"Looks like the shoe's on the other foot."

American idiom

The Cullens went to Charlie's house to take Renesmee and try and explain the best that they could. Sue met them and immediately showed that she understood; she had a grim look in her eye when they explained the situation. Right outside Charlie's front door, after Renesmee had gone right in, Sue told them that the witch, Adsila Sizemore, had come and warned them in advance.

Even more shockingly, as it turned out, MACUSA had sought Sue's permission to at least inspect, if not Bella's old room, then her window on the outside. Actually, Adsila had somehow convinced her enough for Sue to let the wizards inspect the inside of her house for anything suspicious.

Everyone was stunned at the reveal, but then Bella gasped. A cold feeling washed over her. Dread pooled in her gut. It stained her features. Sue gave her a grim look.

She said nothing for a while, until…

"Did he?"

"Did he what?" Bella asked, although she already knew.

"Did he truly break into your house and in your room before you started dating?" Sue stared at her right in the eye, preventing Bella from outright lying.

Silence. "What does that have to do with anything?" Bella barely managing to make her voice rise above a whisper.

"It has everything to do with this." Sue's eyes took on a steely glint as she confronted the Cullens. "You broke the treaty." She jutted her chin out at the Cullens.

The Cullens all gaped at her. "No, Mrs Clearwater, we never-" Carlisle began.

"They didn't know," Bella hastily defended them.

"Not until after they started dating," Emmett mumbled. "We kinda thought she let him in."

Sue's eyes narrowed. "Then Edward broke the treaty- by himself. Is that what you're telling me?"

Another chilling silence. Bella gaped. She opened and closed her mouth repeatedly, but could not find anything to say. "This is Charlie's house. With or without Bella," Sue said slowly, dangerously, forgetting all traces of fear in front of the Cullens. "He is under our protection. You had absolutely no right to do that. Regardless if Charlie's daughter said it was alright afterwards. It was his house! And she was underage. You broke the treaty!" She hissed.

"You do realise what could've happened if any of us found out what he had done?" Sue challenged, looking them in the eye. "If any of us had found out he was breaking into people's homes?"

"He only did it once-"

"It doesn't matter," Sue looked infuriated. "And it doesn't matter if you let him in afterwards. Heck, even a human-" she fumed.

Sue took a few deep breaths to calm herself. "If you didn't play a part in this," she said slowly, looking up at Carlisle and Esme. "Why didn't you stop him?"

Carlisle opened his mouth, but found nothing to say. "We had no idea," Esme insisted. "We swear, Mrs Clearwater, on our children's lives and Renesmee's. We had no idea that he was breaking and entering, until after they started dating and Bella turned eighteen. He never told us."

"He wouldn't," Jasper agreed. "Edward knows Billy Black, you and Harry were close to Charlie. And Charlie's chief of police. We'd never thought he'd take the risk. As obsessed as he was with her."

"He can't be that dumb, surely." Emmett looked astonished and taken aback. Rosalie was the same. The two of them exchanged stunned glances.

Alice opened and closed her mouth. "Except…" her eyes widened.

"Except what?" Rosalie asked, incredulously. She looked aghast. "What else could Edward have possibly done that we don't know about?"

Alice groaned.

"Go ahead and tell. It's not like anyone else isn't going to find out anyway. Including these new vampires and the wizards." Sue challenged, jutting her chin out.

Alice closed her eyes in despair. "Edward… looked into other people's thoughts to see where you were at. And… he may have followed you," she admitted. "From school when time came to get home."

"What, like stalking?" Emmett blurted. Rosalie gaped, staring at Alice like she'd never seen her before.

"And you never told anybody this?" Esme thundered. Now, she looked absolutely infuriated.

Alice opened and closed her mouth. "I- I didn't think- he was in love with her! And I saw that she would be a vampire with him-"

"Alice, your visions change!" Rosalie retorted. "In case you've forgotten! People can choose!"

"Rosalie," Bella said quietly. "I did choose."

"Yeah, after Edward the Puppet-Master and Miss Marionette pulled the strings." She retorted. "Because they refused to leave you alone in the first place!" Rosalie too looked furious.

