Disclaimer: I don't own twilight or its characters
December 24th, 1941…
Charlie
My dearest friend,
I know I am the last person you would want to hear from, but as a father, I believe that if I were in your shoes, I would want to know what is happening in the lives of my children. Regardless of how angry one might be.
I would like to inform you that as of December 20th, my nephew Edward Cullen and your daughter Isabella Swan got married. Her sister, their friends as well as myself, my wife and my son were there with them. I cannot express to you enough how much it pained me to see that neither of their parents were there with them at such a joyous occasion.
I know I do not know what happened between you and my brother. I was away at medical school and by the time I came back, I came back only to witness the fallout of whatever it was that happened. My brother never spoke of the situation and frankly, I never thought to ask. But whatever it is, please Charlie, I implore you, do not take it out on the children. They cannot be punished for something that happened before they were even born.
Alice will be married soon as well. She is marrying Jasper Whitlock. He's a good man, comes from a good family. The poor boy lost his leg in the attack, but your daughter has stuck to his side through thick and thin. You raised good girls, Charlie. Strong girls. Do not let your pride tear your family apart.
Your friend,
Carlisle Cullen.
I slammed the letter on the table, rattling the entire thing. Renee looks up from the stove, her eyes falling on the letter before going back to me. I don't move to stop her when she takes the letter and reads what Carlisle had written to me. I watched her carefully, trying to read her reaction but she showed none. I, on the other hand, was being consumed by rage.
That bastard married my daughter.
I should've brought her back home, kicking and screaming, but I should've brought her back. Now she will be ruined. She'll be another woman in my life ruined by a Cullen and I allowed it to happen. This was nobody's fault but mine.
Renee left the letter back on the table and looked at me, still no reaction.
"What now?"
"I'll go to Pearl Harbor. Bring Isabella back, I don't know if she throws a tantrum, and I'll hire a lawyer. Get that marriage annulled."
"You know that won't happen," Renee said. "You can't ask for an annulment with an unwilling bride and groom, and no matter your connections, Charlie, no judge will grant it."
"Then what will you have me do, Renee?" I snapped.
"Make peace with it!" She yelled back. A single tear slipped down her cheek. "Make peace with it and do as Carlisle says, set your pride aside. I will never get to see my daughters get married and I have to make my peace with that, but I'll be damned if I lose them forever. So. Make. Peace. With. It. Stop punishing her and that boy for something his father did!"
I could not believe it. I could not believe what I was coming out of my wife's mouth.
"Are you honestly telling me, Renee, that you're okay with our daughter being married to that man's son? After everything he put you through? Us? What else, Renee? Will you have tea with Elizabeth? Join her at all the social gatherings? Go back to Chicago?"
"That was years ago, Charlie," she said, clenching the rag in her hands tighter. "I've made my peace with what Edward did to me. In fact, I'm grateful for what happened."
"Grateful?" I hissed.
"Yes!" She yelled. "I am grateful because if it hadn't been for his own selfishness, I wouldn't have my daughter. I wouldn't have married you and we wouldn't have had our Isabella. He gave me Alice and he gave me you, and you gave me Isabella. So yes, for as horrible the situation was back in Chicago, I am grateful to Edward Sr."
I fell a step back, taken aback by Renee's admission. This was the first time in a long time that Renee brought up the fact that Alice was not mine. The first time she even acknowledged it. But how could she? The second she told that bastard she was pregnant, word got out, ruining her reputation and by extension, her family's. She would've been ruined had she not accepted my offer to marry her. I had loved her for too long and could not bear witness to the pain she was going through. We got married, but the damage had been done. There was no way the society in Chicago would've believed Alice was mine, so we moved to a quiet, less populated town. Away from our families. Away from the Cullen's.
"You have no idea what you are talking about," I muttered, falling a step back.
"Oh, I do, Charlie. I have felt this way for a long time."
"Regardless! He is still the son of the son of a bitch who got you pregnant and abandoned you. What do you think he will do to my daughter?" I stumped over to the liquor cabinet and poured myself a glass of bourbon, downing it all in one go before slamming the cup back down and filling it again. "He's going off to war, Renee. I don't know if you forgot, but I went to war once and I know what men do overseas. He's going to fuck anything with a pulse, he's going to father a bunch of bastard children and abandon them as well, all while my daughter is back home waiting for him to come back. He's going to ruin her. And I'm supposed to make peace with that?"
"You don't know that. You went to war, you've said it yourself, and you didn't do all that, now did you?"
"Of course not." I turned back to her, holding my new glass of bourbon. "But I did not come out of the same vipers nest as they did. And even if he didn't, Elizabeth Cullen will make my daughter's life miserable. She will never accept Isabella as a part of her family. She will do anything and everything to tear them apart. Yet another way they could ruin my daughter and I'm expected to stand by and make peace with it." I finished the rest of my drink and slammed it on the table. "The only way I will make peace with this, wife, is when I am cold in my grave."
