When last we met, Victoria is in Alaska, plotting to kill Bella, Edward learned that Bella was alive and he absolutely detests Conner, and Bella thinks that Edward is distracting himself with Tanya, so she is trying to leave him and get on with her life. Let us see if she manages to get away, shall we? Happy reading, darlings :)

11 ~ History

"…Oooh Romeo is bleeding to death
To see a friend bleed to death, what for
Some kind of metaphor that I can't see?
So I'll drink until I see it.

This sky will make me sick
So I'll give up on you
I'll give up on this
This sky will make me sick
So I'll give up on this
I'll give up on you

Archers in your arches
Raise your fingers for one last salute
And bleed this skyline dry
Your history is mine

So you want to hold me up and bring me down
Yes, you want to hold me up and break me down
I don't care for your sweet scent…"

History by Funeral for a Friend

Tuesday, October 4

Conner's POV

Bits and pieces of information were all falling together now. The most obvious part of Layla's story, or should I say Bella's story since that's what everyone except for me seemed to be calling her, was that at some point in the past, she had been in a relationship with Edward. And at some point during that relationship, he had left her and neither of them seemed happy about it. And I was downright livid at him, first because he had been fortunate enough to be in a relationship with her at all and second because he had left her alone after getting her pregnant.

The fact that she was pregnant with his child was something else, I had to admit, I really did not like. But I could get past that, as long as the pregnancy was safe for Layla. After all, vampire-human babies weren't exactly commonplace and who knows what the child could do to her. If I hadn't already been angry with him for throwing me out a window, I would have hated Edward anyway for hurting her as he so obviously had. I desperately wanted to punch him again for causing her pain—I couldn't wait to see the look on his asshole face when I returned his violent assaults—but I knew it would only upset her so I decided to put that task off for another day. Like tomorrow. Tomorrow would be good.

Now I understood why she hadn't wanted to come here and I wished, for her sake, that she had just stayed in the parked car. True, Edward and I might still be rolling around smashing into things if she hadn't been here to beg us to stop, but at least she wouldn't be hurting. I would take a thousand punches from the strongest of my kind if it would just remove the wounded expression from her face. Because I hated seeing it there and knowing that nothing I did could make it go away.

She still loved him—add another thing to the growing list of newly acquired information that I did not like—despite everything he appeared to have done that had brought her to this point of distress. Her unconditional love for him was almost as clear in her every feature as was the sadness. I wished I could hold her and wipe her pain away and tell her that he wasn't worth a single teardrop, that she should give her love to someone who would cherish it and cherish her.

But I couldn't. Not now and, certainly, not here. But eventually, when we got away from here, I was going to spend my every moment trying to make sure she got what she deserved. I was going to try to learn everything I could about her and help her in every way that was possible. And that included making sure she was no longer subjected to torturous moments with Edward. I would be to her whatever she needed me to be and maybe, someday, I would see her look at me the way she had looked at him—without all the pain and sadness mixed in, of course.

For now, I would just support her, stand beside her as she and Edward discussed their child, because it was one topic that, at the moment, I recognized as not being my business. I didn't dare leave her alone with him for the talk because she had been trying so hard to hold herself together since the moment she arrived here and it was obvious she was teetering on the brink of a meltdown because of the impending conversation. If the situation started to get out of hand and he started acting like an asshole again though, I was going to make it my business. In the very least, as her doctor, it kind of was my concern to make sure she wasn't placed under any more stress than she already had been because it wasn't good for her or the baby.

I turned with her, my arm still wrapped snugly around her shoulders and met his eyes, daring him with my own to give me just one reason to destroy him. Because as I felt her body shudder under his gaze and her lips trembled as the tears continued to run like salty raindrops down her frozen cheeks, protecting her became the primary purpose of my existence and destroying him was what I very much wanted to do in order to make sure she was sheltered from harm.

