A/N: I've come to a conclusion the past couple of days (sorry, I'm a little slow)-My readers are the best in the entire fandom. Your comments, reviews, opinions are absolutely amazing. No matter how short or how long, they constantly inspire me to write. You have no idea how amazing it is to know how strongly some of you feel about my story. I thank all of you SO much. :)

**Warning** This chapter contains dark themes. I tried to keep details out because I don't think they are completely necessary to be able to sense what Bella went through. But, be warned...

Thanks to Softragoo, my glorious prereader. :)

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns the Twilight Universe.

Chapter Eight

Rose sat me down on her couch with a roll of toilet paper for my tears, and a beer she had hidden in the back of the fridge. She apologized for not having anything stronger before she excused herself and went to the kitchen. My eyes burned and my throat ached; all I wanted to do was sleep but here I was. There was no turning back now. I imagined myself standing up, smiling at Rose and yelling out, "Gotcha!"

She wasn't going to let me leave without telling her the truth. It was the right thing to do. I had to purge this because keeping it inside would turn my brain to mush. I'd end up one of those crazy ladies who slept on benches in the park, spouting useless facts to the hungry pigeons at her feet.

She came back in and sat across from me on her coffee table. With her arms wrapped around her torso, she stared at me. I felt like a wild animal. The feral kitten, waiting to be scruffed and sedated so that safe hands could make sure I was healthy. I wondered what her reaction would be if I suddenly hissed.

"So," I started.

She held her hand up to stop me. "We're waiting on Edward."

My eyes bulged out of my head. "What? Why did you call him? I didn't…"

She sighed. "He's going to help you, Bella." I opened my mouth to argue but she gave me a look. It was the same look she gives Emily when she asks for five more minutes before bed. It had the same affect on me as it does Emily. "Just trust me, Bella."

I puffed out my cheeks with a defeated breath.

"How's your beer?"

"Fine."

"You hungry?"

"No."

She crossed her arms over her chest, giving me the look again. "Bella, I didn't ask Edward over here to embarrass you. The man walks you to work, for God's sake. You don't have to go into all the sordid details, unless you want to." A pregnant pause filled the silence then she added, "You're the one who knocked on my door, remember?"

My eyebrows flew up. "Right. I knocked on your door, Rose, not Edward's door. You should have asked me if I wanted him here or not before calling him up and inviting him over here. I already feel like some odd circus freak; I don't need an audience."

She frowned at me but I kept talking.

"This won't be a piece of cake for me to talk about with you, Rose. Do you think it will be easy to talk about with Edward here?" I leaned forward in an effort to get up off the couch. "I should just forget it."

"No! No, Bella, I'm sorry…you're right." It was obvious that the last two words were hard for her since she was used to arguing with a ten year old. "I wasn't thinking. I guess I just know Edward so well that I don't see how you can find him threatening."

I looked at her incredulously. "You don't?"

She puckered her mouth in an effort to hide a grin. "He's like a loyal puppy."

"Puppies have teeth," I noted. "Puppies chew on your shoes and pee on your carpet."

"I haven't caught him peeing on my carpet, yet," she said, a smirk on her face.

"The key word in that sentence is 'caught'," I said, unable to keep from grinning. I'd just suggested to Rose that Edward peed on her carpet. How do you not smile at that?

She leaned forward and her expression grew serious. "What I'm saying, Bella, is if you let Edward in, you'll never regret it. I promise you that."

As if he'd been waiting for that cue, the lock clicked and he walked into the apartment. The first thing I noticed, of course, was the hair. It seemed more unruly than ever which would have been unfathomable before that moment. He looked tired, his face dragging with paleness and exhaustion. The tattoo that peeked out along his shoulder seemed much darker and angrier. His signature t-shirt was black but the tiny holes were still present: One along the neck line and another near his stomach. His black jeans lay loosely on his narrow hips; his front pocket bulged with his keys. The black boots that clomped across the floor were untied, as if he was in too much of a hurry to lace them.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Uh…sorry, Edward, but I called you over on accident," Rose said, making sure it was loud enough for me to hear. "You'll have to go home now."

Edward gave me a double take. "Bella, what's wrong?"

Rose put two hands on Edward's chest and started pushing him to the door. He backpedalled slowly, only because he was allowing Rose to push him, but his eyes remained glued to my face.

