• Once upon a time, there was a poor, yet beautiful girl who lived in the countryside. She had dark brown hair that ran from her head to her waist, and innocent baby blue eyes. She lived happily with her parents one the little farm they owned. They were not rich, but they made enough to suffice. One day, when the girl woke up from a deep slumber, she saw from outsideher window, an evil darkness inching closer and closer to her home. She quickly pushed her bed aside and opened the door to the basement, crawling in to hide from the darkness lurking towards her. She made it out safely, but her parents had been taken by the darkness, leaving her with no choice but to leave her little home in the countryside and venture out to the rich towns and big cities in order to find a job to survive. She went from city to city, town to town, in search of a house to work in, but no one wanted to hire her. She finally came to the richest town in all the land and walked down the street knocking on each door that she passed for work and a place to stay. Like all the other places she had been, they turned her down one by one. Finally, she came to the last house in the town. This house was bigger than all of the other houses in the town, combined. She was tired and exhausted from her long journey from home, and she knew that her once beautiful face had been dirtied by the streets of the town, and the once luscious brown hair and been blown around by the wind so much and caught so much dust, that it no long shone it it did before. She held her breath and knocked on the door of the gigantic mansion. When the door opened, a fairy stood on the other side, pulling her into the beautiful house and cleaned her up. The girl lived happily in her new home as a servant girl. The fairies had saved her from the trecherous world on the other side of the large door, and so she worked her hardest to pay them for their kindness.

    In the large mansion of the fairies' there was a prince who was known as the most handsome man in the entire country. A glimpse of his dark, thick red hair, and his simmering green eyes would make any woman fall madly in love with him. All of the ladies in town tried their hardest to capture the princeand make him their own, but the prince only has eyes for one girl, the servant girl. Secretely, the servant girl knew that she loved the prince as well, but she tried her hardest not to show it since he was a prince, and all she was was a mere servant girl. However, after several attempts from both of them to hold back their feelings, the prince and the servant girl couldn't bear to be apart from each other, and so they decided to marry in secret. On the night of their wedding, the prince gave the servant girl a rosebud. At first she was confused to why he gave her a rosebud, and not a rose, but then the prince told her that the bigger the rosebud got, the stronger their love for each other would be. As the days went on, the rosebud got bigger and bigger, and they both knew that they could no longer hide their love for each other anymore. The prince led the servant girl to the room of the fairies, and there they confessed their secret marriage and showed them their rosebud which was now the size of a teapot. The faries were sad because although it was obvious that the servant girl and the prince had an unbreakable bond of love, they knew that the kind would never allow a lowly servant girl to be with a prince, and that they would both be sentenced to death.

    In order to protect the servant girl and the prince, the faries married the servant girl to their other trusted loyal servant, the gardener boy. They gave them an unaccountable amount of riches, and allowed them to live in the fairytale cottage next to their great mansion. Before the day the servant girl left for the cottage, her true love, the prince came to her at night and promised that he would come and take her away, and that together they would escape to their own kingdom where they could truly be together. And so, the servant girl waited and waited for days, sitting in the cottage, refusing to leave for any reason, in case she might miss the prince. Weeks went by, and there was no sign of her beloved prince. The gardener boy treated the servant girl well, and worked hard to please her. Deep down, the servant girl knew that the gardener boy was a good man, but she couldn't bear to be with anyone other than her true love. The gardener boy slowly realized that no matter what he did, the heart of the servant girl would never be his, and so devestated, he left her.

    One night, a few months after the servant girl had moved out of the great mansion, an unbearable pain shot through her heart. That night, the rosebud finally bloomed into a beautiful red rose. In the centre of the red rose, was the name of the prince and the servant girl. News of the bloom of the rose traveled to the mansion and into the ears of the faries. When they went over to the cottage to see the beautiful rose, they realized that its was no longer possible for them to keep the servant girl anymore. The names engraved on the rose would give them away. The faries cried as they said their goodbyes to the servant girl for she had become one of their own. The waved to her as her carriage drove down the road, never to return again. The servant girl left her precious home with her rose in one hand, and a magical pouch that contain the remaining pieces of her life. What she didn’t know was that in her little pouch, the fairies had left with her one of their most prized possession, binding them together forever.

    ~.~.~.~.~

    I close the beautifully leather-bound book that lay in my hands. The pages carefully decorated with the most exquisite art pieces I had ever seen, each one drawn with such detail that it seemed like it would've taken at least years to draw just a corner of it. I couldn’t remember the number of times I had read this fairytale. My grandmother had written it, said that it was all she had left of her childhood memories, that the story was told to her by her own grandmother. She had given it to me when I she moved away to a small town in Washington state. I remember myself crying my eyes out, begging her to stay, telling her that no one else would tell me those magical stories that she used to read to me every night before I went to sleep. That was when she gave me the book. I still missed hearing her voice, but the books had to suffice. I had always had an extremely close bond with my grandmother, partially since I was her only grandchild, but also because I was the only person that found her completely fascinating in every aspect. She often told me stories of her time, stories she had heard from others, or half made up in her mind. She told me that mother had always been frightened of her stories because they reminded her of horrible things, so she refused to listen to them, I on the other hand, absolutely adored her stories, they sounded so wonderful and interesting compared to my own life. She had loved me more than anyone in the world could ever love me, and that love was reciprocated back to her.

