Keeping Up With The Cullens 5

“Rosalie living room now!! We are having a family meeting!!”Rosalie jerked awake at the sound of Esme’s yelling accompanied by the sound of someone pounding on her bedroom door. Taking a moment to get her heartbeat under control Rosalie rubbed her eyes of sleep and looked at her alarm clock noticing it was a little after 5:30 in the morning. It was a Sunday so she didn’t have any plans for the day and was going to sleep in. Apparently that wasn’t going to happen. Yawning Rosalie slowly got out of bed and stumbled to her bathroom. After peeing quickly she didn’t bother brushing her teeth or doing any of her morning routine nor did she bother getting dressed. She just threw on her favorite robe that her mother constantly tried to replace and made her way into the living room where the entire family and Alice minus Emmet was sitting on different pieces of furniture. Rosalie sat in an arm chair. Everyone had different kinds of expressions ranging from annoyance to Carlisle’s anger bordering on rage. Rosalie wondered what kind of shit storm she just walked into.

“Good you are here. Now you can explain this.”Esme held out a tablet for Rosalie.

Rosalie took the tablet and noticed on the screen was an article about one of the student’s account of visiting Isabella’s compound. The article also included the fact that Rosalie spoke to Isabella at lunch and seemed to befriend the sisters who were Isabella’s caretakers. Rosalie was extremely annoyed because the car Isabella was giving her was mentioned to include the fact that Isabella was testing her. It seemed that the other students were paying closer attention to her than she thought. She wasn’t really that surprised though. Whoever the person who gave the interview was they probably knew that they would get more money if they could talk about Rosalie.”It seems that one of my classmates talked. Why does this warrant me getting woken up so early in the morning?”

“It’s warrants you getting woken up because you lied to us!! You said you didn’t talk to Isabella. Now we know you are working with her!!”Carlisle was enraged that Rosalie didn’t tell them that she had such close ties to Isabella. Especially when she knew that he was trying to work with the woman.

“It’s none yours or anyone else’s business what I do.”Rosalie wasn’t going to talk to anyone about her interaction or working relationship with Isabella or the sisters. It didn’t matter if someone else talked about it.

“This is everyone’s business. I just got off an hour long call with the network and they are pissed off that you lied on camera.”Esme was pissed off as well. Rosalie had the scoop of the century and they lost it to some online rag. They could have made a lot of money selling the story.

“I don’t care if the network is pissed off. I never agreed to talk about my trip with them. They are lucky I even told them about the speaker and the battery.”Rosalie didn’t feel bad about not talking about Isabella on camera. She didn’t owe the network anything.

“It is your job to give the network exclusive access to your life. This is a huge deal. They are entitled to film it.”Esme told her.

“That’s where you are wrong. The network does not have exclusive access to my life. They are allowed to film what I permit them to and no more. It’s in my contract. A contract that was changed when I hired my lawyer.”Rosalie had been burnt out with all the hours she was spending being filmed and had hired her own lawyer to draw up new contracts after the family one told her there was nothing he could do about it.

Esme gritted her teeth thinking about Rosalie’s contract. She was beyond irritated that Rosalie fired the family lawyer because it lost Esme control over Rosalie’a life.”Regardless you are supposed to keep the network informed of important milestones. Working with and befriending Isabella is considered a huge milestone.”

“I’m going to have to correct you again. Nowhere in my contract does it say I have to notify the network about anything going on in my life. Even during filming seasons. As a matter of fact it is up to me what I allow them to know. That is also written into the contract that I have with them.”Rosalie wasn’t stupid. She had made sure she had complete control of her involvement in the show. She just wished she had been so proactive in checking what kind of control Esme had of her and her finances. When speaking to the network’s people about using the footage from the day before Rosalie had worked out for the cameras to be at her lawyer’s office to void her contract with Esme and gave them a maybe about dealing with the accountant who was going to see if Esme was stealing from her. Rosalie was ok with it but wanted to make sure the woman was before agreeing. Rosalie doubted that the woman would because she was a respected professional but Rosalie wanted Esme exposed.

