The Right Swan: Edward LS

Chapter 23

Toni's P.O.V.

"Toni," Edward said sadly. He rubbed his hands over her arms to try to soothe her, but she was too far in her memories.

"I stayed with him until the ceiling started to collapse. I, at least, had enough common sense to get out of there before I perished, too," she said. "I can't believe I left him."

"If you had stayed, you would have died, too," Rosalie said.

"I left him!" Toni screamed. "I shouldn't have left him!"

"You can't blame yourself for something someone else did," Carlisle calmly told her.

"You tried to help him, Toni. There's only so much you could have done," Esme said. Toni let their words sink in as she breathed in deeply and let it out.

"What I don't understand is why you and your sister think you're a murderer," Jasper said.

"I was sitting outside of the building with burns all over my arms when the police and the fire trucks arrived; apparently, someone had called them about it. I was the only one who could tell them what happened, and I wasn't coherent enough to answer their questions. I kept muttering that it was my fault, so they took me in after I was treated for my burns at the hospital.

A few people from the party came to the station and told them Dean did it, but the damage was already done. Rumors about me killing Nathan spread around the school and everyone believed them. I was labeled as Nathan's killer and on many occasions, I was sent death threats and mean letters. I stopped attending school because of them and had to switch to cyber school. I finally decided to get away from it all and move up here."

"You're not a killer, Toni," Edward said. "It's all in your head."

"Maybe it is, but I still feel extremely guilty," I said. The room was silent. Everyone was mulling over my words, except Bella who was glaring at me. I still didn't understand why she couldn't be at least a little sympathetic. Don't get me wrong, I hated pity, but Bella never showed her support for me. When she had found out about what happened she looked at me like I was the worst person on the planet. She wouldn't go near me for some time and she refused to speak to me. Mom was worse. She tried to show her support, but it was all a façade. She wore a pretty smile and a sympathetic face, but flinched away from me and kept me at an arm's distance.

Bella was kind of like that growing up. She tried to spend as little time as possible with me. When we were little, even though I hated spending time with her, too, I had hoped that we could get closer by doing activities together. When Renee signed Bella up for ballet, I wanted to sign-up, too; I had wanted to take it with Bella to grow closer to her. In the end, Bella grew to resent me because I was a smidge better than her at it and both of us quit after a few years.

"What are we going to do about Bella?" I asked them. I tried to divert their attention to something else. Bella sucked her teeth and gave me a look.

"What do you mean, 'What are you going to do about Bella'?'" she screamed. "There's nothing you can do about me."

Rosalie muttered something under her breath and was immediately scolded by Esme.

"Rosalie! You know that that is not an option."

"What's not an option?" Bella asked.

"I don't think-" Carlisle started, but was cut off by Rosalie.

"Killing you and making it seem like an accident," Rosalie said innocently with a smirk. Bella clenched her teeth together and bared them at the blonde vampire.

Of course, we would never do that, Bella," Carlisle said reassuringly. Bella rolled her eyes and sighed. She folded her arms across her chest and started tapping her foot on the floor.