Bella MacLeod's Twilight Fanfiction

A Fresh Start

By BetterInTexas

Chapter 17:

BPOV
I used to work here? Interesting. I like to camp and fish with Bo but I never saw myself as the outdoor type.

“This place is kind of small.” Bo noted.

“Well it’s not that small for around here, I suppose.”

“All this forest? You would think the local outfitter would have more selection.” That was annoying.

“How much selection do you need? You want a tent? There is a tent. You want a gun? There are like 30 of them over there. Want a knife? There are some knives. I mean how big a store do you need Bo?”

Bo looked at me with the same look he gives me every time we walk into one of these stores. Like he is trying to figure out why he
brought me. I was still trying to figure that out as well. At last
Newton’s was smaller than Bass Pro Shop. He dragged me around
for three hours in that damn store.

“Something tells me you must not have been the top salesperson at this place.” He commented.

“Yeah, you are probably right.” I admitted. I worked here? Then
again I suppose there isn’t a lot of choice in a town this small. It’s
either this or asking if you would like fries with that.

“Bella?”

“Oh shit.” I whispered under my breath.

I turned around and saw a pretty sandy blonde girl staring at me with wide eyes.

“Do I know you? No wait. We must have gone to school together
right?”

“Oh my God, it’s true. You lost your memory. I can’t believe I am
seeing you again. I can’t believe you are in town.”

“Yep. It’s me. Yayyy…” I was hoping to avoid this. But after the
tension in La Push I thought some Forks time might be good. When Jacob and Sam’s gang walked out of the woods they pretty much avoided talking to Bo and I the rest of the night. No one was very talkative. Not even Charlie. They all seemed tense about something.

They kept asking us how our walk in the woods went. I kept saying
short and uneventful. They want their secrets? I can have mine as
well. We stayed the night in Charlie’s house, even though Emily tried her hardest to talk us into staying with her. I wanted to go through some more of those emails. I read them all once quickly. Quickly enough to know there was more than a psychotic breakdown going on here. I seemed depressed. I seemed lonely. I was having visions but the way I wrote… it didn’t seem like I was insane. More like I had a secret I couldn’t talk to anyone about besides Alice. It must have been about Edward.

“I… am… Jessica.”

Great. Now she is talking to me like I have brain damage.

“I… am… Mary.” I replied, as slowly as she did. Probably shouldn’t
encourage her.

“Mary? Oh you poor thing. You don’t know who you are do you? How have you been? I heard you got married. In Texas.”

“Yeah. This is my husband, Bo.” Bo acted like he wanted to get
away. Fuck that. If I had to stand here and make small talk he was
as well.

“Wow. Is it true you were raped constantly?”

What the fuck?

“Excuse me?”

“The rumor is you were kidnapped by a psychotic guy who raped
you all the way to Texas.”

I took a deep breath. We are only here a few more days, Mary.

“No. I was kidnapped, but I wasn’t raped.”

“Oh…” This bitch seemed disappointed. Sorry to disappoint.

“So did we used to be friends?” I asked hesitatingly. No way, right?

“Yes. We were best friends.”

I seemed to have a lot of those. I’m calling bullshit on this one. Hey, wait a minute. “Bo, could you see if you could find me a rain coat?”

“You have a… yeah I can do that.” Good boy. He catches on fast.
Time to get some information from someone who doesn’t hang out half naked in the forest with Sam Uley and Jacob Black.

“Jessica can I ask you some questions about my old life?” I said
quietly.

“Of course.”

“Tell me about my relationship with Edward Cullen. What was that all about?”

“Oh. That’s right. You have no memories.”

Yeah. I thought we covered that.

“What do you mean?” I asked politely. Don’t be sarcastic to the girl
we need info from.

“You and Edward. You were the It couple. You were the only girl he
ever dated from our school. Everybody wanted him. Except me.
Because I had Mike. I was not interested. Really.”

“So how long did we go out? My Dad doesn’t like to talk about him.”

“You began going out about 2 months after you started school here. You dated all through that summer until he moved at the beginning of our senior year. After that you…”

“I what?”

“You became very, very depressed. You didn’t talk to us much any
longer. You hardly ate. You never went out. You didn’t take it very
well.” She was being serious. I could tell. She almost felt sorry for
me.