"Edward, this is between me and Bella. I'm sorry that I—"

"Bullshit," Edward said through his teeth. "Did that fucker across the hall say something because if he did…"

"Why do you hate him so much?" Rose asked, stopping the pushing long enough to look up at him. "Jake is actually a really nice guy. You have no reason to—"

"Well, if it wasn't him, what was it?"

I rolled my eyes. "Rose, it's okay."

She didn't hear me. "Bella just had a bad day, is all. She'll be fine in just a—"

"Bella, do you want me to leave?" Edward asked.

His flaming eyes gazed at me and almost made up my mind for me. I hoped, no prayed, that I didn't make my decision based on fear. I didn't feel afraid. I wasn't trembling because of Edward; it was because of the phone call. It was because of James.

"No, it's fine," I relented.

Rose stopped pushing on Edward and turned to face me. "Are you sure?"

As I looked between the two of them, Rose panted a little with her tongue out to remind me of the comparison we'd discussed before Edward arrived.

He glanced at her and caught her with her tongue out. "What are you doing?"

There was an audible pop when she snapped her tongue back in her mouth. "Nothing; I'm not doing anything."

He furrowed his brows at her but must have decided that an argument wasn't worth it. When he looked at me, waiting for me to invite him in on the conversation, I couldn't help but smile. The past five minutes of listening to the bickering twins had made me feel ten times better. That's when I realized that I needed these people and if I couldn't trust them, then who could I trust?

"Is that a yes?" Rose asked.

I waved both of them over. "Come on," I said.

They both hurried over and sat down. Edward took Rose's place on the coffee table; he leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. Rose sat sideways on the couch with her leg drawn up under her. The scar on her jaw line was so apparent from that angle that I was tempted to run my fingertip over it. A remarkable sense of anger rose up in me as I wondered who and why that scar was there. It was long and obvious, a clear sign that Rose hadn't had an easy life. But here she was, waiting for me to tell her about the only nine months out of my life that hadn't been close to perfect.

"I met James when I was twenty one," I began. "I was a sophomore at U-Dub and he was a senior. When he first started asking me out, I declined because I was on scholarship and I didn't want to screw it up by focusing on my personal life. He seemed sweet and nice so eventually, I caved and went on a date with him. I told myself that one date and that was it—but a first turned into a second and so on…

"We dated until he graduated. He was always a gentleman with me. My dad loved him because he planned on joining the Marines after he finished with school. I wasn't sure if he liked him more for serving his country or the fact that he wouldn't be around to take me away from my school work. To make a long story short, James left right before my junior year for boot camp and I stayed at school. I was sad to see him go but…" I trailed off, thinking back on the day I said goodbye to him at the airport. Even though I'd slept with him, I'd never really felt connected with him.

"I figured he'd go to boot camp, meet some pretty southern girl and I'd get a 'Dear John' letter. It had been the opposite. He'd written me constantly and his emotions were so intense that I felt guilty for not feeling them back. I had thought something was wrong with me. I tried to force myself to tell him that I loved him when we talked on the phone but it had to have sounded fake."

"Why didn't you just break up with him?" Edward asked.

Rose shot him an annoyed look. "You save your questions for the end, Edward."

"If I save it for the end, I'll just forget," he explained.

"It's a standard rule for conversations like this," she spat. "Obviously, you don't have many deep conversations with women."

"Seems that way, since the only woman I have conversations with is you!"

I clapped twice to break it up. My face was tight with a grin; it felt so foreign.

"Can I just say…can I just say that…" I started but stopped myself when I realized I was about to tell them that I loved them. I loved their relationship. I loved their bickering. I loved everything about the two of them because just their presence put a smile on my face. I stopped myself because the emotion of love was a strong thing and it made me feel vulnerable. Surely, I didn't love Edward because I didn't know him. I loved the way he made me forget my problems, even though I was talking about it out loud for the first time. I loved that he could make me smile when my insides were caving in and collapsing with fear and grief. They did that for me, Rose and Edward, and I loved them for it.

Then I was crying. And smiling. At the same time. Rose took my hand and shot me a knowing smile.

"Are you happy or sad?" Edward asked then glared at Rose. "Or am I supposed to hold that question until the end?"

"I guess I'm a little of both," I told him.

He leaned back and puffed out his cheeks with air. "Deep conversations with women are confusing."

