I waved a quick goodbye to Rosalie before she drove off, and turned to the front door. Balancing all my shopping bags on one arm, I pushed my key into the lock and was soon inside the house. As I ascended up the stairs to put away my newly purchased outfits and trinkets, I glanced into the "dining room", and my eyes found the still splintered door. It was dark out now, probably almost 10:00, and Edward still had not returned. If he had, he would have fixed the door by now.

I was putting everything away when I heard my cell phone ringing. I groaned inwardly, remembering that I had forgotten it downstairs on the coffee table. I was down the stairs in an instant, picking up the phone expecting the caller-ID to show the name "Edward"…

12 New Voicemails.

I flipped the phone open and looked at the Recent Calls. Alice was the only one that had called recently. So Edward hadn't even called to apologize. I rolled my eyes angrily and pushed the "Send" button, not bothering to check the Voicemails. It rang for half a second when Alice picked it up. Her voice was frantic.

"Bella!" she said, worry in her voice. "Is Edward at the house?"

"No, he got upset over something earlier today and stormed out a little while before Rosalie came and got me. Why? Is he alright? Did something happen to him?" I asked.

"Ha, I wish. It'd serve him right if something DID happen to him," Alice muttered darkly. I was slightly shocked by her bitterness toward Edward. I'm pretty sure she'd always been his favorite "sibling", and vise versa. They loved one another very much. I was snapped out of my thoughts when she spoke again.

"Bella," she began in a careful, hesitant way, "I had a vision." I waited patiently. "Edward… didn't go hunting." The bomb dropped in my stomach. Duh.

My mind raced, and suddenly his unprovoked angry distance to me, his abrupt departure, having to go hunting when he wasn't hungry… I felt stupid for not seeing it before. I swallowed the lump in my throat, remembering that I had a phone in my hand.

"Ah," I said lamely, lost for words.

"He met a female in the woods. She lured him with her voice somehow. I think that may be her special power; she calls to someone, and they will come to her. I have been trying to have visions the whole time you were gone."

"Did you learn anything about her?"

"I can't get any visions about her future specifically. Just snippets of Edward's plans he has with her. He… doesn't plan on coming back to you, Bella." My mouth dropped. If my heart could beat, it'd be racing now.

"What? But… we can… get him back, right? I mean, it's just her trick. Like a siren. Once he's out of her range, it'll be broken. He will be free, and he'll... love me again…?" I kept stammering over my words, something I rarely did anymore. I could hear hesitance in Alice's silence.

"Bella... he knows she's a siren. He doesn't care. That particular gift specifically is common in vampires. It's a very minor gift. Every vampire has it to an extent, to where we can basically, in your words, dazzle someone into doing whatever we want. I've known of some of us who have it more powerfully than the ordinary vampire before, and I'm guessing she is one of them.

"It's a gift that doesn't really work well on other vampires. I mean, they can feel you trying to use it, but it doesn't completely ensnare one of us like it would a human. Our minds are stronger than that. So Edward could walk away from her if he wanted to...

"But it's like … he doesn't want to walk away."

My breath caught in my throat, and I stopped breathing. I collapsed my weight down on the antique sofa that sat in our living room and sat very still, my eyes staring into space. I could hear Alice's voice in my head, but my thoughts were not registering what she was saying. Through my haze, I heard her ask if I was still here.

"Yes, Alice, I'm here." I said after a while, shaking my head and taking in the unnecessary breaths again. It was strange, to stay alive when not breathing. It was like Edward said before. I was breathing out of habit now, not out of need for air.

"I'll be over in an hour," she said simply. The phone clicked, and there was a dial-tone. I flipped the phone shut, still not blinking. She was probably expecting me to want to go track them, or hear comforting words from her. She'd probably even bring Jasper to administer his talents on me. The intentions were good, but I didn't want any of that.