“But your husband now is freaking hot. I wish I could rope me in a
guy like that. And at our age? Wow. Are you pregnant?”

“No. I’m not pregnant. Was there anything unusual about my
relationship with Edward besides the break up?”

“Yes. Why? What have you heard?” She seemed excited. Weird
chick this Jessica.

“Nothing. No one wants to talk about it.” I acted frustrated. It wasn’t hard.

“The two of you were very… intense. You were always together. I
mean he treated you like you were this breakable doll. You sort of
rotated around him. It was a little weird. Pretty serious for a high
school relationship, no matter how gorgeous he was.”

I frowned. I had already figured this out myself.

“While the two of you were together, you pretty much hung out with his family.”

“You knew his family?” This could be interesting.

“Everybody knew them but nobody ever really knew them. Except
you of course. They were strange. Only two of them were related by blood. Rosalie and Jasper.”

“Jasper?” I asked. Not Emmett.

“Yes. He was a strange one. Always looked like he was hurting or at
least very tense. Like he was always concentrating on something.
Alice and you were really close. You and Rosalie didn’t speak much. Her boyfriend Emmett was always nice to you though.”

Nothing new. So I was close to most of them. Interesting that Rose
wasn’t close to me but she was the one who saw me in the airport
and obviously tracked me to Hide a Way. What else?

“Jessica, was there anything strange about the Cullens?”

“You mean besides everything?” she was smiling. She liked to
gossip. This was good.

“Tell me about it. What was strange?”

“They all were foster children of Doctor and Mrs. Cullen. They dated each other. Alice and Jasper and Rose and Emmett. Edward never dated until he met you. But they never socialized with anyone. They stayed to themselves. Very quiet. Very creepy almost. They were all beautiful. Pale skin. Paler than you. There was also the eye thing.”

That caught my attention.

“Eye thing?”

“Yes. They all had gold eyes. But they weren’t related. We all figured it must be a weird Cullen thing. All wearing gold contacts. When they didn’t have contacts in their eyes were black. I don’t know. Maybe they wore black contacts as well. It was kind of strange. We all joked about when you would start wearing golden contacts.” She laughed a little and then stopped when she realized I wasn’t laughing.

Golden eyes. All of them? There has to be something important
about the eyes. I was beginning to think they weren’t contacts. Red, gold or black.

“Do you think it is possible he was… abusing me?” I whispered. A
girl like her would know everything, true and untrue.

“Abusing you? No, why? Did he? Of course, you wouldn’t remember. But why do you ask?”

“I’m just trying to figure out why my father didn’t like him.”

“If your father thought he was abusing you, not liking him would be the least of Edward Cullen’s problems. But Edward treated you, I don’t know. I mean he didn’t like for you to be around other people. He was kind of possessive like that. He seemed like the jealous type. But there was never any indication of abuse that I saw. He seemed to worship the ground you walked on. Made quite a few girls jealous. Not me of course, but other girls. You always looked so happy when the two of you were together. I couldn’t imagine him abusing you.”

I figured as much. Edward Cullen didn’t abuse me. What else could I get from her?

“It’s strange to see you with a husband. Did you even graduate high school?” she asked.

“Yes. I graduated in Texas.” I replied, thinking this was better than
saying I got a fake identity that came with a high school diploma and a really great GPA. I scored well on the SATs also.

“So is it true your husband saved your life?”

“Yes.”

“He moved you in with him?” She was so nosy. This girl was born to be a tabloid reporter.

“Yes. I had my own room. I live with him and his sister and her son.”

“That is so cool. You are so lucky, Bella. Going from one hot guy to
marrying another.”

Lucky? I suppose I had been since I met Bo. But it doesn’t seem like I was that lucky before.

“Darlin, you ready to go? I couldn’t find a rain coat in your size.” Bo said walking up.

“Yeah babe. Let’s go get something to eat. It was good to meet
you… or to meet you again, Jessica. Thank you for the chat.”

“Totally no problem. It was good to see you. I’m glad you weren’t
raped by a mad man half way across the country.”

“Uh… thank you?” Bo was gently pushing me out. “Bye now!”

We reached the safety of the sidewalk.

“Did you hear?”

“Yep.” He answered. I knew he would be listening.

