The Cullen Project *Editing*

Chapter Sixteen

Bella POV

"Elizabeth, it's time to wake up. We have things to discuss." I shook her arm very carefully.

She shot up from the couch and I moved to gently sit her up and help her calm down.

"I'm-I'm, I, I don't know where that came from." She sighed.

"You did that when you were little." I sighed deeply.

"Mom." She turned to look full in the face, a happy little crooked grin slowly crept into every feature she possess.

She threw her arms around me and I instantly wrapped mine around her. Relishing in the fact she did this very willingly and so quickly.

"I've had to wait so long to hold you baby." I sighed and she buried her face deeper into my hair.

"I looked for so long. Forks was my last chance to find you. I actually had to resort to asking an old boyfriend of yours to help me." She giggled and I regretfully pulled back slightly to look into her beautiful eyes.

"What old boyfriend?" I asked, still keeping my arms partially around her.

"Mr. Newton, Mike Newton. He's the librarian at the public library." She responded.

I fought the urge to laugh hilariously.

"Mike Newton huh? I haven't heard that name in a long time." I couldn't help myself as I started to laugh quietly "We never, ever, dated."

"You didn't?" She cocked her head to the side in a very sweet gesture.

"No love, we didn't." I finished my spurt of laughter.

"He lied to a girl with a dead mother?" She gasped.

"People are strange dear." I sighed.

"You're awake!" Edward rushed into the room and threw himself down on the floor in front of the couch Elizabeth and I were sitting on.

"I'm fine really. No need for such panic." She smiled warmly.

A strange anger flared through me seeing her look at him like that, like he had never done anything wrong.

"Have you told her yet?" Edward asked me.

"No." I responded shortly. "I was just about to get to that."

"Tell me what?" Elizabeth asked, her green eyes wide with curiosity.

"Sweetheart, the Volturi only let me go because they have violated the contract I had with them." I sighed deeply, taking her warm hands into mine.

"Wait...the one about having your loyalty to them in exchange for them letting me live?" She paled. "How did they violate it? I'm still living?!" She panicked.

"Sweetheart, it does no good to give yourself a heart attack." I put my hands on either side of her face to try to calm her down. "The Volturi leaders have decided that you are a threat to them and are coming in two weeks to try to kill you, but I won't let that happen." I kept her looking at me as tears started to form in her eyes. "I promised you I would never let anything hurt you, I'm not going to break that promise." I hugged her tightly and she clung to me.

"Your mother is right Elizabeth, no one is going to even come near you." Edward affirmed.

"Why don't you go get something to eat. Esme has lunch ready for you." I told her after she had calmed down.

She walked away with such a dreadful look on her face it made my heart hurt.

"Bella." Edward spoke my name as he moved to sit next to me on the couch.

"Edward." I copied his tone.

"She's beautiful, inside and out." He smiled.

"I don't need you to tell me that." I snapped.

"Bella, please, I'm trying to obey to your wishes." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"I thought my wishes were for you to not come near me." I grumbled.

"I said I was trying, not that I was successful." He laughed a little.

"Why do you even bother?" I spat, shocking him entirely.

"What do you mean?"

"Why, after leaving me alone and pregnant, left to my own devices while the Volturi hunted our child and I down, and after I've spent so long under the Volturis control, why do you even bother to still try to be with me when I know you don't want me?! Are you just trying to screw me over again? Are you that low?!" I jumped up and started screaming at him.

"Bella! Why would you think I don't care? I thought you were living your life! I was a depressed homicidal maniac without you! I was shocked when Elizabeth found us and I learned of your fate! I tried looking for you everywhere! Finally Carlisle took pity on me and told me he thought you were with Aro! Don't ever think I don't care about you!" He jumped to his feet and screamed back, leaving me stunned.

"Will you two knock it off! Any louder and Elizabeth will hear you from all the way in the kitchen!" Alice bounced in and snapped at us.

"Sorry." We both muttered at the same time, sitting back down onto the couch.

"I don't want Elizabeth to see us fighting." He sighed.

"Neither do I." I sighed too.

"Maybe...maybe we can at least pretend to like each other, for her sake. She's already so afraid, I don't want to add to that fear." He proposed.

"I-I think I can try." I forced the words out of my mouth. "Only you can't say stuff like that to me. It makes me too mad to think clearly right now."

"Okay, deal." He smiled, holding his hand out for a handshake.

I shook his hand and a shock ran through my body.

"Looks like that didn't change." He smirked at me.