A/N: Hey guys, some confusion — there's no James in this story, only Riley. He's the bad guy! A lot to unload in this chapter, sensitive subject matter ahead. But this story is full of it, so if you've made it this far, you should be fine. This chapter exhausted me lol.

~If I cannot bend heaven, I will raise hell~

I couldn't get any sleep last night. I twisted and turned all night long, thinking of all the ways to bring up what I found to Edward.

That Victoria is alive.

That Edward is not the murderer he has punished himself as since I met him.

It should be easy—a relief. But there's something in my gut telling me it's not gonna go as smooth as I hope.

Edward and I head back to my house after school since Charlie won't be home until much later. I'm grateful he works late at times like this. I'm so exhausted due to my lack of sleep and mentally drained with the new information I've discovered.

"Baby, are you okay?" I snap out of my thoughts and turn my attention to Edward as he lays down on my bed on his back.

I nod my head, trying to relax. "Yeah, I'm fine," lying through my teeth. "Why?"

"You just seem distracted and antsy today. You know you can talk to me, right?" Edward says with concern. "Come here." He gestures for me to lay down beside him.

I'm still standing at my bedroom door, struggling to move. He's willing to talk rather than ignore when he can tell something is wrong. So different than before. He's doing so much to be better for us. I need to do the same.

But why do I feel so fucking nervous? Like waiting for a bomb to explode.

Shouldn't I be relieved and eager to tell Edward he's not actually a killer? That's what caused most of his rage and issues between us anyway—because of his guilt.

Thinking he was a monster that never deserved to be loved. It should be much easier for us now—for him… right?

But then we have to deal with all the stuff that comes after an accusation like that. I know Edward's not going to just forget about it and move on. There are so many more questions that need to be answered now, and I'm afraid of the unknown.

Like why the fuck was he set up in the first place, and will he be able to get the justice he deserves? Is he already too fucked up and traumatized from it that there's no going back no matter what the truth is?

I walk toward him and lay down by his side as he wraps one arm around my shoulders. I curl into him, closing my eyes for a moment and breathing him in.

Tell him. He needs to know the truth.

"Edward." I open my eyes and glance up at him, gaining all my courage. "I need to tell you something."

His expression turns to dread. "What is it?" he asks nervously.

"You need to stay calm though, because it's really going to shock you."

Edward squeezes me tighter. "Are you p-pregnant? 'Cause if you are, it doesn't matt—" he encourages gently.

While it warms my heart and my stomach flutters to know he wouldn't leave me if I were pregnant, I impatiently cut him off. Tired of the build-up, all knotted with nerves.

"No, Edward. It's not that. But before I say anything, I need to know," I inhale a deep breath, "You told me every single detail about that night with Victoria; you're not keeping anything from me, right?" I trust and believe him, but I need to say it.

A quick flash of rage fills his eyes at the mention of her name, but he controls it as quickly as it comes. "Bella, I thought we were over this and moving on. I told you everything. I don't want to keep reliving it. You need to trust me," he says exasperatedly.

I do. Completely.

I blurt it out frantically, not dragging this out anymore. I need to cut to the chase, no matter the impact of the fall. Every second he doesn't know isn't fair to him.

"Edward, Victoria is alive."

Silence.

That's all that fills the room. So quiet you would be able to hear a pin drop.

Edward lets go of me, and I feel empty. I can feel myself shaking. He stiffens at my side and stops looking at me, staring blankly across the room.

After a moment of nothing, so many emotions pass through his face in a matter of seconds. I can see his control wavering. His jaw and fists clench so tightly his veins look like they're ready to pop. He squeezes his eyes shut as he tries to take deep breaths, his chest rising and falling.

Trying everything in his power to hold on. To prevent from unleashing.

Now I can see it for what it was the whole time. Why it took Edward so long to tell me and why he would get so furious. As he tried to control his panic attacks every time her name was mentioned.

Edward jumps off the bed and begins pacing the room manically. "Bella, what the fuck are you talking about? Victoria is dead. Why the fuck would I lie about killing my ex? Do you know how hard it was for me to tell you that?" He practically rips the hair off his head. "Are you fucking serious right now? I'm trying so fucking hard for you, but if you can't accept the fact that I killed my—"

Even though he's livid, he's still much tamer than our previous arguments. And this is more serious than all of them. He's not completely exploding—especially since he's not taking drugs anymore.

I sit up. "Edward, listen to me. I believe everything you told me. I never doubted you. But Victoria is not dead, I swear. Unless she has a doppelganger with the same name, who lives in California."

He stops pacing and turns to face me, staring with confusion.

I tell him everything. "I found your yearbook when I was grabbing some clothes from your drawer. I wanted to look for your photo and saw Victoria's a few down from yours. I couldn't get her name out of my head." I wring my hands in my lap. "I know I shouldn't have, but something was eating at me, and I just needed to search her name to see what came up online for closure. Not because I didn't believe you, but because I was worried and wanted to make sure you were safe," my voice breaks at the last word. "Riley could've fed you any bullshit and lied. I felt like it didn't make sense for them to leave it at that. I wanted to make sure she was still a missing case." My eyes begin to water. "I didn't want us to live constantly in fear, looking back, waiting for the cops to find out the truth and come after you."

