"Bella! You walk out that door, I'll never let you back! You'll be all alone. No one wants a piece of filth like you!"
With a pack on her back and bag in hand, Isabella Swan was standing with her hand on the doorknob and back to her father, about to walk out the door. And never come back.
Five years she had been living with her father. As chief of police in Forks, Washington, Charlie Swan was a very well respected man. Not one person in the small town would have ever doubted or thought ill of him. He was involved in everything going on, from chaperoning the high school dances to helping with events at the Church. Out in public, he was seen as a saint, even more, as the perfect father. Nobody could have imagined what happened within his house. But Bella knew. And she had enough of it.
Of course, only a month before, Bella had packed her bags and decided to leave Charlie. It never happened. She had packed her bags, even gotten some money and called for a cab. But she never took a step out of the door. Charlie could be very persuasive and intimidating when needed. He always got what he wanted, no matter the price. Whether it was by the use of fear or reality, he had his way with words.
"You're not going anywhere, I know you. You have no one to go to. I'm the only person who would be willing to put up with you. Just go back to your room and unpack your things. You're not leaving tonight." And with that said, Bella let go of the door with a quiet sigh. Hopes crushed and heart breaking, she knew she had nowhere to go, just like Charlie said. She had never quite gotten that far in her plan. Bella had always just hoped that when she got out there she'd just figure things out as she went along.
Silently, she walked past Charlie back up the stairs and into her room. Bella threw her bags on the bed and slumped to the floor. Glancing at the stand next to her, she reached for the picture frame sitting there. Memories flashed through her mind and tears threatened to spill over as she sat there, staring at the woman standing next to her in the picture. It was her mother, Renee. The picture had been taken when the two of them went backpacking through Europe two months before the accident. Two months before she moved in with Charlie. Two months before her life became hell.
"Ugh!" Bella screamed and threw the photo across the room where it hit the wall and the glass covering it shattered.
Of course she loved and missed her mother dearly, and the hole in her life she felt without her was almost unbearable, but she was just so angry at Renee for leaving her here, alone. It wasn't fair she had to leave her home Arizona for this damp, dreary place.
Bella got up and walked across the room to clean up the broken glass and rid of it before Charlie found out. As she bent down to clean it up, Bella lost her footing and her arm landed among the glass as an attempt to keep herself from falling. She gasped. Spots of blood began to bloom where the glass had cut her skin. She just sat there and watched as the blood finally spilled over. Bella let out the breath she hadn't known she'd been holding. And, for the first time since she could remember, she felt calm. This wasn't the kind of pain she was used to. This wasn't what she knew so well. This pain was different. Not like what she felt from when Charlie was hitting her or the stinging words he burned into her mind. This pain was relief. This pain was a way out.