Bella's Point Of View

I spent the final days of recovery at home, resting, while Charlie took care of the house. It was...weird, watching him do all of my chores with a happy smile on his face. Happy, that I was actually able to come home and remember it. It didn't stop him from rubbing the near-death experience in my face every chance he got, but that would be something I would have to learn to deal with.

The final day of recovery, was the one day I was looking forward to the most. I had been bouncing around all day, eager to take the ugly bandages off my head, eager to look human again. Around noon, Charlie aided me in doing so, the horror I expected to see didn't exist. It was replaced with a single, pink cut along my forehead. Clearly, it would leave a scar... Yet another reason for him not to have wanted me. Another flaw.

I loved my flaw.

This, defined who I was now. I was no longer scared, I was no longer held back. I was free from the chains I had forced myself into over the last months of my life. I was free from the death that I thought had consumed me. I was free.

While admiring the wound in the mirror, I thought about those words and the true meaning behind them. I wasn't quite the old Bella I wanted to be so badly once again. I wasn't exactly the Bella that walked around here for the past six months, either. I was new. I cling to that thought much longer than the others, my hands grabbing the keys to my truck. I wasn't the same, weak girl he left in the woods. I was strong, independent. I jumped from flip'en cliffs!

My body moved so quickly, I was at his front door before I had the chance to blink. My truck parked in his driveway, looking as out of place as always. My fist refused to collide with the door. No... It was saving itself for his face. I no longer had a boyfriend to defend my honor, I had to do it myself. My hand reached for the doorknob, but failed. The door, instead, opened, revealing the one thing I was seeking. The monster in the fairy tale.

"Bella..." He had no right to say my name like that. He had no right to even look at me! Before I had time to scream those same thoughts at him, my fist collided with the iron that made his face. He didn't flinch the slightest, though I did that enough for the both of us as I cradled my throbbing hand to my chest. "Bella... You know you can't hurt me..."

"You're wrong!" Tears had already begun streaking my pale cheeks as my body lunged at his, my fists pounding into his rock-hard chest much like a child throwing a temper tantrum. His body didn't budge from the firm position he held at the entrance to the door, his arms staying firmly at his sides as he took the attack. Each pounding from my small, ineffectual fists meant something different. This is for leaving me! This is for lying to me! This is for making me love you! I had a thousand reasons to hit him, my body exhausted itself out well before ten. His arms wrapped around my body, my tired arms pushed him away. He offered me sad eyes, I tore my gaze from him. I was not giving in, not this time around... I pushed past him, and entered his home without a single sign of invitation. I refused to be left outside in the rain, not again.

The house was untouched, perfect as it always had been. Signs of life radiated around it, suit cases lounging around the large, open space. The Cullen's must have decided to move back to Forks, of course...

"Bella... Can we please talk?"

My body turned harshly, my eyes glaring up at him. How dare he ask me for anything! "I want you to leave." I refused to break eye contact with him, despite the hurt look that washed over his face. "I want you and your family, to stay gone." They had no right showing up here like this, no right to walk back into the life they shattered.

"Bella, I've tried explaining this to you in the hospital... I can't stay away from you, as hard as I tried it soon became impossible. I need to be with you, I need to know you're alive each and every second of the day. I need you..."

His words were like repeated slaps in the face, each one more rough and more violent than the one before. Like sticking a salted finger in an open wound, unbearable. "You. Left. Me."

"I'm back now."

"I didn't ask for you back." My tone surprised even me, I sounded almost... serious. No, I was serious! I didn't want him, I don't want him! "You left me, Edward! You told me you didn't want me!"

"I lied."

"You always lie! You lie about loving me, about keeping me forever, about protecting me! You lie about staying away, and lie about lying!" My words no longer made sense. They were rushing out of my mouth too quickly to do so. "How do I know you're not lying now, that... that this isn't a scheme to get whatever you want before running off again?!"

"You need to trust me, Bella. You need to let me in..."

"I did trust you! You broke me!" With those final words, my body pushed past his, only to be held in place with such force. "Let me go!"