AN: Hello my darling readers! I finally finished the next chapter. Got your tissues ready? You're gonna need them!

I also wrote a bit more from Edward's POV, which was quite hard. On the one hand, his love for Bella is sincere (if magically induced) but on the other, he was so stubborn and thick-headed, he deserves a good kick.

So, he get's one.

I won't spend the rest of this fanfic bashing him through. That is not the point of this story. I have other stuff planned - more details about why Charlie and Rene had to die, how Bella came to be with the Volturi and, on the present side of things, how the Volturi being gone will affect the vampire world. Thing is, news travel slowly in their world and changes take time. If you're immortal, you're very slow to change your ways after all. But once I'm done going through flashbacks, there definitly are plans for a more exciting present plot stemming from the consequences of past actions yet to be revealed.

Now please enjoy the chapter and leave a review if you like it!

BPOV

Even though Bella had decided to tell her story, now that she was sitting here and it was time, no words would escape her. How could she possibly relive that horror, the most traumatic event of her life? She tightened and loosened the shielding bubble surrounding Jasper in time with her breaths to calm herself. Bella was sitting on the couch, staring at her feet. She didn't dare glance at Edward, who, however unintentionally, was also partly to blame for her misfortune. If he'd never come to Forks… But that was unfair, she knew that. Edward had made mistakes. Whether it was irresponsible of him to start a relationship with her or not was debatable but it wasn't as if she hadn't been an enthusiastic participant. Neither of them could fight the mate bond.

She supposed that she should start her story there. Edward might not ever be able to forget her but maybe she could dull his pain to something bearable.

"When you left me in Forks, I was broken", she started, her voice just trembling the slightest bit. "Back then, I took you by your word. I believed you didn't want me anymore, didn't desire me, didn't love me. I believed you lied to me all the times you said something different, believed I had deluded myself into thinking someone as amazing as you could ever fall for plain, ordinary me. I have since realized that this was not the case. I have realized that it was your love for me and your desire to protect me that made you leave. Just being around you, just being affiliated with you, was dangerous for me as long as I was human. And you didn't want to consider turning me because you considered a life as a human to be more worthwhile.

Back then, I'd have disagreed. The me back then would've been glad to share eternity with you. I wouldn't ever have resented you for turning me, even if it meant missing out on a couple of human experiences. You can't miss what you've never had after all. Leaving, and leaving the way you did, without even asking for my opinion, is something I resented you for for a long time.

But you did leave and for better or for worse, all of your hopes about my human life came true. I did eventually get over you. I did eventually fall in love with another human. I did marry and have a child. And now that I've had those experiences, I wouldn't ever want to give them up for anything in the world. Thinking back on the way we ended still hurts but I no longer resent you for it because in the end, it brought me the greatest happiness.

My husband's name was Jacob Black. He was a Quileute wolf, though he quit his wolf in order to age alongside me some time after we had Will. William, that's my son. Jacob and I dated for quite a while. It took about a year before I was even ready to consider a new relationship. He was always sure that he wanted me to stay with him for the rest of his life but I was hesitant to give my heart to him fully. The bad breakup and my parent's experiences with early marriage made me hesitate. But Jacob was patient. He cared for me and he… he protected me."

Bella clenched her fist and counted to ten, focusing on working with her shield.

"And I did need protecting still", she continued. Her tongue felt like lead. "You see… That whole thing with James and his coven wasn't as over as we thought. James had been mated to Victoria and Laurent, the third member of their coven, was acting on her orders. Both of them were spotted time and time again near Forks. I told the pack what had happened and we figured they were probably after me. We thought that Victoria probably wanted revenge for James and because she couldn't find you, she kept returning to the only other person involved in the whole mess. Or maybe she wanted to finish James' last hunt to remember him better or something like that.

The wolves kept chasing them away. They usually kept any details from me but when I was 20, they finally managed to corner Laurent and kill him. Jacob got hurt pretty badly in that battle. He lay sick for days. I was so worried I would lose him. That's when I decided I didn't want to wait any longer. That's when I accepted his proposal.

Everything seemed to quiet down after that. I think Victoria figured out that it was contact with vampires that triggered the Quileute gene. The more often she came to their territory, the more wolves would shift. We didn't hear of her or any other vampire for a couple of years. We thought she had given up. We… We had a sort of falling out with most of the pack at some point, after Jacob quit his wolf. Before they had all taken turns guarding me but the patrols around my place specifically got less frequent after that."

