As the weeks continued to pass, Veronica knew that Bella no longer had any interest in her son. Both Charlie and Veronica had done too much now to 'support' the older girl that it appeared that things had gone the wrong way. And she no longer saw any need for her to be doing anything for her son, as someone else would do it for her so he did not go without. And Veronica knew that they had only ended up in the same place that Renee had which had led Bella to be sent to Forks in the first place. It was becoming more and more evident with each day that passed that they seemed to have reached a point of no return with the older girl.
Bella did not want to do anything which would been seen as going out of her own way for the baby who was now seemingly starting to understand that Bella was not anybody important in his life. And that was what the hardest thing to see was, and it felt as though it was entirely at the fault of both Veronica and Charlie. Had they perhaps pushed more would this not be the case? Or had they done everything in the best favour of young Matthew? It was a hard thing to truly decide and Veronica knew what else to do but continue on and see what would happen in the near future.
For a while, Bella had seemed to almost gain a tiny bit of interest back in the life of her son. She had been in forks for about three months, had started to settle a little bit and had turned her attention back onto her son. She had wanted to try to do little things whether it was trying to help him eat dinner or get him ready for bed in an evening. But this interest suddenly disappeared the moment that Bella began to become more involved with Edward Cullen. Edward Cullen was a scrawny looking boy who stood just over six foot with what would be considered bronze hair. A cross between strawberry blonde and pure ginger. He was unusually pale, with strange topaz contacts he wore everyday. And Edward like the rest of his family was very private, keep to himself and did not care or become involved with any of his peers. That was, until he met Bella. Veronica was unsure whether it was some sort of cosmic bond or whether the two were both intrigued by the mysterious atmospheres they had to one another and began the chase. She knew not how long it was going to last but, in some twisted way, wished it would be a short term relationship ruined when there was no longer a mystery to either of them and Bella would return to the way she was for that week or so.
The mystery of Edward Cullen had been the thing which had initially drawn Bella in, like a detective trying to figure out all the clues of a puzzle. But what had truly gotten her interested in the boy was the fact that he had turned her down. Bella hadn't been one to have been told 'no' for a long time now. Renee let her get away with everything under the pretence that she just needed to enjoy her teenaged years. Charlie and Veronica had never told her no and taken over all of her responsibilities in an effort to make her like them. But Edward, Edward had told her that he didn't want to get to know her. He wasn't interested in her, didn't want to be friends yet alone anything more. He had even taken off for a week to shake Bella off. And this had only increased the infatuation the teenaged girl had for him.
But as the weeks had passed, Bella did manage to worm her way into his life. Edward seemed to no longer be able to resist the girl, everyone at the school could see it and if the way her sister giggled in her room on an evening was evident everyone in the house knew so as well. Things had only spiralled faster and faster as the two new lovers started to become more and more involved in each others lives. And it had all started with one accident. When Edward had miraculously come to Bella's aid when she had been seconds away from an oncoming vehicle smashing into her in the school car park. That was the moment they were tied together. Something that perhaps should have driven the girl back into the arms of her family, only led her into the arms of her saviour.
And one Saturday morning just a few days after Bella and Edward had run into one another whilst in Port Angeles, two sharp knocks rang out from the front door of the Swan residence. Bella was nowhere to be found, and her father was currently on the phone which had left Veronica to be the only one to be able to answer the door. She had been sat in the living room watching Matthew as he stood with his walker and attempted to push his feet father and father forward as a hope to actually walk independently. Therefore, with nobody around to ensure he didn't fall and harm himself, Veronica was able to scoop Matthew up into her arms and head towards the front door to open it. She swung the door open, unsure as to who it would be at this time in the morning, only to make eye contact with what she assumed was the gold contacts which could only belong to one family. Matched with the ginger hair, she immediately had the suspicion as to why Edward Cullen was stood at their front door. She knew better than to roll her eyes at his arrival and the fact that her sister did not bother to tell them that he would be coming to the house, well she didn't exactly have to she supposed but it would have been nice.
"Bella, it's for you." Veronica called out into the house looking back briefly before returning her attention to the teenaged boy still stood on the front porch. Edward gave her what she assumed was a rather awkward smile which bordered on a grimace especially when he looked over at the baby she had bundled in her arms. It was immediately that Veronica decided she did not like the way he looked at her baby and therefore brought Matthew closer into her body cradling his head against her chest. There was no response to her calling for her older sister but Veronica did recognise the heavy footsteps of her father appearing behind her obviously curious as to who was at the front door.
"Everything alright here?" Charlie's voice was calm but his aura was enough to make the teenaged boy visibly flinch.
"Hi Sir, I'm Edward Cullen I was wondering if I could take your daughter out to dinner and perhaps back to meet my parents?" The boy questioned and Charlie turned to his youngest. Veronica could clearly see what her dad was thinking through his eyes. They clearly read 'not this shit again'. He had obviously thought they were finally going to have some family time. But this was not the case. Veronica shrugged gently as to not overly jolt the baby in her arms who she felt grip onto her tightly the longer he was in the air. He wasn't the biggest fan of strangers and though he was incredibly shielded from the teenaged boy he did not like being around him.
