Forever Yours

FOREVER

Chapter 1: Goodbye

EPOV

I made my way to the meadow as quickly as possible. I thought she would've stayed home all day after yesterday's flight, being tired and all, but Bella will be Bella and obviously jetlag doesn't bother her.

I couldn't work out what she wanted to talk to me about, or why she had to speak in our meadow. She had been rather quiet on the way home from Italy, but she didn't sleep either, she just lay in my arms and gazed in different directions entranced by her thoughts.

After landing, she didn't look at me at all; this made me quite worried and even more eager to be able to read her thoughts. When we arrived at her house she simply gave me a kiss on the cheek and then ran inside.

I had debated all night whether or not to go to her bedroom but I thought she probably needed her space. It surprised me when I got her phone call this morning and she told me to meet her in our meadow at noon.

I finally arrived at my destination and I felt my dead heart leap as I saw her sat on a rock a few yards away from me. My love. My angel. My Bella.

"Bella" I whispered, soft enough not to frighten her but loud enough for her to hear.

She slowly turned around as if anticipating something. "Edward I need to talk to you," she looked at me for a split second while I simply nodded and then she carried on "this is going to be hard. Ok well firstly I need you to answer a question for me." She paused for a moment "I need to know if what you said in September was true, I need to know do you still love me?"

This was what I thought would happen and for that matter I had already prepared an answer. "Bella, I love you more than you will ever know, I want you more than you will ever want me but I need you to be safe. That is why in September I told you what I told you. I thought that if you thought that I didn't want you anymore then you would be able to move on with your life and forget about me. If I had known that you would've been so unhappy, I would never have gone." I looked at her beautiful face and saw how much I had hurt her over the past year and I wanted to take the punishment that would come eventually.

"Edward, you hurt me so badly. Yesterday when we were on that plane I realised that when Alice came to me I had already healed. What I'm trying to say is that I can't let myself be in a position where I can have my heart broken." I suddenly understood what she was saying. She couldn't be with me anymore because she had already forgotten.

"Bella…please?" I begged as I saw my future without her flashed through my mind.

"No Edward, I can't, I've already let you go and my heart can't bear it if I have to do it twice." She looked like she was about to cry, but this meant that she was stronger than me for if my eyes could water, I would've cried an ocean.

"Is there someone else?" I just had to know how she could leave me when I thought her love for me was unquestionable. She froze for only a second, but it was still enough for me to know the truth. "I want you to be happy Bella, I want you to experience the things in life that I never can." I knew this was true but I still had to bite my tongue to stop myself saying "I want you to be with me forever." For I knew it was true. I knew that if she had said that the only way I could have her was if I changed her then I would have taken her soul then and there. But she wasn't saying that. She was saying that I couldn't have her full stop.

"I have to go." She said quietly, but still she stood perfectly still. "I'm so very sorry." She walked over to me and gave me a soft kiss on the cheek and then she whispered in my ear "Goodbye Edward." She turned around and started walking away.

"Bella…I'll always be there if you need me, I'll always be around." I just had to let her know that I would never leave her, no matter who she loved. She smiled and I stared hopelessly after her as the object of my desire slowly walked away.

I slumped to my knees and tearlessly and silently cried for my beloved to come back. I thought about what life would be like from now on and about what would've happened if I had never gone in the first place. I could still smell her beautiful freesia scent so I just sat there and inhaled. I don't know how long I was sat there for but I could see that it was starting to get dark.

"Edward?" I turned around to see my sister Alice standing at the edge of the meadow looking at me with sorrow and pity in her eyes. It was obvious that one of her visions had told her what had happened.

"Oh Edward, I'm so sorry." She said as she sat next to me and pulled me into a hug. "I came as quickly as I could, the others don't know yet." She knew it was getting dark but it didn't really bother her.

"She's gone." It was all I could say. I listened to her thoughts as she sighed.

Poor Edward. I don't know how he'll cope. I must speak with Bella, I'm sure this can't be right.

"No Alice, you can't force her to be with me. She's made up her mind." I looked at her face then and could see that she also was tearlessly crying.

