Prologue

Running.

Running from the pain, the sadness, the loss of innocence.

Running from the lies, the hate, the bitterness.

Running from the only home she'd known for years.

Running from him.

They met in high school under the disguise of innocence and young love.

It was at a mutual friends party that they spoke for the first time. It went uphill from there.

Seventeen and dating.

Eighteen and in love.

Nineteen and in love in college.

Twenty and moving in together.

Twenty-one and bar hopping.

Twenty-Two and graduating college.

Twenty-Three and starting medical school for him and for her she decided to move forward and start towards a masters degree.

Everything was on the right track for them. That is, until twenty four.

Twenty-Four and finding out she was pregnant.

That's when things changed.

He just finished his first year of medical school when they found out she was expecting.

She was excited.

He was angry.

He had too much to lose with a baby on the way.

"There's no way I can be a father and continue medical school. I think you should get rid of it," he had told her.

She refused.

Always wanting to be a mother, Isabella refused to have an abortion.

That decision made Edward angry.

That's when the fights started.

All of a sudden he couldn't stand to look at her.

Mother she did was right.

She made the bed wrong.

His food wasn't hot enough when he got home.

The dishes weren't done and the house was a mess when they got home from their respective schools.

His unhappiness with the way she ran the house led to the bruises on her body.

Dinner wasn't made when he got home? Ended with her having a black eye for a week.

She interrupted his study session? Her wrist ended up broken.

The icing on her miserable cake happened when she came home from her three month check up.

Isabella was so excited to come home and show her boy friend the ultrasound of their child.

She parked her car in the driveway next to his and ran to the front door.

"Edward!" She had yelled as she ended the foyer. "Edward, where are you?"

She wasn't aware he was in the middle of a study session. It was Friday afternoon and he usually spent Friday's unwinding from the week before he studied intensively over the weekend.

Looking everywhere he usually is when he gets home on Fridays. Her last resort was going into his office. He was sitting behind his computer and glared angrily at her as she entered.

"Oh, there you are," she smiled as she rushed to him. She thrusted the sonogram photo at him. "Look, Edward, that's our baby."

Isabella didn't expect him to yank the photo out of her hand and rip it to shreds without even so much of a glance.

"Wha-" she began, as tears formed in her eyes. "What did you do that for? That was the only one I had."

Placing his hands on his desk, he stood up. Nate flashed in his eyes as he looked at her.

"Why the hell would you think I'd want to see a picture of that abomination growing in your stomach?" He hissed at her as he stalked around the desk.

Her shoulder shrunk inward and her arms wrapped around her barely there bump. "I thought you'd change your mind."

"Change my mind?" He screamed at her. "Why the hell would I change my mind?"

His hand shot out and back handed her across the face. She landed on the floor as a sob escaped her lips.

"Edward please," she sobbed.

"Edward please," he mimicked, before crouching down over her. "I told you to get rid of it. Do you honestly think I want to have children with you?"

"What?" She asked, confused. "bu-"

Before she could finish her sentence, Edward stood up and kicked her as hard as he could in the stomach. She screamed out in agony, clutching her unborn child.

"There is nothing I want less than to have children with you," he sneered, before kicking her again. "You are disgusting. Just a means to pass the time. I was never going to marry you. Allow you to bear my children."

He kicked her after every sentence.

She was sobbing on the ground. She tried to crawl away from him, wishing she had carpet to grab onto. She let out a blood curdling scream when he grabbed her by the hair on the back of her head.

"You are filth Isabella Swan," he hissed at her, before her head hit the hardwood floor.

Isabella awoke in a hospital bed.

The beating of the heartbeat monitors the only sound in the room.

Looking around confused, she saw her mother sitting in the chair next to her bed.

"M-mom?" She studded, her throat dry.

Her mother jolted from sleep and turned towards her.

"Oh, Bella," Renee sobbed, moving to the edge of the bed. Renee ran her hands over her daughter's face. "How are you feeling?"

"W-what happened?" Isabella asked, before wincing.

Renee stood for a moment to grab a cup of water. She placed the straw on Bella's lips and Bella greedily drank. The cold water soothing her throat.

"What happened mom?" She questioned her mother. "Why am I in the hospital? Where's Edward?"

"Oh, honey," Renee looked at her with sadness in her eyes. "Do you remember what happened when you got home from the doctors today?"

It took a moment for Bella to remember. When she did, her hand went straight to her stomach. Her eyes widened as she looked at her mother. Fear, present in her eyes.

"The baby?" She asked. Although, she feared for the answer.

"Bella honey, I'm so sorry." Renee whispered.

This all happened over a year ago.

The day Isabella was released from the hospital, she awoke to a note on the pillow beside her head.

Edward threatened that even though he never wanted the baby she was always going to be his little play thing. That he would take pleasure in breaking her over and over again for her mistake of getting pregnant and losing the baby.

It didn't make sense to her at all.

It terrified her even more.

When her parents came to pick her up from the hospital she begged them not to take her home. They ended up taking her to their house where all her old clothes were.

She packed everything in a duffle bag before heading to the back to withdraw everything she had. The moment she had her money in her hands, she disposed of her cell phone and bought a bus ticket. She didn't know where she was going but it didn't matter. All she cared about was getting out of that city.

She needed to run.

Boarding the bus, she let out a strangled sigh.

She hoped her mother understood.

Now at twenty-five, Isabella hoped she never saw Edward again.