Though my heart was racing and my lungs felt tight from my labored breathing, I found myself walking past him and into the large house. Two years had passed since I'd found myself standing there. I hadn't been happy about the move, and more than once, I had to inwardly stop myself from panicking about leaving everything I knew, the only place I'd known. I knew my life was going to change, I just had no idea how much.

"Whoa," Jasper murmured.

"I know, right?" I laughed and looked over at him. "Totally weird."

Though he nodded, he didn't say anything as he led Alice further into the living room. The large room had deep red walls with wide, white baseboards. I was around eleven when Esme decided the room needed a make-over. So, we spent several days painting the walls. First baby blue, which was horrible, and then a light green, which was worse. Finally, she picked red. The tall, wide windows made the room seem twice as big as it really was.

"So, um, this is the living room," Esme muttered, gesturing around the room. "We always set up the Christmas tree in front of the front windows. Bella would sit for hours and just stare at the lights."

"She always did like them," Charlie said with longing.

Clearing his throat, Carlisle placed his hand on Esme's back and led all of us into the kitchen. He stopped by the door leading to the laundry room and looked at me before shifting his eyes to Charlie and Renee. "You, um, you might like this." Walking past me, Charlie and Renee knelt next to my father, one hand coming up to cover their mouths. "They were eleven when they refused to let us measure them anymore, but every year on New Year's Day, we'd mark how tall they've gotten."

I could see Renee's hand shaking as she reached out and ran her fingers along my marks, the ones with the I's next to them. "Thank you," she cried, looking up at Carlisle. "For loving her. For taking care of her. She wasn't yours, not at first at least, but you loved her, made her one of yours. Thank you."

"I wish I could take the pain away from you, Renee," Carlisle murmured, and next to me, I could hear my mother weeping softly. "But I can't. You lost a lot of years with her, years that Esme and I wouldn't trade for anything. I hate that you and Charlie had to go through so much pain, that Bella felt so . . . lost for so long, but she became my daughter the second she was carried into my house."

Renee nodded, and stood up. Charlie reached out and placed his hands on the etchings, and though his tears were silent, I saw the way his shoulders shook, and I once again felt guilty for not being able to take away their pain. Maybe it would have been better if we hadn't come here.

"Do you really think that?" Marcus asked, and I realized that I'd said that out loud. Shifting my attention away from his, I didn't answer. "Bella? Do you really think it would have been better if we hadn't come here?"

I shrugged my shoulders.

"Say it," he ordered, and moved over to me, gripping my chin between his fingers and titling my face up to his. "If that's how you feel, then say it."

"I don't . . . . I don't know, okay? It hurts them to be here. It's like pouring salt in their wounds," I mumbled, tugging my chin out of his hand.

Marcus pursed his lips together and looked over at Renee and Charlie, who had stood up and was holding his wife. "Is that true?"

"Maybe a little," Charlie admitted. "But not knowing hasn't been any easier. We've tried to be understanding, to accept that this is a part of you, Bella, that we'll never know. And most days, we're able to do that, but sometimes, like on your birthday or Christmas, we can't. It's hurts too much to know that we'll never get those years with you."

I wasn't sure what to say, how to respond. Don't they understand that I'd give anything to be able to give them those memories? But I couldn't. Not just because it was impossible to rewind time, but because they weren't my parents, not then. Carlisle and Esme were, they were the ones who pulled my first tooth and left a dollar under my pillow.

"But being here," Charlie added, smiling. "Seeing all of this gives us something. And we're willing to take it."

"Is it enough?" I whimpered.

"No," Renee admitted, leaning her head on Charlie's shoulder. "But it's a start. Now, show us the rest."

Even though I hated that I couldn't give them everything, I found myself leading them through the house. Showing them each room and trying my hardest to paint the scene for them. With each new room, Edward kept his hand wrapped around mine, and I knew, in his own way, that he was trying to keep me from falling.

—AFTS—

"Come with me," Edward whispered, pressing his forehead against mine. We'd just arrived back at the hotel after a long afternoon. After we going to my childhood home, we'd toured the school Emmett, Jasper, and I had started out at, then the park where Esme always took us to play, and then to my favorite music store. With each new place, I felt myself struggling more and more to be honest with them. They just wanted to know me, who I was before moving to Forks, but it was hard not to keep that part of myself private.

I could feel the warmth flood my cheeks, which caused him to smile wider. "Where?" I murmured.

"It's a surprise," he said. "Don't you trust me?"

Biting my bottom lip, I nodded. "With every part of me."

"Then come with me."

As my eyes fluttered closed, I heard myself agreeing. Edward wrapped his arm around me and led me out of the hotel, down the beach. The sun was just starting to set and a dull orange glow radiated off the water.

Stopping at the edge of the surf, Edward shifted so that he was facing me. He had a large grin on his face as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his iPod. He placed one earbud in his ear and the other in mine. Then, sliding his finger around the middle, he selected a song. My breath caught in my chest when I heard his song, the one he had placed for me on the roof of his parents' building after I'd given him my music book.

Edward slipped his arms around me and we began to dance. In that moment, I wasn't the lost girl, the only who was desperate for her family to know her, to find her. I was just Bella Cullen, the girl Edward Masen had fallen in love with. As we danced on the beach and listened to his music, I knew that regardless of how lost I felt, Edward would always be there. He loved me, and I loved him. Together, we were perfect.

"The first time I saw you I thought: who's that beautiful girl?" he murmured. "You looked over your shoulder at me and I was done for. You owned me in that moment, Bella Cullen."

A tear slipped down my cheek, but Edward was quick to wipe it away.

"I wasn't prepared to fall in love with you, but I did. And I watched while you struggled with finding Charlie and Renee, with letting go of your fears. I was afraid that you'd push me away, that you'd stop needing me. I'll admit to being selfish, to wanting to be the person you depended on. I still do, too. I want to be the person who holds you every night. I want to kiss you, to make love to you, to be your forever," he whispered, peppering my face with kisses.

"Don't you know that you already are my forever?" I wept, overcome by my emotions. I'd never see Edward so vulnerable before. "Baby, you're my sun."

He smiled and once again pressed his forehead against mine. "Marry me."

I gasped. "Edward."

"Marry me. Be my wife. Tie your life to mine. Please, Bella Cullen, marry me."

"Yes," I whispered.

The biggest grin I'd ever seen spread across his face and he lifted me off the ground, spinning me around. "Yes!"

I laughed, and held on tight, partly because I needed to feel him and partly because I didn't want to fall, but Edward would never let me fall. Placing me back on my feet first, Edward reached into his other pocket and pulled out a small, black, velvet box. With a shaky breath, I watched as he opened it and revealed a gorgeous diamond ring. It wasn't fancy or gigantic, but it was perfect. A simple solitaire set in a white-gold band. As he slid his fingers over mine and placed the ring at the tip of my left ring finger, I shifted my eyes up to his. His green orbs peered into mine, and in that moment, I wasn't afraid of what our future held, or if I'd ever get to the point where I never worried about the shadows that still chased me in my dreams.

Edward Masen wanted to marry me, and that's all I cared about.