Disclaimer: I do not own any of the following.

This is picking up from Edward's POV, starting with the call Rosalie makes to him, telling him of Bella's supposed death.

Chapter 1

The world had long ago lost meaning to me, and I had lost Victoria. I had failed my Bella, once again.

Failed. Once again.

Those three words were like ice to my already deathly chilled body. I could never save her, the girl I so desperately loved and clung to for sanity. I didn't want to give up—how could I? Yet, the possibility that Victoria was already in Forks held me stuck to the wall. I was too far away, and Bella could never be mine if that were true.

I watched a rat pick its way through a pile of poison in the cobwebbed corner, but saw nothing. Dust coated my shoes, and chills racked my frozen heart, no matter the heat. Loud, boisterous Flamingo rolled through the heat in the attic, and I pressed my head back against the wooden boards. This existence, I couldn't take it anymore. I needed her. I needed to see her bottomless eyes, and know I was always wanted; wished that I could touch her face, just one more time, and feel the soft blush beneath my fingers. I pictured her face in my mind—so perfectly wonderful—and thought of how she would glow when I came back. The image was so beautiful, so filled with relief, that I thought my heart would beat again just at the sight.

What if I called her home? I just needed to hear her voice, and hear the longing behind it. I didn't care anymore if Victoria was already there. I would go back. There wasn't a question anymore; it was a matter of when. I was happy to grovel, just spending my existence on my knees, if I were with her, would be enough. There would be no doubt of our love in my voice, my eyes.

My phone buzzed to life, echoing my thoughts, the screen lighting through my pocket. It was the twenty-fifth time in the past day. I pulled it out, and flipped it open—it was Rosalie.

"Edward—".

It snapped shut in my palm. She was probably liking life with me gone, wanting to rub her perfections in my face, again. I went back to picturing my Bella, the face of an angel, whispering me home. She smiled, and—.

My phone was buzzing in my pocket. I checked the display, Rosalie. Sighing, I opened it.

"What?" I asked, irritated.

"Oh, wow. Edward answered the phone. I feel so honored."

I closed my phone, and set it on the floor. I knew in the instant she said something, she was merely calling to annoy. Of course it vibrated noisily against the wood. She probably would keep calling until I answered, so I might as well get it over with.

"Get on with it."

The words came out garbled through the receiver. "I thought you might want to know that Alice is in Forks."

I stiffened and stared blankly at the ceiling.

"What?" My voice was flat, hiding the anger that was starting to bubble inside.

"You know how Alice is—thinks she knows everything. Like you." Rosalie muttered, but there was an edge to her voice, like she didn't know how to proceed.

But my rage blurred Rosalie's problem into a dark nothingness.

Alice was in Forks, and she had sworn otherwise. She said she knew I would always fold to the pain, my will would crumble, and I would go back. Yet, I was still here, wasn't I? No matter my previous thoughts, I hadn't decided to return yet. She couldn't have seen that. I closed my eyes and breathed through my nose tensely.

No. Dammit, no.

I shut the image of Bella's open window into the corner of my mind, no matter how tempting its call was. I shut her eyes, her blush, and her endearing clumsiness away with it. No, no, no. Bella was better without me, I always knew that. My love cowered against what was right, and shrank, but was always still there. No.

"Are you still there Edward?"

Bella was too good for me. I never deserved her.

I played the words over in my mind, gluing them to the walls like a motto. She was always too good for a monster.

"Edward? Don't you even care why Alice is there?"

"Not particularly."

Rosalie suddenly became surer of why she had called and chuckled through the phone, becoming herself again. "Well, of course, she's not exactly breaking the rules. I mean, you only warned us to stay away from Bella, right? The rest of Forks doesn't matter."

I opened my eyes and my head fell against my knees, the breath whooshing out of me. Bella had left. Bella wasn't there anymore. Life was a lie. I selfishly wanted her there, to know that she was safe in the green cage. I supposed she had gone to Florida after all, knowing that Forks no longer held anything. She had ventured to the sunshine, where I never could go with her in life. I wanted her in Forks, no matter what it might cost me.

My instincts told me to breathe, and I couldn't.

Rosalie cleared her throat on the other end. "So you don't need to be angry with Alice."

"Then why bother me Rosalie? Why waste time calling me?"

"Wait!" She cried, knowing that I was about to end the conversation. "That's not why I called!"

"Then why? Tell me now, and then don't call again" I growled.

