Chapter Eight

Edward's POV

Nessie slams the door in my face, and I feel horrible for pushing her away, but I just can't keep looking at her and seeing Bella. It's a blow to my ice cold heart every time I see her chocolate brown eyes or the way she laughs, or any other little thing. I walk back downstairs, and sit down on the couch next to Alice and Jasper.

"I know you might think that's it's best for her to go, but I don't," Alice says. I can see in her mind that she wished Nessie could stay, and she could maybe have a best friend again.

"She just-reminds me too much of Bella. We'll make sure that she's fine in Florida," I say, and I mean it. Whatever she needs, she can have it.

"Maybe she didn't come here looking for money or whatever, maybe she just wants a family," says Alice. "She lost Bella, and now she's never going to see us again, either." She jumps to her feet. "We're going hunting," she says, but I can just tell she's trying to get away from me so I can't read her mind. She's hiding something from me. They leave, and I'm alone.

I think about what she said, and I realize it's not fair to force Nessie out, but I just can't bear to have her here.

In the morning, Esme makes Nessie breakfast before we leave and gives her a hug. I can tell she's going to miss Nessie as well. Alice hugs her too, and tells her to call every once and a while. Nessie gives them all a sad look before throwing her backpack on and following me outside, waving back to them as she goes. "Could I...maybe say goodbye to Jacob?" she asks. I grit my teeth at the mention of the mutt.

"No, we really have to get going," I say, leading her to my car. She looks like she's fighting back tears, but gets in the car anyways.

"Do you hate me or something?" she says as we pull out. I'm not sure how I feel about her, but I don't hate her. I can't hate her. She's the only piece of Bella I have left.

"No, I don't hate you," I say. "That's not why I'm making you leave." She doesn't say anything, and I don't expect her to. I'm the bad guy here.

I've decided just to drive the whole way, mostly because I want to spend as much time as possible with her. She is my daughter after all, even if she hates me. We get about half-way there by the time night falls.

She looks like she's fighting to stay awake, but at about midnight she finally nods off. I don't expect to hear or say anything until we get there, when she starts talking.

"Yeah, mom I did," she mutters, and I realize she must talk in her sleep like Bella did. "No, mom, he's not mad at you," she says, shifting in the seat. "Yeah, he loves you," she says, and seems to go into a deeper sleep then. But then I hear: "Yeah, mom, I love him too," and she doesn't say another word for the rest of the night. She wakes up with a start just as we drive into Georgia.

She yawns and shifts in the seat. "Did I talk in my sleep again?" she asks, running her hands through her hair.

"Maybe," I say. Her face goes paler than normal.

"Sorry," she mumbles. "I just do that sometimes. Mom and I both." I laugh.

"Yeah, I know. She told me that-that she loved me through talking in her sleep." She purses her lips and stares at the floor of the car.

"Do you want something to eat?" I ask her, almost forgetting that she ate. She shakes her head.

"I'm fine, thanks," she says, and goes back to looking out the window. About an hour later I drive into Miami, and she has to give me directions to get to her house.

"Left here, and it's the third house down on the right," she says. She's right; it's a tiny little house, but Bella was never one to want anything big and fancy. "That's funny," she mutters as we pull in. "Aunt Emma's car is in the garage. She said she was flying it to Spain with her." Sure enough, the garage door is open and there is a little red car in it. She jumps out and runs in the door that leads into the house from the garage. I follow her slowly, taking in my surroundings. "Aunt Emma!" I hear her shout happily. "What are you doing here?" she says, and I smell vampire.

I walk in through a little kitchen. Everything seems still and quiet, like since Bella left this place lost what made it a home. There are pictures on the worn counters, mostly of Nessie. I walk into the sunlit living room, with big windows that face the ocean. Nessie is standing there, her arms wrapped around a blonde vampire that must be her Aunt Emma. "Hey, Ness," she says. "Plans fell through, so I came back," she says. "I missed you, baby girl." She looks up and sees me then. "Edward?" she says, and I can't help but note her bright red eyes.

"Yeah," I say. She lets go of Nessie.

"The way she described you, you'd think that such a person couldn't be real," she says. "She never stopped talking about you for seven years." I see memories of late nights that she stayed up with Bella talking after they put Nessie to bed. Then a memory of seven years ago on an airplane. I linger on Bella's face in her mind.

"Dad says I can't stay with him," Nessie says, and it hits me again how she refers to me as dad without any thought. It still doesn't feel real. "Can I stay with you, Aunt Emma?"

She's still staring at me, but turns back to Nessie. "Yes, of course, Ness. Whatever you need."

"Do you mind...if I look around?" I ask. She doesn't say anything for a moment, but then nods.

"There's not much to look at, but sure," she says, and I begin to climb up the stairs. I push open the door to the room that has to be Bella's, because her scent, her delicious scent, is all over the place, but fading. I run my hands along the comforter of the bed. My mind fills with memories of late nights with her, watching her sleep, talking to her. I pick up the pictures on the bedside table. Every single one of them is of Nessie. Bella's daughter. Our little girl. I realize then that I can't help but love her more than anything as well. Anything Bella loves I will also love with all my heart. I put the pictures back down.

"You want to know what she said to me, the night we walked in this place?" says Emma from the doorway.

I don't respond, but I know she's going to keep talking anyways. "She said: 'I don't know how to do this, but I have to try. I'll figure out how to be her mother, even if it kills me, because I already know that I love her more than anything.' She was scared. But she did what she set out to do, and that girl wouldn't have had a better life anywhere else," she says.

"You're wrong," I say. "There was-is a better place." Her thoughts are reprimanding, but she doesn't know how much my family would have loved Nessie without a second thought.

"There is...something you should see," she says, and I can see a grave in her mind. Bella's. I follow her silently through the rest of the house to the back door. There is a series of steps that lead down to the beach. Sea air blows in my face, and the steady beat of the waves becomes a consistent background noise. We walk.

The stone looms up in front of me, and she pauses. It's pretty simple, just a smooth black stone with some words on it. 'Here lies Isabella Marie Swan, beloved mother, friend, and wife'.

"Why does it say wife?" I ask. I thought that went away.

"She said...to put it there because she knew you would see it someday, and she wanted you to know that...she still loved you with all her heart," Emma says, and turns to walk back. "I'll...give you a minute." I stare at the stone, wishing I could cry.

"Bella, love, I'm so sorry," I say, and my voice is drowned out by a gust of wind to all but me and my ghost. "I love you," I say. "And I always will."