A/N: Thanks to all who reviewed/favorited/followed! All mistakes are mine. I hope ya'll like this chapter! Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

For those of you who were upset by the social worker's actions, just stay with me. I promise it's not what you think.

After reading a certain review, I feel like I need to say this, so here it goes. If you don't want to read my story, then don't. No one is making you. I put warnings up at the beginning of each chapter (if needed) and there is a warning on the summary of this story. If you don't like what's happening, then that's your loss. I write because I want to. This story has Angst as its main genre for a reason. THIS STORY IS VERY ANGSTY in case you haven't noticed. While I do appreciate constructive criticism, hate comments will not be tolerated. If you don't like my story, then stop reading it. I'm not going to change my story based on one review.

For everyone else, thank you guys so much for your feedback! I can't tell you how much it means to me. Keep it coming! I know some of you are worried about me dragging on Bella's suffering, but please don't be. I'm not saying it will happen in this chapter, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Just stick with me, I promise it will be worth it! Now onto the story.

"Is it too late now to say sorry, cause I'm missing more than just your body. Is it too late now to say sorry? Yeah, I know that I let you down. Is it too late to say sorry now?" – Justin Bieber

Chapter 30

EPOV

March 2010

What have I done?

Every day at school, Bella comes in with some new injury on her. Although she hides it well from everyone else, I know her too well. I can see how much physical pain she's in. Whether she's limping or refusing to be near people, I know someone is hurting her. I just need to find out who and put an end to it.

I've had a lot of time to think over the past couple of months. Time to step back and look at the entire picture. I've distanced myself away from everyone so I can figure out what anything and everything means to me. What I've come to realize shocks me.

Every time I see Bella, a little piece of me breaks inside because I know that I am the one who did that to her. I know that I am the one who broke her, maybe not physically, but mentally and emotionally. I did that to her. Me. I am the source of her pain and she is the source of mine.

When we were together, I couldn't see how much I cared for her, how much I loved her. I couldn't see that she was the only one who kept me grounded, who kept me, me. She was the one who was always there for me no matter what.

She was my best friend, my girlfriend, my lover, and I treated her like shit. I can't hate myself more for what I've done to her and it only took four months for me to realize it. I blamed her for all the secrets and lies, when I really should have stepped back and seen her point of view of it.

If she wanted to tell me whatever secrets she has, she would have. Until then, I should've just given her time. I shouldn't have forced her to choose like I did. It was stupid and rash and now I don't have the girl that I love anymore.

Every night in my dreams, I relive the night of the party. I relive the part where Bella sees me making out with Tanya. I see the look of betrayal on her face and I hate myself for it. I want to punch myself in the face for what I did to her. I deserve it.

In my dreams, something always sticks out to me. Each dream, I distinctly remember feeling like something was off. My head is spinning and I can't think straight. Everything around me starts to blur and I just feel like something is off. Something isn't right in this dream. I don't know what it is or what it means, but I have no excuse for what I did to Bella.

I broke her, which in turn, is breaking me.

And you know what it took for me to realize this?

Alice.

The anniversary of Alice's death was last month and ever since then, I've seen my relationship with Bella in an entirely different light.

On the day of Alice's death this year, I realized how alone I felt. I felt like I didn't have anyone I could talk to, not even my parents. I thought about how I coped with this loneliness last year, then I remembered I didn't. I wasn't lonely last year. I had Bella. She was here for me and I didn't realize how important she was to me until it was too late. And now I have to do live with the consequences of my actions.

Every day is a living hell. I see Bella in the hallways, but I don't talk to her. I can't. Why would she even want to look at me, let alone talk to me, after everything I've done to her? It's torture. I see how much pain she is in, but I know I can't do anything about it, no matter how much I want to. It doesn't matter how much I want, no need, to take back what I did. I know there's no way she can ever forgive me for it, but I want to be back in her life someway.

It seems like Bella, and only Bella, consumes my every waking thought. She consumes my dreams at night. She is the first thing that I think about when I wake up in the morning and the last thing that I think about before I fall asleep at night. Even at school and football, everything is about Bella.

