***A/N: Well, it's all been leading to this. Hope you don't hate me after you read it ;)
FYI – This is an extra-long chapter so you may need to take extra time to read it.

Chapter 17 – Blindsided

"Hey, what's wrong with you today?" Edward asked me the next morning. It was first break at school and I was just sitting there staring at the wall across from me. He had been talking about something, and I tried to pretend like I was paying attention, but the truth was there was no way I possibly could. As soon as the bell rang, and Edward went to class, I planned to leave school and head to his house. I hoped to be back by lunch and he'd never know I even left, but there was so much that could go wrong and I was absolutely petrified.

"Nothing is wrong," I lied.

"Sure," he said under his breath.

"Sure what?" I asked, surprised by his clipped tone.

"You always say nothing is wrong when clearly there is."

I bit my lower lip. "I'm sorry," I told him, and sincerely wished I could offer him more of an explanation.

The bell rang and I was so tense that it made my entire body jump from the sound. Edward just looked at me suspiciously.

I couldn't take it. I couldn't separate from him without kissing him goodbye, so I ignored his sour expression and attached my lips to his. I kissed him fervently, and he returned it with just as much intensity as if he somehow knew I needed it so desperately.

"I'll see you at lunch," I said with determination.

I kissed him again, and then I hurried away, fearing I'd never be able to go if I waited any longer.

I had no idea how I was going to break into the Cullen house, but when I arrived I was terrified to find out that Jake had someone there waiting for me.

"Who the hell are you?" I asked him with as much attitude as I could muster.

"My name is James. Your boy Jacob hired me to help you get in and out of this place."

"Let me guess, this isn't the first time you broke in here?" I said bitterly.

He smiled sadistically. "Don't worry your pretty little head about anything. I'll get you in and out no problem."

I swallowed roughly. "Fine, let's just get this over with."

James made quick work of the front door lock, and then we hurried inside. No one was due home for hours, but I had no idea where Edward had hidden his journal and I sure as hell didn't want to be caught there in case someone came home unexpectedly. I ran up the stairs at record speed, and the moment I got into his room I began looking anywhere and everywhere it could possibly be. I looked in his closet, under his bed, between the mattresses, and all the while I'd occasionally come across various items that were planted. It was disgusting, and up until I actually saw them, a part of me thought Jake was just lying about it all to get me to do what he wanted.

I could feel my rage for Jacob grow tenfold. I would never forgive him for any of it, and I couldn't wait to finally be done with him once and for all.

"Uh…is this what you're looking for?" James asked unexpectedly. I didn't even realize he had followed me inside the room, but as he stood there holding Edward's journal in his hands I was both relieved and even more scared.

"Yeah…where'd you find it….and why are you wearing gloves?" I asked, noticing the latex gloves he had on for the first time.

"I don't want to leave my finger prints in here just in case the drug shit is discovered before we have a chance to clean it up."

"Oh."

"Don't worry about your prints; my man said you two's been romping between the sheets so I doubt your prints will call any red flags, if you know what I mean."

I put my hand out to stop him. "Yeah, I got it. Just…make sure everything is exactly as we found it, and let's go."

"Man, you forget I'm a pro. I don't need to be reminded to make this place look untouched."

"Okay," I said irritated. "We have this, so you need to collect all the drug stuff before we leave."

"No can do. I need to make sure J okays it first. Don't worry, I told ya I'd take care of it, and I will."

I took a deep breath, and then nodded and took off towards the front door. In no way did I trust him, but I didn't really have a choice either.

We got out as quickly as we got in, and I immediately texted Jake to say I had it, so he told me to meet him at the La Push police department. Since the accident happened in La Push, that was where we needed to present the evidence, plus I wanted to keep Charlie out of the whole thing as much as possible. He hated Edward almost as much as Jake did, so he was the very last person I wanted handling any of it.

When I arrived outside the police station, Jake was already there.

"What is it?" he asked, clueless as to what my evidence could be.

"His journal," I told him evenly. "Now call your goons and tell them to get the drugs out of Edward's house."

"I will…as soon as we make sure there's a confession in there."

"I will give you the journal when Edward's house is clean," I reiterated.

Jake stared at me for a moment, and then sighed. "Alright…you've given me no choice." Without another word he walked right into the police station, so in a panic I followed.

"What are you doing?" I hissed at him.

"Well, you won't give me the journal, so I'm going to tell them about Edward's drugs."

My heart jumped. "Fine...here," I said as I reluctantly handed him Edward's journal.

