After Forever (a Twilight Saga fanfiction: 10 years after Breaking Dawn)

23 ∘ Reveal (BPOV)

September 21st, 2016

“Am I gonna be there?” Renesmee asked. The next to-do on our list was going to Charlie’s to talk to my mom.

I sighed. “I didn’t want you to at first, but I think you should. You’re a very important part of the story. But it’s up to you, honey.”

Part of me was scared because I didn’t know her anymore, and vise versa. She’s the only part of my family that didn’t know about me, or that my daughter existed. The only family left that she hadn’t officially met. Well, besides Phil. And now he’ll never know her.

We dropped off Rose, and Jasper took her place with Alice in the other car. She wanted to come, and everyone thought it was a good idea for Jazz to be there. His gift could definitely help.

We pulled up, and Charlie was already waiting on the front steps. Renesmee was the first one out. I was the last.

“Where is she?” Jake asked.

Charlie pointed back to the house. “I told her to wait in the living room. I thought everyone was coming?”

“They went hunting.” Nessie hugged him, and kissed his cheek.

He was confused, but registered what she meant. “Oh... Okay.”

Edward snickered. “That’ll be fun, watching him get used to it.”

I scoffed. “I don’t think that’s the word I’d use.” We walked inside, but I stayed out of my mother’s sight behind the wall. I would wait until she got the news before revealing myself. If she doesn’t have a heart attack first. She spoke, and the sound of her voice pierced my heart just as bad as it did the first time I heard it.

“Edward, hi!” she exclaimed. “Alice! It’s been too long.”

“Hi, Renée. It has,” she politely agreed.

“And you two lovebirds.” I could practically hear Edward rolling his eyes. “How’s the wedding planning going?”

“Alice knows better than we do,” Nessie laughed.

“You know, you’ll thank me one day. God, you’re too much like your mother.” Poor Alice. Maybe one day she’ll have someone else in the family more like her.

“Her mother? Do you mean Esme? From what I remember, she was much like you in that department.”

“Esme is. She meant her biological mother,” Edward murmured.

“Oh,” she breathed. I could tell she felt awkward. She didn’t know what happened to ‘her’ to cause Carlisle to adopt Nessie, and didn’t want to seem rude or pry enough to ask. Even though she was dying to.

“The reason we’re here... We need to tell you something,” Edward quietly told her.

“Okay...”

“It’s about Bella.”

Her voice lowered to a whisper. “What about her?”

“It was the right thing to do at the time, but you should know the truth now.” Edward sighed. “It wasn’t a disease she caught that kept her from your life... She didn’t catch anything that caused her death. It was all a lie,” he muttered. “It was the only way to protect her, and my family.”

It took her a few moments to find her voice. “What are you saying?”

Jacob looked over to me. It was almost my cue.

“Bella didn’t die,” Edward whispered. “She’s alive.”

“Wha... What? So all that time she was never really sick?”