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𝑮 𝑳 𝑰 𝑻 𝑪 𝑯
❝  𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝'𝚜 𝚖𝚛 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚔 𝚝𝚘 𝚢𝚘𝚞  ❞

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ㅤ"𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐃𝐎𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄?!" Maria frantically asked, her eyes blinking rapidly as if to check if she was seeing things.

"Well, when your aunt told me about you suddenly driving off to God knows where in the middle of the night," Tony began, his voice was playful but his eyes were stern. Maria felt like shrinking under his gaze. "I just had to make sure you were okay. Wouldn't want you suddenly turning up dead, especially with all the disappearing hikers you never told me about."

"Dad..."

"Mia, tell me the truth," Tony sighed. "Why would you do that? I mean, yeah, teenage rebellion. But it wasn't something I'd ever thought you would do." He shook his head. "Vic was worried sick, Pep freaked out and Happy almost wanted me to carry him with me all the way here!"

Maria looked down in shame. "I'll...I don't know if I can tell you."

"Why the hell not?!"

Paul just stood there awkwardly as he watched his imprint's dad look at her in disappointment. Her aunt even refused to look at him and instead stood there with her arms crossed, leaning on a wall. He cursed in his head, knowing that he already made a bad impression on his imprint's family. Despite it being Jacob's fault for calling her in the middle of the night, he felt guilty. He was going to explain everything in the morning, but Jacob had butt in and had her involved without him even knowing.

"Dad, I really can't..."

Paul hesitated to speak up, but seeing Maria all vulnerable broke his heart. "I'm sorry, it was my fault, sir."

"That's Mr. Stark to you, young man," Tony stood up from where he sat. The man was significantly shorter than the shapeshifter, but Paul was still intimidated. He almost took a step back when Tony walked towards him.

"Wait..." Paul realized. "You're Tony Stark."

Tony gave him a sarcastic smile. "Yeah, it's a pleasure. Nice to meet the guy who's seemingly tainted my daughter. Actually, no, I can't play nice, not this time. Because if my daughter won't explain anything, you should. If you somehow can't," he took a quick glance at his daughter whose lower lip trembled, "then you can leave."

"Mr. Stark," Paul frowned, wanting nothing more to console Maria who was close to crying. "I can't tell you either. But..." he clenched his jaw, closing his eyes for a few seconds before meeting the man's eyes. "I can ask the council if they can explain it to you."

Tony scoffed. "So, it's true then. You are part of a cult."

"It's not a cult, Mr. Stark," Paul shook his head. "We're not...worshipping Satan, we're not sacrificing babies in an altar. We're not on drugs, like most people think we are. I'm talking about a tribal council, because this is...sacred to us."

"Tribal?" Tony raised his eyebrows in curiosity. "As far as I'm concerned, Mia's not Quileute."

"But she might as well be, sir," Paul took one last look at Maria, who was now in the arms of her aunt. "I promise, once I talk to the council--"

"You shouldn't make promises to me," Tony glared. "I just want to know why my baby girl was put in harm's way. I don't care how high up you gotta go to give me information. Because if I don't get answers soon, I'm taking Mia back to California where I can protect her." He clenched his jaw. "Understood?"

"Understood, sir," Paul sighed, offering Maria an apologetic smile, which she tried to return. "I'm sorry."

The last thing Paul heard was Maria getting grounded, before he ran towards the woods and shifted.

Jessica was the one to notice Maria's absence. The Cullens returning had been the talk of the school, but her close friend wasn't there to gossip about them.

"Hey, have you guys seen Mia?" Jessica asked, a frown on her face. The vampires, who sat a few tables away, stiffened, and subtly turned their heads to pay attention. Jasper, especially, was surprised that his seatmate was nowhere to be found.

"I don't know," Angela shrugged. "Haven't seen her either. I tried calling her earlier, but she wouldn't answer. Kept going straight to voicemail."

"You don't think she's in any danger, do you?" Jessica whispered to her friends. "Like, with all the disappearances and murders..." She shuddered at the thought.

