One month earlier:
"I'll be back by tomorrow morning, love. Look after my heart, I've left it with you."
Edward said the same thing he always did, when we had to be apart. I smiled and kissed him. "I'll be waiting."
Carlisle hugged me from behind as we watched his Volvo disappear down the Cullen's long driveway. "He'll be back before you know it. Come on, Esme made you some dinner."
I smiled at my future father-in-law. "Thanks, Carlisle, I just hate it when he's away."
He wrapped his arm around my shoulders as we headed inside. "He doesn't like being away from you either, Bella."
Esme's dinner was delicious – she'd done too much, as usual, but it was great. After I ate, Jasper approached me. "Hey, Bella, do you want to go see a movie? It's a Civil War thing I really want to see. Alice has already seen it and she says you'll like it."
"Sure," I said, surprised. Usually he kept his distance from me, but I knew it was more of a confidence issue with his control than it was to do with me. So any attempt he made at bonding was definitely progress.
"Great, then, Esme and Rose are coming."
I gulped.
Alice leaned over and whispered, "Don't worry, she'll be nice."
Rosalie glared at both of us and Esme nudged her.
"Come on, I have the perfect outfit," Alice squealed, dragging me up to her room.
At the movie theater, we settled in and waited for the movie to begin. I was nursing a coke and a small popcorn. Thank goodness Emmett hadn't come. It was dangerous to take him to a movie theater – if he didn't like the movie, he would start throwing popcorn at the screen. Really hard. It was always embarrassing to be escorted out of the theater and politely asked to never, ever darken their doors again.
Alice had been right – the movie was good. Even Rose was into it, leaning forward with her lips parted slightly. Jasper, who loved anything to do with Civil War history, was completely captivated. I was in tears by the time the credits rolled.
We strolled leisurely out of the theater, in no real hurry. "Are you hungry, Bella?" Esme asked, indicating an Italian restaurant down the street.
"Yes, actually, but you don't have to sit there and wait for me. I can get something when we get home."
"Nonsense, we don't mind."
Rosalie looked as if she might argue the point, but refrained as we started in that direction.
Jasper's phone rang. He fell behind us a little ways, motioning for us to go on inside while he answered it.
I watched him through the window as we got seated. Something was wrong, I realized. As he spoke intently into the phone, his carefree smile fell off his face. An expression I'd never seen on his face before replaced it.
Fear. Pure, unrelenting terror.
I looked at Rose, who looked at Esme. Without waiting a moment longer we got up and hurried past the bemused waitress.
Jasper was hanging up the phone as we clustered around him. "We have to go home," he said before I could ask. "Alice has had a vision. She couldn't tell me anything, she was incoherent. Whatever it is has already happened. Carlisle said…" he swallowed convulsively.
It didn't take me long to fill in the blanks.
"Something's happened to Edward," I choked. "What, Jasper? How bad is it?"
He could only shrug. "I don't know. I swear, Bella, I don't know."
I had never quite gotten used to the Cullens' version of safe driving, but tonight Jasper couldn't drive nearly fast enough. The drive was made in rigid, terrified silence, but my mind was racing with all the horrible possibilities.
Nothing could happen to Edward – he was indestructible, right? I was the one in constant danger. I was the one most likely to meet a destructive end. Not him. Not my glorious, immortal, compassionate, loving Edward.
We pulled up to the house after an eternity. Jasper didn't even switch it off, just leapt out and raced for the house. Even I could hear Alice's uncontrolled, tearless wails as the others flashed past me at vampire speed.
My blood ran ice cold as I dashed up the porch steps. Because Alice's grief wasn't the only thing I could hear.
Carlisle was crying, too.