A/N: Sorry this took so long. My internet has been crazy these last two days. But better late than never.

Chapter-16: Bleeding Hearts

EPOV

I blinked, not being able to believe what had just happened. It was not an easy task to catch a vampire off guard, but Isabella Swan did that efficiently. I was in a state of shock when I heard a sob coming from her.

One sound … that's all it took to snap me out of it. "Bella …" I started, but she held up a hand to silence me.

I waited for a fraction of a second before opening my mouth again. "B …"

"Don't," she whispered, taking in a ragged breath. "I don't know who you are, or what you are, Edward, or even if Edward is your real name. But I do know this; you don't get to make my choices for me."

I went to speak, but again, she shut me up. "No, don't say a word. I don't know if you're lying to get me off your back because if you are, then that's the most ridiculous excuse you could have come up with. But whatever it is, you don't have the right to decide who I can have a relationship with or not."

"Bella, I'm sorry …"

She looked at me with so much anger in her eyes that I could never imagine she could feel until this moment. "You wanted to break up with me, right?" she asked me.

I didn't get to answer before she continued. "Congratulations, Edward, we're broken up. Goodbye."

Without another word, she turned away and then rushed back out of the office, leaving me heartbroken and alone.

What the fuck have I done?

BPOV

I walked out of the office feeling like there's a stone sitting on my stomach, getting heavier by the minute. I kept urging myself to not breakdown until I was out of his sight. I was not going to give him the satisfaction of seeing how he had broken my heart.

Once I had closed the office door behind me though, I felt my feet give away. Thankfully, Mrs. Goff was there to catch me before I could tumble down to the ground.

"Isabella!" she gasped. "Honey, what's wrong?"

I shook my head, not knowing how to get the words out of me just yet. Turned out, I didn't have to. She tipped my head back to take a good look at my face and then pointed toward her closed office door. "Did that boy hurt you? Do you want me to give him a good scolding for hurting you?"

Her words made a sob escape my mouth as I shook my head. "No, he …" I took a deep breath and said, "We broke up."

Her eyes softened as she hugged me. "Honey, I'm so sorry. The feeling of losing your first love is gut-wrenching. Believe me, I know."

I did a double-take at her words. Love? Did I love Edward? I can't possibly be in love with a guy I've known for a handful of days, can I? No, this is insane, I told myself. And yet, in the back of my mind, I knew that the feeling of losing him was worse than I've ever felt before.

Mrs. Goff helped me stand up and then pushed me toward the couch we had reserved for the customers who liked to peruse a book before buying. "Sit tight, honey," she said, making me sit down. "I'll just be a moment."

Before I knew what she was gonna do, she walked straight into her office, no doubt preparing herself to tear the man inside a new one. "Mrs. Goff, wait …"

I didn't need to stop her though because she paused just at the doorstep and turned to look at me with a quizzical look on her face. "He's not here."

"Maybe he left," I said. Just like he wanted to.

"Good riddance," she said as she came back to sit next to me. "If he made you cry, he doesn't deserve you."

Sniffling, I reached up to wipe away the tears that still clung to my face, and a sharp pain radiating from my hand made cry out. "Ahh!"

Mrs. Goff quickly grabbed my hand and let out a gasp. "Your hand is swelled up, Isabella. What happened?"

I cringed at the sight of my swollen hand. "It's nothing," I told her. "I should get back to work."

"Nonsense," she exclaimed as she stood up with me. "You can't possibly think that I'll let you work in this condition? No, go to the ER and get your hand looked at before heading straight for home. Do you hear me?"

"I'm fine."

She gave me a stern look and asked, "Do I need to close the shop and go with you?"

Her motherly words made me stifle another sob as I shook my head. "No."

"Then go and get your hand looked at. I can call Leah if you want."

I thought about having Leah with me, but in the end, I declined her offer. I didn't feel like sharing this with anyone right now. The only friend I wanted to talk about happened to be on the other side of the country. I had to face this alone.

EPOV

I looked out of the damn hospital window as I replayed the events of the last hour or so in my head. I was so sure that I was doing the right thing when I went to see Bella, but now, now I'm not so sure. Because if it was the right thing to do, how can it feel like I'm dying all over again?

I had never thought about how much it hurt when I had died … back in 1917 … not after the venom had burned through my body anyway. But this pain, the pain of knowing that I had messed up the best thing that someone like me could've possibly gotten, felt worse.

I remembered how I always snickered or joked about those actors in cheesy chick-flicks—those who act like their hearts are being stomped on when they go through a break up. And now, it felt like the joke was on me. I was the guy who had just got dumped. But instead of feeling like my heart had been stomped on, what I felt was worse, much worse. I felt like I had lost my heart.

