Drunk, muddy, and sitting around a small bonfire was how we ended up fifteen minutes later. Esme had bought marshmellows and we were all cooking them on the fire, sharing smores.

"Wait, I have one for you," Emmett said as I reached for the marshmellow bag. I eyed him curiously as he pulled his stick from the fire and saw three glowing white globs. He was an expert as he managed to make a smore with double chocolate, triple marshmellow, and triple crackered.

He presented it to me as if it were a masterpiece and I cautiously took it, taking a second to inspect it, "Thanks."

"Anytime," he winked.

I bit into it and nearly sighed. I was such a sucker for sweets.

A wine bottle was being passed around and everyone filled up their glasses for one last toast. Any excuse to drink.

It was my father though, that spoke, "To my youngest daughter. May her carreer flourish and she experience everything she wishes to in her life."

I gave my father a soft smile, "To flourishing," I agreed.

"To flourishing," everyone said quietly.

I sipped my wine carefully before turning my head to look away from my father. I glanced at Edward, "What's he thinking?"

"Who?"

"My father," I said under my breath. "What's he thinking?"

"Do you really want to know?"

I nodded, bracing myself as I readied another marshmellow for the fire.

"He's assessing Emmett."

"And?"

"As of now, it's not too good," Edward admitted.

I nodded slowly, my gaze dropped to the halfeaten smores. I took a small bite as I thought, "Does that mean he'll never agree?"

"No, but it doesn't mean he'll think anything positive of him for a while either."

I could understand that. At least it was something. "But does he like him? Not like him? What doesn't he like?"

"He doesn't really know him."

I bit my lip, "Okay. I can work with that."

"Bella-"

I rolled my eyes, "Thanks, though, but I think I have a plan."

"Alice can see it's not going to work."

I frowned, "Oh."

"Why don't you just back off from your dad and wait?" he suggested.

I frowned, "But I only have two years. That's so little time compared to -"

"You'll be fine."

I took Edward's word for it and let the subject drop. I finished off Emmett's gourmet smore before readying my own, but ended up giving it to Giosetia. Her and her brother were the only ones of the kids up - the others much younger and passed out in the house.

Giosetia absolutely refused to leave Emmett's side after he made her another one of his gourmet smores. She fell asleep against his side by the time the clock in the timesquare rang eleven. It was honestly adorable and I couldn't help but take a picture with my phone.

Best birthday ever! Lots of love to everyone and enjoy this picture of Em and Setia by the bonfire. I sent that to Twitter and shoved my phone back in my pocket as Emmett rolled his eyes.

"Stop exploiting the girl."

I bit my lip to fight back a grin, "I just wanted to document it. It's cute."

He shrugged carefully, so as not to disrupt the sleeping girl. "I'm cute, what can I say?"

I laughed, standing, "I'm going to get us another bottle of wine. White? Red?"

"White!" more people said than red so I headed on inside, checked on the sleeping kids, before taking off for the wine cooler, pulling out two bottles of white and walking back out to the fire. We quietly opened them and passed it around, and I don't know what happened after that, but soon we were back inside and Giosetia refused to let go of Emmett. Even in her sleep she clung to him harder than she took her hits in football.

"You can just have her stay the night, if you want," I told my brother and sister-in-law as they tried to the girl to wake up. She wasn't having it.

"But then she'd have stayed for two nights-" Riccardo started to disagree.

I shook my head, "It's fine, really. I can drop her off early in the morning, if you'd like."

"As early as you want," Emiliana sighed. "She really does like you, doesn't she?" She addressed the last bit to Emmett, who looked up from the girl in his arms, and shrugged.

"Yeah, what's not to like? I'm a big teddy bear."

"Maybe I should stop telling him that," I laughed. I gave them both hugs, careful of the sleeping Liborio in Emiliana's arms, and sighed. "Thank you so much. And I will definitely use the stuff you got me."

"Thank God you didn't show mama, huh?" Riccardo winked. He glanced at Emmett, "You treat her right, or I'll take the gift away."