    After my mother died from a car accident when I was just 12 years old, my father, Charlie, who had also been in the accident, blamed himself for Renee's death. He felt guilty and couldn't move on with his life because he had gotten out alive, and she dead. He told me that he couldn't look after me, couldn't bear to look at my face anymore because it reminded him too much of her. He started to come home late at night, completely drunk out of his mind, and a few months later, he was sent to a rehab centre, but still he couldn't stand it, and one night, when he snuck out of the centre, he was hit by a car and passed away.

    I’ve always known that when my mother died, she was hurting more than anyone else. It was to be expected since Renee had been her first child, and always favourited above her brothers and sisters. When I saw her at the funeral, I thought that she would be crying like everyone around her, but instead, she maintained a straight face, and came up to me, giving the warmest smile I had ever received. No one wanted to take me in, not any of my 5 uncles and aunts. They had all said that their lives were already busy enough. Nana, on the other hand, greeted me with open arms and welcomed me into her life.

    I let out a quiet sob as I place the book carefully in my bag and continued cleaning out her house, now mine. She had left everything that belonged to her under my name in her will. My aunts and uncles were all furious at me. They had wanted a little piece of her fortune for themselves. I looked around the room. All that was left to clean was her closet. There wasn’t much in it, just a few of her dresses, and a couple of old suitcases. I took them out one by one single-handedly. They all felt pretty empty to me, except for the last one. I laid it on the floor of her bedroom and unbuckled to sides. It was an old fashioned suitcase, probably from when she was younger. I lifted up the top, and on top of everything was a white envelope with my name on it. I slowly tore the envelope open, curious as to see what was inside.

    My beloved granddaughter, Bella.

    When you read this, I will already be gone. Don’t worry you little head about me, for I know that where I am going will be much more peaceful than the world ever was for me. In this suitcase are my most prized possessions. I leave it to you because you are the only one that will understand.

    Remember that although I am not with you, I will always be watching you, and never forget that I love you with all my heart.

    Nana.

    It was short and sweet, just like something Nana would write, but I didn’t understand. What did she mean that I was the only one that would understand? I peered into the suitcase and dug through the rest of the things in it. There was an extremely old and worn out dress, a few books that looked very much like the one that was currently tucked safely in my bag and what looked like a pendant without its chain. It was beautiful, made carefully out of crystal with silver lines to part land from sea, and one point in the centre that was made out of a blue jewel. I flipped it over, and saw a crest of some sort carved into the crystal. It looked familiar, I thought for a moment, my hands trailing along the parts where the crest was carved in the crystal. My necklace! I reached for the clasp of the chain, and carefully removed my necklace and placed it next to the globe. They were exactly the same. I had gotten the necklace as a gift from Nana on the night of my 16th birthday.

    “Bella dear, you have one more gift!” I heard Nana’s sweet voice come from the living room.

    “Coming Nana!” I rushed down the stairs from my room, eager to see what Nana had gotten me.

    “Now dear, you’re finally 16... and I’ve been waiting for the perfect chance to give this to you…” she unhooked the necklace from her neck and brought it around mine.

    “Nana… your necklace… I can’t take this from you, I know how much it means to you…” I whispered.

    “That’s exactly why I’m giving it to you. Because you know how important it is, and I know that no matter what, you will never let go of it.” She gave me a loving smile. “Remember, never let it leave your side. No matter what.”

    “I promise Nana, I’ll take good care of it for you…” My eyes watered up as I pulled Nana in for a hug.

    I stared at the two treasures in front of me, I knew that the crest and the pendant would fit together perfectly, but something told me not do put them together, at least not now. I put the necklace back on and put the pendant into my bag, next to the storybook. I then turned my attention back to the suitcase in front of me. I carefully placed the storybooks back into the suitcase, and then I refolded the old dress and placed it in as well. I was just about to close the suitcase when I felt something in the pocket of the dress. I reached my hand in and pulled out an old bronze key that had already started to rust a bit. I wonder what its for… I thought to myself. I decided that the suitcase was far too important to Nana to keep in this house and that I would take it to my own house. I grabbed my bag from the bed and took one last took at Nana bedroom, I my eyes started filling up with tears as I remembered all of the memories I had shared with her… Her things had all been packed into boxes by me and in a couple of days I would have them sent over to my house. I knew that none of the things in the boxes were necessary but I just couldn’t bear to part with any of them. It was all that I had left of her, of my family. Of course, I knew that I had my aunts and uncles, but they weren’t the nicest of people, especially to me, who in their eyes was the person that stole Nana’s fortune from them. When I heard that I would be inheriting everything that belonged to Nana, I thought that it would just be some money that she had managed to scrape together over her years of living here, and her cottage, but boy was I wrong. Turns out, Nana was far wealthier than she had ever let on. She had left me enough money to last a lifetime without ever working, and a safety deposit box filled with old coins that she had kept from her life in England which were apparently now worth hundreds for some, and thousands for others.

