" I asked Edward to change me. I chose this too." Bella states simply.

Henry almost fell off his chair in shock; I of course knew sort of where she was coming from as somehow some of her thoughts had come through to me as I was telling them my story. As I had recounted my story, she had been comparing my story to hers in her mind. Even though they weren't exactly alike there were so many similarities that as I spoke that resolve within her that had made her decide seemed to resolve. I knew that Edward couldn't read her thoughts and it was only because she was staring straight at me with her guard down that I could hear hers. I don't think she realised that I could hear what she was thinking at that time and I would venture to guess she'd never told anyone of them, but in those moments when she was alone she thought about what it would have been like if Edward had never came back, if she had never asked him to change her and especially what it would have been like if he were human. They were just idle thoughts, the adoration she had for her husband and her daughter radiating from her every second, but making that kind of life altering decision myself I understood how she couldn't help but wonder what if. Everyone else around us had no choice in how their lives were unfolding, we had.

Bella tells us how she and Edward met and fell in love while she was a human and he was a vampire. Even though I know parts of it I can't help but be riveted to the story and it's like no one else is in the room with us. She explains how Edward had left her for her own good but how it shattered her so much that she started to do crazy adrenaline inducing things. I think we all hear the pain in her voice and while I've tuned out all of the others' internal thoughts, I can't help but hear the pain and guilt in Edwards'.

"I took things a little too far when I tried cliff diving and Alice saw me through one of her visions and thought I was trying to kill myself, I really wasn't trying to." She hastily adds when she seeing my horrified face.

"You jumped off a cliff?" I ask, mortified.

"Yeah, dangerous at the time being a human but it was quite fun actually. Except for the part where I almost drowned if Jacob hadn't saved me. You should try it sometime."

"Hell no!" I practically shout. "Sarah's petrified of heights." Henry explains and I punch him in the arm as he had come to sit by me. "I like my feet firmly on the ground, that's all." I say in a sheepish voice as I lightly shove Henry with my shoulder. Well I thought it was light; he almost falls off the chair again. "Don't get her on a plane," he adds quietly and I turn to give him a death stare.

"Edward heard that I was supposedly dead because Alice's vision didn't extend as far as seeing me pulled from the water by Jake as his being a shape-shifter blocks her visions somehow. Alice and I raced to Italy where Edward was moronically trying to commit suicide by provoking the Volturi into killing him because he was going to expose himself as a vampire at a big festival in their home town.

Anyways, I managed to stop Edward in time and the Volturi let us go on the condition that seeing as though I knew the secret that vampires existed that I must be changed or they would kill me. I had already asked Edward to change me before he left but he refused. Even after we got back from Italy he kept putting it off until we made a deal."

Edward is smiling widely at Bella while she seems to be scowling while trying to hold back a smile.

"A deal?" Henry asks, confused.

"Edward wanted me to marry him first." Bella states simply.

"You wanted to get married in high school? Are you crazy?" I squeak at Edward but he only shrugs, a grin on his face.

"See Edward? That's exactly what I said." She say as turns to me.

"You didn't really get married while in high school did you? I ask incredulously.

"Well, we waited until the end of the year. But I was still only 18."

"Wow." I breathe, still in shock.

"So you guys aren't married or anything?" Edward asks casually looking between Henry and I.

"Good God no!" I blurt out, regretting it instantly when I see Henry's face fall a little.

"I mean, we so aren't ready for that. Twenty one is just too young to get married in my opinion anyway, maybe in a few years I guess. We've only been back together for a year or so..." I stutter and trail off at the end.

"So what made him agree to change you?" Bella asks after some awkward silence.

"Well I finished university and graduated in October, I turned 21 in November and then I had nothing to wait for...I guess I wore him down in the end with my nagging." I grin.

"But how did you finally break him?" Bella asked her voice filled with interest but I turn away from her wide questioning eyes and turn to look into Henry's.

"Do you remember what you said?" He says looking into my eyes as I stare right back at him.

"I said this stops now. This is my life and you don't get to decide how I live it. This is my decision and I choose you. I choose us. Always."

For a moment all is silent and I am taken back to that day standing in my sunlit lounge room, the sunlight slightly glittering on Henry's deathly pale skin casting reflections all over the room so that it seemed everything was sparkling. I stand before him and hold his hands in mine. He closes his eyes for a minute and then looks down on me. "Okay" he says, resigned to the fact he has lost his fight to keep me human.

"I love you so much" he whispers and lovers his head so that his lips are brushing against my neck under the hairline.

" I love you." I whisper back as I feel his teeth break into the soft flesh.

And then the pain starts.