A/N: Hello, all! As promised, I have written an absurdly long reputation outtake. Because of the length I decided to publish it as its own story. So, here's a little preview – the first of three parts is already published on my profile under Why She Disappeared. I hope you enjoy!

BPOV

According to a lot of people, I was everything that was wrong with the world. I got away with heinous crimes, I was married to a man who got away with worse, and combined we had more money than any two people could ever need. I was never one to buy extravagant things just for the sake of proving I could, but my husband was the complete opposite. I knew it was a power thing, especially in his line of work. Money equated power, and proving you could build a mansion bigger than every other place in the neighborhood proved he was back on top.

Five years ago, I would have felt guilty about the ostentatiousness of it all, agreed with the people that said the home was too big and the money should be put to better use elsewhere.

But, that was before the entire world spent years outlining every flaw of mine, making every little mistake I ever made a headline, and enjoying the fact that I was slowly crumbling every day during the trial from hell.

It took me nearly all night to wander through the house. I'd been living here over a week but there were a lot of little things I didn't know or realize about the place. There was a special slot in one of the cabinets in the movie room, it was a lighted shelf and every one of my films was on display in it. In the middle of the eighteen-person dining room table, there was a bouquet of beautiful, hand-blown glass daisies, reminiscent of the ones Edward used to give me. I counted the number of keys hanging by the garage door five times before opening it and seeing an entire new fleet of cars.

After my adventures I ended up standing in the foyer, the grand staircase curving off to the right, a formal living room decorated in soft browns and creams in front of me. This small section of the house was bigger than the entire home I grew up in.

My childhood wasn't something I liked to think about much, but it got me to where I was, I supposed. It was hard to even remember who I was before I left Forks. I went to school, managed slightly above average grades, but nothing spectacular. There weren't any friends I missed; I would talk to my classmates when necessary but I wasn't really close with anyone back then. I would distract myself with books and movies, put myself in a completely new world where I was someone important and loved.

I liked to think my job didn't really change me that much, but looking around at this house it was hard to imaging me as that same girl sleeping in her twin sized bed every night, desperate for her mother's approval.

I was in the middle of brushing my teeth a few minutes later when Edward got home. It had been over twenty-four hours since I last saw him, and he gave me a lazy smile and a soft kiss to the top of my head before he got in the shower. I watched him, toothbrush frozen in my mouth, as the shower doors started to fog. Sixteen-year-old me definitely wouldn't have known what to do with him.

Once my nighttime routine was done I hopped up on the spacious marble counter and waited for Edward. I watched him shower in the least creepy way possible. My job might have changed me, but nothing changed me quite as much as he had. Not in a bad way either, but in the kind of way someone has to change when they mesh their life with someone else. At least, I hoped it was in that kind of way.

Edward smiled at me again when he got out of the shower, eying me as he sluggishly wrapped a towel around his waist. "You're up late."

I shrugged, wrapping every limb I could around him when he came to stand between my legs. It was completely distracting, his sculpted chest with a few lingering water droplets.

"Do you think I've changed?"

"Changed?" Edward asked, eying me up and down.

The look of confusion and hint of fear in his eyes made me snort. "Not physically. I meant… personality wise."

I couldn't blame him for the moment of hesitation. When I was still adjusting on the island I went through a phase of taking out my weight frustrations on him. I had been mad about the reasons why I lost the weight in the first place, and then mad that I had to gain it all back. From the age of sixteen I had people ingraining it in my mind that gaining weight was a bad thing, so it was a bit of an adjustment.

It took a while, but eventually I agreed with Edward that a little extra weight on my thighs or ass or anywhere else wasn't the end of the world.

"You've grown up. You've been through shit and that changes people, but you're still you." I gave him a half-hearted smile and a warm hand lifted my chin up. "What brought this on?"

"I grew up in a house a hundred times smaller than this, Edward. I used to shop at the grocery store on a budget and visit my father at the police station after school."

Now, our home could fit nearly all of the population of Forks. Our groceries were delivered from the most lavish grocery store I had ever seen, and I couldn't even think about a police station without getting nauseous these days.

"That girl is still in there, Bella. She just had to grow some thicker skin. But… I don't think it's such a bad thing that you changed from the girl that took all of that shit from everyone into the one who stands up for herself now."

I guessed I never really thought of it like that. "Yeah?"

"Yeah."

I wrapped my arms around him, tugging at the damp hair at the base of his neck. "I love you," I sighed into his shoulder, trailing kisses along his neck.