The Bonds Between Us • E.Cullen x Fem oc x B. Swan

Chapter 16

Today was the day Cori's father was suppose to come over, and Esme didn't know how to feel. She was happy that Cori seemed excited to see her father, and also justified that Cori still called her mom. She just figured she would have to see how this interaction went.

Cori had woken up just a few minutes ago and was in the shower. Esme was in the kitchen cooking her some pancakes, chocolate chip of course, when Cori came down the stairs startling the vampire.

"Are you okay mom?" Cori said noticing the tenseness in the usually calm motherly figure. "Of course dear. Let's get us settled down for breakfast yeah?" Esme said bringing over the stack on a plate. "Thank you!" Cori said eating slowly. "Mom?" Cori asked. "Yes?" "Do you really think my dad really cares about me?" Cori asked. "Yes, I do Cori, very much. I just don't think he expresses it well." Esme said causing the girl to smile lightly.

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"Cori, your fathers here." Esme called up the stairs loud enough for the girl to hear. Esme heard his tires hit the gravel from the road and she got nervous. "Coming mom!" Cori said walking down the stairs. The simple response bringing comfort to Esme. "Go grab your ice pack sweetheart. Your cheek is starting to swell again." Esme said as she headed to the door hearing the brakes of the car and the door shut. "Okay."

Knock knock knock

Esme answered the door. "Mrs. Cullen." Jonas said taking a sharp breath as the young woman opened the door. "Mr Austin." Esme said waving the older man in. "Please call me Jonas." He said walking in.

"Dad!" Cori said excited when she saw him. "Hey carrot top." He said, "Whoa! Nice bruise your sporting there." "And a nice crack below it." Cori said smiling slightly at the banter. "Wanna tell me how you got that?" Jonas asked his daughter. "I got into a fight with Jessica." "Stanley?" He asked and she nodded. "I thought you and Jess were best friends?" Jonas asked not understanding. "Things have changed." She said sadly, not quite understanding the change herself.

"In such a short time?" He asked. "Well dad it has been eight months since I last saw your face in person." Cori growled out. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry." He said holding up his hands in surrender. "Did you get a swing in on her?" He asked. "I broke her nose and she has a two black eyes." Cori said, smiling slightly, but stoped as she saw the look Esme was giving her. "That's my girl." He said and a small smile made its way back to Cori's bruised face.

Esme took the time, with the two talking, to really look at Jonas Austin. He was handsome, not as much as her husband, but for a human he was handsome. With his shaggy blond hair that bushed the bottom of his neck that had a slight curl to it. His blue/grey eyes matched his daughters to a T. They held a spark of childlike energy, and seemed to also hold wisdom. He had a slight scruff, as if he hadn't shaved in the last few days. His shoulders were broad and he stood at approximately five foot ten. She could tell where Cori got her artistic talent as she saw the different colored dried paint marks on his hands that he had tried to scrub off with a textured soap if she had to guess, with the little scuffs all over his hands and arms from what looked like sand.

Cordelia had told them that he was a painter in Seattle, that he taught her how to draw and thought her the ways of the color wheel. Where he excelled in painting, she excelled at drawing, lead shadowing, and oil pastels. Together they use to work on projects until his works gained popularity and he began to paint for higher priced clientele, making him relocate to Seattle. Carlisle and Esme had even bought one of his paintings, Cori noticing it on her first time to the house as it sat above the mantle in the living room.

Esme could tell that he cared for his daughter, possibly more than anyone did. He listened to her. He commented back at the correct moments and cracked jokes with her as if he had never been away.

Cori looked at her father with hesitation but Esme could still see the child who looked at her father like he had hung the moon. Cori cared deeply for her father, loved him more than anyone could imagine, but she also carried resentment towards him.

Yes, he had to relocate but it was a three hour drive back to Forks. She hadn't seen her father in eight months this time, and it seems like longer and longer between each visit. Considering he use to come home every weekend when he first started, and hardly ever missed a volleyball game in middle school and beginning of high school, he was slacking off majorly in Cori's eyes.

"How have you been Cori?" Her father asked. "Well Edward and I are still going strong. Started Junior year in high school this year." She pointed out. "Junior year already!" He asked in a joking manner but Cori didn't look at it as a joke. Her father had been the one to drive her to school in the first day of school every year, except for this year. It was a tradition. The way she looked at it was he only got to do it thirteen times, and he missed one.

"You would of known that if you were here." Cori said. "Cori, we had this discussion." Jonas said looking at his daughter in sadness. "Yeah over the phone two weeks before school started. Do you remember how that phone call ended dad? With tears!" Cori said her eyes welling with tears just like the very phone call they were talking about.

"I'm sorry Cori, I couldn't get off, if I could, I would." Jonas said but he was met with the steely eyes of his daughter. "Would you?" She asked. "Of course." He said. Cori looked her father over before glaring at him. "Don't get me wrong dad, I appreciate the caring words, but don't pass me off as stupid. I see the smudged lipstick mark on your collar, and the clothes that you would never buy for yourself or mom would ever buy for you. There is someone else isn't there?" Cori hissed.

"Cori-" "Don't lie to me. Please this one time, tell me the truth." Cori pleaded with her father as Jonas looked down. "There is another woman, but I promise you that is not the reason I missed your first day at school. I had dead lines that week honey. If I could have, I would have been there." Jonas said. Tears fell from Cori's eyes and Esme's heart broke at the sight. The boys were right.

"Does mom know?" She asked tightly. "Yes she does. I tried keeping our marriage together Cori, I really did. Your mother wanted to be free, to explore with out being tied down. I begged her to keep our marriage, to have an open marriage even, she could see others as well if she desired." Jonas said trying to reason with his daughter. "What! Why?" Cori shouted, her face aching at the action. "The marriage was the only thing making her come back to see you." Jonas said quietly.

"What?" Cori whispered, her face full of disparity. "As I said Cordelia, your mother wants to be free, her contract for her work says she had to be able to visit home for her family at least once every two months. Keeping the marriage together, even an open one was the only thing keeping her coming back to see you." Jonas said sadly. "Mom hasn't been home I almost 6 months." Cori argued.

Jonas's eyes went wide for a second before falling sad. "Then she is visiting somewhere else then. Every two months she flies into the Seattle air port. I try to keep track of her." He said. "So she has been back 3 times and never seen me?" She asked heart broken tears slipping down her face.

"I'm so sorry sweetheart. I thought she had been. If I had known I would have talked to her." Jonas said with tears of his own in his eyes as he watched his daughter cry. "I will do better to be here for you Cori, I promise." Jonas swore.

"Don't promise things you can't keep." She said looking at her father. "This is a promise I intend to keep Cordelia." He said with conviction. Cori looked at him and saw the truth in his eyes.

Throwing herself into her fathers arms, Cori cried. She cried for not being able to see her father, her mother not wanting her, for her face that is screaming at her. Everything.

"I will be a better father carrot top." Jonas said kissing her on the top of her head.

A/N: So Cori got to see her dad and got some unexpected news. What do you think? What do you all want to happen? Let me know in the comments.