Even before I left Edward's room, tears began to silently fall. Alice stood at the top of the stairs, and gently held my hand. I nodded thankfully and she gracefully picked me up, and walked down the stairs at human speed. I looked behind us and saw Emmett and Jasper enter Edward's room. Jasper and I held eye contact, and he looked as if his heart had been broken. I nuzzled my head into Alice's hard chest, and hid my shame from the world. She gently placed me in the back of her car, and drove me home in silence. I was extremely grateful that she hadn't said a word. I had no idea what I could've said to ease Alice's nerves. I wanted to scream that I still loved Edward, and that it was Victoria. But she would have known. She was watching me somewhere, I knew that subconsciously. When we arrived at the house, I picked up my head slightly, but Alice had already opened the door and had begun to pull me out.
When I was finally standing in the daylight, Alice turned to me. "Bella . . . why?" She said into my eyes. If vampires could've wept, she would have been sobbing openly. "I'm so sorry Alice," I bit back tears as I tried to explain. "I just can't . . . I just …. Please don't ask …. I can walk, thanks."
Alice retracted from me and stood completely still as I collected myself. Disregarding the searing pain I felt everywhere, and walked up to the door. I opened the door and turned to say goodbye to Alice for the last time, but she had already left. When I opened the door, I found Charlie sitting at the table looking as bright as ever. Wait, Charlie? Oh God, what does he know? Victoria must have said something to him, and she must have done something superhuman around him to make him suspicious. But he was ok. That was all that mattered. Charlie did a double take when he saw me limp through the door.
"Bella! What happened? Where have you been?" He ran to the door to steady me as I fell into his arms and kissed his cheek. Charlie jerked suddenly and pulled back to look into my face. We had hugged once or twice, but we had never really shown affection. Yet I was so happy to see him alive and ok, I couldn't control my emotions. But, come to think about it, he looked fine. Perfectly fine.
"Dad, you look great what did . . ." I suddenly stopped and looked straight into his eyes. He looked completely confused. "Dad, where were you last night? What happened?"
Charlie smiled haphazardly and opened his mouth, but immediately slammed it shut again. He thought carefully before saying slowly, "Well honey, I was working late in the office again. It was around, one in the morning, and I just passed out. Slept like the dead! Next thing I knew, it was eight in the morning, and someone was nudging me awake! So sorry I never came home, but I called a couple times and you never picked up. What happened to you? Oh honey, you look dreadful!"
I looked at him, and without talking, all of my answers were complete. They knocked him unconscious and he hadn't remembered a thing. By the way he looked at me, all his questions were answered too.
"Don't worry Charlie. I was coming home from school and I tripped over on the porch and hit my head against the steps in the front. Edward brought me to his house and we went to a movie. I'm fine. I'm going to go and take a shower now." I walked away and climbed the stairs, feeling Charlie's confused gaze follow me out of sight.
I opened the bathroom door, and stiffly walked across the tiles to turn on the hot water. I turned around to look into the mirror and gasped. No wonder everyone looked at me with such shock! My left eye was swollen and my hair was all over the place. My shirt was crumpled beyond recognition and my pants were covered in grime. I slowly took off my clothes and examined my multiple bruises and weak spots. I got in the shower, and sighed gratefully as the hot water gently soothed my troubles. I began to think of Edward, but to protect myself; I instantly put him into the back of my thoughts. I had two separate options. But which one should I pick? I punched the wall but immediately regretted it as my sore arms exploded in even more pain as they were in.
I slowly began to formulate a plan.