CHAPTER SIXTEEN
GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT

In the year: 1950

    BROKEN glass was everywhere.

Thea had completely demolished her room searching for the locket and she was beginning to go mental. Her drawers were now all pulled out, her bed was just a mattress, and she'd even gotten so enraged that she broke her mirror.

Esme and Rosalie come up the stairs immediately. "Thea? Thea! Thea, what are you doing?"

"I can't find it." Thea speeds into the bathroom, searching through any and everything. When she fails, she lets out a loud and frustrated scream. "Where is it?!"

"Where is what?" Esme eyes were wide, "Thea, Baby, you're worrying me."

"My locket." Thea points to her bare neck, "it's gone."

Carlisle and Emmett were now upstairs as well, they were also worried. "Don't worry, we'll help you look."

"I can't find it. I—"

She suddenly stops as she remembers earlier that day.

"That's a beautiful necklace." Alice's hand goes out to touch it but Thea is quick to stop it.

Thea knew it. She knew Alice couldn't be trusted. "Where's Alice?"

"She's hunting—"

Thea pushed past all of them, racing down the stairs just as Alice and Jasper walked through the front door.

"Where is it?!" Thea yelled so loudly that everyone thought their eardrums would burst.

Alice flinches, "what—"

Thea wraps her fingers around Alice's throat, pinning her against the front door, "Don't play dumb with me, where the hell is my necklace?!"

Alice groans at her strength.

"Thea!" Esme scolds her just as Carlisle gets in between the two.

"You took my necklace, I know it was you." Thea hisses.

Jasper stands in front of her protectively and Alice is puzzled. "I don't have your necklace!"

No. Thea wouldn't allow herself to be manipulated anymore. "You're a liar! I had this necklace for years and then you show up, complement it and suddenly it just disappears? Do you think I'm stupid, Alice?" Thea tries getting past Carlisle and Emmett but they hold her back.

Alice looked hurt, "why would I take your necklace?"

"You tell me." Thea chuckles angrily.

"She's didn't take it," Edward adds.

"Yes, she did."

"No. I read her mind. She doesn't know anything." Edward claimed.

Thea looks back at him, then at Alice. Who was still caressing her own throat? Thea felt her racing thoughts slow down.

Not saying a word, she storms out of the back door.

✸

     It was known by all the Cullens that Thea could be very aggressive. Especially when it came to important things in her life.

Thea was quiet and reserved 95% of the time but oh that other 5%.

Thanks to her amazing sharp vampire vision, she was able to see in the dead of night and was currently looking through the forest. Her eyes were scanning the ground, hoping to see the locket.

Even Thea had to admit, she felt bad for how she came at Alice. She was also embarrassed by her confident assumption that Alice stole her locket only for it to be wrong.

But at the moment, she couldn't apologize to Alice. She needed to find this locket.

"Your family looked all around the house, they couldn't find it." Alice walks towards her, her eyes soft and sympathetic. "They're looking all around the house now."

Thea was beginning to panic. Where the hell was this necklace?

Alice had to ask, "If you don't mind me asking, what's so important about this locket?"

Thea tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, "That's none of your business."

Alice shakes her head in disbelief, "why are you acting like this? In my vision you..."

Thea snaps her head towards Alice, "In your vision I what?"

"...you loved me. I loved you." Alice admits, her eyes glazed with sadness.

Thea felt the familiar guilt return to her heart. Damn. She hated this, she hated feeling so guilty. "...I'm sorry," Thea whispered so lowly that it was almost inaudible.

Alice's eyes soften on her, she walks up to her and Thea is about to take a step back, "Please...please don't walk away."

Thea surprisingly let her take steps forward and get to where they stood right in front of each other. Alice picks up Thea's hand and she tenses. "It's okay..." Alice reassures her before placing a broken chained necklace in Thea's palms.

Thea closes her eyes, her hand closing around the locket. "Did you look inside?" She asked softly.

Alice shakes her head, "No...I knew that whatever was inside was very important and I wanted to respect those boundaries."

Thea felt a wave of relief. "Thank you, Alice." She signals to her locket, "I'll have to repay you for this."

Alice giggled and Thea smiled at the noise.

Alice crossed her arms behind her back, her eyes on her shoes. "There is one thing you can do."

Thea tilts her head at the pixie, "And what is that?"

Alice wasn't going to try anything, not yet. Thea had trust issues and it was becoming clear that she needed to take it slow. "Don't ignore me, talk to me."

Thea smiles regretfully, nodding. "I'm sorry for that."

Alice smiles at her smile, "We should probably head back. Your families out there running around like headless chickens looking for that." She taps on Thea's hand that held the necklace.

Thea almost laughed at the image, "Yeah, you're probably right."

Thea and Alice walked back to the home, side by side.

✸

     "You communicated with her, that's progress, Thea!" Carmilla smiled proudly in their next session when Thea explained what happened the night prior.

"Are you two friends now?"

Thea was unsure. "More so acquaintances." 

Carmilla still smiles, "that's okay. Still, progress."

Thea scratched her chin, going silent for a quick moment.  "My mother was religious. Like...really religious."

Carmilla tunes in even more at the mention of Ethel, whom Thea hated to talk about.

"So anything that involved romantic love of those of the same sex was off limits..." Thea takes a moment before explaining, "She made that very clear after she caught me kissing a girl behind our town's church."

Carmilla's eyebrows raise. There it was.

"I was terrified of her." Thea mumbles, "I didn't dare think about doing anything like that ever again...and now here I am...with a mate who is not a man. I'm still scared, Carmilla."

"Thea, listen to me." Carmilla turns off her therapist mode and switches to friend mode, "I love you. You are a crazy girl but I love you."

Thea chuckles.

"You've gotta stop letting your past control your future. You can't let your mother continue to control you." Carmilla protests, "Don't let her ruin the best thing that can ever happen to you, Thea McCarty."

Thea thought she'd moved past her mother, she thought she'd completely buried her but she knew that she never fully would.

Thea tried forgetting her past but maybe she needs to do the complete opposite. Remember the moments and the pain and learn from it. Thea couldn't keep living in fear, it just wasn't possible.

So that afternoon when she found her family all sitting on the back porch, including Alice and Jasper, she joined them instead of running away.

The Cullens continue to converse with Jasper but also eye the small interaction between Thea and Alice.

Thea felt hesitant and unsure but she went for it. "Hey." She whispers to Alice, leaning on the porch railing beside her.

"Hey?" Seriously? Thea scolds herself.

Alice seemed just as hesitant but she smiled wide, arms crossed behind her back, "Hi."

     ragerwrites,           This is progress everyone! Please don't expect Thea to immediately accept Alice with open arms, let's be realistic here.

This may be the last update for a while because I gotta write a few more chapters 🥱

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