Prologue-

William 'Billy' Black sighed as he looked at the woman sitting in front of him staring at the child lying down next to her in a stroller with a pensive look on her face. She had not said anything for the past twenty minutes and with every passing minute Billy's hope dwindled. He knew it was unexpected, heck he was in shock too but for the sake of this small little girl who was sleeping peacefully in her stroller ignorant of all that was going on around her, he hoped that the decision would be in her favor.

This six month old child had already faced enough traumas in her short life and for her sake he hoped that this was the end of her misfortune. First she had lost her father a month after her birth in a robbery gone wrong and now this. When was it going to end?

He sighed once again when he thought about his best friend Charlie Swan who had six months back been a happily married cop with a lovely wife and a beautiful newborn baby girl but his happiness had been taken away so abruptly from him. One phone call and everything had changed. He could still remember that exact moment when he closed his eyes. It had been a normal day as far as he remembered. In all honesty though most 'accidents' occur on days that begin normally. Charlie and Billy had grown up together playing on the beaches on the reservation and going fishing with their fathers. Their friendship was more of a generation passed down thing as even their fathers William Black Senior and Geoffrey Swan had been the best of friends and before them their fathers. It had been normal for them to be friends and so on that unfortunate day in October Charlie and his wife of a year Renee had invited Billy, his wife Sarah and their twin daughters Rachel and Rebecca over for dinner at his place. It was more of a to cheer Renee up kind of dinner than otherwise as Renee had been stressed since the past few weeks with baby Isabella crying the entire day and night and the reason being unknown despite them visiting several doctors even as far as Seattle. Charlie had ordered Chinese takeaway for dinner so that Renee could just relax and spend time with Sarah who was one of her close friends and being a new mother herself with the twins just being a bit short of two years Renee valued Sarah's experience on handling baby Isabella. They had just sat down in the living room with Renee and Sarah talking in one corner, Billy and Charlie watching a game on the TV and Rachel and Rebecca cooing to the baby who had just somehow stopped crying much to Renee and Charlie's relief when the landline phone had blared loudly. Charlie had quickly attended to the call suddenly turning to what Billy had termed his cop mode and after talking on the phone for a few minutes had ended the call and had got up from the couch to go and get his gun. Before he left to attend to his duty he had quickly explained to the others that the call had been from old Mrs. Bunsen who lived alone in her house at the edge of Forks after her husband expired and her grandson who had been living with them took off for college. Billy had heard the rumors about her being paranoid and cooking up stories that she assumed were real so when Charlie had told them of how Mrs. Bunsen was claiming that someone was trying to break in her house and attack her, his first reaction was to scoff but being a cop Charlie could just not let it go without checking it out once and so on a rainy dark night in the town of Forks Charlie had left his wife, child and friends to go and check on Mrs. Bunsen.

They had waited for close to an hour consoling an anxious Renee that Charlie would soon be back and it was probably the rain that was making his car go slower than usual but the hormonal stressed Renee had been hard to convince and so the couple had decided to wait till Charlie was back before they left to go home even though it was much later than they would have preferred to stay out with the twins being so young. Sarah had put the twins to sleep in the spare room before going to see Renee who was feeding baby Isabella in the master bedroom while Billy had waited by the door in the hope that he would see Charlie's cruiser arrive. It had been a tiresomely long hour with Sarah silently consoling an overly worked up Renee and Billy sighing every few minutes staring outside the window in worry when a knock had disturbed their silence. Billy had rushed to the door to find one of Charlie's colleagues standing by the door with a mournful look on his face and Billy had nearly buried in his own sadness and pain when he heard what the other man had said. For once Mrs. Bunsen had not cried wolf without reason and when Charlie had reached the site he had found an intruder trying to break in. It had been a case of wrong place wrong time for Charlie who had accidently ended up with a gunshot aimed at his heart killing him on spot. There had not even been the hope of taking him to the hospital in his case and within seconds Charlie's life had been taken away from him.

Billy had turned back to a shout to see Renee fainting and Sarah trying to hold her and get her back to consciousness and Billy had understood that this was not the time to mourn for his closest friend but to support his left behind family. He and Sarah had stood by Renee in this difficult time and for the next five months they had seen the depressed Renee go through life with them and Charlie's other friends supporting her as much as they could. Renee had run away from her house at the age of sixteen and she had no family that she could rely on and even Charlie's parents had passed away a few months before she entered Charlie's life and so Billy, Sarah, Harry and Sue were all Renee had and he had actually thought that maybe Renee would pull through if not for herself then for baby Isabella so this was completely shocking to Billy.

"What does this mean?" cried out the woman sitting in front of him bringing him back to the present, throwing at him the letter he had given her to read when he had come to visit her today. He sighed. He knew this was a hard pill to swallow and even he found it hard to believe but he still believed there was some truth in those words.

"How could she?" shouted the woman livid "She cheated on her husband who loved her more than anything in the world and now she… she left her daughter behind"

Billy did not know whether to laugh or cry as this was not the reaction he had expected from her. He had expected rage for her own as she was equally affected by this but she had reacted completely unexpectedly then again the woman in question was a mother who would put a defenseless child before everything else no matter who the child's parents were.

