Preface

Darkness. That's all I could see. The disgusting stench of blood was all around me. Copper. That's how I had described the smell to my mother once when I was younger, but she thought I was just being over dramatic. The cold winter air enveloped my body into a blanket of water and ice, the snow building on top of my fallen torso. I was lying on the concrete outside in a pool of my own blood. I tried to get up, but was only rewarded with a pain so severe that I could only hope my contractions wouldn't be this bad. I was about 4 months pregnant and barely showing. I didn't even know if I was having a boy or a girl yet.

I tried yelling for Edward but the sound got stuck in my throat. He was probably long gone by now. If only I had waited to tell him when I was sure that he could handle it. He didn't say a word after I'd announced what was going to change our lives forever. He just sat in his chair staring first at me, then at my swollen stomach. I waited for a few minutes to let the news sink to ask if he was okay. He didn't respond. I tried to talk to him again, but he still didn't take his eyes off of my belly.

"Edward, are you okay?" I asked again. His eyes snapped to mine, filled to the brim with so much…humor? That wasn't what I was expecting.

"You're joking right?" he'd asked. "This is some kind of reality show isn't it? I'm being taped, huh?" He looked around for what I assumed to be hidden cameras, but when he found none he looked back at m, confusion evident on his beautiful face. I sighed. He was in complete denial.

"No, Edward. This is real. I'm pregnant with your baby. You're going to be a father soon." He looked at me, took one last eye sweep around the restaurant, and abruptly got up from the table. "Edward? Where are you going?" I asked him. He didn't even slow down. He practically ran away from me. 'Great', I thought. I figured I would just wait for him to come back.

After about ten minutes of just sitting there, I got up and went outside to look for him. He was nowhere. It was snowing pretty hard outside, so it was difficult to see what was right in front of your face. I turned left and started walking back to my apartment. That was one of the great things about living in the city, you were close to everything. I don't remember anything after that.

'This is it,' I thought. 'This is how I'm going to die. Alone, pregnant, unmarried, and outside in the freezing weather.' I heard Edward yell before I felt him lift the top half of my body up off of the ground and into his lap. A sudden sharp pain shot through my lower back, around my swollen stomach, and all the way to my toes. I tried to shake the feeling off, but I couldn't move my body. I knew something was internally wrong. I tried to open my mouth to tell him to lay me back down so as not to cause more injury but all that came out of my frozen mouth were incoherent mumbles paired with a hiccup. I had never felt more helpless in my life.

I felt Edward reach into the pocket of his tux for something. Not a second later I heard him say, "Hello? My name is Edward Cullen. I need an ambulance. I just found my girlfriend lying on the ground outside. She's surrounded by a pool of blood that looks to be coming from a gash in her head. Please hurry ma'am…she's pregnant. And they're all I've got."