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BPOV

7th July 2048

The door shuts behind me, a resounding echo as the heavy wooden falls into place. As it bounces around the cavernous space, every reverberation registering in my ears, I can't help but feel it tells another story.

It's not just a door closing, it's a whole past ending. Life as I know it.

I walked forward without thinking. I could do nothing else. I had to keep moving. If I stopped and thought for just a second about what had just happened in that room then it was over.

Love, life, meaning… over.

I walked and walked. Time made no sense as I wound through the maze that was Volterra castle. It was seconds passing, but also hours. Maybe it felt like time had frozen because the castle looked the same no matter how far I went. It felt like I would never escape, this place or the reality that everything I once knew had changed.

I had given him everything, my love, my life, my humanity, and all for what? Lies? Had anything he had ever said to me been true? I wasn't his first love. I hadn't been the one to awaken his un-beating heart. Who was I to him? A replication, a substitute for something he had lost?

I pushed through another set of doors into the grand atrium of the fortress. Finally it felt like I could breathe. The wide open space was silent except for the high whistle of wind passing through the slitted windows.

I paced the smooth stonework as my fingers traced the wedding band on my left hand. Was it anything more than just precious metal?

I had always had doubts as to why he chose me. Why he had chosen a clumsy, simple human when he could have had any one of the beautiful creatures in the world. He could have someone extraordinary, someone who was so much more than I could have ever been. It never made sense that he would love me. Unless...did he choose me because I was ordinary? He had clearly already experienced what it was like to love a girl who wasn't just skin, blood, and bones. Sarelle hadn't been a normal human. She wasn't even a normal vampire. I knew that. I could see it in her eyes, those strange irises that look like a splintered pattern of hazel and gold. No vampire who was completely normal would have irises like those. They held too much. A shrewd expression as if she were hiding something, untrusting of how much she could let out.

Of course she was hiding something. She'd been cheating with my husband!

My anger erupted as I felt my shield pulse, capturing Edward's essence within it, far from here, deep within the antechamber.

He used to taste so sweet, a bright light in my mind. Now it seemed sour, dimmed, unwanted.

I stuttered at that thought. Did I truly not want Edward? He had been the one and only for so long that the thought that he ceased to mean that much to me was shocking. He had hurt me, lied to me, betrayed my trust, committed adultery...but did that negate the years I had been happy in his arms, the moments and memories we'd shared together?

Did that absolve my love for him?

At that moment the doors burst open revealing Felix and Demetri dragging Edward's struggling body with them.

"You bastards! If you hurt her!..."

"It's her choice, Cullen. She's ours now," Felix said with a sly smile.

"And I for one am certainly looking forward to getting to know her a little better..." Alec drawled, smirking as Edward growled and spat.

"You dare touch her and I'll turn you to ash," Edward hissed. He seemed so completely oblivious to my presence. Not that I wanted him to acknowledge me, not yet. I didn't know what I wanted yet, and I certainly didn't want to hear his words. His words had too much power over me. I wouldn't stand it anymore.

"I'd like to see you try." Felix barked with laughter as Edward tried to stand. His legs were bent at odd angles and shaking with his rage, his face was covered in cracks. His perfect face marred with violence. They'd heal but I knew the memory would stay fixed in my mind for a lifetime. He looked so desperate, so broken. So unlike how I had ever seen him.

"Farewell. We suggest you leave as soon as you can stand." Alec threw over his shoulder as they passed back through the doors. Edward struggled to stand before staggering to the doors, roaring with rage before his body crumpled—too weakened to hold strong.

I stood there, silently watching as Edward rocked gently, his hands fixed in his hair and gripping tightly.

"Edward." His eyes peeked up through his criss-crossed fingers, black as night and set in a stark white mask of torture.

"Don't Bella, please.." his voice replied, cracking as if he had walked a desert without water.

With unsure steps I walked to him, kneeling down to place my arm around him. This was what I should do, what a wife does, but was I still his wife? Was I still what he wanted? Was he what I wanted?

Edward's body leant into mine as we sat there. Now and then he'd whisper something or whimper, but I stayed fixed in my place. He was like a child and that juxtaposition fascinated me. He had always been so strong, the rock I clung to, but now the tides had changed. I was the one who was strong, no matter the turmoil my world had been thrown into.

For all his indiscretions I couldn't find it in me to leave him here, not like this.

Had he ever been this vulnerable with Sarelle?

The thought of her made my palms itch. I had never been one for violence, but the idea of her smile, her long blonde hair, all her odd peculiarities, it made anger burn the very pit of my stomach.

She thought she could steal my husband. She thought she was better than me. She thought she could lie and cheat and get away with it.

I was glad she was in that room. I could think of nothing more satisfying than knowing that she was paying the price. She had taken the one pure thing in my life and ruined it. My love with Edward would never be the same after this. I wasn't even sure I wanted any of it.

He wasn't mine anymore. He was hers as well and I couldn't share him with her memory. I wouldn't.

"Edward...I..."

"I'm sorry, I just can't do this now. I just can't… I'm sorry." He chanted in faint pleas as his hands sat against his face in prayer.

Could I forgive him? I wondered as I glanced at my arm around his shoulders and his face tucked into my neck. His scent saturated my sense of smell and his hair tickled my cheek, all so familiar.

How often had Sarelle held him? How many times had she reasoned with him and heard him tell her he loved me? Did he ever say that to her? Did I ever feature in their conversations?

Does it matter, Bella. He's your husband. He loves you. You get to share your life with him, you get to wear his ring on your finger, you had the honeymoon and the child. He's yours. So what else matters. Because if I was in your position I knew nothing else would. No accusation, or revelation could change how I saw him because I would love him. And that's all that counts.

Sarelle's words echoed through my mind and with them came a sense of defiance. If she had loved him regardless of the truth then I could too. I was just as strong as her, just as good as her. He was mine, he had always been mine and I wasn't ready to throw it all away yet. That would mean she'd won and that is something I would never let happen. I loved him, I always would, I just couldn't help myself.

I clutched Edward a little closer, placing a kiss into his hair. "Everything is going to be OK. I promise."

The doors burst open before us. They came to us instantly. All except Aslo. He just stood there with his eyes fixed on the crumpled man in my arms.

"You promised you wouldn't leave her side." He hissed darkly, but he didn't wait for a reply. Maybe there were no words.

Rose stopped abruptly at our side; her hands covered in ash from the fight. "What happened Edward?"

At first he didn't answer, just sitting with a blank black stare, silent and shaking. The cracks across his skin started to slowly heal as he spoke "I tried to stop her." His voice broke. I didn't know what had happened in that room, but I knew the man beside me wasn't the same I had walked in with, and I wasn't sure if her ever would be again.

"We have to get in there, get her back" Emmett pushed.

"We have no idea what we're walking into," Jasper countered but it fell on dead ears.

"It doesn't matter." Aslo snapped, running off down the corridor.

Edward slowly rose to his feet. "She's chosen them. She doesn't want saving."

"She wouldn't do that," Esme gasped.

Alice stood still and poised to spring. Her pixie face was stuck half in a vision and half shock. "She would if she thought it would get her alone with them." She looked at Edward and I watched as his eyes widened in shock. Within an instant he was gone, racing down the corridor, the others at his side.

And as I stand in the sienna corridor alone, I know I have a decision to make. I just don't know which choice is the right one.

A/N: Thanks for reading!