CHARLIE HAS EVERY RIGHT TO NOT TRUST BELLA AFTER HER MENTAL BREAKDOWN. He thought if he had half a mind he might have actually sent the girl into therapy or a mental institution, but after discussing the matter with Reneé, she abhorred the idea. In her eyes this was a failing on Charlie's part, that her daughter's love affair did matter enough for Bella to break down over the loss.
Now Bella seemed to have another fuel, a light to her bleak life. She could blame someone easily. Andromeda has everything she's ever wanted.
The chief of police knows that Andromeda has had a better life than he could have given her. It fills his heart with guilt. This papá of hers sounds like a gem of a man, and her mamá a beautiful woman with a heart of gold. Reneé couldn't have raised her, not with her honest and brutal nature with her words.
"Bella, what are you doing in here?" Charlie had to ask. Bella was currently checking out the clothes her twin brought with her from Italy. "Did Andromeda say you could see this?"
The girl's heart slipped up. She'd been caught red-handed doing something she knows is wrong. The impulse was too strong to snap back and be defensive.
"You know she's not normal, Charlie. It doesn't matter what I'm doing. I'm not doing anything wrong," Bella sneered. "You love her more than me, don't you?"
Charlie's heart stung at that. He had to stay calm, make sure he didn't retaliate, even if what his daughter said was completely out of line and out of character. Why did she want to hurt him so badly? Did Reneé alienate her to this extreme, make her feel like she had to be the one and only daughter for him. Andromeda is his child as well, and he loves them equally. When Reneé found out she was pregnant with twins, Charlie promised he would devote himself to both children, love them the same and with his whole heart.
And to think he thought Andromeda was dead from the beginning. When Reneé told him she gave her up, then when he went to get her...
His heart was broken right from the start.
"I love you both equally. I get that this is an adjustment, and we should have told you that you had a sister before -"
"Reneé said that the fetus died! She had a miscarriage with you before me! I brought that up with you when I was six and you brushed me off! Andromeda is dead to me. She's been dead for quite some time. You never got to meet her!" Bella raged.
That was the line. In every relationship, there must be a line that cannot be crossed. Charlie liked to think of it when at work. The thick black like that divides what is acceptable versus not. Bella had crossed over into territory Charlie hadn't had to deal with for years. Not since Reneé had abandoned their daughter.
There are times that Charlie really needs to put his foot down.
"If you say another thing negative about your sister, to your sister, to me about Andromeda, you'll be out of this house." Charlie took in a deep breath. "You're banned from her room. Stop getting into her stuff. We give you privacy, allow her the same grace. If you can't handle that I want a relationship with my child, you can find another place to live. I know that Reneé would be fine with you living with her. I frankly don't care why you hate her, what about her seems wrong and dead to you, but I love her. I love her."
Thick blotchy tears ran down Bella's face at the imminent threat of eviction. From her own father, the father who'd opened up his house for her, who'd dealt with her through the depression.
He'd give it all up for an unknown vampire with the vampire monarchy.
"She's not who she says she is, Charlie!" Bella insists through jaded tears. "Andromeda Volturi is a part of an elite family that controls a ton of people."
Charlie shook his head and stared dangerously at his young daughter. Elite family. He knows Andromeda grew up rich, even spoiled, perhaps, but what did Bella know of this family of hers? Did she try to do a background check? Did she even know how to do one of those?
"This conversation is over. Do you hear me? Over. What I said still stands." Charlie needed to leave, or else he would say something worse than anything he'd already said to his daughter.
Bella couldn't continue, Charlie shut the door on her.
---
ANDROMEDA HAS ALWAYS LOVED PAINTING. From lessons with her father to watching him at his easel with paintbrush in hand; she can't get enough of it. She hasn't the skill of her father yet, but it's getting closer each year she practices the craft.
Now Jacob will get to watch his imprint and mate paint just as Athenodora Volturi did when she was still human, fragile and newly domestic. He favored the upstrokes, as they allowed a better glimpse at what the final picture may turn out as. Andromeda did not work in large quantities, rather, she painted with the small purpose of happiest.
So there was a splendid silence between them that filled the void. Jacob enjoys watching, being quiet. In pack meetings he did this as well. He wasn't the loudest wolf of the bunch, and when he wasn't a shifter it was this way as well. Jacob felt he was more of a silent protector, hovering just close enough to understand a situation without interfering.
Even in this small room Jacob felt the slight tension of his imprint's muscles. They contracted too quickly, too deeply.
Andromeda turned her head towards the window, leaving the paintbrush where she often did in the cup.
"She's here," she said aloud. Jacob still wasn't used to the sound of her voice. When he envisioned Andromeda, it was all pictures. Moments in their time together and hands speaking to him. There was only silence.
Then Andromeda felt the vibrations of her sister's movements, fast and angry. So angry. Like the fury of her papá when a newborn attempted to reach her bedroom at the age of four. Like her uncles when other covens threatened the 'rare human among the Volturi'.
Andromeda didn't expect that from a human. Anger in her life came in the form of vampires, nobody else. When you anger an immortal, you lose.
Now Andromeda is the vampire.
The door slammed open to reveal Bella, brown-eyed and puffy faced. Jacob instantly stood to attention, throwing himself in front of the easel that was between Andromeda Volturi and Isabella Swan.
"Oh, so she paints too, huh?" Bella's voice was like a slap to the face, seething with venomous anger. "What can she not do? She can steal anyone away, she can get whatever she wants! She has a perfect family, so why does she have to steal mine away?"
Jacob didn't understand this outburst in the slightest. Andromeda and Bella hadn't spoken in over three days. The latter had done everything in her power to stay away from the newborn vampire. Dangerous, hideous, cruel.
Angry.
"Leave my imprint alone, Bella." Jacob still tried to keep things as civil as possible. He knew Bella was hurt, and as long as things didn't get too bad or physical, he could talk. "Don't get any closer to her."
"Oh, I wasn't planning to. I wouldn't want her filthy vampire hands on me anyways. She who murders innocent people for fuel."
Bella's accusation sat deep within Jacob's gut. Andromeda didn't kill innocent people, far from it. From what she said, the Volturi killed monsters. Monsters don't care about evil anyways. What she was saying... it went against everything Jacob felt. All of that bond, that emotion, that sight and touch and vibration.
All Bella is to him is voice now. And Jacob didn't have room in his life for sound anymore. Not with Andromeda. Not with his future.
"Leave right now or I swear I'll figure out a way to get rid of you another way." It was a vague threat, but real one Jacob would make a reality if need be.
More silence. For minutes there was nothing but silence. Andromeda felt the vibration of a fire, from the crackle and pop of its release.
When Andromeda turned away to stare out the window once more, she felt the vibration of laughter. Hysterical laughter pulling itself from the pit of Bella's voice box.
The next thing she knew, there was smoke.
It wasn't coming from the hearth.