Bella felt like she'd been slapped. "Who knows what else she could've chosen without them pushing her to make a decision and dangling all this-" she waved a hand over her own body. "-in front of her, along with Edward's own mysteriously shiny good looks, his sibilant voice, and confidently suave charms." She snarked.

Rosalie rounded up on Alice who gaped but could do nothing to defend herself. "She had the right to know exactly what she was giving up along with who and what she would be giving up, before she set her heart on a decision and made a choice." She fumed. "But most importantly, she had the right to choose it of her own free will. Sans anyone's influence or interference. That includes you prodding her along."

And with that, Rosalie stormed off. Alice looked like she'd been slapped- or, more accurately, sucker-punched. Her eyes grew shiny and moist, like they'd been filled with tears.

Esme took a deep breath. "Alice- we will talk. If Edward somehow gets out of this, then we will also have a talk with him." Her voice was calmer now, but no less deadly. Her eyes were filled with disapproval and warning. Alice bit her lip and looked down at her feet. She nodded. "Go to the car." Esme ordered, her voice leaving no room for argument. Alice nodded once more and slowly turned around. Esme's eyes watched her go, filled with disapproval. She wasn't the only one. Carlisle looked both betrayed and disappointed. Jasper let out a sigh, shoulders slumping. Emmet winced.

Bella opened and closed her mouth several times. She wanted desperately to defend Alice- and Edward- but she didn't know what to say.

"Esme- Alice-" Bella swallowed. "Alice didn't mean any harm."

"I know she didn't. But her intentions don't erase the emotional harm she and Edward have done- or the potential damage," Esme clarified, seeing Bella open her mouth. "Bella, part of us choosing to engage in this lifestyle, rather than preying upon humans, is that we spend our immortal lives trying, not only to pose and live amongst humans, but to be human; or, failing that, to be as close to human as we can get. Part of that is respecting humans- as equals." She said her voice firm. Esme's topaz eyes met Bella's. "As if we're human ourselves. Because we were- once. We remember. We remember what it's like to be one of them."

"But Alice doesn't remember," Bella blurted, anguished. "Alice doesn't know!"

"No," Carlisle agreed. "But she knew the deal. She knew how to treat other people with respect. And she did treat them that way- until you came along, she saw your future, and she forgot completely about that deal, in her excitement and enthusiasm about what was going to happen."

"She's just excited," Bella said weakly. "She was so happy for Edward-"

"It doesn't matter. She forgot to treat you as an equal." Carlisle stated firmly. "As a person; someone with a mind that can think and decide on its own, without anyone's interference, and a free will."

"And Edward knew," Esme stated softly, her eyes gentler. "Unlike Alice he hasn't forgotten what it's like to be human. He simply disregarded it.

"Believe me," Carlisle stated, when Bella opened her mouth to defend Edward. "What Edward did would be unacceptable in any society, at any point of time in history- particularly the era he was born in, when people were very strict about teaching children the proper protocol and were sticklers for the rules.

"I'm certain that his birth parents would have found his behaviour completely deplorable. I may not have known Elizabeth Masen for a long time, and I had never met Edward Masen Senior before he died-" Sue's eyes looked astounded and amazed at the mention of Edward's birth parents- of Edward as a human. "But I had the strong impression that Elizabeth Masen was a good mother who would never have tolerated any form of bad behaviour. She gave her life to try and save her son, made me swear with her dying breath to save him, even if it meant doing for him what no one else could- but she wouldn't have accepted this from him. And she didn't: when Edward wanted to run away, like the other teenage boys, change his name and date of birth, to enlist in the army to fight in World War One, Elizabeth put her foot down. She wouldn't let him; firstly, because she was no idealistic fool and she wanted to protect her son from being killed and from the harsh realities of living in war and seeing destruction upon himself and his friends. She didn't want him to end up permanently maimed and injured either. Thirdly, she didn't want her son to be a killer; damaged and haunted by what he's done." Carlisle stated firmly.

