A New Cullen Sister

Chapter 70

"Amelia Grace Theodore-Cullen, get your butt out here!" called Esme, impatiently drumming her fingers on the countertop. They needed to get going. It was now Wednesday morning. The previous evening, the pair had driven out to Seattle ahead of the long rehearsal scheduled with the orchestra for today.

"I'm coming," came the soft response.

"So is Christmas!" Esme retorted. Amelia sighed softly, before coughing loudly and making her way to the small living room. Their overnight bag was ready and waiting by the door, so was her violin. The rest of their things had been piled onto the bellhop's trolley and he was busy loading the suitcase as well.

"Are you feeling okay?" asked Esme, worried that her physiotherapy skills were not up to scratch and that she'd insufficiently cleared Amelia's chest.

"Physio was fine, Mom," she replied, guessing why Esme was so concerned, "just a little tired. Shall we get going?"

"Yes, let us leave," agreed Esme, shutting the door behind her. The checkout process was smooth, and Esme double checked their reservations for the suites for Friday and Saturday. Bella, Edward and Renesmee would be staying overnight on Saturday after the concert as well. Alice had a shopping trip planned for all the Cullen girls, and Amelia was desperately trying to charm her way out of that one, even throwing in a few additional coughs for extra benefit. The real reason was that Alice wanted to take both Amelia and Blythe out as a way of officially welcoming them to the family. After seven weeks of living with them, Amelia had yet to shop with Alice, which was a grave miscarriage of justice in the psychic pixie's opinion.

"Thank you, Mom," Amelia's soft voice broke the contemplative silence. They had left the hotel and were nearly at the Benaroya Hall.

"Whatever for, Amelia?"

"For bringing me here today."

"You're welcome, sweetheart."

"What are you going to do during the rehearsal? It is quite long."

"There are a few things I will be taking care of but I will be there the whole time."

"Won't that be boring for you?"

"Listening to you play your violin is never boring," stated Esme, glancing at Amelia. She was rewarded with a sweet smile from her daughter, "are you excited?"

"Yes I am. It will be nice to honour Abigail's memory."

"She is your mother, Amelia. You don't have to refer to her by her first name. Carlisle and I are not trying to replace her or your father."

"But what if that is what I want?" Amelia spoke so quietly that even Esme's vampiric hearing almost missed it.

"You want Carlisle and I to replace your parents?" she stated incredulously, pulling her car to the side of the road and turning off the engine, hazards blinking. Amelia flinched and looked away.

"Not replace them per se," she whispered, "but I want you to be them. Since the competition last week, I feel like you and Dad are kind of pulling away from me. I know I am being stupid, but it just feels that way."

"We wanted to respect your parents' memory. We did not want to hurt you by thinking that we were trying to remove them from your life so to speak, to make them seem almost insignificant. You are here now because of them. I'm sorry, bella Mia, I didn't realise that we were hurting you. Is this why you've been so closed off from us all lately?" Everything clicked in Esme's mind. In spite of all of their reassurances, Amelia was still struggling to accept herself as part of the family.

"I was so confused because you've both been so different lately, but then you tell me that my adoption is finalised and seem to be so happy. I can't help but feel that I am a burden to you, especially now that I am getting sicker and sicker."