I rolled my eyes, "Get out, the three of you," I ordered once Emiliana began to laugh.

Soon almost everyone was gone, except for my parents, and Dante's.

I gave Vanni a hug, "I'm so glad they released you so you could get here."

"Me too," he admitted. "And the contract is being written as we speak. I'm truly sorry for this."

"It's fine," I insisted. "It almost made us hospital mates, though, with the heart attack I had." He shared a laugh with me. I turned to Juliette, "I'm really sorry if I've ever been... well, threatening to you. I never meant to be and I hope you can forgive me for it."

Juliette had avoided eye contact with me all night. The seventy year old woman was still a beauty, though, and obviously had eyes only for her husband. She nodded, not even meeting my eyes, "I forgive you."

"Juliette," Vanni warned.

She sighed, "It's not your fault. I just... I don't know what came over me."

"You'll always be like a mother to me, Juliette," I insisted. "That won't change."

This time, she did meet my eyes. In surprise. "Um..."

But Vanni took her hand and guided her out, giving me a goodbye in parting. And then it was my parents.

"Oh, I better go get the dishes!" my mother said quickly, rushing off to the kitchen before I could tell her I'd just drop them off. So now it was just me and my father, Emmett joining his family in the living room.

"Happy Birthday, Graziella."

"Thanks, Papa," I said awkwardly.

"You love that man," he said slowly, almost reluctantly.

I followed his gaze to the Cullen's, who were quietly chatting to each other. "I really do."

"I can see why."

"You can?" I asked, surprised, before I could stop it.

"I've never seen you glow and light up as much as you did tonight with him. It was truly lovely to watch."

"Oh," I said, confused. "I do?"

"Of course you do. I can see how in love you are," he insisted. "Both of you. But..." Here it comes. "I cannot have you marry a man that has broken his word to God."

I sighed, the comment hurting more than I thought it would - especially since Edward had warned me, "I know you'll never approve. But that won't mean I stop loving him, or stop wanting to marry him."

"Move onto someone better for your eternal soul."

Tears filled my eyes, "Papa-"

He sighed, but spoke very evenly, "I'll never approve of him, and you're right about that. He's a great guy, truly, but he's not right for my little girl. Get a different man in your life. Or this life will fall away from you."

I opened my mouth to speak, but he had already walked out the door. I closed it, feeling my jaw trembling. I wasn't going to cry. My mother hurriedly said goodbye to me, hardly giving me a glance as she rushed out to the honking taxi. I shut the door behind her and then climbed the stairs to my bedroom. I didn't speak to the Cullen's once as I shut the door and sank down in the middle of the floor.

Only then did I cry.

Once one fell, they all seemed to fall. I couldn't stop them. They poured, soaking my face and getting mixed with the mud. My hands covered my eyes as I curled up and pressed my face to my white carpet floor. I knew I'd regret staining the carpet, but it didn't matter now. The carpet muffled my breath so I didn't cry as loud as I thought I was, and it soaked up my tears.

I wasn't supposed to cry on my birthday, but it seemed I didn't have a choice today.

My dry-mud shorts were very uncomfortable, but I didn't have it in me to change. I didn't have it in me for anything. I just wanted to be held and told that he'd come around, even if it was a lie. Like my mother used to do. She'd sit for hours in my room with me as I'd cry - due to bullies in my primary school, or a heartbreak, or anything - and she'd just hold me and tell me mindless things. Recite recipes. Tell me how to curl my hair properly or get revenge on a boy without saying a word.

"You're going to get the carpet all dirty," a soft voice interrupted.

"I'll clean it," I sniffled, not moving upon his entrance. Why did Emmett always seem to come to the rescue? Why was he always there? We were supposed to be faking this, not be in a real relationship.

"And it'll never come out," he informed me. A hand swept my hair to the side before his cool hand touched my cheek, brushing the tears and a few pieces of mud away. "Come here."

