Well, that was a little bit of a cliffie. But now the ball gets rolling since the secret is out! Hope you guys are strapped in and ready for the LONGEST chapter I have ever written EVVVVVER.

The song for this chapter is As It Was, originally by Harry Styles but covered by the Piano Guys.

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Disclaimer: I'm only doing this for a friend. I don't get anything from it but her undying appreciation. I certainly don't get to have fun with Emmett and the boys in my head.

Chapter Twenty-Seven: As It Was
BPOV

I wasn't completely sure how I should approach the Cullens with my newfound knowledge that they were vampires.

It's not like Hallmark had a card for "so it turns out your big secret is that you are members of the legion of bloodsucking undead".

Should I talk to Carlisle first or the kids?

If I admitted that I knew, would that be the end of our relationship?

Call me crazy, but learning that Carlisle Cullen was a vampire who was at least several decades old didn't change my mind about him at all.

He was a wonderful man and the fact that he spent his time working in hospitals, healing humans, when he clearly didn't need to, proved that he was compassionate and selfless. and…

Perfect.

Admittedly, there were still several holes in the story. So really the question was: who was more likely to give me the answers to my questions? Would Carlisle be honest and open with me if the burden of keeping the secret was lifted from his shoulders? Or would it be better for me to approach Edward or one of the kids first and get the truth from them so that I had a full picture when I talked to Carlisle about it?

I could already feel a headache coming on trying to figure everything out and the questions swirling in my head only made me feel fuzzier.

What would be the best way to approach this and let them know that I knew what they were?

I prided myself on being blunt and direct. But short of plopping down at lunch or in Biology and saying 'so, suck the blood out of a living being lately?', I wasn't sure how to broach the subject without being completely shut down.

I sat in my room, staring at my overcrowded bookcase as I played through scenarios in my mind.

