A/N: OK here's the thing. I start work tomorrow, and will work every Monday-Friday til school starts, and then I have my final year with exams, homework and life, which means that I wont always have time to write. Though, I will try to do my best not to disappoint my readers. I'm setting Sundays as my "update day" that way I have all week to do my thing and hopefully have a chapter for you every Sunday.

I have a few other projects as well, but WhiV is my #1 priority. I got inspired by the TATTward and INKella stories and wrote a short story/one-shot, not for the competition due to the fact that there's no smut and I'm only 17 years old. Hopefully it will be done and up sometime next week.

A huge thanks to Paramore who kept me company while writing this chapter.

I do not own Twilight or its characters, they all belong to Stephenie Meyer.

I do however own a cell phone which will wake me up in five hours and tell me to go to work. ;)

Love, Ottilia


I've lived with a hole in my chest, a piece of my heart has been gone for twenty years. But my pain was bearable. Telling myself the pain was for Bella, for her to be able to live a normal life, made it all better.

The pain in her memories wasn't just a lost high school love.

It wasn't just a hole in her heart. I didn't take a piece of her heart with me when I left.

I took the whole thing.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Edward POV 22 November

As I slowly processed what just happened in my mind I rose and made my way through the deep underground to where we parked the car. I arrived on spot with an hour to spare before Bella would be there.

I spent the hour trying to decide how I was going to say what I knew needed to be said. But none of the ways sounded right. The someone who wrote that song was right.

Sorry seems to be the hardest word.

Not to say I'm sorry, that is not the hard part. It's all in the way you say it.

Right now sorry could either make us or break us. If it was said right, there could be a chance that Bella let me in her and our daughter's life, even if just as a friend. But if it was said wrong there was nothing more I could do but pack my things and leave them alone.

All I wanted was for them to be happy, and according to Jacob, they were. Before I got here and ripped up the wounds once again.

I herd footsteps coming from the forest and as I looked up I locked eyes with the only goddess I wanted to worship. She smiled at me, but the smile didn't reach her eyes.

We got in the car in silence and she started to drive towards her home.

"We need to talk" I said.

She sighed and looked at me. Her eyes were so sad, I just wanted to hug her and take all that sadness away. "I know. But not now. Not yet. I need to sort things through before anything more happens between us."

My heart sank. Sort things through. That could mean anything, but I still hoped that what ever it was I still had a chance to stay in her life.

I'm a selfish bastard, I know.

"So, what happens now, when we get back I mean?" I asked, the silence wasn't awkward, but it was slightly uncomfortable.

"I don't know what you're going to do, but I have work to do, phone calls to make and a wedding to plan."

I sighed. She had a wedding to plan. A wedding which I was supposed to attend to.

If I only could be in her life as a friend, so be it. But there's no way I can watch the love of my life walk up to the altar to marry someone else, it would hurt too much to know I had my chance.

"Okay." I smiled at her as she turned onto another road.

I tried to concentrate on the nature around us, it was beautiful, but it couldn't hold my eye. Nothing could. I closed my eyes and rested my head against the seat. The radio was on, but I can't remember what they played.

I almost jumped in my seat when I felt a hand on my knee. Looking down I saw Bella's hand there, I couldn't resist the urge that told me to take her hand, so I did.

The rest of the ride we held hands and enjoyed the silence. All to soon we ended up in front of the garage.

As we made our way to the house I heard Alice's thoughts.

Please come home, I can't take this anymore! Hurry up you fools.

I told Bella and we sped up only to be met by Alice who looked like she was going insane.

"Thank God you're home!" She screamed as she threw herself at me and hugged me as hard as she could.

"OK, Alice, care to tell me what's got you so riled up?" Bella asked with an amused grin. "Did Nessie say no to a shopping trip?"

"Not only did she say no, she and Jasper have been talking since you left."

"Whoa Alice. They do have a right to say no, and what's so bad with talking?" I asked her.

"Yeah, but Bella said she likes shopping." Alice defended herself.