Alice's POV

At first, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. They had to be; there just was no logical explanation for a blonde-haired Bella to be standing right in front of us when I had clearly seen her jump off that cliff in La Push. My mind filled with thousands of questions as I approached her, but I decided they could wait. There would be plenty of time to have a lengthy conversation with my human sister later to discern the hows and whys of everything about this crazy situation. There was only one thing that I needed to do right now and that was wrap Bella in my arms and welcome her back to where she belonged.

I ran over to her, ignoring the statue that was Edward for the time being because it was hardly my fault if he didn't have the common sense to welcome her back properly. I made a mental note to have a conversation with him about that later; had he lost his mind, after all? He should be hugging her, kissing her, loving her, begging her to forgive him for his stupidity. Instead he was just standing there, staring at—oh.

That might be the reason. Conner had his arm wrapped around Bella's shoulders and Bella seemed to be very comfortable there. He seemed very protective of her. It was annoying. Who did he think he was, anyway? And what was going on here? I knew Bella loved my brother, I knew she was deeply hurt when we left, but couldn't she see how much she meant to him? Why wasn't she wrapped in Edward's desperate arms instead of Conner's invading ones? Bella and I were definitely going to have a very long talk about this. After I hugged her and thoroughly convinced myself that she was truly here. I didn't hesitate as I pulled her from Conner's tight grasp and wrapped her in my arms. The intrusive vampire momentarily broke his eyeball war with my brother to glare at me as I pulled Bella away from him, but I didn't care. She was my family, not his.

I noticed when my arms didn't touch behind her that Bella's stomach had grown considerably since we had left and it filled me with both confusion and joy. Confusion because, although I was certainly no doctor, I was fairly certain that babies didn't grow that fast and joy because she truly was pregnant! My brother was going to be a father! I was going to be an aunt! I couldn't help but grin. There were so many things we needed to do to prepare. We had to build a nursery and go shopping and have a baby shower and—

Something was not right. I was hugging Bella with as much strength as I could without hurting her and she was just—motionless. Her arms hung at her sides, her shoulders sagged, and as I backed away, kissed her cheek softly and whispered that we missed her, her eyes shut tightly and the only sounds she made were soft whimpers. "Bella?" I said quietly, and her eyes met mine for the briefest moment. It was like seeing her for the first time because she was so different from the girl I had known. She was so—damaged and fragile. In the few weeks we had been separated, she had changed dramatically, and none of it had been for the better.

In my mind, I had seen how she would fall apart, how she would hurt, but it had never been as bad as this. If I had known how much our absence would break her, Edward's stubbornness be damned, I never would have left her. I found myself staring at her as Conner pulled her back to his side and she leaned toward him, hiding her crying eyes from my view, only my eyes weren't looking directly at her.

Instead, they were searching for her, like they had been so often in days past, desperate to find some evidence of the happy ending she deserved. But it was the same as before. Bella was here, standing in front of me, living and breathing. And yet she was still gone. Her future had disappeared and, once again, nothing was certain. I backed away from her and stood next to my brother, linking my arm in his, trying to give him encouragement that I didn't truly feel.

This was not how it was supposed to be. Bella's reemergence should have fixed us, should have made us happy and hopeful. But we were not. We were still as lost now as we had been when we thought she had died. And I still felt useless.

Edward's POV

I wanted to kill him. No, it was almost as though I needed it. He was no longer trying to hide his thoughts from me and I heard what his intentions were. It was bad enough that he thought he loved her, that he was imagining what it would be like to be with her and kiss her and touch her. But then I heard his plan to keep her away from me and I growled at him and stepped forward. But my feet stopped in their tracks as my Bella, who had never once backed away in fear of me, retreated even closer to Conner's side.

The pieces of my heart were ripped into even smaller shreds as she chose to cling to him instead of me. I realized in an instant how much damage I had done. I had left her to keep her safe; I had wanted her to live a normal life away from the dangers of my kind. It had nearly killed me to walk away from her, to lie to her, to try to convince her that I no longer wanted her. But I did it because I wanted her to be safe. And everything—her suffering, my pain, the lies, the heartbreak—it had all been for nothing.