But the question still remains. What was she hiding from me and why?

**TCWT**

School goes by slowly. I feel myself zoning out at all parts of the day. When I finally tune back in to what's going on around me, it is lunch and Tanya is talking.

"You know, I think she's pregnant. She's always in the bathroom in the mornings. She always wears those same old, baggy, nasty, clothes every day. It's the only logical explanation, guys." Tanya smirks and grabs a grape off her plate. I watch as she throws it across our table and hit Bella on the head. Our entire table, save Seth and I, erupts in laughter.

Utterly outraged by what just happened, I stand up and slam my hands on the table. "Would you all just leave her the fuck alone already? She hasn't done anything to any of you! If any of you do anything to her ever again, you will answer to me." And with that, I storm off. I go outside and wait in my car until football practice.

Time goes by so slow as I wait for practice to start. Then football drags on and on.

This is my life now. Just going through the motions of school, letting life go by. I have nothing to look forward to anymore. I have nothing exciting in my life. I just feel so empty.

On my way home from practice, a police officer pulls me over when I am about ten minutes away from the school. I patiently wait until the cop gets out of his cruiser and walks my way.

"Do you know how fast you were going, kid?"

That voice. I know that voice. I look up to a familiar and sinister face.

It's Phil, Bella's foster dad.

Resentment consumes me. He's one of the reasons that Bella kept lying to me. I can't help but spit out my response. "You." I say angrily.

Phil's head snaps up. Eye to eye, I see recognition flash across his face. "You're the kid who took my fun away for an entire year," he mumbles out. I don't think I was supposed to be able to hear or to understand that because it doesn't make any sense to me.

I took away his fun for a year? What is that supposed to mean?

"Get out of the car," He spits out.

"What? Why? I thought I was just speeding?" I'm so confused. Why the hell do I have to get out of the car?

"I said get out of the fucking car!"

I don't move, which only infuriates him even more.

"This is resisting arrest! You're going to jail with me right now!"

"The hell I am! What the hell are you talking about? I haven't done anything to get arrested!"

My response only spurs him on. He pulls his gun out of his holster and points it at me. "Get out of the car now or else I will shoot."

My eyes go wide. Now scared for my life, I immediately open the car door and get out.

"That's a good boy." He puts his gun back in his holster and gets out some handcuffs. "Now, put your hands behind your back. You are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent. If you do say anything, what you say can be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to consult with a lawyer and have that lawyer present during any questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be appointed for you if you so desire."

All while saying this, he is leading me to the backseat of his cruiser. He shoves me inside forcefully, almost making me hit my head on the top of the car on the way in.

Not a word is spoken on the way to the police station. Once there, Phil yanks me out of the car and inside the building. He all but throws me inside the holding cell without a second glance.

A couple of hours go by before anything happens. Phil finally comes up to me and says that I can use my one phone call now. He unlocks the door and I walk straight to the pay phone. I quickly dial my mom's number and hope for the best. It rings four times before she finally picks up.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Ma. I need your help."

"What are you talking about? Why aren't you home? Practice got over three hours ago! Do you know how worried I've been?" Mom all but screams in my ear.

"I know. I know. I'm sorry. Please just calm down and listen to me. I got pulled over and the asshole arrested me for no reason. I'm at the police station right now. Can you come and get me?"

I can hear her gasp on the other end. "Edward… What did you do?" She asks warily.

I huff in frustration. "I didn't do anything, Mom. Just get down here please."

"Okay… Your father and I are on our way down there right now."

"Thank you."

I hang up the phone and go back to me cell. I wait patiently for my parents arrive.

As soon as my mom walks in the door, she runs straight for me. "Oh, baby. What happened? Are you alright? Why are you here? What did you do?"

I huff and roll my eyes. "I didn't do anything! This asshole over here," I point to where Phil is standing, "arrested me for no good reason!"

Phil decides now is the time to make his opinion known. "That is not true, ma'am. Your boy was speeding and when I pulled him over, he refused to cooperate with me. I had no choice but to arrest him."