"Jessica, don't even think like that," Mike frowned. "She's probably just sick."

"Being sick doesn't mean you can't at least send a text or something," Jessica retorted, before sighing. "I'm gonna drive down to her house after school and give her the homework she's missed. Anyone wanna come with me?"

"Can't," Angela smiled apologetically. "I have to turn in my photographs for the school paper, and I have to babysit my brother because our parents are out of town."

"I have work," Mike shrugged. "I have a shift today. Sorry."

"Tyler, Eric?" Jessica turned to look at the two.

"I may have gotten detention with Mr. Molina for passing notes," Eric sheepishly admitted.

"Passing notes?" Jessica rolled her eyes. "What are you, a middle schooler?"

"And I...have a date," Tyler smirked.

"Ugh, God," Jessica rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'll go by myself. Anyway, are you guys shocked about the Cullens returning? Because honestly, I'm not. And I genuinely can't believe Bella's already back with Edward. Like, didn't he literally leave her in the woods?"

Jasper stopped paying attention to the humans and turned to face his wife. "Can you see anything about Mia? I really hope..." He let out an unneeded breath. "No, she's smarter than that."

Edward turned to look at him. "Bella told me she started hanging out with one of the wolves. Paul."

"I can't see anything," Alice softly groaned. "It's either she's hanging out with the wolves or something else is blocking me. I have a feeling it's not the wolves though."

"What do you mean?" Bella frowned.

"You know how it's hard for Edward to read her thoughts without getting a headache, or for Jasper to manipulate her emotions without her noticing?" She asked. The human nodded. "Well, there are times when it's hard for me to see her future. Mostly because she keeps changing decisions. And it feels like what's blocking me is also indecisiveness...from another person..."

After collecting all of Maria's homework, Jessica exited the school. She hopped into her car and placed all her school stuff in the passenger. Having already visited Maria's house, she knew how to get there. She's also met Victoria, who she considers a 'cool aunt,' so there was no hesitation in her actions.

But as she drove up the driveway, she noticed cracks on the driveway that were suspiciously shaped like footprints. She frowned, trying to figure out what heavy thing actually made indents on pavement, but decided to ignore them. Shaking her head, she thought that maybe it was just Maria, who has a knack for inventing things—she's been in her room, some of them look dangerous—and maybe she invented something that was able to break concrete. For what, though, she wouldn't ask.

Jessica parked her car to the side, grabbed Mia's homework, and strolled towards the front door. She rang the doorbell, but the person who opened the door wasn't who she expected.

"Oh my God!" Jessica exclaimed, almost dropping her stuff in shock. "You're Tony Stark!"

Tony gave her an amused scoff. "Hi."

Jessica's jaw dropped, and she started sputtering in nervousness. "You're...oh my...what..."

It was then that Maria peeked her head from behind her father, her eyes a bit swollen from crying. "Oh, hi Jess. Come in."

Giving Tony Stark a hesitant smile as he gestured her in, she gave him a small wave before rushing to her friend, who unexpectedly greeted her with a hug.

"Dad, can we..."

"Go ahead," Tony gave his daughter a small smile before closing the door.

Maria gestured to Jessica, who followed her up to her room. Jessica was still in shock and was barely recovering, placing Maria's homework on her desk before speaking up.

"Your dad...is Tony Stark?!"

author's note: this is kinda short, but i wanted to showcase tony's protective side, as well as begin the build up for the scene where tony finally comes out with the announcement that mia's his daughter. i also forgot that mia's part of the school's paper (a photographer) so i might tackle that in the next chapter. she also hasn't turned 18 yet (i forgot to add in a birthday scene) so i'm definitely gonna put that in the next chapter.

i really forgot a lot of shit oops, so i'm gonna make up for it in the next chapter.

thank you all for 1.4k reads! please don't forget to vote and tell me what you think. also, don't hesitate to point out any spelling or grammar mistakes, thank you!!!