Because here she was, carrying my child, so beautiful and shattered, clinging to someone possibly more dangerous than I ever could have been. I could see in his thoughts that he didn't love her enough to do anything necessary to keep her safe; he didn't love her even remotely as much as I did, if he even loved her at all. But then I realized that I really was no different from him. I may have loved her enough to walk away from her but I hadn't really left her. The evidence of that was right in front of my eyes as I glanced at her swollen stomach.

I had to make this right. I had to convince her of what she meant to me. I had to make things right. I had to hug her again, kiss her again, and feel her warm skin again. I had to know what it was like to feel and kiss her stomach as our child grew within it. I had to fix this mess I had made. If I didn't, if I failed, my life would be over. I didn't need to see a vision from Alice to know that much. His evil voice broke through my thoughts.

"Layla, if you two are going to talk, we should probably all go inside. You'll catch your death of cold out here. And you should probably eat something." He rubbed his offending hand up and down her arm as if the friction from his frozen fingers would somehow warm her, and I wanted to rip his limb from its socket. But he was right, I couldn't deny that. She was still a human and the iced Alaskan air that felt like little more than a cool breeze to the undead was probably numbing her to the core.

I should have been the one to realize that. I should have been the one making sure she was taken care of. There were a lot of things that I should be doing, but I wasn't. I was immobile, terrified that something I said or did would make her run away from me. I inhaled deeply and prepared myself to overcome the gripping fear. I was on the verge of losing her, and I wasn't going to give her up without a fight. If it took me all the rest of my days, she would realize that I had never stopped loving her, wanting her. We would be together again. I would make this right.

I followed her and Conner into the house with as much patience as I possessed, thinking about all the things I would do to convince her. I tried to block out the thoughts of the many people surrounding us so that I could concentrate completely, but before I could fully bar them all from my mind, I heard a soft voice in my head. I searched around for its owner and my eyes fell upon the fair-haired woman who was nervously staring after my Bella. She seemed on the verge of saying something, but her obvious uncertainty caused her to remain silent. I searched for her mind's voice again and that's when her thoughts paralyzed me where I stood in the doorway to the dining room.

Poor child, the baby is going to kill her. Edward will be heartbroken.

Bella's POV

I wondered at what point in time my luck had turned from good to bad. I had thought I was running on a streak of good; after all, I had located the Denali vampires, and I had at least one of them willing to help me. And he was a doctor. Things seemed to be working out perfectly according to plan. And then came the bad luck: the Cullens were in Alaska. And I had actually thought I could handle a reunion with them. If I weren't afraid I'd fall on my butt by doing so, I would kick myself for being so ridiculously naive. In the past weeks I had come to learn what I could and could not handle, and this—Edward not caring and seeing him with someone else—was definitely something I could not handle.

I was also having a difficult time with Alice hugging me like nothing had changed when so much had. It felt so good to be wrapped up in her arms, but I couldn't bring myself to hug her back because I was afraid that I would use all of the human strength I possessed to never let her go. I was afraid of realizing how much I had missed more than just Edward, of reliving the pain I had gone through when I lost my newly acquired family. And most of all, I was afraid of losing control and running to Edward and of having him reject me again. I just couldn't do it. So I stood there motionless and let her hug me. And then, when she backed away, when I physically felt her loss, I let Conner pull me to him and I allowed myself cry.

For a moment, I had stupidly hoped that Edward would know nothing about my pregnancy and that I would be able to escape from him and his family and this entire hellish situation until I reached a point in my life where I was emotionally capable of being in their presence. If that point ever came, that is, and I wasn't so sure that it would. But seeing Alice again reminded me of what I should have already known: she would have seen this coming. Edward knew all about our baby, probably even more than I did, and that was extremely frustrating. When he spoke as I turned to leave, asking me about our child, I wanted so badly to tell him how scared I was. I wanted to tell him that I needed him to help me get through this because I didn't want to raise our baby on my own. I wanted to ask him for answers to all the questions that seemed to infiltrate the very fabric of my life.

