A Lesson In Forgiveness

"Come on, just try a little bit," I pushed Emmett's hand away laughing as he shoved an oyster into my face. I shook my head at him and leaned back in my chair. We were sitting up on a private deck, the boys had booked for dinner tonight. Emmett had ordered a seafood platter and was trying to convince me to try some, only I hated seafood.

"I'm not putting that in my mouth, Em. It even looks disgusting,' Emmett pouted before offering the oyster to Rosalie, who rolled her eyes but accepted. Jasper laughed next to me leaning back in his seat and throwing his arm across the back of my chair.

"You know, they're not that bad. You don't even have to chew them," he told me, picking one up and tipping it into his mouth before grabbing a second and lifting it to my lips. I looked at it and him hesitantly before opening my mouth in acceptance. He tipped in forward into my mouth and I felt my face scrunch up in disgust quickly grabbing my water and trying to wash the taste from my mouth.

I heard Rosalie and Emmett laugh at my reaction. I crossed my arms and leaned back in my chair with a huff. I shot a glare at Jasper and he pressed his lips tightly together to stop himself from laughing.

"I'm sorry, Bell. I really thought you'd like it," I ignored him as I felt my stomach turn and bile rise in my throat. I only just made it to the side of the ship before emptying the contents of my stomach into the ocean. I felt a hand of my back and another pull my hair out of my face.

I breathed deeply when my stomach finally stopped heaving and I felt someone rub a wet cloth over my forehead. A waiter showed up a second later and passed me some mouthwash, water and a pill. I smiled grateful and thanked him. He nodded and after I had used the mouthwash left us alone again. I popped the tablet in my mouth and swallowed half the bottle of water, sighing in relief as the water soothed my throat.

"I'm never eating seafood again," I joked, lightening the mood.

"Like you were going to anyway," Emmett teased. We stood out there talking for a while before deciding I was okay enough to finally order something to eat. No seafood though. We laughed and joked with each other as the night slipped past us. Rosalie finally announced that she was tired and after a reassurance that I was fine, but was going to stay out here a little longer, her and Emmett headed back below deck, leaving Jasper and I alone.

"How'd you do it, Jasper?" I asked after a moment, his arm wrapped around my shoulder as I shivered and he pulled me close.

"Do what?" he wondered.

"Take off your ring. Move on, I guess. I find myself thinking about him all the time and everytime I catch myself staring at my ring. I drives me crazy." I let out frustrated and Jasper let go of my shoulder to stand in front of me leaned against the railing guard, he stared at the ship, as I stared at the dark ocean.

"I just realised that, I had to forgive her. That I wouldn't be able to move on until then, but what you have to remember is, just because you forgive, it doesn't mean forgetting what he did. It just means being able to move forward," he sighed heavily, his voice soft as he continued. "I put all the bad memories, the negative emotions and the hurtful actions and I thought of them as the ring and then I threw it as hard as I could in to the Mississippi River. And I left all those memories in the lake, it helped me to be able to think of the good memories without them being tainted by her actions and I could finally leave it all behind and forgive her,"

I ran his words around in my head, could I really do that? Could I really just forgive, Edward? I twisted my ring around my finger and slowly slipped it off. I held in my hand for a moment, it felt heavy, as if the weight of the world rested in my palm. I closed my fingers over the ring and thought, I thought of the way I felt after reading those first text messages and every other moment after, I recalled the anger, the hurt. The feeling of the world slipping through my fingers and I thought of them wrapping around the ring, like a weed almost.

The ring held nothing but pain for me now. I understood that now, the ring had been tainted from the minute I knew about what he had done and by holding onto the ring, I was holding on to all those negative feelings. If I was to ever move forward, be it with or without Edward. Holding on to this ring wasn't going to help, it wasn't me holding onto him, I was holding onto his last actions and all it was doing was hurting me more. I pulled my arm back and with a swing of my arm, threw the ring into the ocean.

I breathed in deeply, I felt like for the first time since that first text I could actually breath properly. I wasn't weighed down by the feelings Edward's actions had caused. I was free. I looked at Jasper smiling my thanks, He grinned back at me, taking a step towards me.

"I'm glad you did that, I was scared it'd get in the way," he whispered.

"In the way of what?" I asked, my voice soft as he stood toe to toe with me and cupped my face in his hands.

"This," and then he kissed me.