“What do you think?”

“That I am married to one half of the most popular couple in Forks
High School history.”

“I mean about everything else, idiot.” He was smiling at least.

“The golden eyes thing is weird.”

“Yep.”

“It doesn’t sound like Cullen abused you.”

“Nope.”

“So what was so weird about your relationship? It seems like you
two were close, right up until he left you in the woods.”

“Woods that I ran deeper into instead of following him out. Why did he take me to the woods anyway? Strange place to break up.”
Bo took a deep breath.

“Look we know there was something weird about your relationship
with him and it seems the whole family. We know two of them have found us but we don’t know why they acted like they didn’t know you. We know they are familiar with Peter Whitlock, the guy who gave you a free identity. That little fact makes me very nervous. It was no accident that the four of them were at Roadies. They had to have followed us from our house. That means…” Uh oh.

“Shit. That means they were watching our house.” I responded,
following his train of thought.

“Okay. I know what our next step is.”

He does?

“You do?”

“Yep. Let’s go to the corner store and get directions to the Cullen
House. See if they left anything.”

Yeah, except…

“Bo, I am sure it’s locked.”

“Probably. But if we happened to find it unlocked by an unknown
person we would need to go and investigate. We wouldn’t be good
citizens if we didn’t.”

“You want to break into the Cullen house, don’t you?” I asked smiling at him.

“I wouldn’t mind taking a peek.”

“What if they find us? I mean what if they followed us here?”

“I would prefer it. If we can find them watching we can get some
answers. We know who they are and what they look like now. At
least the kids. They can’t sneak up on us anymore. Now you want to go break into a house with me or am I going to have to do this
myself?”

I took a deep breath. Looks like we were goin to jail. Too bad Charlie resigned already.

Esme POV

“What are you doing here, Irina?”

“I’m looking for Laurent. He was coming to visit you. We found out
later from Carlisle that you had already moved. But he never made it back. So I thought I would come look for him. What are you doing here Esme? Eleazer spoke to Carlisle and I understand you left him over the Bella incident?”

Bella incident? Bitch.

“Yes. I came to put the house up for sell and decided I couldn’t go
back.”

“Harsh. The man turned you. He saved your life Esme.”

“Yes, he did.” I nodded. Go away Irina. Why did this bitch have to
stop by? The only Denali I can stand is Carmen.

“You think the Volturi will punish him and Edward for not turning
Bella?”

“I really don’t know.” I said honestly.

“You are involved in that as well. Your whole family is involved.”

“There is no family, Irina. Not any longer. I suppose if the Volturi want to come after me, I will deal with it.”

She smirked. “I doubt they care about you. They are only interested in Alice and Edward. You will probably be all right.”

“Yes, I probably will. Either way I don’t really care. I have gotten a
hundred years more than I expected.”

“When did you become so fatalistic?” Irina asked, surprised at my
answer.

“When you lose someone you love who is so young, I suppose it
puts things in perspective. I knew it when I lost my son and I knew it when I lost Bella.”

Maybe she will find a young man she actually cares about one day.
Of course she will probably mostly be fucking him in the back of his parents van. Slut.

“Did you know there is a wolf pack in La Push?”

“Yes.”

“Do you think they killed Laurent?”

“I’m sure I wouldn’t know anything about that. Maybe you should ask them.” Go to La Push and ask them.

“I was there yesterday. I saw the loveliest couple walking in the
forest. Then I was running for my life from a pack of horse sized
wolves.”

“Oh my! Thank the Lord you escaped.” Dammit wolves! Why can’t
you move faster?

“I think I am going to stick around for a while. Watch them. See what the situation is. Find out if they had anything to do with Laurent disappearing.”

“And what if they did?”

“I suppose I will have to decide then, won’t I?” she smiled.

“Good luck with that.”

I have bigger things to do. Have fun becoming a chew toy.

“I guess I will be leaving. It was a pleasure as always Esme. Good
luck on your new found freedom.”

“Good luck finding your… friend.”

Irina left without another word, thankfully. I was tired of hearing her voice. Good luck with your newfound freedom, Esme.

Bitch.

