No luck came to me in the morning, so my mind was still blank as to what I should choose. I got up and made breakfast for everyone, and we all ate in silence, each thinking about something different.
It wasn't until noon that anything interesting happened.
The doorbell rang, and when the door was opened it revealed Alice standing on the step.
"Bella," Alice said calmly, "Can I talk to you outside?" She was very serious, for her, and it didn't look like it was going to rain, or snow, anytime soon, so I agreed. I put on my jacket and we went outside after calling back into the house that I was going on a quick walk with Alice. She led me away from the house on a path that lead deeper into the woods.
I'm not sure how long we walked, but she finally decided that we had come to a good spot, so she turned and motioned for me to sit down on a log in a little clearing. I did, and she sat beside me. She was still unnaturally serious, and I began to wonder what this was about.
"Bella," she started hesitantly, "I want to talk to you about something. I'm not trying to push you to return to Edward, I want you to make your own decision, but I want to ask you to hurry with your decision. I understand that you have finally learned to appreciate all that Mark is to you, and that you know you might actually be able to have a happy life with him, but I know that you also still love Edward more than you will probably ever love Mark."
I opened my mouth to say something and she held up her hand, telling me to wait.
"Don't interrupt yet," she asked, "Just hear me out before responding. I know that you don't want to have to make this decision, but you only have about two weeks left before you return to college. If you go back and you haven't given Edward your definite answer, he will take it as a no. Even if you promise to think about it, he will interpret it as a way to blow him off. Humans say that they will think about something and really mean no far too often, and he'll take it that way. If you say no, or even if you don't give him a definite answer, he will leave again. He may not go to Italy, but he'll go somewhere so that he can just lay in misery until he's too weak to even move. I don't want you to make your decision only on that, but it's something to think about. I know you don't want to hurt Mark. But Bella, he's already fallen in love with Angela. He'll stay with you as long as you want him to, but he's already found someone new. Don't hold him back."
She seemed to be done with her speech then, so I spoke up. "I'm not sure I can trust Edward, Alice," I told her. "He left me twice in the year and a half that he had known me. If that's his rate, how am I going to be able to stay with him until I die? How do I know that once I let go of Mark that he won't just leave me again? I'm not sure I could live through that again. Getting my heart ripped out like that twice in my life is enough to break anyone. How many times am I supposed to let him kill me like that?"
"What does your heart say?" Alice asked.
"To go to Edward," I answered after a moment.
"What does your mind say?" she continued.
"To be cautious, but to go to Edward," I answered in defeat.
"Then listen to yourself," Alice advised me. "Your heart and your mind won't often be wrong."
"How can I be sure that he won't leave?" I whispered. "How can I be sure that he won't break my heart for the third time?"
"You may not be able to see the future, Bella, but I can. If you give him your love and trust this time, he won't break it again."
"Why is this time different?" I asked.
"He knows that you will move on, if you must. He knows that if he doesn't keep you this time, he will lose you."
"Stupid men," I muttered.
Alice smiled knowingly. "They all are," she agreed. "They may seem smart, but they're all stupid underneath."
"Should I tell Jasper you said that?" I asked slyly.
Alice scoffed at me. "He already knows. He thinks that all women are confusing and over-emotional. We're even."
"You'd think after being alive for so long that you'd have a better grasp of humans," I teased her.
"I do," she answered haughtily. "That's how I can speak with such confidence."
"Seriously, though," I said, returning to the previous conversation, "Are you sure that Edward won't leave again?"
"Edward got a rude awakening when he saw that you had moved on," Alice said. "When he realized that it was you down in the ditch with Mark, that day that he brought you home, he realized that he had lost you. He wasn't mad at you in the car, he was mad at himself for being stupid enough to lose you."
"But he must have figured out that Mark and I weren't close like that," I protested.
"Not before he'd felt the pang of jealousy, the hurt of being replaced, and the anger at himself for not staying when he should have. The realization that he could have lost you, and still can, is still strong. I don't have to have Jasper's gift to know that he feels horrible and that he's in as much misery as you were. He may have over a century worth of living behind him, but that doesn't mean that he isn't essentially a seventeen year old boy. He still acts like one most of the time. Most seventeen year old boys don't think before they act – they just act on instinct. Edward's finally realizing that you, a twenty two year old human girl, are more mature than he is. He's finally beginning to act like the old geezer that he is."
She thought for a second and then forcefully added, "And Bella, I swear to you, if you give him one last chance and he hurts you again, I will personally hunt him down and tear him to pieces. I'll even let you drop the match. Because no one, not even my dear brother, is ever going to hurt you and get away with it for very long. He's done it twice, once with good intentions, and I think that the third time he's going to strike out. So if he ever hurts you, EVER, you only have to tell us, and I'm sure I won't be the only one on an Edward hunt. Emmett, for sure, would help. You're like our little sister, and we'll do anything for you. So if you give Edward another chance, we'll all make sure that he treats you like he's supposed to. If he doesn't, then he won't have to go to Volterra again. He won't even make it out of the country before we're on top of him."
I felt tears coming to my eyes at the love that was coming from Alice. For her to chose me, ME, plain, uninteresting Bella Kingery over her brother, her beautiful, god-like, fascinating and wonderful brother, it was amazing. I reached forward and gave Alice a hug.
"Thank you," I whispered. "You don't know how much that means to me."
"You don't know how much you mean to us," Alice replied. "We really do love you."
I pulled away and wiped away my tears. "I still haven't decided, but I'm leaning a certain direction. I'm going to think about it, I'll talk it over with Mark, and I'll let you guys know as soon as I've decided."
"Thank you," Alice said. She smiled and stood up. "We probably should start back towards your house. Charlie's thinking about sending out a search party."
"We don't want that to happen," I laughed. "Let's go back."
A/N: I'll compromise. I will post a few of the new chapters tonight and probably the rest tomorrow night, if I have power.