Bella's POV:
I hesitated with my hand on the knob. I didn't want to go in there. I couldn't. Whatever had happened was so terrible, so unfathomable, I knew our world would never be the same.
I had never seen him cry before. Not my father, he was the strong one.
But now the sound of his broken sobs froze me with dread.
With every shred of courage I could summon up, I pushed open the door. Automatically I pressed one hand against my chest, trying to hold myself together. I hardly dared breathe at all as six pairs of agonized, grieving eyes landed on my face.
"E-Edward?" I choked out.
Alice broke away from the group and wrapped me in her stone arms, still crying. "He's gone, Bella, I'm so sorry."
For one insane, horrible moment I thought she meant he'd left me again, like he had after my disaster of a birthday party. But that was preposterous, he wouldn't do that… "What do you mean, gone? He just went to Denali for a day, he'll be back in the morning!"
Alice shook her head as Esme scooped me into her lap, burying her face in my hair. "He's dead," Alice whispered. "His car, a tree fell and landed on the gas tank…it exploded instantly."
Fire. The one thing that could permanently destroy a vampire. The only element that gave no second chances.
I covered my mouth with my hands and began to scream.
"Edward Anthony Cullen was a fine young man, with such a promising life ahead of him. He will be greatly missed and mourned for, but he is in a better place. The ones he left behind to carry on will always remember him with fondness and joy."
I wanted to scream at the man. He didn't understand anything. He never would. Edward was supposed to have had eternity. I was supposed to be the one in that grave. Not him.
"Come on, Bella."
I blinked, and I was alone. The funeral was over. There was nothing left to do except leave.
Carlisle wrapped his arm around my shoulders and tugged me gently away from the gaping hole. "No," I murmured. "No!"
Ripping away from him, I ran back to the edge, falling to my knees. "You can't leave me," I babbled, knowing it was only his ashes down there but unable to help myself. "You can't go. You promised you would never leave again. You lied to me Edward!"
Esme knelt beside me, sobbing as she said goodbye to her firstborn. Carlisle was on my other side, supporting me. "I'm so sorry," he murmured. "I'm so sorry, Bella."
In the end he had to carry me to his car. All I could think of, during that long ride home, was how different this goodbye was. This time I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he wasn't ever coming back.
That was the last time I cried.