Wow, I am humbled and awed by the response I received for last chapter. Thank you to everyone who followed, favorited, and reviewed; you all are my inspiration to keep writing. I'm terribly sorry that this was a wee bit late!

This chapter, everything is coming to light, for the most part. One of the reviews questioned why Alice would allow Jasper and Bella to carry on an affair. That will also be answered in this chapter. It will still be from Bella's point of view. There might be a tiny bit of humor in this chapter. I can't let it all be angst.

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or any character associated with it. Stephenie Meyer does. Now, on with the story!

Liar (It Takes One to Know One)

For me to have been dreading that moment as long as I had been, my reaction was relatively calm. All of our secrets, Jasper's and mine, were tailored trouble. I actually felt relieved; there was no need to lie and omit anymore.

Reaching up, I placed my hand over Jasper's where it rested on my shoulder. He returned the pressure and sent me a wave of tranquility that wasn't necessary. I looked up and over my shoulder to smile at him reassuringly but, his attention was elsewhere. Following his line of sight, I saw that his gaze was trained on Edward.

Plainly written across Edward's face was a pain so intense, it made the breath catch in my chest. His teeth were clenched so tightly, I thought that they might crack under the pressure. If it were possible, I knew that he would have cried. It had been selfish of me to hope that I would not have to witness his pain so closely. At first, I had wanted him to feel the misery I had endured for months, but I didn't want to destroy him. In that moment, he looked very close to shaking apart.

"Alice," Jasper murmured, speaking for the first time. "I would imagine that you play a significant part in this situation. Care to explain what that is?"

Having been so focused on Edward, I had forgotten about Alice and her odd behavior just prior to the fallout. Again, confusion plagued me; why would Jasper think her involved in any way? I stepped out of the protective hold Jasper had on me and turned to face Alice.

"You're taking this awfully well." I informed her, my voice casual.

"How exactly did you expect me to take my best friend sleeping with my husband?" Alice shot back. She folded her arms over her thin chest and shifted her weight in a nervous manner.

Instead of reacting to her anger, I chose to study Alice closely. The excitement that she exuded earlier was noticeably absent; things were not going the way she had hoped. It was confusing to me. I gathered that she had known about me and Jasper. So, why hadn't she said anything prior to today?

"You've always know, haven't you?" was my quiet answer. "But you chose to keep it to yourself. Why?"

Edward chose that moment to address me for the first time since he entered the kitchen. "What about you? Don't you have some explaining to do yourself, Bella?" he growled.

Now, his anger was something I could not handle. I accepted that I was the cause of it, and believed that, on some level, that I deserved it. Still, there was no amount of preparation that could have made me ready to deal with the pain and accusation in his voice. It tasted like acid in the back of my throat and I couldn't stomach it.

"What do you want me to say, Edward? I think it's fairly obvious what's been going on. Alice, however, has plenty to say on the matter. Isn't that right, Alice?"

My words came out cold and indifferent, and I'm sure that's how I looked to him. It was the only way I could shield myself from the creeping feeling of panic and guilt threatening to pull me under. I had always been weak in that way.

Jasper, probably sensing my tumultuous emotions, reached out and took my hand. I calmed down immediately, not because of his empathy, but because his touch always soothed me. I gave him a grateful smile before turning back to Alice.

"Care to fill in the blanks?" I asked her, arching an eyebrow in my best imitation of Rosalie.

Alice regarded me for a long moment, her brow furrowed in obvious contemplation. She seem to come to some sort of decision, and from the look on her face, I wasn't going to like what she had to say.

"I suppose that I should start at the beginning. It won't make sense otherwise." Alice took a deep breath and then looked me directly in the eyes. "Jasper and I were never meant for each other. When I found him all those years ago, I knew that I was destined to bring him out of the depression that had plagued him for years. I had seen that he was meant for another, but I still grew to love him.

When we finally found the Cullens, I had another vision. It was of Edward and I, together and in love. I was shocked, to say the least. For once, I didn't know what to do with a vision and just decided to let things run their course. Jasper and I continued on with our marriage and we were happy. That was, until Bella tripped her way into our lives."

The fond smile that graced Alice's otherwise solemn face threw me. One would think it would have been the bit about her and Jasper not actually being soul mates, or that she and Edward were apparently meant to be. Nope.

"Guess I threw a wrench in your vision, huh?" I asked wryly.

"Actually, that was not the case. Whenever I would search the future to see if your relationship with Edward changed anything, the end result was still the same." Alice laughed hollowly. She turned her focus to Edward and smiled at him uncertainly. "I thought that I could be content with Jasper for eternity, you know? But, it was always you, Edward."

