Ok here's a new chapter. Please, please review! It really helps me, honestly. XX Thanks for all the nice commets as well!!

Chapter Six- Cross Roads

Leah's Point of View

"Leah?" Jacob murmured hoarsely, but I could barely hear him through the blood rushing through my ears. Something was happening, something was…changing. My senses suddenly felt dulled, muted, and my bones felt more breakable, almost weak.

I had not felt like this since I was fifteen, when I had first turned into a wolf.

It took my mind a moment to catch up with my body, and when it finally did- I gasped out loud, and Jacob's words finally started to break through the haze in my mind.

"Leah!" Jacob repeated. "Try changing! Try to change into a wolf."

Nodding, I stood up and stretched out, as I normally did before I changed, my eyes closed, waiting for the shudders to run through my body.

The shudders that I knew I would never feel again.

I opened my eyes slowly. Jacob had moved silently until he was stood right in front of me, his dark eyes wide. For a moment, half my mind wandered off into a different trail as I noticed things about him that I never had before, and it was all I could do to just sit and stare at him, but then he squeezed my hand gently, reminding me.

"I can't." I mumbled.

"What?"

"I can't!" My tone suddenly turned from a moan to pure delight. "I can't change, Jake! I'm…I'm human again!"

Jacob stared at me for a moment, and I could almost see the tick of his mind. "That…that must be why I could imprint on you." He muttered, almost to himself. "When a boy werewolf imprints, they start to grow old again, but when a girl werewolf falls in love…they turn back into a human." He looked up at me, his eyes wide.

"I'm…I'm human?" I whispered, my eyes wide. I felt human. Sort of weak, and new, and free…and oh so wonderful!

I threw myself at Jacob, locking my around his neck, my heart expanding with joy as I stared with wonder at the man in front of me.

I leant forward to kiss Jacob, and he responded at once, pulling me closer to him.

And the only thing, the only thought that was going through my head was; So this is what love is. Because this was real, true love. Love like I had never felt it before. A burn that was lighting me up from inside. Sure, I had had crushes before, and called it love…and then there had been Sam- but now, as I stood kissing Jacob, I saw how utterly absurd I was to have ever looked at what Sam and I had and called it love.

I finally, finally understood what Sam had meant when he had tried to tell me how he felt about Emily. Because that had not been love. Not compared to this. It was like every cell in my body had been lit up and was programmed to respond to Jacob's every touch, his every word.

I love him with a desperate desire, something that I knew that neither time or age would ever be able to break or even fade.

It was Jacob and I forever. It had to be. Without him, there was nothing. No point to life, or living or even being. No reason to getting up in the morning, or going to sleep at night. Without him, I didn't want to live.

And I didn't care that I had known him since I was tiny, and that he had seen me going through all the awkward bits of growing up in my life. I didn't care that he was married. I didn't even care that he had a one year old daughter that was playing peacefully less than a meter away from us. I didn't care that he was sarcastic and annoying and grumpy and stubborn- because I loved him for it. He was Jacob, and he was mine.

As soon as he let me come up from air, I rested my forehead against his, my eyes shutting for a moment.

"I love you." I whispered, my voice low, my heart beat frantic.

"I love you, too." Jacob replied simply, then a sudden burn came into his eyes. "Like you can't even imagine."

Jacob kissed me again then, and it was like everything that was wrong in my life had turned right. He had fixed it, and everything was perfect.

Well. Apart from one thing. One small, insignificant thing.

My true love's wife.

Bella.

Jacob's Point of View

My heart was hammering and my hand was sweaty in Leah's. She seemed to sense my discomfort, and squeezed my hand.

With my other arm, I had Silver cradled to my chest, her tiny arms locked around my neck as she muttered muddled up words to herself, completely oblivious to the tense mood around her.

We reached the edge of the forest, and I paused, pulling Leah to a stop beside me as we both stared ahead at my house looming in front of us.

I swallowed hard. I didn't want to go and face her. Face Bella.

"Jake." Leah said quietly. I glanced down at her, but her own eyes were fixed on the forest floor.

"Leah?" I said, putting a finger under her chin and trying to coax her face back up.

"Listen, Jake," Leah said, talking too fast. "I…I don't want you to do anything you don't want to. I don't want to be the reason for… I just want you to be happy."

I frowned, shifted Silver over in my arms, then crushed Leah softly to my chest. My thumb stroked her hair out of her face. "All I want to do is to be with you." I whispered into her ear, then glanced up at the house, my heart hammering. "It's just…an awkward situation, that's all."

Leah sighed. "See you later?"

I tightened my hold on her as I bit down on my lip. I didn't want her to leave, but what else could I do? I had to explain to Bella, and I didn't think that having Leah present would exactly help my case.

But I didn't have to say any of this to her. She understood as she read the torn expression on my face. She smiled, reached up to kiss me on the cheek, then turned to walk away. I grabbed her hand.

"Hurry back?"

Leah's smile widened. "Always." She promised, then disappeared into the forest.

"Mama!" Silver demanded, straining away from me and stretching out one hand towards the house.

I took half a step back, and rubbed a hand across my face, trying desperately to plan a speech for Bella- but my mind was blank.

"Mama!" Silver insisted.

"Yeah, yeah." I muttered, took a deep breath- then started to walk towards the house.

Why hadn't I waited until after breaking up with Bella to kiss Leah? I felt suddenly dirty; unworthy. I was a cheater.

I shook my head hard, hesitated for a split second outside the house- then pulled down on the handle and shoved the door open with my elbow.

"B…Bella?" I called, my voice trembling a little as I set Silver down on the cool floor of the kitchen.

Bella appeared out of nowhere. Her eyes went straight to Silver, and they seemed to light up as she leant down to scoop up her daughter, kissing her forehead.

Then she glanced up, looking past me, out the open front door. Her eyebrows suddenly shot together in a frown as her mouth dropped open and her eyes went wide.

"What?" I demanded, spinning around- but the garden was empty, the forest silent and still. I thought of Leah, beautiful, wonderful Leah, waiting in there, and felt the sudden mad urge to just run straight out the kitchen and back to her side. Where I belonged.

Clenching my fists in agony as I resisted, I turned abruptly back to face Bella.

"What was it?" I repeated.

"Nothing." Bella replied, too quickly. "I just thought I saw Ed…" She stopped, biting back the name she had not uttered in so many years. "It's nothing." She repeated. "I guess I'm just a bit tired." She gave a shaky kind of laugh, and ducked her head to kiss Silver's cheek again.

"You sure?" I asked with real concern, but also kind of stalling. "You look pale. Do you want a tea? Water? I can make cof…"

"No." Bella interrupted me. "Just- no, Jake. Okay?"

I pressed my lips together. There was a long silence, and as I looked at Bella's empty eyes, I knew this marriage had ended long before Bella had decided so, or before I had kissed Leah.

In fact, it had never even begun.

And now, finally, seven years too late- it was time to end the lie that was slowly but surely destroying us.

When I finally spoke, my voice was clam and even, my head raising so that I could meet my wife's lost, empty eyes.

"Bella- I need to tell you something."