I didn't even think. My arms wrapped around his neck and my face was buried in his sweatshirt. His arms tightened around my midsection and I drew in a breath before more tears came out. "Why is he so difficult?"

Emmett sighed, one hand slowly moving up and down my back comfortingly, "He just loves you a lot and wants what's best for you."

"But I know what's best for me," I told him stubbornly, sniffling. "Does he see that?"

"He just sees who I am, what I've done, and that's all that matters. And I think-"

"Don't tell me you agree," I whispered. "Please, don't. I've heard enough. I'm nineteen, he can't just keep telling me what I should do."

"But you still listen when he does."

"He's my father, of course I do," I said immediately.

"That's why he tells you," Emmett told me. "Because you respect him and you know he's only looking out for you. Besides, this'll blow over soon. He's bound to like me sometime."

"He does like you!" I told him, drawing back slightly and meeting his auburn eyes. "He loves you! But he can't look past the whole divorce thing."

He frowned, "Oh."

"God, he just needs to screw tradition," I sighed and rested my forehead on his broad shoulder. "I'm doing this for him. I'm giving up everything I've ever worked for for him."

"He doesn't know that."

"I can't tell him!" I insisted quietly. "He'd be frantic about it. I'd never see you or your family again. He'd lock me up in the cellar for even being around such heathen creatures."

"Heathen?" Emmett asked. "I was very religious back in the day, I hope you know."

"You were?" I asked, surprised.

"Mmmhmm," Emmett nodded. "Catholic, grew up in Tennessee, and I went to a Sunday school every Sunday when I was little. I was a construction builder in the winters, I think, but I still read the Bible and such. Because working that was hell. I opened my eyes, staring at the collar of his hoodie as he continued. "I believe in heaven and hell. I believe good vampires can go to Heaven. I believe in God."

"And the Commandments?"

"I've broken almost all of them."

"Thou shalt not kill hasn't been broken," I reminded him. "Nor -"

"I've killed before, Bella." He looked away from my eyes as he remembered the past. "I was new and I got too close to the humans. This girl smelt amazing. She was my singer, you see. And I just couldn't stop myself. And the second time, another girl smelt even better than the first. It was only a few years later. I was powerless fighting my instincts. I've never tasted blood since the forties."

"Just two?" I asked, my eyes flickering up to meet his own as he glanced down at me. He nodded. I returned my gaze to the collar of his hoodie, one hand still around his neck while the other traced the outline of his collar. "That's not so bad, I suppose. Most vampires kill hundreds, don't they?"

He nodded slowly, "Sure."

My finger slipped off the collar and touched the skin of his neck on accident. A muscle in his neck twitched slightly at the accident. But something else caught my eye. "What happened here?"

My finger traced an almost invisible white line that ran along the side of his neck, and I knew it was a wound. It would have slashed his artery, were he human.

"Venom can cure almost everything. Bear attacks barely makes the list."

"This is from when you were human?" I asked, surprised. It made sense, at least. I trailed my finger along the line until I ran into the barrier of his sweatshirt. I dropped my hand and sighed as I sat back. "How do I make my father love you so much, he forgets about the divorce?"

"I talk to him."

"What?" I cried. "You can't-"

"I have an idea."

"Don't I get to know it?"

"Depends on how it goes," he grinned. "I'll drop off Giosetia tomorrow."

"Are you sure?" I asked. "I can-"

"I insist," he said simply. "Now, let's get you to bed-"

"I'm all muddy," I sighed. "I don't want to take a shower."

He grinned, "Who said you had to?"

The next thing I knew, I was in Emmett's bed and Giosetia was beside me, still sound asleep. She was cluthing a muddy sweatshirt. I realized Emmett must have cleaned up and gotten in a different sweatshirt.

"I'll get this all muddy!" I protested, sitting up to move.

"And I'll just get the sheets wash," he shrugged. "Now will you sleep like a good, little human?"

I sighed, falling back onto the pillow, "Fine. Can we watch Friends?"

He grinned, "Sure."

But I was asleep before he even returned.