    I clasped the buckles of the suitcase back together and dragged it out to my car and placed it gently in the backseat and drove back home. I didn’t live far from Nana, just a few blocks away. I never wanted to move out, but eventually I found a little apartment for myself and so after Nana persuaded me, I bought it and moved in. When I entered my apartment, it was the first time I had felt truly alone in the world. I was around 4 in the afternoon, and I had taken a day off of work, thinking that cleaning out Nana’s house would take longer than I thought, but now that I had nothing else to do, I figured that I would read the storybooks that I had found in Nana’s suitcase. Before I could even make my way over, the doorbell rang so I ran over to answer it. I opened the door and found a gorgeous blonde haired girl with ice blue eyes standing at the door.

    “Is this the Swan residence?” she asked me.

    “Umm, yes… Who are you?”

    “Sorry, you must be Isabella Swan, I’m Rosalie Hale, I’ve been managing your family for a while now. I’m an account, advisor, lawyer, whichever one you want to call me.” she smiled at me.

    “Oh, Nice to meet you, and please call me Bella. Would you like to come in for a while?”

    “Sure, and call me Rose.”

    “So, um, Rose, is there a problem? I mean, there’s got to be a reason why you’re here.”

    “Well yes, several reasons actually. You see, Nana hired me when I first came into this business, and your family was my very first client. I’ve always had a very good relationship with your family. I manage everything that comes under the family name, and this is only for the Swan family, meaning, only Nana, your mother, and now you. Do you understand?” She raised an eyebrow at me.

    “So my father didn’t know about this?” I questioned.

    “No, he didn’t. Anyways, at first Nana was going to give everything that she owned to you mother, Renee. However, she passed away before she was able to inherit these things, so now, they are for you…” she paused for a moment, “and someone else.”

    “What? Who else?” Was it one of my aunts or uncles?

    “Well, this isn’t going to be easy, but in your grandmother’s will, it stated that everything she owned would be given to the children of her first daughter, Renee Swan.”

    “I don’t understand. I’m an only child…” I replied, confused at what she was getting at.

    “Umm… not exactly.”

    “What do you mean not exactly? My mother only gave birth to me, I know for a fact that I don’t have any brothers or sister, my mother died when I was 12.”

    “Yes, you don’t have any younger brothers or sister, but I was looking through your family files the other day and I discovered a document… a document that stated that your older brother had been given up for adoption about 4 years before you were born.”

    “W-what…?” I whispered, barely able to make any sound at all.

    “He was adopted by a couple in England. I did some math and found out that if he was born around 4 years before you, then your mother was probably only 16 years old at the time, 17 at most.”

    “So they gave him up for adoption…” I knew that they wouldn’t have gotten an abortion. Nana wouldn’t allow it, She believed that every person, even an unborn child, should have a chance in life.

    “Yeah… So what do you want to do?” Rosalie patted me gently on the back. “You know that you don’t have to decide right now, as long as you don’t touch his part of the inheritance, then you can wait as long as you want…”

    I pondered for a moment, “No. I want to meet him.” I stated. Although I didn’t know him, he was now my only chance of having a family, and I definitely would not be letting that go.

    “Great! Then when do you want to leave?”

    “The sooner the better…”

    “Alright, then I’ll just book a flight and we’ll leave tomorrow.” Rosalie smiled at me, suddenly getting really excited.

    “Rose, you don’t have to come if you don’t want to, I mean, it isn’t in your job description, right?”

    “No it isn’t, not for anyone but the Swan family.” She looked at me sincerely, “Your grandmother did a lot for me when I first met her, and I’ve never been able to repay her for her kindness, so now that I have the chance to help you, I’m not going to let it go.”

    “But… I’m not her.”

    “No, you aren’t, but you were her most precious treasure in the world, she said so herself. She used to say to me, ‘One day, when I’m gone, you just come over here and keep my little Bella company. She’s got no one else but me.’ I promised her, and I’m not the kind of person that goes back on a promise.”

    “Thanks R-rose…” I choked on my own tears, Nana was right. I did need someone to be here with me. Someone like Rose, whom I knew, treasured Nana almost as much as I did.

    “Anytime, but I gotta get going if we want to leave tomorrow morning! I’ll pick you up at 8?”

    “See you then” I waved goodbye to her as she left the building.