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Chapter 3

No, Bella. You can do this. Don't run away. If you do, you'll make yourself look stupid. Besides, it's about time you stop running from all of your problems. Use this as practice for when your biggest problem finally comes back around.

Practice makes perfect, right? Yes, yes it does.

Alright, deep breaths. You can do this. It's just Jacob. Oh, yeah, and the rest of the pack. Surely they don't all hate you, right? I mean, Seth sure doesn't. And, Leah, well...she didn't try to kill me or anything for leaving when she first saw me, so that's a good thing. Or maybe she just didn't do anything because there were witnesses around? Oh, god. What if the rest of the pack didn't react as happily as Seth did.

Better yet, how was Jacob going to react? Well, other than looking at me right now like he just saw a ghost. Please, don't let him hate me. I know I left, stupidly left. But, I'm back now. I just hope he won't hate me and that after I tell him everything...well, I'll start of slow with the spilling my guts. But, hopefully after he knows everything he'll understand why I stayed away for as long as I did, and he'll forgive me in time.

Also, I'm planning on staying here for as long as I can. Unless, my past catches up with me faster than I expect it to. No, no. Not even then. I'll be sticking around for a very long time, even then. I'm done running from any and everything. It's about time that I took my life back. I would no longer be running scared.

Plus, Libby deserves to have a normal life, too. A normal life where we're not running from city to city trying to hide. No, I want a normal life for my daughter where she doesn't have to be scared any longer. It's not fair that her first four years were somewhat stolen from her. From me. From both of us. It's just so unfair. But, I'm going to change that. Starting right here, right now. I would build us a great life. One that neither of us would ever regret.

I was suddenly brought back to reality by Libby's voice.

I looked at her to see her looking back and forth from me and Jacob. Her eyes landed on mine, and she gave me an innocent smile. "Oops. I say somethin' I should not?" she asked me.

I smiled back at her and shook my head. "It's fine, Libby," I assured her.

Libby smiled brightly now. "Okay."

"Why don't you go wash up for dinner?" I said, my eyes going back to Jacob. "Your stools up there already."

"Alrighty, mommy," Libby replied, running past me, and out of the room.

I could hear my dad, Sue, Emily, and Sam's voices in kitchen along with Alana's, so I knew that I was now all alone with just about every member of the packs eyes on me. Oh, gosh. This was sort of awkward. But, more nerve wracking than anything. What should I say? Should I speak first? Should I wait for one of them to say something first? Oh, the possibilities.

Up until one of them spoke first, Jacob and I had kept eye contact, not once breaking it.

"So, you're actually human?" It was more of an observation than a question.

I turned my head towards the person who spoke first. Embry.

"Yeah, I am. Why are you so surprised?" I asked him.

He shrugged his shoulders, and answered honestly, "Couldn't be too sure."

"You could have easily been lying," Quil added on.

Alright, so, yeah that was true. I could have been lying. But, I wasn't. Then again, I can't be mad or anything about them thinking that I could have been lying about still being human because they had no way of truly knowing if I was telling the truth or not. They only had my word to go on. And, quite frankly, my word wasn't exactly the best thing to go on back then.

"I told Sue and Billy that they could tell all of you that I was alive and doing okay," I said, looking around the room at all of them.

"Again, you could have been lying. You were pretty good at that when it came to your precious leeches," Paul, always the one to never sugar coat anything, said.

I was silent for a moment, before sighing, "Alright, I sort of deserved that."

Paul nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah, sort of."

"Maybe it would've been more believable if I had said that I wasn't with Edward anymore," I said quietly, knowing that they could all hear me, anyways.

"More than likely," they all agreed.

The room fell into an awkward silence again, before it was broken again...by Jacob.

I froze again, and my breath caught in my throat.

"So, you have a daughter?"

Oh, god.

Alright, time to face the music.

But, before I could say anything back, my phone rang.

Oh, thank god!

I didn't realize until I heard the phone ring just how freaked out I was about finally talking to Jacob after all these years. I let out a sigh of relief, that I hoped had gone unnoticed, but probably hadn't.

Saved by the phone! Thank you God!

I knew I'd have to face Jacob sooner or later for real, whether I was up for it or not, but I'm sure it'd be so much easier and less nerve wracking to talk to him if we were alone. The pack being there and hearing everything that we said to each other would only freak me out more. And, that's truly the last thing I need right about now.

I pulled the phone out and looked down at the screen. I smiled. She may not be able to see me when the pack is around, but she truly has excellent timing.

"I'm sorry. I really need to answer this call," I said quickly, before turning and making a beeline for the front door.

Once outside, I slid my finger across the screen and answered the phone, praying that maybe no one in the pack would be listening in. I didn't want them all to get the wrong idea about who was calling me.

"Hello," I said, smiling into the phone.

"Hey, Bella!" Alice's always cheerful voice came over the phone.

I smiled. "Hi, Alice. How are you, Alice?"

"I'm good," she answered. "I was just calling because you disappeared about half an hour ago. I figured that meant you were there now."

"Yes, we're hear now. We got here a few hours ago," I confirmed. "The pack just showed up not too long ago."

