them, but nobody could be persuaded in the end, and so Carlisle decided to try the New World. He dreamed of finding others like himself. He was very lonely, you see."
"He doesn't seem very lonely," I said, picking at a loose thread on the couch.
"No, back then he was lonely."
"Oh, okay."
"He didn't find anyone for a long time. But, as monsteres became the stuffing of fairy tales, he found he could interact with unsuspecting humans without being suspected of anything. He began practicing medicine in earnest, then. But the companionship he craved evaded him; he couldn't risk familiarity."
"Or family!"
"Bella, are you even listening?"
I looked up from the couch I'd been picking and realized I hadn't been listening at all. "Of course I am," I said as I withdrew my hand.
Fredward gave me a look, like he wanted to tell me again about how much he wished he could read my mind, but instead continued on to the next painting. The sky was black and underneath were brick buildings covered with people vomiting blood. "When the influenza epidemic hit, he was working nights in a hospital in Chicago. He'd been turning over an idea in his brain for several years, and he had almost decided to act—since he couldn't find a companion, he would make one. He wasn't absolutely sure how his own transformation had occurred, so he was hesitant. And he was loathe to steel someone's life the way his had been girded. It was in that frame of mind that he found me. There was no hope for me; I had the influenza. He had nursed my parents, and knew I was alone. And so he decided to try..."
His voice, nearly a whisper now, trailed off. He stared unseeingly into his own past, through the eastern windows. I wondered which images filled his mind now, Carlisle's memories or his own. Both, I decided. He was thinking about both.
When he turned back to me, a gentle angel-like angel's smile radiated down from his expression.
"And so we've come full circle," he concluded.
"Have you always stayed with Carlisle, then?" I wondered.
"Almost always." He put his hand lightly on my waist

342

Chapter 16

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