Absolución teaser from chapter 18

Aro recognized the stony expression and laughed at the irony. "You're as stubborn as their teenagers, and just as self-absorbed." He ignored the flash of annoyance on Carlisle's face. "You assume I'm too old to understand, to set in my ways to appreciate what you're going through. Yet you fail to appreciate that perhaps in my age and wisdom I might have a larger base of knowledge to draw from?

"I have touched the lives of hundreds of thousands; known their secrets, their sins and their dreams. I have seen parts of the world that I have never travelled to, and watched those places change over the years. I know the location of treasures unheard of. I know the answers to mysteries that have long since lost their questions. The people who have died at my hand took nothing to their graves.

"Have you never once considered that I would have seen atrocities so heinous that even I would be surprised?"

Absolución teaser from chapter 17

Carlisle fell to the floor beside his wife, grunting in pain as a split second before the sound wave pulsed through the air. Spiderweb cracks formed across Carlisle's hands again with the impact as the sound waves literally destabilized the molecules of his body. Fear for Esme's life ripped through Carlisle. What had made her jump out of the scant safety? He ignored the pain and pulled Esme to him, wrapping his arms around her shoulders to shelter her with his body. Why had she put herself in danger like that?

But even as the terrorized question burned through Carlisle's mind, he realized he knew the answer. Esme was a mother in her deepest soul. She was caring, nurturing and selfless to a fault when it came to protecting anyone she felt maternal towards. She had been a grieving mother the day she died and Carlisle had frozen that grief in her for eternity.

She was trapped in that grief ... Esme had found a way to redirect her anguish by substituting her lost son with an entirely new family.