A/N: This is pretty (very) cliffish so next chapter will be up tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

Betrayal

"So Bella's really doing better?" Rosalie asked Jasper as they walked back to the house. Emmett had finally let Edward out of the water, but he was giving him a stern talking to, so they'd left him to it. Emmett was a better person than either of them were, so at least it spared the telepath from losing body parts, which is what they both wanted to do.

Jasper nodded. "She is."

Rosalie waited for him to say more but he just smiled and shook his head. She huffed and rolled her eyes. "A little more information please, dear brother."

"Nope," Jasper laughed. He didn't want to share that Bella's newfound strength was because she finally felt like a full member of the family. Having everyone rally around to support her made her feel like she belonged, and it meant she wasn't in an 'equal' fight with Edward - one where it was only the two of them and she was on one side of the line while he was on the other. Bella had never won a fight like that against him. Now Edward was alone on his side of the line, while Bella had all the Cullens and Whitlocks behind her. That alone gave her strength. "All I'll say is that it's a mental shift improving her mood, rather than a physical one. Although she's only thrown up once, so the physical seems to be improving also."

When they walked in the kitchen, they found Bella sipping a mug of tea and Leah gulping down her coffee while they watched Charlotte do her very best to make an omelette. Bella had explained the basics and Charlotte had taken it as a personal challenge.

Bella looked up and smiled a little nervously when she saw Rosalie. "Oh good, I was going to come find you but you've saved me from having to walk all the way to the river."

No one in the room failed to notice that Bella didn't mention Edward, nor did she seem to have a problem with the fact that Emmett had been getting a little revenge on her behalf.

Knowing that Rose had been wanting to apologize to Bella, Jasper figured he should give them some privacy, so he gestured for Leah to come with him, though not before greeting Bella. "Morning," he said with a smile, noting that her stomach had grown at least a few centimeters just since she'd gone to sleep the night before.

Bella smiled at him. "Thank you for the sleep, I really needed it."

Jasper realized the black circles under her eyes weren't quite so big or dark now. It looked like their suspicions were right, that it wasn't the baby sapping her, it was her emotional state that was taking the biggest toll on her. "Anytime you'd like help, just ask. The more you can keep your strength up, the better for you and the baby."

"I will," Bella nodded, grateful that his concern was for both of them. "Thank you."

Jasper just nodded and dragged Leah from the room. There was some nervousness and remorse in Bella and he had a suspicion he knew what she wanted to talk to Rose about.

"What are you doing?" Leah asked, trying to pull her hand out of Jasper's, something she wasn't sure she'd ever done before. "Charlotte promised I could have the first omelette if it wasn't perfect."

Jasper laughed a little but kept towing his mate to the living room. "Why only if she messed it up?"

"She said our pregnant human deserved the perfect one," Leah explained, rolling her eyes but smiling. "I guess Bella joked that Charlotte was going to be a master chef any day now because she helped with the enchiladas and successfully made me a cup of coffee. Charlotte has decided to prove her right. Now quit pulling me and tell me why you dragged me out of the kitchen."

Jasper just put his finger to his lips to tell her to hush. He may have been polite enough to give Bella and Rose physical privacy but he was absolutely planning on shamelessly eavesdropping. He wanted to know if his suspicion was right.

Leah looked at him in confusion and he tipped his head towards the hall. Leah leaned to the side and craned her neck a bit and she could see Bella and Rosalie standing just outside the kitchen door. Rose looked uncharacteristically nervous. Bella looked a little nervous too, but that wasn't uncommon.

Bella, meanwhile, was trying to work out the best words to explain herself. She'd just opened her mouth to start but Rosalie interrupted her before she could say anything.

"I'm so sorry, Bella," she said quietly. "I hope you can forgive me."

Bella looked at her with her head tipped to the side in confusion because she was pretty sure those were supposed to be her words. "Forgive you for what?"