"What the hell are you talking about? I cooperated with him! He pulled his gun out on me within five seconds of pulling me over! He told me to get out of the car or that he would shoot! I didn't do anything wrong! He's fucking psycho!"

"Boy, you should know better than to lie, especially about an encounter with an officer," Phil says with a smirk on his face.

"I am not lying! Mom, you have to believe me! I didn't do anything wrong!"

Mom looks at me skeptically and it's Dad who responds to Phil.

"So are you pressing charges against him? He is still a minor."

Phil sighs angrily. "No. I am not pressing charges. This is his first offense and it will go down in his permanent record, but he won't be taken to court."

"Oh, thank goodness," Mom lets out a breath sigh. "Let my boy out of this cell right now!"

Phil walks over to me, a sick grin on his face, and unlocks my door. "I'm going to need one of you to sign some papers in the back."

"I'll do it," Dad says. He walks over to the desk while Mom and I head over to the front of the station without a single word.

It doesn't take Dad long to sign the papers and before I know it, we're all heading home. When we get in the car, the interrogation begins.

"What were you thinking? Resisting arrest?" Dad yells.

"I didn't resist! He pulled a gun out on me before I even had a chance to blink!"

"Sweetie, why are you lying to us?" Mom asks, trying to diffuse some of the tension in the car.

"I am not lying to you guys! I'm telling the truth! Why can't you believe me! I'm your son!"

"But Mr. Swan is also the chief of police. Why would he lie to us?"

"I don't know! Ask him! But believe me, I didn't do anything!"

"That is enough, Edward! I'm sick and tired of you not taking responsibilities for your actions! Stop blaming your mistake on Chief Swan!"

"But –"

"I don't want to hear another word out of you. I can't tell you how disappointed I am in you right now." Dad practically screams at me.

"But, Dad…"

"I don't want to hear it, Edward." He sighs. "You're grounded until further notice. You go to school, football practice and then straight home. Nowhere else. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir," I say, completely dejected.

"Is this about Bella, sweetheart? I know you two broke up. Is this your way of telling us that you're hurting?" Mom asks quietly.

"What? No! This has nothing to do with Bella!"

"I wish you would talk to us, baby. You've been acting out. This isn't like you, Edward."

I sigh in frustration and grab at my hair. "There's nothing to talk about!"

Mom sighs, but doesn't answer after that.

How can my parents think that this about Bella?

How can my parents not believe me?

Why would I lie about something like this?

How could they do something like this to me?

What can I do to make them realize that they're wrong?

When we get home, I go straight to my room. I feel so rejected right now. How could my own parents treat me like this? It's like they didn't even want to listen to my side of the story. They just automatically assume that I did something wrong? How could they? I feel so betrayed right now.

I keep going over mine and Phil's encounter over and over again in my head. What did I do to set him off? What did he mean when he said that I took away his fun for an entire year? Is he talking about Bella? How did I take her away from him? What does he mean as Bella being his "fun?" Could this have something to do with all of Bella's lies and secrets?

My thoughts eventually tire my brain out into sleep, albeit a restless one at that. All I could think about was the way Phil got so mad at me for something so stupid and to think that Bella lives with him.

The next day, I get to school early. I just need to get out of my house and away from my parents. I stay in my car until the tardy bell rings before I go inside. When I walk in, I notice Bella favoring her left leg as she walks. She looks like she's having a hard trouble breathing too.

What happened to her?

I know Phil was extremely pissed off that he didn't get the chance to book me last night, and now Bella is coming to school with a limp and trouble breathing?

Is this the missing puzzle piece?

Is this what Jacob meant by "you don't know what goes on behind closed doors at Bella's house?"

Is this why she always lied to me and kept secrets from me?

Is Phil abusing her?

Why wouldn't she tell me? I could've helped her.

Just like you helped yourself to Tanya the moment that things started to get rough in your relationship?

Yeah, no wonder she never told me anything.

I study Bella very carefully for the rest of the day. I don't get to see much because for most of the day she is holed up in the girl's bathroom. I do, however, get to see her on her way to Mr. Masen's class. She's still limping and I don't know what to do about it.