"Jacob, can I help you?" Harry Clearwater, chief of La Push police, asked as he noticed us standing there.

"Yeah, I want to submit some evidence in my dad's hit and run case," Jake told him.

"You have evidence?" Harry asked surprised. "What kind of evidence?"

"This is Edward Masen's journal; he's the bastard who ran them off the road. I'm sure it has his written confession inside."

"Mmhum," Harry said strangely. "And how did you obtain this?"

I wanted to smile, but I held it back. I didn't even care if I got arrested for breaking and entering at that point, as long as Edward wasn't charged with anything I was happy.

"We found it," Jake said unexpectedly. "Just lying on the ground at school."

I was speechless, but just when I found my voice and was about to tell Harry that we actually stole it; he took the journal out of Jacob's hands and began flipping through it. From where I was standing, I could clearly see the dates on the pages' top corners, and when he found the date of the accident I closed my eyes tightly and may have even stopped breathing. I had to remember that the drugs were still in Edward's room, and I had to go along with Jake otherwise he'd make everything so much worse.

There was silence as he read Edward's thoughts, and my heart felt like it was going to beat right out of my chest. But then….

"Is this some kind of joke?" Harry asked suddenly.

My eyes popped open.

"What do you mean?" Jake asked confused.

"Listen son, I don't know what the hell is going on here, but this is extremely serious. I can't just ignore this."

"Ignore what?" Jake asked frustrated.

Harry cleared his throat and began reading. "It had to be the worst day of my life. You hear about this kind of thing happening all the time, but you never really think it would ever hit so close to home. My father had driven intoxicated many times before, and he always made it to his destination safely, but that day he had even more to drink than normal, so when Renee called asking for a ride I was a little concerned. I tried to get him to let me pick her up instead, but he refused and insisted that he was fine…"

"Hold on!" Jake interrupted. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"I'm just reading what's written down here," Harry said slowly. "Jacob….why did you bring your journal into me, son?"

"What?" Jake spat. "That's bullshit! It's Edward Masen's journal. I don't even have a fucking journal."

Harry flipped through the pages and read another passage from the previous week. – "Bella and I met the guys down at the beach today, and I almost kicked Seth's ass for looking down her shirt…"

"This is ridiculous!" Jake shouted.

As for me, I had no idea what to think, so I settled for not thinking at all; I guess I was in a state of shock.

Harry flipped through the journal again. "This is supposedly from the week after the crash – 'I feel horrible knowing that Bella has lost her mother, but instead of trying to comfort her, all I can focus on is trying to keep dad out of jail. I'm so angry with him, but at the same time, he's my father, and I can't turn my back on him, especially now that he'll be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. I'm grateful I could convince Sam to help me bury dad's toxicology report, but if anyone else were to find out just how wasted he was, he'd surely get arrested. I need to find someone else to blame for this, it's the only way to get the questioning off of him."

"Harry, this is all bullshit. Surely you can see that?" Jake fumed.

"I've known you for a long time son, and I have to say, this looks a hell of a lot like your handwriting," Harry said slowly. "It even has that weird little thing you do with all your Bs."

"That prick is setting me up! I don't know how he forged my handwriting, but I swear, that prick is setting me up!" Then Jake slowly turned his head to glare at me. "You did this. You and that motherfucker planned this together. How could you do this to me, Bella!" he screamed at me, and when I didn't respond he turned back to Harry. "I guarantee this will have Masen's prints all over it, and if it doesn't, then it was all her."

Harry looked at me. "Bella, what do you have to say about this?"

I blinked a few times, and then cleared my throat so I could speak. "I don't know anything about the journal. I picked it up so it may have my prints on the cover, but I've never opened it and I had no idea what was written inside before now," I said honestly.

"She's a lying bitch!" Jake exclaimed. "I knew you became a fucking psycho, but I never thought you'd do something like this?"

"Something like what?" I asked emotionlessly.

"Something like this! Setting me up like this."

I shook my head. "I'm not the one who frames people. But if you play with fire, you're going to get burned - Isn't that what you said to me, Jake?"

Without saying anything else, I turned and walked out of the police station. I knew they did things differently on the reservation so I had no idea if I was actually free to go at that time, but Harry didn't try to stop me so I continued to my truck. I was absolutely reeling from the turn of events, and I had no idea what the hell was happening or what to make from any of it. I didn't have a doubt that Jake was just as blindsided by the journal contents as I was, but what did that mean?

