I will never forget the day that permanently drove me from my fiancée. It lives on constant repeat in my mind, even now, a year later.

It was the night before my wedding to Edward Cullen, the only man I thought I could ever love. I was sitting with a group of women at what was supposed to have been a rather embarrassing bachelorette party, but I'd put my foot down when I discovered their plans, citing that I was nervous enough without them trying to frighten me with tales of horrible wedding nights. And I'd refused to let Alice display several pieces of "clothing" that left nothing to the imagination. Instead, we were having a marathon of chick flicks, which I was just fine with.

I glanced over at Alice, and as my eyes met hers, a wide grin spread my lips. She was still glaring at me for ruining her fun, and had been doing it since we slipped the first movie into the DVD player. We were now on the fourth. Charlie and Carlisle were entertaining Phil elsewhere, while my mother, Esme, Alice, Rosalie, and Angela kept me company at Charlie's. It was my last night in his house. What a weird thought.

Never in a million years would I have imagined the phone call that came through as I was walking into the kitchen to get a bottle of water for my nervous stomach. It began ringing just as I stepped over the threshold, and as I reached for it, I heard someone gasp sharply in the living room. I glanced back in the other room, and Alice's face was twisted in grief, her hand gripping Rosalie's wrist mercilessly.

Oh, God. Edward. I tripped over my own feet running to catch the phone, slamming into the corner of the wall painfully. I still managed to get to it, and snatched it from the cradle. "Edward? Edward, what's wrong?"

There was a long, tense pause, and then Carlisle's voice flooded my ears. "Bella…"

"Oh, God, Carlisle. Where's Edward? What's happened?"

My heart was pounding somewhere around my throat, and my body was so tense that it hurt to breathe. I was losing patience with the silence on the other end of the line.

"Edward's fine, Bella. Put your mother on the phone, please."

"Why do you want Renee? Carlisle, you're scaring me."

"It's very important that I speak to her, Bella," he said in the eternally calm voice of his.

"Okay…"

I called my mother into the kitchen, and held the phone up for her to take with a quizzical expression. I was so confused, until she spoke into it. I could only hear one side of the conversation, but it was more than enough.

"Hello?"…

"Yes, Carlisle. What's wrong?"…

I watched her hand grip the phone so tightly her knuckles turned white, and she glanced at me with wild, panicked eyes.

"…Is he okay? Please tell me he's okay."…

There was such a long pause, and I didn't figure out until later that my mother had just frozen up, her mind locking down completely.

She dropped the phone and her knees crumpled to the floor. Esme and Rosalie rushed in, scooping my mother up, and leading her back out to the couch to sit down. I couldn't be sure what they had heard coming from the line with their sensitive hearing.

Alice walked into the room only after my mother had been led out of it, her eyes dark and sad.

"What's going on, Alice?" I asked as I reached to retrieve the phone that was still dangling from the cord. I could hear Carlisle's voice faintly asking if everything was alright.

Alice snatched the receiver deftly from my fingers, and spoke so rapidly into it that I couldn't discern any sense from what she said. She hung up, and I just stared at her, awaiting her explanation.

The tiny girl in front of me led me to the kitchen table, and I was genuinely starting to grow frightened. As I was about to repeat my question, Alice finally spoke. "They were in a car accident, Bella. Charlie, Carlisle, and Phil. Carlisle wasn't driving. If he had been…Phil's been killed, Bella."

I will never forget the flood of grief I'd felt at those words. Phil wasn't my biological father, but he loved me, and I loved him. I cried for him, and for my mother who had lost him. I lay awake that night, with Edward's arms wrapped around me, listening to her cry herself to sleep.

I made the decision then, and I can never bring myself to regret it, because I did what was right by the mother that raised me. I couldn't marry Edward. I couldn't go along with the staged death that would be planned in preparation of him turning me. I couldn't let my mother think she had lost me and her husband, all in such a short period of time. So I broke things off with a very understanding Edward that night. The wedding was cancelled, and the wedding gifts returned.

I moved back home, to Phoenix, to help my mother. She couldn't be alone. I even enrolled in a community college, and am now in my sophomore year. I won't lie and say I don't miss Edward, but I know I did the right thing. We talk every now and again. He attends Dartmouth, adding another degree to his many.

I haven't seen or heard from Jacob since the day he found out Edward and I were engaged to be married. Charlie never mentions him, and when I ask, his only reply is that he hasn't seen Jacob, but Billy assures him that he's doing well.

And now, a full year after I left to help Renee grieve, I'm finally going home to Forks, and to Charlie. And to the best friend that I refuse to let go.