“Forget about the show. How can you be so selfish Rosalie?! You know that I want to dress her and instead of using the opportunity to tell Isabella how incredible I am you let her believe that I support child labor. You had a chance to deal with the misunderstanding and instead I am being reported in the press.”Alice thought it was just like Rosalie not to help her.

“I’m not touching your scandal with a ten foot pole. To include arguing with the most influential person on earth that the evidence they personally got was false. No way am I ruining my own reputation for you.”Rosalie wasn’t planning on standing up for any of them. It would ruin her future if she did.

“You could use your reputation to save not only Alice’s but mine as well.”Carlisle knew that Rosalie was his key to getting out of the legal mess he was being thrown into.

“Not only will my reputation not be enough to save either of you I’m not risking it for two people who are obviously guilty of their crimes. Crimes that are horrendous.”Rosalie would not back the pair.

“I didn’t do anything wrong. This is simply a witch hunt by a colleague.”Carlisle told her.

Rosalie laughed.”Isabella has proof of you doing it since you worked at your first hospital. Meaning that it has been going on for 25 years. It isn’t a witch hunt it is you being exposed as a monster.”

“Your father isn’t a monster. This is just a despicable lawyer exploiting a bunch of poor people to make a quick buck off your father.”Esme had not known that there was evidence of Carlisle committing crimes so far back. It was something she was going to mention to his lawyer as soon as they found one to represent him. Something that was proving to be hard and expensive.

“I know for a fact that isn’t true because the lawyer won’t be getting any part of the settlement.”Rosalie had asked Tanya on their way out of the castle how the lawyer was being paid and was told that Isabella was covering all costs and the defendants would get the full amount of the settlement.”You need to come up with much better excuses than playing the victim.”

“I’m not playing anything. I am the victim.”Carlisle still didn’t understand how he got caught after doing it for so many years.

“The fact that you have done it for so long even after you made millions of dollars is disgusting. You are the definition of greedy.”Rosalie would never give a shit about her father ever again. Any love or respect she had for him was completely gone listening to him blame everyone but himself.

“What are you talking about?”Jasper hated being left out of things.

“We are talking about nothing important.”Esme didn’t want their other children finding out about Carlisle’s crimes because she was hoping they could settle out of court and have the case sealed from the public.

Rosalie rolled her eyes at Esme’s attempt to control the narrative.”What we are talking about is the reason Carlisle is losing his license is that he was claiming his patients had illnesses they didn’t have and making them go through treatments and surgeries they didn’t need so he could make money off of them.”

“What the fuck?”Edward had thought he had some kind of accident that could have been prevented. He didn’t know how the family could rebound from this.

“Dad is that true?”Jasper knew Rosalie wouldn’t lie but it was just so unbelievable.

“Of course it’s not true.”Carlisle denied. The only one he admitted his scheme to was Esme and it was going to stay that way.

“Your father’s innocence will be proven in court and he will get his license back once it is.”Esme was confident that they could figure out a way to make that happen.”Something that you Rosalie could guarantee would happen if you spoke to Isabella about the situation and had her step in to help your father.”

”She personally found a shit ton of evidence to prove Carlisle was guilty. There is no way she is changing her mind about him. Not that it matters. I believe he is guilty and I’m not vouching for him. If anything I would support his victims in the lawsuit.”Rosalie was going to do what Tanya recommended and steer clear of the whole thing. That included Carlisle, Alice, Edward and Emmet’s wrongdoings. The only reason she was involving herself in Esme’s mess was because it personally involved her.

“That just once again proves how hateful you are that you wouldn’t help your own father.”Alice said.

“No it proves that I have a good moral compass that I wouldn’t support someone who did what he did. Just like I refuse to support you for what you did. I fully believe Isabella was telling the truth that means you knew about the child labor and before you deny it yesterday you were saying she made the photos herself. Today you are trying to get me to get you a meeting with her so you can work with her. That and you want her to support you. So what is? Is she out to get you or is she the one that is going to save you?”Rosalie took Alice’s flipflop as just more proof of her guilt.