And so, the inward battle waged on, only now it wasn't about my child or my priorities; it was about my strength and whether or not the walls I had built up around my heart to keep myself from getting hurt again would crumble in Edward's presence. Stone by stone, the blockade disintegrated. I was mere milliseconds away from speaking to Edward when Conner voiced his concerns about the frigid air and my empty stomach. I realized then that I was cold and hungry, and my intelligent brain finally voiced its opinion and convinced me that I would be much better suited to carry out a potentially difficult conversation with a warm body and a full stomach.

I walked into the house and toward the dining room, which was where everyone seemed to be congregating. Conner pulled out a chair and I sighed as I seated myself; it felt so wonderful to be off of my feet. I couldn't help my eyes from drifting to Edward as he appeared in the doorway. At first, he was staring at me, a determined expression on his face, and then his eyes darted across the room and mine followed their path. I almost wished they hadn't when my vision was filled with the sight of yet another beautiful Denali vampire. This one was even more pale-skinned than the rest of them, if that were at all possible, and her hair was long and straight and the color of corn silk. Would it be too much to ask for at least one vampire I met to not be stunningly beautiful? Seriously. I was surprised when I noticed that her eyes were glued to me, her expression strangely sad, so I looked away, back to Edward.

He looked frightened and when he spoke, his musical voice broke uncharacteristically. "Kate, why do you think that? What do you know?" Fabulous. We were back to the cryptic-speak where Edward has a single-sided conversation with people's thoughts. I never really was a fan of that, of being clueless and in the dark. Then again, he had never really been pleased that he was in the dark when it came to my thoughts, so perhaps we were slightly even. I was once again grateful that my thoughts were muted because Edward's gift did not reach me. It would have been embarrassing if he knew how much I still wanted to be with him.

I rested my hand on my stomach and Conner's cool fingers fell over mine and gently, reassuringly squeezed. I heard a low hiss that I knew came from Edward at Conner's actions—or, perhaps, his thoughts—and it almost made me happy to know that Edward was irritated by Conner's hand resting on mine and my swollen belly. I couldn't understand why it mattered so much to him; after all, he had left me behind without a care in the world as to how it would affect me. He deserved to suffer a little bit; he deserved to know just a fraction of what I had been feeling for the past few weeks. So, against my better judgment, I let Conner's hand stay where it was.

Edward took the seat on the other side of me and stared across the table at the beautiful blonde vampire. I looked up at her when she spoke, her voice carrying only the hint of a British accent. "I only know of one other instance where a human girl carried the child of a vampire." She had my full attention. I had wanted answers and, thankfully, she seemed able to give them. Perhaps my luck was turning again. Perhaps I would be able to find out the answers to all of my burning questions from this infuriatingly beautiful creature. I studied her face and saw the pain in her eyes before she continued to speak. Whatever she was about to share was not a happy tale and I realized that my luck had, indeed, taken a turn. But it was for the worse.

All eyes were on her as she continued, "It was nearly 200 years ago, before I was turned. Her name was Rebecca, and she was my sister." Her pained eyes left mine and she stared at the shiny tabletop. "She was three years older than I and when I was sixteen, she told me that she had fallen in love. I was young and foolish and still filled with the ideas of romance and fairy tale love stories, so I eagerly listened to her accounts of secret trysts and innocent kisses. She spoke of the man she loved as if he were a god, as if her world revolved around him and him alone. In the beginning, I envied her for that." She paused briefly and snickered, which indicated to me that the idea of envying her sister was something she now considered preposterous, and then she resumed her story.

"One night, Becca confided in me that her mysterious sweetheart was everything she'd ever dreamed of and that he had asked her to go away with him and elope. I was worried for her, and more than a little curious about the man I had never met, but she seemed so blissfully happy that I pushed my doubts aside and helped her with her plans to run away. I asked her once to stay, to convince our parents that love should be more important than money because I didn't know what I was going to do without her. But she just laughed and chided me for being immature enough to think that Mother and Father would approve of their daughters marrying any man that didn't have a significant bank account and a rising social stature. I should have tried harder to convince her to stay, but hindsight always makes things seem so simple, doesn't it?"