You could have heard a pin drop from ten blocks over after Alice finished speaking. I'm almost certain that my mouth was gaping like a fish out of water, but what else could I do? Nothing she was saying made sense but, at the same time, it explained everything.

"This is utter insanity. I can't even," I mumbled to myself. Jasper chuckled and I swung around to look at him in disbelief. "In what universe is this humorous? I feel like I'm on the supernatural version of Jerry Springer." Shaking my head, I looked back to Alice and frowned. "How long have you known about Jasper and I?"

"I saw it two months ago," she answered softly, her eyes locked with mine. "As you might recall, Rosalie and I had gone to Los Angeles to go catch the summer sales on Rodeo Drive. I had been looking through the Versace section when it happened. No vision of mine had ever been clearer."

The pause Alice took was agonizing, because I knew what she had seen. I remembered the trip she and Rose had taken, as I had vehemently declined accompanying them. More vividly, I recalled what occurred the day after they left. Apparently, Alice was aware that I knew because her eyes hardened as she continued her story.

"Almost as if it were happening right in front of me, I saw Jasper embracing Bella. His mouth was pressed to her throat, and for one awful moment, I thought that he was killing her. But, then I heard Bella make a less than distressed noise, and I knew what I was really seeing."

I almost wanted to beg her to stop right then. However, I was still perplexed as to why she allowed us to continue what we started right under everyone's noses. Why hadn't she done anything to prevent her vision from coming true? Well, let me tell you, she certainly answered my question, and I most certainly did not like it.

"To make a long story short, I then knew that Jasper was going to cheat on me," she continued abruptly. "I suppose that I should have been angrier that my husband was going to cheat on me. Even though he and I weren't soul mates, we had still taken vows, you know? But, I thought about it and figured that it would be for the best."

"And why is that?" Jasper inquired, looking more than a bit perplexed.

"I already knew that Edward was eventually meant for me and I for him. Despite the initial hurt I felt upon seeing your unfaithfulness, I understood that this was the easiest course to getting my happily ever after," Alice explained. Her expression was blank and voice neutral, but I could see in the depth of her eyes a certain determination.

"Why didn't you just tell me the truth?" Jasper questioned sharply.

"You could have admitted that you were carrying on an affair with my best friend. When did you become a liar?" Alice's retorted quietly.

"It takes one to know one!" Jasper snarled, letting his calm façade slip. It had been awhile since he'd shown that much emotion in my presence.

"If we're keeping score," Edward ground out, still barely containing his anger.

"Stop this, please?" Esme pleaded softly, sounding close to tears. It was the first time she had spoken and the desperate edge to her voice cut me deeply.

For several long moments, my breathing was all that could be heard. The silence was finally broken by the abrupt scraping of a chair against the marble floors and the swish of the kitchen door. I guess Emmett couldn't take it anymore.

Esme sighed shakily and whispered, "I know that I treat you all like children at times, but you're adults and there are consequences to your actions. You will sort this out amongst yourselves. I won't allow this nonsense to tear our family apart." With those parting words, she too made her escape.

I slid my gaze back to Alice and found an almost smug little smirk curving her lips. A strange sort of anger came over me; I was shaking like Jake did whenever Paul pissed him off. Some bitchy, little voice in the back of my head told me I had no right to be upset. I told it to shut the fuck up.

"Do you feel no remorse? You kept this all to yourself while I spent months agonizing over how I was going to tell him. You have no idea the guilt I felt every time he kissed me, every time I heard our song!" I screamed at her. Jasper placed a restraining hand on my shoulder but, I shrugged it off. I wanted to be angry because I was so terribly tired of the sickening guilt I had been carrying around for weeks.

"I'm sorry," she sobbed, eyes glistening with tears she could never shed. "Can you really blame me? All I wanted was to be happy for once, okay? Jasper, you found your mate. Why shouldn't I?"

And I was crying, too, I realized. I could see a very near ending to a friendship I thought would last eternity. Half of it was my fault, I knew. But, deceit is deceit, and her lies wounded me deeper than I could ever put in words. I wasn't strong enough to face it then, so I decided to tuck the agony in its own little drawer, in the back of my heart.

Weighed down with consequence, I turned my back on my best friend. "Well, you can be happy without me in your life, can't you, Alice?"

Looking at neither Jasper nor Edward, I tucked my figurative tail between my legs and escaped out of the kitchen door. What can I say? I'm an addict for dramatics. I confuse the two for love.

You guys, I gotta tell you. I rewrote this chapter about three times and it still doesn't feel right to me. But, seeing as I was already late posting it, I did the best I could and let it go. The next chapter will hopefully get better