“That’s a good point. Why do you want Isabella to help you when you were adamant that she made the photos to discredit you?”Jasper thought Rosalie made sense. Why would Alice want to work with someone who was attacking her character and telling lies about her?

“Well I..”Alice tried to think of a way to spin this.”I want to speak to her to clear the air and have her apologize for what she did. As an apology I am going to ask her to let me dress her so that she can repair the damage she has done to my reputation.”

“You think you are going to get Isabella to apologize to you?”Rosalie laughed at the very idea.”If anything it should be you apologizing to her for calling her a liar and accusing her of creating fake evidence of you committing a crime. Those pictures I believe are just some of the proof she has of your wrongdoings. She wouldn’t have told me about it if that’s all she had.”

“I didn’t do it so all that proof is fake.”Alice tried to think about what kind of proof Isabella could have. It could be anything because Alice hadn’t known she was getting photographed. She would have to speak to her lawyer about all this. She had wanted to hold off because she figured that the company would do damage control and she would just put out a statement denying she knew anything. She was going to claim the pictures were fakes and be done with it. If Isabella had other evidence like Rosalie said she wouldn’t be able to do that.

“I guess we will just have to see what the public believes.”Rosalie was looking forward to seeing how this all unfolded.

“The public would believe Alice if you put out a statement and gave some interviews in support of her innocence.”Esme knew that Rosalie could easily get the public to believe Alice. She had that much influence on society.

“I already told you I’m not vouching for anyone. Isabella has more than convinced me they are guilty. It’s because of that if I make any kind of statement it will be in favor of the victims.”Rosalie wasn’t changing her mind.

“I don’t think I like Isabella’s influence on you. It seems that since you talked to her yesterday you have turned against the family.”Carlisle needed to talk to Isabella so that she could get Rosalie back on the family’s side.

“She didn’t turn me against anyone. All she did was expose everyone’s wrongdoings. Except for Jasper who not only didn’t do anything wrong he didn’t even know about the child labor. The rest of this family has done things that could put each of you in prison. That includes you as well Edward. However I’m not going to say anything about it to protect your victim.”Rosalie would like to expose her brother but she cared about the girl involved.

“She consented.”Edward didn’t victimize anyone. The girl was with him willingly.

“What is she talking about?”Esme didn’t like the sound of Edward’s statement.

“We are talking about nothing.”Rosalie didn’t need Esme to attack the girl in the press.

“What is Emmet doing?”Jasper didn’t like Edward’s statement either and planned on talking to Rosalie about it later.

“You will find out what Emmet is doing soon.”Rosalie wasn’t going to stop it from happening because she thought he needed to finally be held responsible for his actions. He had always been bailed out when he got in trouble and Rosalie thought he deserved to face the consequences for once.

“Rosalie if you have a way to protect your brother then you need to do it.”Carlisle couldn’t deal with anymore scandals.

“Emmet made his bed. It’s time he lay in it.”Rosalie wasn’t doing anything to help Emmett.”It doesn’t matter anyway he has already been caught it just hasn’t been made official yet.”

“What did he do?”Esme was planning on calling Emmet right after they finished talking.

“I’m not saying anything.”Rosalie knew Emmet would never admit it either. He would think he could beat the drug test.

“Rosalie I know that you have been interested in Isabella since you were 12 but you can’t let your hero worship cloud your perception of the family. Yes we may have done some things wrong but that doesn’t mean you have to turn your back on all of us. Why don’t you arrange a meeting for us with Isabella where we can clear the air with the woman and make her see that we aren’t bad people at all. We just got caught up in things beyond our control.”Carlisle knew if he talked to Isabella that he could get the woman to back him.

“The fact that you are still not taking responsibility for your crimes is just more proof that Isabella was telling the truth. Also she has absolutely nothing to gain from exposing all of you to me. If she truly was out to get all of you she would have given the information to the press. Instead she simply gave it to me to do with what I wanted. Information I was led to believe she has had for a long time by the way.”Rosalie knew Isabella didn’t care about the Cullens. She only went after Carlisle because he was annoying her and she wanted him to leave her alone. The others she looked into because Irina asked her to so she could find out what kind of person Rosalie was. Rosalie was just happy that she passed that test. She also passed whatever test she was put through when meeting Isabella in person. Now she had to pass the car test so that she could hopefully work on another project with Isabella.