Edward just keeps staring at me, not saying anything. I move towards my desk, sitting at the chair in front of it. "So I googled her name, and it took me hours to find something. No missing person report or obituaries, but I found a photo on Facebook that she was tagged in that was taken weeks ago, and she replied to it."

I open my laptop. "Come here. You need to see this." I gesture to him

Edward leans down behind me, looking over my shoulder at the picture on the screen. He just stares in shock, his eyes widening. "That's her and Riley. She looks older."

That mask of numbness and his dead tone haunts me.

I had a feeling that creepy, greasy-looking dude holding her was Riley—the one who told Edward he had killed Victoria. But hearing Edward confirm it makes me even sicker.

Which just proves they blackmailed him.

She chose that guy over Edward? How many brain cells did she lose?

Who would ever choose a disgusting guy like that over him? Not just because of Edward's god-like looks, but the softness of his soul and how hard he loves. Clearly, Riley had no fucking soul or heart if he could set Edward up and destroy his life.

Edward paces back and forth again, his feet pounding against the floor, on the verge of losing his mind and exploding. I'm surprised he's still kind of keeping it together. I wouldn't be able to.

He shakes his head in disbelief. "There's no way. I-I saw her dead. She was dead. There was so much blood… a-and she was lying there, unconscious—" Edward stutters, trying to wrap his head around all of it.

"But you said you only saw her for a minute before you ran out of the room puking. She wasn't really dead; she faked it. They probably figured you wouldn't stay around to watch her or try to touch her." Knowing how crazy I sound, but trying to make sense of it.

Unless she has a twin that's with the guy she was fucking, Victoria is most definitely alive.

What happens next breaks my fucking heart, tearing me to pieces.

Edward collapses to the floor and bawls like a baby, curled up in a ball with his head buried between his legs, having a full-blown panic attack. He's struggling to breathe, his skin breaking out in a cold sweat as he shakes.

I run to him, sitting on the floor, wrapping his burly form in my arms as best as I can. I rock him while whispering calming words in his ear. "Shhh, baby. It's ok. I'm here." I leave soft kisses on the top of his head and rub my hands up and down his arms. It helps calm his heaving and trembles a bit as he buries his head in my shoulder, whimpering.

How many times did he have to suffer through this completely alone for something he never did?

It takes everything in me to not fall apart along with him, to take some of his pain with me. But I need to be the strong one right now.

We stay like that for what feels like hours. Edward is so still, other than his deep breaths and the steady rise and fall of his chest, that I think he fell asleep.

Until he starts speaking so quietly, I can barely hear him. "I lost everything because of her. 'Cause of them. Because I thought I killed her. I contemplated killing myself because I thought that's what I deserved for ending her life. Another reason why I started doing even more drugs. Not caring if I overdosed."

Edward never told me that. I lose all the breath in my lungs at that revelation. It feels as if someone has ripped through my chest, squeezing my heart. Not able to bear the thought of almost losing him. I hold him tighter, never wanting to let go.

"I almost lost you, the best thing that's ever happened to me because I thought I didn't deserve to be loved or that I could hurt you like I thought I did to her. But she was never dead," he mumbles so brokenly and numb. Like all his energy is drained. No fight left in him.

The tattoo written on his ribcage reminds me of how he's felt ever since that day. The first time I saw it, I didn't understand why he would get such a macabre tattoo. But now it all makes sense.

You are a little soul carrying around a corpse.

The morbid way they made him feel. Worthless. A monster.

Lifeless.

Before I can react to the fire flaming inside of me, my blood boiling, full of rage, Edward beats me to it.

"Fuck!" He smashes his hand against the hardwood floor. I startle at the loud noise. "How the fuck could I be so stupid? How the fuck did I fall for it?"

It's almost a relief at this moment. His madness feels better than emptiness. He has every right in the world to destroy everything right now.

I take Edward's hand in mine, uncurling his clenched fist to slide my fingers against his. "Babe, it wasn't your fault. His dad was the chief of police and had a lot of power. I get why you took the only option he offered to clear your name rather than calling their bluff and taking a risk to go to prison for manslaughter. Especially since money wasn't a problem for your dad. You were only seventeen and blacked out," I reason.

Edward stares up at me, his eyes glossy. "All I worried about was that he was gonna fucking expose me for her murder, and I was going to rot in jail for the rest of my life. I didn't remember shit, so I was forced to take his word. Especially when his dad was the Chief, and they offered to cover up the crime for me if I paid up. I know I shouldn't have trusted him, but it felt like my only option at the time." He furrows his eyebrows as if he's in pain. "I didn't want to admit to myself that I was capable of taking someone's life. Even before that, I didn't have the best reputation, but I didn't think I could actually kill."

I run my fingers through his soft, messy hair. "You're not. I could see right through you the first day I saw you. I knew you were hiding, and there was so much more to you—more than your pain and mistakes. You have the most beautiful soul I know," I murmur sadly. "That's why you're the first person I fell in love with."

