Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or its characters.
September 11, 1942…
Bella
My father's birthday party became a town gathering, and most, if not everyone were completely shocked when they saw the state of me. Of course, I didn't blame them. No one in Forks would've imagined that one of Charles Swan's daughters, the strictest man known to town, would come back from their duty as an army nurse married and pregnant. I spent the better part of the afternoon catching up with old friends and acquaintances, gaining sympathetic looks and reassuring words whenever I mentioned that my husband was overseas fighting the war.
It was an unusually sunny day in Forks so everyone was gathered in my father's backyard. It'd been a pleasant day and people began to take their leave as the sun was setting in the horizon. All except Mrs. Cope, who took it upon herself to share her wisdom when it came to pregnancy and childbirth. And she had a lot of wisdom, it seemed. Some would say Bone Chilling Wisdom. I took advantage of Mrs. Cope being distracted by Alice to slip back into the house for a breather. I loved Mrs. Cope, she was a really sweet woman who worked at the local flower shop, but her horror birth stories were starting to get me on edge.
Filling a glass of water, I downed it almost in one whole gulp. Surely, I would regret it later as my bathroom breaks were becoming more and more frequent, but at that moment, I couldn't care less. I groaned when I felt the sublte jab on my lower back. It'd started that morning but it was barely noticable, but as the pain began to increase, I was beginning to wish I'd listened to Esme, Jasper and literally everyone else who told me to take it easy today.
Marcus walked in from the backyard just as I was refilling my water.
"Need a break from the sun?" He asked jokingly, arching a brow.
"More like Mrs. Cope and her endless childbirth stories. It's a wonder to me how she has five children after hearing all that."
A cold chill ran down my back. Marcus chuckled and folded his arms over his chest, leaning against the counter. This was the first time we were alone since my arrival. They left last night shortly after dinner and I'd spent most of my morning helping my mother and Alice the best I could to get ready for the party. I'd hate to admit I'd also been trying my best to avoid him because I wasn't too sure how to act around him. We'd always been good friends, at lease from my side of things, but recent events made me realize it wasn't all friendship from his.
"I've been meaning to speak with you," he said, keeping his distance.
"Oh?" I feigned confusion. "About what?"
"You know what about," he said with a humorless chuckle. He shifted on his feet, looking down at his crossed arms. "Alice had lots of things to say to me when she got here. One of those things was how much of an ass I was for asking your father for your hand in marriage without asking you first. Let's just say I was fairly shocked."
"Shocked? You know Alice, she is not one to hold back her tongue."
Marcus shook his head and gave me a sad smile.
"I'm not talking about Alice confronting me, I'm talking about the marriage proposal. Isabella, I know it's not news to you that I have been in love with you since we were children, but me being in love does not mean I am clueless. I've always been aware that you do not share my same feelings. Sure, my mother mentioned over and over again how great of a match you and I would make, and I agreed with her once, but I never asked for your hand in marriage. I wouldn't have unless I was sure you shared my feelings."
I opened my mouth to say something, but words failed me. Yes, a part of me knew, or at least suspected that Marcus might've had feelings for me. Perhaps that was why I never questioned my father when he said that he had asked for my hand in marriage back in Pearl Harbor after he found Edward and I after the funeral. But if he claimed to have never asked for my hand in marriage, then why would my father claim it?
"I don't understand," I finally said. "Why would my father lie?"
Before Marcus could answer, my father walked in through the back door.
"Ah, Izzy, there you are."
"Excuse me," Marcus said, side-stepping my father and walking out the backdoor he came through.
I watched him return to the backyard where his mother stood not too far from where Esme was currently speaking to Jasper. The look in his eyes was somber and the set of his jaw tight. But whatever it was that Esme was telling him that was bothering him was quickly cast aside when my father pulled my attention from them back to him.
He had a small box in his hands that he placed on the kitchen counter next to me.
"Look, I commissioned Ron to make me one." He opened the box, pulling out a child-size fishing rod. My father looked at me with a light that I'd rarely seen in his eyes before. "For the baby. For when they're old enough to go fishing with me."
I swallowed back the knot that formed in my throat. He was twisting and turning the tiny rod, watching it with a gleam I'd never seen in him before. It was a nice gesture. One I would have loved hadn't the circumstances been what they are right now.
"Why did you lie about Marcus asking for my hand in marriage?" I asked, unable to hold back.
I had wanted to speak to my father in private about all the things Uncle Henry had told me, but I didn't want to do it today. I'd thought tomorrow after his party, but knowing what I know now about Marcus, I needed to comfront him.
