His Bella

TWENTY-EIGHT

Wade waited until the next morning before telling Megan and the others about Noah's call. He tried to comfort me and talk me into resting but I hate to say, his presence wasn't helping much. I couldn't sleep and I barely spoke. I was scared if I slept, then I would have dreams about something bad happening to my mother in the hands of the rivals. I thought about what she may have been doing- if they were starving and keeping her dehydrated like they did to me. She didn't deserve any of that and I worried about her health.

Wade sat next to me throughout the night, watching me. I could see guilt in his eyes and I wanted to tell him not to feel that way because I made the decision myself but besides the fact that I couldn't speak, I knew it wouldn't make much of a difference. As long as I was like this, Wade would continue to blame himself and the guilt would continue to eat him up from the inside.

He disappeared at dawn just as the light outside the windows began to get brighter. When he left and I was finally alone, I began to cry. I cry until my body shook and I eventually slept off. When I woke up, sunshine shone through the windows. I sat up on the bed and frowned. There was a throbbing pain in my head. The door opened and Wade walked into the room with a tray resting on one palm. Using his feet, he kicked the door shut and moved around the bed to drop the tray in front of me.

"Mae made toast", he said as he got up and took out a small white plastic container from his pocket, "painkillers because I'm pretty sure all that crying gave you a headache", he added dropping them on the tray as well.

I stared at the plate of toast and the cup of orange juice on the tray for a while before looking away. I lacked the appetite to eat anything. How could I eat when my mother was most likely starving?

"You can't seriously be planning on starving yourself now Bella", Wade said.

I stared at him, "I'm not hungry"

"I don't care, you're going to eat", he said, "I don't want your mom having to come back and find you sick because you haven't been eating"

I felt tears welling up in my eyes again when he mentioned her.

"What if he's hurting her?", my voice broke.

His jaw clenched, "he won't, he wants me and she's just bait", he said, "we're going to get her back Bella", he added, "I promise"

I wiped my tears, "last time you caught him by surprise, he'll be expecting you this time"

He frowned, motioning to sit next to me on the bed.

"I'm going to get your mom back, please stop crying and worrying"

What if I got her back and lost him? I needed them both in my life. Somehow that didn't seem like logical anymore.

There was a knock at the door, "yeah, come in", Wade said and the door opened.

Megan walked in, her eyes softening with pity when she saw me, "morning Bella", she said softly.

"Morning", I looked down to stare at the tray of toast sitting on my lap.

"Sorry to interrupt", she said to Wade, "but I need to know if Bella knows where this cabin is", she added.

Wade turned to me, "Noah asked for me to be delivered to a cabin in copper country?", he asked and I nodded.

"It's an old cabin in the forest", I said "he took me there a couple of months back, he said it belonged to his uncle or something", I added. My relationship with Noah seemed so normal at the time.

"Why did he take you there?", Wade asked, his eyes studying my face.

"He was supposed to pick up something in the town, we just drove around", I replied.