Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. Edited by Sjdavis84 and StillDreaming85.

WARNING: This story contains mature themes and is intended for mature reade

MARIE CULLEN (ISABELLA)

SIX MONTHS AFTER.

I was numb. Emotionally, I had shut down. After Anthony's death, things changed, everyone changed.

Esme had lost a child, that sort of pain, it would take a long time to recover from, if she could ever recover from something like that.

Edward, these past months had become distant yet suffocating at the same time. Emotionally, he was distant although he did have his brief moments when he would open up. I think in some way he feels responsible for his brother's death. But in a situation like that, Edward had no control over the outcome. There was nothing that he could have done.

I didn't know how to handle Anthony's death. Anthony had tortured me, he had abused me, and had done horrible things to me. Yet I didn't have any satisfaction from his death.

I had watched the life leave his body. I had my hands stained with his blood, but I didn't feel a thing, not satisfaction, not regret, or sympathy or sorrow. When it came to Anthony, it was as if my emotions refused to function. They refused to tell me the truth.

Garrett didn't die that night, but he had been badly injured. He's okay now. He was still watching over me.

I missed James every day. In the short time that I had known him, he had become more of a brother figure towards me. James was the big brother I never knew I wanted, but wished I had.

My heart bled for him. He died without ever being reunited with his sister. I hoped wherever James was now, he could look down and see that his sister was alive and she was okay.

I never told Garrett or even Edward about James and Victoria. It was too personal, too much. It was a secret I would take with me forever. If I ever saw Victoria again, I would tell her about her brother and how hard he had tried to find her.

Edward had given me more freedom, like he had promised. But freedom came at a cost. I wasn't allowed anywhere without him or Garrett present. I wasn't even allowed to be alone with his mother. Edward had changed over these months, he was colder, harder.

I always preferred going out with Garrett. With him, it was easy to forget that he wasn't with me. He would walk next to me, but he would never touch me or say a word. I appreciated Garrett more, unlike Edward, who hovered over me, sometimes it was suffocating. He was almost possessive, no, he had become possessive.

Edward called this freedom, but it was anything but. I couldn't leave the house without his permission. Garrett couldn't even come with me for a walk in the park without getting Edward's approval first. They wouldn't even tell me the security code for the door. This wasn't freedom, it was only a better prison cell.

When Anthony died, Edward never let me attend his funeral. But, today after months of begging him, he had finally caved in.

I thought, maybe if I had the chance to say goodbye, I might be able to finally feel something, even anger I didn't care I would welcome it.

Standing in front of Anthony's grave, nothing happened. I still felt nothing. It frustrated me to no relief because I didn't understand why I needed to feel something towards him, why I needed to label an emotion to describe his death.

Anthony! The man that ruined my life. The man that abused me. The man confused me beyond words.

Standing at his grave, memory after memory of everything that he had done to me, every time he touched me, every word he spoke to me came flooding back and still nothing.

"Are you okay?" Garrett asked.

"I'm fine." I sighed, defeated.

"Are you finished? We have to go, Mr. Cullen's been calling non-stop asking about you."

Of course he was, I thought. He had to know where his prisoner was at all times.

Many times I often wondered what death would be like? Would it ease the pain? Would it really be a freedom? Or would it trap me in another hell?

Death!

Dying!

The thought became more and more appealing every single day. There were days that I wished for death. I wished that I could go to bed and never wake up again.

"Garrett, before we go, can you take me to someone's grave?" I asked.

"Whose?"

"Mine."

~DINY~

I laid the single white rose next to the headstone. Kneeling by the grave, I brushed my fingers along the cold stone.

"I'm sorry," I said, willing myself not to cry, not any more. All of this could have been avoided, no one had to die, none of this had to happen. But it's funny, isn't it, the turn your life takes and the places it leads you. I wondered who was in there? Who had they killed for me?

I closed my eyes and sighed, letting the tears fall. No one would see me crying here.

I wish things were different. But no amount of wishing or praying would change what had happened, I learned that a long time ago.

I heard the footsteps behind me. Garrett couldn't even give me five minutes alone. I can't be mad at him though, he brought me here without Edward's knowledge, this hadn't been part of the plan. If Edward were to find out...Well, I hope he didn't, lord knows I wouldn't tell him.

"Hello, Isabella." That voice wasn't Garrett's, that voice was one I have never heard before.