It was eerie how easily I could see myself in Becca's shoes. I knew exactly what it was like to be so in love that I would defy the laws of society, even of nature, to be with the man who had stolen my heart. To love someone so much that I would give up my family, my home, everything I had ever known just to be near him. I wondered briefly if Becca's Romeo had actually loved her back as I snuck a glance at Edward. His eyes were fixated on Kate. Of course they would be. Why would he want to look at ordinary old me when he had a plethora of Greek goddesses surrounding him? I bitterly sighed and Conner squeezed my hand, earning another low hiss from Edward. He either had exceptional peripheral vision or his eaves-dropping in Conner's mind was giving him bothersome information.

I didn't have time to further speculate about that because Kate continued, "She left one night in mid-October, promising that she would write in a few days when they settled down somewhere, promising that someday she would return and visit. Weeks passed but no letters came. I started to worry. My parents spent thousands of dollars searching for her, but it was as if she had literally disappeared. And then one night in late November, while my parents were on a weekend holiday in London, I heard a crying sound outside of my window. I looked through the downpour to the front lawn and Becca was there. I ran to her, thanking God that she was alive and home where she belonged. I wrapped her in my arms, and that's when I noticed her stomach. She was with child and from the looks of her, it would be mere days before baby was born. My mind wasn't given time to contemplate the subconscious realization that babies simply did not grow that fast because she let out a gut-wrenching scream and fell to the ground." The silence in the room as Kate narrated the account of her human life was palpable. It was an uncomfortable type of quiet, the type you experience when everyone around you is holding their breath in anxious anticipation of an important revelation. I wasn't so sure I was ready to hear whatever was coming, but Kate's soft voice spoke anyway.

"I immediately sent our maidservant to fetch the doctor as I hobbled with Becca into our house and somehow managed to seat her on her old bed. I started removing her wet clothing, and when I had stripped her down to her skin, I was further convinced that something was amiss with her pregnancy. Her bulging stomach was speckled with bruises of nearly every color, but even with the discoloration, her stomach was the only part of her that looked somewhat healthy. Every other part of her body was nothing but skin and bone. It was as if the baby was stealing everything from her, growing stronger as Becca weakened." I didn't have to search the room to feel how everyone's eyes looked me over, comparing me to the story. No doubt they were noticing my sunken skin, my unhealthy appearance. But what did they expect from a girl who had been through everything that I had in the past few weeks? I would be concerned if I looked healthy as a horse after dealing with several painful life changes in such a short time. It was normal to look a little haggard when your world had fallen apart.

Kate continued while everyone stared at me, "I prayed that the doctor would arrive, that he would be able to help her, save her. I had a few coherent minutes with her as we waited, a few too-short moments where I fussed with the blankets and the cool cloth that I dabbed on her forehead to help with the fever. I listened to her weakened voice as she told the first of many enlightening truths about the world we live in. The final words exchanged between me and my dearly loved sister were those in which I learned that every fairy tale has a monster and, sometimes, the monsters come in clever disguises. She whispered to me about the man she had married, about how he was different, how he was not human. At first, I thought she was delirious, but somewhere deep inside, I think I always knew she was speaking the truth. I didn't get the opportunity to learn much about him at that time because she cried out again and then I saw the blood that was soaking through the thick layer of blankets.

I ripped the covers off of her body and did the best I could to help her with the delivery. But I was not a doctor and I didn't know what to do or how to control the bleeding. The baby was born just one hour after my sister had come back into my life. It was a boy. I wrapped the child up and placed him in my sister's arms. She looked down at him, smiled weakly and spoke his name. Then she looked at me, but her eyes were unfocused. She was slipping away, and I was powerless to keep her from fading. Two minutes after the birth, she was gone."

