Chapter 35

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The Beholder

Edward Cullen Pov

I hurried away from them, my mind in knots, my heart… if it were still beating, it would have burst inside my chest.

Never, in my more than a hundred years of existence, had I felt this way. Not when I took the lives of humans I considered irredeemable. Not when I faced others of my kind in the darkest years of my past. Not even when I met Bella and my Thirst—ferocious, vicious—almost forced me to take her life with my own hands.

This was different. Humiliating. Disarming.

Nate knew it.

I didn't know how, or why. But he had looked me in the eyes, without fear, without a doubt, and in his mind he screamed a word that had been swirling around in mine for decades: Monster.

And I... for not staying calm. For letting myself get carried away by my worry, by the vertigo of imagining Bella hurt... I responded to a thought. I responded to a trap.

I cursed myself silently. I'd been dancing in the palm of his hand. He'd tested me… and I didn't just fail. I confirmed everything.

My ability. My damn evolutionary advantage. For the first time in my life… it had betrayed me.

I turned the corner of the hallway. I needed air, even though I didn't need it. I wanted to get out of there, disappear, and cross entire forests until I put this mistake behind me. But then I saw them. Carlisle, Alice, and Rosalie were near the east wing of the hospital. They were talking in low, almost imperceptible voices. A gesture of caution that already felt natural between us.

Rosalie saw me first. The disdain in her eyes was like a slap in the face.

Alice noticed my expression instantly, and her brow furrowed in concern.

Rosalie took a step toward me, her arms crossed, her voice laced with venom.

"Ah, look who's coming. The martyr of the day."

I didn't say anything. I couldn't.

"Do you know what you did, Edward?" she continued, pressing her lips together harshly. "You put the whole family at risk. For her. What did you think? That no one would notice?"

"Rosalie," Carlisle said, trying to calm her down, but there was no stopping her. Not this time.

Alice, on the other hand, took a step closer.

"Edward?" she murmured. "What happened?"

My lips moved, but at first, nothing came out. Only the echo of the word I'd heard. Monster. That word burned inside me like the distant memory of the sun scorching my skin.

I finally managed to speak.

" I've been …..discovered."

A thick silence fell over the hallway.

Rosalie spun around with a snort, her golden hair whipping around furiously.

"I knew it! I knew it! That human… You should never have saved her!"

Alice blinked, surprised. There was still no anger on her face, just genuine concern.

"Does Bella know for sure? Did she say it out loud?"

"Can we convince her she imagined it?" she added, with a hint of hope. "She hit her head, Edward. She might think she hallucinated."

I shook my head and put a hand to my face. Everything seemed blurry. The light. The ground. The air.

"It wasn't Bella," I whispered. "It was Nate. He figured it out. He knows… what I am. And also that I can read minds."

The reaction was immediate. Alice froze. Rosalie uttered an inaudible curse. Carlisle stepped forward, his face taking on a seriousness he rarely displayed.

"Explain everything to us, Edward. Without leaving anything out."

And I did.

I told them how Nate had entered the room with studied kindness. How, with gentle words and attentive eyes, he launched each question as if measuring each step before crossing a minefield. How he asked me something mentally… and I answered, without thinking. A fatal mistake. A treacherous reflex.

I told them how, just as I was walking away, his mind screamed something else. I didn't hear it clearly... but I felt it. The phrase "The cold ones."

"Cold ones?" Carlisle repeated quietly, exchanging a glance with Alice. "Are you sure he thought that?"

"Absolutely. It was about us. It wasn't just any thought. It was… categorical."

Rosalie snorted.

"That breaks the treaty. Jasper mentioned seeing him with the Jacob Black a few days ago. If the Quillettes have talked... that breaks everything."

Carlisle thought for a moment, his mind racing through all the possibilities at breakneck speed.

"It could be," he finally admitted. "But not all young people receive that information. It's inherited knowledge, yes, but it's also closely guarded. Maybe it was a badly told story… or maybe he figured it out on his own. We can't assume the worst yet. But we can't ignore it, either."

"We have to move," Rosalie said firmly, as if it were already a given. "Tonight. He has no proof. If we disappear, he won't be able to sustain anything."

"What if he's already spoken?" Carlisle replied. "What if he tells his family? The police? Bella? Others?"

The idea floated in the air like an omen.

Then Carlisle turned to me.

"We must know more. How much he knows. How he knew it. And whether he has shared it. You must go to his house, Edward. Make sure this doesn't go any further than him. I believe he lives with his grandmother, does he? Mrs. Winter."

I nodded without thinking. Almost everyone in Forks knows each other. It wouldn't be hard to find the house.

"Go now before he comes back. Don't take anything. Just watch. Notes. Books. A journal. Anything. Figure out if this is part of something bigger… or if it's just Nate."

"I'll go right away," I said, without hesitation.

Alice took a step closer. Her eyes were serious.

"I'm going with you."

I looked at her, grateful. Not because I needed her help finding anything... more because a part of me knew that if I was ever going to face Nathaniel Winter... I didn't want to do it alone.

Because even though I have the power to take his life with a single movement, one certainty hits me hard:

I don't want to have to face someone... like him.