Chapter 8 - Bella POV

"I'm home now." I said as I slammed the front door shut, with Char and Peter beside me. I'd thought that it'd be a nice surprise to have Char and Peter come keep Jasper company for a couple of days but I guess the surprise was on me as I saw Esme Cullen sitting in my living room.

"Your home early." Jasper said.

I nodded. "What are you doing here, Esme?" I asked her.

"I invited her." Jasper said.

"Why?"

Jasper grabbed my hand and pulled me out to the balcony. Once we were on the balcony, he spoke. "Look, I know that neither of us is happy with the Cullen's, but Esme came because she cares and she wants to be there for us." Jasper said.

I thought for a minute. Jasper and I had spent a lot of time talking about the Cullens, and we'd come to the conclusion that not all of them were as bad as Edward, Alice and Carlisle. "Do you think that we can trust her? I mean, she's Carlisle's mate. Do you think that she knew what any of them were up to?" I said.

"You could always go in there and ask her." He said.

"I love you Jasper." I said. "But I don't like you right now. Go hunt with Peter and Char."

When we went back inside, Jasper headed out with Peter and Char while I headed to the living room to talk to Esme. "What are you doing here, Esme?" I asked, sitting on the couch opposite of her.

"Jasper called me. He told me that he'd found you in Texas of all places. He explained that your going to college here and that after you graduate he's going to turn you." Esme said.

"That's true. Does Carlisle know you're here?" I asked.

She shook her head. "I left him." She said.

"What?"

"Yes, after I found about his part in Alice's plan, I no longer recognized him. He wasn't the man that I'd fallen in love with. He was a stranger to me." She said.

"I'm sorry Esme, but that doesn't really explain why you're here." I said.

"I know that Edward, Alice and Carlisle did you and Jasper wrong and I think there's only one way to fix it." She said.

"How?"

"I think the only way for them to be punished is for us to go to the Volturi." She said.

"Esme, you can't be serious." I said. I recalled a conversation that Edward and I had once about the Volturi. He once told me that the Volturi weren't very kind. "Esme, they'll kill me if we go to them." I said.

"Not if we tell them that the date has been set to change you." She said.

"I still have a year and a half until I graduate. What do we do?" I asked.

She thought for a minute. "Maybe I go and see Aro. Tell him that Carlisle has betrayed his mate. That he, Edward and Alice kept a pair of mates away from each other." She said.

"Do you think that it could work?" I asked.

"Could what work?" We heard from the door. We turned to see that Jasper, Peter and Char had returned from their hunt.

"Esme wants to go see Aro, and turn in Carlisle, Edward and Alice." I said.

"No." Jasper said.

"What do you mean no?" I asked. It was the first time that I'd ever seen him put his foot down.

"Exactly what I said, no. None of us are going to the Volturi. We're going to take care of them ourselves." Jasper said.

"What!"