"I left," Rosalie explained. "I promised I'd protect you and then I left without a word."

After only a second of hesitation, Bella took a step towards the kitchen so she could set her mug on the counter, then she stepped back towards the woman whose family she'd just married into. "Would it be weird if I asked if I could hug you?" she asked nervously.

"Oh," Rose said, clearly surprised by the question. "No, that's not weird. Does that mean you forgive me?"

Bella smiled and quickly hugged her, keeping it brief to not make Rosalie uncomfortable. "No, because there's nothing to forgive. I had plenty of protectors and you and Emmett deserve all the alone time you need or want. I'm actually the one who needs to apologize."

Now it was Rosalie's turn to look confused. "For what?"

Bella took a deep breath and braced herself to talk about what were probably the worst moments of her life. "When I realized what was happening on the island, when I realized what Edward's 'plan' was… it was like every rational thought in my mind just blew away and all I was left with was panic," Bella started, her chest tightening all over again at the pain of her husband's betrayal. She pushed that aside. Right now, getting this apology to Rosalie out was more important than her failing relationship. "The way he said Carlisle would… well, you know what he said. But the way he said it made it sound like he'd spoken to Carlisle about it and Carlisle agreed."

Rosalie saw the hurt in Bella's eyes and she reached out to take her hand. "Carlisle would never have agreed to something like that."

Bella nodded. "I know that now, and I probably would've known it then too, but the panic made all my thoughts fuzzy and I started questioning everything. If Edward could turn on me like that…" she trailed off and took a deep breath, putting her other hand on her stomach to try and ground herself and remind herself what mattered. "Anyway, I was questioning everything. And I'm human, I had no hope of fighting Edward off myself."

Rosalie cut in there, finally seeing where Bella was going. "Bella, I'm not upset that you called me," she reassured her. "It feels good that you had enough faith in me to believe I would keep both of you safe."

"But I hurt you," Bella whispered, tears stinging her eyes. "And I wanted to apologize yesterday but then you were gone. And when Emmett disappeared too… well, I knew it was probably my fault. I'm so sorry I hurt you."

When a few tears rolled down Bella's cheeks, Rosalie shook her head and wrapped her arms around her. "You didn't hurt me, Bella," she said quietly but honestly. "The news was shocking and yes, it rocked my foundation, but that wasn't your fault. I know you didn't act in any way, at any time, with the intention of hurting me."

"I really didn't," Bella sniffled.

"It's no secret within the family that losing the ability to be a mother is one of the things I regret most about this life, so it's not a surprise that I'm the one you called when you needed this kind of help."

Bella stepped back and wiped her eyes before looking up at Rosalie with a sheepish smile. "I'll be honest, Rosalie, that was one of the reasons I called you, but the other is… well, the other is because you're a little bit scary," she said with a nervous laugh. "I figured if I was going to have to fight my vampire husband, I should maybe have someone suitably scary on my side. And well, um… you're the scariest vampire I could call."

Bella startled a little at all the laughter that broke out across the house, but she was beyond relieved that Rosalie was one of the ones laughing. Bella had been afraid she might take offense to that.

Rosalie honestly just thought it was hilarious. She peeked her head into the kitchen to see Charlotte standing by the stove with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face. "Ha!" Rosalie laughed. "I'm scarier than you!"

"Oh shut up," Charlotte huffed. Then she marched herself right over to the human. "What about the night we met? I know I scared you that night."

Bella blinked a couple times. "Uh, yes. Yes you did. You and Peter both," she agreed. "But it's not like either of you were a real option. Not only could I not be certain you'd be on my side, but I thought you were going back to Texas after the wedding. And besides, Edward doesn't have either of your numbers in his phone."

"Ha!" Charlotte cheered, spinning back around to Rosalie. "She looked for me!"

Bella figured she should cut in again just so there was no confusion. "I actually didn't. Like I said, I didn't even know you were in Washington, so I didn't know you were an option. It was only once I was home and saw you guys were still here that I realized I hadn't seen your names when I scrolled through his contacts."

