A/N- This chapter, and the entire story, contains the effects of emotional abuse/manipulation. Please consider this when deciding to read.

This chapter was Beta'd by Dollybigmomma, please give her some love. As ever, she lets me know about mistakes, but sometimes I simply don't listen. What can I say? I'm a rebel. She, however, is nearly without flaws. Don't let my rebellion sully your opinion of her grammar and formatting skills.

The reviews in the past week were wonderful and really spurred me to write more. Please keep them coming if you feel so inclined.

Bella

Bella tried to hold herself together the rest of the day. She barely talked during lunch, and she did her best to avoid looking up and around. It was hard, nearly impossible, but she'd had plenty of practice going against her instincts. She knew she had the ability to endure.

When the last bell finally rang, she exited as quickly as she could. The further she got from the school, the less weight was on her chest.

They were here. She hadn't seen them yesterday, so she'd thought she was safe. How had their dad not picked them up and moved to Seattle at least?

Here, here, here, why were they here?

The moment Bella heard her Spanish teacher welcome "senorita Cullen" back, every muscle in her body stiffened. When he showed up in Biology, and then sat next to her… she could have sworn the walls were getting closer. When the bell rang, she had gotten out as quickly as she could, and only the fear of the consequence from Phil kept her from leaving the school altogether.

She used that energy now though, nearly sprinting home. She got to the house and immediately keyed herself in, locking it behind herself hurriedly, like she was being followed. She grabbed her phone and sent a text to Phil saying she was home. It was unlikely that he would ask for a full update, but if he did, she was screwed. She knew he'd be able to tell by her face that something had happened.

It really didn't matter that her lab partner was a boy, she'd have gotten some kind of punishment or lesson from Phil either way. If it had been a girl, he would tell her how much better they were, how they were pretty, smart, and good, and deserved kindness, while Bella was ugly, stupid, and evil, and she deserved everything he gave her. A small part of her had thought he was wrong, but as the years went on, she couldn't be sure what he was wrong about, or if he was at all.

A boy lab partner would have come with a bit more of a warning, maybe even a small demonstration of what they wanted from her.

But no, her lab partner wasn't just any boy, it was the boy Phil had used as an example. Her sunshiny world fell away because of Phil, and that boy was first…

…

Bella was thirteen. It had been almost two years since she had been allowed to visit Charlie. Her mother had a broken arm- again- and Phil had been waiting on her hand and foot, apologizing for pushing her- again. Renee, as usual, was forgiving him, and everything felt like it had returned to their strange normal. Almost.

Bella was worried, of course, but there was a sense of calm…for now. She got on the family computer and opened her email, finding one from Edward. She smiled to herself, but it was bittersweet. She missed him so much. She read through his message. He was telling her about the goings on since she had left, how school was starting soon, and he again wished she was in class with him. Bella began her reply, trying to respond in kind to each of his points with one of her own.

The clickety-clacking of her young and uncoordinated fingers on the keyboard had apparently drawn the attention of Phil, who came up behind her and started to read out loud. "I miss you, too, Edward. If we were in class together, we could share more books, maybe even every day."

He stopped his reading and laughed. "So, this is the little boy who has a crush on you, huh, Isabella?"

Bella blushed furiously. She started to protest, but he put his hand on her shoulder, a little too hard to not carry a warning, she had unfortunately learned. "Isabella, you don't have a crush on him, too, do you?" Before she could answer in the negative, he continued, "Because you know boys and girls can't really be friends, right? Not anymore. If you go back next summer, everything will be different."

Her little heart sank in her chest. There were so many things she wanted to ask. If she went back? There was still a chance? And what did he mean, they couldn't be friends? They already were, just like she was friends with Emmett and Jasper, and Alice and even Rose…most of the time.

Suddenly, she didn't feel like writing back to Edward, not right then. Bella pushed herself away from the desk, hopping out of the wheelie chair, and abandoning her half-finished email that was still up on the screen.