"She would not have approved of him doing this, in any way. Besides, there's a reason why Victorian Gothic literature about vampires claim that they can only enter a person's home if they've been invited. I don't know about the other species, but it's ingrained in all of us: a person's home is their sanctuary, their safe haven. And even for those that see them as prey, humans have a right to that. Victoria simply threw that out of the window in her personal quest for revenge, or just as likely, she didn't tell Riley and the other newborns because she expected them to already know just a basic and fundamental right. Riley was pretty much in charge of everything, because she didn't want to risk Edward finding out with his powers, but he was relatively new to this world. None of them certainly would have ever known about the Volturi and the law." Carlisle finished mournfully. Bella's mind flashed towards Bree, the young vampire newborn who had been taken and transformed against her will, became a puppet-soldier and used as a distraction knowing she would likely get slaughtered. Victoria wouldn't have made it a point to ensure that any of the newborns, or perhaps even Riley, would have known about the Volturi for fear they would not do as they were expected to. And they were still punished for it. Bree had surrendered but Jane and the others had executed her, even when Carlisle and Esme pleaded with them regarding their status as pawns and lack of prior knowledge and awareness about their world and law, especially without proper training.

"But we did. All of us did: and that is something Edward and Alice have decidedly not done. They tossed all sense of respect and respectability out the window." Esme stated. "They have treated the humans in this community, especially you and your father, with utter contempt. The Wolves too." She looked at Sue.

Sue nodded, eyes softening as she looked at Esme and Carlisle. "Charlie might not be an official member of the tribe," she said. "But he, Harry and Billy grew up as brothers. He's as good as one of us." She stated, firmly. "Always has been."

Behind Sue, Leah stood. She said nothing, but her dark eyes mirrored the exact look on her mother's. Her lips were pressed into a thin line as she looked at Bella.

"Why didn't you call him out, Bella?" Sue asked, quietly. "Why didn't you tell someone? If no one else in his family, apart from his sister, approved of what he was doing, you could have easily gone to them and tell them to stop- if he didn't listen."

Bella opened and closed her mouth. "I-" she lost her words. "He didn't mean-"

"Regardless of his intentions, it still wasn't right." Sue stated. "It would never have been right to anybody."

Bella kept staring, her mouth agape. She found she didn't have anything to say.

"Why did you let him trample all over your dignity- not just your privacy- and throw it out the window?" Sue asked quietly. "Why did you let him in afterwards, after you found out he had broken inside, like a creep, and watched you as you slept without your permission? How can you even trust someone like that?"

"He loves me," Bella whispered. "And I love him." She didn't expect Sue to understand. She could never.

Sue closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. "He never respected you." Sue opened them, and Bella could see the hurt and disbelief in her eyes and she knew, like Charlie, that Sue had never really come to terms with her decisions. "You chose not merely to spend a human lifetime with someone who does not respect you in the slightest- and also your family- but for an eternity?"

"He- he's never disrespected Charlie," but Bella's voice sounded weak, even to her ears. She remembered what Charlie said about Edward and the exact words he'd used to ask for his blessing.

Sue's eyes narrowed. "Bella- everyone in town who doesn't know what's going on and hasn't been in the same room with them both at the same time can see that he has never respected Charlie, not even in the first place." She shook her head in shocking disbelief. "Not even as the father of the girl he claims to love; which was probably important to people of whatever era he was born in- around World War One.

"You know what Charlie said about Edward's manners? I found them appalling." Sue stated flatly, looking at Bella with barely concealed disgust. It slammed into Bella like a battering ram. "I- and Billy- found Edward's manners- or lack of them- along with his arrogance to be despicable in regards to Charlie." Esme gaped.

"Take for example, the time he came around and discussed college placements. Now, I have to be fair: Charlie was trying to put Edward down, although he had a good reason to feel so resentful. But as impressive as Edward's Ivy League options are, his manners did not match up to the credentials." Sue snorted. "If you've ever been to school for parent-teacher interviews, or hung around other parents whose kids are all in the sports teams, and you say proudly, 'my kid's in the football team,' and this other person says sarcastically, 'oh, how sweet. My kids are all in the football team, and one of them's the captain.' And that person just keeps saying stuff like that… you just can't stand them. I'm a mother to two kids, and I've met parents who are so obnoxious like that when they were in school and their extra-curricular activities. That's Edward. He's condescending, at best, and superior." Bella gaped.

"Charlie may be your father, but your boyfriend acted like he's the neighbour's or the relative's pet dog in Christmas or Thanksgiving parties, the one that does cheap tricks just to get a treat. And the audience would go, 'Oh, that's nice,' before turning back to the food and carrying on with their conversations like nothing's ever happened." Sue shook her head, angrily. "Bella- this is your father." She insisted. "You're just going to let people waltz in like that and speak to your father that way, in his house?" Sue's dark eyes stared at Bella's in incredulous disbelief.