I took a deep breath and watched as Kate's body shook with silent, tearless sobs. I wasn't sure I was ready to digest the information she had provided. I tried to separate the emotional magnitude of the story from the cold, hard facts that I needed to process. Once I managed to do that, I had deduced the following: the baby would be born much sooner than I had anticipated, it was going to be a painful, unpleasant experience, and there was a chance I would die. I tried to stay composed. I had calmly rationalized my death before; I would just have to do it again. But I still had questions. What had become of Becca's child? Did he live? What was he like? I needed to know. The necessity forced the words from my mouth. "Kate, what happened to the baby?" Her eyes lifted to meet mine and I tried to focus on her face and only her face as the table full of vampires stared at me.

Her eyes brightened for a brief instant as she spoke of the child. "He was perfect. Beautiful. The doctor arrived about twenty minutes after Becca had—passed; I remember him walking into the room and gasping and then—nothing. The next couple of days went by in somewhat of a blur save for one thing—Becca's son. I took it upon myself to care for him because he was a part of my sister and that made him precious." Her eyes darkened again as did her story. "But my time with my nephew was short-lived. About a week after he was born, a stranger arrived at our home. I went to check on Nicholas—my nephew—in the middle of the night and the man was standing by the cradle. Part of me instinctively knew I should run, but my drive to protect my nephew overpowered my fear. I asked the stranger what he was doing in my home and the last thing I remember before the excruciating burning was the sight of him lunging toward me.

After my change, I was alone and scared and confused. I knew that I was different, dangerous, but I also still clearly remembered bits of my human life. The memories were enough to steer me toward the "vegetarian" life. And, once I was more settled into this strange type of existence, I allowed myself to check on my family. I needed to know what had happened to them after the stranger attacked me. In the middle of the night, I slipped into my old house and found my parents sleeping in their bedroom. They seemed safe, so I moved on to the nursery. But it was gone. The room was empty, forgotten, painful. It was as if the child had never existed. But the clarity of his image in my mind was enough to quash any doubts about my memory. He had existed. And I had loved him. But as for what became of him, I'm sorry, Bella, I don't know. I have asked myself that question every day since my visit to my human home. But I just don't know."

I swallowed the lump in my throat. Kate had given me so much information, but I still knew far too little. All I had to hold onto now was hope. Hope that I could endure this pregnancy. Hope that the baby would be healthy and perfect. Hope that I would live long enough to know him. I pictured him just then, a miniature Edward with green eyes and unruly bronze hair. Perfection. I already loved him more than I could have ever imagined, and I hadn't even met him yet. I knew that whatever happened to me, just seeing him, holding him would make it all worthwhile. I risked a glance at Edward and my heart melted slightly at the distraught look in his eyes.

But his strained words froze it right back up again. "Bella, you can't have this baby."

Edward's POV

I didn't mean for it to come out like that. I knew, if I had been smart, I would have allowed myself to relax a little bit before speaking to her. But I also knew that after what I had seen in Kate's mind as she relayed the story of her sister, after I had imagined seeing Bella in the same situation, that there would be no calm for me until Bella was no longer in danger. I could not bear that reality. I could not lose her all over again. I was still recovering from the sense of loss I had felt when I thought she had died a week ago. I was still having a hard time convincing myself that she was actually here and not just a figment of my deranged imagination. But I knew she was real, I knew she was here, because my imagination was just not that cruel. If I had imagined her, she would be healthy and happy and we would be together. She would not have Conner's hand resting on her swollen stomach—I was barely resisting the urge to crush that hand—and she would not be in danger of dying because of our child.

I never thought I could feel guiltier than I had when I heard Charlie speak of Bella dying. But I discovered moments ago that I could. Right now, my remorse was tangible, crushing me as I sat in the dining room staring at the love of my life and internally castigating myself for placing her in yet another dangerous situation. It wasn't enough that she was in constant danger whenever she was around me because of what I was. Now, she was in danger because I had lost control and given in to the temptation of physically loving her. Now she was in danger from our child—and I was momentarily torn between my love for her and the newly unrepressed desire for children. But there was no question which I would choose. Bella would always be the most important thing in my life. I did not need anything or anyone else as long as I had her.