…

Eventually, she had gotten a chance to send her response, but it had been weeks without a word from Edward. He didn't even call anymore, and eventually, Phil made her stop calling, saying that she was only annoying him. One day, she was crying in her room, missing her friend desperately. Edward had been the last real friend she'd had from Forks. The last one who still called or emailed her, the rest had lost interest in her absence.

Phil came into her room, not bothering to knock. He sat on the bed beside her and started rubbing slow circles on her back. It was almost soothing, but she was still sure he would snap again. Anyway, he smelt of beer. He was always worse when he smelled like that.

"Oh, little Isabella, you're not crying over that boy, are you?" She looked up at him and nodded slowly. He sighed. "You won't believe me now, but he did you a favor, Isabella. Boys will only want to hurt you. I saw some of the things he emailed you, so I know what he was planning. Maybe not this year, or the next, but Edward wanted to hurt you, Isabella. Eventually, he'd want something from you, and you were just getting tricked by him." Phil was shaking his head slowly, like he really regretted having to tell her everything.

"What do you mean? Edward's my friend." Bella's tears were subsiding, she was more confused at that point.

"You and Edward spent a lot of time alone? Playing his piano, reading with each other, right?" She nodded again. "Since you seem not to know already, you'll soon understand why a boy would work so hard to be alone with a girl. If your Edward got you alone now? He'd try to get something from you, and if you said no, he wouldn't like you anymore, or maybe he'd decide to take it anyway." She started involuntarily shaking her head, and he smirked.

"All boys act like it eventually. Even your precious little Edward." He stood up and left her alone then, his words racing through her mind.

What did he mean? Boys couldn't be friends with girls? That didn't make sense. Of course, they could be. Most of her friends were boys: Edward, Emmett, Jasper, Jacob, Embry, and Quill. Phil was right about one thing, though, Edward had always preferred to be alone with her. He had always said the others were annoying him, and they went up to his room or to the piano room. Was Phil right? Then, there was the dangerous way Phil said Edward would try to take something from her.

He talked about crushes; did he mean Edward would try to kiss her? She wasn't sure if she wanted to kiss him at all, or if he would need to take it from her. It sent shivers up her spine. Maybe Phil was right…maybe boys were dangerous.

…

Bella shuddered, thinking about what Phil would do if he found out she would be talking to him again, a boy he said had been tricking her, and would have taken from her. She had been so stupid and trusting of this boy, she hadn't even seen it. She would have to make it very clear that she didn't want to be friends again. She wouldn't let him take her somewhere alone. She knew better now.

Phil had tried to warn her, before he became her tormentor, before that target had developed the way it had. He had always punished her for being too nice to boys. Even though Phil couldn't touch her right now, he still had her mom. Renee was there, all alone, forced to take the entirety of Phil's anger. She couldn't bear to think about what he would do to Renee, just to teach Bella a lesson about Edward. She already knew Edward was just like the rest of them. She would make sure Phil's lesson didn't need repeating.

Bella dropped her backpack in her room and made sure she had her phone in her pocket and the ringer on in case Phil or Renee called or anything. She found herself getting into a familiar rhythm. She went around the house, cleaning what she could without moving too many of Charlie's things. Phil always hated it when he came home and his things were "hidden," even though she had just put them away.

Instead, she focused more on cleaning. Sweeping, vacuuming, mopping, and dusting. Charlie was relatively clean, though she could tell he didn't consider it too important. The main areas were clean enough, but it looked like he didn't pick up rugs or move chairs. She made sure to study the position of the pictures he had up on the shelves before picking them up. As she'd expected, there was plenty of dust just behind them, like Charlie had only dusted in front of and between the pictures.

She felt somewhat at peace, cleaning. It was so familiar to her. It was nice being able to affect something around her positively. For once, she wasn't causing any annoyance or anger or discomfort. Even when she cooked, she tended to mess something up and make Phil mad. Cleaning she always did right.

