My wonderful, wonderful readers. I'm back! I had the chapter written but I couldn't find it. Seriously, this is the problem with having several dozen notebooks all with various pieces of my many projects scrawled in them. Bugger. I was somewhat amused by those of you who seemed to think that I wasn't going to continue after the last chapter. You must be new and haven't realized that it takes me a while to update. I am seeing this story to the end. I have to. This is my heart bleeding out words onto the page. I have to give these poor, abused characters some sense of closure.

Gasp! How dare Jasper! For those of you who are mad at him for pulling an 'Edward' on our beloved and once broken Bella, don't be. I would do the same thing in his shoes. He just found out that not only was he not the first or only call his dying wife made, but that his new love and fiancé kept it from him. I'd feel pretty ticked and betrayed, too.

The song is Jar of Hearts originally by Christina Perri. I used a cover by Beth. Seriously, that's her name. Just Beth. She's actually pretty good.

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Disclaimer: I own a ridiculous amount of books. I wonder how much trouble I would get into for just copying something from them….

Chapter Twenty: Jar of Hearts

BPOV:

"Bella." Esme's gentle voice pulled me from the darkness that was quickly trying to engulf me in its icy grip. "It's going to be okay," she offered, wrapping her arms around me.

"I'll go bring him back, Bells. He can't be angry with you for keeping a promise you made to Alice," Emmett promised but I shook my head.

"You can't force him to love me," I whispered. "It's his choice."

"Let me get you a drink of water," Esme said.

"I'll get a blanket," Rose offered before disappearing upstairs.

"I'll try to call Jasper and calm him down," Carlisle said.

"I'll just go… hit something," Emmett muttered before breezing out the door.

"Bella," Edward breathed and I sighed. Grief was overwhelming, familiar, but anger… I could embrace the anger.

"What, Edward? Are you happy? You have ruined everything! But that's what you came here to do, isn't it? You couldn't stand the idea of me being happy, of actually having a life that wasn't controlled by you! You cheated on me and then left me –again –and then when you found out that that I wasn't pining over you, you sped down here to try and regain your control over me! Well, it didn't work, Edward. I'm done with you. I am done with you controlling my life like I don't have a mind or dreams or a will of my own! Congratulations to you, Edward. You have succeeded in breaking my heart once again except this time, it's not you I'm crying over!"

"I wasn't trying to break your heart, Bella. I swear I wasn't! I just wanted a chance to tell you what a horrible mistake I made. I was so wrong, Bella, so wrong. I thought that you couldn't understand how I felt and that Tanya could. I should have known it was a lie, that she was just playing games with me. But I came back to apologize, to tell you that it was all a mistake!"

"I know what a horrible mistake you made! I know that you seriously miscalculated, Edward! You didn't realize what a great thing you had in me, how much you actually gave up. But how could you? You were never interested in my potential, what was bubbling underneath, the promise of someone amazing if only they'd had the chance to grow and develop. But I did. It took me months of self loathing and heartache, but I realized just how wrong you were. I realized I was better off and that you were the one missing out."

"And I never should have let you go," he said but I wasn't going to give him a chance to interrupt with his false platitudes.

"No, you really shouldn't have. But it doesn't matter now because I've realized what a blessing it was that you left. I learned to rock climb and cook and to ballroom dance. I learned to rely on myself and that how great I am isn't conditional on how you or anyone else views me. Because you are nothing. You speak beautiful words but there's no substance to them. You claimed to love me but your actions always told a different story. You swore that life without me wouldn't be worth living but you voluntarily left, twice! You spoke of virtue and honor and being a gentleman but that made no difference when you chose to go and screw around with one of Alice's least favorite people. You are nothing. I'm over you, Edward. Honestly, I wonder what I ever saw in you."

He reacted so fast that I wasn't sure what was happening. One moment he was fuming before me and the next, he was pinning me to the ground, lips attached to my throat and teeth piercing the fragile skin there. Fire burned at the site and spread through me, consuming me in horrifying heat. I could feel him sucking my life away through my neck, the blood rushing from my veins into his mouth.

"No," I hear someone shout through the vicious pounding in my head. I felt Edward's weight lifted off me but the heaviness in my chest, the sluggishness of my will remained. I heard people shouting, voices calling my name but it was muffled, like I was rooms away from them. Blackness pulled me lower and I could feel myself sinking into oblivion. My last thought was of Jasper's face and the heartbreaking realization that our last words before my untimely death were adversarial. Regret consumed me before I was lost to oblivion.