“Rosalie has another point. Isabella didn’t take this to the press. She simply told Rosalie. If she was out to get all of you like you claim she would have acted as soon as she got proof of your guilt. That and she really has no reason to go after us. I believe Rosalie when she said that Isabella only knew about us because dad wouldn’t leave her alone and that she was vetting Rosalie for her professor.”Jasper was thinking that Rosalie was right. That meant that Alice did know about the child labor.

Alice started to panic seeing that she was losing Jasper’s support.”Isabella could be a huge fan of Rosalie’s and orchestrated all of this to gain Rosalie’s trust. I mean it’s a little to convenient that Isabella stays isolated from the public but picks Rosalie’s class to visit. Rosalie’s school isn’t even amongst the top ten ranked robotics programs in the country. Why wouldn’t Isabella pick her own school MIT for the tour? It’s obvious that she is obsessed with Rosalie.”

“Isabella is not obsessed with me. She didn’t even want to talk to me.”Rosalie wasn’t offended by that though. Isabella didn’t want to talk to anyone. Even the sisters.

“She was likely just pretending she didn’t want to talk to you.”Alice was going to stick to that excuse.

“What did you talk about?”Edward asked.

“Other than you guys what we talked about is private.”Rosalie figured if the person who gave the interview didn’t know what Rosalie talked about with Tanya and Isabella at lunch no one else did either. Rosalie personally wasn’t going to say anything.

“I bet it was her just gushing over you.”Alice said.

“Believe what you want.”Isabella didn’t exactly gush over Rosalie but she did compliment her a couple times. Rosalie liked that the compliments were about how smart she was not about her looks.

“Did Isabella tell you about her eye?”Carlisle had almost forgotten to ask with all the other excitement.

“Isabella didn’t mention anything about her eye.”Rosalie wished she did.

“What was it like?”Edward had been confused on how the eye actually worked.

“I’m not telling you. If Isabella wanted you to know about her eye she would have made a statement or given an interview about it.”Rosalie was hoping in the future that she would learn about the eye because she just knew it was made of some type of technology that was going to blow her mind.

“The article said that it wasn’t a contact that the student thought that her entire eyeball was fake. They also said that the purple glowed and the pupil would move randomly. What did you notice?”Carlisle didn’t know much about the eye but was planning on studying it so that he could use his knowledge as a reason for Isabella to make him the spokesperson for it.

“I’m not even going to confirm that.”Rosalie thought it was stupid of her classmate to give the interview because it was obvious Isabella could find out their identity and it would likely lead to them being blacklisted.

“It was mentioned that you helped out with an idea for a pitch for her prosthetic limbs. Did you get something in writing so that you will get credit and collect a paycheck for it?”Esme asked.

“I didn’t do anything worth getting paid for and even if I did I wouldn’t have asked for anything.”Rosalie would only ask for compensation if she was a big contributor to a project. She wouldn’t even insist if she only helped a little bit.

“Rosalie you can’t let people take advantage of you.”Esme was going to talk to her lawyer about getting Rosalie paid for helping. She was still Rosalie’s manager so she had the authority to reach out to Isabella to get Rosalie paid.

Rosalie laughed.”You of all people are saying that.”

“I told you I’m not taking advantage of you and if you would just give everything to the family accountant you will get proof of that.”Esme hadn’t had a chance to convince Rosalie not to use the other accountant.

“I talked to the network and they are excited about getting the chance to possibly have someone who works for the White House on the show. So I doubt they would allow me to use your accountant.”Rosalie was going to ask Irina if she could recommend a new accountant for Rosalie to work with full time so she could fire the family one.

Esme held back a curse. If the network was set on it they wouldn’t let her not use the person.”I see.”

“They are also ready to go to my lawyer’s office with us on Tuesday. I made the appointment for 1pm.”Rosalie held back a smirk when she saw Esme wince.”I’m sure you are just as excited as I am to correct the mistake that someone tricked you into adding into my contract.”

