I can't believe I just slapped Edward Cullen. The one man I gave up everything to be with. But also the same man that left my now inexistent heart broken. Broken to where it may never be whole again.

Slapping him felt so good. It was a different experience now that I was powerful and could hurt him. I watched his head whip from the force of my hand, and I saw the six other pairs of eyes in his family get satisfaction from this.

Once I started looking at his family from one face to the other, I realized that imagining their faces from my human mind did no justice. And no matter how much pain I felt, I loved them still. When I came back down to reality I realized that my shirt was still bloody and even some blood matted in my hair. I stepped back a little.

"I, uh, need to go home."

"Please, please don't go, Isabella. We need to talk."

I whipped around at Edward's words. He kept calling my Isabella, and I was getting beyond pissed off. Next it may be worse than a slap.

"Edward, quit calling me Isabella," he seemed stunned "How you say it, is what a mate would say to a lover. And you are no longer my lover, nor my mate. You say you lied to me, and still love me. But in whose right mind would abandon someone they say they loved. I don't care what your reason was; the fact is you left me. You left me to defend myself, I almost died." I chuckled out loud "I am dead."

I turned to head home; I was not going to hear any more of their nonsense. None of them deserved an explanation from me. I started hearing murmurs.

"Alice dear, let her go." Esme said. "She needs some time."

Yes please give me some time. Time to get out of these woods and get out of this town.

Alice was already in front of me. What in the world could she want? I stopped and just looked at her.

"What do you want Alice? I thought I made myself clear."

"Oh, you made yourself clear, Bella. I want you to get out of those hideous clothes as much as you want to. But can I please just say a couple words?" She waited for a response, but I just lifted my eyebrows waiting for her to continue.

"Thanks, first of all I want to apologize for Edward. What he did was inexcusable. Not only did he leave you heart, Bella. But he left us a family member short. I still see you as my sister, and I would really really like for you to give me a chance. I was forced to leave Bella."

"Alice, since when did you listen to anyone else tell you what to do? If you wanted to stay in contact with me you would have. Now let me leave."

She stepped aside, and I ran. I could tell no one was following me now, but I heard a faint "We miss you. Please let us back into your heart. You know where to find us."

I ran like I had never run before. I passed my house hours ago, but I didn't care. The wind was so much better than just sitting in a dark corner in my house dry crying for hours. Yes it was much better to sob while running. I didn't feel as pathetic like if I was alone in my house. Eventually I ran into a herd of deer and decided to feed again. All the stress was making me want to eat more and more. And it also made me want to go to the Cullen's and confront them all. Hear their excuses, and just walk away like they walked away from me.

It was almost 2 a.m. now and running and thinking wasn't helping. The more I thought the more I wanted to find the Cullens. And the more I wanted to forgive them. They were my family once after all. Aren't you supposed to forgive those that you love? What I didn't get was the more I thought about forgiving them, the angrier I got. Why couldn't there be a clear cut concise decision? Why did everything have to be so hard?

It was creeping on 3 a.m. and I finally decided I should head home. As I was heading in I smelled something off. As I opened the door I sprang on a shadow pacing in the living room. What I looked down upon was something I missed so much. I started kissing him, trying to part his lips with mine. Even years ago this was how I wanted our kisses to be. He was hesitant at first not understanding what was going through my mind. Then started kissing me back fervently. It was never like this as a human that much I could remember; always too careful, too cautious. But now this was what I wanted.

Wait, no this was not what I wanted. I got up from the floor and stepped a couple paces back. He got on his knees and pleaded.

"Please, Is-, Bella, tell me what you're thinking. Even with you in this magnificent form I still don't know what you're thinking."

"Wow, Edward, such an inconvenience. You have no idea what I'm thinking, just like I have no idea what anyone on the face of this planet is thinking. It must be so hard?"

"Please." Was all he could mutter out.

Didn't I deserve more than this? Didn't I deserve someone that didn't have to result to graveling on their knees?

