Forget Me Not | ✓

03 | Testing Fate

03
Twilight
T e s t i n g   F a t e

   

 
NOVEMBER OF 1663

THE NEXT MORNING, young Adelina Cullen awoke to the smell of freshly baked bread. She smiled to herself – she forgot the weeks previous events. She opened her eyes and crawled out of bed, but when she looked around the room, she realized it wasn't her bedroom. This small room was unfamiliar; the bed and the nightgown she wore wasn't familiar. Everything came rushing back to her and tears welled up in her eyes – she dreamed an amazing dream and when she awoke, she thought it was real. In the dream, she ran downstairs and was greeted by her mother and sister, who were both covered in flour after making dough for bread. Her father was sitting at the table – she should have known, he was never there in the morning – and he smiled at his girls. It wasn't the fact that it was only dream that made her cry – it was the fact that she'd never have that again.

Her older sister, Madeline Cullen, went missing almost two years ago when Adele was about four years old. She went out at dawn to the market to gather food for dinner for their mother, but never returned. Her mother and father always insisted the vampires got a hold of her. Adele still had hope, even if her parents lost all of theirs. Madeline was fourteen at the time she went missing....but after seeing her mother.... all of the hope was drained from her. Nothing would ever be the same.

She lost all of her family to the vampires: they must've been the reason why her sister disappeared, they murdered her mother, her grandfather, and now  she lost a piece of her father as he was now a vampire himself. She might've lost a piece of herself to them, too, for she didn't know if she would become one of them in years to come. All of these thoughts overwhelmed the six-year-old girl. She shouldn't have had to think that way. She shouldn't have had to face these problems and yet there she was, sobbing in a stranger's manor.

She left the bedroom and slowly descended the stairs, trying to listen in on the conversation between Liliana and her father. She sat down on a stair and listened in – only she did not realize that they were many rooms away and she could hear them perfectly.

"You have a mother's touch." Carlisle smiled at Lilian. His posture was stiff and proper as all vampires presented themselves.

"I'd hope so, Mr. Cullen. I am going to be a first-time mother in a few short months." she smiled as she sliced the bread. Now that Carlisle paid closer attention, he did, in fact, hear her heartbeat along with the heartbeat of the fetus in her womb.

"Congratulations."

"Thank you."

Adele entered the room quietly but as the floorboards creaked under her weight, their heads snapped to her and smiled warmly at her. Carlisle took his daughter into the living room and Liliana brought in a tray holding a kettle, cups and containers of milk and sugar.

"Would you like a cup of tea, darling?" Adele nodded. Liliana proceeded to pour her a cup, "Milk and sugar?" Adele nodded once again and once Lilian finished, she handed her the tea. Adele murmured a thanks before sipping the warm liquid.

"Oh hope you know you are welcome to stay here for as long as you may like." Liliana looked to Carlisle.

Carlisle looked up from admiring his daughter and shook his head, "Oh, that's quite alright. We'll find shelter elsewhere. We wouldn't want to cause any trouble with your husband."