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Edward crossed the room in a flash, taking the photo album from Renesmee's hands and placing it carefully back in the box, which he then locked. He glared at all three of them.

"What on earth possessed you to—that's private. Incredibly private. Alice—" He took a deep breath. Renesmee realised with shock that her father looked like he was trying not to cry. She'd never once seen him like this, ever.

Alice stood up. "Edward, I'm sorry—"

"No," he cut her off and left. Bella—who nobody had noticed entering after him—seemed to hesitate, her eyes flicking between Renesmee and the door, before she ran after him. Nessie turned back to Alice and Jacob.

"I think we did something bad," she whispered. "I—he—what did we see?"

Alice shook her head. "I don't know, I just don't know. What could have upset him that much?"

Jacob sighed. "I kinda feel bad now. I mean, in forty years I've never seen him like that. Hopefully your mom will be able to calm him down."

There was silence. Twenty minutes later, Bella came back, stepping into the room. Alice looked up.

"He knows we're sorry, right? I mean—we didn't know—"

"He knows," Bella said quietly. "He isn't angry, it's just…he told me some things today that he hasn't told anyone. Even Carlisle doesn't know, because it's too painful for Edward to talk about."

Renesmee looked down at the ground. Even now that she had reached maturity and stopped ageing, she hated to upset her parents. Bella wasn't done, though.

"Now he's decided that it's time to tell everyone, since you three found out and he doesn't want you to have to keep that a secret."

Renesmee blinked. "Wait, what?"

"Come downstairs in five minutes."

Five minutes later, the entire family was in the living room. Edward stepped inside, holding the photo album. Jasper stiffened slightly, and then Edward sighed.

"Thank you, Jasper." He looked around. "Today…someone snuck into my room and found something very personal," he said quietly. "There is something that I never once mentioned to any of you until today. It is very…difficult…to talk about."

Esme stood up. "Some of us can leave—"

"I would rather not tell this story more times than I have to." He hesitated. "I told you all that I was an only child. That was untrue. This…" He opened the album to show them a picture of the girl at about four. "This was my twin sister Edythe."

Alice sucked in a breath, and everybody was quiet.

"She was my best friend for my entire childhood. We were very alike in more ways than one. Of course there was the physical resemblance, but we also read the same kinds of books, liked similar music, and played the same sorts of games. The one thing that we always disagreed on was the wishing well, deep in the woods. Edythe was fascinated by it—she loved it. She would gladly spend hours playing there. I, on the other hand, was afraid of it. It was very deep—if you threw a stone in, you could count to five before it reached the water.

"One day, when we were eight years old, we had our worst argument ever. She had found out that my friends were the ones who were taking things in our neighbourhood, and although I'd had nothing to do with it, she was upset. She believed me when I said that I hadn't known, but then she said that I had to stop being friends with them or she would tell our parents. I refused, saying that they were my friends and real friends didn't abandon each other, no matter what they did. The argument escalated, until she said, 'If I murdered someone, would you help me cover it up?' I looked her right in the eye and said no. I said that I was only friends with her because I had to be, because twins had to be friends. And then she said… 'Well that's all right then, because you don't have to anymore. You don't have to, because I only like friends who actually like me.' And then she left."

Everyone was silent. Everyone wanted to know what happened next.

"She didn't come home that night. It was two in the afternoon when she left, and by six there was no sign of her. Mother thought she had simply lost track of the time, but I knew something was wrong. I instinctively knew, and I told our parents that. They dismissed my concerns. They began to worry, though, when it was seven o'clock and she hadn't returned. At eight PM they sent out the search parties. I wanted to help, but they insisted that I stayed behind.

"Five days. That's how long they looked for her. Then I realised that I knew where she had gone. I called for Mother to follow me, and I led her to the wishing well. I was devastated when I didn't see her. Somehow, I had been expecting her to be sitting there waiting for me the way she used to.

"That was when I saw something glittering on the edge of the well. Edythe's silver necklace. She never took it off, ever, and she had been wearing it when she had disappeared. She had been here. We checked the clearing for more clues, and then…and then I saw something, down in the water. Something white. Mother shone her lantern down, and…" He inhaled shakily. "And she was floating at the bottom of the well. She died thinking I hated her, and I've never forgiven myself. Maybe if I hadn't made her upset, she wouldn't even have been in that clearing on her own."

There was silence. Then Esme hugged him so hard it probably would've killed a human.

"Oh my God," she whispered. "I–I'm so—"

Everyone was completely shell-shocked. None of them could believe they hadn't known about this.

A/N

*Peeks around the curtain* Sooo...yes. I like writing tragic backstories...sorry. Um...it does get happier...kind of? Please don't kill me haha.

Review or you're gonna get eaten by a ghost! (I am also obsessed with Halloween lol) (also not sure why i said ghost and not vampire but whatever)