"Hey Charlie, sorry for the late notice but I'm off out." Bella spoke with zero remorse as she finally rushed down the stairs. She went to pull Edward away from the rest of her family by taking his hand though Edward lingered for just a moment.
"Sorry for the inconvenience Mr Swan and sorry if I woke your baby up Veronica." His words didn't mean a lot on the outside but Charlie clocked onto them in a slightly different way than Veronica did. He had read between the lines. It was not much longer before they were both gone Edward's Volvo having screeched its way down the street and both Veronica, Charlie and Matthew had returned to lounging in the living room. Matthew was back up stood with his walker pushing the many different buttons. When Charlie turned to look at Veronica and question just what the teenaged boy had been hinting at.
"Ronnie, I'm just trying to make sense of something that boy said. The way he said it made it come across that he believed Matthew to be your son and not Bella's?" Charlie probed gently not wanting to upset his daughter but needing to know. He had his suspicions and was aware that if what he believed was indeed true that it was partially his own fault that it had happened.
"Bella might have told everyone at school that Matthew is mine and not hers." Veronica's voice was a little quiet when she said those words scared for what her father would say in response.
"And you've let her?" Charlie's question was pretty much what she expected from her father and she didn't blame them. She could have easily rebutted her sisters explanation with proper reasoning but she hadn't.
"I didn't know what else to do dad? Matthew's not really Bella's son. And I couldn't really argue otherwise."
"Oh Veronica, this is really all my fault. I was way too lax on your sister. And I don't know. I'm just really sorry kiddo. I don't know what to do." Charlie apologised and the two share a small smile. Veronica knew that they were both at fault for how things had turned out but there was no way to turn back time and change things.
"How are the people are school taking it?" Charlie needed to know work out if he had to step in and sort some things out, things he should have done a while ago.
"The softball girls know it's all rubbish. We were on a training camp nearly all of the summer when Matthew was born. They try to do as much as they can to help but teenagers will be teenagers." Veronica tried to brush it off, she could not fault her teammates they often surrounded her and made her feel protected when they could, they had turned into her closest friends.
"What have they been saying?"
"Typical cruel teenaged things. Lots of slurs about my 'slutty ways'."
"Is that all?"
"Well most of them aren't very creative, I tend to ignore those."
"What else have they said Ronnie? You're not in trouble I just need to know." Charlie pushed now, feeling like the worlds worst father for not only allowing so much to happen but to also not notice when his youngest daughter was struggling so much. He had been prioritising one daughter when he shouldn't have been.
"I mean one person sharpie'd Walmart over my locker." Veronica gave a little chuckle at that one as despite being upset at first she had found humour in it eventually.
"Walmart?"
"Yeah get it cause I'm 'open' 24/7." She answered for her father though he didn't find it that funny.
"And has your sister done anything to help you through this? Stop any of it?"
"Oh god no she I'm pretty sure started the chanting of 'Slag' when I left chemistry the other day." Veronica shrugged, that one had hurt quite a bit considering she was taking the fall for her older sister. But she had learnt to suck it up because things were not going to change any time soon if at all. That was the one thing she had learnt over the last few months of living with her older sister, it was very unlikely her sister would change ever.
Charlie sighed running a hand down his face, he felt like the worlds worst father. What was he going to do now? He didn't know. His fantasy of having both daughters back under his roof, with the addition of his grandson all living the perfect life was just that a fantasy. Everything was not going the way he had intended it to go. And he was at a loss of where to go next, what to do next. What to do to stop things from getting worse.
"I'll have a talk with the school to try and stop some of this. And I'll talk to your sister. I think it's time for some boundaries. Finally." Charlie grumbled the final part but he was making a promise. He would call the school come Monday morning to discuss their breaking of the zero-bullying policy. Then he would have to get Bella sat down and boundaries laid out. There would be serious consequences to her actions from now on.
Charlie would continue to pop his head around to check on Veronica for the rest of the morning into the afternoon. Ensuring that there really wasn't anything else he could do for her, that she had told him everything. Trying to overcompensate for everything he had failed to do for her recently. That was until Jacob arrived and he knew that she was in safe hands. The two had been planning to spend a little bit of time together that afternoon. They had seen that there was a marathon of Scooby Doo films on and thought that there was nothing they wanted to do than watch it. And hopefully get Matthew as hooked on it as they had been when they were younger.
"Vero, I brought something for the little man." Jacobs loud voice bounced around the house as he proudly showed off the little wolf teddy bear he had brought for the baby. It was a sandy coloured wolf and upon passing it to the baby and both teens watched as he lifted it up before smashing it against the floor in a way only he could.
"I think he likes it." Veronica gave Jacob a smile and he returned it. Matthew could be very difficult to read, but he had yet to dislike anything Jacob had brought him.
"He definitely does." And as the opening titles ran the pair grew silent preparing to swap their attention from the screen to the baby and back again.