Bella clenched her teeth. Her voice was bitter as she continued:

"But Victoria had never given up. She was just… Well, she was a vampire. It was no matter for her to wait a few years for her revenge. She caught me… She caught Jacob… and…" Bella sobbed and instinctively covered her mouth with her hand, trying to muffle the sound. "…and she caught Will...!"

The memory was so clear in her mind still.

She woke up in an old cellar, her hands and feet bound so tight the rope was cutting into her skin. At first she couldn't see anything. Victoria had perfect night vision, she wasn't used to taking human needs into account.

"Oh silly me. Let me get you some light", the vampire said with a voice so lovely it had to belong to a singer. She lighted a few candles. Her pale, beautiful form looked like a goddess as she danced in the warm light, her fiery red locks framing the face of a red-eyed angel.

Then a groan drew Bella's attention to the other side of the room where Jacob was just waking up. He too was bound at hands and feet, the rope also wrapped around a wooden beam. But it was the form of her small, four year old son slumped next to him, bound similarly, that really chilled Bella to the core.

"I begged her to let them go", Bella whispered, her tears now flowing freely. "It's me you want, isn't it?, I said to her. It's because of me that James died. They have nothing to do with it, please just let them go! … She just laughed at me. Asked me why she would do that. I begged her to kill me. I would scream for her, I wouldn't fight at all, she could do anything to me." Bella trembled, remembering those horrible moments. Being human memories, they were less vibrant than what came after but the helplessness, oh…

"You think you can fight back?", Victoria laughed, sounding honestly humored. "You think I can't make you scream on my own? Darling, there is nothing you can offer me, nothing you can do or say or offer me. Why would I let them go? I went through all the trouble to bring them here! If nothing else, they'll be lunch."

"I tried to threaten her. The pack would never let her go if they killed Jacob and Will. They protect their tribe! She didn't care."

"James and I have hunted together for centuries. Centuries, little human! The Hunt was our life. It was how we lived, how we ate, how we courted. And it wasn't just humans. We'd hunt vampires too on occasion, especially talented ones. I'm going to get them all eventually, Edward and Jasper and Emmet and all their mates. The small one that escaped us too. They don't go anywhere. I have an eternity to hunt them down. I have nothing left to do but that now, anyway. But I will have to be careful. I will have to be fast. They are formidable enemies. But you… you are weak. You are alone. You are abandoned. I have all the time and all the leisure to enjoy you." She sounded so pleased with herself. Bella could see the madness dancing in her ruby eyes as she leaned own, brushing her fingertips against her jaw.

"Let go of Bella!" Jacob shouted, having finally woken up completely.

"Don't worry about her", Victoria said coldly. She turned then, looked into Jacob's eyes. "Worry about yourself instead", she said sweetly.

"I thought she wanted to kill Jacob in front of me", Bella said hollowly. "I thought she wanted me to watch as the love of my life died, just as hers had. I wish that's what she'd done. But she had something else in mind."

Her control slipped. She heard Jasper's gasp downstairs even over the noise of the movie as his bubble burst and he was bombarded with the horrible, twisted pain inside of Bella. Years of practice, of keeping up a façade of being okay in front of her children let her gather herself after just a few moments. She was glad for the work, for the effort it took her to form her shield, reform the bubble around her lifeline.

"I'm sorry", she choked, more to the ghosts of her past than to Jasper. And then again: "I'm so, so sorry."

She felt a light pressure on her knee. Without her noticing Alec had moved to sit beside her. He patted her awkwardly and Bella burst out into a hysterical half sob, half laugh. It was so unlike Alec to show any kind of emotion, that him trying to comfort anyone was sort of comical. Yet she didn't want to discourage his rare show of empathy and so she pulled him into her arms. Alec stiffened up in her embrace but didn't fight it, even when Bella cried into his hair.

"She turned me", Bella continued eventually. There was no reason to go into details here. "It was horrible. You all remember, I'm sure. Except Alice I guess, that's something to envy. But that wasn't the worst. What came after… that was worse. She'd kept Jacob and Will in that room with me. She took care of them, even. Fed them, allowed them to use a bucket, things like that. All while I burned and screamed. They had to watch me suffer. Will had such nightmares, for years… I later learned that we weren't even in Forks anymore, she'd brought us all the way to Port Angeles to avoid the wolves. And she'd had the cellar soundproofed. She had prepared this for a long time.

