Forget Me Not | ✓

37 | Betrayal

  
37
Breaking Dawn   [Pt.1]
B e t r a y a l
  
  

  
ASA HAD JUST awoken from his nap when Adele finished washing Max's beautifully curly hair. After she piled her damp hair into a pineapple-ponytail atop her head – she'd dealt with her own curly long enough to understand the struggle – she left the room to fetch Asa from his crib in her own bedroom.

With every day that passed, her desire to buy – or even build – a house for herself and her child grew. She needed her own space, as did the rest of her coven. She pushes that thought aside as she heard people talking urgently downstairs – and Jacob Black was among them. Deciding that she wanted to be in the loop, she carried Asa against her hip and held Max's hand as they walked all the way downstairs to the first floor.

"Mommy," Max stopped on the landing and looked at her through big, innocent hazel eyes. "What's with Aunty Bella?"

Adele sighed. She was still infuriated by the whole situation – especially by Paul's fucked up reaction to it all – and had decided to distance herself for the last few days. While she wished she could just take her children, move out, and get away from it, she couldn't abandon her coven.

"Aunty Bella is very sick, Max." She knelt down to her height as Asa played absent-mindedly with a strand of her hand. "And mommy needs to help her and everyone else, so I need you to be a good girl and go play in the den for a little while, okay?

Max nodded walked into the den down the hall where her toy chest was.

Adele quietly walked into Carlisle's study, where everyone was gathered so as not to disturb a sleeping Bella in the living room. Jacob Black stood tall and tense in the center of all of them, and he spared her a glance as she walked in.

"Sam's lost the element of surprise, and he doesn't want to take you on outnumbered, so he's not gonna come at you head on." He licked his dry lips and looked out of the floor-to-ceiling window to where Leah and Seth sat a few yards away. They were apart of the Quileute pack – Sam Uley's pack – until Jacob left out of anger for their plans for Bella. They followed, much to his dismay and possibly, to his secret delight.  "He's got the place surrounded and he'll wait for his opportunity."

"We won't get through without a fight." Emmett growled and for once, Jacob seemed to agree with him. No one would be hurting Bella.

Carlisle shook his head solemnly. "No fights."

"We won't be the ones to break the treaty." Esme agreed. She turned to Adele and silently asked to hold him. She obliged and handed him over and Asa returned to his playing, except now with her dark hair.

"The treaty is void, at least in Sam's mind."

"Not in ours."

"Carlisle, no one's hunted for weeks." Jasper couldn't stay silent about it anymore. He felt shameful that everyone else was managing better than he was.

Since Edward and Bella returned almost four weeks ago, no one had gone hunting. Their golden eyes were beginning to turn black from thirst – it was why Adele kept her children far away. She couldn't relate to how they were feeling, not really. The only time she'd ever drank human blood was right after her week-long painful transformation, when her throat burned with thirst as if she'd swallowed a hot flame. It was torture and she couldn't imagine how they were feeling now with three humans in such close proximity. An overwhelming sense of anxiety washed over her suddenly, then, as she realized that their love for her children may not be enough to keep them from hurting them. As quickly as her anxiety came, it vanished – Jasper's gaze was cool and unwavering. She didn't need to read his mind to know exactly what he was thinking. He would take his own life before he ever, ever even think of hurting those children.

"We'll make do." said Esme as she frowned as Asa, who giggled happily as he played with her hair. If only they could have his obliviousness.

"And Paul?" inquired Adele. She hadn't seem him in days since they had their falling out. Everyone was curious about what happened but no one dared to ask.

Jacob looked pointedly at her, unable to muster up any sympathy. She liked it that way – she needed to talk to at least one person as reasonably pissed off as she was. "Paul remains Sam's beta as he's always been. He's standing by him one-hundred percent."

Adele licked her lips, leaned against Carlisle's desk, and stared at her heels. He felt no remorse, no shame, for turning his back on her.

"You still haven't spoken to him, Adele?" Carlisle asked, quite surprised. She stared at him and let him, and only him, see her memory from a few days ago.

"This is fucked up!" Paul yelled as he stormed out of the Cullen house with an exasperated Adele on his heels. He had just found out about Bella. He'd just seen her and that monstrosity growing in her  womb with own eyes. Sam was right. "You support this?!"

"I do not care anymore!" She hissed back.

"How can you not care, Adele?!" He shouted as his rage, his disgust, swelled deep within his belly. "That thing is an abomination! A monster – a THREAT!"

"Lower your voice before Max hears you!" She gritted her teeth. Her daughter was just in the living room, able to see everything going on out there with just the turn of her head.

"I can't believe you–!" He growled to himself.

"What?! What, Paul, is it about my reaction towards this entire fucked-up situation that pisses you off so god-damn much?!"

"We can't allow this, Adele!" He exclaimed as he walked towards the woods. She put a veil over the minds of her entire coven and her children then so they they wouldn't overhear. "I have to tell Sam! If you won't do something about that thing, that monster, then we will!"

He was angry that she waited so long to tell him and disgusted by what that vampire and the human girl created. His old mentality towards vampires came rushing back to him as his rage broke the dam. He didn't realize what she'd do when she found herself caught on the crossfire, but he never would have thought she'd say what she did next.

"GO, THEN!" He stopped in his tracks. She was pissed off by the world and she was hurt by his insensitivity and most of all, she was proud – too proud – to be treated this way. She wasn't some housewife who he could yell at one day and abandon for his own selfishness, and then come home to the next day. They had kids. They had a life together. They were supposed to stand by each other...but now what did it matter? They weren't married. He could do as he pleased. But he could not, he would not, walk out of her life and hope to come right back in when he got over himself.

"I WILL!" He screamed a frequency that shattered her heart and hardened her gaze.

"Once upon a time, I asked you a question, Paul Lahote... You did not take me seriously, but do you remember that question now?" Her tone was dangerously, furiously calm as he stared at her through hostile dark eyes. She didn't know this angry man. She didn't want to know this side of him. "I asked if you were a follower. That, one day if problem ever arose between your pack and my coven, would it affect you and me?"

He stared at her as she her lips curled and she backed away from him.

"You just gave me the truthful answer to that question."

Carlisle stared at his daughter for the  longest drag of a moment. She refused to meet his eyes, so instead she stared at the toes of her heels again. He didn't need to have any special ability to know that, beneath her anger, she  was heartbroken. But now wasn't the  time to address it.

"You've, done us a great service, Jacob." Carlisle addressed the temperamental shapeshifter with gratitude thick in his calm tone. "Thank you."

Jacob nodded dutifully. Edward, from the living room, set his jaw. He was thankful for Jacob's Intel, but he knew it was because he still loved Bella. In some sick and twisted way, he hoped to win her back..

"Yes," Adele muttered quietly. She didn't care about his ulterior motives or about Paul's stupidity and betrayal. She just didn't care anymore. "Thank you."