An idea began to form slowly and I squinted at the bookcase as a plan started building seamlessly in my head. A slow smile spread across my face and I hopped up and started moving around the house, gathering everything for school.

~~~~SIN~~~~

As predicted, I didn't see the Cullens until lunch. I was sitting at our table, slowly working my way through the leftover spaghetti and meatballs from dinner the night before. Cold hands covered my eyes and I grinned at the sound of bodies hitting the chairs around me.

"Who's your favorite," Edward's smug voice said in my ear and I hummed.

"Carlisle. Definitely," I said quietly and he scoffed.

"So easily impressed by a pretty face," he lamented. "Who's your real favorite?"

"Oh, Jasper!" He pulled his hands off my face and flopped into the seat next to me, grumbling under his breath about ingratitude.

"I'm sorry we didn't tell you we were leaving," Alice said, reaching for my hand. "There was clearly a breakdown in communication. Sometimes, I think that Carlisle is as dumb as a bag of bricks." I chuckle.

"Only when it comes to Bella," Jasper pointed out with a teasing grin directed at me.

"I missed you guys. I honestly didn't think I'd ever wish for rain in Forks of all places but knowing that good weather was keeping you guys away made me hate all the sun I'd been wishing for."

"How did you survive without us," Edward drawled and I rolled my eyes.

"Shockingly, my life doesn't stop with the absence of Edward Cullen in it," I deadpanned and he glared at me before grinning.

"We missed you, too. Carlisle moped around like an angsty teenager."

"Oh, so he was doing an Edward impersonation," I mocked and Emmett roared with laughter while slapping his leg. "Honestly, it was fine. I learned so many interesting things without you here distracting me," I said innocently. His eyes narrowed at me.

"Like what?"

"Like that Forks High offers a Shop class. I didn't know that. Why don't any of you take Shop?" They stared at me in confusion. "Is it all the wood?" Their confusion grew and I shrugged.

"Are you telling me that you, Isabella Marie Swan, want to take Shop class," Edward asked derisively. "I hate to spoil your dreams there, Bella, but I'm pretty sure they wouldn't even let you in the classroom. And Carlisle would definitely stop you from being near heavy machinery. You know, given your penchant for injury and near death experiences." They laughed and I rolled my eyes.

"I don't want to take Shop. It was merely one of many observations I made while left to my own devices during your trip."

"I always thought Shop class was kind of weird," Jasper said. "I mean, when is knowing how to make a birdhouse ever going to come in handy? Wouldn't it be better to make something useful, like furniture or something?" Rosalie started comparing her auto class with the shop class and I focused on my food. There was a feeling of wholeness being surrounded by them and I idly wondered if it was a vampire thing or just my weird brain.

Yeah, probably just me. Most people probably wouldn't be quite so happy and content being surrounded by a group of vampires.

"Hey, Em, I'm too full to eat this garlic bread. Do you want it?" I held out the offered bread, watching him carefully.

"Thanks, Bella, but we stuffed ourselves before we came today," he said, rubbing his belly exaggeratedly. "Plus, I'm planning on a full on makeout session with Rosie later and garlic breath is a killer." I shuddered dramatically as Rose knocked him in the head fondly.

The bell rang and we went our separate ways. Edward walked with me to Biology and I caught him staring at me, brow slightly puckered in frustration. I pretended not to notice and took my seat, pulling out my books and papers, sliding the novel I brought with me under some notebooks as I prepared to take notes. Mr Banner called the room to order and started his lecture. Edward stared out the window and now that I watched him do it, I wondered if he did so well in class because he'd done it so many times before or if there were some other abilities at play that make it so he doesn't have to pay attention at all.

I tapped his shoulder and he looked back at me. I slid a paper across the desk to him, slowly so as not to catch any attention from our teacher or classmates. I saw him look down and read my writing before frowning.

I know.

He looked back at me quickly and then grabbed his own pen and wrote something, sliding the paper back to me. I read his answer in a script that would make a calligrapher weep.

Know what?

I gave him a hard look and Mr Banner called on him to answer a question. While he was distracted with responding, I slid my novel out from under my notebook and placed it on the paper, sliding it back to him. He looked down and froze.

Like, deer in the woods, muscles locked, not-even-breathing froze.

His eyes slowly swung to mine and I gave him a calm, saccharine smile.

He grabbed his pen, opened the book and wrote inside it.