I wondered where Garrett was. Why had he allowed this stranger to come up to me, a stranger that knew me by name. A stranger that called me by my name, a name that only Edward calls me now. I was no longer Isabella, I was Marie to the world.

The stranger kneeled down beside me. I could feel his eyes on me. I turned to look at him. It couldn't be, he was in jail, he was locked away. How could he be here?

"You're..." I trailed off, staring at the man. Edward was a spitting image of their father.

"I am," he said.

"I thought you were in jail?" I blurted the words right out without thinking.

"I was. But I have served my time now," he said, continuing to stare at me.

"Why are you here?" I asked my father-in-law, and only moments later did I realize what a stupid question that was.

He chuckled, pinching the tip of his nose. "You would think my first priority would be to go and see my wife," he said. "But, my first priority is you."

"Are you going to kill me?" I asked. I haven't feared death for a long time, but I didn't know what to expect from this man. I didn't know what he wanted from me.

"If I wanted you dead, Isabella, believe me, you would have been dead a long time ago, daughter-in-law or not," he said, taking my hand in his and resting it on his knee. "No apology will ever be good enough for what my son's have done. You, should have never been involved in any of this. What Anthony did was the worst of all."

"How do you know what he did?" I asked, shifting my knees on the dirt so I was facing him.

"I may not have been here to stop it, but I knew everything that was happening. I have eyes everywhere Isabella."

"What do you want from me now?" I asked, confused as to why he was here with me now instead of going home to his wife and his family.

"I want to offer you a way out, away from all of this. I can give you your old life back," he said.

I wanted to laugh at his words, but he held a dominating presence and I don't think my laughter would be taken as anything other than disrespect.

"I'm dead to the world. I don't think that would work," I said.

"I have people that will come up with a convincing story. Or, I can take you away from here, go start another life somewhere else far away from here, away from my son," he said.

I closed my eyes and could not stop the tears that fell. I had no fight in me. I had lost hope a long time ago and I couldn't play these games anymore.

"Mr. Cullen, please, I'm begging you. If you're going to kill me, I'm right here, please do it, I won't scream, I won't fight, but I can't play these games anymore, please," I cried.

"I am not playing games with you, Isabella. I will not force you to leave, I will not make you do anything you do not want to do. If you want to stay here, if you want to stay with my son, then I will accept that. But if you want to leave, I will make it happen," he said, wiping the tears off of my face.

Did I want to leave? Could I? This sounded almost too good to be true. What about Edward, how would he react if I were to up and leave?

"Would you like to see your mother?" He asked.

"What?" I almost yelled. What the hell had he done to my mother?

"I had someone track her down. Did you know she has moved from the city?"

"No, I didn't," I said.

"Here," he said, handing me his phone. He opened up his messages from a contact only labeled as D. There was a video attachment. "This was only sent an hour ago."

He played the video for me. My mother was sitting inside a cafe with a small group of people, three other women, one I recognized. She looked happy, smiling. I covered my mouth to muffle the sob that left my mouth.

My mom, I missed her so much. She looked different. It had been over a year since the last time I had seen her this close, touched her or smelled her. She always smelled of cherry blossoms.

"I can take you to your mother right now," he said.

"No," I said, handing him the phone.

"Are you sure? Isabella, I can make all this go away."

"I know my mother, Mr. Cullen. She believes I'm dead, I know how hard that had to be for her to accept, to move on from. She looks happy there. I don't want to do anything to take that happiness away from her. If I suddenly reappeared, it would kill her, she couldn't handle it," I said, wiping my eyes. "She looks happy, at peace almost. She and my dad, they'll be okay without me."

It hurt a lot to see that footage of my mother. I wondered where my father was though? Was he as happy as mom was? Had he found peace in all of this? I know mom would take care of him. They believed I was dead, and that was probably better because if I were to go back to them, I wasn't the same person anymore. I was broken, damaged beyond repair.

Mr. Cullen offered me a small smile. He put his arm around my shoulder and pulled into his arms. He let me cry on his shoulder, he comforted me rubbing his hands up and down my back.

"Isabella, you need to make your decision now. This will be the only time I can get you away from my son. I don't know when the next chance will be," he said.

It was a simple decision really, one I didn't need to put much thought into. I only hoped that Edward would never find out.

"I want to leave."