My father's body stiffened beside me, his fingers halting the assesment of the rod for a second before setting it back in the back gently. His jaw was tight as he avoided my gaze. He didn't say much at first, only stared at the small rod in his grasp as he fidgeted with it.
"Father," I pushed.
"I was angry," he said, his voice almost a whisper. "I found you with that boy and I was angry, and I wanted nothing more than to get you as far away from him as possible. I said things, Isabella, things that I regret and I am terribly sorry for. As I told you in the letter."
"Are you really?"
My father finally looked at me, hurt in his eyes.
"Do you truly think I would lie about that?"
"You have to admit, Father, that your change of heart has come rather suddenly. Up until a couple months ago, you wanted nothing to do with me, and now you want us to be a family again? When you cannot even speak my own husband's name?"
My father sighed, running a hand over his face.
"There is so much you do not understand," he began to say.
"Oh, but I understand, father. I understand completely."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
I bit the inside of my lip as my heart began thundering in my chest. I had to come out with it. I had to tell him I knew the truth.
"I spoke with Uncle Henry and he told me everything."
My father's eyes widened.
"You did what?"
"You could not give me the answers yourself, so I went looking for them. Imagine my surprise when I found out I had an uncle, a whole other part of my family that I did not know about. Imagine my surprise, Father, when said uncle you never told me about, showed up at my doorstep and told me everything he knew." My voice raised as he began to walk away. He stopped, his back facing me, hand over his mouth. "I know about Alice."
He whirled toward me.
"You will not tell her."
"She deserves to know."
"You will break her heart.
"You would rather lie to her for the rest of her life than tell her the truth?"
"It is not a lie. It is the truth, Alice is my daughter." He pointed a finger at his chest. "I raised her. I fed her, I clothed her, I put a roof over her head, I protected her. I did everything that the bastard refused to do. He would rather see your mother and sister live in ruin than to take responsibility for his actions, he is the liar here, not me, Isabella. Alice is not his, she is my daughter. And I've done wrong by her for so long, and I hate myself that it took me this long to realize my indifference toward her was only punishing her for the acts of a man that no longer breathes, but not anymore."
"Fine, if that is how you feel, Father, then why do you continue to punish Edward for the acts of his father?" I asked, stepping forward, but stopped midway when I felt a tug at my lower belly.
"Isabella-"
I grip the counter to keep my balance.
"Edward is nothing like his father, or his mother. And I should know it for it took me so long to even realize how good of a person he is. I made the same mistake as you did. I judged him simply for who he seemed to be to me, for my perception of him, never once giving him a chance. And my own ignorance almost cost me him. It cost me time with him, time that we could've spent together had I not been so foolish and now…" tears clouded my vision. A wave of sadness and despair came washing over me. I looked at my father helplessly. "Daddy-"
I'm cut off by the sound of someone clapping, slowly.
"She truly is a Cullen." Jane walked in from the back door. "You learned how to manipulate from the best, I see."
"What?"
"Jane," my father said, his voice laced with anger.
"Tell me you do not believe her sob story," she said, her dark eyes set on him. "Charles, you know what kind of people they are. Are you really going to let that family into your life? After what they did to your wife?"
"Frankly, Jane, this is none of your business," I said, annoyed at her meddling once again. "So I would appreciate it if you kept your opinions to yourself when it comes to our family's affairs."
"Last I recalled, you chose your new family over this one, sweetheart," she said, crossing her arms. "The wealthy family. I have to admit, you were smarter than I was. Got him to marry you, set you up with a house and got pregnant in just a matter of months. I should be congratulating you, actually, if it weren't for the fact that we all know you're just being made a fool like your mother was. Here you are, fighting for your husband to have a place in this family while he's overseas, fucking anything and everything with a pulse. How many bastards do you think he's fathered already? How many women do you think he's fucked so far?"
"Jane!" My father snapped.
I raised my hand, stopping my father but my gaze was solely on Jane. Had she told me this months before, a part of me would've believed her. I was gulliable before, as they all have claimed me to be. But things were different now and I knew exactly what she was doing. It would seem that she and Edward's mother had more in common than their history with Edward's father.
Jane Vulturi had always been a mystery with me. She was the impeccable woman I'd grown up with. Always so polished, always so well kept together, always so guarded. A woman whose relationship to my family I never fully understood. But now, it felt like I was seeing her for the first time. The real her.
"I get it now," I said, tilting my head. "I get it now, Jane."
She narrowed her eyes, waiting for me to continue.
"I get now why you've latched yourself so tightly to my father all these years. It's because he was the only other person who shared your hatred for the Cullen's, wasmn't it? The only other person who understood your anger? Misery does love company, doesn't it?"
