Sorry for the long wait for this chapter. I had a bunch of papers to write for school, and it was very time consuming. None the less, hope you enjoy it. Thanks to the people that reviewed. They make me write even when I have no idea what I should do.

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight. Only if Stephenie Meyer would be kind enough to let me...

CHAPTER 4

JPOV

The days that I managed to spend with Bella were the most magnificent of my entire life. She was never a twit like the other ladies I had been forced to escort, and always managed to think of the most absurd of comments, providing sufficient entertainment. That and her constant battle with gravity, though I never did mind saving her from the clutches of the ground, had made me laugh more than I had in years.

Yet not all was well in life. Problems had begun to arise for my father and his business, consuming most of his time. He was now constantly living in his office in the downtown district, swamped with problems for the various drilling sites and orders that he had been unable to keep up with. I tried my best to help him, going to the office as much as I possibly could after my classes, helping him sort through contracts and bills, which seemed to dominate the majority of his new home. I ran errands, traveling around the city, and had little time for much else. Our situation was slowly becoming graver, our prospects for recuperation dwindling slowly as the bills and debts mounted on my father's desk. Our lives were changing with every dollar that my father had to pay with money he did not have.

The clarity of the situation was not made entirely clear to me until one day my when my father called me into his office, and delivered the news that would determine my destiny, and that of Bella's, forever.

--àß--

"You wanted to speak with me, Father." I asked softly as I stepped into his office. What once was a grandiose and regal room had become run down and frazzled. It was much like the transformation that my father had undergone in the anxiety of debt.

"Yes, yes, come in boy. I needed to speak to you of important matters…" He trailed of, consumed in a report that he had received from one of his more productive sites.

I waited a moment, letting him immerse himself in the report before clearing my throat to remind him that I was still in the room.

He jumped in alarm, clearly forgetting that I had been in the same room with him. Sighing in apparent defeat, he put down the stack of papers that he had hid his nose in just seconds ago, his expression serious.

In that instant, I recognized the magnitude of the stress that my father was in. His blonde hair, which had merely been speckled with silvery strands, looked as through someone had sprinkled snow on it. His face, which had held the hard softness was lined and carved with creases from the constant creasing of his brow and the frowns that he now wore like a coat. His clothes, which he wore clean and crisp without fault, were rumpled and slightly dirty from the long hours that he now spent in the office. The transformations that he had undergone astounded me.

And it made me feel a deep, unsettling fear deep inside.

He fidgeted with some papers, a frown that I had now become all too familiar with reappearing on his lined mouth. I simply stood in front of his desk, shifting my weight from foot to foot. He was stalling, in a valiant effort to find the right words, the words that would convey to me the amount of trouble that he was in. But he needed no words. It was all too evident in the state that he was living in now. By simply looking deep into his eyes, I knew exactly what worried him. The emotions clearly spelled out in them were enough to make me look away.

"Jasper, son, we are, as you have come to notice, in financial struggle. The company is in debt with everyone, it seems, and everyone wants their money; money which I do not have to pay them back." He stopped, shifting in his seat. I simply waited for him to continue.

"I am afraid that, in consequence, we are all but broke. We do not have enough funds to pay the bank all the other people that we owe money too. It is only a matter of time before they take everything that we own."

I should have been better prepared for this-it was all too painfully clear that nothing could have forestalled this incoming tragedy. I felt foolish for feeling my face freeze in shock, silly for my jaw opening slightly in surprise. I had known, deep down, that this was coming down to this.

We were broke.

My father could not take the shock that my body betrayed at hearing the news of our misfortune. He looked as if in excruciating pain, his soul tortured for the pain that he was causing his one and only son.

Before my mind could register his actions, my father stood up abruptly, walking hurriedly to his window, which overlooked the bustling city. As silence engulfed the room, my father let out a strangled sob.

My father was crying.

Never in my life have I ever felt so helpless as I did at that moment. Seeing my father so helpless and...fragile. All that he had worked for his entire life was crumbling down right before his eyes. The legacy that he had hoped he could pass onto me was being ripped from him. And I could do nothing more but stand by and watch him wallow in his misery.

Wanting nothing more than to comfort him, I stode to his side and hugged him. My father was not a man for affections, but surprisingly, he hugged me back. He was sobbing, still, as he tried to explain himself to me.

"I am...a failure son. I...have nothing...to offer you...and your mother. You...both deserve...better than this." He managed to choke out.

"You are not a failure, Father. You are the one, single most pig headed people that I have ever met." I paused and added "Except for Bella, I'm afraid. She can be quite tenacious too."

"But now...you cannot offer her...marriage, Jasper. I have seen...the way you look at her...and you...love her. She loves you too...but now...you don not have something to...offer her." He cried out in self deprication and anguish.

"You have done nothing wrong, Father. You tried your best to provide for both my mother and me, taking care of our needs. Bella is an understanding person, and I am sure that she will comprehend our situation. But she has not expressed sentiments of love to me." I said, my own throat tightening as I though of what my father had said.

Pulling himself away from me and the window, he walked defeatedly back to his desk, slumping down on his leather chair.

"Go, son. Rest a bit. After receiving news like this, you should take a break." He ushured me out of his room with a tired flick of his hand, and feeling he needed to compose himself, walked silently out of the office, gently closing the door behind me as I made my way home.

--

Thoughts of our bankruptcy swirled in my mind as I ambled through the streets of the city. The fact that my father was falling apart hurt me more than the fact tat we were no longer of affluence. The image of him crying as he looked out of the window was forever going to be embedded in my mind.

And Bella. I had tried to avoid thinking of this subject, but the more that I put it off the more that it my mind returned to it. Through I hated to admit it, my father was right. I had nothing more to offer to Bella. I was poor, and she was more well off now that I was. I was not a good prospect for her, even though there was an undeniable connection between us. Money, after all, was more important than love in this society.

I had not noted that as I began to think of the implications of my father's reveltion on my relationship with Bella I had come to a complete stop. Startled, I looked around me and could see nothing more than people going about their every day lives, completely ignorant of my family's situation.

Then a sign caught my attention. It was a conderate ad trying to lure more young men to enlist in the Confederate army.

Fight Against the Northerners

Help Fight For the Cause

The Confederate Army will recruit men

eighteeen and older.

Soilders will be paid for their service.

Join the Confederate Army today!

I needed no more motivation. I was but a year from officially being able to enlist, but desperate times called for desperate measures. We had no money, and this would give us a bit more economic stability. Not giving things a second thought, I opened the door to the recruitment building and waited for an application to join the Confederate Army.

This is definitely not a very romantic chapter, but it is the turning point of the story. Jasper needs the money, and right now he's desperate for any that he can scrounge up. Please review! It really does make me write faster and post more chapters when you guys do.