Part of me wanted to beat him senseless for defacing a novel, the barbarian.

The majority of me tensed, heart quickening, because that had to mean that it was real.

What Leah and Rachel told me was real.

While I knew that, there was some small part of me that considered it all too absurd to be true.

He slid the book and note back across the table at me and I reached out with slightly shaky hands. I opened the cover of Dracula to the title page and saw his scrawling signature under the text.

I rolled my eyes at him.

He stared at me intently and I carefully wrote on our note paper, glancing up at Mr Banner in case he noticed our silent conversation. I slid it over to him.

We need to talk about this. Meet at my truck after class.

He read it and nodded at me subtly, crossing his arms and sitting back in his chair.

The hour dragged on as Edward waited tensely in the seat beside me. When the bell finally rang, he was up and out of his seat, a hand under my elbow and leading me through the sea of students moving through the classroom and halls until we were standing outside my truck. I quickly unlocked the doors and he helped me in before climbing in on the other side.

"How long have you known," he asked as my truck roared to life and I pulled carefully out of the parking lot and onto the street.

"Just since last night. I wasn't sure how to… tell you." He chuckled and shook his head.

"The wood in shop class and garlic bread," he murmured and I grinned unrepentantly.

"Come on. That was hilarious. I mean, I know that a wooden stake to the heart won't kill you but I have to admit, I was kind of curious about the garlic. I haven't really seen you guys eat. Except for that dinner party we had."

"Not to spoil your ideas about our diet but we didn't actually eat at that dinner party." I shot him a skeptical look. "We attached bags under the table before dinner so that we could discreetly dispose of the food we were given and make it look like we were eating." I thought back to that night -you know, when I got my pants kissed off by his overwhelmingly attractive father figure -but I couldn't recall any of them actually putting any food in their mouths. But they mimicked the action so well that I never suspected anything was wrong.

"Damn," I breathed. "So, do you just not like human food? Because it's not blood?" He pinned me with a hard look.

"Are you really being so cavalier about the fact that I drink blood to survive? You're not going to ask if I'm dangerous or who's blood I drink? How do you even know any of this anyway?" The more he spoke, the angrier he got until I thought that if I looked over at him, steam would be screaming out his ears. I parked in the driveway and cut the engine.

"Don't mistake my attempts at humor for ignorance, Edward," I snapped at him irritably. "I understand that there is no way that you could have told me this without me trying to have you committed but it doesn't erase the fact that it was still a huge secret that you and your family kept from me. I feel like this colors every experience I've ever had with any of you and now I'm even more baffled as to why we're friends." Silence reigned in the truck.

"You're right," he said quietly. "What we are… it has affected our time with you. But it doesn't change how any of us feel about you. There are things you don't understand, that I am more than happy to explain, but let's make something clear right now." I stare at him, a lump forming in my throat as he stares back at me with the kind of intensity that is just purely Edward. "You are one of the smartest, funniest, sacrificing, persistent, annoying, loyal, loving young women I have ever met. I've met a lot of women, Bella." I started to interrupt to ask just how many that is but he stopped me. "I'm not finished. You are all those things and more. We wouldn't want anything less for the man who has sacrificed so much for our family. So I don't know where this idea comes from that you are not good enough, Bella, because you. Are. Perfect. You are perfect for him and, selfish as it may seem, you are perfect for the rest of us. We're friends because you've proven your worthiness a thousand times over and none of us could bear to part with you. You are exactly who we all need, Bella Swan. And I won't hear another word demeaning you. Not even from your own lips."

I turned my head away, wiping furiously at the tears that had formed during his impassioned speech and were tumbling over my cheeks. His hand pulled at my shoulder and I turned, burying my head in his shoulder, shaking from the sobs building in my throat. He gently held me, his hands rubbing up and down my spine in a soothing motion.

"Don't cry," he murmured against my hair. I huffed out a watery combination of a laugh and a sob.

My truck door flew open and I whirled around, finding Jasper and Emmett squeezing into the open space.

"You're dead," Emmett said flatly to Edward.

"Seriously, you keep making her cry, asshole," Jasper hissed and my sobs turned to laughs as I held a hand up to them.