It wasn't the transformation or Bella's rejection of Jacob that hurt Sue the most, Bella belatedly realised. She could see Leah standing in the corridor, her dark eyes glinting with the same hurt, disbelieving and outright disappointed look as her mother's. It was worse than when she had marched inside the house when Jacob had rushed out during Bella's pregnancy, and yelled at Bella for treating him that way because she wasn't angry. Leah's dark long-lashed eyes brimmed with tears of pain from memories past. Now Bella knew what Leah felt. She remembered that Leah had lost her father and now she was watching Bella get berated for disregarding and throwing her own father aside like he was trash.

It made Bella feel like an asshole. It was a slap on the face; a very well-deserved slap on the face. She no longer felt any compulsion to defend herself, or even Edward. She wanted the ground to open itself up and swallow her.

Instead, Bella swallowed and looked to the ground.

Carlisle, Esme, Emmett and Jasper were staring at Sue with eyes wide in disbelief. Yet judging from the horrified and appalled look on Jasper's face, the emotions he felt radiating from Sue, disbelief, anger and outrage, meant that her words were very much real. Jasper had been a southern gentleman and raised as such before he even knew war. He would never dream of treating and speaking to his girlfriend's parents like that, and he couldn't imagine Edward, who had been born in a similar era and brought up with similar values, would do anything like what she- and Alice- have claimed him to do.

"If he loved you, he would've treated your father with respect; he certainly wouldn't put you in a position where you'll have to take sides." Briefly, Bella's mind flew to the story Jacob reminded her of: of King Solomon and two women who each claimed to be the mother of a baby.

"I don't care if you're a human or a vampire. I don't care if you're immortal, or beautiful, or even if you have cool powers that can read people's thoughts. That doesn't make a person better than anyone else. "If he loved you and respected your feelings, he wouldn't have treated Charlie that way, and encouraged you to disregard him like the garbage tossed on the highway." Bella flinched. She still couldn't meet Sue's eyes.

"He wouldn't have broken into your room at night, regardless of whether or not he intended to harm you. He wouldn't have broken into your father's house. Did he even apologise?" Sue challenged.

Bella winced. She racked her brain, trying to remember the memory when Edward up front admitted that he'd been sneaking into her room. "Not… exactly." But he'd looked embarrassed, sheepish even; chagrined. Bella had been more worried about whether he'd caught her saying anything embarrassing in her sleep.

God, that thought struck her like a sledgehammer, with all the embarrassment that came with it. She knew it was Edward and he'd never do anything to harm her, but the fact that she didn't even say anything… that she didn't even think to get upset…

Would she have been upset if it was someone else breaking into her room at night? Bella wondered. If it was Mike Newton? She'd certainly have been embarrassed, but she would've tried to treat it as if it was a misunderstanding. Bella cringed inwardly at the thought. God, was she really that pathetic?

Sue took a deep breath. "Now, Charlie's not blameless in this. Not only does he know that, I've told him so." She said, with grim emphasis. "And I'm pretty mad at Jacob too. If anyone else had found out that Jacob forced a kiss on you- well, if Charlie had seen somebody out in the streets while he was patrolling do the same thing- it doesn't matter if it wasn't you or Jacob- he would've arrested him. And I made him realise that. What Jacob did was technically a Class A felony." She explained to a gaping Bella. "Even Charlie said so, now that he's not blinded by hatred. He would've been duty-bound to arrest whoever was doing that- because it's his job. Instead, he let his hatred of Edward blind him to Jacob committing outright assault."

"It wasn't assault," Bella said weakly. "We've talked this over: Jake said he's sorry."

Sue scoffed. "Was he sorry about the other thing too? Phasing in front of Charlie?"

A pause.

Sue's eyes glinted and her cropped black hair glistened as she leaned forwards towards Bella. "Do you know how Harry died? How my husband died?"

Bella found her voice. "He- he had a heart attack, right? Char-Charlie said-"

"Charlie didn't know the truth." Sue retorted grimly. "Harry had a heart-attack when he saw our daughter phase for the first time."

