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Chapter 8: Wild Card

When they arrived back downstairs, Edward and Rosalie were waiting. "Jasper, a word, please?"

Jasper looked between the two, giving a slight nod. Esme appeared, taking Bella from his side. "Come help me set the table, Bella, won't you?"

"Um, sure." She looked back at Jasper who gave her a reassuring wink, and though she didn't notice, Jasper caught the warning glare his adoptive mother gave his siblings.

He stepped into the den and Edward shut the door behind them. Jasper raised his brow. "I thought the intervention would come after dinner."

"This is serious, Jasper."

He spread his hands out before him as he took a seat on the plush leather armchair. "By all means, brother."

Rosalie narrowed her eyes. "Have you even thought about what could happen? The entire family will be implicated if this ends badly!"

"I trust Bella. She won't tell anyone. She hasn't yet, has she?"

Edward sighed, his face pinched, "Jasper, it's not just Bella we're worried about. You haven't been away from human blood as long as the rest of us, and..."

Jasper's golden eyes flashed, all amusement gone as he stared down his siblings with a fire of fury. "You think I haven't thought of that? You think it's easy for me? I hunt every fucking night just to make the next day bearable. I'm fighting the monster that I am every minute of every day to be with and protect the woman I love. This fucking piece of shit existence is finally worth something and I'll truly be damned if I let you or anyone take that away from me!" He was standing now, facing Edward and Rosalie with his back to the door.

"Does she feel the same about you?" Edward asked.

"Well we haven't exactly said the words, which by the way, I'm so glad I said them to you first, but yes, I think she does."

"You think or you know?" Rosalie said.

Bella entered the room, more confident than she had a right to feel waking into a room in the middle of a fight between three vampires. "He knows," she said, taking Jasper's hand and standing beside him.

Rosalie smiled in a way that gave Bella chills. "But do you?"

"Rose," Jasper snarled a warning, but she continued.

"No, she should know. It's only fair," she continued. "A few of us have extra gifts. Edward, for instance, can hear the thoughts of others. Alice can see glimpses into the future. And dear Jasper here can sense and manipulate a person's emotions. Can't you, brother?"

Bella looked up at him, completely shocked, "W-What?"

"I- Bella, please understand, darlin'," Jasper pleaded, completely at a loss, watching Bella's chocolate eyes flood with tears.

"Don't. Don't you dare call me that. You don't get to call me that anymore," she said, shaking her head and taking a step back. "How could you?"

She fled the house, Jasper made to go after her but felt a restraining hand on his arm. He turned to see Edward and snarled, "Let me go or lose your arm."

Edward wisely let go and Jasper tore out of the house, catching up with Bella just as she reached her truck. He put himself between her and her only route of escape. She glared at him. "Move."

"Bella, you gotta hear me out."

"Why?" she shouted. "So you can manipulate my emotions again? Make me feel calm and sorry and like none of this matters?"

"Of course not! Bella, I would never do that to you, I swear. I never have! Please, you have to trust me."

"Funny," she hissed, "that's the one thing you made me promise I'd never do." She stormed past him, climbing into her truck and tearing out of their drive, gravel and dust flying in her wake.

For the first time in 142 years, Jasper fell to his knees.

Bella didn't know what to do. She was too hurt and angry to go home. She wanted to scream. She wanted to cry. She wanted to break something.

She turned on the stereo.

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts drowned out the noise of the road as she cranked the volume up to a near deafening level. She screamed the lyrics of Bad Reputation at the top of her lungs to stop the sobs from tearing out of them instead.

How could he do this? How could he keep something so huge from her? Had it all been fake? Did she really feel anything for him or was it all just some sort of twisted game?

She found herself crossing the reservation line and headed toward First Beach. She saw Jacob Black wave and run towards the truck as she hopped out. "Bella, hey!" he grinned, and Bella managed a small smile back.

"Hey."

"What're you doing here? What's up?"

"Um," she sighed, running her fingers through her hair, "nothing. Nothing really. Uh... Do you wanna get dinner or something?"

Jacob beamed. "Sure!"

They climbed back in the truck and the music blared as soon as she turned the key in the ignition. Jacob nodded in approval. "Classic rock. Nice."

Bella smiled.

"Jasper, will you just stop for one minute?" Alice called, hurrying after him as fast as her petite legs would carry her. Edward had tried to stop her from going after him, but she wouldn't hear of it. 'Edward, I love you, you know I do. More than anything. But Jasper, he's my best friend. He was there for me when no one else was and we know each other like no one else ever will. I have to help him.' He'd nodded and let her go, asking that she apologize to him on his behalf. She promised she would, knowing that the conversation had not gone the way her husband had meant for it to. It had all gone so wrong so quickly.

"Go home, Alice!" Jasper growled as he continued to trek through the woods, putting as much distance between himself and the mansion as he could.

"No! Talk to me!"

"Dammit, Ali, I said go home!" he nearly shouted, spinning on his heel to face her. "Go home to your fucking perfect husband and perfect family and leave me the hell alone!"

"Our family!" she shouted back at him. "They're our family, Jazz!"

"No! They're yours! They've always been yours! You found them. You fell in love with one of them. You fit right in. They wanted you. They got stuck with me."

"Jazz, that's not true..."

"Oh please, let's not kid ourselves, darlin'," he scoffed. "Carlisle an' Esme. Emmett an' Rosalie. You an' Edward. Then there's me. Just little ol' me. The loner. The wild card. I can feel their anxiety whenever I'm around humans. It's like they're just waitin' for me to snap. They only put up with me for you. And I finally, fucking finally, find someone that loves me in spite of what I am, and... Dammit! As if being a vampire wasn't enough!"

"Jazz..."

He shook his head, losing control just for a second and letting his heartache crash over her. She gasped, and Jasper, realizing what he'd done, looked stricken. He took a step back from her. "You should've left me at that diner."

"You don't mean that. You can't..."

Jasper sighed. "You're all I have left, Ali. Please don't follow me. I don't want to hurt you."

Before she could say anything else, he took off, darting through the trees and disappearing out of sight.

She let him.