"When she wants to. If you ask and she's not in the mood for it she wont go." Bella answered.

"Uh huh, I noticed!" Alice rolled her eyes at Bella. "Anyway, please make them do something! They're just sitting there, talking. It's getting on my nerves. No offense, I love Jasper and everything about him, but to hear the two of them talk about different war strategies for hours is not something you'd like to hear."

Bella let out a laugh and I was mesmerized by the sound of it. Everything about her pulled me in.

"Let's go inside." She said as she led us through the door.

As soon as she entered the living room where Jasper and Nessie were sat Nessie jumped up and rushed over to Bella. She placed her hand on Bella's cheek and somehow the two of them shared a silent conversation.

I don't know how they did it, since I heard Bella's thoughts when we were hunting I knew she wasn't a mind reader. At least I didn't think so. I've never heard of a vampire with multiple powers.

On the other hand, I heard some of Bella's thoughts, maybe she and her daughter shared the same power: projecting thoughts?

I guess they'll tell us about it later.

As I looked at the two women I felt the same loss as I did in the mountains. I wasn't there for them when they needed me.

Hell I don't even know my own daughter.

Bella walked out of the house and towards the castle after a few minutes of mindless chatter with Alice. The two of them planned to go shopping Christmas gifts together since my family would celebrate Christmas with Bella and Renesmee.

Jasper excused himself to check out the second floor of the house. After a while I could see in his thoughts that he found a book in Bella's study that he liked. Alice and Nessie talked a bit about fashion, and then went off to go through Bella's clothes.

There I was, alone in the living room, with nothing to do.

As if hearing my thoughts Nessie appeared with two photo albums in her arms.

"I thought you might want to see these since you weren't there." She said with a smile.

"Wow, thank you. Though I'm not sure I deserve it." I said sadly. I knew I didn't deserve it.

"Bull-fucking-shit. You might not have been there for my first step or my first word dad, but neither was mom. She missed it as well. It's her own fault for passing on the stubbornness. You should ask Aro, he saw it all." She laughed.

Dad, she called me dad! My breath hitched and my mind was spinning. Why did she call me dad? She doesn't even know me.

"Look, I have to save some of mom's stuff from Alice or she will kill me. But you should know that even if you weren't there, you're still the reason I'm here. You are my dad whether you want it or not. Though I know you want it. When vampires mate, they mate for life, or existence, they don't fall out of love. I guess that rule goes for half-vampires as well, but that's not the point. You still love her, you will always love her. But something made you lie to her and forced you away from her. I might not know what that was, but at least I know that you love her." She looked out the window, deep in though, strange thing, I couldn't hear her thoughts even though I was able to do it in the red room.

She sighed and continued. "You fucked up. We all know that. Every single one except for mom. She believed the note. . . She still loves you, you know. I know what happened on the mountain, I expected it to. I knew mom wasn't ready, but hey, I do what I can."

A scream was heard from the second floor. It seemed as if Alice found some clothes of Bella's she didn't like.

"Alice, leave mom's sweats ALONE! I do not have a death wish, so just leave them and the oversize shirts alone." She turned to me and smiled. "Like I said, mom isn't ready. Maybe she'll never be, but it's started, too late to stop it now, she'll throw herself into work until it's time to pick up Liam. After that she'll either go back to work, go to her special place, talk or just act normal. I'm betting on the last one. What you will til then, if you are willing to fight, is to slowly get her to trust you again. Get her to see that you love her." Nessie seemed sure of herself, but on the other hand, she's been with Bella the latest twenty years. She knows her.

"Renesmee!" I heard Alice's voice come down the stairs to where we sat. "Get your spoiled ass back up here, yes Bella told me you're a spoiled brat, we have more things to sort through. Plus, I'm making you a dress."

Nessie's words were in a mess in my head. Did she mean what she said? Could I get her back?

And what about having to fight for her? Was there someone else?

Bella said she had a wedding to plan. Was it hers? Did I only have a month to build up her trust in me?