"So you just scrolled right past me, huh?"

Bella spun around at Jasper's voice. "Uh…"

"Protective," Jasper reminded her, really enunciating the word to nail his point home. "You described me as protective and you just scrolled right past my name!" he huffed in indignation. "Whether he has us in his phone as Cullen or Hale or even just our first names, J always comes before R! Always!"

"Uh…"

"And I'm way scarier than Rose!" Jasper added.

Bella started laughing a little, then laughed a little more when she saw Leah standing behind her imprint, rolling her eyes at him. "You are scary," she nodded. "But you're scary in terms of the wider vamp world, not in the family. And not to me."

Jasper's mouth dropped open and he looked at her incredulously. "What about your party?" he challenged her.

Bella waved a dismissive hand. "That wasn't your fault."

Jasper glared at her but there was no heat behind it. To be honest, he was impressed that she realized he hadn't just snapped over something as miniscule as a single drop of blood, but that he felt everyone's thirst that night. Including Edward's, whose singer she was. "That's not the question, Bella. The question is, was I scary?"

"Are we really standing here having this conversation?" Bella laughed. "You actually want me to tell you I was afraid of you?"

"Yes," Jasper nodded. Then he reconsidered. "I should rephrase that. I don't want you to actually be afraid of me, but I do want you to confirm that I'm scarier than Rosalie."

Bella looked at Rosalie to see she was watching her with a raised eyebrow, as if daring her to say it. "Sorry, Jasper. Rosalie is scarier."

Jasper turned and glared at his twin. "Don't intimidate her into lying."

Leah snorted a laugh. "You guys are all idiots. And I'm pretty sure Rosalie just proved you wrong without having to say a single word," she helpfully pointed out to her indignant imprint. "Now get out of my way. I smell eggs burning, which means the first omelette is mine."

When Carlisle, Esme, and Bree returned home, they found nearly everyone sitting in the dining room, talking and laughing, while Bella and Leah ate some breakfast.

Carlisle was relieved to see Emmett and Rosalie were back, and they both looked much better than when they'd left. There wasn't as much pain in Rosalie's eyes as there had been, which had of course been reflected in Emmett's eyes as well. Anything that hurt Rose hurt Emmett just the same.

Carlisle was also pleased to see that Bella looked vastly improved from the night before. Even as her stomach had grown slightly, the dark circles under her eyes weren't nearly as prominent. He knew Jasper occasionally felt his gift was a curse, but right now it was a much-needed lifeline for the human of their coven.

One person, however, was noticeably missing. When Jasper caught his eye and tipped his head towards the backyard, Carlisle looked out the window to see Edward sitting by the river alone, soaking wet and looking forlorn. Carlisle then looked at Esme, who shook her head.

"If I go out there, he's more likely to end up straight back in the water," she said angrily.

Carlisle nodded and sighed. As much as he might agree with his mate, this was his responsibility as coven leader. So, after saying good morning to the two people who'd slept, he walked outside to go speak to the telepath.

"I've already been given one lecture," Edward said sulkily when Carlisle reached him.

Carlisle just looked at him for a moment and shook his head in disappointment. "Clearly you didn't take any of it to heart if this is the attitude you're greeting me with."

"None of them understand," Edward snapped. "They–"

Carlisle held up a hand to stop him. "Either speak to me respectfully or we can end this conversation before it begins. And either speak about your siblings with at least a modicum of respect or don't bother bringing them into this conversation. We're not here because of their behavior. And looking at you, I can see you weren't harmed."

"Emmett tried to drown me!" Edward said incredulously.

"As a being who has no need to breathe, that's hardly torture," Carlisle said dryly. "It would cause you no physical discomfort. I was referring to the fact that you appear to still be in possession of all of your body parts."

"Oh, is that the benchmark now?" Edward sneered. "If I don't lose a limb, it's fine?"

