Believe Me Chapter 27

The drive to the Cullen’s house was the longest drive Bella had ever been on. Bella had to fight back tears as she drove. It was very stormy outside and while Bella knew this was the plan, she didn’t like it. Having to sit there and have dinner with Charlie, the last dinner she would ever have with him, it was hard to act like nothing was about to happen, like she knew Charlie was about to get horrible news.

That entire morning and afternoon, while Charlie was working, Victoria had coached her through everything she needed to do and how to act. Victoria was tough in her coaching but Bella knew that if Victoria had been any nicer the human may have very well broke down crying as she said ‘goodbye’ to Charlie when she was leaving to go the Cullen’s for a sleepover. It was the night that she would be ‘killed’ in a car accident and whisked away to the Denali’s to be turned. She wished Victoria could have been there with her when she was saying goodbye to her dad so she could lean on her strength, but there was no way to explain her presence to Charlie.

Bella hoped Charlie didn’t think anything odd when Bella held him a little longer in her hug. They hadn’t normally hugged until Bella knew about the plan, so she started hugging Charlie at random times with she said goodbye and even when she was greeting him. She had hoped that he would start to get used to her hugging him and wouldn’t think anything of when she said her final goodbye and held on just a few seconds longer than necessary when she said her final goodbye.

When she got to the lone stretch of highway that lead to the Cullen’s nearly hidden exit, she wasn’t sure which hindered her sight worse, the tears in her eyes or the storm that starting to really beat down on the windshield. At least the hard part was over, she had already said goodbye to Charlie and while the man didn’t know it was the last time he would see Bella, at least she had done it.

With a deep sigh, trying her best to clear her eyes because she knew Victoria would be worried about it, she pulled to the side of the road. This was the end of her personal trip. A vampire would take over driving her truck for her.

In case Charlie got high tech when trying to figure out what happened, Bella got out of her truck and moved towards the woods. It was something she normally wouldn’t do, but given the story she had to sell, she had started to get out of her truck to take pictures of something ‘she found interesting’. She would then show Charlie who would then scold her for pulling over on the side of highspeed high way just to take a picture. But this way, no matter how Charlie looked at it, the investigator’s would find her foot prints walking into and out of the woods. What he wouldn’t know was that it was actually Rosalie who walked out of the woods wearing her shoes and then later it would be Rosalie and Emmett engineering the crash with the tanker.

Victoria was quick to pick up her mate as soon as Bella took off her shoes; it was something they all decided would be found in the burnt wreckage. Bella wrapped her arms around her vampire, even more thankful to have Victoria in her life than she had before, and just took in the calm the woman exuded. The plan was for Bella and Victoria to drive their way to Canada, have Victoria run with Bella at night to cross the border so Bella wouldn’t need a passport to get in and then out of Canada, and they would both go straight to the Denali’s home. It was a risky trip because there would be camera’s everywhere at gas stations and the two hotels they were going to stop at. But They were hopeful that as long as they didn’t draw attention to themselves, no one would think to look closer at them.

Victoria had run straight to the car they would drive to one side of the border, never stopping even though she knew Bella had to have been freezing. But her human was wrapped up tight and Victoria had to keep running to get as much distance as possible from Bella and the Cullen’s and the accident. Victoria would talk with her mate about what had just happened once she knew they were both out of reach of the authorities finding them.

An hour later, well past Bella and Victoria being on the road and Bella finishing her fast food Victoria had quickly caved to get her the second it was asked, Victoria felt it had been a sufficient amount of time to starting asking her mate questions and talking about what she had just done.

“You did everything perfectly Bella.” Victoria said, not used to having to tread carefully with what she said. She wasn’t one that normally ‘did emotions’ and whatnot, but she would do anything for her mate. She knew her mate just did something very difficult and she wanted to be there for her.

“Yeah, I know.” Bella said as she looked at the window.

Victoria pursed her lips at the lack of words and input from her mate. She had been hoping her mate would just open up to her and talk nonstop until she was feeling better. Apparently, Victoria wasn’t going to be that lucky.

“At least now he won’t have any unanswered questions.” Victoria said, pushing for some type of communication from her human. “This way he won’t be searching for answers he’ll never find and will, with time, continue to live his life.”

“I know.” Bella said with a sigh. Just because she knew all that, it didn’t mean it stung any less.

Victoria stopped talking then, not sure she wasn’t doing more harm than good. She grabbed her mate’s hand, thankful Bella wasn’t pulling away from her from how horrible her talk was going, to at least provide silent comfort. It was tricky, but with her vampire speed she was able to get a message sent real quick to Tanya. Bella was still very young, especially compared to vampires, and sometimes a young person just needed a mothers’ comfort. While Victoria wished she could help her mate, the red head felt this type of pain was likely best soothed by her mother’s.

It wasn’t until they got to the very popular and busy hotel and then their room that Bella chose to talk again and that was only to say what she wanted Victoria to order for her to eat. Bella went straight to the bathroom to wash up, hoping the water and fresh clothes would help alleviate some of her guilt from what she had done to her one human parent that had always put Bella first to the best of his abilities.

As soon as the bathroom door closed and the shower started, Victoria unlocked the door to allow Tanya inside. Victoria hadn’t told her mate that she asked for Tanya to join them on the last part of their journey but she felt like it would be a good surprise.

When Bella left the bathroom, towel drying her hair, she stopped dead in her tracks as soon as she saw Tanya. It seemed just the sight of one of her new vampire parents was enough for Bella to drop all her shields of trying to be strong of trying to appear not as affected as she really was.

“Tanya.” Bella said just as tears started to freely fall from her eyes.

Tanya was at her daughter’s side in an instant, hugging Bella to her. With slow and gently movements, she guided Bella to the bed and with little effort had them both laying down as Bella released all of the sorrow she felt of having to say an early goodbye to her dad.

Victoria could watch with her own anxiety at seeing her mate so distressed and unable to help. While Victoria understood why Bella was clinging to Tanya, she was still upset that she hadn’t been able to do anything for her mate herself. She would need to work on that. But for the time being, she would just stand watch and make sure they weren’t interrupted. Hopefully this was just want Bella needed to help her move on from her loss.