This chapter probably has the most actual changes besides changing I/Me to She/Her. They are still minor changes and should not disrupt the story.
Thanks for reading!
Revisit…
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A soft knock breaks Bella from her daze and she blinks rapidly, glancing at the clock only to see that she's been sitting here long after she could have gone home.
She sits up and clears her throat. "Come in."
Tia, a fellow social worker and friend, pops her head in through the door of Bella's office with a smile.
"Are you still playing catch up?"
Bella grins. "The opposite actually. I've just been sitting here wasting time, lost in my own thoughts."
Tia nods. "Easy to do around here. Everything okay?"
Yeah." Bella shrugs a little.
"Client?"
"Sadly, no."
Tia pushes the door open a little further, revealing her pretty red Burberry folded over her arm. "Do you want to talk about it? Benjamin has a night shift tonight."
Her husband often has to work nights at the hospital, so Bella knows Tia's offer to listen is as much to keep herself busy for the evening, as it is to help a friend. Bella doesn't mind at all, but has to pause and think about whether or not she wants to share this part of my life with someone at work.
Misinterpreting Bella's silence, Tia waves her hand dismissively. "You don't have to talk about it. Never mind."
Bella sighs. "No… it's okay. I really do need to talk to someone."
Tia smiles and steps inside, closing the door behind her and laying her coat down neatly before sitting down in the oversized chair in the corner.
"What's up?" she asks casually.
Bella swallows back a little wave of nervousness and speaks carefully. "How much do you know about my past, Tia? About why I got into this line of work?"
Her colleague's face is thoughtful. "Not much, just something about an ex-husband. I assumed he must have had some kind of addiction."
Bella smiles halfway. "Yeah… he did."
"Does," Tia corrects. Bella nods, agreeing before blurting out her main concern.
"I ran into him while I was in Forks."
"Your ex?"
"Yes."
"How'd that go?"
She shrugs. "It was fine. I just... I'm having a difficult time deciding how involved I should get now that we've run into each other."
"Why?"
I laugh, though it's not funny. "Because he's Edward... He's my Achilles heel…"
She smiles wryly. "Everyone has one."
Bella nods, picking at a cuticle. "We met in high school, you know? I was new. He was handsome and popular, and oh… Did I mention he was the former star of my favorite childhood sitcom?"
Tia blinks, taken aback. "Seriously?"
Bella laughs. "Did you really not know that?"
"No!"
Bella nods. "He went by Eddie Cullen back then. He played the youngest brother on Home Development."
Tia thinks a moment and then her eyes go a little wide. "That little teeny bopper who was on the cover of all the teeny-bopper magazines in the nineties?"
Bella's cheeks heat, because she had a few of those back in the day. She nods and Tia leans forward. "Wow, Bella… I had no idea that was your ex. Now that I think about it though, I sort of remembering hearing something about him OD'ing a few years ago. Or being in rehab?"
"There was both."
Both women are quiet for a beat, then Bella begins.
"It was cocaine. His drug of choice? It was cocaine."
Tia acknowledges that with a nod and a sad smile. Bella sees something in her eyes then and relaxes, the story coming easily to her lips for the first time in a long time.
"He was already using when I met him, but you'd never have guessed it. He was a perfect student, handsome, polite, involved in extra-curricular activities and close to his family. Everyone thought he had it all, and when I transferred to Forks midway through our Junior year, I thought the same."
She pauses, thinking back to that first day.
"I knew he would be going to the school there, but his family had lived in Forks so long it was old news. I just wasn't prepared for him to take any notice of me. And it happened so fast, you know? One minute I was the new girl—the awkward, bumbling prodigal daughter— the next minute I was Edward Cullen's girlfriend. I was completely blinded to anything else. And by the time I saw the signs, I was far too gone to get out without getting burned."
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