In Paris 1723

[2.4]

As soon as he had finished and his stuff was put away, he had stepped up and offered to go downstairs to clean up the blood that had dripped onto the floor, leaving Bella and I alone in the office. 

"Genevieve... why do you hate me?" Bella asks, her eyes fluttering from my eyes to her arm, which I was in the middle of carefully cleaning.

I pause momentarily before continuing to carefully wipe her arm of blood, being sure that keep away from the stitches that Carlisle had finished only a few minutes prior. An uncomfortable aura had fallen onto the room, with neither of us talking about the question that had echoed in both our minds.

"It's not that I hate you..." I say quietly. "I mean... do I like you? No. But I don't know if I would go as far as to say that I hate you, per se."

"You avoid me any chance you get... and the times that we are forced together by Edward or the rest of your family, we never talk." Bella says, "I just want to know what I did to make you hate me so much."

I fall silent for a moment, looking down at the water and watching it turn from crystal clear to a murky red when the bloody washcloth was put in. put in. "I fell in love with a man once. A man, who could give me anything that I wished for. A family. A happy healthy relationship. Stability. Security..."

"Theodore?"

"No, this was before I even met Theo. You remember Emeric... right?" I look towards her, dropping my hands and sitting down on the small rolly chair that Carlisle had. "From your little nosy exploration into mine and Theo's room?"

Bella blushed but nodded her head. "Yeah... you two were engaged when you were turned."

"He was rich... like filthy rich. My parents were so excited that I had captured the attention of the most eligible bachelor of the decade. So much so that, for the first time in a long time, they were... they cared. They didn't normally do that- care. I mean, they cared, sure. But they weren't like parents today. They didn't show their affection in public, they were- by definition- the perfect high-society couple. Behind closed doors, they were parents. They smiled at my successes and cried alongside me at my losses. They did the best that they could at the time, which was more than I could ask for." I sighed once more as I looked over at her, my golden eyes meeting her inquisitive chocolate-brown eyes. "Once I turned... I left France... I couldn't stand being near them."

"But they're your parents..." Bella says, shaking her head at the idea.

"They may have been my parents... but I was a monster... one that was dammed to walk the Earth for... for forever really. Watching as families grew up and grew old, as parents died and children mourned. As societies continued to rage war against each other for whatever stupid and idiotic reasons they could come up with. I was permanently stuck in time. Forced to watch as the world continued to spin and time continued to pass, just leaving me behind. I eventually went back to Paris... no one even knows that I did... though I think Theo had some suspicion and he told Rose."

"What happened?"

"I sat by my parent's beds as they died... I'd like to think that they knew that I was there... that they didn't die alone without finding some convoluted sense of peace. The last thing that my parents mumbled about before they died was talking about me and my brother... my mother died with a smile on her face as she welcomed death with open arms. She turned her head towards my father and let out a weak chuckle... 'Souriez Antonie... car nous pouvons revoir nos enfants. Sébastien et Geneviève...'"