Edward POV

As I start the long walk back to my house, I think about what just happened in my office.

Storming out of my meeting with Isa was the right thing to do. We were both starting to get a little emotional and I cannot allow myself to become attached. I can't let myself get emotionally attached to Isabella Swan again. I barely lived through the first time. I need to keep my distance.

I just couldn't control the surge of emotion that hit me when I remembered the day Isa's mother left. I meant every word when I declared that I would never leave her. I loved her but she couldn't love me. She loved Jacob.

Stop it, Edward. You can't keep reliving the past. You can't change something that happened over 10 years ago.

I wish I could though. I wish I knew why, all those years ago, she chose Jacob over me. I thought that all of the feelings that I had harbored for her back in high school had been resolved, but seeing her again made them all bubble up to the surface.

I had loved Isa. I had loved the girl that was my best friend, the girl that signed up for every committee and club activity to prove something to her mother. The girl that loved every kind of chocolate imaginable and would make herself sick eating it once a year on Halloween. The girl who wore her mother's wedding band around her neck and cried every night in my arms for a month and a half after her mom left.

But that girl doesn't exist anymore. In her place is a woman who has hardened herself against the world; a woman who can't accept generosity for what it really is; a woman who has been hurt so deeply by the people she loved the most, that trust is impossible.

Isa doesn't exist anymore. In her place is Bella. Bella is a woman that I don't know at all; a woman that I am going to try my damndest not to know, for the good of my heart.

Apart from being her boss, I am not going to get involved in this woman's life and she is not going to get involved with mine.

/HF/

I'm cooking my dinner in the microwave when the phone rings.

"Hey Ed." I can barely hear the person on the other end of the line but I surmise by the nickname that it's my brother-in-law

"Emmett? Are you calling me from the bar?"

Emmett went to high school with Isa and me . I hardly knew him then, probably because he was a football jock and I was just an English nerd. We never even had one conversation until he started dating my older sister, Rosalie and then he became my best friend. Rosalie and Emmett married a couple of years ago and opened up the only bar within a 15 mile radius of Forks.

"Who else would be calling your boring ass? Anyway, I think you should get to the bar pronto."

"Why am I spending my Friday night at your bar?" I ask, as I pulled my mystery meat frozen dinner out of the microwave.

"Your girl is drunk and you may want to come get her before she gets arrested."

My hands start to shake and the disgusting microwave dinner that I'm holding falls to the floor because I know exactly who he is referring to.

"My girl?" I try, but fail, to keep my voice steady. "What are you talking about, Em?"

"Oh yeah. She's definitely your girl, Ed." I could hear the smirk in his voice, even over the phone. "Isabella Swan is in my bar and so are Jessica Stanley and Tanya Denali. Did I mention that Bella is drunk and Jessica and Tanya are goading her? Man, if this is anything like high school somebody is going down and going down hard. You remember the Bella vs. Tanya and Jessica feud. It was legendary. So. . . are you coming or should I call the Chief to come get his drunken daughter?"

Tanya, Jessica and Bella in the same room sober was bad enough when we were in high school; the three of them in a room drunk would damn near cause the apocalypse. Tanya and Jessica hated Bella all through high school - Tanya because Bella was head cheerleader, and Jessica because she could never be as popular as Isa was.

"I'm coming," I groan. " Don't call Charlie." I knew from my visit at breakfast this morning that Charlie was already annoyed with Bella's behavior and would probably blow a gasket if she got into more trouble. "Please tell me that Rosalie isn't there."

Rosalie and Bella used to be friends until Bella decided that neither one of us was good enough to hang out with her anymore. That, coupled with the beating I received from Jacob and his cronies meant that Rose has never forgiven her.

"No, Rose isn't here, but I should probably tell you that she's the real estate agent that Bella has an appointment with tomorrow."

This is not good. My older sister hates Bella. If I thought Bella, Jessica and Tanya drunk in a bar was bad, Bella and my sister spending the day together looking at houses just might be the end of the world as we know it.

I tear at my hair in frustration. This is the very thing that I promised myself I wouldn't do. I swore that I was not going to get involved. If I had any sense at all, I would tell Emmett that none of this is my problem - he should call Charlie and leave me alone.

"You have got to be kidding me!" I look at the mess on my kitchen floor and shake my head. I can't worry about my sister right now. "I'll be there in 5. Please don't let Bella kill or maim anyone. I really don't want to visit the Forks police station tonight."

Apparently, I don't have any sense.

As soon as I walk through the door I spot Bella at the bar with a full drink in hand and some cheesy fries in front of her. Tanya and Jessica are seated only a couple of stools away. I take a breath and walk over to the bar.

"Bella?"

She turns around to face me and all I see is the blinding smile she gives me before setting down her drink and jumping into my arms.

"Eddie!" she squeals. I can't help but to catch her and enjoy the way her body fits around mine, as well as the smell of her perfume - the same perfume Isa wore when we were friends in high school.

"I hope Bella's daughter doesn't become a whore like her." I feel Bella stiffen at the words Jessica spits at her.

"What did you say about my daughter?" Bella drunkenly pushes out of my arms and faces Jessica and Tanya.

"I think what she said is, that she hopes your daughter doesn't become the town whore like her mother," Tanya mocks. "Although I would add that I hope she doesn't become a laughing stock either. Look at you - hanging all over Edward only a few weeks after Jacob Black left you on national TV. The whole town saw that freakshow and everyone is laughing at you. "

"Tanya, Jessica. I am asking you to back off." I warn them because Bella is turning red and her hands are clenched into fists.

Completely ignoring me, Tanya walks over to Isa and points a finger at her. "You are a failure, Isabella Swan. In every way that counts, you have failed - your mother, Jacob, your father, and even your daughter. What sort of mother sits alone in a bar getting drunk? You are a disgrace."

Her cruel words have hit their intended mark and Bella visibly flinches.

"Tanya. . ." I start but Bella cuts me off.

"No, Edward. She's right. I did fail. I failed a lot of people, but you know what? " Bella turns back to Tanya. " I tried and that's more then you can say! I have an education and I have a wonderful daughter! All you have is the same stupid job in the same stupid hair salon you worked at in high school, sweeping up the same stupid hair and answering the same stupid phones because you never tried to do anything else!"

I was am so focused on Bella's speech that I stop paying attention to her movements. No one is more surprised than me - except maybe Tanya - when Bella grabs her cheese fries and dumps them on Tanya's head.

"Alrighty then, time to go. Come on Bella." I grab her arm and start pulling her toward the exit as Tanya starts screaming obscenities and Jessica rushes over to help her get the gooey cheese out of her hair.

"You stupid bitch! Don't you ever let any comment about my daughter cross your lips again!" Bella yells as I finally drag her out of the door.

This chapter would not be what it is without Astro2009. I had such a tough time with this chapter and she truly made this chapter awesome.

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