"Continue, Bella," Rose said.

"Where was I? Oh, yeah, why didn't I break up with him? Well, I started to at one point. I had the whole conversation planned out in my brain. Then he told me he was going overseas, to war. He cried and asked me to wait for him. I couldn't…how could I?" I rubbed my face with my hands and Rose tore off a good portion of toilet paper for me so that I could blow my nose. "I couldn't just break up with him. If he died in Iraq, I'd never forgive myself. So, I told myself to just deal with it and when he returned, I'd break it off.

"So, two years go by and I don't see him. He writes diligently for the first year and a half and calls when he can. I'm so busy with school that I don't have time to really think about how I felt about him. I cared for him and at the time, it was enough. He stopped writing and calling a year and a half after he left—just like that." I snapped my fingers to emphasize the suddenness of the halt of communication.

"Did you try to call him?" Edward asked.

Rose didn't scold him for his middle-of-the-story-question.

"I wrote to him, told him that I hoped he was okay. I got no response," I told them. "I figured that he'd found someone else and his silence was his way of cutting me out of his life. I worried but I didn't fret over it. After a few months, I even went out on a couple of dates; nothing serious, just having fun before midterms, that sort of thing."

"Then what?" Rose asked, looking at me with anticipation. I was a living, breathing Days of Our Lives episode.

"James showed up at my dad's house one day looking for me. He knew where I lived in Seattle, even though he'd never been to my apartment—that's where he'd sent all the letters. My dad called me and I went to Forks, where my dad lives, and it was like…like…nothing had happened. He hugged me, told me how much he missed me and broke down into tears right there on my dad's front porch."

"What did you say?" Rose asked, leaning toward me, her features taut with suspense. Apparently, Rose was breaking her deep conversations rule.

"What could I say? The man had just been to hell and back and now he was sitting on my porch with his head in my lap, bawling his eyes out. Then…" I took a deep breath and let it out with my eyes closed. "Then, he asked me to marry him."

They blinked at me.

"And I did something really freaking stupid and said 'yes'."

The blinking ceased and then I got grumbles of disagreement from Edward and long dramatic sighs from Rose.

"Why did you say yes?" Edward asked. "You didn't really want to marry him, did you?"

I stared at my feet. "He was so broken and I thought…"

"You thought what?" Rose asked. "We're not judging you, Bella. We just want to know what we're up against."

"I thought that I could learn to love him; I thought that I owed him that much." I tore off a few squares of toilet paper and rubbed my cheeks with it. "So, a week later, I was boarding a bus for Oklahoma."

"Why Oklahoma?" Edward asked.

"He was out of Iraq but he was still in the Marines," I told him. "That's where he was stationed; he had a house at the base." I looked down to see parts of the toilet paper shredded to pieces all over my lap. "The bus ride was the first time he seemed different. There was a…a stiffness to him, almost like he wasn't human. A woman stepped on his foot on accident, she apologized and he didn't even acknowledge her. At the time, I thought that he'd seen something in Iraq…I thought maybe, something bad had happened and he just needed to talk about it. I was going to talk to him about counseling but there wasn't time."

"Why wasn't there time, Bella?" Edward asked, already knowing the answer. I could see it in his eyes, just like I could see every emotion in that deep, cryptic stare.

"He made it clear, the minute we stepped into the house in Oklahoma, that there were rules. That was the first night he hit me."

I started shaking and my stomach clenched as they stared at me. Rose grabbed my hand again and squeezed. I was grateful for the contact.

"I didn't even do anything; he just…wanted me to fear him, I guess. That first night, I stood up to him after he hit me, told him that I was leaving." I let out a humorless laugh. "He made it so I couldn't."

Edward's eyes widened in shock. "What the fuck did he do?"

"He handcuffed me to a chair…no, it was the banister for the stairs to the second floor. I was there until morning, and…"—I laughed again, a sob mixed in with the sound. "I thought I'd show him and give him the silent treatment. Back then, I thought I'd just wait until he left for the day and I'd be gone. There was no chance I'd stick around to see what happened on day two. That wasn't about to happen. He made sure that I stayed put.

"While he stuffed my mouth with a sock and duct taped it around my head, he told me that he knew I'd cheated on him when he was gone. He asked me if I knew how much it hurt him when he found out. I tried to shake my head, to tell him that I didn't know what he was talking about but he kicked me in the stomach. I almost choked on my own vomit that day. Sometimes, I wish I had."

