Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns all things Twilight, I just let them out to play!

EPOV

My family had arrived in Denali days before for a short visit to wait for me to say my goodbye to Bella. As I approached the house I was overcome by a wave of thoughts surrounding our departure, Bella and myself. After the last quiet days on the forest floor, I soon began to think that leaving Bella was a mistake. I missed the silence in her mind, and although I would have traded the silence to hear her mind, if only once, she gave me peace and serenity I could not find with anyone else. As if on cue, the two Edward's thoughts began playing in my head again. "You don't want to do this, you want to run back to her, tell her you were wrong and love her more", the first voice demanded. "No, she is safe, she is better off, you will survive but she will live", the second voice pleaded. I shook my head at myself wondering if I was starting to go truly insane. I hear voices, sure, but they are others' thoughts, having a multiple personality disorder never occurred to me.

I sucked in a deep breath and prepared myself to face my family. I took a step forward out of the forest and into the clearing where the large rustic house stood. Immediately I saw Rosalie on the front porch and almost instantaneously she was mentally screaming as though I had harmed Emmett.

"You stupid jackass, I can't believe you did that. How could you make us move for something as stupid as your own errant thoughts?" she scolded mentally.

I shot her a look that bore deep into her eyes and she immediately changed positions. She stomped into the house threatening to rip the door from the frame when slamming it in my face.

I took a few steps forward and mentally prepared myself, the best I could, for the onslaught of my family. I knew that they loved me and wanted the best for me and would stand behind my decision. I also knew that they loved Bella and with her the family felt complete, I was complete. It was because of this love, out of this love, that I had made my decision.

As I had reached for the door and stepped inside the house I was shocked when every shape in the room seemed to shift in my direction. I was prepared for a mental onslaught when all I received was a brief flicker of silence. This was silence that I was accustomed to with my family. This was silence in their minds. The bewildered faces that they each held was heart wrenching. I couldn't take the silence. I looked at Carlisle wanting desperately for someone to say something, anything.

I suppose that the desperation came more from my stature and face that it had in quite some time. I pleaded with anyone to start the conversation so I would not have to. Selfish, I thought to myself, this was my doing, or rather undoing, and I wanted to come and have it easy with my family. I wanted someone to untie my mind and assure me that everything would be okay. This is not what happened and this was certainly not the reception that I had anticipated.

As if Carlisle had read my mind for a change his expression turned to the rest of the family and quickly motioned for everyone to come into the living area and sit. As I took my seat in the deafening silence I once again pleaded to Carlisle to start this meeting.

"Son", he thought, breaking the silence, "this is your doing, this is your meeting, you should say something". I stared at him in bewilderment. I, his favorite son, would have never thought that he would leave this to me.

"What else did you expect?" the menacing Edward in my head started to say, "A pity party?"

I shifted slightly in my chair to where I could meet everyone's stares, as if things could not get worse; I wanted to endure the wrath of my family face to face. "Thank you for all meeting with me, calmly", I started only to be cut short of my words by faces of hurt, despair, sorrow and rage. After I had settled in on the fact that there was not going to be a pity party, I let out my explanation and feelings.

"I know that some of you have grown to love my Bella", I stopped short realizing what I had just said. She was not my Bella. She was Bella. I had left her; I could no longer claim her as mine. I saw the look on Alice's face and quickly retracted the last few words, "Bella" I sighed. At that point I had no other choice but to hang my head in shame and self-loathing and whimper. "I told her that we were leaving. I told her that we were going to have to leave eventually. I told her she could not come." As I finished my 'explanation' my head suddenly felt one hundred pounds heavier. I struggled to look up and meet my family. Although the silence was nice for a change, in any other situation, here it was just hurting me more. The silence, both mental and physical, was like a knife straight through to my still heart.

After a few more minutes of silence I could no longer bear it. "Someone please say something", I pleaded, "Think something at least". I scanned the room for a face that seemed the least moved by what happened. After a few quick glances I settled on Rosalie.

"Rose, please say something", I pleaded with her to be herself, to dislike Bella and her choices and to reassure me that what I was doing was the right thing to do. Instead of getting what I asked for, I received the exact opposite.