Nessie rose from her seat and smiled down on me. "Thanks dad. I'll talk to you later. Alice needs me now."

"I'm a dad. I never thought this was possible." I said as I stood up and hugged my daughter.

"I don't think anyone did." Nessie excused herself from the hug and I sat back down on the couch. She bent forward and kissed my cheek as she whispered a thank you in my ear.

"What for?" I asked perplexed.

"Alice said you would say yes, so thanks for agreeing to walk me down the aisle on the 27th of December. That is after all one of your daddy-duties." She said as she smiled and then ran up the stairs to get back to Alice and Bella's clothes.

Whoa! She just dropped a bomb on me. I couldn't even begin to progress what she said, but I narrowed it down to three things.

One: Bella still loved me.

Two: I had to work hard if I even thought about getting her back.

And three: My daughter is getting married. That's the wedding Bella is planning this very moment. Our daughter's wedding.

I was happy to see that Bella wasn't getting married in the near future, that she wasn't taken. But I was still disappointed in myself for not being there for them.

It struck me that I didn't know who my daughter was marrying. At the same time I was delighted, if I didn't know who the guy was, I didn't have to give him the daddy/boyfriend talk and try to scare the living shit out of him.

I knew how it was to be on the receiving end of a talk like that one, and it's not something I wish for other guys. My two girls have lived here for twenty years, and I'm sure that Bella would have chased away any guy not worthy of my daughter's love.

I picked up one of the photo albums and opened it. In it was pictures of a lifetime, the part of my daughter's life I missed out on. As I leaned back I got lost in the pictures as her life started to take form before my eyes.

Edward POV 25 November

The last few days has all been the same.

I haven't met Nessie's boyfriend yet, all thanks to Aro sending a group of the guard away to check on an upcoming coven somewhere in China.

Nessie and Alice are bonding well, they've both kept me out of their minds as they've started to work on the wedding dress. Apparently only three people are allowed to see it before the day of the wedding. Those three being Alice, Nessie and Bella.

Bella's been on the phone almost every time I've seen her. She's talked to two men she refers to as Dracula-one and Dracula-two, it was only yesterday as I found out that it was Stefan ans Vladimir she talked to.

Stefan and Vladimir lived in Romania, just as the myth about Dracula says. They were long the kings of the vampire world, but as the Volturi grew they had to leave over their power.

Let me just say that it wasn't very pleasant. They still fight about it today, though I've heard from some of the guards that the relationship between the two parts is a lot better since Bella stepped in. They both refuse to talk directly to each other, and that's where Bella steps in. She acts as a mediator, or as she said herself: the pony express.

Nessie said Bella would throw herself into her work, and she was correct. She's been in the castle with Aro or on the phone since we came home from our hunting trip. I was a bit disappointed that Bella hasn't talked to me more than a "Hello" and a smile when we've met. But I knew she needed time, and I would give her that.

Jasper has been locked up in Bella's study, going through book after book after book. There shouldn't be many books left for him to read by now. At least no books about history. Well, he hasn't been there the whole time, but I haven't seen much of him.

After I looked at the pictures in Nessie's albums at least three times I've walked through the park behind the castle. I've been trying to clear my head from all the thoughts that are swimming in there, and I've come up with a plan that will help me get Bella back.

Back in the house there wasn't much to do, so I found a book that looked interesting and started to read. The girl with the dragon tattoo was a huge success as they made it into a movie in 2008, but I have neither seen the movie or read the book before.

I was a couple of chapters into the book when I heard a loud booming voice coming from across the park.

"Dude, I can totally see why she'd move to a place like this."


End note: So here we are, another couple of the Cullens are coming to Volterra. And I know you know who they are.

A few minutes of father/daughter time. Yes, she was quick to forgive and forget, but that's the way I picture Renesmee. She knows what she wants and she does not give up until she's got it.

Edward now knows that Bella still loves him. But it's not the same thing to hear it from someone else as it is to hear it from Bella, is it?

Thanks for all the reviews and support I get from my readers. I love it. It totally makes my day.

/Ottilia