"Your father and I understand each other," she said through gritted teeth. "We can see through all the pretty of the Cullen's and see them for who they truly are. It is just a shame that they would try to take advantage of such a gullible little girl like you-"
"Stop it right now, Jane," my father hissed.
"You're jealous, Jane. That's what you are." I took another step forward, ignoring the tug once more. "You're jealous that this gullible little girl as you call me was able to achieve everything you couldn't. I married Edward Cullen's son. The son he had after he rejected you and married Elizabeth. I got him. I got everything while you couldn't even get his father to respect you enough to look after your son. How lonely must it be, to live your life holding onto your resentment for a dead man, a man that never thought of you again after you left Chicago. And now you latch onto my father, you feed off of each other's anger and you cannot fathom the possibility of him letting go of his anger because then you will truly be alone, Jane. And you'll have nothing but your own hate as your company."
Jane sneered, her fingers digging into her forearms so hard, her nails turned white. The back door opened again, the rest of our family walking in after the rest of the party had left, but stopped at the sight of Jane.
She replaced the sneer with a devilish smile as she tilted her chin up.
"If you want to believe I've been fueling your father's hatred towards the Cullens, then you are truly more stupid than I thought you were."
"Mother-" Marcus started, but was interrupted by Jane.
"Charlie now wants to be a family man!" Jane shouted, throwing her hands in the air. She turned to my father, who glared back at her. "Now you want to play Daddy and be a grandfather to your grandchild, but does Isabella know that the day you recieved news of her nupitals you came to me, told me you needed to find a way to get her out of this marriage?"
"Jane-"
"And does she know that you and I toasted to the Cullen's demise?" Jane turned to me then, her unforgiving glare landing on me. The pain in my lower belly tugged at me once more and I began to sway on my feet.
Something isn't right.
"I told your father to wait," she continued. "I told him you would be willing enough to get pregnant and since the boy was going to be shipped out to the slaughter house, it would only be a matter of time before you came running back to Daddy. I told your father to gain your trust again and that we would use your child to hurt the Cullens where it hurts them the most. We toasted to that."
"Charlie, tell me you didn't," my mother cried out.
I looked at my father, looked for a sign that what Jane was saying wasn't the truth and she was only saying it to hurt me. It couldn't be true. My father could never do that!
But he did not meet my gaze. My father looked down in shame.
And the pain only worsened.
I groaned.
"And by the looks of it, it looks like it is all going according to plan. Isn't your little soldier currently missing overseas?"
"No," I said through gritted teeth.
Jane laughed.
"Please, you do not fool me, Isabella. I heard her talking to Jasper." Jane pointed at Esme and Jasper. "Isn't the boy lost overseas? Plane gone down in the ambush? No sight of him since?"
"Edward's missing?" Alice asked, looking at me.
"Edward is not missing!" I yelled. "He is not. He is coming home."
"In a casket," Jane said. "That is if there is a body to even bury. We all know how gruesome these wars are."
"Mother, that is enough!" Marcus snapped.
"It is the truth! It would seem like God finally answered my prayers and he got rid of that boy. His life should've been yours, ours! We would've wanted for nothing, we would've been happy and away from the God forsaken town!"
I felt a trickle of warmth slide down between my thighs. I looked down at the pinkish puddle I stood in. A sharp breath escaped me and the room went silent.
"Izzy?" Esme came rushing to me and stopped when she saw the puddle of water. "Oh! Oh my-"
"Marcus, go get the car," Jasper said.
Marcus bolted out of the room.
Next thing I knew, Esme, my mother and Alice were all surrounding me, touching me, telling me it was going to be okay. But it wasn't. It wasn't going to be okay because there was a chance Jane was right. What if Edward was already dead? What if their plan ended up a success?
I can't do this.
I can't do this.
I can't do this.
"Izzy." Esme made me look at her. She gave a nervous smile and said, "The baby is coming."
"No," I said, almost in a whisper.
"It's okay, sweetheart," My mother said, rubbing my arm gently. "It's okay, we are going to the hospital and everything will be okay."
"No," I whispered again. "I can't do this."
"Yes you can," Alice said. "You're strong and you're brave and-"
"Izzy-" my father came.
"Don't touch me!" I stepped back out of everyone's touch.
"Isabella, we have to take you to the hospital," Esme said, pleadingly.
"No!"
"Isa-"
"I am not having my baby right now," I cried out, holding on to the counter. "I am not. I want to go home."
"Isabella-"
"NO!"
I can't do this.
I can't do this without Edward.
But Jane is right.
He is probably dead right now.
I can't do this.
I can't do this.
Author's Note:
Bella is going to have her baby, but where is Edward?! We'll have to see lol