Carlisle sighed again and turned his back on the telepath and began walking back to the house.

"Wait! Where are you going?"

"I told you not to speak to me like that," was all Carlisle said, not stopping.

"Carlisle, please," Edward said, his tone beseeching. "I have to get her to forgive me. I can't lose her. Help me, please."

Carlisle paused, then turned back around to look at his oldest companion steadily for a few long moments before answering him. "Bella making it through this at all is more important than her making it through this with you."

Edward's mouth dropped open in astonishment.

"If she wants to try and repair the damage you've done, I'll give both of you my full support and any guidance you might need in order to communicate more effectively with each other," Carlisle continued. "But I will not pressure her into a decision she isn't ready to make. Especially when her health is precarious. And I'm disappointed that you would expect me to."

Edward just continued staring, shocked that Carlisle wasn't going to help him gain his wife's forgiveness. Surely he knew he couldn't live without Bella.

"Before I go inside to try and enjoy a few lighthearted moments with the rest of the family, I have one other thing to say," Carlisle went on. "There's no point in telling you I find your behavior unconscionable, you're already aware of that. Not only did I never imagine you could betray Bella in this way, but I never imagined you could betray me in this manner."

"You?" Edward said in confusion.

Carlisle nodded. "Yes, Edward. Me. You gave Bella the impression that I would perform an unwanted medical procedure on her. Saying I'm dismayed or disappointed would be vastly understating my feelings. You know me, Edward. You've known me for over a century. You know what my values and morals are, and you know that I've quite literally sworn an oath, on more than one occasion, to do no harm. What on earth would make you think that I would just blindly agree to your 'plan'?"

When Edward opened his mouth to answer, Carlisle held up his hand again.

"I'm not looking for an answer. I'm honestly not sure any justification you give me would be enough. Now, if you'll excuse me."

Edward watched Carlisle's back as he walked away and put his head in his hands. Why didn't anyone else understand that he couldn't live without her? Bella meant everything to him. How could he support her in this when it would no doubt result in her death? There had to be a way to convince her to change her mind, he just couldn't think what it might be. She'd said she loved him above all else, but she wasn't willing to put him above whatever was growing inside her. So if she wouldn't do it for him, who or what would she do it for?

"You think it's some kind of protection mechanism?" Carlisle asked Charlotte curiously, referring to the nature of the amniotic sac surrounding the baby.

Bella had gone up to take a nap a few hours after eating and the rest of the family, minus Edward, were talking quietly in the living room.

Charlotte shrugged. "I don't know. It was just an idle thought. But we know the baby is at least part human, so the fact that there is something as strong as vampire skin covering where the baby's growing is curious. Add in that it's somehow blocking Alice from seeing it, and it certainly looks like the baby is protecting itself."

Leah figured she'd just go ahead and address one of the elephants in the room. "So how does it get out? If we can't cut into it from the outside…" she trailed off, not really wanting to finish that particular thought. Unfortunately, no one finished it for her, so she rolled her eyes. Were they gonna make her say all the worst stuff? "If we can't cut into it from the outside, then the cutting obviously has to happen on the inside."

"You think the baby eats its way out of her stomach?" Emmett asked, eyes wide.

"It doesn't have to be teeth," Charlotte pointed out. "It could be nails."

Emmett huffed a laugh. "Oh good, so it might not eat its way out, it'll just claw its way out."

"We'll obviously have to come up with another solution," Carlisle said, wanting to ease the concern on every face in the room.

"Are you going to eat it–"

Jasper put a hand over his mate's mouth. "I'll give you all the money in my wallet if you don't finish that sentence."

Leah rolled her eyes again but nodded. Jasper looked at her another few seconds before she rolled her eyes again and nodded again. Satisfied, Jasper pulled his hand away. Rather than giving her just the money, he handed her the whole wallet. "What's mine is yours."

