My heart stopped beating.

Married?

"Your.. getting.. married?" I slowly, carefully asked, certain that I'd heard her wrong.

"Yes, Edward, I'm getting married." she turned away, and I struggled to keep some hope within me alive.

"Oh, and who are you going to marry, Bella? Aro?" I tried to smile, because surely she wasn't going to marry Aro. There was the Newton character, but since he was with the stupid bimbo Jessica, there was really no one else for Bella to marry.

"That's precisely it, Edward," Bella turned around again, and this time with a brilliant smile.

"What's 'precisely it', Bella?" I questioned, tiredly.

"Aro." She told me. I just stared blankly at her.

"What about him?" I reached out and grabbed her waist gently, pulling her close to me.

"I'm marrying him." She pushed me away.

Aro? She's marrying Aro? What the hell!

"What the hell, Bella." I just stood there, looking at her, confused and angry. "How in the hell did he and you find time enough to get to know each other, let alone for him to 'pop' the question?" I wanted to break something; no, I wanted to kill something.

She looked away. "Whenever I fell asleep.. He'd come to me in my dreams.. And we'd spend the night together. In my dreams."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. My heart, which had stopped beating before, was now crumbling, and I could do nothing to stop it.

"We fell in love," she said simply, and in my turmoil, I didn't see the lie in her eyes. Or the sadness.

I simply turned around and stalked out of the room.

Bella POV:

Edward had left. I'd lied to him, and he'd.. simply left.

I could no longer stand, I sunk to the floor, and buried my head in my hands and sobbed.

A year ago, I thought I couldn't bear to live, that my heart was broken and I along with it.. how wrong I was. My heart wasn't broken, simply hurt. But now? Now it was not only broken, it was also dead.

"Ah, Bella, you really shouldn't be quite so sad." Aro's voice whispered into my ear.

I didn't move, I couldn't. And I hated myself for it.

"That was quite a lie, Bella, dear," he congratulated me, softly. "But what was amazing was that Edward really did believe it." I felt his hands on my shoulder, then on my waist.

"Really, darling, you must see that this was the best choice you could make." He reasoned, only making me hate myself, no, despise myself even more.

"After all, I would have killed your father, your mother, your step-father... All your little friends... And the Cullens. Really, a wise decison dear. I'll make sure to bring Alice back after the wedding."

It suddenly hit me then, why Alice was missing.

"You took her, didn't you?" I whispered, tears coming to my eyes. "You took her, so that no one could see this happening.. so that one could see my future." (Authors note: when the Cullen's chose to be human, they kept their gifts; so Edward could still read minds and Alice could still see the future and Jasper could still mess with people's emotions.)

Aro laughed, and his dark eyes glinted. "Quite good, Bella, quite. You are sharper than I expected, though you are quite slow on the up-take."

I stood up and looked at him. "You may have gotten my hand in marriage and in forever," I told him, in a deadly voice. "But you will never have my heart or my soul, and nor will you have me in bed."

He simply sighed. "If that 'tis the way you wish it, my dearest Bella. But I would advice you that things will be quite dull between us, if there is no sexual intercourse."

"I do not care if things between us are like hell itself, Aro. I keep what is mine, you keep what is yours. The only thing is that I will be a vampire, and you will still be the lowest kind of vampiric bastard ever born or created on this Earth."

Aro, who had turned around while talking to me, spun around when he heard what I had called him, and I could see the rage in his eyes.

Within an instant he had me pushed against the wall, with his hand around my throat, cutting off my air. I didn't move at all.

"Go on, kill me," I challenged him. "Go right on ahead, it would save me from a fate that, to me, is worse then life alone without Edward, immortal or not."

He released me, and I could see him taking deep breaths. "You will be mine. You will marry me. Whether you like it or not." And with that, he was gone.

I slid to the floor, and once again started to cry.

How would I survive without my heart?

"Maybe you don't have to, little one."

I looked up in shock, unaware that I had spoken aloud and that I hadn't been alone, and saw Esme standing before me.

"I saw," she informed me, so softly, that I started crying again.

"He said he'd kill everyone if I didn't marry him, Esme!" I sobbed out, between the gasps for breath and through my tears.

"I know, Bella, I know," she came forward then and took me into her arms, comforting me as I cried.

"Perhaps we can do something about this," she told me.

Little did I know an idea was taking root inside of sweet, little Esme's head..

One that could save us all.