“That I am.”Esme lied. She already had her lawyer drawing up a new contract for Rosalie to sign that she had different legal terms added to give her more authority over Rosalie’s legal decisions. Esme figured that with the way Rosalie kept saying no to things that she would need some way to force her to do things without her being able to fight back.

Rosalie opened her mouth to reply but stopped herself when she heard the alert indicating the gate was opened.”Is Emmet home?”

“He hasn’t said anything to me.”Esme pulled up the app on her phone. Seeing a truck pull up she smiled. Finally good news. She would have to call the network back to let them know that the car had been delivered.”It seems your car is here Rosalie.”

"How did they get through the gate?”Edward asked as he and everyone else stood and made their way to the front door.

“They work for Isabella Swan that’s how they got through the gate.”Rosalie was completely unsurprised that the driver didn’t need to be let in.

“We need to talk to our security company.”Carlisle didn’t like the idea of someone having access to his property.

“It won’t make a difference.”Rosalie perked up when she saw Kate park the truck and get out of the cab. Walking up to her Rosalie greeted the visitor.”Hey Kate.”

“Hey Rosalie. Did I wake you up?”Kate asked.

“No we were having an emergency family meeting due to one of my classmates talking.”Rosalie smiled when Kate laughed.

“I just won a bet with Irina.”Kate said.

“What was the bet?”Rosalie wondered what Kate and Irina were betting on.

“I said that as soon as your family saw the article they would call a meeting. Irina said they would wait until everyone was awake.”Kate told her.

“What do you win?”Rosalie didn’t think the sisters bet money.

“I get exclusive use of the entertainment room for a week. As Irina and I are the only ones who use it that means I get it all to myself.”Kate said.

“That is a pretty sweet reward.”Rosalie would love to have the entertainment room to herself. Well she would like it more if Isabella joined her. ”Listen I wanted to let you know that I spoke about the speakers and the batteries on camera but I didn’t say anything else. The only reason I talked about them was because you said they were going to be released within the year and I needed to say something so the network would use the footage. I had exposed Alice and Esme during the conversation and knew they wouldn’t air it unless I gave them something. I hope that doesn’t upset you, your sisters or Isabella.”

“We knew all that information was going to be leaked. The important thing is you don’t leak anything private. We are trusting you to keep the sensitive things to yourself. If you do then you will gain tons of points with Isabella.”Kate told her.

“Let me guess this is another test.”Rosalie concluded.

Kate set her hand on Rosalie’s shoulder.”Listen I know it’s a pain in the ass jumping through all these hoops but I promise once you are let into her inner circle all the hard work and annoying tasks will seem like nothing. Irina sees big things from you in the future and she believes that Isabella is the key to you achieving those big things. You also impressed Tanya and I think you will bring a lot of fun to our lives so me and my sisters are behind you and will do what we can to help you connect with Isabella. One word of advice is learn all you can about her grandmother and the sculptor Ronda Kelly. Isabella not only learned her craft from both of them but she idolized them. She was actually the sole recipient of all their belongings when they died. None of their stuff went to their families.”

“Isabella studied under Ronda Kelly.”Everyone knew who Ronda Kelly was. Rosalie had actually visited a few of her art installations that were main features around L.A and other parts of the world.

“Yes, Isabella adored the woman and actually refused to leave her bedside for the last week of her life. She was holding her hand when she died. So if you can familiarize yourself with her and her grandmother you would have something to talk to Isabella about.”Kate told her.

“I will make sure I find out as much as I can about them.”Rosalie was going to get on that as soon as possible.

“Now where do you want me to put everything?”Kate asked.

“Let me open one of the bays.”Rosalie made her way to one of the garage doors and punched in a code to open it. Once open she stepped out of the way for Kate to back the truck up to the door. When Kate stopped the truck Rosalie watched in awe as not even having to get out of the truck a lift moved the car off the back and put it perfectly in the space in the bay. After it was done the lift then moved a large pallet that was stacked high with boxes to the front of the bay behind the car. Rosalie was going to have to move everything but she didn’t mind. Seeing Kate getting out the truck Rosalie smiled.”That is an incredible truck.”