"You don't have to go into all the details, Bella, unless you want to," Rose said, stroking my wrist with her thumb. "Just tell us about your trip to Chicago."

I smiled sadly. "James had planned our wedding, without my knowledge. He'd sent the invitations. Bought my dress. Hell, he even picked out the freaking flowers! We were set to be married within the month." I closed my eyes and shook my head at the memory of the day he'd told me. His eyes shone with laughter and his mouth grinned as the words passed his lips. "I wouldn't…I couldn't…do it."

"Didn't your dad call?" Edward asked. "He should have known something was up when he didn't hear from you, right?"

"Oh, he heard from me, all right," I said, shuddering and closing my eyes at the memory. "This is the worst part."

Rose sat back on the couch looking defeated. Edward looked like he was being forced to swallow expired cottage cheese.

"James would bring these girls into the house, mostly on weekends. They were always unconscious and drunk, but barely clothed. That was when he instructed me to call my dad," I said.

Edward shook his head. "I don't understand."

"Son of a bitch," Rose whispered harshly. She got it. "He used those girls as ransom for you to play it up pretty to your father, didn't he?"

I nodded, my eyes filling with tears. So many girls. Most of them were young, pretty and they looked so innocent, like they were sleeping as he dropped them down on the sofa next to me. He'd stroke their cheeks, arrange their hair and sometimes, he'd call them by name. I had assumed that they'd been drugged. Picked up in a bar with James' good looks and his false charm then he'd take them out to his truck where he promised to share his secret stash of pot with them. They'd pass out and he'd deliver them to me like some sort of deranged sacrifice.

"He'd put a knife to their throats, threaten to pour bleach down their mouths while they were knocked out, or hold his loaded .22 to their temples. One time, I told him to go to hell…I think it was the second time, and he…he killed her." Tears burned down my cheeks and my face distorted with grief.

"Christ," Edward hissed.

Rose let out an, "Oh, God."

"He grabbed her off the couch and broke her neck—just like he was trained to do. It was…my fault. She should still be alive. She should still…if it weren't for me, she'd still…"

I put my hands over my face and let loose. Rose comforted me in a hug and I wasn't sure what Edward was doing but I could hear the distinct sound of knuckles meeting scruff. The image of that lifeless, pale girl being dragged out of the house, her blond curls bouncing with each step he took, was burned into my brain. I thought for a moment that I was going to die right with her; perhaps, a part of me actually did. I'd never feared for my life until that moment. A part of me didn't think he had it in him to actually do it until I heard the crack of her neck and saw the hollow glint in his eyes.

It took me ten good minutes to cry it out before I was able to continue.

"That was the day I started planning my escape," I croaked. "My mom and dad had both given me money for my college graduation. It was start up money, so that I could put a down payment down on a house, eventually. For some reason, I hadn't told James about it before I'd come to Oklahoma. Maybe, a part of me saw something that made me hold back…I don't know."

"How long did you wait to leave?" Rose asked. Her voice was so tender, like it was when she spoke to Sammy after he took a fall. I wanted her to hug me again but felt too embarrassed to ask.

"I was in Oklahoma for nine months." I reached for the courage to meet their eyes. Edward was angry, sad, confused. Rose just looked sad. "James usually kept me tied down during the day, while he was at work. Sometimes, he'd put me in the basement and other times, the bathroom. I had to do some convincing, but a week before the wedding was supposed to happen, he left me untied."

Internally, I cringed because the "convincing" that I had to do was humiliating and unnerving. I had to tell him that I loved him; I had to pretend to like everything he did to me, everything he said. The act had to be persuasive and gradual; he wouldn't believe me if one day I started walking around the house with a smile on my face. It took me three weeks before he agreed to leave me free in the house so that I could "try on my wedding dress". It was the hardest, most difficult three weeks of my life.

"My getaway money was in a checking account in Seattle. I called, had most of it wired to a bank in Missouri. After I left the house, I was positive that James had someone watching the house." I smiled as I remembered the feeling of walking outside, putting on a show of skipping down steps and whistling The Wedding March. "I called a cab and went to Target."

Rose scrunched up her face. "Target?"

