Here we are, today's update. See you again tomorrow.

Chapter 7

I sob a little, hating that I took me to the point of destroying her before I saw her. It's so strange that I thought I didn't care for her. Now that I remember our past, I can see she was trying to make me her friend, the exact same way I taught her. The hurt and pain is banging at the wall around my heart. Seeing Bella with Morgan, I know she loves my little sister as much as I do. Between our past and her love of my little sister, how can that not tug at my heart?

Bella turns lying flat and I move her hair out of her face. Jessica's right, Bella is pretty—beautiful in fact. She has such a soft face and her skin is perfect. Bella turns moving her head on top of my chest. I breathe in and hold it, scared to move. I'm scared to do anything. After a few minutes I let it out and just close my eyes enjoying the feel of her being so close. It has been a long time since I've been with a woman. I've not had the company of a woman in bed since before Morgan was born. I've never been big on sharing myself, and have had very few partners. I'm just not one to show those kinds of feelings, and the four I've been with have been bad judgment calls in the end. The only person I've told I love you to is Morgan, except Bella – when she was younger. I know I still love Bella, I can feel it inside me. Now that I've remembered, the love is there and stronger than ever. This love is a different kind of love than what I have for Morgan. I just need to work out what kind of love it is.

I close my eyes drifting off to sleep with my arms wrapped around Bella.

"What the hell!" Bella yells and I jump awake. "Why are you in my bed?"

"You had another nightmare, and I laid down with you like I used to at the unit home."

Bella moves away and I grab her arm. "What are they about – your dreams?"

Bella shakes her head at me.

"Please, Bella?" I say holding her arm gently.

"We're not friends, you hate me, remember?"

"No, I've never hated you."

Bella pulls her arm free and gets off the bed chuckling. "You could've fooled me." She stops at her bedroom door and turns to face me. "I missed you so much, and when I saw you that day, I was so happy to see you again. But you looked at me like I was a nasty bug! I thought I did something, I thought you were upset that I had a new family."

I go to speak, but Bella shakes her head.

"My mom, Renee, said you may not remember me, that you've had a different experiences than what I did. She only said you were badly hurt before and during your time in care. So stupid me, I tried to make you my friend again. I did things the way you showed me, the way you made me your friend. It didn't work; it only made you hate me more. You started hanging around James, and I was worried, really worried for you. Then I met Morgan and she said her brother needed a friend. I didn't know it was you until I promised her that I would try!"

"Why do you hate James so much?" I ask not understanding her odd feeling toward my friend.

"Out of everything that I said that's all you took from it?"

I feel ashamed, but I need to know if she has feelings for my friend.

"We have the same biological mother."

My eyes snap open wider and I just look at her. "He's your brother?" I gasp out and she shakes her head.

"No, he and Victoria never saw me as part of the family. I was not allowed to tell anyone my last name was Hunter. Just before I came to the unit home, James had locked me in the cellar for two weeks. I had to live on the dirty water that dripped down from the pipe leak, and eat jars of canned fruit that was old. I lived in that home for four years and he beat me so often that I didn't feel it when he broke my bones. In those four years I received twenty-nine broken bones.

"Just after he let me out of the cellar he set fire to the house. He and Victoria said it was me, and she couldn't cope with my wild behavior, and that's the reason I was taken to the unit home. The next four years I would visit only for him to hurt me, and she never stopped him. I ended up with another nine broken bones before Renee realized something wasn't right."

I frown at her, not understanding why no one stopped it before they did.

"They only knew about three of the broken bones. After the years of abuse, I got good at hiding my pain. Just after you left, James beat me so bad they had to call EMT. Thankfully, Renee had hidden a nanny cam on me and they saw what James did. He and Victoria were arrested, she passed away in jail. James got fifteen years, and he only served eight before he was out and back here."

Bella shakes her head and looks to me. "It was just after they got sentenced that Renee and Charlie adopted me. So no, I don't see him as my brother, and I'm sure he'd never call me his sister."