I numbly dialed Edward's number into the phone. As though it was sitting right in the room with me, I could hear the slightly muffled ringtone ringing upstairs. I walked up the stairs at a human pace, and went into the bedroom, where the phone continued to ring. It was sitting on the nightstand by the bed. Edward never simply forgot his phone. There wasn't a moment when he didn't have it. He'd left it on purpose.

So… he really didn't plan on coming back.

I hung up the phone and ignored Edward's phone now beeping with a "Missed Call" alarm as I dialed up Alice's number again. She seemed to answer the call before it had even begun to ring.

"Don't worry about coming over, Alice. I'm going to go driving, and I probably won't be back to the house," I told her, keeping my voice very calm. She didn't buy it. She started to plead for me not to do anything rash, that we could track them down, or she could come over for a while (see, I told you). I thanked her for her sympathy, but insisted that she did not visit.

"Bella… I'm sorry," Alice said, for once lacking words. I nodded even though she couldn't see me, and I could feel a small smile coming to my face for her sister-like attitude toward me even though I wasn't even married into the family yet.

"G'bye, Alice."

I hung up the phone, tucking it into the pocket of my knee-length black coat. I looked over at Edward's phone, and at the picture on the nightstand of he and me. I was still human, and we were sitting in the sunless meadow together. His flawless smile was beaming at the camera, and I was smiling happily, my cheeks flushed with my own blood for once. You could see his free arm around my waist as he held the camera away from us with the other hand to snap the picture.

I took off my engagement ring and looked at it. It was a very delicate thing, a large diamond laced with several tiny ones. White gold, expensive as hell. It had always been beautiful to me… until now.

I remembered now that we were to be married in two weeks. I stopped breathing for a moment, closing my eyes tightly. I knew that I'd have begun crying if it was possible for me to do so. How easily and unkindly he'd tossed me aside this time. Last time he was much more considerate than this. His new behavior was strange to me. This new girl must be a lot of things that I am not.

My normal composition returned, and I blinked, clearing my throat. I gently put the engagement ring on the nightstand next to the picture of us and turned to leave the bedroom.

I guess I should be more upset than this. I should be dry sobbing, wallowing in my own misery, or something like that. But I'm truthful when I say that I didn't hate him. I was shocked, but now that I think about it, there's no reason to be. It never made sense for him to love me, and deep down, I never expected it to make sense, nor did I expect him to truly love me. I was never his equal, and I'm still not, even now that I am one of his kind. I understood that we'd never be happy together. I also understood that I could not exist without him.

And I accepted it.

I walked down the stairs, again at human pace, purposefully not glancing at the pictures of us together, individual, or with the family. As I got into my Thunderbird in the driveway, I took one last look at the house.

Our house. We'd picked out the house together. Paid for it, fixed it up, and furnished it together. I had always thought it was a beautiful house to be my home, and it had made my heart warm to see it. What I saw now was a house. An old, empty, dark, cold house. Not a home. Just a house.

Going down the road, I wondered how to kill myself. I couldn't go to the Volturi now. They'd want me to serve with them, and even though it'd be an interesting way to live the rest of my eternity, I still didn't like the idea of tricking tourists into their own demise. I'd have to find another family to anger somehow. Kill one of their own, perhaps. Hell, maybe Victoria and James had more acquaintances that would be angry to hear of their deaths. Somehow though, I doubted that.

Well, however way I was going to die, there was one last thing I wanted to do. I wanted to drive to Washington, and I wanted to see Forks one last time. I wanted to see the green again, and stand in the rain. Maybe visit the meadow, and then see Charlie and my old house…

There was someone else I hoped I'd be able to see, but going to La Push was out of the question. It would be dangerous now to go near the werewolves (obviously). I couldn't decide which would piss Jacob off more – the Cullens killing me and running away, or faking my death and taking me with them. I wanted to die soon, but being killed by one of my most beloved friends was not the last thing I wished to happen to me.

Or him.