Chapter 5: moments
Edward's POV
It's strange how a single moment can change everything.
One second, you're walking through life, unaware of what lies ahead, and in the blink of an eye, your entire existence is shifted. That's what happened to me when I first met her—Bella.
I can still remember the exact moment she stepped into my world. It was like everything before her didn't matter, like I had been waiting for that single second my entire existence. The seconds between us now, even in moments of silence, felt like they held more weight than the years I'd lived before her.
Now, as I lay beside her, kissing her slowly, I knew—this was the life I had always wanted, even before I had a name for it.
Her laugh was light, joyful, a sound that felt like sunlight through rainclouds. She giggled into the kiss, her fingers brushing lightly across my chest. The softness of her lips, the happiness that radiated from her, it was enough to make me forget everything else.
My phone buzzed on the nightstand beside us, but neither of us made any move to answer it. Another call from Alice, probably. She was always trying to get in touch. I didn't care.
Charlie was late, but it didn't matter. He was still working his shift, and the house was empty for a moment. We were alone, taking advantage of that brief, stolen time.
I pulled away slightly, just enough to look at her, to see her sparkling eyes and the way her smile was so utterly perfect. "What do you think the future holds for us?"
Her eyes softened, and she brushed a lock of hair behind my ear. "I don't know. But whatever it is, I want it with you."
I smiled, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "Good. Because I don't want to go anywhere without you."
We didn't talk much after that. It was a quiet kind of joy, just being in each other's presence.
Eventually, we moved downstairs to watch a movie, curling up on the couch. The warmth of her against me, her head resting on my chest, was a kind of peace I had never known.
We had barely settled into the movie when there was a knock at the door.
I froze.
Moments. They always happened when you least expected them.
I thought again about time, about how a second could change your life forever. How everything could be altered in the time it took for someone to breathe, to speak, to knock. And as I heard that knock, I knew—this was one of those moments.
When we opened that door, the officer standing there would change everything.
I stood in the doorway, feeling the cold weight of inevitability settle over me.
The officer's thoughts hit me like a sudden storm, dark and dissonant. Regret, guilt, hesitation—each thought a cold strike against the fragile calm that had settled in the house. My body went rigid, my heart hammering in my chest, and for the first time since my return, the warmth of her presence felt like a distant thing. A thing I might lose, in an instant.
The officer's eyes flicked to mine, then to Bella. His mind raced with uncertainty, knowing he was about to shatter everything.
"Bella Swan?" He spoke her name like it was a question—like he wasn't sure he was ready to deliver what was coming.
Bella turned slowly, her face a mix of confusion and something else. Recognition, maybe. A spark of dread that she couldn't yet name.
I could see it before she could even process it. The sickening, twisting certainty in her expression. The air between us thickened, as if the universe itself was holding its breath, waiting for the blow to land.
"I'm sorry," the officer said, voice strained. "There's been an accident. Your father… Charlie Swan. He—"
The words hung in the air. But Bella, still too innocent to fully comprehend, simply whispered the one word I'd been dreading. "No."
And then she screamed.
A sound that tore through the silence of the house, like glass shattering in slow motion. It was pure agony, and it ripped through my chest, splintering me apart.
She didn't even have time to brace herself before she collapsed to the floor, her knees buckling beneath her. Her body went limp as her sobs tore through her. My arms around her, I dropped to the floor beside her, my arms instinctively wrapped around her.
I could feel the way her sobs racked her frame, how the weight of the world pressed down on her, threatening to crush her into the ground. Her heart pounded violently in her chest as I whispered her name, trying to pull her closer, to shield her from the horror that had invaded her life.
But I couldn't shield her from this. I could never protect her from this kind of pain.
Her hands gripped me, pulling at my shirt as if she could anchor herself to something solid, but nothing could stop the endless wave of grief that had already begun to drown her. I could hear it—the blood-curdling screams echoing in my ears, a sound that seemed to crawl into my very soul.
The officer stood in the doorway, watching us, the weight of his own guilt washing over him like an oppressive cloud. I could hear his thoughts flicker with the same apology he'd already spoken a dozen times, and then, as if finally realizing the damage was done, he muttered another hollow apology before turning and walking away.
His footsteps sounded like a death sentence. The door clicked shut behind him with a finality that felt suffocating.
For a long moment, everything was silent but the sound of Bella's broken breaths. Her grief hung heavy in the air, suffocating us both. And all I could do was hold her. Hold her until my arms were numb, until my body was too heavy to move. Until I couldn't hear anything but her shattered sobs and the deafening silence of the world falling apart around us.
Moments. Moments like this—fragments of time that could rip your entire existence to pieces. One single second that could change everything. A life, a future, shattered in a heartbeat.
I couldn't breathe. I could barely feel. All I could do was hold her. Because everything else—the world, the future, it all felt so impossibly far away. So out of reach.
And in that single, dark moment, I knew: I couldn't save her from this. I couldn't protect her from everything. No matter how much I wanted to.