Bella walks away and I stand there in shock. How the hell can my friend be the monster that hurt her? I can tell she's telling the truth, and it manages to make me feel even guiltier than before. I've watched him bully her so often that it was as if it was normal.

Bella walks back into the room getting her clothes and fresh towels. She walks out and I hear the shower going. I sink down on the bed still unsure of what the hell I can do to make this up to her.

I don't turn when she walks back in, I just talk. "I've never had a family, not a real one. My life was always filled with me just keeping my head down and getting by. You were my friend and I cared about you very much, but when I left I just wanted to put the last six years behind me and move on. I asked about you, whenever Renee came by. I asked her if you were okay. If I had known you were hurting, I would've come back.

"When I met you that day, I was angry and pissed at my mom, and I hated Ed. I was blaming him for my mom's downfall. When you ran up shouting Ed at me—" I stop talking as I can remember the hate that filled me by being called the name of the man I despised at the time. "Then of course, Charlie arrived and put me in his car; that alone seemed like a good reason not to like you.

"I have no justification about how I treated you after that, but I'm sorry, Bella, really I am."

I turn and look at her and she nods at me once.

"So… you'll forgive me?"

She shrugs a little, but closes her eyes and nods once again. I move toward her to hug her, but she steps back opening her eyes, and I frown at her.

She walks out and I follow her all the way to the kitchen, where she picks up a glass, plate, and throws it on the floor smashing it into hundreds of little pieces.

"What?" I manage to ask and she looks down at the shattered mess.

She grabs the broom and sweeps it all into a pile. She picks it up using the dustpan. She lifts it up and looks intently at the shards of glass. "Sorry," she says to the now broken plate. "Well, what do you know, I said I was sorry to it, but it's still broken. I guess sorry doesn't fix everything," before dumping the lot in the garbage.

"I said I've forgiven you, but that doesn't change the fact that once we have solved this, I'm staying out of your way."

"But—"

She shakes her head cutting off my rebuttal. "I've tried for six years to make you my friend. All you have been is cruel and dismissive. Yes, you haven't been as bad as Jacob and James. You've only been really cruel when they're around, but I'm not blaming them for what you choose to say, do and ignore. When you broke that picture frame we made, that was it for me. I'll still help find yourself, and get you fixed. I'll reply to you when you speak to me—if we're alone—but that's it. I can't and won't give you any more of me."

I can see the tears running down her face and I know that I have a few, too.

"I'm sorry," I say again.

"I know," is all Bella says as she walks out of the kitchen. It only takes a few moments for me to hear the giggling of Bella waking up Morgan.

The days have come and gone. We're still no further along in finding out what happened to me, but that's not what's worrying me. Morgan has become sadder and I know she misses me. There's also the fact Bella still has this large wall built that's keeping me out. I know I have no one to blame but myself. On top of all of that, Bella's parents are due back this afternoon, and I'm not sure how they're going to handle Morgan being here.

"What are we going to tell them?" I ask.

"The truth, I mean all of it, even the fact that I can see you."

I drop to my knees in front of her. "They will think that you're insane," I say but she only shrugs.

"They'll believe me, they have to. Morgan can't go home without you, we both know that."

I sigh looking her right in the eye. The time seems to pass, but I can't look away from her. I now know what I feel for her is love. The love a man has for his woman, his lover, his mate, but I have screwed up. I know I will never have her as all of that, because I don't deserve her and I have no one to blame but myself.

She has always shown me such kindness and I have been cruel and unkind. I now know that maybe this whole thing was never about fixing me, but giving me the chance to mend my biggest wrongdoing. To show Bella she can and will move beyond her past. That she will and is loved not only by me, but by others. She'll know what James did to her—what he still does to her—is wrong.

"I'm sorry," I whisper out as the guilt fills me up inside.

"I know." She drops her head and I lean in and kiss the top of it. It's like I know now what I must do to move on.

"Baby, Bella, we're home." I move away from Bella as she runs to her parents.

A/N: Well there you have it, now you all know the back story between Bella and Edward, Bella and James, and how things got so out of hand. What do you think Renee and Charlie will think when Bella tells them everything?