I watched her run off and contemplated my next move. Bella lost her memory. She is married and living in Texas. Charlie Swan is moving to Texas. He will need to drive a moving truck. Should be easy enough to follow, though perhaps incredibly slow and boring. I suppose I could get some new novels on CD.

How to approach her? I still didn’t know if she was in Forks. She
could very well be. I needed to get to Charlie’s house. I heard the car pulling into my driveway. I looked out the window.

She came to me. She was with a young man who was… damn. Not
Edward by a long shot. This was no 17 year old boy. My heart
caught in my throat. I truly never thought I would see her again. She found me.

I could hear every word spoken between the two of them. It wasn’t
hard to see they were devoted to each other. It was the natural way
their hands sought each other after they were out of the car. He
should have opened the door for her but I suppose that is a bit old
fashioned. These things can be taught.

“Does it seem weird that a car is parked here out of the garage?”
she asked.

“Mercedes no less. Think it could be a real estate person?”

“In Forks? Driving this? Doubtful. But someone is here.” Bella
peered at the house and I backed away from the window. I didn’t
know how to handle this. I wanted to grab her and run. But she is
married now. I want to be a part of her life. But I don’t know what she remembers about us. From what I have heard she remembers
nothing.

“Maybe we should just knock instead of trying to break in?” Bella
asked.

“I was really looking forward to breaking in.” the man said. He
sounded disappointed. Poor boy.

“Have you broken into a lot of mansions?” Bella asked.

“No. Never. That’s why I was looking forward to this.”

“C’mon. Let’s go knock on the door. If no one answers I will let you
break in honey.”

Bella speaks much slower. I wonder if she has brain damage as well as amnesia. Of course she sounds like her husband. I wonder if he has brain damage? No. What would be the odds of them both having brain damage? Think Esme. How to handle this. Real Estate lady? Why are they even here? I could leave out the back door.

I heard the knock on the door.

It would be rude not to answer. I should at least see her. I really,
really wanted to see her. Fall at her feet and beg forgiveness for
following Edward and Carlisle. I suppose I could start with answering the door.

I opened the door and saw her up close for the first time in over a
year. She was gorgeous. Only 19 but she had lost a lot of the
softness she had before. She looked more refined. The angles and
curves of her body were more pronounced. She didn’t look at me as if she was afraid to make eye contact. She was much more
confident. Her smile was still there though. That half smile, half grin that lights up her face. It took everything in me to not grab her and hold her.

They both looked surprised. I don’t know why. They knew someone was probably here. Damn. Her husband looked hotter up close.

“Hello. Can I help you?”

“Yes ma’am. My name is Mary Walker and this is my husband Bo.
We were wondering…”

Her husband spoke before she could finish.

“I’m guessin by the gold eyes and the fact that I haven’t seen you in a photo yet, that you must be Mrs. Cullen.” He said, smiling at me.

Eyes. I guess I will be going for honesty here.

“Yes. My name is Esme Cullen. I…” couldn’t take it any longer. I
grabbed her. I was sobbing.

“I’m so sorry Bella. I am so sorry.” I was sobbing. But I had her back
in my arms.

Bo POV

Okay. Not the reception I was expecting. Mary was trying to pull back but having little success. Woman must have an iron grip.

“Ma’am? Could you let my wife step back for a second and get a
breath?”

“Of course. I’m sorry Bella.” Mary stepped back, almost into me.

“Esme Cullen?” Mary whispered.

“Yes. You go by Mary? Where did you come up with that name
dear?”

“Uh, Marianne Dashwood from Sen…”

“Of course. You love Jane Austen.” Okay. Obviously she knew Mary
pretty well.

“Mrs. Cullen…” Mary began.

“You have never called me that. You call me Esme and I will call you whatever you want. Please come in.”

She stepped aside. I wasn’t sure about his. We really didn’t know
much about this family. But I could tell one thing. Something was not right. Mary felt it too. She was squeezing my hand tighter than
normal.

This chick was way too cheery. Like Whitlock and the other Cullens we saw, she was very pale. Same gold eyes. Beautiful. Almost too beautiful.

“Esme.” The woman began sobbing again. Not crying. Just sobbing.

“Yes?”

“Have you heard what happened to me?” Mary asked.

“Yes. I heard you were kidnapped and… and…”

“She wasn’t raped ma’am. She fought him off and he hit her over the head, causing her to lose her memory. There was no rape.” I figure I may as well get that out there before she really starts her non crying.