And then I woke up. Victoria's face was the first thing I saw. The first thing I remember clearly, with my new senses. She looked at me with a grin, like a child looks at a new toy. Welcome to your new life, she said. Then she drew a knife and cut Jacob, then Will. Nothing bad. Just some scratches. Just enough… to draw blood."

She couldn't continue. She just… couldn't.

"You don't have to", Alec whispered as if he was the one being able to read her thoughts. Bella's bubble wavered and punctured and broke and it took her several long moments to rebuild it, breathing in and out. If she'd been a human, she'd be hyperventilating.

"I have to go on. I'm never going to… I'm never going to be able to say it if I don't say it now", she choked.

"That's okay", Alec made.

Bella shook her head. "It's been years. I should be able to say it at least. It's just… I was just born. It's my first memory. I will never forget it. I don't want to forget it, but I also literally can't. I… I had, like, a split second to decide. Normally the wolves would smell disgusting to a vampire, even a newborn. But Jake had quit his wolf and Will hadn't transformed yet. They were just… human. Just…" …delicious.

"So I attacked Jake. I loved him so much. I loved him more than life itself. I wasn't in control of myself but even so, some part of me must've realized that as much as I loved Jake, Will was still so much more precious. I know Jake would've gladly sacrificed himself to save him. I know that for a fact because when I... bit him… Victoria laughed and laughed and then she cut them both free just to see me play with my food and Jacob didn't even fight me. He hugged me as I drained him and he held me and he shouted for Will to run and he did and I kept drinking and he kept whispering that he loved me and forgave me and…"

Bella kept hugging Alec, just holding him, just crying into the shoulder of the small boy, remembering another small boy looking at her with such fear in his eyes.

At last, she calmed down enough to be able to let him go and Alec scouted back to his chair, smiling uncomfortably. Bella gave another hiccup-turned laugh and let him go.

"It was pure luck that Will survived", she continued her tale, less tense now that the worst was over. "Victoria had such fun watching me she didn't chase after him. He was leaving a trail of blood…. I think she wanted to see me chase him down. I later learned that he managed to make it to the road and he was lucky enough to be picked up by a truck that came by, one that took him to the police station. After I was… done… with Jake… I didn't go after Will, like Victoria thought I would. Instead, I went right for her throat. I was… consumed by rage. We had long suspected that Victoria's power had something to do with evasion. But she didn't want to flee from me. Especially not after I started mocking James to her face. She wanted to make me suffer and then she wanted to kill me. Still… she was a difficult opponent to fight. Kept slipping away from me. But I managed to surprise her. For now I too was a vampire. And I too had a power." She took a deep breath and focused on the feeling of rage inside her. Rage was so much easier to deal with than the pain, the sorrow, the gut-wrenching guilt.

"Most of the time my shield just passively protects my mind. But if I focus on it I can… stretch it and change it. I can make it physical and use it as a weapon, slam it into an attacker and press them to the ground. That first night, I did it on nothing but instinct, rage, hatred and a desire to destroy. I couldn't replicate it after until I actually started training it. But it was enough to take down Victoria. I used my shield to hold her down and I… I ripped out her arms and her legs, slowly, and I set them on fire, one by one and I made her watch. But her head… I didn't burn that. I kept it. I didn't kill her. That's how much I hated her. That's how much I wanted her to suffer. She didn't kill me, so why should she get to die?"

Bella quieted down. She hated that ugly piece of ice in her heart that had made her do such monstrous things. What happened to her was horrible but what happened to Victoria… Was it really any less horrible?

"The fire I'd set to burn Victoria spread around. I barely managed to carry Jake's body out of there before the building was lost. I brought him all the way back home. Didn't dare to follow Will's trail. I wrote a long letter to Will, for him to read when he was old enough. I knew he'd have questions later on. He was still so young… I needed him to know that I loved him and….

I dropped the letter of at Leah's, who Jake was still good friends with. Leah caught my scent when I went to drop off the letter at her place. Chased me around in circles. Almost killed me three times until I got in enough words to plead my case. I explained what happened, told her to tell people that we'd both died in the fire but to give Jake a proper burial. And to find Will and take care of him. I had no idea where he was or if he was alright. Well… I knew of course that he couldn't be alright but… you know what I mean.