"Thanks," Leah grinned. "But I would've stopped without the bribery. It was coming out all wrong," she laughed.

Esme smiled at them before adding her two cents to the conversation. She'd given the whole birth aspect some thought while she was hunting. "Bella told you she felt the baby move, right?" she asked Rosalie, who nodded. "So assuming the baby does… have teeth strong enough to… get itself out, it follows that that would happen when it grows bigger than is comfortable in the womb," she said, then looked at Jasper. "Do you think you can monitor the baby? Assuming you'll be able to feel it as it develops, of course. When it begins to be uncomfortable, that's when we should… do whatever it is we're going to do. I think Bella staying alive is partially dependent on not getting to the point where the baby feels it's necessary to… force its way out."

Jasper nodded but he couldn't help smiling a little at Esme tripping over her words. Not that he could blame her. It sounded awfully savage to talk about the baby chewing its way out of the womb. "If monitoring the baby is possible, then yeah, I can do that," he answered, choosing his words carefully. "We just have to hope there's a little bit of a grace period."

"What do you mean?" Bree asked.

"That if we have a chance of intervening, the baby has to be uncomfortable for more than a few minutes before it decides it's ready to be born," Rosalie explained.

"So going back to my earlier question, what do you think our options are?" Leah asked, mostly directed at Carlisle, but open to suggestions from everyone.

"Well, cutting through Bella's skin won't be an issue, but no knife can cut through the amniotic sac," Carlisle said a little hesitantly.

"Maybe have some drugs ready," Leah cut in before he could continue. "Us non-vamps find having our skin sliced open pretty painful."

Carlisle nodded with a smile. He'd already planned to have morphine on hand for when the time came.

Leah hesitated a moment before offering her suggestion. It made sense, but it still sounded weird. "So I have a thought."

"Just one?" Charlotte teased with a laugh.

"Again, one relevant thought, smartass," Leah laughed. "But… Okay look, I don't want to offend any of you, but the mental image of one of you sinking your teeth into Bella's abdomen is… extremely disturbing. There's another option that doesn't involve any vampires getting a mouthful of human blood."

Jasper's eyes lit up when he realized what she was thinking. "A claw?"

Leah nodded and looked at Carlisle. "If someone clipped one of my claws while I was a wolf, could you use that to cut the baby out? Sanitized, obviously. But we know our claws can easily pierce vamp skin."

Carlisle nodded slowly as he considered it. "It just might work."

"Cool," Leah smiled and looked at her imprint. "You can do it. And maybe you should just go ahead and clip all of them, then everyone can be armed in case of an emergency."

Jasper just shook his head, though not to disagree with her. He just found the whole conversation completely crazy.

"Sorry to change the subject, but do you feel like explaining what's going on with Charlie Swan?" Rosalie asked Jasper.

Everyone in the room with the exception of Leah looked at him with confusion and curiosity.

"Has something happened to him?" Esme asked worriedly.

Jasper shook his head. "No, he's fine. But I'd prefer to talk about it with Bella present. She's close to waking up, so I'm sure she'll be down soon."

Sure enough, Bella made her way downstairs less than five minutes later. "Thank you again," she said to Jasper as she sat down beside Esme, who immediately wrapped an arm around her and tucked her against her side.

Jasper just shook his head. "I only helped with the falling asleep part, the rest was all your own work," he told her. Knowing it wasn't possible to get her somewhere private to ask her about Charlie, he pulled out his phone instead and sent Bella a text. The girl's face when it buzzed made him smile. She looked around the room like she couldn't fathom who could possibly be trying to reach her. To be fair, just about everyone she talked to was in the room with her. Her dad still believed she was on her honeymoon, so he wouldn't be calling.

Bella read the text and took a few moments to think again about the decision she'd already come to, triple checking that she was sure it was the best way forward. Confident that it was, she looked at Jasper and nodded.