"Well", Rosalie started to speak, "I could tell you that you made the right decision. I could say that it should have been like this from the beginning and that we should have stayed far from that human." She paused, looking at me with piercing eyes; she started to boil with rage. "But, I would be lying. I know that I don't feel the same about Bella as the rest of you do, but that doesn't mean that I want to see her hurt anymore than I want to hear your whining and sulking for the next century".

And with that she stormed out of the room, in effect, breaking the mental silence. I turned from her and looked down at Emmett. He, my brother, would help me see that I made the right decision, wouldn't he?

"Emmett?" I spoke to him.

Emmett looked dazed and confused. He looked as if he had just lost his dog. I didn't know how much more pain I could stand. Finally after another few moments of silence he started to speak in a low, hurting voice.

"Yeah, you know Ed, Rosalie's right." I couldn't believe it! How is this happening? How could a family that had been together for centuries suddenly turn on me like this? What had I done? Emmett continued harshly "Bella is like a little sister to me. She loves you with everything she has to give, I saw that. I also saw how she changed you. You were broken Edward, she repaired you. Even though you were damaged, she didn't mind. She worshipped you. I don't know what you have done but I am afraid that it will only get worse from here".

After finishing his thoughts he sat up in his chair as well. He stood and for the first time in my 100 years I had seen him sulk, actually sulk. Another pain shot through my still heart.

I sat for a while with my head in my hands trying to contemplate who to speak to next. The last four members of my family that were still sitting with me were going to be the hardest to speak with. I didn't know who to speak with first. Then the two Edwards in my head started to come around again.

"See you stupid bastard! See what you are doing to your family? I told you to go back; I can't believe you are still sitting here feeling sorry for yourself. You're pathetic!" The selfish Edward was relishing in the thought that he was right.

The rational Edward crept in, not wanting to miss an opportunity. "You're doing the right thing, you're family has forever. Bella has a limited life that she missed out on every day that she is with you".

With that thought, I turned to Jasper.

I knew that I should have left Jasper for last, though I wanted to speak with him before he could clear his thoughts. "Jasper" I started, "I don't want you to feel as if you had anything to do with this. This is not your burden to bear. Please don't blame yourself. There was nothing that you could have done differently. Bella is human and we are not. This is something that I have to live with every minute of every day. It's not a natural setting and if anyone is going to take the blame, it will be me."

I looked at him as though he would accept my offer to take the blame. He did not. Instead he stormed out of the room without saying a single word. I thought for a second that he would return only to find that it was not his intention to do so.

I couldn't help but to begin to feel that I had made a mistake. I was hurting my family. Bella had become part of this family from the beginning. There was no warming up period; my family had accepted her from the very introductions. Although I thought that most of them would object to me being with a human, it was the exact opposite.

I regained my composure and looked towards Alice. She and Bella had become best friends and I knew that I was not only pushing Bella from me, but from Alice as well. I scanned Alice's face from some type of emotion and what I read in response was nothing but pure hatred.

"Alice", I started only to be cut short. Alice drew in a large gasp of air and let out her emotions in one snowball.

"I can't believe you did this Edward", she started, "How could you do this to Bella? How could you do this to me? Above all else, how could you do this to yourself? I have known you for many decades and the one feeling you expressed above all of the rest was self-loathing and desperation. You finally find the one person that changes you, that helps you become a better being, your soul mate and you just leave her? How could you?"

I couldn't believe that Alice, my favorite sister, had just said those thoughts out loud. I suppose I couldn't blame her, however, I suspected that she would go much easier on me; I was wrong. "Alice", I spoke, "I promised Bella that we would be out of her life forever, and this means that you can no longer look for her in the future. I hope you understand and comply with my wishes."

That set her off. I had never seen Alice as enraged as I had at that very moment. I thought for a second that she was going to go through a wall with anger. She just turned and shouted as loud as she could. "Edward, you are such an asshole! What do you think this is going to do to Bella? How could you just walk away from her like that? She loves you and would have done anything to protect this family, to protect her family, to protect you!"

"I know, but this is how it has to be" I sighed. I knew that she was right. With that I turned and started up the stairs to my new room. I didn't want to speak with Carlisle or Esme right then, I just wanted to be alone, and I just wanted to punish myself for what I had done to my family, to my Bella and to myself.