I let out a wet laugh. "It was the first place I could think of. I snuck out the back door, walked a couple of miles to a pay phone and called another cab that took me to the bank in Missouri. That's where I put my finger on a map, and blindly chose Chicago as my destination."

"You chose Chicago with your eyes closed?" Edward asked.

I nodded.

"Damn, you're lucky," Rose laughed and her face lit up. "You found us!"

Edward wasn't amused but I laughed with her. It was true. I couldn't have found a better place. I had to believe in some higher power, me being led to Esme and Rose and, I suppose, Edward.

"Why didn't you go to your dad?" Edward asked.

The smile fell off my face and the lump was back in my throat. "James had threatened to kill my dad and my mom if I ever left him. I wanted to stay as far away from them as I could," I told them. "I figured that James would keep an eye on my dad for a while, knowing that eventually, I'd call him. If he knew I was missing, my dad would have the entire state of Oklahoma out looking for me."

They both gave me puzzled looks.

"He's a cop," I told them.

Edward gulped and leaned back with a sigh. "You didn't think that he could protect himself? And you?"

"It may have been stupid to avoid going back to Forks but I was in survival mode," I explained. "All I wanted was to get James out of my life and if disappearing was what it took, then that's what I was going to do."

"I just…it just seems so much simpler to go to your father who is—"

"Edward!" Rose cut him off. "Seriously?"

I swallowed the ache in my throat but it came back three fold. "I love my dad more than anyone. If my presence put him in any danger, I…I saw what James could do if he got angry. I couldn't live with myself if…"

Rose wrapped her arms around me again. "It's okay, sweetie. Edward is just being an asshole."

Then they started arguing in hissed whispers that eventually, in their typical way, made me feel better.

"How…what…I was just asking, for fuck's sake."

"Well, you could be a little more sympathetic!"

"I am being sympathetic! You know I don't particularly like comforting people! I just want to—"

"You're being a jerk! Bella needs our help and you're—"

"I'm here, aren't I? I want to help her just as much as you do!"

"Then stop being an asshole!"

"If you call me an asshole one more time, I'll tell Emmett about your secret career!"

Rose sucked in a breath by my ear. "You know you can't tell Emmett about my job! He'll blow a gasket!"

"Well, then, I suggest not calling me an asshole again."

"Fine. Asshole."

"You wait…you just wait, Rose."

Having had enough, I pushed Rose off with a sigh. "When I moved to Chicago, I didn't know that I was acquiring two children."

Rose put her hand on her chest and smiled. "Oh, that's sweet that you consider Emily and Sam to be…"

Edward shook his head. "She was talking about us, Genius."

The smile dropped from Rose's face and she cocked an eyebrow at me. "He's the one being an—"I clamped a hand over her mouth before she could finish.

"Fifty bucks says the next word out of her mouth is 'asshole'," Edward grumbled.

I released my hand and Rose cheerfully pressed her lips together. Edward flipped her off. Rose stuck out her tongue.

"That's real mature," he said to her.

"Guys!" I broke in. "I appreciate the effort to make me feel better by using your amazing bickering skills, but enough already!"

Edward looked slightly offended. Rose looked satisfied.

"Before I came over here, I called my dad," I confessed. "It's the whole reason I had a breakdown."

Edward raised his eyebrows. "You did? Call your dad, I mean. I saw the remnants of the breakdown portion of it."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, and…James was there."

The silence could have been sliced with a knife.

"I didn't say much to him…I just listened to his voice and let him assume it was me. After I found out that James had been staying there, hoping that I'd call, I freaked and blurted out that I was in Florida."

"Then what?" Rose asked.

"I hung up." I shrugged and sniffed. "You know, breakdown and all."

The hesitation in both of them was clear. I wondered, briefly, if I'd said too much. Sometimes, you think you want to know something and then you do and it's not the kind of information you wanted to hear. That described the looks on both of their faces: Disturbed shock and a little cluelessness.

Rose verbalized her cluelessness. "What are you going to do?"

I shook my head. "I don't know but I can't call my dad again. He said that…" I took a deep breath and blew it out through pursed lips. "He told me that James thinks he knows where I am and that he's going to try and find me."

"Did he say where?" Rose asked.