It was as if a truck-load of ice had been dumped all over them.

Leah's eyes moistened and gleamed behind her mother. She looked like she'd been struck.

"He had a heart-attack because he didn't expect our daughter to phase," Sue explained. "Seth, yes, but not Leah, nor any other girl. It's never been done before. Granted, Charlie was in better shape than Harry at the time, but he'd been all exhausted, anxious and stressed about your 'tropical disease-'" Bella winced remembering "that he'd gone for days without sleep and ate very little, even when I tried to make him eat. Plus, he never knew that anyone could turn into giant wolves, or any kind of animal- Harry did." Bella winced again. "I wanted to kick that boy's ass when I found out what he did." Sue took several deep breaths to calm and steady herself.

"But that's not important right now. I'm talking about the fact that when you two- and Jacob- lied to Charlie and claimed that Renesmee was adopted, even Edward's biological niece, I can understand why you did that. What I don't and can never accept is how you went about it afterwards.

"Your man not only lied to him, he claimed he was sorry even though he wasn't."

Bella's eyes shot up. "He- he wasn't lying! He was!"

"Really? Think back on what actually happened Bella," Sue said, her voice slow and soft, dangerously so. "What Edward specifically said. Did Edward actually sound sorry- truly sorry, apologetic and ashamed- when he apologised and immediately made excuses as to why he lied to Charlie right after, even if he was being reasonable? Did he spend too much time or effort, or even have the grace to look ashamed, when he uttered his apology or did he spend more time on the excuse right after?"

Bella froze. She thought back on that particular incident. Unfortunately, with a vampire memory, she wasn't able to forget.

"I'm sorry," Edward said calmly, "but you need to know the public story more than you need to know the truth. If you're going to be a part of this secret, the public story is the one that counts."

A public story which they never actually ended up needing. The whole world outside of their inner circle still wasn't aware that Renesmee existed. Ice climbed up Bella's spine.

Edward had been as cool as cucumber. As calm as he possibly could.

He… hadn't been bothered by it? But he had to be, hadn't he? Or well, he knew that Charlie would accept it, and that he'd understand…

"And let's not forget the proposal," Sue continued. "Edward claimed he meant no disrespect when he completely failed to even take Charlie into consideration? And you believed him? After all that he did?"

"He didn't-"

Sue cut off Bella's feeble protest. "If he loved you- truly loved and respected you- then he would've made a point to make Charlie feel like he was part of the family. Part of his own family. And I don't give mean just giving him a fishing sonar that he could easily buy with his own money, loaded as he is.

"He would've treated you with respect too." Sue paused. "As it so happens, Charlie's burning; tormented by a lot of questions: how did Edward propose to you? I don't need you to tell me," Sue confirmed hastily, seeing Bella open her mouth. "But you need to remember: just how precisely did Edward propose to you? What were his exact words?"

Bella froze as she racked her brain to remember. That, admittedly, was a harder prospect, as while her vampire brain had perfect recall, her human memories were blurry, hazy in comparison. She'd remembered when he'd presented her with his mother's ring, but that was just a formality; it hadn't been the first time he'd proposed marriage to her.

"Marry me first."

Those words jolted Bella's memory. He'd… he'd agreed to her conditions, to be transformed, on one condition. When she'd asked for it, Edward had asked her to marry him…

Asked? Bella jolted at the thought. He'd asked?

No. He'd stated it as a condition; an expectant condition.

Bella found herself breathing out and in again, deeply. Her vampire mind, always moving at the speed of light, crashed to a violent standstill. Dread pooled in her gut.

Just like with prom, a voice taunted, making Bella reel back in horror.

Before she could recoil, lash out at the blasphemy that threatened to take a hold on her, Sue sighed. "I know you're not going to listen to me," she admitted. "It's not my right anyway. And I know you're way beyond listening to Charlie- if you ever did." She made Bella feel smaller with every word. "Besides, you've made your choice: we simply accepted it, respected it because we cared about and respected you. Even the ones that don't like you, they respect you. Billy, Harry and I- even Charlie, as much as he'd hated Edward. As much as he still doesn't like him, he respects your choice and doesn't want you to end up heartbroken and publicly humiliated around town the way he was." Bella flinched. "And he loves and cares about Nessie to not to want to her to get caught up in a family feud and an unhappy home, so he tolerates Edward. But while he may never say it, he has never accepted Edward. Not in his heart. Not as his son."