I returned to their house a few days later. I know it was risky but I just had to know that Will was safe. I saw him once, from a distance. Seth was playing with him in the garden. I saw him smile once. That was enough.

I burned Victoria's head after that. I felt ashamed for having kept it."

Bella shuddered and closed her eyes. She felt as if all energy had left her. She wiped the tears out of her eyes and straightened her back. Put another layer on Jasper's bubble. Steady. Steady.

"Of course I considered just throwing myself on a pyre. I even tried it, once, but newborn instincts were still too strong. Eventually I found a way to deal… with everything. I got the bloodlust under control. Kept to an animal diet. Had a couple of slip-ups, sure, but I was doing great progress. Enough so that allowed myself to check up on Will. Then… things happened… that forced me to reveal myself to Will. Amazingly, he forgave me. Seth and Leah had made sure he understood that I was as much a victim of Victoria's plan as Jake was. He'd been so young when it all happened. Too old to forget it entirely but still so young that having at least one of his assumed-forever-gone parents miraculously return to him was immediately seen as a positive thing.

Leah, Seth, Will and I traveled together for a while. Then we ran into trouble with the Volturi. I had stupidly told Charlie what I was. That I wasn't dead but… a vampire. They didn't like that at all. They gave us a choice, basically, join or die. I managed to bargain them down to letting Seth and Leah go but Will and I had to join the guard. Then Chelsea happened. She snipped us from everyone but each other. I was allowed to keep my bond to Jake only because he was dead and I plead so much and Jake eventually rebuild his through the pack mentality. But Will no longer has any connection to his father. I hate it, that he lost that… but I'm also sometimes glad. He no longer has nightmares and he's not afraid of me anymore. He seems… Happier.

After the Volturi broke apart, Will and I teamed up with Jane and Alec and formed a coven. Eventually that turned into a family. Cullen style." She chuckled. "We feed off animals as much as possible. Will even got a chance to reconnect with his pack, ever since we moved back to Washington. A couple of months ago, I ran into Jasper per chance. We've been hanging out with Alice and him and a few weeks ago, we moved here for another life circle. And that's it. Everything that happened since… last time."

Bella swiped away any stray tears that still clung to her lashes. "So… Yes, I'm vampire. No there's nobody for you to blame or hunt down or whatever. I already took care of that. No, I don't hate you. And no, I don't love you anymore either. We weren't right for each other. I was right for Jake – and I lost him. Now I just want to focus on making sure Will has the happiest life possible. He's growing up so fast – thinks he doesn't need me anymore." She chuckled. "I'll show him."

Bella grew serious again. "I deliberately told Alice not to tell you about any of this. I wanted to leave you in your belief that your decision had brought me nothing but happiness. For the most part, it did. I may not want to be with you anymore but I also don't want you to suffer needlessly. So… now that you know, I guess it' okay to tell Carlisle and the others as well. We can all come together sometime, though we're probably too many to live together as you guys used to. But, we can all stop avoiding each other. I'll accept you as a part of the wider family but it would be awkward and uncomfortable for me to see you every day so I will not be part of the same coven as you. That… That is all. That is all I wanted to say."

Bella stood and wiped some imaginary dust from her lap.

"Keep him under for a moment longer, will you?" she said over her shoulder to Alec, then opened the door.

Immediately she had her arms full of crying pixie. Bella relaxed into the embrace of her best friend and allowed Jasper's bubble to burst at last. Alice' mate was halfway up the stairs a moment later, looking relieved.

"I appreciate the gesture but you really didn't have to do that", he said.

Bella laughed, the sound just barely a step away from a sob. "It was more for my sake than yours. Building bubbles like that with my power helps me control myself. Thanks for enduring it."

She turned towards the little pixie. "Alice, if Alec lets him up now, is he going to cause trouble?"

Alice grimaced a bit. "He'd be burning with regret and self-pity, have a bunch of questions and Jasper will have his work cut out for him calming him down."

She sighed. "I figured as much. But I'm exhausted, Alice. I can't deal with him right now. As long as he doesn't try to kill himself, I really don't care right now."

