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A month had passed since the wedding, and hearing no news from Emmett about Bella's transition put Frankie on edge. But she trusted that Bella and Edward were just enjoying a long honeymoon — after all, there was no rush to get back. But eventually, Frankie knew that she'd have to say goodbye to Bella's human existence.
Though she supported Bella, she hated what it was already doing to Charlie. He hadn't heard from her once since getting married, which was stressing him out. He'd always thought he was losing his daughter to Edward, and soon that would be true as he was lied to and told she was dead. Frankie was waiting every day for a call from Emmett, letting her know Bella had turned.
Truthfully, in the last two weeks, Frankie hadn't seen much of Emmett — and Leah saw even less of Rosalie. Part of that was because a few more boys shifted, likely triggered by the Denali coven visiting for the wedding. Collin and Brady were even younger than Seth was, making it hard to train and teach them.
She and Jacob had just been on patrol with the two boys, trying to instill into them the route that they'd need to take every time to make sure they covered all the land on the reservation. When they returned to Jacob's house, it was clear that Billy had a lot of company over for dinner. Charlie, Raylan, and Sue were all gathered in the kitchen, talking amongst themselves.
"Hey, Son," Billy greeted with a grim expression.
Frankie frowned, seeing the way that her father had a comforting arm around Charlie's shoulder, who seemed to be sulking. Jacob also noticed the somber mood that was hanging around. "What's going on?"
"Bella called him," Raylan revealed, sharing a knowing look with Frankie.
Rather than comment on it, Charlie just nodded to Jacob, who he'd been worrying about. "Hey, haven't seen you in a while. You okay?"
"So, you finally heard from Bella?" Jacob asked, ignoring Charlie's question.
"They're extending their trip," he said with a sigh. "Seems she caught a bug. They wanna wait until she feels better before they travel."
Jacob grew tense, and Frankie rubbed her forehead. They must've been planning to ease Charlie into her death with a sickness instead of making it something fast and easy to swallow. Part of her thought that was cruel, and so did Jacob.
"She's sick?"
"Yeah, she told me not to worry, but she sounded, I don't know, off," Charlie muttered, looking at the ground.
"She'll be okay, Charlie," Sue told him while bringing some food to the table. "Come on. Let's eat."
As the adults moved around to fix their lunch, Billy eyed Jacob, who was practically shaking. "Jacob, let it go."
