Surviving the Teenage Dream Teaser

“Do you both hate me?” she asked, her voice sounding uncertain and small.

I shot a look to my husband. He sat down on the chair opposite of Alice, pulling me into his lap. “Alice, we don’t hate you. You’re my sister. I know that despite all of the bullshit you’ve been pulling, you’re still a good person. I don’t hate you. I don’t like you very much, but I don’t hate you.”

“You have a lot to make up for, Alice,” I said. “I don’t think you understand how hard it was for me to see Gianna fall apart. Edward got the brunt of it…”

“What do you mean?” Alice asked. She stared at Edward. “Tell me!”

“The night I called you in Paris, Gianna lost it. She was hysterical and it was her comment about you hating her that made me call you. No child should ever feel that. I felt it, Alice. With Carlisle. He made me feel like I wasn’t worthy of his love and I felt that way until he died. I did not want my sweet, beautiful niece thinking that her own mother hated her. I had to pick up the pieces of Gianna. Bella did the rest. It was that night that Gianna admitted that she wasn’t eating. She had no control in her life and she was controlling her food intake because of your behavior,” Edward sighed, burying his nose in my neck. “It’s going to take time for us to forgive you.”

“Are you speaking for Bella, too?” Alice snapped, glaring at her brother.

“Yes, Alice. He is. The way he feels about this whole situation is how I feel. We’ll be there for you and continue being there for Gianna and Adam, but the onus is on you to change,” I said, threading my fingers with Edward’s. Alice pinched her nose and tried to get her emotions under control. As we were sitting there, our doorbell rang.

“It’s nearly midnight,” Edward said, patting my legs to get me stand up. He walked to the door, pulling it open. I followed him and my heart fell to my feet when I saw a police officer from Wheaton standing on our doorstep.

“Mr. Edward Cullen?” asked the officer.

“Yes,” Edward said, holding me to his side. “What is it?”

“Sir, there’s been an accident involving an Owen Cullen. He’s been transported to Central Dupage Hospital with a Steven Burgess,” the officer said, reading from his notes.

“Is he okay?” I asked, my heart pounding and my skin crawling. “What happened?”

“He was fine when he was extracted from the car. He was unconscious but breathing on his own,” the police officer explained. “The car, however, was a complete loss. Steven said that he was following Owen and saw the whole thing happen.”

“Edward, we have to go,” I sobbed, grabbing Edward’s arms.

“We will,” Edward soothed, crushing me to his chest.

“The kids! We need to…” I said, tears flowing freely down my cheeks.

“I’ll stay with them. Go with Owen,” Alice said, tentatively rubbing my back. Edward didn’t wait. He grabbed the keys from Kyra’s Volvo that was sitting out on the driveway. We clambered into the car and followed the police cruiser to the hospital. The officer led us to the front desk, who gave us information about Owen. He was in surgery for a broken leg. Steve was upstairs waiting with him. We got to the surgical floor, finding Steve with his head buried in his hands.