As we approach the house, I see Esme and the others waiting.

We get out of the car, and she hugs me right away like I wished she would.

—I'm home. The smell of her air and the cold touch of her skin is home to me.

—I'm sorry we didn't tell you everything, but we never thought you were different from us, not even once. I promise. Her eyes are darker than I remember, and I know it's because she was waiting for me. She must've been afraid not to be here when I came back, and I regret doing that to her, even if necessary.

—I know. I understand that now. I'm ready to tell them everything, and I'm glad to see even Renesmee is there. I thought horrible things about her and all of them because my mind was in a horrible place.

—I'm sorry I disappeared like that; I had to think. Although it wasn't the truth, David said what I had in my heart. I made it true inside my mind spiraled in that pain until we got here. I told you I wanted to know everything but didn't share everything. With a deep breath, I gather all I want to say.

—I believed I was worthless for not helping my parents. My mother told me to run that night, and I did, without looking back. Up to the moment they got me, I only wanted to survive and never thought about going back for them. I told myself it was my powers pushing me to survive, but I was… terrified of death. I felt so ashamed of that and had no idea how to deal with those feelings, so I pretended they weren't there. I can feel my voice shaking, but I can't do this now. I hold Esme's hand firmly before continuing.

—When David arrived and said he knew what happened to me, I wanted to question him in private, so I did everything to keep him here. I knew he would mention the torture and pain of the procedure, and I didn't want you picturing what happened every time we spent time together. I also found out he knew my parents, so I became more desperate to talk to him. Connecting the dots in my mind wasn't hard. If he knew my parents, he could've been the one that delivered them to Padrone, maybe unwillingly, maybe deliberately. But he wouldn't say a word if he didn't trust us not to kill him, so I poured all I had into that. It didn't go as expected, and you were giving me the silent treatment, so I thought I had to prove myself somehow and did what I had to do to find that lab, but came back empty-handed to another quiet house. After that, my head was all over the place with theories, and David told me all those things, and I could finally see what I was doing to myself and needed space to think. And now, here we are. This is all I couldn't tell you before.

They are all looking at me, absorbing my words, and thinking about their own. Esme is the first to speak.

—When David arrived, Jasper investigated him and found out about his past. Edward constantly heard a name in his thoughts, and upon further investigation, we found out a vampire named John was the man in his mind. The name squeezes my heart so hard it feels like it stopped. Esme puts both hands on mine.

—Alice had a vision. When Jasper said the name to her, she saw… she saw you… Esme stops talking and can't look at me.

—I saw you die, Anne. Alice continues. —When we thought about telling you what we found, I saw you lose control and attack him like the way it happened in Rome and… die. By my vision, I knew John was your father.

Esme looks up —I refused to let them tell you anything about David, but you were so determined to interrogate him, so I thought I could fulfill your wishes and control how much information we gave you. Alice was concentrated on you. We made sure our decisions didn't come to trigger that future again, but when we found traces of vampires around the city, it all happened so fast that she saw David attack you too late. I hoped to get rid of him after that, but you forgave him, and I knew you were up to something. That's when you found that lab and Alice's visions changed.

—I saw you going away. Alice says. I thought I wasn't seeing much of her because she was ignoring me, but she was going over my future all this time. —You were in this car, driving away from the city, and I was sure you were never coming back, but you were alive, so, even if it meant to lose you, we knew we had to tell you the truth. We were going to talk to you the night you drove through the border after what David said.

—We should've told you sooner. Renesmee is the one speaking now. She's next to Jake with her head down. —But, I also didn't want to see you walk away from us, and it was… hard to look at you and lie. We were hiding such a big secret, and I couldn't face you, so I selfishly avoided being around the house. I… I just didn't want to lose my friend.

They protected me all this time like they always do, and I thought they were pushing me away with their silence. I stayed quiet about my feelings, and the misunderstanding grew so big that we almost lost each other for no reason.

—I guess we all had something we didn't want to lose. Fear is… a homewrecker. It leads to hate, anger and suffering, and it almost destroyed what I hold the dearest. I can't let myself be afraid of losing anymore. I'll simply have to win over it to keep what is mine.