"You're the reason I haven't given up, the reason I want to live. I always felt like I never deserved you. But I was too obsessed and selfish to let you go," Edward confesses, laughing bitterly. "You still stayed by my side even when you thought I killed her. Not worrying that I would ever kill you." His expression is full of awe and disbelief. Like he can't believe I'm real.

"It didn't matter. I always knew you weren't the monster you thought you were. Even if you did do it accidentally, I knew it would never be intentional, and you wouldn't hurt me." I scratch my nails against the stubble on his sharp jawline. "I'm glad you never let me go, and you deserve every part of me. I wanted you more than anything. You're my soulmate, and I knew it that first day; that's why I followed you." I lean down and place my lips against his.

"I love you so fucking much," Edward says.

"I love you."

After lying together on the floor for a few minutes in silence, gathering our thoughts after all these secrets and lies unveiled; Edward begins to talk again, changing the subject back to the past. Needing to tell me more.

"I don't talk to anyone from back home. All the friends I had were part of my fucked up life I swore to leave behind. And we don't have any family there. Even my mom and dad didn't keep in touch with anyone. They wanted no ties to that city. We had only lived there for seven years, so it wasn't too hard to leave it all. They were paranoid of my secret getting out, so they thought if we left our past completely behind, the safer we would be." He traces random shapes on my thigh as if it's helping to keep him calm.

Edward continues, "When we moved here, my mom would check Victoria's and Riley's socials just to make sure nothing ever came up, but there were no accounts. We had assumed they had deleted them, but I guess we were just blocked. She would search every once in a while too, because she was always worried that Riley wouldn't keep his word. But she couldn't find anything and took it as a good thing. As long as the cops weren't banging on our door and nothing was reported, I was safe." Esme and I thought a lot alike. Protective over her son. I knew I loved her for a reason. "When really the whole time it was because Victoria was alive and we were blackmailed. Fuck, they must be having the time of their lives with all that money," he scoffs sarcastically.

That's why they were so confident in getting away with it and why the condition was for Edward's family to move. And Edward didn't have any social media accounts, so it's not like he could see anything that was happening back in California. So they weren't worried about him finding out. Plus, only Riley knew the real reason why Edward's family moved here. Everyone else thought it was because Esme and Carlisle wanted to move back to their hometown.

Sure, there were the rumors of Edward, but there was no proof, and all of them weren't close to the truth.

Edward stands up strongly, no longer shaking or weak. There's a look in his jade eyes that's colder and scarier than I've ever seen before.

Hatred. Malice. Revenge. Bloodshed.

"I'm gonna find them and get my revenge," he threatens in a deep, chilling voice.

I stand up as well, facing him. "Babe, as much as I would love that, you need to find a way to report them to the police and find out why they did it. If they're capable of this, who knows what they could do when you confront them."

"I'm not fucking scared of them," Edward roars, stepping closer to me. "I'm going back to California to find Riley, and I'm gonna fucking kill him. Make him regret the day he tried destroying my life." Edward cracks his knuckles. The veins in his thick, tatted arms and neck throbs with rage. "I've lived the past year thinking I was a murderer anyway. Now I have a reason to be one." He laughs humorlessly with an evil glint in his wild eyes.

It's crazy how quickly Edward can transform from the weak, vulnerable boy to this sinister, Viking-like man that will annihilate anything that crosses his path with his bare hands.

I panic. As much as Riley deserves to die a long, torturous death, I can't lose Edward. It took me so long, and I went through a lot to finally discover the real him. It won't be all for nothing.

I grip onto his firm bicep. "Edward, no. You have every reason to be murderous. You lost everything cause of them, but don't act impulsively. I'm not losing you 'cause this time you'll actually go to jail. We will bring them down and get all the proof that they blackmailed you, so both of them can rot in prison for the rest of their lives. That's what they deserve. Not you."

Edward narrows his eyes and glares at me. "Bella, you can't stop me. I'm going to find Riley, and I can't promise I won't hurt him badly. I need to find out why they framed me. Prison is not enough of a punishment for them."

I know his anger isn't directed toward me, but it scares the living shit out of me. Who would ever try to cross this man and think they could get away with it?

Dumbasses, that's who.

I can't take this away from him. He deserves his redemption. Even if it's with blood on his hands.

And I'll be by his side the whole time. No matter what.

I take a deep sigh. "Fine. But I'm coming with you."

"Bella, no. I'm not taking any risk of you getting hurt," he demands gruffly.

"Edward, either you bring me with you or I'm following you there. You're not going without me," I challenge him with an eyebrow raised.

Edward may be tough, but I ain't no weak bitch. I'm his ride or die.

He opens his mouth to protest, but he knows I'm not bluffing, and he's not winning this match when he sees the look in my eyes.

"Fine," Edward huffs and rolls his eyes, defeated. "But you are not meeting Riley. I will cut out his fucking eyes if he even glances at you."

"Fine, we can compromise," I smirk.

When I found the photo of Victoria, I never expected it to go down like this. But this is the only way they deserve.