I felt numb as I drove away from La Push, and no matter how hard my brain tried to comprehend what was happening, I just couldn't put all the pieces together. But as baffling as it was, I also didn't have time to try to figure it all out; the journal was a bust, that meant Jake would be sending the police to Edward's house to search for the planted drugs.

I went from feeling numb, to being in a blind panic. I had no idea what I was going to do, but I just felt the overwhelming need to get to the Cullen house. Edward was still in school and the rest of the Cullen's were going about their days so I was sure I'd find the place empty, except that definitely wasn't the case…

"What are you still doing here?" I asked James aggressively when I saw him walking out of the house carrying a bag full of stuff.

"Oh hey, that didn't take long," James said with a disturbing smile.

"Did Jacob tell you to plant more stuff?" I asked, not putting it past him.

"Sorry, I haven't spoken to him in a few hours. How'd the thingy at the police station go?"

"If you're not planting things, what are you doing?" I asked strongly, and then I glanced at the bag he had flung over his shoulder. "Are you stealing stuff?"

He laughed once. "Like Eddie would allow me to do that. Hey Bella, don't you think it's weird there's no alarm on this place?"

I looked at him perplexed; as obvious as it seemed, my mind refused to let me believe what was right in front of my face.

"Please just tell me what's going on?" I asked desperately.

He didn't answer me, he just smirked and then pulled out what looked like a walkie-talkie. "Yo, Judas has landed," he said into it.

My breath caught, and before I had a chance to breathe normally again Edward came strutting out of the house. "Hey, if it isn't my best friend," he said theatrically. Edward and James bumped fists and then they both looked at me. "Bella, you met my friend James already, right?"

"I don't understand," I said slowly. "Jacob hired this guy to plant drugs in your house," I admitted as I slipped back into a befuddled daze.

"Yeah, well too bad for him that he's my best friend," Edward replied cockily. "He flew out here from Chicago a couple weeks ago to help me with this, but I really didn't expect it to be as easy as it was to get Jake to welcome him into his inner circle."

"It wasn't that easy," James argued. "I had to waste some of my best dope on those fuckers."

I wasn't sure what expression I had on my face, but whatever it was made both of them laugh at me.

"Oh come on, you didn't really think Jacob was smarter than me, did you?" Edward asked me scornfully. "Please; I've been four steps ahead of him this entire time."

"Well technically not the entire time," James butted in.

"Okay, I admit, I didn't realize Bella was his fucking pawn into a few weeks into it, but really, how stupid are you people?" Edward asked me condescendingly. "I mean, how could I have not figured it out? At first I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt, and I really tried to convince myself that it was just a coincidence that your ex was the same motherfucker that had been harassing me for months, but really, at the end of the day, there was just too much shit to ignore."

"Ignore?" I mumbled absently. "W-what did you ignore?"

"Are you kidding?" Edward asked with a cold laugh of incredulousness. "How about the fact that you never once asked me why your boyfriend hated me so much, or what my unforgivable act was that my parents forgave me anyway. God, I gave you so many fucking chances to show me any kind of reason to believe you weren't some fucking skank playing me for him, but all you did was further confirm my suspicions over and over again."

"W-why didn't you ever say anything?"

He narrowed his eyes at me. "Why would I when it's been so much fun to watch you idiots make a fool of yourselves," he said menacingly. "And look what I get for my patience. Not only was I thoroughly entertained for a few months, but now I have the satisfaction of knowing that you two fucked over yourselves to the point that you will never be the same. All it took was a few little nudges, and you ruined your own lives. It's comical actually."

I shook my head slowly as a tear rolled over my cheek. "I don't believe you."

He snickered coldly. "What don't you believe?"

"I don't believe you've been lying this entire time. The things we did together, the stuff we talked about…It was real."

He smirked, and I silently gasped from the hollow look in his eyes. I had never seen anything like it, and it terrified me. "Do you honestly think you're the only one who can put on a good show?"

More tears fell. "It wasn't all a show. Edward…I'm so sorry that I ever agreed to help Jacob with this, but that was before I knew you."

"You still don't know me," he cut me off. "You honestly think that I'd be myself around you? You're even stupider than I thought."

"I love you," I whispered brokenly.

"Well I hate you!" he shouted, making me jump. "You fucking disgust me. You and your boyfriend can rot in hell for all I care."

"I-I-I thought you killed my mother," I told him, desperately hoping he'd calm down and give me a chance to explain. He was mad, and he was lashing out and saying things that I knew in my heart weren't true. "I just wanted justice for her."

"You had no proof of and no real reason to believe I was responsible for that shit other than that bastard's word."