"That's good," she said, acting interested for my sake. "How's Libby?"

"She's good. She already has a new friend her age."

"Oh, good," she said, and I could practically hear her grinning.

"Yeah, Sam and Emily have a daughter about her age," I told her. "They're already the best of friends."

"Well, that's nice."

"Yes, it is," I agreed.

"Well, it's good to hear that you two got there okay," she said. "Do you think you could get Libby's attention for a moment?"

"I think I could. Why?"

Alice laughed as I heard a another voice in the background. "Emmett wants to talk to her."

I smiled and jokingly acted hurt. "Oh, I see how it is. It's all Libby," I feigned sadness. "I don't even exist anymore do I?"

"You still exist, little sis," Emmett assured me, apparently having stolen the phone from Alice.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, sure."

"No, you do," Emmett insisted. "I swear."

"Uh-huh. If you say so."

"Haha."

I laughed. "Let me get Libby." I turned around and went back into the house, calling up the stairs, "Libby! Emmett's on the phone!"

In an instant, I could hear Libby jump of her stool, followed by her footsteps running across the floor.

"Emmett!" she exclaimed, practically running down the stairs, being smart enough to hold onto the railing.

She wasn't as bad as I was, but she had the occasional clumsy spill.

"Hi, uncle Emmett!" she smiled into the phone after practically ripping it from my hands.

"Can we talk?" I heard Jacob ask from behind me.

Taking a deep breath, I turned around and nodded. "Sure."

"Let's take a walk," he suggested, turning and walking out onto the front porch.

"Okay," I said, following him almost as if I was robotic. "I'll be back soon, Libby," I smiled at her.

She nodded and smiled back before returning to talk to Emmett.

~AIFILAW~

We walked in silence for a few minutes. A silence that freaked me out more than I already was. But, luckily, it didn't last too much longer. We were already more than halfway down the street before he spoke up, breaking the horrible silence.

"So, you've got a daughter?" he asked, starting off exactly where we left off.

I nodded my head. "Yes, I do."

"You're not with Cullen anymore?"

I shook my head no. "I'm not," I answered. "Haven't been in about four years."

"What about Libby's dad?"

I froze momentarily, before quickly getting my bearings together. "No, he's not important," I said quickly.

I'm sure he could smell or feel or whatever the fear that rushed through me. But, he didn't say anything. And, for that I was grateful. I really didn't want to get into that just yet. I would have to come clean about that sooner or later. But, I was choosing the latter for this one.

"You still didn't come back," he said, almost too quietly for my human ears to hear.

I sighed and looked down at the pavement passing under me as we walked farther down the street. "I had my reasons," I replied glumly.

"I'm sure you did," he muttered.

His next questions damn near made me drop to the ground.

"What did Libby mean by what she said?"

I didn't have to be a genius to know what he was talking about. Oh, the extremely dreaded question. I had hoped he'd forgotten. But, of course, why would he? It's always the most shocking things people remember the best. I mean, I would think. And, right now isn't really proving me any different.

"Exactly what it sounded like," I admitted, finding no excuse to lie to him.

Jacob stopped walking abruptly, and turned to me. He grabbed my shoulders, not too tightly, but in a tight enough grip that I wouldn't be able to get out of even if I wanted to.

"What I'm about to ask you is probably the most important question I'll ask you for now, but I want you to tell me straight up if I'm right or not," he told me, looking me dead in my eyes.

I nodded. "Okay."

"Did I have anything to do with the downfall of your marriage?" he asked, holding nothing back.

I took a deep breath, before nodding and answering straight up like he wanted me to, "Everything."

That one word was and meant exactly that...everything.

~AIFILAW~

The rest of the walk was walked in complete silence. Except this time, I actually was happy about it instead of freaked out. I hadn't even been back for more than a few hours and I had already pretty much confessed seventy five percent of my secrets to Jacob. Well, it was the right thing to do since that seventy five percent of my secrets all had everything to do with Jacob.

It wasn't until we were walking up the walkway of the house that Jacob spoke again.

"There's something that I need to tell you before we go in," Jacob said, stopping in the middle of the walkway and turning to face me.

"What is it?" I asked, afraid of what he had to tell me, judging by the look on his face.

Before Jacob could answer, the front door opened and I heard an unfamiliar girl's voice.

"Jacob, where have you been?" she asked making her way down the porch steps. "Sorry, I missed dinner," she apologized, walking up next to him.

I'd have to be blind not to have seen her wrap her arm around his waist.

What in freaking hell was this?

"Who's this?" I asked, looking at Jacob, feeling a not so good feeling abruptly come to the surface in the pit of my stomach.

When Jacob didn't answer, I turned to the girl herself.

"Who are you?" I asked her.

"I'm Jenna," she answered with a smile. "Jake's fiancée."

With that one word, everything went black.

Another one of my infamous cliffies! I bet nobody saw that one coming. What are your thoughts? Review, please and thank you!

Next chapter; Bella and Libby go to Emily's so Libby and Alana can play. Bella and Emily talk and some things about what kept Bella away are hinted upon.