The Truths Behind the Life of Maeve Sun Lively

77

WAIT A MINUTE, SORRY IF this is stupid of me to ask, but it just came up in my head and I don't know what to think."

We're taking an actual lunch break today. Me and Rosalie are sitting on the kitchen island while waiting and watching Carlise cook whatever she was cooking. But even that, Rosalie had called a takeout ahead of time. Because, in her words: "I don't trust her food." And from my experience of eating Carlise's food during this short period of time, that is one thing I can agree with Rosalie Sun Lively.

Rosalie looks up from her phone and at me. "If you already know it's stupid, then you shouldn't ask it." Her face is as cold as ever.

But from living with her now for at least two weeks, I'm getting the understanding that might just be her natural face when she's not acting. You can say I'm starting to get the hang of how mysterious she works.

"Well I..."

Near the pots and pans, rolling dough, Carlise turns around to face us. She has flour on her face, her long black hair is let down and I just realized how perfect she looked too. This whole family must have some kind of genetic rule of looking beautiful and perfect no matter what you're doing.

She arches an eyebrow at Rosalie and turns her kind eyes to me. Rosalie is like this hard thing you can't seem to cross over, and every time you sort of try to engage in a conversation with her, you feel your self-esteem going down. But Carlise is the complete opposite. Cheerful, thoughtful, and has a sense of humor. Now in this house, it's like I get a little defeated by Rosalie, but with Carlise, I get healed and turned back to the way I was before trying to get along with Rosalie. If any of that even makes sense.

"Don't mind her, Izzy, I ask plenty of stupid questions all the time."

"That's why your IQ is so low," Rosalie says, and I see another cold face. But this time with the hinge bit of a smile. It's gone right after I blink once.

Carlise ignores her and fixes her attention on me. "Go ahead, you can ask. If Lee Lee won't answer you, I'll do it."

I offer her a smile, feeling the red blob of hair from my side view clearly not wanting to do anything with me.

"So I was thinking," I look down at the scribble of notes I've made in my notebook. "If they were all a family, like if things were going well and they were happy with each other and how things was working." I raise my head up from my notebook and give a glance at both of them before leaving my eyes on Carlise. "Then why did Maeve ended up marrying Cameron?"

Carlise's smile fades. "I uh..."

Before she could continue, Rosalie speaks. "Because," and her hardcore hazel eyes land on me. They feel cold, and under that stare, my body unwillingly stops moving. I somehow can't move. Almost like...these vines are starting to entangle all over my body and I can't...I cannot run away. "Things were not well. Nothing was ever well with them."

Carlise was starting to take off her apron and heading towards Rosalie. "Hey, Lee Lee, I know that because Uncle Mason did...because things ended up the way they were, that didn't mean they weren't happy before."

It feels like all of a sudden I am not here anymore. I can't run away. But I'm also not in this world. I'm just some sort of audience. I sit here in silence.

Rosalie ignores Carlise, and now she's sitting on her stool, looking somewhere as her eyes burned through it.

"We don't know the full length of everything. You know, it'd be better to think that they are all...better off now."

Rosalie finally turns around. I can't see her face since her back is now toward me as she faces Carlise. But from Carlise's expression, I can guess that maybe Rosalie is unstable. If Carlise knew about the drinks...would it help Rosalie? Should I tell her?