Alice nodded, full of understanding. "What do you think of a shopping spree, Alice Whitlock trademark?" She winked. "Jasper and the children can take care of Edward. Fill him in on the rest of what you've told us and finally get the good news to Carlisle and Esme. Oh, I hated lying to them so much! But, we won't worry about any of that! We'll go and dress up and have a nice spa day and don't think about anything even remotely to do with vampires for the rest of the day!"

"That sounds wonderful", Bella replied. "Let's do that."

Alice hooked her arm into hers and all but dragged her outside.

Alec didn't let Edward up until they were way on their way to Seattle.

It took Jasper three hours to calm down Edward into something resembling a coherent state. He didn't mind though. Under all that regret and anguish and regret and sorrow and pain and regret, there was a tiny spark of hope. Hope in knowing that Bella would never die and that he would be able to see her again and not be afraid to put her in danger with his mere presence. That was more hope than he'd had in the last twenty years. At last, Jasper recognized something of his old brother in this broken vampire.

Edward POV

Bella was a vampire.

Bella was dead.

Bella was a vampire and had been so for many years.

She didn't love him anymore.

She was a vampire and because he'd been so fucking stupid to leave her, she'd had to go through all of that alone.

She'd killed her husband.

A husband that she'd loved. Still loved, more than she loved him.

She didn't love him at all anymore.

Edward fought against the tranquilizing calm that tried to quench his churning emotions but in the end he just sagged, boneless.
"Stop crying already. You're pathetic", that little brat said scornfully and kicked him. Actually kicked him while he was down. Well, or at least it felt like a kick, though Jane hadn't moved a single inch.

He hated her.

But even that hatred, Jasper drained from him, leaving only dull resentment.

"I don't think that was helpful", Alec commented. He was standing a few paces away, at the end of the staircase and now that Bella was gone – she's gone, she's gone – would he ever see her again? – and his thoughts were no longer shielded by her, Edward could hear him calculating how long it might take him to knock him out from this distance if he tried anything.

"Let me go", Edward managed to rasp out over the thick blanket that dulled his emotional responses. "I won't do anything. She said she doesn't want me dead. I'll just… I'll just stay here till she tells me to go away."

Jasper hesitated and exchanged a warning glance with the twins. He was planning the best course of action to keep him from running in case he broke his word. Edward was fast but Jane's power was faster. Jasper hated to consider having to ask her to cause him pain to keep him from running but it would give either him or Alec enough time to knock him out before… Before he could run off to try and find a way to kill himself. Probably by running into Quileute territory.

Actually, that sounded like a great idea.

He didn't say that out loud though and after a few more seconds, Jasper lifted his influence.

At once, Edward gasped as the pain his him like a ton of bricks. All the worst scenarios summoned by Bella's story were back. His beautiful, lovely Bella, her face twisting in thirst and anguish, eyes blazing red. The shy, clumsy girl he'd fallen in love with had been forced to grow up into such a severe, collected woman. He was so proud of her for raising these children. It was obvious from their thoughts that the twins were very protective of her but they also loved her like family. Edward was happy that she'd had the chance to have a child of her own and to raise it too but when he then imagined the price it had come at…

He'd done her wrong. She was his everything, the light of his life, the one ray of sunshine in his dull existence – and he'd failed to protect her. She'd suffered so, so much and what had he'd done? Rolled around in his own self-pity.

"Edward", Jasper said.

He should've been there. He should've watched over her, even if just from a distance.

For a few years after he'd left Forks, Edward had actually tried to track down Victoria. Just in case and because he had nothing else his life had been good for anymore. But he'd lost her trail again and again and whenever it did resurface, it was never anywhere near Forks. He hadn't thought… He would've never imagined…

If only he'd tried harder!

"Edward", Jasper said again and Jane gave him another kick. This one hurt more and Edward actually hissed and curled in on himself. The pain felt good though. It cut through the thoughts clouding his mind and he looked up at his brother from where he lay in the middle of the living room.

"They won't be gone forever. Alice and Bella will return soon. You've got to make a decision", the blonde vampire told him. His tone was harsh but his eyes were kind and his thoughts were encouraging.

Alice was inconsolable, that first day, when she learned that Bella no longer had any feelings of affection for her because of what Chelsea did. But they spend time with each other and got to know each other again and now they're like sisters. It only took a couple of months. That's nothing.

"She said she doesn't resent you. Yes, she's suffered but so has everyone of us and we all got better eventually. She's already doing great. Isn't that what counts the most? You should be happy for her. She's grown so much."