Sue looked at Carlisle and Esme. "Not like you two."

Once more, Bella felt like she'd been stabbed. She swallowed.

"But frankly, we don't think Edward even cares about that, much less wants it." Sue conceded. "He might, to keep you happy. But that's as easy as tossing the dog a bone, Bella. He has never made much of an effort to respect Charlie, not even for your sake. Not even when he imposed curfew on his house after he returned."

Bella opened and closed her mouth, but found that she couldn't say anything. Edward had been kicked out of the house at nine, only to climb back afterwards through her window.

"Charlie knows he's made mistakes." Sue sighed, eyes softening. "But he's hoping that at least, now that you're a mother, you can understand why he feels what he feels. And why he does what he does. And more than anything, he hopes that you can be a better parent to Renesmee, and have a better relationship with her than he or Renée has with you." Bella flinched as though she'd been whipped. "And that you can respect one another: especially when the time comes and she starts to make decisions and choices- decisions and choices that you may not necessarily agree with. He's hoping that you will at least respect them- respect her. Even if Edward doesn't and has a tendency to sweet-talk everyone into accepting his actions and excuses."

Once again, Bella opened and closed her mouth like a fish. A part of her- a large part of her- desperately wanted to defend Edward, only to remember, with perfect clarity, Edward's conversation with Renesmee after the witches first came, even if part of it sounded one-sided. And all those times, he'd reasoned with her, telling her why he did all those things... Bella was starting to see that having vampire memory truly was a curse.

Her eyes darted towards the inside of the corridor. Behind Leah, highlighted by Bella's perfect vampire vision and her bronze curls, stood Renesmee. Her beautiful face was emotionless. Her brown eyes were unreadable; but they stared as they took everything in.

She had heard everything.

Sue spoke: "I wish you and your family the best of luck in winning your case." She said flatly before shutting the door and locking it. Leah and Renesmee disappeared from view.

Gabrielle had arranged to meet them at a secluded point. MACUSA had authorised something called a portkey that would immediately take them to the Carpathian Mountains. They went in two cars, since one wouldn't be enough for all the Cullens and the luggage they were bringing.

In the car, Bella could feel her shoulders shaking. She didn't see who was driving, but everyone sat in stony silence. No one moved apart from her shaking shoulders and the person whose hands were on the steering wheel, whoever it was.

Eventually at some point, she'd dissolved into sobs. Jasper, as it turned out, was the one driving and Alice glanced anxiously towards the back seat at Bella, but Jasper gave her a look and shook his head.

Alice bit her lip and turned back around, her dainty shoulders slumped.

It was like a punch to the gut. A well-deserved punch to the gut. Bella knew she couldn't complain.

It wasn't like the times when Leah yelled at her for treating Jacob the way she did, before and after the wedding. But the look of final disappointment in Sue's eyes shook and haunted her to her core. Leah had stood behind her, silently, not saying a word. She didn't have to: her eyes and silence was enough.

But worse of all was Renesmee. Her daughter had heard everything.

And it all came rushing back: all the times they'd lied in order to protect her, including the lie they gave to Charlie that ended up being pointless, all those times they'd brushed aside or dismissed her concerns and desires, even a request to go to the shops or to the theaters on her own or with someone. All the times she'd seen kids play at the park, like when Claire played with some pre-school friends, and Renesmee physically looked like she could be at the same age, and Bella instantly shot her down when she'd asked to join on the grounds that Renesmee would never be able to pose as a human child...

Bella choked down a sob.

Every time she'd taken Edward's side when he dismissed Nessie or brushed her aside. When he belittled her thoughts and feelings, Bella had always taken him at his word, believing he'd only meant the best. it was hard not to when he was so eloquent, so well-reasoned, so right in the past.

But now she remembered what her daughter had said: that Edward had been wrong; that he could be wrong, and that was the conclusion that Nessie had come to, that Bella now realised that she would be forced to accept: that Edward could be wrong. That he had been wrong. That was why she had said it. Not out of malice, or defiance. Or hatred.

