Crowds of teenagers mourning the murder of their peer exaggerated the already rainy Forks day but knowing that the Mallory girl was killed by my own brother depressed me even more. Throughout the day, whispers of what must've happened were speculated;

"y' know her father was beating her I saw the bruises."

"I hope they arrest him, what kind of father can abuse their own daughter?"

"Jack Mallory deserves everything that's coming to him."

I wanted to scream. The only semblance of a family I've ever known or at least remembered was being torn apart by my brother's obsession. Esme only cries, Carlisle drowns himself in studies, Emmett doesn't joke, Rosalie has turned into some kind of vigilante superhero. And Alice... my poor Alice is only a shell of her former self. "I'll kill that fucker for what he's done," Rosalie growled, breaking my trance. I sighed and looked down to see that I had been sturring my fork so forcefully into my meal I'd bent the tips. "Ugh", I threw the utensil in disgust and cupped my face in my hands. "What are we going to do? We can't just let him run around and murder innocents," Alice affirmed. I looked to mate, she looked unusually unkempt and exhausted, adorning a grey sweatshirt, plain jeans, and dark black pupils. She hadn't felt like hunting since the family meeting.

Rosalie sighed a slumped her shoulders, "this is getting out of hand, I don't want to but we may have to-"

"Don't. Rosalie please just don't," Alice said while closing her eyes tightly and putting her fingers in her ears. "He's still out brother we can't, we just can't," she tried to finish her sentence strongly but ended prematurely with a sob.

Silence over the table followed her, the four of us deep in thought and struggling to find a solution that could somehow restore our family. Unfortunately, my feeling the despair projecting from my siblings, I knew there would be no other way.

"Has anyone seen Bella," asked Emmett hesitantly. I turned around to where I would normally see the human girl, she'd been missing from our period today, but I hadn't thought much of it because I didn't hear anything about her disappearance. "No," Alice said slightly surprised, "and I haven't seen her at all this weekend." She sat up abruptly and looked between the three of us quickly, "do you think-" she started.

"No," Rose said softly. "Her father is the chief of police, the whole town would've known if she was missing".

"Yeah but that doesn't mean he couldn't have gotten rid of him too," Emmett interjected.

Rosalie seemed to pale a bit and projected a bit of annoyance. Seemingly to be directed at either Emmett or herself. "Idiot," she whispered lowly to herself, "We should've been watching her this weekend."

"You know we couldn't Rose, most of us had to hunt, and Edward was too much of a threat for any of us deal with alone right now".

"I could' ve,-" Alice mumbled pouting.

"Absolutely not," I chimed in "he would know your every move."

"But he's my brother. I could've,-" she started again before I interrupted her a second time.

"He's not our brother anymore", I hissed sharply

She shivered at my tone, venom welling in her eyes. She shook her head in disbelief, still thinking that the Edward she knew would come back. Emmett shrunk and slumped in his chair, knowing full well the brother he knew was dead and gone.

"Please Alice," I murmured pleadingly as I turned my chair and lower my gaze to stare into her caramel eyes. I don't like using my abilities on my mate, but I try and project as much sincerity as possible and give her my puppy dog look. Absolutely anything to make her get it. "Please, do not do this on your own. He is not the same Edward anymore".

She narrowed her eyes while looking into mine, saying nothing but keeping her posture straight. She huffs loudly once and turns her back to me, ignoring my plea. I shake my head, disappointed, we'd need to revisit this. I sigh and lean back in my chair, directing my eyes to the crappy fluorescent lights while running my fingers through my hair in frustration; Eddy-boy, you are fucking shit up for me here.

"Oh no, didn't you hear? Her boyfriend died," the loud voice of Jessica Stanely interrupted my sulk session. I turned to look in the direction of Stanely to see Rose questioning the annoying girl.

"What, Rose asked loudly, startling several students and causing Newton to drop his pizza from his mouth. "She had a boyfriend? Who was he", she asked more gently but still with a hint of urgency.

"Oh y' know Jacob Black, that cute Indian guy,- I mean Native American guy from the Rez. He was younger than us but pretty cool. Sucks he died, it was like some kind of freak accident!"

"Ja cob Black," Rose said, slowly emphasizing each syllable of his name.

"Black," Emmett spoked slowly like,-

"Ephraim Black," Emmett, Alice, and I said together. Oh fuck.

"Yeah, Jessica said sadly yet excitedly, happy to have the attention of a Cullen on her. "His truck was like flipped even though there wasn't any ice or anything. Weird."

"Huh," Rose said once before dismissing herself from the conversation and walking back to our table.

"He killed him", she whispered horrified. "He killed the grandson of Ephraim Black."

Oh my God, Alice murmured as a heartbeat and angry footsteps approached our table.

"We need to talk," Bella stated forcefully.