"You can tell them. If I have anything to add, I'll jump in," she told him. She wasn't quite feeling up to being the main participant in a lengthy conversation. Even after her nap, she was tired, and she knew she had to save the energy she did have for what was probably going to be a very uncomfortable conversation with her husband. She couldn't keep putting it off.

Jasper looked at her a moment. "You good?"

"Yeah," Bella nodded with a smile. "I think even normal pregnancies make the mom tired. We're growing a whole new huma– Whoops," she cut herself off with a laugh. "Well, not human, but whole new being. It's tiring work."

"Would you like a snack?" Charlotte asked her. "You know I'm so close to being kitchen master, so I can choose something healthy for you that might give you a bit of energy."

Everyone in the room looked at her in amusement. "Just how much pregnancy reading have you done?" Jasper laughed.

"Shut it," Charlotte hissed. "You and I both know you spent hours online last night while Leah was sleeping."

Bella looked at Jasper in surprise, but Leah wasn't surprised even a little bit. She just snorted a laugh at her methodical imprint. "The man has to prepare for every possible eventuality, which means he needs to have as much information as possible," she reminded Bella. "Knowing him, he's already researched how to perform a C-section, just in case he's the one who has to do it."

"Well of course I did!" Jasper defended himself. "We all should be learning that. I'm certainly not prepared to let Bella die just because the rest of you are too lazy to do your research ahead of time."

"So it was you who raided my medical school textbooks?" Rosalie laughed.

Jasper nodded with a sheepish smile. "Sorry about that. You know I'm always mindful of the house rule, but you weren't here to ask permission to go through the bookcase in your room. And I didn't want to interrupt y'all by calling."

Rosalie just waved him off and reassured him it was fine. In seventy years, Jasper had never, not even once, stepped across the threshold to her and Emmett's bedroom without prior permission.

"See?" Leah said to Bella. "He's even willing to throw his own morals out the window when it comes to strategic preparation."

Jasper just looked at her for a few long moments. He almost told her she was free to leave and go to her own house, but he couldn't do it, even as a joke. Even when she was making fun of him, he'd always prefer her to be at his side. "You're lucky I love you," he said eventually.

Leah smiled and leaned in to kiss him. "Very," she agreed.

Rosalie pointedly cleared her throat. "I'm just about used up in the patience department, Jasper."

"Sorry," Jasper laughed. He looked at Bella one more time, just to be sure she wanted him to be the one to explain, and she nodded again. "So… Charlie knows about the supernatural world," he told everyone, bracing himself for their reactions.

"What?" Rosalie hissed. "You told him what we are?"

"No," Jasper shook his head. "He knows about the wolves, but all he knows about us is that we're a little bit 'other'. He and I have never talked about any details about our family, and I asked him to not ask anyone else either. I made sure he knew that it was in everyone's best interest to keep any suspicions or thoughts to himself, not just for our safety, but for Bella's and his own."

Carlisle wasn't sure what caused him to make the connection, but when he did, he looked at Jasper and Leah. "When Victoria tried to come to First Beach?" he asked. He'd known that night that there was something Jasper and Alice had kept from him, but he'd gotten their assurance that there was nothing the family needed to worry about. Considering the safety of the coven was one of their guiding principles, he'd trusted that it wasn't anything that put them at risk.

Jasper nodded. "Yes. Charlie was at the beach with Leah and Sue, and Jacob Black ran in as a wolf. We maybe could have gotten away with just telling him there were horse-sized wolves around La Push, but he was being a dick and Jared had to speak directly to him when he showed up. It gave away that it was a sentient being."

"But Charlie knew some of the legends before that night," Leah cut in. "Billy had told him when they were kids, thinking it was just a cool story about animal superheroes. Billy obviously didn't know the legends were true back then."

"But if he already knew about vampires - or the 'Cold Ones' - then it's easy enough to connect the dots. Charlie's not a stupid man," Rosalie pointed out.