"He is an asshole," I agreed and Edward made a noise of protest behind me, "but this time he said only good things. I'm crying because I'm obviously a hot mess." I swiped a hand across my face and took a deep, calming breath. "What are you guys all doing here," I asked after I'd calmed down, noticing Alice and Rose standing on the walk up to the door with matching faces of concern.

"Edward texted us. He said we needed to talk," explained Rose and I looked back at him with an eyebrow raised. He shrugged casually.

"This is a family conversation." I shrugged and climbed out of the truck, moving up the walkway to unlock the door and let everyone inside. They all hurried into the house and to the den. Rosalie sat in Charlie's recliner with Emmett standing at her back while Edward and Alice settled onto the couch, Jasper perched on the arm behind her, leaving me the open space at the other end where I could sit and see them all as we talked.

I was suddenly overcome by a rush of nerves. It was one thing to talk to Edward about their big family secret but talking to all of them filled me with doubt.

"Okay, so what's going on," Jasper finally asked with a frown, staring at me as I started to freak out.

"Bella knows," Edward said.

"Knows what," asked Emmett. Edward glared at him.

"She knows," he said meaningfully and I watched as comprehension dawned on all their faces.

"Are you sure? Maybe she just thinks she knows," suggested Rosalie.

"I definitely know," I said tersely.

"Yeah? What's that," asked Emmett but I could see the tightening around his eyes and the way he seemed to stand up taller and get even larger in the small room.

"I know that your family are vampires." They stilled as the word hung in the air around us. "I know that most, if not all of you, are several decades old, at least. I know that's how Edward saved me from Tyler's van. You all have superhuman speed and strength. You don't age. Your skin is cold, pale and your eyes change color based on when you've last… I don't know, fed? I know that you have golden eyes because instead of hunting humans, you live off of animal blood. I know that you lived here before, a long time ago and now you're back again. I know that you can only be killed by fire. I know that you can go out in the daylight and not turn into a giant pile of ash but that something must give you away and that's why you couldn't come to school the last two days while the weather was nice. I know you're not really related or adopted but that Carlisle is the leader of your… coven." They sat in shocked silence.

"Damn it, Edward, Carlisle's instructions were explicit," Emmett shouted and I watched in confusion as everyone but Alice turned to Edward, rage simmering in their eyes.

"I didn't say anything," he shouted back and Alice shook her head.

"He's telling the truth. I would have seen it if it had been him." That seemed to settle everyone and I gaped at them, even more confused.

Did she follow him around and spy on him to make sure this wouldn't happen or something?

"Well then how the fuck does she know all of those very specific details," yelled Jasper. They all turned back to me and I bit my lip.

"How do you know all this, Bella? You never told me."

"I sort of already knew but I didn't know that I knew," I said nervously.

"Explain," Alice prompted curiously. She was the only one who seemed completely unbothered by this revelation.

"Last night, I unexpectedly reunited with some old friends of mine. From La Push." It was like the air was sucked out of the room. "Rachel and Leah and I used to run around the rez with Rachel's twin sister and little brother, Jake. We hung out when I occasionally stayed with my dad in Forks and he would go fishing with their dads. A couple of times, I was included when they would share their myths and histories around the campfire. There was a legend about their ancestors shifting into wolves to protect the tribe from the enemies they called the Cold Ones."

"And you just happened to randomly remember these stories from when you were a little kid," asked Jasper, incredulously. I shook my head.

"No. Rachel and Leah stayed for dinner last night when Carlisle called. I told them it was Edward and they were joking about dating a vampire." I watched as Rosalie's face darkened. "They don't believe the legends. They think that it's all prejudice that the elders have against Carlisle and you guys. Honestly, they were just teasing me but I couldn't help but notice the truths in the myths and I started to sort of remember the stories we heard around the fire."

"Why would you believe them," Rosalie asked. "Even with the oddities, vampire is a pretty big leap of faith."

"I'll tell you why. It's because Superboy over there exposed himself to her and so it was easier for her to believe it after she'd seen it with her own eyes," Emmett barked.

"Okay please never refer to it as Edward exposing himself to me again if you want me to be able to sleep at night," I groaned.