Lost in her thoughts, Bella was only brought to attention when she heard a car door slam in the driveway. She hurried to the window, peeking out.

Charlie was here, along with a car she didn't recognize. It was an old rusted pickup truck, something that would fit in well in the school's parking lot. She tensed for a moment, wondering if she had seen it there before. Had Mike or Tyler or someone shown up to tell Charlie what she had been up to? Had they come to tell him that she was talking to a boy? Or was it the opposite, were they going to tell Charlie she was being rude, going too far to keep them at arm's length?

Bella hadn't thought she was doing much; she was just trying to be less friendly, but maybe that was the problem. She heard the door open, and Charlie called out, "Bells?"

Putting down the dish she had just been drying, she called back, "I'm in here, Dad."

He turned the corner and smiled at her broadly.

Phil had looked like that once.

Before she could try to shake off the thought, he was followed in by a hulking man with long, black hair. She couldn't focus on anything, panic somewhat blurring her vision.

Who is this? I don't recognize him. Is he Charlie's friend?

"Bella! Look who came to see you!" Charlie smiled, gesturing to their guest.

To see me? Why is he here for me? What does he want from me?

She focused closely on the stranger then, and she saw him more clearly now. It was Jacob, one of her closest childhood friends, besides the Cullens.

Not that any of them are anything to me anymore.

Bella used to spend so much time with Jacob in the summers, she practically lived at the Black's house when Charlie was working. But before her mind could remind her too much of better times, she again saw how…big…Jacob had become. Long gone were the days of the skinny little boy she had played with back then. In his place was a hulking man. Bella knew he was younger than she was, and though he was technically still a kid, that didn't matter. His size made him just as dangerous as any other man.

Jacob's face broke into a huge smile, and he came over to her, where she was still frozen in the kitchen. "Hey, Bella, been quite a while, huh?"

She forced herself to tack a smile onto her face. "Wow, yeah. It's been a few years, huh?"

"I'll bet you barely even recognized me." He brought up his arms, flexing muscles she'd already taken notice of. She was sure he was trying to impress her, but it felt like a reminder from Phil.

Any man can take what he wants from you, Isabella. You're weak.

"There'll be time for small talk later, let's show Bella her present," Jacob's dad, Billy, called from outside, his voice as relaxed as ever.

"A p-present?" Any ease she had remaining disappeared. A present was never good. Even on the rare occasion that a present itself was nice, they always came with strings. Like when Phil got Bella her first phone. Yes, she could call or text anyone she wanted, but Phil could see who she called and what she texted. Not to mention the tracking abilities once she got a smartphone.

"Yeah, Bells, let's go!" Charlie gestured to the door again. He headed back outside, going down the porch steps, but Jake stood in the entryway, holding the door open for her, not that he needed to.

Bella tried to move past him quickly, but she accidentally bumped into him. She tried to move away from him again, but of course, the quick back and forth caused her to trip. Jake steadied her, his hands on her waist and shoulder. As quickly as she could while still being polite, she pulled herself away from him, following Charlie out of the house.

The feeling of Jacob's body pressed against hers, and his hands on her body, felt burnt into her skin. She resisted the strong urge to go scrub the areas where she still felt him lingering on her.

Charlie stopped in the driveway, turning around to face her, while leaning on the truck she had spotted from the kitchen.

"Well, what do you think?" For a moment, she didn't know what to think. A car? Phil had never let her have a car. He made sure she knew how to drive in case he needed her to drive him back from a bar, but she'd never had the ability to just…go somewhere.

Charlie looked at her expectantly. "Wait, the- Dad, do you mean the car?" She said carefully, not wanting to suggest anything in her tone. Phil always found a way to make everything she said a weapon to use against her.

"Well, of course, Bells! Did you think I was going to continue to make you walk to school every day? Especially once it starts getting colder. I wanted to make sure you can get to and from school safely." His smile looked genuine, like he really cared about her safety.

Of course, he does, he wants any harm to come from him.

And it didn't escape her that he'd said to and from school, nothing else.

