A/N: Not to get too personal, although plenty of people know this: Bella's story is my own. I don't disclose this for sympathy, but to clarify this: When I divorced my first Navy husband, I had roommates and friends who were in the service, but I ignored everything that had to do with it and there was a lot they COULDN'T tell me. When I started dating my current husband, we dated primarily long-distance and he had a cushy shore duty job where he never got deployed in the last almost 10 years of his enlistment. When we got married, he was only in for two more years before he retired. My knowledge is LIMITED. Someone reviewed and I got the impression that they thought that maybe Bella somehow "deceived" Edward, even though she had been a previous Navy wife. She wasn't one for long and it clearly didn't go well for her. Let's cut the girl some slack, shall we?

"Can I ask you a question?" I glance over at Rose as she nods her head but doesn't look up from her phone. She and Emmett invited me over for dinner a few days after I got back from Virginia to check on me. "Do you think my first marriage fucked me up?"

I watch as her eyebrows shoot comically to her hairline, and she drops her phone to her lap, turning to look at me. "Where is this coming from?"

I shrug but don't answer her. Rose knew me when I got married; I was still in college, and we had been roommates when I met my first husband. We've never talked about it in great detail, but I want her honest opinion.

We're sitting outside on their back patio on a couple of chaise lounges they have set up while Emmett is inside dishing up bowls of ice cream. She turns toward me, frowning. "I don't think you're fucked up. I think you have justified trust issues that you never dealt with, and you just always declared that you were picky so you wouldn't have to actually be in a relationship."

Staring at her with a slack jaw, I don't know what to say at first. "Should I have gone to therapy?"

"Absolutely." There's no hesitation in her response, and I feel reprimanded by the person who has become my best friend. "Bella, I love you. You forget that I saw you deal with that asshole throughout your eighteen-month-long marriage. The weeks and months you spent crying because he was constantly cheating on you. The amount of time you spent obsessing over getting pregnant because you thought that would change things, and then you couldn't get pregnant."

I snort. "Thank God for that."

"Yeah, thank God. You'd be saddled with that asshole for the rest of your life. You forget that I was still there when you found out that you picked up his mistress and she was pregnant. I remember how you were—a shell of a person. Completely hollow and devoid of any emotion. You just woke up and sat on your couch all day until it was time for bed. I had to make sure you were eating and showering. I called out of work for you. Luckily, your boss was so understanding at the time."

I think back to all those years ago, and Rose is right. I was a mess, and I never addressed any of it, I just … moved on. I grieved, and as soon as the ink was dry on the divorce papers, that was it. I washed my hands of the whole thing and tried really hard to never look back.

"Edward might have intoned that therapy might do wonders for me … in order to do wonders for us." I roll my eyes but try to shake off the sarcasm when I see the seriousness in Rosalie's expression.

"He's not wrong. Keep in mind, Bella, he went to therapy for himself because he knew he was fucked up and because he knew he needed to if he wanted any chance of a future with you. Doesn't he deserve the same courtesy from you? The same dedication? I'm assuming this came up because you were having doubts about leaving him all alone on the other side of the country."

"Yes." I might be sulking as Emmett walks out with three bowls of ice cream and shoves one into my hands.

"And yet, in the time you two have been together in a committed relationship, he's never given you any reason not to trust him?" She takes a small bite of her dessert before pointing her spoon at me. "Jesus, Bella. You dated while you two were fucking each other! If it were me, I'm not sure if I could trust you."

There it is. The confirmation I've been waiting for. Edward isn't the one anyone should be worried about; it's me. What's that Taylor Swift lyric? I'm staring down at the bowl in my hands when Emmett clears his throat.

"I've known Edward a long time, and I feel like I know you well enough at this point to have an opinion, so can I say something?" Nodding at him, he smiles. "Edward trusts you, and you trust him. The past hurts, but you can either learn from it or run from it. Edward has begun to learn from it. What are you going to do?"

"Are you paraphrasing Rafiki from The Lion King?" Sighing, I nod again. "I'm going to learn from it because I'm not a quitter, and I love Edward. I'm not throwing this all away, again, just because I can't or won't do the work."

"Good." Emmett smiles as we all eat our ice cream in silence until I notice he's humming something.

"Is that 'Hakuna Matata'?" I start laughing, and he joins in.

"What? I have that movie on my brain now!" Emmett runs into the house, I'm sure to turn on Disney+, and I'm lucky to have these friends in my life.