When I was turned my heart had stopped beating, but it was there. All these years, I could feel its dead weight in my chest. But today, it felt like someone had curved the damn thing right out of me. It felt like I had left it in that dusty old bookstore … with her.

Placing a hand on the window, I looked out. As if out of their own accord, my eyes went toward the shabby bookstore and I yarned to see the girl I had left behind in there.

I wanted to scream at myself or at the very least kick my own ass, but even vampires didn't possess that kind of flexibility. So instead, I decided to run … away from this heart wrenching pain … away from the town that held the woman I wanted … desperately.

BPOV

"Miss? Hello? Are you alright? Can you tell me what's wrong with you?" I was snapped out of my thoughts of stormy-green eyes and windswept-hair at the sound of an irritated nasal voice.

Frowning, I held up my hand and said, "It hurts."

"How did you hurt yourself?"

She asked me a simple question but it made the pain of losing him that much more pronounced all of a sudden.

Do I tell her that I got hurt because I let myself be swept away in the charms of a boy?

Or is the better response that I felt too much for him too fast?

Shaking off the thoughts, I shrugged, not really interested in explaining. She opened her mouth to say something when the kind and elderly nurse from my last visit to the hospital appeared behind her.

"Oh! Isabella, what's wrong, dear?" she asked me before turning to the nurse who sounded like she had a cold. "Jessica, I've got this. She's an old patient of mine."

Jessica rolled her eyes and waved us away before looking at the next person in line.

A hand grasping my shoulder made me realize that I wasn't following Nurse Jackie as she kindly asked me again, "Is it the concussion, honey?"

I shook my head and answered her, "No, my hand hurts."

She took a look at it and gasped. "Oh dear! That looks bruised at the least. Let's get you to Dr. Collins, ok?"

I let her drag me to a bed, sat down when she pushed on my shoulder, waited for a long time for the doctor to appear and finally had the doctor take a look my hand. He scrunched up his gray eyebrows and examined my hand carefully before declaring that although it was bruised, it wasn't broken.

All the time, I kept my head down, hoping not to be detected by Dr. Cullen or his asshole of a son. Although if I was being honest with myself, a part of me wanted him there, explaining me how on earth I could bruise my hand by simply slapping a guy. Was he what he said he was? The question kept playing in my head in a loop.

Once the doctor was done, he moved on to the next patient, leaving me with Nurse Jackie. She went over what the doctor had already explained about the aftercare of my hand before shooting me a curious glance.

She cleared her throat and then said, "I'm actually surprised that Edward isn't with you. He seemed to be quite taken with you the last time you were here."

"Don't believe everything you see," I said at a feeble attempt to sound like I was joking. "He's a jerk."

She laughed a little, the sound more sad than amused. "He tends to come off like that, doesn't he?"

Her question made me give her a questioning look. "You mean he isn't one?"

"A jerk?" she tried to clarify.

I simply nodded.

"Oh no!" she said with an affectionate smile taking over her face. "He's the sweetest boy I've seen in a long time. Do you know he's an orphan?"

What?

"No," I responded. "I thought he was Dr. Cullen's son?"

She patted my hand softly and then continued talking. "Yes, Carlisle and his wife, Esme, took him in when he was a little kid. I'm not sure if you've noticed it, but he's a little distant with people at times."

Silently, I nodded. That distant attitude is what made him try to break it off with me, I thought darkly.

"I think he's afraid that if he shows how much he wants to be close to people then he'll end up making himself vulnerable."

"Vulnerable?" I scoffed, remembering his claim of being a vampire. "He didn't seem vulnerable when I last saw him."

The nurse put a hand on my shoulder as she gave me a sad smile. "Emotional vulnerability is worse than the physical kind, honey. I'm sorry if I seem too forward, but I thought knowing this will help you understand him better."

She offered me another smile before leaving me. As I sat there, on the hospital bed, I started to realize what she had been trying to tell me. I didn't know who or what Edward was, but if what she said is true then there might be a reason behind his actions that morning.

The more I thought about it, the more I understood why he had done what he did. I felt tears sting my eyes as I imagined how he must've felt—alone after his parents' death and afraid to accept that maybe, just maybe, he didn't have to be alone.

EPOV

I was running blindly until I felt the change in the direction of wind. Looking ahead, I realized that I had crossed the Forks town border and was halfway through Port Angeles. The change in scenery felt good … for about half a second before I remembered how I had kissed Bella the night before … right there in Port Angeles.

One of the worst things about being a vampire was having the perfect memory. I could remember how hot her breath had felt against my cold skin, how she had seemed to be unwilling to let me go as she clutched me to her, how sexy she had felt pressed against me and the low moans that had escaped her lips.