"Edward, get up." He just stared. "Now!"

He slowly stood on his knees.

"What do you want from me Edward? I stayed away, even after all my inner battles, I didn't try and find you."

"Isabella, I love you. I'm sorry." Again with the Isabella crap.

"Just stop. What exactly do you want?"

"I want you to forgive me. I want to love you again, Bella. Please let me."

He walked to the couch, and patted the spot next to him. Expecting that I should just come and sit made me upset.

"Edward at least have the decency to ask if I would like to sit with you."

"Bella would you like to sit with me? I know I do have some explaining to do."

I made it a point to slowly walk over to him, and I could see it was annoying him "Alright, Edward. Please tell me why you decided to leave me."

"I know you won't believe me. But I really was trying to protect you. I was dangerous for you Bella; Jasper was proof of that at your birthday. How could I stay when I knew you were in so much danger? Isabella, you were my life, my whole world. I don't know what I would have done-"

"EDWARD, if you keep talking about how you were trying to protect, I swear to God that the slap earlier will feel like the touch of a feather. Just SHUT UP!" It turned silent then. I wasn't even keeping track but it felt like 5 minutes. And he just kept staring.

His hand started to reach toward my thigh, but stopped when he thought better. When he spoke it was barely above a whisper "Bella, what happened to you? Who happened to you?"

Why was he asking this question again? If he cared so much about my well being he wouldn't have left in the first place. I was already dragged into his world once he left; he had to have known something would find me, or someone.

"Edward, you deserve no answer to any of your questions. But I will start with your idiotic explanation of why you left. What in your right mind made you think by leaving that you were protecting me? Didn't you know that I was already pulled into your lifestyle, your world? People already knew about me, it wasn't hard for them to find me and question me." Hid face started to fall, realizing that he put me into more danger when he left. I just wanted to keep hurting him, I wanted him to suffer. I knew if I told my story it would break him.

"Edward if you must know, something did happen. Something that broke this whole town apart over 100 years ago. It started.." I trailed off as we both looked towards the door at the same time, we heard a fluid movement outside. Then Edward groaned and said Alice's name. As I stood she walked in the door. My best friend, I wanted to run to her. I wanted to tell her how much I loved her, how I needed her over the years. How Ch-I couldn't even think his name after all these years. How she needed to know about one of the few men she respected. But I didn't even know how to begin. So I just walked up to her.

She stood there nervous of what I was about to do. I could never stay mad at Alice no matter what she did. So I hugged her. I could tell she wasn't reciprocating the hug right away. But once she did it was the warmest I had felt since I was 18 years old. I could feel Edward's eyes bore into my back. Probably jealous he wasn't getting off so easy. I still wasn't sure if he was getting off at all. As much as I hated Edward right now, they would always be my family. I am so lonely right now, I would take anything at the moment.

I pulled away and looked into Alice's eyes. "Alice, there is something you need to know. It's not going to be easy to say, I don't even think I can get through it all. Obviously you know Charlie has already passed on. But I feel you deserve to know how it happened." I faltered a little; this was going to be a lot harder than I thought. "Alice," I had to pause once more to get my thoughts together. She was getting so scared, but she needed to know. I know she loved Charlie as a father. "Charlie's passing was not pleasant. It was not peaceful. Would you like to hear the whole story, Alice? And if I may so blunt; because no matter what you say I'm going to. Everything that happened to me and Charlie could have been prevented if you never left me." I saw that I hurt her bringing Charlie into our mess. Obviously NONE of them thought about what could happen.

"Bella, please, yes go on. Tell me what happened; tell me so I can try to fix it."

I took her hand and brought her over to the couch. I set her down next to Edward so I didn't have to sit between them. Edward saw what I was doing, and I hope it made him hurt.

I took both of Alice's hands and set them on my lap.

"It, um, uh involves Victoria."

Both of their eyes got wide and showed their teeth while letting out a hiss.

"She attacked me, attacked my house."