Vanity and Patience: A Rosalie Hale & Emmett Cullen Story

Epilogue: Forks

The thrill of speed put a smile on my face as I zoomed down the 101.

"I've got a song in my head," my sister, Alice, said as she flipped through her iPod, which was attached to my Beamer's brand new head unit. She played DJ for the long drive, relaxed and just as thrilled by the speed I was taking as I was. Speed was, as we both new, a shared family indulgence.

As was the car. And here it was—the lovely, flashy, fast vehicle that I'd dreamed about for decades—my M3 convertible in, yes, you guessed it, a lovely candy apple red.

It was the year 2005. January 2005, to be exact.

We'd spent the afternoon swimming through the racks at the Barneys in Pacific Place. School was not an option on a sunny day in Forks, but given the cloudy forecast in Seattle, Alice and I found it a great opportunity to travel the couple of hours to replenish our wardrobes, as she was about to do one of her routine wardrobe purging on all of our closets to donate to the poor. I adored her philosophy of never wearing anything more than once, and helping the needy lent to not making us seem so selfish and wasteful. I could get behind that sort of thinking.

Alice and Jasper, two nomads looking for a more meaningful existence than just aimlessly hunting humans, had joined our family around 1950. To my surprise, vampires outside of our little family found the vegetarian lifestyle to be appealing. Alice, of course, had seen us in a vision and had sought out Carlisle's family in hopes of joining.

Carlisle and Esme were, of course, gracious to accept the couple into our lives. As for me, I was a little skeptical at first, given my first run-in with nomads—i.e. Viktor and his little group. It would've taken longer for me to warm up to Alice if she wasn't such a happy person. Also, her gift of foresight gave her the advantage of knowing how to approach me. Against my own ability to be a tough one to crack, Alice was able to break down my barriers and quickly became like a sister to me. It was good to have another female in the house; particularly one who was closer to my age. Even Jasper was a great person to be around when he wasn't tempted by humans; he was the newest to this lifestyle.

Our family returned to the Olympic Peninsula just a couple years ago from Denali, where we'd spent a few years near our cousins. It had been over sixty years since we'd last lived in the area, having now settled in the small town of Forks, rather than our original town of Hoquiam. We still kept within our designated area, staying in line with the treaty we'd made with the Quileutes decades past. Though Emmett, Edward, and I believed they probably would've forgotten by now, Carlisle, being a man of his word, insisted that it be honored.

Alice and I arrived home in no time, sharing our purchases with the rest of the family and handing out gifts we'd purchased our adopted parents, siblings, and husbands: a new scarf and tie for Carlisle, both from Burberry; a lovely Gucci handbag for Esme; a new Dolce and Gabanna track suit for Emmett; an Hermes messenger bag for Jasper; and some cashmere Prada for Edward.

These were the days I lived for.

"You clear out the racks at Barneys again?" Emmett joked at Alice.

She smiled with a playful shrug of her shoulders. "Maybe."

They were all happy with our choices, of course. But then we called Edward down, who slowly made his way down the stairs. I assumed he was upstairs writing in a new leather-bound journal again about how he hated life as a monster.

His eyes narrowed resentfully at my current thought as he breezed past me into the living room.

I bit my lip to hide my grin, but was momentarily distracted. Emmett tugged at my arm to get my attention, and when I turned to him, I saw that he was modeling the track suit's jacket. He popped the collar and winked at me, and I beamed back at him. He looked good in anything.