A/N: Here is the second half of the previous chapter. It is gonna be a long one. (Well, long for me anyways!) Enjoy!

Anam, as always, you are awesome. Thank you so much for all of your positive thoughts about my ability to write. I love hearing them. ;)

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyers owns Twilight.

Chapter 23. Confrontations - Part 2

Carlisle looked at me with a look of confusion on his face. "What do you mean by that, Bella? What is going on here?" he asked.

I sighed deeply. "After my mom died, things got very bad for me. At home, my dad had started to drink a lot and essentially treated me as though I didn't even exist. He wouldn't speak to me at all and he wouldn't even look at me. I basically lost both of my parents the day my mom died."

I could feel my eyes beginning to water at the memories. Edward knew that I didn't like to let other people see me cry, so in order to give me a minute to get myself together, he said, "Um, excuse me, but Riley has fallen asleep and I don't want him to get woken up. Dad, is it okay if I take him up to my old bedroom and get him settled in? It will only take a few minutes."

Carlisle replied, "It's alright with me if you two think he'll be okay up there by himself."

Edward nodded at him. "He'll be fine. He's a heavy sleeper, so he won't be waking up anytime soon." And with that, he carried Riley out of the room and up the stairs. Just like he said, Edward was back down within a few minutes. It was just enough time for me to calm myself down a bit.

When he sat back down, he leaned over and quietly asked, "Are you okay now, or do you need another minute?"

"I'm good." I whispered back. I looked back at Carlisle and continued where I had left off.

"So, things were bad at home, but when I wasn't at home, things weren't much better. At first, things okay with our group of friends. They were all supportive of me and did their best to cheer me up, but losing a parent is extremely hard to deal with, and I knew it would take a very long time for me to come to terms with it, but with my friends by my side, I knew I would be okay eventually.

However, over the next few weeks, things between us began to change. I started to notice that my friends were spending less and less time with me and they were beginning to exlude me from things. I tried asking them what was wrong, but they just told me they needed some space because I was too depressing to be around. Eventually, they stopped talking to me altogether. They didn't call me anymore, they wouldn't speak to me, they wouldn't even look at me when they saw me.

I didn't know why they were treating me like that. I was still hurting, but they weren't there for me anymore. First, my dad started to ignore me, and then my friends began to do the same. I was completely alone."

I looked over to where my friends were sitting and saw that they all had tears in their eyes. I knew that they were feeling guilty about what they had done and I know that it wasn't exactly their fault, but they didn't know that I knew that.

I was broken out of my thoughts by Carlisle. He looked over to them and asked, "Why on earth would you all do that her? You knew she was going through a difficult time an-" I cut him off.

"Carlisle, I'll get to that to eventually, but there is a lot more that you need to hear first."

He gave me a small nod. "Of course. I'm sorry for interrupting. Please continue."

I sighed. "Anyways, I was completely alone. I had continued to try and talk to them a few times, but they just continued to ignore me, so I gave up trying. I did my best to get through each day, but it wasn't easy, and things weren't getting any better.

I had begun to take hikes in the woods to pass the time and to kind of escape reality for a bit. One day, I came across this small clearing in the middle of the forest. It was a small meadow that was filled with wildflowers and sunlight. It was breathtaking. It became my special place that I would go to when I wanted to feel happy.

But it wasn't enough.

I eventually got to the point where I couldn't handle being alone and ignored anymore. I felt that no one cared about me anymore and I was going to do something about it."

I had to stop myself at this point because I was starting to get upset again. I excused myself for a few minutes while I went into the kitchen to get some water. Edward followed me and wrapped me in his arms and told me not to worry about anything and to remember that he was there for me now. He always made me feel better when he said that.

I drank some water and we both made our way back into the living room.

"I'm sorry about that." I apologized. "This next part is a bit hard for me to talk about and it's not an easy thing for people to hear." I warned.

"I'm sure we can handle it." said Rosalie.

"I doubt that, but just remember that I warned you."

I turned back to Carlisle. "Alright, back to the story." I paused for a second before I continued again. "I had had enough of being alone and ignored. So one day, I waited until Charlie had left for work. Once he was gone, I went into his room and went straight to the drawer where he kept a gun for protection. It was the same one that my mom had used on herself. I don't know why he kept it, but at that time I didn't care. I took it out, made sure it wasn't empty, and I made my way to the meadow."

I heard Alice and Rosalie gasp in horror and I heard Emmett say, "Oh, shit."

"You were going to kill yourself?" asked Jasper. I nodded. Everyone had a look of disbelief and shock on their faces. Even Esme looked horrified for a second, but she masked it quickly. The Hales and Mr. McCarty continued to look as though nothing bothered them. If anything, they looked kind of bored.

I turned my head back to Jasper and said, "You have no idea how close you all came to losing me. I was standing there in the meadow with the gun to my head and my finger on the trigger, and just as I was about to pull it, a man stepped into the clearing and shouted at me to stop. It was James Hunter."

Tears began to fall from my eyes as I recalled the memory of the first time I James. "He walked over to me and took the gun out of my hands. He made me sit down and he asked me why I wanted to kill myself. I had never met him before and I knew I should've been wary because he was a stranger and I was all alone in the middle of nowhere, but I immediately felt safe with him. He hugged me and held me while I cried about all the things I had lost."

I smiled at the memory. "He was kind and caring, and it was just what I needed. Once I had calmed down enough, he took the bullets out of the gun and handed it back to me. It was getting late, and before we parted, we made plans to meet there the next day. And we did. We talked about ourselves and we became friends. I know it was kind of weird that someone 8 years older than me wanted to be my friend, but he knew what it was like to lose a parent, or in his case, both parents. He understood me and he didn't want me to feel lonely anymore."

