Chapter One
Esme
So Bella was leaving us to move back in with her mother, we had all thought she would stay in Forks until she finished school but for some reason Renee wanted her back in Florida. Charlie was devastated and I knew we would miss her. At one time I had held out hopes that she and Edward might become close but Bella just wasn't ready for any commitment and once he realised that he had moved up to Denali to get away from the temptation to bully her into changing her mind. Edward didn't take rejection well but he had made the right choice and suddenly he and Tanya just clicked so he wouldn't be returning at all. It was good in many ways because not only was he happy at last but it meant we, as a family, could still have contact with Bella. We were all very fond of her, even Rose had thawed out somewhat when it became clear that Bella was unaware of our secret, she had been panic-stricken that Edward would give us away but in the event she had been proved wrong.
I thought Alice would have liked Bella too but she left us a few months before the girl arrived in Forks. It seems our little family was slowly fragmenting as our children found their mates, Edward and Tanya and Alice and Garrett, I wondered if there might be such good news for Jasper now he was the odd one out but he soldiered on with school and his latest hobby, writing an eye-witness account of the Civil War. I sometimes felt that he might never find happiness, he carried so much baggage around, his past was a millstone around his neck and I think that was the turning point for Alice. She had been very fond of Jasper but in the end she could see no future for the two of them and then Garrett appeared to visit Carlisle and they just gravitated to each other.
I had spoken to Bella about her leaving making her promise she would write often, I would miss my youngest 'almost daughter' and I knew of another who would miss her presence in Forks. It was common knowledge that Jacob Black was sweet on her which made Edward jealous because she refused to stop seeing him on Edwards word. He should have realised that trying to put his foot down with that young girl was like waving a red rag at an angry bull. Personally I had my suspicions that she might have been interested in Jasper but he was so aloof and I doubt he even noticed her.
Jake
I was so frustrated, once Edward Cullen had left Forks after being blown out by Bella I thought my chances might improve. After all their argument had been over her seeing me but I was wrong yet again. It seemed she wasn't interested in either of us except as friends. Frustratingly she saw me as a big brother and not a romantic possibility. Her last day in Forks she and Charlie had come to the Res and she'd promised to write and let me know how she was getting on in Florida. Why she couldn't have told her mother to go to hell and stay here I don't know but there was no point in beating myself up over it. I wasn't the one in her life and never would be, she'd told me that in no uncertain terms the one time I tried to take liberties with her on the way back from the movies after dropping Mike and Jessica off. I guess I should have known better really, she'd made it quite clear that this WAS NOT a date.
Jasper
Bella was gone and chances were I would never see her again although even the thought of that was enough to bring me to my knees. When I first set eyes on her at school I felt something inside me shift, the gloom that had settled over my being when Alice told me she wasn't interested in me any longer, that I'd just been a convenient stopping place while she waited for her real mate to turn up lifted a little. I thought she was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen and when our eyes met as they did a few times I felt warm again, the block of ice my body had become melted a little. Of course Edward heard my thoughts and made a play for her just to prove he was superior but he needn't have bothered. I knew only too well that a girl like that was meant for far better than me. I was a monster who had killed hundreds of her fellow humans, men, women, and sometimes even children although at the time I knew no better. When I finally realised there was another way to live it was too late, the damage was done and I was marked. How could I expect or even try to catch her attention. When Edward left I thought her trips to the house would cease and when I saw her there once more I felt elated and then came the news she was leaving, my own personal sun was setting for good and I knew the pain I felt as she left the house for the last time would only get worse. Was this my penance for all the evil I had done?
Bella
Coming to Forks had felt like doing a penance, I hated the cold and the rain and the small town mentality but I had been surprised to find such diverse and interesting people here. I began to feel I had finally come home and enjoyed the friendships I had formed. While Edward and Jake had been far too intense they were still friends and I would miss them. Of course I would miss my dad, after all this had been my longest stay with him since my mother left home with me under her arm all those years ago. I felt there were things going on in Forks that hid below the surface, secrets and surprises. The Quileutes, well they were a spiritual race with their legends and rituals so I guessed it was only normal to feel they held secrets but the strongest feeling of this came whenever I visited the Cullen house.
There was something odd about the family and not just their strange pallor and honey coloured eyes. They seemed older than their years, yet I felt comfortable in their company. I didn't want to get involved with anyone, not while I was at school so I was relieved when Edward went back to his real family but there was one person I would have broken that decision for. He was so enigmatic, so quiet, yet I knew he was as aware of my presence as I was of his. Given time perhaps we might have become closer but then Renee intervened and I was pulled from my father and Forks back to Florida and a new start for Renee now she had got over Phil leaving her.
Renee
I knew both Charlie and Bella were upset at my request that she come home but I hoped my news would be something of a pleasant surprise. I was tired of being alone which is why I had been so flattered by Phil's attentions, the younger man interested in the older woman. We had fun and I was genuinely fond of him but I found his ways a little juvenile sometimes and frankly I was fed up of the late night parties with the loud music and too much alcohol. I wanted something more, someone more mature who knew how to treat a woman properly. I could play the lady when I wanted to but until now I'd never met anyone I wanted to make that effort for. Strangely he reminded me a little of Charlie. He wasn't like him physically, he didn't even like the same things, he wasn't a hunting and fishing fan like Charlie but there was something in the way he treated me, as if I were special, that reminded me of the early days with Charlie. I guess that's all there were, early days, but then perhaps I was too young at the time to appreciate the kind of man Charlie Swan was.