"No, but James sure as hell won't believe that I'm in Florida, that's for sure." I wrapped my arms around myself and leaned forward on the couch. "When I left Oklahoma, I was careful; I covered my tracks. If James found out that I'm in Chicago, I don't know how but I still feel like a sitting duck. I'd understand if you guys want me to leave; I wouldn't want to put Sam or Emily in any danger."

Rose snorted. "Emily can handle herself," she joked but she sobered quickly. "We're careful around here, Bella. We don't keep our doors unlocked, we don't go on midnight strolls through the park, and we watch out for each other. You're our friend and you're not going anywhere."

She pulled me toward her, wrapping her strong arms around me once again. It felt good, so good. I felt like something toxic was seeping out of my body as my tears landed on her collar bone. Amazing Grace was starting to play in my head; the part about once being blind and now being able to see was playing on repeat. How had I not trusted this girl before? She'd trusted me with her children and she'd shared details of her life that could have been used against her. The trust she had in me from the beginning was remarkable and it single-handedly put some of the memories from Oklahoma in the grave. There were plenty left but each day, they got easier to bury. Each day, a part of me that had been ruined was being covered with new life, new skin, new breath.

"A scared, little puppy," Edward said, breaking the silence. "That's what you remind me of."

Rose pulled away. "What?"

"Bella, you're terrified of this douche bag, right? You don't want him to find you?"

Rose answered for me before I had time to squeak out an answer. "Edward, what do you think?"

He narrowed his eyes at his friend and spat, "I'm talking to Bella, Rose." He turned his attention back to me and his expression softened. But the fire was still there, roaring in his glare. "Well?"

"Of-of course, I don't," I squeaked.

He chuckled. "You're so…tiny and…and fractured. Don't you see? You're screwed either way!"

The maniacal tone to his voice had me shivering. My first reaction was to run; to get away because I didn't like what he was going to tell me. I didn't want to see where this conversation was going to go because it wouldn't be pleasant.

"Get to the point, Mr. Subtle," Rose grumbled.

"What I'm saying is that this asshole could stay away for the rest of your life but you'll still be this terrified little puppy, peeking around corners and waiting to be attacked. You'll be afraid to live your life every day and who the fuck knows if you'll ever see your Dad again.

"This…asshole could give up searching for you tomorrow and you'll never know it because you have already given up the fight. You're surrendering to him in one way or another, whether that's with him or without him."

My hands balled up into fists. Anger sliced through me; my body grew hot and my muscles quivered. I stood up and he seemed to shrink as he continued to sit on the coffee table in front of me. As true as his insinuations were, I wouldn't be called a quitter.

"Do you know what it took to leave him?" I asked through my teeth. "Do you know what I went through on an everyday basis while I lived with that man? Do you…"—a sob escaped from my throat but I kept going. "I was living in hell and I had to…the things that I had to do just to give me an opportunity to escape were…despicable. But I did them because I wanted out! I'm a fighter, whether you want to believe me or not!"

A smile grew on Edward's face and Rose was quieter than I'd ever heard her. There was tension between the three of us, it was undeniable. But there was something else there, too. A bond. It was something I hadn't ever felt with someone who's DNA didn't match mine. The bond was strong and seemingly unbreakable.

"Oh, I believe you, Bella," Edward said. "Now we just have to convince you of that."

I plopped down on the couch, a little giddy that I'd stood up for myself but irritated that I'd let Edward bait me into it. "I just told you what I believe."

Edward shook his head. "No, you don't."

"Don't tell me what I believe."

He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. "What would you do if he found you, Bella? Think about it…what would you do if you heard him knocking on your door?"

I swallowed. "I don't know; I'd probably crawl out a window and run."

"Where would you go?"

"I don't know—probably, I'd just pick a random city like I did last time." He answered me with pressed lips and his usual fiery expression. "What am I supposed to do? Let him take me back? Let him kill me? Get someone else hurt? What am I supposed to do, Edward?"

His grin told me that he was satisfied with the question but Rose was the one who answered.

"You fight back, Bella."

A/N: In case you didn't catch it (which I'm sure you did), Edward is baiting Bella at the end, trying to fire her up again. Rose was a little out of line for inviting Edward in without Bella's permission but she has her reasons for Edward knowing, even if she goes about it the wrong way.

I know parts of this were hard to read and I totally appreciate you all suffering through the traumatic parts. Means a lot to me! Anybody have any idea how Bella is going to learn how to fight James?