—Where is David? I need to talk to him. He must be afraid too.

—Tied up with… bells. Edward says, pointing to the storage room. —If we can't sense him, we can ahm… hear him. David can hide in the shadows from anyone as long as he keeps quiet, so the idea is not that bad, although very childish.

—I'll talk to him. Wait for me here, please. I look at Esme and squeeze her hand before letting go.

The walk to the storage room feels much longer today. David's answers will change everything, and I knew that from the first time he said he knew me. We were put together by a sick and twisted destiny only to find ourselves in the same position, holding for dear life to the pain we can't forget.

He's sitting in front of the house, hands tied in front of his body and a rope with bells around his chest. I'm sure he heard everything we said, so I skipped the pleasantries.

—Hey. He won't look up, so I get down to his level before speaking. His eyes are slightly dark; he must've refused to feed the last two days.

—Why are you here? He's not here for Carlisle or Padrone. He's not here to control his thirst. He's here for something deeper, something personal.

He looks at my face. The pain in his eyes reminds me of the hurt I felt by his words. He tried to open my eyes before I lost myself forever in my pain and lost my family while holding onto his fear. No matter how much I proved he could trust us, he never opened up.

—I'm here because I should've known. His voice is heartbreaking. He's in real pain. —The moment Padrone woke you up, I should've known you were John's daughter. I should've grabbed you and ran out of that place, but I only understood what I did when it was too late. I left you there and saved myself like a coward. When I heard you survived the extraction, I looked for you and heard you were with the Cullens, but I wasn't sure who they were; I just heard the rumors. I knew I couldn't be near you or them if I drank human blood, so I tried to stop. When I finally found you, everything happened so fast I couldn't find the right time to tell you who I was. Then you did all you could to help me, and I saw so much on your father in you when we talked that I suddenly couldn't bear the thought of you hating me. I betrayed your dad, Anne. Padrone found him because of me.

—Were you in contact with my dad when he met my mother?

—No. We drifted apart for a while, and I heard he found someone, but I never met your mother.

Running my fingers through my hair, I process his words. He was carrying guilt inside him, just like I was. Blaming himself for my father's death and what happened to me, but the thing is, he wasn't to blame for those things.

—It wasn't you, David. He looks up at me, puzzled. —Padrone came after my mother, not my dad. Mirania started following them after they got together, and he got the information from someone else. There is no way you could've told him about what she could do. Mirania showed me that memory in Rome. Padrone talked to Felix about Renesmee, and after he left, Padrone took a list out to deliver to her. He only had that information for a short while, and when Mirania found my parents, they were already together for many years. She came in like she knew my mom was about to get pregnant with me.

—But… he said… Padrone must've told him that to see him suffer. That seems to be what he does. He causes as much pain as possible and enjoys how good he is at making others suffer.

—He's the original liar, David. I'm telling you, it wasn't you who sold them out. It doesn't matter how I look at it; it couldn't have been David. Even if Padrone saw his memories somehow, he couldn't have seen my mother in them. He probably saw my father's face and thought it would be fun to mess with David and make him help cut me open a hundred times.

—Then, who did?

—That's the real question we need an answer for. So, what are you going to do? You don't have to redeem yourself for anything. I know you feel responsible for the experiments, but they would've happened without you there, and I know you had no choice, so I'm not holding you accountable. Now, what are you going to do?

Thanks to all that thinking, or better, not thinking, I could approach this with a calmer mind and listen to everything before doing my typical dance of guilt, anger, and sadness. I knew where I stood on this and what I would do from now on, but did David? He came here to fix a mistake it wasn't his, and now that he doesn't have to go through the hardships of switching his diet and has no real reason to stay, I wonder what he'll do from now on.

He's a good person, and a helping hand is always welcome in a fight, but I want him to stay, not because of what I can get from him, but because of who he is. The stage of collecting information is way behind us and what's left is a friend that was honest with me when I needed a wake-up call.

—I'm finding Padrone. He looks up at me, his slightly dark hazel eyes full of passion. —and I want to stay… here, with you.