“Isabella designed it. She wanted to be able to move things without having to use something gas powered.”Kate told her.”So on the pallet are the parts you need plus a few extras that Isabella decided to stay up half the night making for you. I asked her why she did and she told me that you deserved to have proper tools to work on such a piece of art. We took that to mean that she knows that you will actually appreciate the car and she wants you to have the tools to make it perfect.”

“I do appreciate the car and am excited to see what she made.”Rosalie was just going to grab some breakfast to go and change her clothes before she dove into the pallet to see what Isabella sent her.

“With that said I’m out of here. It’s my day off so I have plans to go dirt biking in the desert.”Kate said.

“What exactly is your job?”Rosalie had assumed Kate didn’t have one.

“Mostly I just annoy Isabella but every once in a while I’ll run an errand.”Kate told her.”Hopefully I will see you soon Rosalie.”

“Bye Kate.”Rosalie called after the blond. Rosalie was unsurprised when her family swarmed around her as soon as the truck drove away.

“Is that one of the sisters?”Carlisle figured she was.

“Her name is Kate. She works for Isabella.”Rosalie wasn’t saying more than that.

“Why didn’t you invite her in for coffee?”Esme wanted to talk to someone close to Isabella.

“Because she wasn’t here for coffee. She was here to deliver my new car and the things I need to fix it.”Rosalie would never invite anyone connected to Isabella to any kind of meeting with her family.

“She provided all the parts you need to fix it?”Edward hadn’t expected that.

“I was told everything I needed to fix it was on this pallet.”Rosalie shooed everyone out of the garage.”Everyone get out. I’m going to go change and get some breakfast.”

“Tell me when you start working in here. I will help you.”Carlisle wanted to help in the off chance that Isabella added any extras in with everything. He knew Rosalie wouldn’t tell them if she did so Carlisle wanted to see for himself.

“One you know nothing about cars and two this is my project no-one is working on it except for me. If I catch anyone touching anything you won’t like what I will do to you.”Rosalie was going to follow through on that threat. If any of them fucked up this chance for her to get more projects from Isabella Rosalie would not rest until their lives were ruined.

“Rosalie it wouldn’t do any harm if you let us help you.”Edward wanted to help so he could claim he worked on Isabella’s project.

“It’s not happening. Now get out of my garage.”Rosalie thought it might be a good idea to buy some cameras because she didn’t think locked doors would keep them out.

“I can come talk to you right?”Jasper wanted to see things but more wanted to talk to his sister about what was going on.

“Yes you can. Everyone else you have no business being in my space.”Rosalie knew that Jasper likely wanted to talk. That’s what usually happened when Rosalie was working on a project Jasper would come and spend time with her just talking.

“I’ll come with him.”Alice didn’t want Jasper and Rosalie talking without her there because she wouldn’t have a chance to defend herself as she knew that they were going to talk about her.

“You aren’t invited because you know nothing about cars. Now get out.”Rosalie ignored the group as she shoved them out of the garage and locked the door behind her. Not paying attention to their attempts to get her to let them help her Rosalie made her way to her room to change into her coveralls. She was extremely excited about the car. Looking at the clock Rosalie wondered why Kate thought delivering it at 7:30 in the morning on a Sunday was a good idea. She did say it was her day off so why was Kate the one to deliver the car? Rosalie did find it interesting that Kate said her job was annoying Isabella. It proved her theory that Kate spent most of her time with Isabella. Rosalie had a feeling that it was a real job born out of necessity. That someone really needed to regularly interact with Isabella or she would close herself off from the rest of the world completely. Rosalie desperately wanted to know why Isabella was like that. She also wanted to know how many more tests she had to pass before she was a member of Isabella’s inner circle. Rosalie just felt relieved that she didn’t screw things up when she talked about the speaker and the battery. Now she needed to work on the car and learn more about Isabella’s grandmother and Ronda Kelly. Two woman who loved Isabella so much they left nothing for the rest of their families in their wills. Rosalie was pretty sure just like everything related to Isabella that the reason why that happened was extraordinary.