Chapter Eight

EPOV

Alice was a genius. I had never doubted it. I'd never had a reason to, and I had been proven right again.

And that Jacob kid—he wasn't so bad either. After all, he was the one who had actually convinced Bella to give everyone a second chance by coming back to Forks.

But now, it was only me, facing the music. I hadn't been wrong about Bella, but I had taken the wrong actions, and I was going to get down on my knees and beg for forgiveness if I needed to.

I took one of those deep, unnecessary breaths and knocked on Bella's front door right over the dent my nose had made. A few moments passed and then the door swung open.

Bella stood there, half hidden behind the door, dark circles under her eyes. There was something missing in her expression, but I couldn't put my finger on it. She looked horrible, even worse than before she'd left to go to Phoenix. This had to stop soon. I clenched a fist; I was going to do this on her terms, and her terms only.

"Hello, Bella," I said.

"Hi," she whispered.

"Jacob told me you were back in town," I continued, "and I figured I'd come see you." She nodded curtly, looking at the floor.

"Did you want anything in particular?" she asked, glancing up at me and then back down again. That one little move made my heart break all over again, only this time it broke into even tinier pieces than it had been in before, like someone had take a baseball bat to a windshield and was still hitting it, even though it was already broken.

"Bella... will you come with me?" I asked, holding out my hand. I hadn't been planning on taking her anywhere, but now I felt like it would be a good idea. She stared at my hand, and for a moment I was afraid she wouldn't take it. But slowly, very slowly, she slid her hand into mine and held on. I tightened my grip on her and pulled her out to the car. She got in the passenger side and I began to back out of the driveway. When I hit the highway I began to speed, going much faster than I usually did when I had Bella with me. I glanced over at her. She had her eyes closed and I could see her lips moving, though I knew there was no sound coming out.

"Are you alright?" I asked her.

"I'm fine," she replied, her voice quiet and her eyes still closed.

I parked the Volvo where the road ended and got out. Bella followed suit.

"You don't mind hiking, right?"

"No," Bella assured me quietly, and we set off through the forest. It was a silent trip, the only noise being the animals around us and Bella's feet moving through the grasses.

We finally reached our destination and I pointed it out to Bella: my meadow. She looked relieved that the hiking was over and I felt guilty for having made her walk this far when she was so short on sleep.

Bella sat down in the middle of the clearing and plucked a piece of grass from the ground. She started to twirl it between her fingers and I stared at it, mesmerized. Now that I had her here, I had no idea what to say. Finally she sighed and threw the piece of grass on the ground again. I blinked and looked at her face. Her expression was resigned as she said, "Alright, Edward. Stop staring and tell me why you brought me here."

I sighed and moved a couple steps closer to her before sitting down. "I don't know, Bella. I just had to apologize, I suppose."

Bella raised an eyebrow and laughed shortly. "You had to bring me here to say sorry?"

I cringed. "Well, it's so much more than just sorry. It's an apology for trying to force you to face things, and an apology for discussing you behind your back. It's an apology for knowing things I shouldn't have known, and an apology for trying to fix you when I didn't even know what was wrong." I watched Bella in anticipation of her reaction—was she going to accept my apology or never speak to me again?

It surprised me completely when Bella's expression turned angry and she began to speak. "No, Edward, I'm sorry. I'm not worthy of you or your family's thoughts, anyways. I should have been honoured to have you talk about me." Her voice cracked and she broke down, tucking her knees up to her chin, tears running down her face unchecked. "Shit, I'm crying again. I don't want to cry anymore. I shouldn't have blamed you for trying to fix me, looks like I need it, doesn't it?" I reached out to her, smoothing her hair back and then taking her gently into my arms when she didn't flinch away. "Why do they control my life?" she mumbled into my shoulder.

"Who are they?" I asked, though I had an idea. I wanted her to admit it out loud, to me. It would be the hardest for her, since she had been trying the hardest to hide it away from me.

Bella sniffled again and then leaned away. "Screw it, Jake was right. I need to tell... to tell someone. I need to get help. I'm tired of losing sleep, it was stupid of me to assume the nightmares would go away on their own," she said, almost to herself. I nodded along with her, trying to be as supportive as I could be.

"They are the ones who... who..." Bella's face screwed up in pain as she tried to choke the word out and I felt that cruel person get their baseball bat out again and start to pummel my heart. You can do it, Bella... just one word...

"They raped me," she whispered, then curled into a ball again, hiding her face away.

I'd thought hearing her say it wasn't going to make a difference—I'd already known what had happened, hadn't I? But somehow, hearing that come from Bella's mouth and seeing her so broken had me speechless with anger. Who did those men think they were, hurting my Bella? Who else had they hurt? Who else were they going to hurt in the future? My hands clenched into fists just thinking of them.

My thoughts turned to how I'd treated Bella when I'd first suspected something was wrong and I just got even angrier—at myself. I had approached it from a psychological standard, the way I would have if I had never met Bella before in my life, adding up all the little clues and trying to make a full picture out of it, rather than just waiting for Bella to come to terms with it and tell me on her own. By trying to pry it out of her I'd forced her farther into her hiding place—and I was only realizing this now, though my siblings had been trying to tell me the entire time.

Bella's voice brought me out my thoughts. "I knew it. You can't even talk to me now because I'm so weak," she huffed, getting up and starting to walk away.

I jumped up and got in her way, holding my hands up in front of me. "No, Bella, you can never think that. You are not weak; you're one of the strongest people I know. You were hurt immensely, and you handled that the way you thought was best, even though the people around you were determined to stop you. I admire that, and I'll always be here for you, no matter what."

Bella stared up at me for a moment before slowly putting her arms around my waist and leaning her head into my chest. I hesitantly lay my own arms over her back, returning the hug.

"Thank you, Edward," she breathed.

"You're welcome, Bella."

Suddenly I felt a drop of water fall onto my head. I looked up just as the clouds unleashed the full force of the Forks rain. Bella looked up as well and the rain mixed into her tears, washing away the tracks that marked where they had fallen. She looked at me and smiled. I looked back at her in wonder, my own smile spreading across my face. I hadn't seen Bella truly smile since before the Port Angeles incident—that's what had been missing from her expression earlier, the fire that she usually had in her had been put out.

It was then that I realized that there were three things I was absolutely positive about. First, Bella had been raped. Second, I wanted to kill the men that had hurt her. And third, I was going to protect her with everything I had in me—no matter what it took.

AN: Well, there's the end of the story! I'm kind of sad to see it go... it was challenging, but a challenge is always a good thing.

Thank you to my betas, Lex and J. Without you, this story would a) be horrible, b) not be published, and c) suck. You're both epic. *hugs*

Also thanks to Skydala for posting this idea for people to use! I hope someone else writes something so that I can read it... *hint, hint*

And thanks to everyone who reviewed! Let me know what you thought of the last chapter—it was definitely the hardest one to write. :)