"Wow, Dad, it's awesome, I've never had a car before." She carefully kept too much excitement from leaking into her words. Of course, she wouldn't be able to go anywhere else with it, but just being able to get to and from school faster, to not have to trudge through whatever weather Forks was enduring, would be amazing. "Thank you."

He smiled, his eyes crinkling at the corners. "It's yours with no conditions, but I have a few requests." Her stomach dropped again.

Of course. What would he want from me? And damn, he's crafty. Calling them requests instead of conditions. Later, he'll claim it was my choice, but I know better. It's not my choice, and if I choose not to…there'll be consequences.

"Sure, what are they?" Bella tried to push down the acid she felt rising in her esophagus. Of course, there was something. Phil had been right, no one, especially men, gave anything for free. There were always strings attached.

"I want you home by eight o'clock on school nights unless you let me know ahead of time. It'd be great if you could take care of grocery shopping since you like to cook. I'll give you gas money and all that. Oh, and of course, stay under the speed limit," he ticked off the requests on his fingers.

He wanted to give her gas money, and she would have to ask every time she needed it. He wanted to make sure she remembered she was dependent on him. What would he want? Phil always made her do something extra when she needed money for groceries. He usually gave her mom money for groceries, but occasionally, when Renee forgot or was too hurt to go, the groceries would run low enough that she would have to ask Phil for money to buy more, and he always made her earn it.

"I'm not even sure it can hit many of the speed limits, Charlie," Jacob said from behind her. She nearly jumped out of her skin. Bella had been so lost in her thoughts, she hadn't realized he was there.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

"Uh, okay, Dad, I can do that." She renewed the smile on her face, seeing that Charlie still had his. Why would she be out after eight o'clock anyway? She wasn't in any clubs, and she was sure that even the more committed activities would have her home before then.

"Alright then. Well, Jake will show you all the features and whatnot." Charlie gave a soft smack to the side of the truck and went back inside with Billy, leaving her alone with Jacob.

Now, she was anxious and confused. Charlie had just voluntarily left her alone with Jacob. A boy. Maybe he was spying, or he would ask Jacob afterwards if she had done anything wrong. Maybe…that was the payment for the truck. Maybe she was the payment to Jacob for the truck. It had been mentioned to her by Phil more than a few times. He would say that her latest injury cost too much, and she could always earn that money from his friends. He'd never followed through with it, but maybe that was more Charlie's style.

"C'mon, this rust bucket is a dinosaur, so I'm sure I'll have to translate some ancient knowledge to you," Jacob smiled and got into the passenger side of the car. She found her hand shaking, as she opened the door to the driver's side. As she closed the door, she sat on her shaking hand, knowing that showing fear only made it worse, made them want to torment her more.

Bella held her breath, sure that this was the moment, this was the place where it would finally happen. All her breaths that she had held, every muscle tightened in anticipation, now they would finally be let go. It was a relief in a way. She knew bad things would happen to her. It had been promised to her over and over again by Phil, for years. The past week, while she hadn't been hit, yelled at, or worse, had been so stressful. Bella had started to understand why Renee would provoke Phil; the waiting was just as bad.

But it didn't happen. Jake didn't grab her. He didn't hit her. He didn't start taking off either of their clothing. He didn't even reach for her, though she thought he was when he was showing her where to turn on the lights and wipers. He didn't yell, or threaten, or anything.

After he was done showing her the car, which she barely paid attention to, she excused herself up to her room. She waited. She waited for Charlie to send Jacob again, or for Charlie himself to come, to yell at her for some imagined flirtation by Jacob in the truck, or even just to yell at her for being rude for not offering herself to Jake.

But Charlie didn't come either. The night passed, with her holed up in her room, waiting for a consequence, but getting nothing. Bella finally fell asleep, her stress and nerves exhausting her to the point that she stopped. She no longer listened for his footsteps, or his angry words. Maybe, just maybe…they weren't coming.

Not yet anyway.