Bella turned the page of Wuthering Heights, her head leaning against Edward's shoulder as he stroked her hair and read over her shoulder.
In various positions, the other Cullens were sat on couches all around the room, whether they were sitting normally, lying down or hanging upside down (yes, that was Emmett).
Suddenly, Bella's phone buzzed, breaking the silence. She carefully bookmarked her page, set the book aside and answered the phone.
"Hello?" At first she seemed confused, but her expression quickly changed to joy. "Jay! I haven't heard from you in ages! How is everyone?"
She listened for a few seconds, smiling, before her mouth dropped open. "Seriously?"
After being told that it it was true, Bella laughed joyfully.
"Yeah, definitely! See you then, Jay."
She hung up the phone, and was met with curious eyes.
"Who was that?" Edward asked. Of course, he would be listening.
"My friend from Forks. Jason," Bella said, smiling happily. "He said that he and some of my old friends are in Forks, and they want to meet up on Saturday."
Through her elation, Bella realised that Edward did not seem as happy as she was- in fact, he seemed very annoyed about the whole thing.
"What's wrong?"
"I don't like this, love. I mean, you haven't seen him in ages. It could be dangerous," Edward said.
"Are you serious?" Bella asked incredulously. "We were best friends for years!"
"Still," Edward said firmly. "I don't want you meeting up with him."
"Edward!" Bella cried.
"That's final, Bella. You're not to meet up with him," Edward said firmly.
Bella stared at him for a few seconds, as if seeing a whole new side of him.
But as she did, she realised something. It wasn't new, was it? He always did this. She had wanted to meet up with Jacob recently, but Edward absolutely forbade her from doing so. Angela had contacted her, asking if they could meet up. She was about to agree, when Edward intervened, saying that he had wanted to spend time with her. Of course, she put Edward over Angela.
And as she realised this, she noticed a pattern. Every time Edward did something like this, he ended the sentence with "Don't you love me?"
Exactly as she thought this, he said these words. "Don't you love me?"
He was guilt-tripping her.
That little shit.
"No," Bella said quietly.
At this, the Cullens, who had all been watching the drama closely (yet discreetly), snapped their heads up.
"What?" Edward said, sounding shocked.
"I do love you, Edward. But you always do this. You keep me from doing things that I want to do by saying that I don't love you if I do them, and frankly, it's incredibly toxic and manipulative."
At this point, every single Cullen was watching as if it was a soap opera.
"Bella!" Edward cried out, sounding affronted. "I can't believe you would even think something like that!"
"Because it's true, isn't it! You watch me through my friends' memories, get Alice to watch my future - you are so controlling!"
"That's enough!" Edward roared, standing up. "I am not controlling, and neither is Alice. I can believe you would actually thing that of me!"
"You are proving my point, Edward!" Bella retorted, standing up as well. "All of this is you not accepting that I am my own person, and that I can do what I want!"
Edward scoffed, and looked into the minds of his family members to see what they thought of the situation.
To his anger, the majority of the Cullens seemed to agree with Bella. Except for one: Alice.
"See? Alice knows. I'm not manipulating you, I just want what's best for you!"
"Son," Carlisle began gently. "I think that Bella may be right. After all, you and Alice constantly monitor her actions and deny her freedom. It's just a meet up with her friends."
Edward stared at his father in shock, and scoffed again.
"See? She's managed to convince all of you that her lies are true!"
"Well if that's what you think about me, then we're over!" Bella shouted, a fierce expression on her face.
Silence fell over the room, eventually broken by Edward stammering out, "W-what?"
"If you think this way about me, and try to control my life, then we are done, Edward. I don't need you. And I definitely don't need someone trying to take away my freedom. And, side note, I did some research, and what you do classes as abusive."
Silence followed Bella's speech, broken by Emmet whispering "Hol. Ee. Shit." to Rosalie beside him.
"Fine. If that's how you feel, then let's just break up. You'll never see any of us again!" Edward snapped.
"No way. I'm still going to see the family. You are not taking that away from me."
Bella turned to the assembled vampires quickly. "If that's okay with all of you."
"Bella, sweetheart, you're a daughter to me now. I won't let anyone destroy that," Esme reassured her.
"You won't really do this," Edward said.
"Oh yeah?" Bella says sarcastically. "Watch me."
She grabbed her phone, and walked over to the door. Before she opened it however, she turned around.
"I'm sorry that you got involved in this, guys. Except for you, Alice. I want my freedom back. I'm done."
With that, she stepped outside and slammed the door behind her.