—All right. I smile, approach him, and tap my finger on the chains, encouraging him to break them. The sound of the bells brings everyone to us like I thought it would.

—Also, I appreciate honesty when I need it, but talk to me like that again, and you'll get more than a slap.

—Sorry. I just didn't want to see you go down the same road again. You have your father's stubbornly closed personality.

—A big punch. You'll get a big punch. I say, smiling but very serious as I reach my hand to him.

—Got it. I'll remember that. He shakes it, and we put an end to this discussion.

—All right, ahm… I believe I said what I needed to, so I'll be in my room taking a nap if you need me. Yeah. And David, you should go ahead and hunt for something before we can go back to serious training. To me is just easier to announce I'm forgiving someone and moving on than to stay angry for too long. My parents used to fight like crazy in the morning and just go back to being lovey-dovey at night because they could simply move on. I have eternity to be angry at him, but why waste it?

I walk back to the house and can tell they are confused about what happened, but they should be used to it now. —Esme! Do we have any food? I shout from the door, feeling my stomach growl.

She runs to me right away. —Sure, what do you want?

—Nothing greasy. The festival food didn't agree with me. I can hear my gut cussing me out for having so much oily food mixed with sweets.

—I told you not to eat those! Don't believe Bella, that greasy food will ruin your stomach.

—I won't eat it again, so please, can I have something to clean out the grease? As I hug her by the waist, we go to the kitchen, and it's like nothing is different. Although the whole world just shifted for me, she was still the same. She was still the best thing that ever happened to me, and I could never leave her and never will.

—

They watch Anne and Esme enter the house and feel like this lacks an ending somehow.

—All right. I'm gonna watch the game. Emmett seems ok with everything or just too used to how Anne solves her fights.

—How can she just… let it go? Alice can't understand how simple it is to her to forgive people. Is it empathy or naiveness?

—I couldn't tell you. I hold eternal grudges and still hate people I knew when I was human. Rosalie had given up understanding that side of her. She just accepted that Anne was simple-minded like that. She has very straightforward feelings, but her personality makes it difficult to follow her actions. She wasn't naive; she just was more mature than they expected.

—I told you, just like a newborn. Jasper, like Rosalie, has accepted how Anne was.

—You should've seen her father. When we met, I bit his finger off, and he just became my friend. Even David's attitude towards them changed. Since when did he engage in their conversations?

—All right, let's go. She forgives, but Sam doesn't, so I'll go with you, David. Carlisle says, going to the woods with David.

—Did she just… forget about me? Seth looks at the empty doorway, but Anne doesn't come back for him.

—Forget it, man. Jake pats him on the back. —You can't win over Esme. Seth's competition was too intense.

—Is she really ok? Renesmee is still worried. This has happened before, and Anne was definitely not ok.

—We'll make sure to ask her and be honest this time, honey. Bella and the others enter the house while Carlisle takes David to hunt. Anne's ability to simply move on from the hate and forgive was probably another power of hers. Or maybe, David was right, and they were grumpy old vampires that had to take a chill pill.

—

Cinque is leaning against a tree, waiting for Dieci to come back.

—Did you give it to her? She asks, looking down at the boy. His sweet face has an evil smile on.

—Yeah. Mirania will come right away If she dies; if she doesn't, well, she'll come anyway. They'll know we are here, though.

—It doesn't matter. Where is Padrone? Sette asks, longing forward to the awaited encounter with the mind-reader.

—He's hiding, but when Mirania shows up, he'll kill her. Cinque answers.

—Do we have to wait? We should just move now. Sette is impatient and doesn't see why they need this theater.

—Enjoy the pain, Sette. You'll have much more fun when they have a good reason to kill us. Dieci was so much like Padrone that they actually looked like father and son. They both enjoy observing the pain eat people away until nothing is left.

—Hale is mine. Don't get in my way. Cinque can almost taste revenge now.

—The wolves. Otto is shaking now. He can't wait to go and kill… anything.

—We are moving. Sette and the others disappear before being tracked, going back inside the shadows, waiting for the best time to attack.