“Oh thank God.” She grabbed Mary again and pulled her into her
arms. This time Mary gasped and I went on high alert.

“Esme… you are cold. Are you okay?”

“Yes dear. I’m just, cold natured, I guess you could say. Believe it or
not you once said it was soothing.”

“Oh of course. I didn’t mean that it…”

“Don’t ever apologize to me… Mary. I will be apologizing to you for the rest of your life, I suppose.”

“Why?” Now I was definitely on high alert.

“Chill Bo. Esme, I need answers. No one wants to tell me about my
past here. There are too many holes. No one wants to tell me about Edward and my relationship with all of you. Now I have Emmett and Rosalie McCarty or whatever the hell they are calling themselves stalking me in Texas. Edward isn’t here is he?” Mary suddenly looked nervous.

“No. I left Edward and Carlisle. They are in London. They think you are dead. I called Carlisle from Forks and told him I wouldn’t be coming back once I found you were alive. It is important that I stay away. He and Edward cannot know you are alive. Now what was this about Rose and Emmett? What do you mean they are stalking you? How do you know what they even look like?”

“We found pictures under a floorboard in Mary’s old room.” I helpfully supplied.

“Edward. He left them there. That stupid boy. You say you have seen Rose and Emmett?”

“Yes. A couple nights before we came here. At a bar. With some
other friends.”

“I see. What would you… it is going to be difficult to give you the
answers you need. There are some strange aspects you are going to have to learn again. You may not react as well as you did last time. Your husband may not react well. I will tell you everything you want to know Bella. I mean Mary. Excuse me. But you need to realize this knowledge did nothing but bring you pain before. I only ask that the two of you think hard about whether you want the whole truth. I owe it to you. I will give it to you. I won’t make decisions for you. But I need you to really…”

“We want to know.” I said. I looked at Mary and she nodded. It was
time to put an end to this.

She looked in my eyes. “We already have figured out too many
things that we can’t just sit around and pretend we didn’t learn them. I need to know that Edward Cullen isn’t going to find her. I need to know why it is important that your husband and Edward think she is dead. Two Cullens and two others who are a whole lot like them only with red eyes have found us already. Ma’am, we need to know what we are up against here.”

“I understand. But once I tell you…” her phone went off. She looked down at the caller ID.

“Excuse me. It is probably important that I take this. I need answers too.”

She placed her phone to her ear. “Hello Rose.”

I wish I could hear the other end of this conversation. Freaky timing.

“Oh. Peter. What a surprise.”

I looked at Mary and she nodded. Peter Whitlock.

“Yes Peter. I understand what you are saying… no I can definitely
see your side of things. I suppose you convinced Rose and Emmett
to keep this from me as well?”

She nodded a little more.

“Yes. Yes. Oh you will do what if I don’t do as you say? Oh I see. I
completely understand where you are coming from and I deeply
value your opinion. Can I make a request?”

I assumed he said yes from her smile.

“Would you and Charlotte and Rose and Emmett all go fuck
yourselves? Have a nice day Peter.”

Esme ended the call and turned to us, still smiling.

“So you want to know the truth do you?”

“Yes Esme.” Mary replied with wide eyes. I was kind of impressed
myself.

“You two have to keep this to yourselves. Charlie already knows.
Your friends from La Push already know. I really don’t think it is fair that you don’t know. They think they are doing what is best for you. But you have always known what is best for you, until it came to Edward. You were always too good for him. I will explain why it is important that Edward and Carlisle think you are dead. I will explain to you why I can’t go back without placing you in danger. Why it is important for you not to have much time involved with those like me. Why it is bad for you. Why you reacted the way you did when we left. But first there is something I need to show you.”

Okay…

“What is that, Esme?” Mary asked quietly.

She looked out the window.

“It appears the clouds are going to break and we may actually have
twenty minutes of sunshine. Come outside with me. This will be
easier to believe if I show you.”

She began walking out the door. Two steps from the front she
turned.

“Do you want to know?”

I looked down at Mary and saw determination in her face. I nodded at her and grabbed her hand. Whatever it is, we would face it together.

“Yes ma’am. Right behind you.”