I dreaded Monday, so of course it came ten times faster.

"Hey! It's the bowling champion!" Edward exclaimed as I climbed into the car. I could only smile. I couldn't ask him here. Not in front of Jasper, and definitely not in front of Alice. I had to wait until lunch, where we would be in the courtyard alone.

I walked slowly to lunch. I couldn't postpone lunch, but I could draw out the time it took for me to get there. When I opened the doors to the courtyard, Edward was waiting.

"Do you want to hang out after school today?" he wondered. That made everything slightly easier. At least I didn't have to bring it up.

"Actually, yeah, um. There's something I have to do, but I want you to come with me," I told him. I could tell that he saw I didn't only want him to come, but I needed him to come.

"What are you planning to do?" he questioned, now extremely curious.

"I need to visit my dad," I confessed.

"Why?" he wondered with severe repulsion.

"You were right. I can't let it control me anymore, and this is the only way that I know how."

"Where did this come from?" he inquired.

"I talked to Renee and Alice last night. I learned some things about myself and I saw what I had done to them. Though my father started the ball rolling, everything else they had been through was my fault. My father probably knew how things would turn out, and he did it anyway. I have some bridges I need to burn," I explained.

"I'll be with you the entire time...with a full box of tissues," he promised, adding a smile.

So after school, Jasper dropped Alice off and then drove us to their house. It was familiar, like I had seen it in a drew. A happy dream. But that was impossible. For the past few weeks, I hadn't been dreaming (with the exception of that coma dream), and before then, I only had nightmares.

When we reached the house, Jasper got out and Edward and I did a sort of Chinese fire drill. Jasper came out of the house to hand Edward the box of tissues and then Edward drove us to the jail.

I asked the lady at the entrance if she could mute my father's side of the line. I told her that I didn't want to hear what he had to say, that I wanted him to listen for once. She kindly agreed to.

Despite three years of changes, I could still see the disgusting man who was somehow genetically related to me. I picked up the phone, and after informing him that he was unable to talk, I began my speech.

"You're really sick, you know that? I understand that I just sat there and let you get away with whatever the hell you wanted, but that doesn't make it right. you let me watch rated R movies when I was five, that doesn't mean that it was the best idea in the world. And I don't care how much Alice says it would have hurt, but I would have much rathered that you had never touched her and just gone right ahead and killed me. What did I do anyway? I know that you knew how much of a pushover I was. you took advantage of that. You knew that I wouldn't fight back. What would you gain from that anyway? No fun when it's a one-way fight, and I hadn't done anything, so there was no need to punish me. Sure, I may have let everything happen. I let myself turn into who I've become, but you're the one who's pushed me here. You're the reason that I hate everything around me, you're the reason I can't remember anything before the first time you kicked me. Thanks to you, I've lost everyone around me other than Alice and Renee. I've lost three years of my life. Scars heal, but time is something you can't turn back.

"You know what I heard from Charlie? In jail, if you've killed a cop, you're pretty damn popular, but if you've done anything to a child, raped, beaten, or whatever, you're looked at as some of the lowest dirt, like you're not even worthy to pee in a jail urinal or something. It makes me warm and fuzzy inside to know that you only treated us like scum for one little year. Because you've been hated and looked down upon for three, and still have many left." I took a deep breath before getting back to the point.

"The only thing I remember in regards as to why you beat us is that you like control. I came here to tell you that you don't control me anymore, and by the time you're out of here, I'll be long out of the house and even if I wasn't, the courts would never give you custody back anyway, so you never will be in control again." With that, I got up and looked at Edward, who was still sitting, looking foolishly at the box of tissues in his lap. He grabbed them and stood to walk back to the car.

"That must have taken a lot. You sure gave him an earful," Edward complimented. "I'm proud of you. Why did you need me to help? You did fine." He didn't need to wait long for an answer. The tissues didn't seem like such a foolish idea anymore.

"I didn't know whether or not I was going to come out in one piece. I did know that even if I did, I would fall apart sometime before we got home," I explained, beginning to cry. "Renee and Alice had seen enough breakdowns to last them a lifetime. Plus, they had been involved. They would have had their own breakdowns, even if I didn't." Edward put his arm around me and handed me the box of tissues. "Three years of crying and tears might take a while to come out," I warned him.

"Nah, you'll run out of tears before you're done," he assured me, trying to cheer me up." I understand it's a lot of pain, but you shouldn't be unhappy right now. What you just did tops a game full of strikes. We should celebrate."

"And how do you propose we do that?" I questioned.

"Come to my house. We can stop and pick up Alice on the way, so her and Jasper could hang out. That would get another dinner off of your hands," he suggested.

"Oh no, four days in a row of no cooking. How will I ever survive?" I asked sarcastically.

I okayed it with Renee. She probably would have agreed to anything if it meant getting me out of the house and being social. So Alice hopped into the car with me and Edward drove us back to the dream house.

"I'm home," he called when we walked through the door. "I hope you don't mind that I invited Bella and Alice over for dinner." Edward's family was clearly visible in the large, open room.

"That's not a problem at all. You mother'll just have to set a couple more plates at the table. Nice to see you again, Bella. It's been a while," Carlisle, Edward's father, recalled. It seemed there was a double meaning to his words.

I was pretty comfortable with Carlisle. Familiarity and comfort were two things you gain with Carlisle when he's the head of the emergency room and you were in the ER about once a week for nearly a year. I hadn't been there in a while, but it seemed he had meant something else when he had said "It's been a while."

"Nice to see you, too," I replied. I recognized Esme from the frequent times she brought Carlisle lunch. Rosalie and Emmett had graduated last year, so I remembered them from school. And of course I already knew Jasper.

Rosalie and Jasper's situation, if I remembered right, was very unique. The were actually Esme's niece and nephew, and due to their summer birthday, their mother had been able to start Rosalie in school a year before Jasper. When their mother couldn't care for them anymore, Esme took them in. They were the Hales. The Cullen kids (Edward and Emmett) had been adopted at birth.

Carlisle and Esme were very hospitable. Edward's behaviour was slightly odd, however. The entire time, he was watching me like he was expecting something out of me, expecting me to do something.

My epiphany came a little too late for Edward to see. It arrived in another odd dream.