Authors Note: Well, well, well. New readers can disregard this note and proceed to reading this story. Enjoy! But, to the readers who have already read this story, please pay attention. I have completely remodelled this chapter. The information is the relatively exactly the same but this chapter, overall, is a lot more mature, (hopefully) more punctually and grammatically correct, and the emotions Bella is experiencing are a little different to the emotions in the original chapter. I hope you continue to enjoy this story. Xxx

"You can't keep living like this, Bella."

I stared blankly at the wall.

"Bella."

…

"Bella!"

If you don't look up, maybe she will go away.

"Fucking hell, Bella!" Jessica humphs. "He's gone. Long gone. And he's a major asshole for leaving you. I don't understand how you can't see that! So get off your fucking ass and stop moping around."

I blink twice. Wow. That is not what I usually hear from Jessica. I look over at her with an empty stare before turning back to the wall.

"Fine!" Jessica yells, her voice cracking slightly. She then stomped all the way out of the room and slammed the door on her way out. I could still faintly hear her loud, panicky voice through the door. "I don't think I can cope with this anymore, Mike. She is a million times worse than the first time he left. It's like she's dead to the world, she hardly even responds. And that emotionless look in her eyes terrifies me…"

The voices fade and silence returns.

I close my eyes. The memory of Edward was still fresh in my mind even after a whole year.

Edward leaned against a tree and stared at me, his expression unreadable.

'Okay, let's talk,' I said. It sounded braver than I felt.

He took a deep breath.

'Bella, we're leaving.'

I took a deep breath too. This was an adequate option. I thought I was ready. But I still had to ask.

'Why now? Another year-'

'Bella, it's time. How much longer could we have stayed in forks after all? Carlisle can barely pass for thirty, and he's claiming thirty-three now. We'd have to start over soon regardless.'

His answer confused me. I thought the point of leaving was to let his family live in peace. Why did we have to leave if they were going? I stared at him, trying to understand what he meant.

He stared back coldly.

With a roll of nausea, I realised I'd misunderstood.

'When you say we-' I whispered quietly.

'I meant my family and myself.' Each word was separate and distant.

I shook my head back and forth automatically, trying to clear it. He waited without any sign of impatience. It took a few minutes before I could speak.

'Ok' I said. 'I'll come with you.'

'You can't, Bella. Where were going… it's not the right place for you.'

'Where you are is the right place for me.'

'I'm no good for you, Bella.'

'Don't be ridiculous.' I wanted to sound angry, but it sounded like I was begging. 'You are the very best part of my life.'

'My world is not for you,' he said, grimly.

'What happened with Jasper – that was nothing, Edward! Nothing!'

'You're right,' he agreed. 'It was exactly what was to be expected.'

'You promised! In Phoenix, you promised that you would stay-'

'As long as it was best for you,' he interrupted me.

'No! This is about my soul, isn't it?' I shouted, frantic. But the words exploding out of me- somehow still sounded like a plea. 'Carlisle told me about that, and I don't care, Edward! I don't care! You can have my soul. I don't want it without you- it's yours already!'

He took a deep breath and stared, unseeingly at the ground for a long moment. His mouth twisted the tinniest bit. When he looked up, his eyes were different, harder-like the liquid gold had frozen solid.

'Bella, I don't want you to come with me.' He spoke the word slowly and precisely, his cold eyes on my face, watching as a I absorbed what he was really saying.

'You… don't… want me?' I tried the out the word, confused at the way the sounded, placed in that order.

'No.'

I stared uncomprehendingly into his eyes. He stared back without apology. His eyes were like topaz-hard, clear and very deep. I felt like I could see into them for miles and mile, yet nowhere in there bottomless depths could I see a contradiction to the words he'd spoken.

'Well, that changes things.' I was surprised by how calm and reasonable my words sounded. It must be because I was so numb. I couldn't realise what he was telling me. It didn't make any sense.

He looked away into the trees as he spoke again. 'Of course I will always love you… in a way, But what happened the other night made me realise that it's time for change. Because I'm… tired of pretending to be something I'm not, Bella. I'm not human.' He looked back, and the icy planes of his perfect face were not human. 'I've let this go on much too long, and I'm sorry for that.'

'Don't.' my voice was just a whisper now; awareness what begging to seep through me, trickling like acid through my veins. 'Don't do this.'

He just stared at me, and I could see from his eyes that my words were far too late. He already had.

'You're not good for me, Bella.' He turned his earlier words around, and so I had no argument. How well I knew that I wasn't good enough for him.