And then I remembered the anger, the fire, in her eyes as she broke up with me. That made it feel like my heart was breaking all over again.

I needed to find a way to dull the pain … to take my mind off this … off her, and it so happened that I knew just what will do that.

Without another thought, I started running again, faster this time. I stopped when I was almost in Seattle. The ever present clouds of Washington had already taken over the sky by this point, making it seem like it was almost twilight.

A storm's coming, I realized as I tried to pick out the quickest way to the highway. It was the perfect time for a hunt—something that would surely take my mind off this ache in my chest.

I ran for a good ten minutes until I found a car in the highway with its hood popped open. The owner of the car, and my prey of choice for this evening, was a woman with a baseball cap on her head. She had her back turned to me as she tinkered around in the open car engine, no doubt trying figure out how to restart the seemingly broken down vehicle.

I didn't play with my food like I usually did. Instead, I walked soundlessly up to her and then reached forward to grab her neck in my hand, cutting off her air supply in the most efficient of ways.

She gasped and tried to struggle, but I held fast as I tilted her head to the side, exposing her neck where I could hear the blood pumping through her veins. Just as I was going to let my teeth puncture her skin, I got a peek at the hairs sticking out from underneath her cap—brown, almost like chocolate.

That made my mind race back to another brown-haired girl—a girl who I was now sure was my mate, and I stopped. I didn't know this woman, the one I was going to kill, but maybe she had someone waiting for her at home. She didn't deserve to die just because I was stupid enough to ruin what I had with Bella. What if she was someone else's Bella?

That thought made me loosen my grip. If being away from Bella felt like this, I didn't want to imagine how it would feel if she was gone. And that's when I realized that I couldn't do that to some other poor bastard.

Taking a step back, I waited long enough to see the woman bend down and try to soothe the spot where I had tried to strangle her. She's gonna be okay.

I didn't wait around for her to turn and see me. Instead, I ran ... again. But this time, I was running back home. I needed to make sure my Bella was okay. Even if she never wanted to see me again, I needed to know that she was alive.

I needed to try to make this right again.

~*~*~*RoALS*~*~*~

When I reached Bella's house, it was already night and the dreary Forks weather was pouring down on its unfortunate residents again.

For a moment, I debated just taking a peek inside through her window and then going away, but that seemed a little stalkerish. I knew I had to face her if I wanted to make this right. So I rang the doorbell instead.

Soft and slow footfalls sounded from inside before a low voice asked, "Who is it?"

I paused for a moment and then said, "It's me."

"What are you doing here, Edward?" she sounded tired.

Is something wrong with her? Is she ill? Why does she sound so tired?

"Bella, open up," I said, or maybe demanded is the right term.

"It doesn't work like that, Edward," her voice sounded stern as she replied. "You can't pull the stunt you did this morning and then come back and order me to open my door."

Fuck! Can't I do anything right when it comes to her?

I tried again, toning down my voice a little. "I'm sorry for what I did. Please open the door. I was an ass."

Her muffled voice came back along with a soft sniffle. "You were more than an ass. You were a jerk."

"I know," I said, leaning my forehead against the door, wishing I could hear the thoughts running through her mind at the moment. "Let me in, Bella," I pleaded with her, my voice nothing more than a whisper now. "I need you, baby. Please. I couldn't stay away from you."

Until that moment, I knew that Bella was important to me, but as soon as the words were out of my mouth, I knew that it was the truth of my life now. I needed her more than anything.

There was a small noise of the door being unlocked and then, slowly, it swung open, revealing my girl, my beautiful, perfect, human girl standing in the doorway with tear tracks running down her cheeks.

"Do you mean it?" she asked me softly. "You couldn't stay away?"

I shrugged. "I tried, multiple times, today and before that."

"But?" she prompted.

"My world seemed exceptionally empty and meaningless when I tried to imagine it without you."

She let out half a sob before reaching for me, stopping just as our hands could touch.

She eyes told me that she was ready to listen.

And I? I was ready … to let her in.

A/N: Everyone still ok? Still wanna chase VampWard with a steel bat? Our boy is learning. But he's a slow learner I'm afraid. ;)

This one is the longest chapter of this story so far and probably the hardest one I've had to write yet.

Share your thoughts with me and leave a review.

Song rec for this chapter: Bleeding Out by One Republic.

Thanks for reading.

Oh and ICYMI, the voting for Maybe An HEA Contest is now open. You can vote for up to THREE fics. So follow the link, read the stories and vote away. :D

www . fanfiction u /6649093 /Maybe-an-HEA-Contest (remove the spaces before you hit enter)

See you next week.

Take care.

Ann