"How can you be making jokes at a time like this," Jasper asked. He wasn't judging but he seemed perplexed by my reaction.

"Honestly? This doesn't really change things for me. I've thought about this all night and then all day today. It doesn't change who you guys are."

"Um, it literally does," Edward argued.

"No, it doesn't! You guys didn't just suddenly turn into vampires. You've been vampires this whole time. Knowing that doesn't change who you guys are. It leaves me with a hell of a lot of questions about you and about stuff that's gone down around me but I know each and every one of you and knowing that you guys live off animal blood, gross by the way, doesn't change the fact that I love you guys." They sat silently before Alice launched herself into my arms, squeezing me in a hug.

"I knew you were special," she hummed in my ear and I patted her back awkwardly.

"I still have lots of questions," I reminded her and she stepped back to her seat. Jasper placed a hand to her shoulder.

"Ask us anything."

"What happens to you in the sun? How old are all of you really? Why do you go to high school? How long do vampires live for? Why don't you eat humans? Why was Carlisle so afraid of me finding out? Is there anything else you can do besides the speed and strength thing? How often do you have to drink blood to stay alive? What are the things you've lied to me about to stop me from finding out?"

"Okay, let's start with some Vampire Basics," Emmett interjected. "Our skin does weird shit in the sun and we can't hide it. Vampires live forever unless someone burns them to ash. We can go weeks without hunting but the longer we go, the weaker we become and the more temptation humans provide."

"A lot of your questions come back to Carlisle," said Edward. "Carlisle is the reason that we go to school. Unlike a traditional coven, we consider ourselves a family and we stay together because we love each other and want to embrace our humanity like Carlisle has. Most coven dynamics revolve around power and blood." I gagged and Jasper laughed. "Those are the two driving forces for normal vampires. But Carlisle didn't want to be the kind of monster that preyed on innocents."

"Besides the normal stuff that comes with being a vampire, some of our kind have special gifts," Jasper said. "Sometimes it's a gift or prowess that they bring from their human life. Sometimes they change and when they wake up, they have extra abilities."

"Do any of you guys have extra abilities?"

"We think that Emmett's strength is his gift. Rosalie's is her beauty. I'm an empath; I can read and influence the emotions of the people around me."

"Wait so you… you've been able to tell what I can feel this whole time," I asked in a strangled voice.

"Technically, yes." I cringed, remembering how much I'd pined after his father and the crippling grief that had gripped me when I'd first arrived in Forks.

"Have you ever changed my feelings?" He grimaced.

"Not really. I try not to interfere but sometimes I make people feel more at ease or calmer if it feels like they're freaking out." I processed his words quietly while they watched me.

"Okay, I'm definitely going to have to think about that one. What about you guys," I asked Alice and Edward.

"I have visions," Alice offered excitedly. "I can see the future."

"The… the future," I repeated breathily and she grinned and nodded.

"I can't see everything and I have no control over what I see. But I usually keep an eye on the family and potential threats to us."

"So, have you… have you seen my future?"

"It's not like that. There isn't just one future, unless you've made a decision about something. I see possible outcomes."

"I'm sure you've heard at least one of us talking about betting against Alice," said Rosalie. "It's because she usually knows what's going to happen and it would be stupid to argue with her."

"So what do the visions of my future show?" Alice grinned like a maniac.

"That you'll be a part of this family forever and we'll love you for all of that and more."

"I… okay. Thank you." I blushed as they laughed at my dumbstruck acceptance of Alice's wild premonitions. "Edward?"

"I can hear people's thoughts?" The blood drained from my face as I blinked at him.

"Well, not everyone," Emmett taunted and Edward flipped him the bird.

"He can't read yours," Rose reassured me.

"You can't read mine," I asked dumbfounded. "Why not?" Edward turned his annoyed face toward me.

"I don't know. It's the first time it's ever happened. It could be that you are just used to having mental blocks. It could be a strong latent gift that presents as a mortal. All I know is that when I try to hear your thoughts, it's total silence."

"Basically, you're empty headed," Emmett teased and I smiled at him.

"Careful there, Emmy. I've been looking for kindling to keep my toes warm at night." He guffawed and I turned back to Edward.

"So you've never had a problem hearing someone before?" He frowned.