Everyone was quiet while they let that information sink in. Five minutes later, I started talking again.

"James made me happy. We hung out a lot at his cabin and in the meadow and had fun. He made me feel sort of normal again. We didn't really care about our age difference because it just felt so normal being around each other. And besides, we were strictly friends back then. We weren't having sex, so it wasn't like we were doing anything illegal. Since I always felt happy around him, when I found out I was going to have a week off of school, I decided I would pack some things and spend the week at his cabin with him.

I didn't think anyone would notice that I wasn't going to be around for a week, but I was wrong. Even though it took him a few days to notice that I hadn't been home for awhile, Charlie got worried I guess. He hired some search and rescue dogs from La Push and that's how he found James' cabin. He had James arrested and when I tried to explain to him what happened, he just told me that I was suffering from Stockholm Syndrome or something. That was the first and last time he spoke to me after my mom died because he went right back to drinking and ignoring me after I got home."

"So that was why you became so upset after James was arrested? You realized you were going to end up alone again." said Carlisle.

I nodded. "Yeah, I knew that it wouldn't change anything."

"But that still doesn't explain what my wife and the others have to do with anything."

"I'm getting there. But I'll try to make this this quicker." I replied. "Even though he was in prison, James and I continued to keep in touch with each other through letters. He had even managed to send me gifts for my birthdays. Nobody else bothered to do that. We made plans for when he got out. I would be 18 by that time, so nobody could stop us from doing anything. For three years, thinking of our plan, was the only thing that got me through the day. I was accepted into a college in Chicago, and when he got out, he would give me a place to stay and a job at his company.

And that's exactly what we did. I graduated highschool, he got out, we waited until he was no longer on parole, and then he helped me get my things sent to Chicago and then we left. Over time, we fell in love, got married, I graduated from college, we had a baby, and then he died."

I looked over to Edward and smiled. "And then Edward walked into my life again. I was angry at him for how he had treated me in the past, and we ended up talking all about it. When I asked him why he and our friends treated me so badly," I looked at Esme and the others. "He told me everything."

Esme was glaring at me now and I could practically see the steam coming out of her ears and it seemed I had finally gotten the attention of the other parents.

I looked right at Esme and the others while I spoke. "Edward explained to me how all of you manipulated and threatened your own children. You told them that you would take away everything they had if they didn't stay away from me. You threatened to take away their cars, their phones, even their college funds and trust funds."

Esme finally spoke up, or more like shouted. "Shut up! You're lying! Don't listen to her!"

"Esme, sit the fuck down!" shouted Carlisle. I have never heard Carlisle yell before, let alone, swear. It was kind of disturbing. Apparently, the others felt that way too because they all just stood there with their mouths hanging open in surprise. The look on Esme's face was priceless. I don't think she ever expected her husband to talk to her like that.

"Tell me the truth! Did all of you really do that?" he asked. He got his answer when they remained silent. He stood up and began pacing back and forth while running his hands through his hair. Now I know where Edward picked up that habit. "Why would you do that to your own children? To Bella?"

When they still didn't answer, he yelled again. "Answer me!"

Esme finally had enough. She stood up and got right in Carlisle's face. "You want to know why we did those things?" she shouted. "We did it to protect our family's reputations! We couldn't allow ourselves to be associated with that family anymore. What would people think if we allowed our kids to be around someone who's mother killed herself because she was mentally unstable?"

"I don't give a damn about our reputation or about what other people think!" Carlisle said angrily. "Do you realize what you guys did? You hurt our kids by forcing them to stay away from Bella! And you ended up causing Bella so much more pain, to the point that she almost killed herself! What is wrong with you people?"

Mr. McCarty decided to speak up then. "There is nothing wrong with us, Carlisle." Mr. and Mrs. Hale nodded their heads in agreement, but still didn't say anything. I almost wondered if they could even speak at all at this point. "We just know that there are things that are more important than what our children want."

"I've heard enough!" said Carlisle. He looked at Mr. McCarty and Mr. and Mrs. Hale and yelled, "Get out! I don't ever want to see any of you ever again!" They quickly gathered their things and left.

Then he looked at his wife. "Esme? Go upstairs and pack your bags. I want you gone too."

"You can't throw me out of my own house!"

"Actually, Esme, it's my house. I own it. Now hurry up and get out! You can come and get the rest of your things after the holidays."

"Fine!" she huffed. As she walked past me she stopped and pointed at me. "This is all your fault! I wish you would have killed yourself when you had the chance!" She went to slap me, but Edward grabbed her hand before she could touch me.

The look on Edward's face was downright scary. "Don't you dare touch her." he growled.

"Esme, either you get your things and leave now, or I will call the police and have you removed. Think about what that would do to your reputation." said Carlisle.

She thought about it for a second and then turned around to get her things. A few minutes later we heard the front door open and slam shut.

I excused myself to go and check on Riley and when I saw that he was still asleep, I returned to the living room.

Rosalie, Emmett, Alice, and Jasper, had been practically quiet throughout everything. I think they were just trying to absorb what had just happened. Carlisle sat back down and put his head in his hands and it looked like he was crying.

After everything that had happened tonight, I didn't blame him. I decided that after everyone had some time to relax and clear their heads, I would tell them that I forgave them.

So I curled up next to Edward with my head on his shoulder, and waited.

A/N: So, what did you think? I can't force you to review, but if you've been following this story so far, I would REALLY like to know what you guys think about this chapter. And if you do review, please be honest. I promise to not get offended. If you didn't like it, let me know why. I'd really like to know.

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