"Is she really gone?" she whispered in an unbelieving manner

Billy just nodded his head looking at the floor. Today had started too like any other normal day but soon Billy had found out that today was anything but normal. Renee as she did so these days had left the now six months old Isabella with Sarah who stayed home to look after the twins who were in their terrible twos now and Billy who worked from home using his shed for his carving business had not thought anything unusual of it as Renee was trying to find a job to sustain and without even completing high school or having a GED it was turning out to be difficult and so Sarah had temporarily offered to babysit Isabella while Renee found suitable work. The unease and worry though had begun when even at eight in the night Renee had not arrived to take Isabella home. Billy had just assumed that probably Renee had travelled to Port Angeles for work and so was running late while Sarah had put the baby to sleep after feeding her the milk Renee had left for her. After waiting for two more hours though a scared Billy had made his way towards the Swan house in Forks to look for Renee who was not picking up her phone and the sight that he had seen had shocked him to the core.

The house lay locked with all the lights shut and a letter neatly folded with his name on it was placed between the door and the lock. With shaking hands he had removed the letter out wishing that this was not what he was thinking it to be but he had been wrong again.

She had left. She had left forever leaving her child behind and the letter was more of an apology stating that she could not do this any longer. She had tried but failed and she did not want to fail Isabella any longer by being a mother no child deserves to have. Billy had wanted to shout and pull his hair out in anger at her selfishness but he had kept reading the letter the nineteen year old Renee Higginbotham Swan had written. The second part of the letter had been more of a confession as she had confessed the true paternity of her child and had stated that she had cheated on Charlie a few months into their marriage on a night when Charlie was in Seattle for work, with someone she had hardly known and had met the same night in a bar. She had said that she was extremely guilty for her mistakes and could not keep it any longer within her and to take Isabella to her real father but Billy had known the complications in that too.

"How could he Billy?" cried out the woman again "We were married. Our son, his son is three. What is going to happen now? What am I going to tell him when he asks me questions a few years from now?"

"Allison" said Billy sighing once again in despair not knowing what to say ahead. This was not how it was supposed to happen. His friend was supposed to live and have the happy family he wanted with his wife being loyal to him and so was the woman sitting in front of him. She was supposed to have a happy ending too.

He looked at Allison Uley as she sat hiding her face with her hands. The past few months had been bad on her too with her husband Joshua Uley walking out on her leaving her and their son Sam behind and now to find out that he had cheated on her and had conceived another child with an almost stranger but he knew that she deserved to know the truth. Billy could clearly see the pain on Allison's face as she took in his words. He had come here to ask her if she had any way to contact Joshua who had seemed to disappear in the face of this earth but a part of him had always known that it was useless. Joshua Uley had left La Push and their lives forever never to look back again and now with Renee giving away the child's rights it was his responsibility to give this child a suitable home.

"Look at them" said Allison softly diverting Billy's attention to the baby in the stroller and the toddler standing in front of her making funny faces at her trying to make her smile while baby Isabella just stared at him with her eyes wide open.

Allison expression suddenly changed to worry and Billy knew that she was thinking of Isabella's future. Heck he too was worried about the same thing and had spent many sleepless nights thinking the same. He was the tribal chief and this was a child of the tribe and it would be his duty to raise her on tribal grounds and even without that this was his best friend Charlie's daughter no matter what Renee said. Charlie loved Isabella more than anything and Billy owed this to him. He had spoken to Sarah about this. They would adopt Isabella if need be. He knew that money would be difficult with Sarah not working at the moment and him having three mouths to feed with a fourth on the way but he could not let his best friend's daughter, a vulnerable baby be left alone or given to parents who did not care for her. He was a father too and the image of his daughters instantly came in front of his eyes when he thought of Isabella going to people who would not keep her happy. No he would make sure that she was happy.

"What is her name?" asked Allison staring in awe at the baby who was now adorably yawning

"Isabella Swan" said Billy

Allison shook her head with a small smile on her face "She is an Uley. I can see the features"

Billy just nodded his head knowing how correct Allison was. Despite Isabella's skin tone that she had acquired from Renee her features were all Uley genes that he could see in Sam.

Allison just stared at the child for a few more minutes before looking at Billy with what could only be described as firm determination as if she had taken her decision.

"I want to adopt her" said Allison with all surety looking again at Sam showing his toys to the baby who was with sheer concentration looking at them.

"Are you sure?" asked Billy

She just nodded her head as a smile graced her face "She is an Uley, Billy, Isabella Uley and she may not be my daughter biologically but she is my son's sister and I would be honored to raise her like my own if you as the chief agree to it"

Billy just looked at her for a few minutes before smiling for the first time in days. He knew that Allison Uley was a good woman and Isabella would be well looked after in this house with her as a mother and Sam as a brother "I will draw the papers"

A/N: Thank you for reading. Please let me know what you think.