I don't have enough evidence to tell anyone if my theory is true, but I do have enough balls to ask my dad about it when I get home.

"Hey, Dad?" I ask warily. My parents and I haven't exactly been on the best terms as of lately, especially now because of this whole 'I just got arrested' thing.

"What do you need, Edward?" Dad asks, clearly frustrated.

"I was just wondering… How do you know if someone is being abused?"

I watch as his entire body freezes when he hears my words.

"Who do you think is being abused, son?"

"Well, I don't know. That's why I want to know what the signs are and stuff."

Dad visibly sighs. "I hoped you would never ask us these things." Dad pauses for a moment before continuing. "Signs of abuse can range from bruises on the body to flinching uncontrollably when someone gets too close to them."

I let that sink in for a moment. All of the bruises that I've seen on Bella's body over the past year… When we first met, Bella would always flinch if I tried to touch her or if I yelled… It's all starting to make sense. It's the only logical explanation, but why didn't she trust me enough to tell me?

By the time that Dad starts looking at me funny, I realize that I haven't responded to him yet. "Um, thanks for the information, Dad. I'm going to bed, goodnight."

I hear him sigh as I turn and all but run up the stairs to my room. "Goodnight, son."

I race to my shower and strip my clothes off.

I can't think about this right now. Bella is being abused by her foster parents, or at least her foster dad. Why didn't she tell me? Why hasn't she told anyone about this? Why is she protecting that monster?

Because no one would believe her. The voice in the back of my head says. Just like no one believed you last night. It's your word against an officer's.

Frustrated beyond relief, I get out of the shower and pull on the first pair of pants I see. I stick my hands in my pockets, out of habit, and find something inside of them. I pull it out and freeze when I see what it is.

It's a condom.

Specifically, it's the condom that Dad gave me in the elevator the night that Bella and I first made love.

Oh shit.

We didn't use a condom. Come to think of it, we never used a condom when we slept together. I know I always had the intent to, but I just always got too caught up in the moment to put it on.

How could I have been so stupid? Bella and I slept together countless times and I never remembered to wear a condom? I'm a fucking idiot, pun intended.

Oh, God. What about Bella? I mean, I know we were each other's firsts, so there's no chance of having an STD or anything, but there are other repercussions of having unprotected sex.

All thoughts of Bella being abused by her foster dad fly out of my mind at the thought of Bella being pregnant… with my child.

Is this what Tanya was talking about today at lunch? Bella is constantly in the bathroom. She has constantly been wearing the same baggy clothes over and over again to school, despite the entire wardrobe that I got her for Christmas when we were together. If she's pregnant, then they wouldn't fit anymore.

This all makes sense.

This could be another secret that she was hiding from me.

Is Bella pregnant?

The day of Emmett's party, that morning, Bella said that she wanted to tell me something but she couldn't. Was she talking about this? Did she think I was going to react badly to it? Did she think I was going to tell her to get rid of it?

The fact that I cheated on her some odd hours later probably didn't help the situation either.

I have to find out the truth. I have to know if she's pregnant.

The next day at school, before Bella has a chance to hide out in the bathroom, I grab her by the arm and practically tow her to a nearby supply closet. Once inside, I take my hands off of her and look her directly in the eyes.

It takes her a second to get her bearings back, but when she does, she freezes. Bella stares at me with so much pain in her eyes that it practically cripples me.

Not knowing what else to do, I look down and fiddle with my hands. I notice something on them and I take a closer look. It's blood. I examine my hands and note that the blood isn't mine, so that means it must be Bella's. I look up to ask her about it, only to find her trying to get out of the closet.

I carefully grab her by her shoulders and pull her back. "Hold on, Bella. I have to talk to you about something important." I coax, but it doesn't work. This time when I touch her, she flinches, hard.

One of the signs of abuse is flinching at close contact. I can hear my dad's voice in the back of my mind. That in mind, I take my hands off of Bella and take a step back. I don't want her to think that I'm going to hurt her.