She was just expressing what she felt. And Bella had taken it the wrong way, which was why she took Edward's side. She had taken Nessie's conclusion for defiance, mistaken her strength for outright malice. And she'd been appalled.

Bella shook as she remembered how she so easily disregarded her daughter and her feelings. She remembered Edward's reaction to Nessie standing up for herself:

"Go home, Renesmee." He said, standing up and turning away. "Go home."

And when she'd protested what did Bella say?

"You heard what your father said, go to the cottage. And stay there. We'll be back before nightfall. Stay in your room. Don't go anywhere."

She'd dismissed her daughter like a servant, backed Edward up and confined her to her room. It gave Bella another sickening realisation:

She'd kept her daughter as a prisoner. Renesmee was a prisoner inside her own home; and her parents were her jailers.

Coming to conclusion made Bella fall into another round of fresh sobs. Was it any wonder her daughter had become so defiant? When she'd been confined and heavily guarded all her life?

Bella had only ever wanted to protect Renesmee. But now that she saw it, she had taken things too far.

Why? She wanted to ask herself. Why did she take things too far?

There was the logical conclusion: the Volturi. The small town that they lived in would see something undeniably suspicious. Jacob's imprint which didn't let Nessie move to a different town so she could pose and act, for all intents and purposes, like a normal kid; to have any kind of childhood. And Bella reeled back at the realisation that nothing in Nessie's life was normal, not because she was half-vampire and they were posing, trying to be humans...

But because everything that she was, was determined at birth, or even before. That Jacob had been drawn to Bella before she even conceived Nessie, and that, inside her womb, she had been drawn to Jacob and therefore he had imprinted: because destiny had said so: because they were soulmates.

But how? Bella still remembered how angry she was when she'd found out Jacob had imprinted, only to rescind when she'd realised this meant that her daughter would be safe; that she would be protected.

Now she knew that Nessie had been given another jailer. A more persistent one.

Bella wanted to vomit, if vampires even could.

Why was she so... confining towards her own daughter? Yes, that was the word. Confining. Overbearing. Over-protective. Smothering.

Bella thought back. It may have been her natural instincts as a mother. The fact was that her daughter was not only in danger from the Volturi, but before her birth, she'd been in danger from the Wolves: Sam and his pack had wanted to attack, until Jake defected with Seth and Leah and ensured that they came to no harm. The threat had ended permanently when Jacob had imprinted on Nessie.

There were also the perils of her pregnancy, Bella considered. She'd been so terrified since Edward wanted to abort the baby- which he'd planned to do, again without so much as asking for her input. Bella froze.

She'd stuck next to Rosalie and Esme throughout the duration of her pregnancy because she hadn't trusted Edward. And it was a shock to her; something she had never admitted- something she'd never wanted to admit, even to herself: that Edward posed a threat to their daughter because he believed her to be a threat... to Bella.

Bella closed her eyes in despair. Now, for the first time, she was forced to come face to face with Edward's mistakes. She knew that Edward- and Jacob- had wanted her to get an abortion. That they'd called Nessie a thing, even when she insisted it was her baby. A monster. She'd stuck by Rosalie's side, who'd never left her alone unless with Esme, in case Edward had ever tried something, because even Bella wasn't that stupid; she'd suspected that Edward had been discussing plans with Carlisle and Jacob on how to knock her unconscious with drugs and kill their baby.

And Rosalie knew. And so did Esme. That was why they'd never left her alone with them or Jacob. Even for a second.

Carlisle had taken on neutral territory in this regard, but even now Bella knew that this had to be against all laws of medical ethics: forcing an abortion on someone's body against the person's will. Still, if Edward decided, ethics had to go out the window for Bella's sake.

And it did. Ethics, opinions, a moral compass, even Bella's feelings had taken a back seat to what he believed was for her own good. And now it was the same with their daughter.

Dimly, she thought about Jacob. She understood- was forced to accept- that now, Nessie felt confined and restrained, in large part because of him. She'd known it deep down; she just didn't want to admit it.

Edward and Jacob. Her two choices. She remembered all the decisions Edward had made believing it was for her own good: the prom, the birthday party, the breakup, her truck's car battery, the sleepover with Alice- whom he'd used as a guard- the marriage proposal, and finally, her baby. Their child.