"Why would he lie about it?" I asked quietly. The details of the crash seemed inconsequential compared to the agonizing reality that I was losing him, or perhaps never had him; but since he mentioned it, I figured it was finally time to really know the truth.

"Oh wake the fuck up, Bella! You know what really gets me; you're not as stupid as you act. You choose to not figure things out, because you're too afraid to actually deal with everything that goes with it."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes, you do. Think about it for a while, I mean really think about it, and you'll figure it out."

"I don't know what you're talking about!" I repeated myself more strongly.

"Fine, I'll spell it out for you. Early this summer I was new around here, and obviously didn't know the area very well. I found my way to the La Push beaches and befriended a kid named Seth; I'm sure you know him. He really liked my car and he said he could trip out the engine for me, so I spent a bunch of time around his place while he worked on it. Well the night of the accident he had called me up and said there was a party, so I agreed to go. My new parents didn't want me to leave that night, but I basically cussed them out and went anyway. On my way there I pulled out my fake ID and bought some beer, and put it in the seat next to me. I was coming around Coyote Bend, and that's when it happened."

"You weren't drunk?" I asked quietly.

"No. I may have been a fucking delinquent but I wasn't stupid enough to drink and drive; my father was a drunk, and I learned my lesson from watching him. But do you know who was drunk? You future father in law…or at least I thought he was by the way he was swerving all over the fucking road. I saw him coming so I tried to pull over and wait for him to pass but I ran out of time; his swerving made his car come right at me."

I covered my hand with my mouth as he spoke, but he continued his explanation in the same anger filled rush.

"You know how they say everything goes in slow motion before an accident? Well guess what, that's true. And do you want to know what I saw in that slow motion? One person in the car…just Billy, but right before the impact, guess who pops up? Yep, Mommy. Your mother had her fucking head in his lap Bella. That's why he was swerving around, because she was fucking blowing him off as he drove."

I shook my head in angry disbelief. "My mom would never do that. She loved my dad."

"I have no idea about her motives; all I know is what I saw. After that prick slammed into me, he over compensated and ended up running into a tree. I never saw anything like it and it fucking scared the shit out of me, so I got out of my car and tried to see if I could help anyone."

"You didn't run from the scene?" I asked as my stomach churned violently.

"No. There was glass everywhere; the car was like a fucking accordion, but I heard moaning so I thought I could get them out. I saw the woman, who I didn't find out was your mom until recently, and I grabbed her arm to try to pull her out, but that's when Billy started yelling at me. He said she was dead, and that I killed her. The motherfucker was blaming me for her death, and because I was in shock and scared shitless, I actually believed him for a few minutes. Then the fucker told me to disappear and that if I ever told anyone anything he'd make sure I went to prison for the rest of my life. I had a fake ID on me, beer in my car, and I had smoked a joint earlier that day and had no idea if that could have been detected in a drug scan, so I freaked and drove straight home. Thank god my car still worked."

"You're telling the truth," I whispered.

"I don't have any reason to lie to you at this point. Not that it really matters, but there you go. Your boyfriend's father is a douche and he convinced his son to harass me; god only knows why. Since that night, I've had Jacob and his posse sending me threatening letters, throwing bricks through my windows, and leaving dead rats and fish in places they know I'm going to be. And the shitty part is, I really don't think they even know why they're doing any of it. Billy probably told them some bullshit about me being responsible but they couldn't prove it, and it went to their fucking heads. They're all crazy. Carlisle even stepped in and tried to get them to stop."

"Why didn't you go to the police?"

"We did. They didn't do shit. Stupid Podunk police department. So when I realized you had befriended me to help them, I decided to play along and turn it around. You know, I thought about having my master of forgery buddy James over there write a bunch of shit in that journal to get you into trouble as well, but I decided you've been punished enough. Your whole fucking life is in crumbles, isn't it, Bella? You have no one to blame but yourself."

"Hey man, we need to finish cleaning all this shit out of the house before anyone sees us," James interrupted us.

"That's fine. We're done here," Edward said to him, but he kept his hate-filled glare on me. Then he smirked cruelly. "Goodbye Bella, it's been fun…Good luck trying to piece together your pathetic life."

Edward went back into the house, but all I could do is stand there, trembling in the aftermath of the brutal truth. I didn't know how to move, or think, or even feel anything. I was completely blindsided by it all, but Edward was absolutely right - I brought it on myself, and now I was utterly alone…

***A/N: Told you it was twisted. LOL