My legacy of lies | twilight | COMPLETED

Ch. 15 | Truth

I opened my eyes in a white room with pale striped drapes. It smelled like raspberry bathroom cleaner.

"Where am I?"

"With me."

I turned towards Edward's voice.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

I lifted my head and glanced around. "Well, since I'm in a hospital, I can't be feeling too well."

He grinned. "You're talking like yourself, and you've been acting like yourself. The nurse said if you pulled out your IV one more time, she'd staple it to you."

"It's out," I observed.

"The doctor said you would come around soon enough, and they'd irrigate you."

"Oh, that sounds like fun." I tried to sit up.

"Easy," he said, and slid his arm behind me to help.

I rested back against him. "Thanks. You don't want your arm back, do you?"

"Nah. Slide over." He sat next to me on the bed. It felt good, the way he kept me close.

"Do you remember anything?"

"Yeah," I took a deep breath. "If it was a dream, I'm crazy, and if it was real, some awful things have happened."

"Some awful things have happened," he said gently. "You may not want to talk about it yet."

"The sooner the better," I told him.

He leaned forward to study my face, then sat back again, convinced. "All right. You, Claire, and I were at the mill, on the first floor. Do you remember our conversation?"

"You talked about who killed Katherine, but it was confusing. The sounds and images kept overlapping. Sometimes I was in the past, sometimes the present."

"You were drugged."

"Drugged? But I didn't have anything to eat all day," I protested. "Just tea ad Madame Claire's."

Edward said nothing, waiting for me to figure it out. I felt as if I'd just been punched in the stomach. "She did it. She did to me what she did to Katherine."

He lay his cheek against my forehead. "I almost lost you a second time."

"I remember that she tried to keep you away from me. I thought she was trying to protecting me."

"She didn't want me to interfere before the poison took full effect," he said.

I shivered. "She wanted to kill me, before I killed her. I remember being at the top of the stairs. My foot slipped and I reached out for something. A pipe, but it gave way. I started falling. I don't remember landing, just falling."

One corner of Edward's mouth turned up in that smirky smile of his, then I noticed the wrap on his left ankle. "Oh, no! Tell me I didn't."

"Okay. You didn't come down like a ballerina," he said, then laughed at me. "It's just a sprain. But its the last time I'm catching you, so don't try it again."

"Thank you," I said meekly. "How about Madame Claire - where is she? What has she told people?"

He didn't answer right away. I felt his arms tighten around me. "Bella, Claire has died. The pipe struck her."

I went cold all over. "Oh, God!"

"It's all right," he said. "Everything's all right now. She won't hurt you. You're safe - with me."