"Well...um..." her voice caught with anxiety.

"Rosalie, you have ten seconds."

"I think you should come home," Rosalie spluttered. "I'm tired of Esme grieving and Carlisle never laughing. You should feel ashamed at what you've done to them. Emmett misses you all the time and it's getting on my nerves. You have a family. Grow up and think about someone besides yourself."

"Interesting advice, Rosalie."

"I am thinking of someone else, unlike you. Think about how much you've hurt Esme, if no one else? She loves you more than the rest of us, and you know that. Come home."

I sat silently.

"Forks was never the problem, Rosalie." I muttered patiently. "Just because Bella"—her name went like a dagger through my throat—"has moved to Florida doesn't mean that I'm able to...Look, Rosalie. I'm really sorry, but, trust me. It wouldn't make you any happier if I were there."

"Erm..." she paused—nervous again.

"What is it you're not telling me Rosalie? Is Esme alright? Is Carlisle—"

"They're fine. It's just that...well, I didn't say Bella moved."

I didn't say anything, but replayed the conversation in my head. Yes, she had said that Bella had moved. Hadn't she? "You only warned us to stay away from Bella, right?" she had said. "The rest of Forks doesn't matter." Bella wasn't in Forks. What did that mean?

Then she was stuttering and garbling her words again, almost madly.

"They didn't want to tell you, but I think that's stupid. The quicker you get over this, the sooner things and go back to normal. Why let you mope around the dark corners of the world when there's no need for it? You can come home now. We can be a family again. It's over."

My mind was hanging off its hinges. Nothing was making sense, like it was some foreign tongue. I formed the words over and over again, searching in the meanings, placing them together like puzzle pieces. It wasn't right.

"Edward?"

"I don't understand what you are saying, Rosalie."

She stopped for a moment, for the space of a couple of heartbeats.

"She's dead, Edward."

She paused a moment longer.

"I'm...sorry. You have a right to know, though, I think...Bella threw herself off a cliff two days ago. Alice saw it, but it was too late to do anything for her. I think she would have helped, broken her word, if there was any time. She went back to do what she could for Charlie. You know how kind she's always been to him—"

The phone died. It took me a second to notice that I'd killed it.

I closed my eyes and slumped into the corner for an eternity. My clock had stopped, and the world's had been destroyed; nothing mattered anymore. My universe had died with love.

With exaggerated care, I picked up the phone, and slowly dialed the number I had promised I would never dial again.

If it was her, I would hang up and live. If it was her father, I would find a way to get my information, and prove Rosalie wrong. Because she couldn't be right. Bella had promised.

"Swan residence." Answered an unknown voice. It was deep and husky, yet retained its youth.

I didn't think about that.

"This is Dr. Carlisle Cullen," I said, perfectly imitating my father. "May I speak to Chief Swan?"

"He's not here." It came out like a snarl, thick with anger.

"Well, where is he then?" I needed to know. Now.

There was a long pause, like this boy didn't want to tell me.

"He's at the funeral."

The phone closed and dropped to the ground.

Life meant nothing, the reasoning was gone. My eyes closed, and my breath hitched, and stopped; I wished for the comforting grasp of suffocation. Wanting an escape from this black night, for that's what life had become—an eternal darkness. No soul was worth what I had gone through, and no heart deserved this pain. Demons clawed themselves out of my chest, and broke into my mind, clouding my memories, my sanity. The heart that I had so hoped would start beating again for her shrank to dust, and scattered itself in the depths of Hades.

She had promised.

The words flew through my head like a burning scrap of parchment, like a warrant for death. What did a promise mean? Surely, if I could break one, so important and so meaningful, then she could break the one that held my heart together as I had broken hers. I was Romeo now; the man whom I had so thoughtlessly scoffed at was my doom. These violent delights have violent ends...never was a phrase truer in life. Hadn't I once told her I couldn't live without her? Did Bella never question me, my deceit, and my love? She must have known how I felt when I spoke the words that ended it all. I thought of the day back in the forest; I don't want you to come with me. I saw her eyes, and I saw in them that she had believed me. How could she? With the thousands of times I told her I loved her, how could she let one sentence cancel them all?

My meteor was gone, so why wasn't the sky black? I couldn't endure more, and it was inevitable that there would come a time when she wouldn't be able to either. I didn't foresee it being so soon. Love, life, meaning...over. It had to end now.