As I take in her appearance, I get back to the whole reason that I brought her in here in the first place. "Are you pregnant, Bella?" I ask quietly.

Her movements still. She looks up at me with confusion written all over her face.

Well, I guess I have my answer then.

When she doesn't answer after a few minutes, I gently grab her arm. Bella looks completely petrified and flinches and cowers away from me when I touch her. "Bella please. You can talk to me." I try again.

More flinching.

At some point during our encounter, I realize that if she wanted my help, she would have told me. I can't save someone who clearly doesn't want to be saved.

"Bella, please." I try once more, but it doesn't work.

The way she's looking at me right now… it's as if she thinks I'm about to brutally hurt her. Even though she knows, or at least she did know that I would never, ever hurt her.

I try to cup her cheek in comfort, but when she whimpers in pain, I back off. I walk out of the supply closet, leaving her in there by herself. I'm still slightly worried about her, but if she refuses to talk to me, I can't do anything about it. I don't want to scare her any more than I have today, either. She looked like a deer in headlights when we were in there together.

On my way out, Seth sees me and stops me. "What was that all about?" Shit, he must have seen me take her in there.

I try to play it off like nothing happened. "Don't worry about it. It's nothing."

"It sure looked like you were checking up on her to me." His smirk is getting bigger and bigger by the second.

Annoyed by his assumptions, even if they are true, I say, "Yeah well fuck you and what you think."

"You still care about her, Edward. It's written all over your face."

I sigh and look down. "Look, the damage is done now. She's just not my problem anymore."

"You can still fix this, Edward. You can make this right. I know you want to."

"She hates me, Seth, and she has every right to, too. As much as I want to, I can't make this right. It's too late. I've lost her. I can't do anything to help her anymore." I say, defeated.

Seth sighs and walks away, clearly fed up with my mood swings.

I don't care what I just said to Seth. Even if she's not pregnant, I still need to do something to help her. She's always in pain. How can I take that pain away from her? How can I help her?

Pain pills.

That's it! I can give her my pain pills from my broken rib. I didn't use them all, so maybe Bella can. But how do I get her to take them? She would never accept them if they were from me or admit that she's in pain.

What if she didn't know who they were from? She'd probably take them then. If she's in enough pain, which she clearly is, she'd have to.

The next morning before school, I grab my pill bottle and rip off the label with my name on it. I grab a sheet of paper and some tape to replace the writing. On the paper I write, Oxycodone is inside, Bella. Take one pill every four to six hours for pain. Take with water and do not take on an empty stomach. I hope this helps.

There. It's ominous, yet helpful. It's perfect. I just hope she'll actually take it. I stare at the container of pills for a few more minutes to make sure that I didn't miss anything.

Does she have plenty of pills? Yes.

Does she have a place to hide them? Yes.

Does she have access to water? Yes.

Does she have access to food?

I stop in my tracks. I never see Bella with food during school. When we were together, I always made sure I had enough food for the both of us at lunch, but now… I don't know.

Deciding it's better to be safe rather than sorry, I go downstairs, avoiding my parents, and pack Bella a sandwich. I put it in my bag and head off to school.

When I get to the parking lot, hardly anyone is here. Good. Then no one will see me do what I'm about to do.

I quickly get out of my car and head inside. I walk over to Bella's locker and swiftly unlock it. As I set the bottle of pills and sandwich inside her locker, I look around to make sure no one is watching me. For this to work, she can't know they're from me. She wouldn't take them then.

I hastily back away from her locker and head back outside to my car. I wait for everyone else to show up before I go back inside the building.

I watch as Bella opens her locker and sees the stuff I put inside. She immediately looks around her, suspicious of who would be helping her. I watch as she reads my note on the pill bottle with hesitance. She sighs and shuts her locker.

At lunch, I watch Bella to make sure that she takes the sandwich and pills. I make sure that she follows my instructions on the bottle. Relieved when she finally does take the medicine, I sit back and relax. At least I can do something good for her now.

If this is all I can do to help her, I'm going to do a damn good job at it.

A/N: Thoughts? Can we get up to 260 by Monday? Next up BPOV. See you next week!