Bella gripped her phone so tightly she was sure that it would shatter into a thousand pieces. On the other side of the receiver, Alice was going on and on about Edward's arrival back in Forks, talking so happily about how the two of them would walk down the aisle together. She sighed before Alice began talking about the woman Edward had brought home with him. Her sigh turned into shuddering breaths, shuddering breaths moving toward trembling hands. If there was anything she regretted about her life, it was the fact that she had hurt Edward. They had been fast friends when she moved to Forks her junior year, one of the few that stayed with her when they realized how reserved she was, one of the only people that had truly loved her. Bella moved toward her mirror, watching the tears drip from her face and onto her tshirt. She hadn't wanted to hurt Edward, she hadn't wanted to tell him no. If there was anything Bella truly wanted in this life, it was to spend it with Edward, to spend forever with Edward, happy and healthy. He was the only one that she had ever let close enough to almost see what was really wrong with her. She had dreamt numerous nights about spending eternity by his side. A white dress, children, the whole nine yards, but when the chance presented itself, when Edward asked for her to be with him forever, she couldn't do it. She couldn't let him waste his life, his time, on someone so utterly broken. She wouldn't have children, she wouldn't get married, and she knew that since the beginning. She shouldn't have led him on, shouldn't have gotten close, and shouldn't have let him love her. She shouldn't have loved him. She had tried throughout the years to warn him, to tell him that there was no forever, but her warnings fell on deaf ears, he only pulled himself closer to her. Edward had whole-heartedly loved Bella, loved her with everything that he had, and that's why she let him go. He deserved someone worthy of all that love. After the proposal, Edward had called her for a week, leaving desperate voicemail after desperate voicemail, begging to see her, to figure out where he had went wrong, but she hadn't answered, hadn't listened. She just let go.

Bella backed away from the mirror and wiped at her face, hoping that her puffy eyes would disappear by the time Charlie got home. The last thing she really wanted to do was talk about it. She walked to her bed, dropping the phone, and digging out a box from underneath it. Earlier this week, Bella had thought that it was time to make amends with the people in her life. That was honestly why she had said yes to being in Alice's wedding. She couldn't die thinking that Alice hated her, wanted that chance to give Alice her dreams. She pulled out an old, slightly bent picture from the box and smiled at it, it was from a party Ali had thrown while her family was out of town. In it, Alice had her arm thrown around Bella's neck, both girls grinning, holding cups full of unknown substances. When Bella had first settled here, she changed, let herself live a little, and that's what made her choose to stay, here she had the chance to feel alive. She set the picture aside and pulled out another, in this one, a much younger Edward had his lips pressed to a younger, fuller, healthier Bella's forehead. She ran her fingers over the image and almost cried again. He was so beautiful and she knew that today, that had probably increased by a tenfold. She held the pictures to her chest, wishing that she hadn't been sick, that she had just moved in with her father, and been happy. She had wanted to make amends, but she had never thought that she would have the chance to see him again. After she had turned him down, after the seven days of unanswered calls, he turned into someone else, turned away from his family, and just left…just like he had planned to do. Like he had planned for them to do together. She had pictured him falling in love again, being with someone who deserved him, but knowing now that he finally had moved on, her heart ached, it had been aching for a while now, the distance between them almost to painful for her to bare, the pain was killing her, and she let it, because this was her fault, this pain was her fault.

Charlie knocked lightly on the door before pushing it open, seeing her on the bed, pictures scattered around her, "Want to go to dinner, Bells?" her head snapped up and a small smile formed on her lips, looking almost sympathetic, and he feared she would turn him down again. "Me, you, Jake, and Billy?" she nodded slowly and pulled herself off the bed.

"I'd really like that, Dad."

Alice smiled and set her phone on her dresser, she knew that if Bella and Edward were going to be stuck with each other throughout the wedding events, that maybe they would break down and talk to each other, and then hopefully they would become the people they used to be. Alice had a very childish view on the two of them, thinking that all their mistakes could be fixed during a single conversation, that the two of them could even work through their problems, that they even wanted to do it. Alice had no idea that there had been a proposal, no idea that her best friend was sick, that her brother was so broken up inside, no idea about any of it. She raced down the stairs, brushing off her father who was waiting at the bottom, "Edward, I think you should go see Bella." Her father coughed behind her, her mother staring with wide eyes, whats-her-name glaring, and her brother didn't say a damn thing.

The Cullen's were tense as they sat around the table, Edward staring down at his untouched food, Alice glaring daggers through his head. Esme and Carlisle were at a loss for words. One because her children were obviously uncomfortable around one another, the other because he couldn't help but feel terrible about the secret he had been harboring. Edward kept his eyes on the table, thankful that Tanya had wanted to go back to the hotel for a massage, he couldn't imagine being forced to talk while sitting with these people.

The Swan's and the Black's sat a few tables down, unaware of the family not to far away from them. Jacob smiled in Bella's direction, nudging her arm and rolling his eyes at their fathers' conversation, all fishing. Bella had known Jacob since they were five, and Jacob had loved her since that very day, and he knew that she didn't feel the same way. He once thought that she had found her one, been totally off limits forever, until the split from Edward, and then after that he helped her pull herself together, found out about her illness, and that hadn't changed a thing. Bella hadn't meant for Jacob to know, she hadn't even been the one to tell him. Her father had blabbed to Billy, who blabbed to Jacob. She hadn't wanted anyone to know, she didn't want anyone to pity her, and Jacob didn't. He didn't treat her any different.

Edward pushed away from the table and stood, "I'm going to the bathroom." He nodded toward his parents and walked off, his mind still swarming with thoughts of what had happened at home. How dare Alice think that he could approach Bella? To go to her home and try to make things better, when none of it was even his fault? He huffed and scanned the restaurant, seeing plenty of people he had gone to high school with. He saw Jessica, Jacob Black, and was that Charlie? He walked toward the table without thought, wiping his sweaty palms off on his jeans. "Chief" He spoke before looking around the table, before he thought of who he was really speaking to. He paused, his eyes roaming the table, his eyes scanning the faces that were now staring at him in silence, stopping when he met a familiar brown. His eyes widened, his breath getting caught in his throat, taking in her small form. "Bella….?"