Jared's POV

After Bella fell asleep in my arms, I decided to take her home. She slept the whole way and barely even stirred when I carried her out of the truck to the front door.

The door was opened by Chief Swan before I even got all the way to the door. He must have seen us from the window. "What happened?" he asked.

"Nothing. She just fell asleep," I told him as I stepped inside

The chief took Bella from my arms. "Don't move," he said before carrying her upstairs.

I obediently stayed put. I knew Chief Swan probably had a few things to say to me. First, he probably wanted to know who the strange guy who brought his daughter home was. It wasn't exactly something most fathers were accustomed to.

Chief Swan came back down a few minutes later. He looked at me and glared. "Jared Cameron?"

I nodded, slightly surprised that he knew who I was.

"The school called and told me you and my daughter had skipped out after lunch. My daughter doesn't skip school, so I'm assuming it was your idea." the chief said.

"It was, sir, but please give me a chance to explain why," I pleaded with him. I understood why he was angry, but I hoped that once he realized the state Bella was in, he'd understand more.

"It better be good, kid."

"Well, you see, there's this little asshole at school. Excuse my language, but that's the nicest thing I can say about him. He's been trying to get Bella to go out with him for a while." I'd only been at Forks High a week and I already noticed Newton constantly trying to get Bella to date him. Actually, date was the wrong word. He only wanted one thing from Bella. "Bella always tries to be nice to him. She always tries to be subtle in her attempts to tell him she's not interested, but he just can't seem to get a clue. Finally, she told him very nicely that she's not interested him. He didn't take it well. He got pissed."

"Did he hit her?" Chief Swan asked with anger in his voice.

I shook my head. "If he'd hit here, I'd have killed him! No, he didn't lay a hand on her, but the emotional blows he struck her with were almost more painful"

Chief Swan tensed considerably. I got the feeling that he at least had an idea of what I was about to say. "What did this little prick say to her?"

"He called her pathetic and worthless. He said that Cullen left her because she wasn't good enough," I told him. I could feel my anger rise just from telling the story. Every time I thought about what Newton said and how it affected the girl I loved, I got more and more angry.

"Little son of a bitch! Who was this kid?" Chief Swan asked angrily.

"Mike Newton. As I'm sure you know, it hit her hard."

"Yeah, I can imagine. I swear to God, if that little punk pushes my little girl back down to where the Cullen boy left her, I'll kill him!" the chief said angrily.

"That's why I got her out of there. She was really upset and I didn't think she could handle being around all those students, knowing what they were probably saying about her," I told him.

Chief Swan nodded. "I don't condone skipping school, but I appreciate what you did and why. Why don't you come into the kitchen?"

I nodded and followed him through the house and into the kitchen.

"Have a seat. Can I get you anything?" Chief Swan asked.

"No, thank you, sir," I said politely before taking a seat at the table.

Chief Swan sat across from me. "I don't think I've ever seen you around Forks before."

"No, sir, you wouldn't. I live on the reservation. La Push," I told him.

"La Push? How come you go to school here then? La Push has its own school," he said.

"Yes, I know. I went there until last week. I transferred so I could be closer to Bella," I admitted. I wasn't going to lie about my reasons. Chief Swan deserved to know the truth about everything I actually could tell him. "See, I knew Bella before she moved back here. I used to live in Phoenix with my dad and we grew up together."

Realization hit the chief's eyes. "Oh, I knew your name sounded familiar. Jared. Bells used to talk about you all the time when she came to visit. She called you her best friend."

I smiled at that. "She was mine too. My parents divorced when I was a kid too, so we had a lot in common."

"I remember how she used to talk about you. It left me uneasy that she was so close to a boy. I was afraid one day she'd come visit and proclaim you as her boyfriend," Chief Swan said.

I laughed. "Well, we did date eventually, so your fears weren't unfounded. I'm afraid to say that I'm part of the reason that Bella took Cullen's departure so badly.

Chief Swan's face became as hard as a rock. "You'd better explain that now!"

I took a deep breath. "Try to understand that I didn't feel I had a choice. My parents went back to court when I was sixteen. My mom's life was really screwed up when I was a kid and she made some really bad choices. That's why I was sent to live with my dad. But she picked her life back up and tried again to get me when I was a teenager. Despite how much we like to think the world has changed, courts still think mothers are better than fathers. My mom won."

"A court took you away from the only home you ever knew when you were sixteen? They didn't listen to what you wanted?" he asked in disbelief.

I shrugged. "Like I said, judges side with moms whenever they can. Well, I guess that wasn't the only reason. My mom played the race card in court too. She talked about how as part Native American, I should live on the reservation so that I could better understand my culture. It worked. She got custody. And my mom's an all or nothing kind of person. She was never going to allow me contact with my father or Bella."

"A court cut your father completely out of your life?" Chief Swan asked. He sounded very skeptical.

"Well, no. He was allowed to visit and I was allowed to go there by the court, but my mom always found a reason for it not to happen every time my dad asked. I knew it would happen that way. My mom wanted to completely erase the life I had without her," I told him. I hated my mom to this day for all of that. I'd told her as much too. I told her I wouldn't forgive her for it when she took me away. She'd spewed a parent's favorite catch phrase. 'You'll thank me when you're older'. She was out of her mind if she thought that would ever happen.

"That's awful. Renee and I had our differences, but she never tried to take Bella away from me forever," Chief Swan said.

"I didn't think I had any other choice but to end it with Bella. I didn't want to, but I knew it would be at least two years before I could see her again. I couldn't do that to her. I couldn't make her wait for me. So I broke both our hearts by walking away. I didn't do it like Cullen did. We were at her house and I told her as gently as I could," I said. My voice began to crack at the end and I knew I had to get control of myself. I couldn't let the chief see me this upset.

"Thank you for telling me this. You didn't have to tell me any of this, but you did and I appreciate it," he said.

"You deserved to know. You needed to know that it wasn't just him. I was partially responsible too," I told him.

"The difference is in the way you did it. Both of you moved and didn't have a choice, but you did your bet to make sure my daughter would be okay when you were gone. That little bastard took her out into the woods and left her there to die. And he never would've talked to me the way you are now. You have my respect for that."

"Thank you, sir. I better go. Bella probably won't want me here when she wakes up," I said before standing up and starting back towards the front door.

"Jared?" he called, causing me to turn around. "It's Charlie."

I smiled gratefully and headed out.