"No. But now that I really think about it, Charlie's thoughts aren't the same as everyone else's."

"How so," Jasper asked.

"Well, normally when I hear someone, it's the same as if they were speaking. Sometimes there's imagery. I'd never really noticed Charlie until we started spending more time around him. But with Charlie it's a few strong ideas and sort of… a flavor of what he's thinking."

"Like when I feel emotions?"

"Very much so. I can get the general idea but I don't necessarily get the whole thought."

"So my brain is broken and it's genetic?" Edward smirks at me.

"I mean, I always suspected that there was something wrong with you," he teased. His words brought up a darker memory.

"When we first met, you were trying to attack me. Why?" He sobered instantly, looking at the ground while his face twisted in shame.

"Your blood," he admitted.

"What about it?"

"In our world, it goes like this. Werewolves smell like crap. Animals smell marginally better but still mostly unappetizing. Humans smell the most alluring. Very rarely, there are exceptions that smell so delicious that it's almost like being confronted with the finest delicacy," Alice explained quietly. "The reigning coven in Italy calls them 'singers' because it's like a siren call to the vampire." I stared at her before watching the rest of their grim faces, settling on Edward last.

"So, my blood is like chocolate cake," I asked him, aiming for levity. He huffed out a humorless laugh.

"Imagine the most amazing thing you've ever eaten and then pretend that you've been starved for weeks."

Oh.

Oh.

"So you really did want to kill me that first day," I said finally. His face twisted.

"I'm sorry, Bella. I lost all sense of humanity as soon as I smelled you. If Jasper and Emmett hadn't stopped me…"

"You don't need to apologize, Edward. Knowing that you've been sitting next to me without hurting me says that you're more than your instincts."

"If it hadn't been for Alice's visions, I don't think I could have handled coming back."

"Has anyone else ever found a singer?"

"Emmett and Jasper," Rose said quietly and the utter despair on their faces told me everything I needed to know about how those encounters ended.

"Okay, so keep my blood to myself," I said brightly after a moment.

"Only you could make jokes at a time like this," Edward muttered with a shake of his head. I grinned at him.

"Look, I won't pretend that all of this isn't just crazy to me but it really doesn't change anything. Tell me what else I need to know about vampires. You guys obviously don't sleep during the day and I've been in Carlisle's bed so I know that you aren't chilling in coffins."

"We don't sleep at all," supplied Jasper helpfully.

"Not at all?"

"Not a wink. We don't need to sleep. Our bodies don't need rest to re-energize. Our minds never stop and can handle a multitude of tasks and thoughts at a time without being overwhelmed."

"So when I slept in Carlisle's bed that night… he wasn't asleep on the couch," I asked as I flushed. Edward grinned at me and shook his head slowly, looking like the cat who got the cream. "Well that's hugely embarrassing. What do you guys do all night then? Doesn't it get boring?"

"Sex, mostly," Rosalie said bluntly.

"We all have our hobbies and interests," Jasper said pointedly at her. "Sometimes we hunt. Carlisle enjoys reading and catching up on medical journals. Edward composes on the piano. But we do use that time to be close to our significant others." My mind caught on the last part of his sentence and I whipped around to face Edward.

"Who the hell is your significant other," I demanded. He smirks at me.

"Can't you guess?"

"Do you even have an older girlfriend? Or was that a lie to help sell the story and get Carlisle and I together because Alice saw a vision of it?"

"I don't have a girlfriend," he said gleefully. My eyes narrow at him. "I have a wife." I stopped short, staring at him as my brain tried to wrap itself around that statement. "She's a remarkable woman. But I don't need to tell you that since you already like her." I frowned at him, trying to follow.

"Esme? You're married to Esme?"

"I think it's pretty hypocritical of you to judge me for being married to an older woman who, by the way, was only born six years before I was when you're cozying up to the oldest vampire in this whole family," Edward chastised me lightly. I frowned at him.

Just how old were these damn vampires?

"You better start explaining this whole age thing to me right now because Edward Cullen, you don't look a day over seventeen."

"Carlisle is the oldest," said Rosalie. I opened my mouth to ask just how old he was but she seemed to sense that question was coming. "I won't tell you how old because it's only fair that he gets to tell you his story. He was bitten and changed somewhere in his mid-twenties. Whatever age you're changed at, you freeze at that age. Growth, mental development, everything stops when you become one of us. Jasper is the second oldest but he and Alice joined our family last and neither of them were changed by Carlisle." I turned to Jasper.