I opened my mouth to say something, and then closed it again. He waited patiently, his face clean of all emotion, I tried again.

'If… that's what you want.'

He nodded once.

The funny thing is that the memory of Edward leaving me in the woods was not even the one that hurt me the most. It's what came after.

Once he had left, all I can remember was feeling hurt, angry and alone. I jumped off a cliff just so that I could hear Edward's stupid, velvet voice in my ear. Alice saw me in one of her visions and assumed that I had ended my life. Edward soon found out about my false death and decided to go to Volterra, Italy in attempt to provoke the Volturi into taking his life as well, citing that he "couldn't live in a world where Bella didn't exist."

They refused as Aro treasured Edward's gift at reading people's minds without having to touch their skin and hoped that one day Edward would join the Volturi guard. In attempt to force Aro into executing him, he then made the decision to reveal himself to the public of Volterra by revealing his sparkly skin on one of their most cherished days, Saint Marcus Day.

And because I loved him, I went to the Volterra to save him. We both came back to Forks safely but something had changed between us. Edward told me that he had only left because he wanted to protect me from the troubles of his family and I chose to believe him.

Soon, he proposed to me and even though I was not ready at all for marriage, being only eighteen, I accepted and all was merry once again. On the night before our wedding, Edward became distant and cold. When I cheekily asked him if he had cold feet, he hesitated before answering "they're toasty warm" with a fake smiled plastered on his face. I giggled but on the inside I felt dead.

It took a while to fall asleep and when I woke up, my suspicions were confirmed. Alice was sitting quietly on my bed and in her most sorrowful voice, she told me that Edward had suddenly gone missing and that the whole family had gone looking for him. She promised me adamantly that they would return for her in a year, even if Edward was not found.

And I foolishly wasted a whole year of my life and another couple of months in case some complications had come up. But, the Cullens never returned and I gave up all hope.

This time I didn't feel angry or sad. I felt numb, a cold, empty shell of the person I once was. The days passed slowly and I couldn't bring myself to move from my chair. I could tell everyone was worried and one by one they came to see me. They gave me their condolences and constantly forced me to eat and drink but all I wanted was to be left alone.

I stared at the wall once again but Jessica's words began to swarm around my head.

"He's a major asshole for leaving you."

"He's gone. Long gone."

"You can't keep living like this, Bella."

I continued to stare at that very same wall for a moment longer before, for the first time in what seemed like forever, I got up out of my chair, put my robe on, mustered up all the courage I could gather and slowly walked down stairs, my legs a bit wobbly from disuse.

I quietly pattered into the kitchen, where my dad was eating breakfast, and smiled softly at the look of utter shock and relief that covered his face.

"Hi, Charlie."

6 months later…

"Promise me you will be safe. Safe and responsible," Renee said as she fussed over my luggage and boarding pass.

"So basically just be your usual self," Jacob snickered from behind me and I elbowed him in the stomach to shut him up.

Renee sighs. "I know Charlie wanted to be here, but apparently he had to work."

"It's okay, I said goodbye to him at the house." I gathered her up in my arms and hugged her as tight as I could. "And don't worry, Mom. I'll be completely fine. I'll be back home before you even know it."

Maybe that was a white lie.

Renee nodded against my shoulder and when she pulled back, I could see that tears had collected in her eyes. "Good," she said before adding, "I'm so glad you're feeling better and that you are moving on."

A sick feeling crawled up my throat but I quickly swallowed it down. "Me too," I said slightly shakily, kissing Renee on the cheek.

I then turned to Jacob, who looked slightly bashful which was definitely out of character. I grinned at him and when he sheepishly smiled back, I threw myself into his arms. He then started to spin me around in a circle and I snorted and smacked at his shoulder till he put me down on the ground again.

An unreadable expression covered his face. "I'm gonna miss you, Bells."

"I'm going to miss you too, Jake."

We embraced again and I even dared to give him a quick peck on the cheek, which caused him to blush. Usually I would have teased him mercilessly, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

"Good afternoon passengers. This is the boarding announcement for flight 50 to Rome, Italy. We are now inviting passengers to begin boarding at this time. Please have your boarding pass and identification ready. Thank you."

"That's me I guess. Don't want to miss my flight," I said as I looked between my mom and Jacob. The tears in Renee's eyes spilled and I looked away, hardly containing my own.

They walked me as far as they can go and we said our goodbyes once again. I gave them one final, last wave before walking away,

I was going to the Volturi and I was going to become a vampire.

I would never see them again.