Charlie put up a rage-inducing, downright stubborn fight, insisting Alice could stay with Bella instead of in the reverse.
But credit to my sister - where Bella had failed, Alice had convinced Charlie otherwise and on many other, more important, things.
I heard them from upstairs where Bella was packing her bag, oblivious to the conversation taking place just feet below her in hushed tones.
"I get you don't like him Charlie, but is seriously watching Bella starve to death the hill you want to die on?"
His muted thoughts took on an odd tenor, somewhere between hatred and despair.
How the man had convinced himself she would get better by keeping on the way things were was far beyond foolish.
Charlie didn't honor her with a response. Alice kept prodding.
"She's going to graduate soon enough and move away. You can't keep them apart then. Wouldn't it be better to make sure things are different now, where you can see them?"
The impression of his thoughts turned defeated, shameful, as he rightly should be.
"Alice... I just can't see her like that again."
"Without Edward, Charlie, she's still there. Open your eyes."