"And just when was Jasper born," I asked him cheekily. He flashed a grin at me and stood up, sweeping into a bow that was far too natural.

"Major Jasper Whitlock, born 1844 and changed during the Civil War in 1863." Silence.

"I'm sorry, do you want to run that by me again," I wheezed out. He laughed and began to tell me the incredible tale of growing up near Galveston, Texas and lying about his age to enlist in the Confederate Army. As he recounts the bloody memories of a newborn army -which let's just take a second to say holy shit -I find myself terrified for my friend, even knowing that his story eventually leads to Alice and happiness.

"...and when she slipped her hand in mine, like we were the oldest friends in the world, I felt something I hadn't felt since I was human: hope," he finished, gazing at Alice adoringly where she had perched in his lap during the course of his story.

"We were," she assured him. "You just didn't know it yet." They pressed their lips together and Emmett fake gagged across the room.

"Get a room, you two."

"So Carlisle, then Jasper. Who's next?"

"Technically, Esme was born six years before me in 1895 in Ohio. Carlisle met her when she was a young girl, when he treated her for an injury. I was born in 1901 in Chicago. Rosalie was born in 1915 in New York and Emmett was born the same year. Carlisle moved to Chicago to practice medicine in 1917 and in 1918 when I was seventeen, my parents and I caught the Spanish Influenza and it took both of them. My mother begged Carlisle to save me and so he bit me and changed me. I was his first companion. We think Alice changed about two years later." I look over at her and she shakes her head at me.

"It is a very, very long story that I promise I will share with you later after you've had time to process everything. It's not… it's not a very nice story," she whispered and Jasper pulled her closer to him, brushing his lips over her temple and mumbling sweet words under his breath to her.

"We were in Wisconsin in 1921, when Esme was brought into the hospital morgue. They thought she was dead but Carlisle could hear her heart beating and remembered her from when she was a child. He changed her while I was away on a hunting trip and when I came back, we realized we were mates."

"Mates?"

"A bit animalistic but yes. Sometimes, vampires choose mates for themselves and other times, we meet someone and we just know that they are the other half ourselves. Regardless of how it happens, it's a bond so strong that oftentimes when one person dies, the other goes crazy or follows them."

"That's beautiful and heartbreaking."

"Esme is my mate. We knew from the moment we laid eyes on each other. The same way Rose knew when she saw Emmett and Alice and Jasper met." I desperately wanted to ask if it was the same for Carlisle and me but I couldn't bring myself to. I'd have to ask Carlisle when I finally spoke to him.

"So Esme was next to be changed but she was 26 so even though you're close in age, she looks older because she was human longer?"

"Exactly. Rosalie was changed in 1933 and only two years later she found Emmett in the woods and brought him to Carlisle to change because she knew what he was to her. We lived in Hoquiam a year later which is when we met the Quileutes and formed the treaty. Alice and Jasper found us in 1950. And we've lived in different places since then, for as long as we can get away with not aging without raising suspicion. We switch up the family dynamics as well. Sometimes Rosalie and Emmett live on their own. Sometimes Esme and Carlisle pretend to be married because it's an easier story to sell."

"Edward hates it when they pretend to be married. He gets huffy and jealous," drawled Rosalie and I laughed as Edward sulked.

"Yeah, well, next time we do that, Bella will be jealous along with me," he justified. My eyebrows hit my hairline.

"Come again?"

"Edward and Esme can rarely be together publicly because of the perceived difference in their ages. It will be the same for you and Carlisle if you don't wait until you're in your twenties to be changed," explained Alice.

"Um, is that… a sure thing?" Edward and Alice shared a look.

"I mean, the choice is yours but we sort of assumed that you would… well, that you'd want to change and be with Carlisle," Edward said tentatively.

Change.

Into a vampire.

I'd be with Carlisle for eternity but I'd also have to leave Charlie behind.

But if I didn't, then I'd lose Carlisle and it had become very apparent to me after this conversation with them that Carlisle and I were endgame.

If I didn't join him in this life, how long would he stay with his family before following me into the afterlife, leaving them behind to mourn us?

What kind of relationship would we have when I was old enough to pass for his mother? His grandmother?

Maybe knowing their secret did actually change things.