss all the fun if we don't hurry ...", I said impatiently, without raising my voice. She heard me well enough as it was. "I'll go ahead."

And already I jumped on.

"Emmett ... no, stop! Don't go any further!", I heard them still shouting.

But I was already standing there, frozen to the spot.

"What ... is ... this ... shit?!" I yelled at Edward and Rosalie.

When they heard me draw in air noisily, they jumped apart and both stared at me.

"WHAT THE HELL ..."

But Alice cut me off.

"EDWARD! How can you do this to Bella?"

She rushed at him and punched him in the face with full force.

If I could have, I would have done the same. But I could not move. The anger and disappointment paralyzed me. Both tried to explain themselves, to apologize. I did not listen. I could not bear to look at them.

Rosalie approached me with her hand outstretched.

"Emmett, please listen to me. I lo ...," she began.

But that made me furious.

"DON'T YOU DARE USE THAT WORD AGAIN! LOVE! PAH ..."

I spat on the floor in front of her and turned around.

I could not stand the sight of her.

As fast as I could, I ran back to the house.

I was planning to smash Edward's piano, but Esmé cared so much about it. But I would find something to destroy.

I heard them running behind me.

That son of a bitch, how could he just kiss Rose like that. The image that froze me into a block of ice was burned deep into my memory.

Rose's legs closed around Edward, his hands - my brother's hands - on her body as he pressed her against a tree trunk and kissed her!

I was so stupid! I suppressed my feelings for Bella, just not to hurt them both. And now something like this!

I saw our house appear before me.

In a second I was at the front door and broke through it. I stopped abruptly before I would run over Esmé as well.

"Emmett!? Wha ..."

But she did not talk any further.

Rosalie came in next and immediately the others. Immediately Alice and Jasper came to my side.

"Emmett, please listen to me. I can explain."

"Shut up, Rose! What do you want to explain to me? Is it different from what I think, Rose? Then you didn't just cheat on me with my brother?"

I was completely in a rage.

Rose started to say something again, but I beat her to it.

"You know, Rose. I always knew we weren't soul mates and that you actually loved Edward." I paused and looked at Edward with the most evil look I had. "BUT YOU! HOW CAN YOU DO THIS TO BELLA! YOU ARE PATHETIC! YOU DON'T DESERVE HER! YOU ..."

But I did not speak any further.

In all the chaos, I hadn't even noticed her smell. Bella was at our house. She was upstairs the whole time and had heard everything. Damn!

Now she stood on the top landing, and we all looked up at her. All color was gone from her face. She turned her head back and forth. She looked at Edward and Rosalie, then at me, then back at them.

Back and forth.

Her gaze remained on Edward, incredulous, hurt.

"Edward, is this true?"

Her already incredibly quiet voice broke away at the last word.

The bastard did not answer.

Bella turned her head to me and the others and looked at me questioningly.

I just nodded.

I could not speak. Seeing her like this, so hurt, broke my heart.

She held her breath - probably suppressing sobs.

So fast that one could have mistaken her for a vampire, she ran down the stairs.

Edward tried to grab her by the wrist to stop her, but she slapped his hand away with the full force of a flyweight.

She had probably hurt herself more than him in the process, but he pulled his hand away.

She continued to run out the demolished door to her truck and hit the gas.

It was dead silent.