A big "thank you" to emma183! Her review really encouraged me to update again!

Edward's POV

I was standing in the pouring rain. Not like I felt it anyway. But I had somehow started to like being out in the rain, the raindrops running down my skin.

I was in a forest. I spent quite a lot of time in forests these days. For one, because it was there I had lost my Bella, and being in a forest someone made me feel closer to her. The second reason was quite simple. I enjoyed the silence! Especially on a rainy day like this you were unlikely to come across any other person. And I needed to be on my own. I had needed to be on my own for the past 21 years.

Bella. My Bella. I just missed her so much. Still. I knew that quite some time had passed since she had disappeared. Jeez, I knew exactly how much time it had been, 21 years to date: 252 months, 7669 days, 184 056 minutes, 11 043 360 seconds had I spent without her. 11 043 360 completely worthless, wasted seconds.

I had been falling apart, I was perfectly aware of that, but I had let myself. I had had to mourn Bella, losing her had been like losing all my will to live.

In the beginning I had kept myself busy by trying to figure out what the hell had happened to her. I had filed a missing person's report, even though that was more for the sake of Charlie's than that I had actually believed that the police would find anything. If vampires hadn't found anything, how the heck should they have been able to. I had only went back to Forks for this one thing, to tell Charlie. Alice had offered to do that for me, but I had declined. Bella had been my responsibility, I was the one who had promised to protect her, so I had to be the one who was getting blamed for it. Frankly, I had even wanted Charlie to yell at me, to tell me that I had failed, that I had been the one responsible for his daughter's disappearance.

But he had never done any such thing. He had been terribly shocked, of course, even devastated, but he'd never blamed me for it. "It's not your fault, Edward", he had even said to me once. That had not been what I had expected, that had not been what I had wished for.

I had left Forks straight afterwards and looked for Bella everywhere. I had at least wanted to find out what had happened to her, where she had gone. I had checked out all the friends Victoria and James had had, if any of them could have acted out of revenge, but it had turned out to be a dead end.

21 years had passed, and I still hadn't figured out what had happened to my precious Bella. If only I knew…

The rain had stopped. I looked up at the sky. There was a cloud which had the shape of a heart. I quickly looked back down.

I knew that my whole family was worried about me. It wasn't fair but I couldn't help it. Or maybe I could. It was probably about time to return to them.

So I know this is a very short chapter, but I hope I'll be able to update again soon.

Please don't forget to review.