Renee sighed, leaning back on the table and hugging herself. I'd seen that move reflected in my Isabella. She's always been so much like her mother.
"My, my, my," she whispered, a sad look on her face. "That's all I hear from you, Charlie. My daughter. My Isabella. Never once have you mentioned my Mary Alice."
"She's not the one married to a Cullen, now is she?"
"She's still your daughter. She is getting married and all we know about the man she is marrying is what Carlisle wrote in his letter, does that not concern you?"
"It would if it ever mattered to Alice what I had to say in the matter. Alice would never do what I tell, she would never listen-"
"Is it that? Or is it the fact that you never cared for what she did because she isn't yours?"
"Watch it." I pointed a finger at Renee. "Don't you dare say I don't love Alice like my daughter. I raised her. I've been here her entire life-"
"I'm not saying you don't love her, Charlie. I will never take away from you the fact that you are her father, but you cannot deny there is a clear difference in the way you treat the girls. You were never as hard on Alice as you are with Isabella. You never cared for what she did or didn't do, whether she listened or not, but you clearly cared about Isabella. They are both your daughters, Charlie. And if you want to cause an outcry and wage war over the well-being of one of them, then make sure you do the same for the other."
With that, Renee walked out of the kitchen, leaving me alone with my thoughts and a bottle of bourbon.
"Fucking Cullen," I muttered, falling back on my chair. "How the fuck did his son and my daughter wind up on the same fucking island?"
"Fate is cruel like that," Jane said, looking down at the letter on the table between us. After my fight with Renee, I came over to Jane's for a drink and to fill her in on the latest. "Rewarding the wicked and cruel to the noble. It's a damn shame our Isabella is now in the vipers nest."
"I need to find a way to get her out."
Jane hummed, her fingers thrumming on the paper.
"Maybe you don't."
My eyes snapped toward her.
"If you tell me that I have to make my peace with this, I will lose my shit."
Jane laughed.
"Oh, trust me, Charlie, that is not what I meant."
"Then what did you mean?"
"Think about, Charlie. With Isabella married to Cullen, then all hope is not lost. Perhaps this marriage is the opportunity we never expected. This is exactly how we ruin the Cullen's for good."
I leaned on the table, waiting for her to continue.
"They got married in such a haste because that boy will be deployed in January, which means they will make the most of their time together before he leaves, if you know what I mean," she said, suggestively.
And suddenly I was sick to my stomach.
"This better be good, Jane."
"Just listen. Isabella is young, at her prime, and you know what happens to young, healthy and gullible girls, don't you? They get pregnant."
"I'm failing to see how this is good."
"It'll be good because if that boy dies overseas, who will inherit everything? Isabella's child will. And what does Elizabeth Cullen value above all else? Her money." Jane leaned back on her chair, a triumphant smile on her face. "I'd say you do as your wife says and make peace with it. Get back on your daughter's good side so that the moment he dies, you'll have her in the palm of your hand. You're her father, before all this she always trusted your judgment, and if she did again, then she will do as you say. We can use the Cullen's own blood to ruin them for good and make them wish Edward Cullen had never fallen in love with a Swan."
There was an appeal to it. If there was one guarantee in war, it was death and as rich and powerful as Edward Cullen was, that didn't matter in the battlefield. I could get my daughter back and ruin Cullen's legacy for everything they did to my Renee and to Jane.
"I care about my daughter's happiness," I said. "What will happen if she's widowed and with a child? Who would want to marry her? Care for that child? I will not jeopardize my daughter's future in the name of vengeance."
Jane's smile widened. "Marcus would, of course. He's always had a soft spot for Isabella."
"Do you honestly think he'll wait however long it takes for Cullen to bite the bullet?"
"Oh, Charlie, my son is far too focused on his studies to look at anyone else. He's been in love with your daughter since they were children, he will wait. Given the chance, he will gladly marry your daughter, with her bastard child and everything. My son has a noble heart, he will care for that child like it's his own. You don't need to worry about that. You only have to make sure you gain your daughter's trust back, and after that, all will fall into place."
I leaned back on my chair, fidgeting with my empty glass. There could be many ways this could go wrong and to hope for the death of someone? How would that make me any better than the bastard who hurt my wife? I was hoping for my daughter's heart to be broken, to be left as a single mother all in hopes to save her from a terrible marriage.
Make peace with it.
Like I told Renee, over my cold dead body. I will not allow the Cullen's to ruin my daughter.
I raised my cup to Jane, tilting my head. "To everything falling into place."
Jane clinked her glass with mine. "To the downfall of the Cullen's."
Author's Note:
Jane and Charlie are up to no good. SMH.
But Edward and Bella are married! I don't usually like writing the wedding part, but don't worry you'll still get snippets as well as a look into their wedding night haha
Chapter Twenty Preview -
"Come back to me, Mr. Cullen."