Leah shook her head. "Billy never told him that part. As a kid, he just thought the story about spirit warriors was cool. And they didn't come into being because of vampires and they only took the form of wolves because of a betrayal within the tribe."

"And he's never asked for more information?" Esme asked worriedly.

Leah and Jasper both shook their heads again. "No. If you tell him there are questions you can't answer, he accepts it and lets it go."

"So he only knows about the wolves?" Bree asked. "He doesn't know what we are?"

Jasper hesitated for a millisecond and Rosalie pounced. "What are you hiding?"

"Nothing," Jasper huffed. "Charlie and I have never had a conversation about what we are. He has never had a conversation with Leah or Billy or Sue or anyone else from La Push about what we are. He has never had a conversation with Bella about what we are. Period."

Rosalie gave him a look that very clearly let him know she thought he was full of shit. "And yet you have reason to believe he's managed to guess correctly?" she asked pointedly.

As much as Jasper hated lying and tried not to do it, he knew he was going to have to make an exception to that rule. He didn't want it in anyone's memory that he did believe Charlie had put the pieces together.

"No," he told Rosalie, steadily holding her gaze, then looking at everyone else in the room. "No, as far as I can tell, he doesn't know what we are. From all the times I've been with him and read his emotions, I've never felt anything that made me think he'd figured it out."

"He's right," Bella cut in. Even though she and her dad hadn't talked about the Cullens specifically, she was sure he knew. She also knew Jasper was lying in order to protect both Charlie and the other Cullens. "If my dad thought you guys were vampires, he would have asked me about it. I'm confident about that. Jasper's telling the truth."

Leah kept her face blank but she made a mental note to thank Bella the next time they had privacy. She'd backed Jasper up, even knowing he wasn't telling the truth, because it was the safest thing for everyone involved.

Jasper, for his part, was internally smiling and he silently let Bella feel his gratitude. She'd shared her thoughts about what Peter had told her the night they met, and Jasper was watching Bella step into her role as a loyal Cullen. She was determined to keep them safe, even if it took being a little untruthful in order to do it. Morally questionable, perhaps. But Jasper would lie every day for the rest of his existence if it meant his family was safe.

"He knows you're not human, but that's it," Bella added.

The silent unease in the room was starting to get uncomfortable for the three beings who knew the truth, but Bella's phone ringing was just the distraction she needed. She didn't even look at who was calling.

"Bella?" Charlie said when she answered, his voice shaking. "Are you alright?"

"What's wrong?" she asked quickly in alarm. She'd never heard her dad sound that scared before.

Jasper closed his eyes and clenched his jaw to keep from growling. If what he thought was happening actually was happening, Edward was in for a world of hurt.

"I've just had a visit from your husband," Charlie said slowly. "Imagine my surprise to find him at my door when I thought you were still on your honeymoon."

"I…" Bella trailed off and looked at Leah in a panic. She was the person in the room who knew her dad best.

Leah only debated for a second, and that was only because she was fighting against her instinct to go track down the telepath. She held her hand out for the phone, which Bella tossed to her as if it was on fire.

"Hey Charlie. I think maybe you should come to Jasper's house. I don't know what that asshole told you, but I'm sure most of it was bullshit. And Bella was already planning on calling you to ask you to come over, so this just saves us a little bit of time."

Charlie was silent for a few moments. "Is my girl okay, Leah?" he whispered, his throat tight. "Is she alright?"

Leah felt tears sting her eyes at the emotion in Charlie's voice. "Yeah, she's okay," she reassured him before clearing her throat. "But she misses you, so maybe quit asking so many questions and just get your ass over here."

Charlie managed a single laugh, though it sounded a little choked. "I'm on my way," he said, then immediately hung up.

Leah turned to Carlisle with eyes blazing. "If you want him to remain in one piece, keep him the hell away from me and Charlie. What he does within your family is your business, but Charlie Swan is my family and I won't just sit back and stay silent when he's fucking with my family."