Chapter 3 - Home

EPOV

He looks so much better. How remarkable, the effect of even such a small feed on his body after so many months of starvation. Carlisle's thoughts were racing as he examined my appearance. He was relieved to see me looking more like myself and fascinated by the effects starvation had on our kind. But there was a purposely evasive edge to his thoughts. There was something he was working especially hard to keep me from seeing in his mind.

It appeared my ability to read my family's thoughts had returned completely when I broke the cycle of starvation. The relief was instantaneous, both to my thirst and my desire to understand what they were feeling. The difference I felt made me wonder how I'd denied myself for so long. I felt transformed and awakened – far more alert and attuned to my surroundings, and I hadn't even fed until I was fully satiated because I'd been too anxious to see Bella.

"Why am I here, and not watching over Bella?" I questioned, anger ripping through my words. My family tensed around me. We had received an urgent phone call from Carlisle partway through our hunting trip asking us to meet him at our home in Forks before going to see Bella. We had cut our strip short and rushed back home.

"There are some matters we need to discuss, Edward." Carlisle glanced at Emmett who looked deflated.

"What's the issue?" I paced around the table.

"Take a seat," Carlisle urged pointing to the chair opposite him. I shook my head.

"No. What's happening with Bella?" I pressed, but Carlisle didn't even flinch at my harshness. He sighed, appearing overwhelmed. I tried to focus in on his and Emmett's thoughts, but they were purposefully evading anything useful. I growled in frustration.

"Bella is OK, Edward. We found her in her bedroom, and Charlie was home as well. Charlie seems fine and Bella looks… well enough." I stiffened at his choice of words.

"What do you mean, well enough?" Carlisle glanced uneasily into the faces of my family members and forced out a large breath of air before continuing.

"Well, it's apparent to me from the little that I did see of her that something isn't right. She is concerningly frail, possibly emaciated and she appears to be grappling with a high level of anxiety. We wanted to warn you before you went there and saw her yourself. It was quite a shock to both Emmett and I and we wanted to prepare you for what you'll see. She doesn't resemble the Bella you remember, Edward." Carlisle locked eyes with me and his thoughts became immediately clear.

And whatever is happening to her isn't your fault, I can assure you of that, son.

I stared back at him, still and silent. My jaw clenched and my hands gripped the side of the table, easily crushing it like a block of sand beneath the force of my fingers. My family stared at me, waiting for my reaction.

Before I could say anything, the silence was broken by the familiar rumble of an old truck crawling across the gravel road of our driveway. Alice gasped and jumped up from her seat, her thoughts full of panic and frustration.

How did I not see this? How did I not see her coming!? Desperation poured from her thoughts as she began searching for some clue, any clue, of Bella's future. But nothing came. It appeared that her individual future was still completely unreadable to Alice. Not even a small glimmer peeked through. I could sense how uneasy Alice felt in being unable to see anything in the future of someone she loved deeply. I shared her pain.

"She's here," I said. I released my hands from the table and pushed away, walking toward the door, anticipating her knock.

BPOV

I rested my head against the steering wheel of my truck, groaning at the anxiousness trickling through my entire body.

Pull yourself together. You don't even know that they're actually in there!

I glanced around the yard, taking note of anything that might have changed since I'd last been here. But everything was the same – familiar. I scanned the property, searching for signs of them, but there was not a single trace.

It will be as if I never existed.

And it was.

Still.

I chastised myself. There was a possibility that he was mistaken, that they hadn't actually returned.

He must have been mistaken. Maybe he was testing me? Why would Edward return, when he clearly wanted nothing to do with me and this stupid, dreary, bottomless hole of a town?

Still, I had to come and see for myself, because it would eat away at me until I knew for sure.

You're wrong Bella. He doesn't make mistakes.

He'd been right about everything so far. He was right about Edward and his family – that they didn't want me… that I was a burdensome human, slowly destroying their lives by inserting my human frailties into it. I was as bother, a nuisance. And now, I was nothing…

I forced my mind to return to reality, trying to process the potential events that were about to unfold.

I weighed the possibilities. If he was testing me, would he know I was here? Would he know that I still cared enough to risk my heart – maybe even my life for Edward and the rest of the Cullen's? But if he was telling the truth, Edward was back in Forks.

I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about that.

I didn't know what it would mean… what it could change, if anything…

It might not be Edward. He said "they're back" that could mean any combination of them. Not necessarily Edward.

The only way I was going to know for sure was to get out of my truck and knock on the damned door. I braced myself, knowing that if they were home the task laid out before me was no small feat. It was difficult to convince any of the Cullen's to do something they didn't want to, and I assumed that if they had returned to Forks their return was not without purpose; it would be difficult, if not impossible, to convince them to leave.

Edward probably figured seven months was long enough for me to forget about him. He probably figures I should be less obsessed with him by now, therefore, making it "safe" for him to return. I wish that were true… I wish I was less pitiful.

Thinking of Edward resurrected thoughts from the day he had left and his insistence that he didn't care for me in the way I thought he did. The pain of that memory jolted through my body, leaving me breathless.

Tears crept into the corners of my eyes as had become the new normal for me, but crying wasn't an option right now. I swallowed thickly and glanced in my rear-view mirror, setting my face into what I hoped was determined, hard lines – hopefully feigning the appearance of strength. I had always been a terrible liar, but Edward had seemed especially adept at filtering my lies from the truth.

You're not the same Bella he remembers. Things change. You've changed. I cringed at the thought. I had changed. I'm sure it would be hard for Edward to recognize me at all. And if he ever discovered the truth I knew he'd regret ever knowing me. He would be disgusted by me.

I brushed the thoughts aside and slid out of my truck, dragging my feet as I walked toward the door.

I knocked, shaking in my anticipation, but certain all the same that no one would be home and that all of this would have been a waste of my time.

When the door creaked open, my jaw fell open in shock.

There he was, standing in front of me unchanged in his glorious perfection.

Edward.

Edward was back.