The words were out and I could not take them back. I cringed as I saw the flash of hurt in her eyes, but it quickly disappeared and was replaced with something else: rage. In an almost inhumanly fast motion, she stood from the table and slapped me clear across the face. Hard. I felt shock but no physical pain, and then my guilt intensified when she cried out and grabbed her hand. Would I ever stop hurting her? Both Conner and Carlisle moved to look at her hand, but she halted them.

"Don't. I'm fine," she said through clenched teeth, looking at both of them pointedly before returning her gaze to me. She scowled and practically hissed at me. "You will NOT tell me what I will or will not do. Ever. You lost the right to have an opinion when you decided that you would rather distract yourself elsewhere than pretend to be in love with me."

When she glanced at Tanya as she said the word "distract", her reaction to me outside made a little more sense. Tanya had been holding my hand. I was so astounded by Bella's arrival that I hadn't even noticed Tanya's approach. Bella must think that Tanya and I—this was not good. I had to end any misconceptions she had about that right now. "Bella, it's not—"

"I wasn't finished," she stated heatedly, cutting off my explanation. "I loved you. I gave you everything and you just left me like nothing we shared mattered! Did it mean anything to you, Edward? Did you ever even love me at all? Did you ever think of how losing you would affect me?" I opened my mouth to speak, to answer her questions and profess my undying love to her, but she didn't give me the opportunity. "You know what? It doesn't even matter anymore. You shattered my heart into a million pieces, but the love I feel for our child put it back together again. You have taken everything else from me; you will NOT take this." She looked away, releasing me from her infuriated stare. "I want to go," she said and Conner stood up and grabbed her uninjured hand, leading her away.

"Bella, please," I begged, frenzied by her words and the idea that she was trying to leave again. She had to know that I loved her. She had to know how much she meant to me. She just couldn't go. She was walking toward the door and I followed her. Our audience remained in the dining room. "Don't leave. I love you. I always have. That's why I said what I did about the baby. I can't lose you again. I just couldn't—"

She turned to me then, her features cold and unyielding. "You don't have to lie anymore, Edward. You never wanted me, you don't want our child and I don't—" She inhaled sharply, swallowed the lump in her throat and looked down at the floor as she shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. She was a horrible liar; she knew it and I knew it but she was going to try anyway. She looked up at me and there were tears in her eyes. "And I don't want you, Edward."

I couldn't stand it. I was causing her so much pain. I would never be good for her; I had never deserved her in the first place. But I wanted her. I needed her. I loved her more than I thought it would ever be possible to love someone. And despite her feeble attempt to declare otherwise, I knew she still loved me. I couldn't let her walk out of my life. One of us making that mistake was more than enough. If she wouldn't listen to my words, I would just have to convince her some other way.

Once again, I did not think, I simply acted. Only this time, I hoped, I had gotten it right. She was heading out the door with Conner and I wasn't going to let her go. I spun her around and pulled her close with one arm, taking care to avoid her damaged fist. I gently placed my other hand behind her neck and then, before she could protest, I lowered my head until my lips tenderly met hers. I held on to her gently, but tightly, because my life depended on it. I poured every emotion I had into this one kiss because I needed her to understand. I needed her to realize that I had always and would always love her. I needed her to know that I didn't possess the strength to ever live without her. I needed this kiss to tell her all the things that my foolish voice couldn't.

For a moment, the world was small and beautiful. The warmth of her body was heaven; the taste of her lips was the ultimate pleasure. There were no problems, there was no past and no future and no worry and no hurt. There was only Bella and me, and everything was perfect. But reality intruded on my euphoric state when I felt Bella's lips slip away from mine, and all I could do was wait for her to respond. The fragile girl standing in front of me was my entire universe and I could only stare into her eyes and hope that now she knew it.