Edward felt an echo of the pride Jasper felt for Bella, not an emotion forced on him but more just something to underscore his words.

"How could I be… happy?!" Edward said bitterly. "She went through so much… The things she had to do, to see, to feel… It's all because of my mistakes! If I had never come to Forks-"

"If you had never gone to Forks, Isabella Swan would've been killed in a car accident on the school parking lot", his brother replied harshly.

Don't you remember? You saved her life even from things that had nothing to do with us, things that would've happened to her regardless of whether or not you had been there.

That was true, Edward had to admit. His Bella had always been so very clumsy and a real trouble magnet.

"If I had managed to track down Victoria…"

"It's useless to worry about What Ifs. What's done is done. You have to find a way to go forward from here", Jasper interrupted him impatiently.

"Where can I go?" Edward moaned, the pain of her rejection ripping him apart inside. "She doesn't want me around anymore. She said I made her uncomfortable!"

Jasper sighed and crouched next to him as Edward still hadn't found the strength to get up. Some vampire he was.

"Do you want to be with her again?" he asked curtly.

"I don't deserve-"

"So you want to but you know you can't. Fine, then what do you want? Do you want to see her happy?"

Slowly, Edward nodded.

"Do you want to respect her wishes?"

He nodded again, miserably.

"Then you have your answer. She already told you what she wants, what would make her happy." Jasper shrugged. "It's not that complicated. Bella hasn't told you, or anyone of us, where or what she was because she wants to focus on protecting her children and their happiness. What she doesn't want are complications. So, keep it simple. Get to know her children. Offer to help protect them."

"We don't need protection", Jane but in but Jasper shot her a warning look.

"Protecting a life is not the same as protecting happiness. It's not just about defending each other from foreign covens, it's about helping each other live the life that we chose and making good memories."

Jane hesitated but then nodded. Edward caught flashes of her thoughts, of good memories she remembered making with Jasper and Alice. Edward had to blink in surprise when he caught an image of Jane, terror of the Volturi Jane, giggling like the child she was as she and Alice painted Bella's nails.

"Don't just run off and never come back – that would make her feel guilty. She is still very kind-hearted, even if her experiences have hardened her a bit. Don't hover around her, asking what she wants or needs but don't avoid her either. That would be awkward. I'm sure Esme and Carlisle would love to come visit, maybe even move here with us. You can just take them as an example as to how much interaction she's comfortable with. Then there's Alice and me. We can help you."

"But… She doesn't need me anymore. If she doesn't want me… wouldn't it be better if I just left…" Edward muttered.

Jasper shook his head. "Think about it, Edward. Now that she's given her okay, Alice is going to alert Carlisle and Esme. So they will definitely come here. If you vanish again, that will hurt our parents. They're going to want to rebuild their relationship with Bella and once they do, how do you think Bella will feel about you hurting our parents? How would she feel even now when you leave and Alice starts crying because she thinks it's her fault for not seeing it coming?"

"She won't like that", Edward answered, seeing his point.

"I know it's hard. You still love her and she's moved on. But you can still be around her and that's better than what you've had so far, isn't it?" But as encouraging as Jasper's words sounded, his thoughts said something different.

I don't even know how that's possible. I always thought if only she were turned, she'd be drawn to him as much as he's drawn to her. It has to be Chelsea's fault. What a terrifying power. If Alice…

But Jasper refused to think further in that direction. The mere idea that Alice might one day wake up and not love him anymore was absolutely terrifying to him. He'd be nothing without her.

Just like Edward was nothing without Bella.

But Jasper was right. Bella might no longer be interested in him romantically but that didn't mean that they couldn't be friends. Friends was better than nothing, than never being around her again.

Bella didn't love him anymore and possibly never would again but maybe it was better this way. He was obviously horrible mate material. Even though he'd fallen for her irrevocably, because he'd fallen for her when she'd still been human, she'd had a chance. She wasn't bound to him the same way he was bound to her. She could move on and love again. Maybe that meant that now as a vampire, she could find another one of their kind out there that could do for her what Edward could not. Someone better than Edward. Someone who wouldn't leave her because of his own, stupid delusions of protection. Someone who would make her happy.

Until she found that someone, he would stay with her, watching and when the day came he would slink away quietly and be… forgotten.