Bella's Little Sister

Chapter 65

Alice's vision was clear. Renesmee would have a future, but Edward and I would not be a part of it. After picking up Renesmee from my father's house, we returned home. Renesmee ran to her father while I lingered at the doorway, watching them silently. Carlisle glanced back at me, before turning his attention to Edward again. Edward held Renesmee firmly in his arms and glanced at me with a smile, but I only stared blankly back before I turned and left the room. 

My dearest Renesmee, I started to write. I had gone upstairs, pulling a small backpack from a box before collecting a few things to put inside of it. I thought we would have forever together, but forever is not as long as I had hoped. Pulling a box down from a shelf, I pulled back the blanket inside to reveal various bundles of hundred dollar bills, placing four of them within the backpack. I know now why Alice left me clues. It was to keep you safe. Everything that you and Jacob will need is inside this pack. Jacob will protect you, and he will help you learn about the Ticuna legends. I placed the letter to my daughter inside the pack as well, glancing up quickly as a voice sounded from the doorway.

"It's a romantic notion, isn't it?" Alistair was leaning up against the wall, watching me curiously with his red-eyed gaze. He picked up a small decoration from the table along the wall, and began spinning it between his fingers. "That a righteous few can defy a great evil." He smiled before continuing on. "I must admit that you even had me believing for a moment." He laughed then, turning back to the door as he wished me good luck. "You're going to need it." 

It wasn't long before the snow had begun to fall, and it was sticking to everything it touched. We were once again at my father's for Christmas, and I was standing in the kitchen watching the snow continue to cover everything around it. I heard footsteps behind me, but did not turn around, already knowing who it would be. 

"The snow is sticking."

Edward wrapped his arms firmly around me, pulling me close. "Hey, we still have today."

Today isn't enough. I glanced up at him, before turning my eyes to see Sue and my father in the living room. "I'm so glad my father found somebody to take care of him. Bella won't be around forever." 

"Jess, no one's giving up here," Edward told me quietly. I turned my gaze upon him once again, though I did not say anything in response. 

"All right!" dad called out, clapping his hands together. "Present time! Let's go! Seth, Leah, stop eating." 

We entered the living room, which was fully decorated with tinsel, a tree, and stockings hanging above the fireplace. Jake picked up a small gift and handed it to a smiling Renesmee. "Well, dad, we didn't have time to wrap yours, but here it is."

Edward sat down on the arm of the couch, and I moved to join him. He pulled me down onto his lap as I told my father what he had gotten him: a 5-day fishing trip to Fraser River for him and Sue. "You leave tomorrow," Edward added on. 

"Wow, that's really nice. Thank you." 

Anything to get you out of town. Dad began to give us an excuse as to why he couldn't leave, before Sue stated that she had made arrangements for him at work. Dad looked between Edward and I, calling his gift sneaky and extravagant.

"And non-refundable, I'm afraid," Edward stated. 

"Are you two trying to get rid of me?" my father questioned. 

Yes, I thought darkly as I turned my gaze to my sister, who was kneeling next to Renesmee. She was watching me closely, her eyes knowing. She wanted dad out of town just as much as I did. We wanted him nowhere near town when the Volturi finally arrived.

"Because it's working!" dad laughed as he looked down at the paper in his hands again, grinning widely.

I pulled away from Edward to kneel down next to Renesmee and Bella. "Hey, beautiful. Let me see. Jacob made this for you?" I slipped it onto her wrist and snapped the buckle together. 

"It's so pretty," she said as she smiled up at me. 

"It is really pretty," Bella replied with a smile of her own, before she handed Renesmee another gift. 

That night, we set up camp just outside the clearing where we would meet with the Volturi the next morning. Jacob was gathering firewood, tossing them into a pile before Benjamin used his gift to start it. Jacob seemed rather enthusiastic about the 'pre-battle bonfire' as he called it. 

"Telling war stories." He turned his gaze to the other witnesses, who were gathered a little ways away. "Or just standing there like frickin' statues."

Garrett suddenly appeared on one of the logs that were being used as benches. "Name any American battle. I was there." 

"Little Bighorn." Jacob suggested.

Garrett grinned in response. "I came this close to biting Custer, but the Indians got him first." 

Kate moved to sit on his lap as Garrett wrapped one arm around her waist. "Try Oleg's assault on Constantinople. He didn't win that one on his own," she countered.

The coven from Ireland also joined in. "If you're talking battles, you're talking the Eleven Years War. No one does rebellion like the Irish." Garrett stated that they lost the Eleven Years War, to which Liam grinned. "Aye. But it was one heck of a rebellion." 

"When we ruled, everything came to us," Vladimir jumped in. "Prey, diplomats, favor seekers. Such was our power, but we never put on white hats and called ourselves saints."

Stefan added on, "We were honest about what we were."

"We sat still for a very long time," Vladimir continued. "We didn't notice that we were beginning to petrify."

"Perhaps the Volturi did us a favor when they burned our castles," Stefan said. 

Vladimir then explained that they have been waiting fifteen-hundred years to return the favor. It was at that point that I pretty much tuned them out, choosing to listen instead to what Edward was saying as he spoke to Carlisle. 

"I can't help thinking, all these people are putting themselves in danger because I fell in love with a human." 

"You found your mate," Carlisle told him. "You deserve to be happy." 

Edward shook his head as he questioned, "But at what cost?" Carlisle told him that everyone here had something to fight for, and that he certainly did. 

I was sitting next to Renesmee as she lay within her sleeping bag in a tent that I had set up for her so she would be sheltered from the cold. Feeling Edward's gaze on me, I glanced up to watch him for only a moment before turning my attention back to my daughter, though I was still listening to what Edward was saying.

"Carlisle, I've never thanked you... for this extraordinary life." Edward stated. Carlisle did not say anything in response to his words, only giving Edward a brief smile in return. 

I looked down at Renesmee before pulling out a gold locket and opening the cover. Inside was a picture of Edward and I on the left, and the words Plus que ma propre vie etched into the right. She held it in her hands as I explained to her what the words meant. "This means 'More than my own life'. That's how much I love you. Tomorrow, I'm going to need to you stay with Jacob, no matter what. Even if I tell him that... that he has to take you somewhere."

Renesmee's eyes began to fill with tears. I pulled her close, reassuring her that she would be safe. 

"Always."