It hadn't exactly changed after that: moreover, Bella was forced to accept that Edward had gotten worse, not better.

He'd still tried to prevent Bella from learning how to fight, even though they knew the Volturi were coming, an army of vampires who'd been fighting for centuries with powers and without. Even though that at that point, no one knew what Alice was doing, that she was looking for literal blind spots in her vision, in the hopes of finding another Dhampir in South America. Bella had remembered how Edward had not only refused to teach her how to fight, he'd tried to assure her, with false confidence, that the Volturi would be reasoned with. And that he'd prevented her from having another round with Emmett just to get her home. Edward really hadn't accepted that the Volturi meant to take their family apart, one by one, until Aro and Caius got what they wanted.

They really had been lucky.

Somewhere up there, Bella wondered if she'd angered God or whatever deity was in charge of fate. Or luck. That she'd spent so much time whining about having bad luck that they'd finally put a stamp on it to teach her a lesson.

If she hadn't been crying Bella would've laughed. If, back then, she could see herself now... she would've never complained about her bad luck.

And she never would again. Bella swore that if Edward ever got out of this or survived whatever punishment the Vampire High Council and the Confederation had planned for him without breaking this treaty and throwing some curse over all their heads, she would be eternally thankful for everything and everyone she'd had.

That included her father, her mother, Sue, Phil- for the brief time that she'd known him- Angela, Ben, Jessica, Erik and Mike, Mr Berty and Mrs Newton, all the teachers that put up with her in school, all the employees and customers that she'd ignored or been rude to in the sports shop, all the students in school... she still didn't know how she was going to explain her appearance to them, but somehow, she had to make things right. Most of all, she swore that she would be a better mother to Renesmee.

Suddenly, the car slowed to a halt. "We're here." Jasper said. They got out of the car. The rest of the other Cullens got out of their respective vehicles.

A man dressed in robes, not unlike the trench coats the MACUSA wizards wore, stood with a bored expression on his face. Gabrielle was beside him.

The wizard was holding Red Bull can. It didn't look like anything special, just a can that somebody had discarded and partially bent, after taking a drink. But the way he held it made Bella think that this might be something magical disguised as something normal.

"You're all here?" Gabrielle looked at them, doing a head count. "Did you give your daughter the two-way mirror?"

Bella swallowed. The two-way mirror was a means of direct communication which helped them see face-to-face, even from another continent. Gabrielle nodded. "Excellent." She waved her wand and the trunks opened, suitcases floating forwards in mid-air.

"Portkeys are not necessarily comfortable for humans, especially those going by them for the first time," Gabrielle explained, gesturing to the bucket. "They're objects- usually, random everyday objects that Mug- sorry, No-Majs won't pick up, that have been enchanted to take you to a different place. All you need to do is to touch it, even just a finger, when it's time to go. And don't take your finger off of it, even though you don't have to grip it.

They all nodded. Nobody questioned her and Gabrielle gestured each of them and touch the can with a finger.

"Ten," the wizard chanted. "Nine. Eight. Seven. Six."

Carlisle took a breath. "Here it goes." The can started to glow with blue light.

"Three. Two. One."

Sorry to end in a cliff-hanger.

Sue gets a lot of bad rep in fanfics, where authors tend to portray her as being uncaring towards Leah's situation and feelings. But just because the books- and films- don't give her any lines, doesn't mean that she doesn't care. Leah said it herself: her mother was tougher than she looked. Seth agreed. It sounded like they respected Sue, not just loved her. Billy said that Sue 'would've made one hell of a wolf.' She doesn't seem to be the type to follow everyone just because they said something, and she's now on the tribal council. Besides, Bella thought that she might've cropped her hair short like Leah's as a sign of solidarity with her. Someone had to.

I figured with how Harry died and how Charlie was exposed to the supernatural world would have struck a similar chord to Sue- and not in a good way. I honestly don't see her accepting this. She'd already lost the first man she loved by accident when he unexpectedly saw his daughter phase (in the books), even though it was hinted that Harry's cholesterol levels weren't that good, remember Charlie was under a lot of anxiety and stress: first with Jacob gone missing for months, his daughter's wedding (to a man he didn't trust or like), and then her 'tropical disease'. Plus, unlike Harry, he never knew the supernatural existed until Jacob phased in front of him.