But you two are soul mates everybody knows that, she can't have two soul mates. What was she thinking.

"I love Bella more than anything in the world and that is why I want her to be happy. If being with me means she can't be happy then she has made the right choice." I whispered, not knowing if what I was saying was true or if it was just a statement I wanted to be true.

But I love her too. I want her to be happy as well but I don't see how that can happen without you in her life.

"I will still be in her life," Alice looked at me as if I was crazy "I will still see her at school and around town. I'll still watch over her and protect her if anything means to cause her pain."

But I thought she said that she didn't want to be with you anymore. I was under impression that because of that, you would leave Forks.

"I can't leave even if I wanted to. I am not strong enough to be away from her. I'm using all my power right now not to go and hunt down the man that she loves but no, I'm not strong enough to leave her completely."

We sat in silence for a while and just watched darkness take full control of the sky until I finally said "We should be getting home, Esme will be starting to get worried." We both got up to leave but then all of a sudden she straightened up and stared blankly into the woods. This only meant one thing. She was having another vision.

"Alice what do you see?" I asked impatiently as I wondered whether or not it had something to do with Bella. She opened her eyes and looked at me and whispered "I'm so sorry Edward."

"Alice, what did you see?" I asked again knowing that the answer wasn't going to be good.

"Bella has gone toy La Push." She stated, but she didn't need to carry on for I knew what this meant. Bella was in love with Jacob Black.

3 MONTHS LATER

"Edward, can you come down here for a moment?" Esme asked from the bottom of the stairs. " We're having a bit of a family meeting." I could tell by the tone in her voice that my being there was not optional, but still I tried.

"I'm sure whatever it is you want to discuss, it doesn't involve me." I knew that I would end up going downstairs eventually, but I figured I might as well try, even if their was truly no hope.

"Just come downstairs Edward." Carlisle's stern voice made me wonder what on earth could be happening.

"Fine." I snapped back down the staircase as I walked down to the dining room.

As I entered the room I felt everyone go quiet, as if they had all just been talking about me. I decided to delve into their thoughts to see exactly what was going on.

I wonder what the secret is to the Rubik's Cube

I wasn't going to get anywhere with Alice, that was for sure.

Alice looks so beautiful in that purple dress, I wonder if…

I had to stop there with Jasper; to hear that about Alice surely couldn't be legal.

Rosalie was thinking about herself as usual, Emmet was thinking about challenging Jasper to yet another arm wrestling match, Carlisle was wondering whether he had made the right choice by switching a patient from medicine to pills and Esme was thinking about a goblin on a unicycle. It was clear they were hiding something from me.

"Edward, would you mind sitting down?" Carlisle spoke quietly before I sat down and turned my head to face him. "Now, when you went hunting the other day, us six had a rather long discussion about what to do with the current situation." I knew what this was about already, of course I knew, but still I played it cool and looked at him with a confused look on my face.

"We all feel the same way, so we came up with a strategy that will be put into action as of today." I nodded for him to carry on, not liking where this was going. "It has been three months now since Bella left and ever since then you haven't done anything except mope around the house, you won't even go to school. This has to stop; it is bringing us all down." I felt sorrow take over my whole body as soon as I heard her name.

" Edward, I know it's hard but you have to let go, she has." Rosalie leaned over the table and looked into my eyes. " Our family needs you Edward, the real you, Not the lowlife who wont even step out of his own house." I knew it was true, but I could not find the words to apologize so I just nodded and looked at the ornate vase next to the doorway.

"But have no fear Edward because we have all come up with a plan." Alice exclaimed with excitement. " We are going to help you get your life back on track, no matter how long it takes you will go back to being you again." She beamed at me and I couldn't help but grin back at her. "There you go Edward, you've just completed task 1, smile." Emmet smiled at me whilst he patted me on the back.

"We know you want her back but unfortunately at the moment that just doesn't seem like an option. But you could maybe aim to be friends with her." Esme said as she came to give me a hug. Somehow I knew she was right, after all it would be better to be just a small part of Bella's life rather than not in it at all.