I had ninety years worth of experience and nothing could have prepared me for the heartache I endured standing before you.

I left you at the edge, between plush blades of grass and the beaten path of the woods beyond the boundaries of your home. It didn't take long for me to say my final good bye to you. I left you as if a solider going off to war, convincing us both that I would never return.

The night before, I had told you that I wouldn't meet you up in your room while Charlie was asleep. It was there while I stood by your sleeping form that I was able to unleash all the words I wanted to say while you were awake.

I was a coward.

I convinced myself that I had to make a clean break and leave you with nothing if you were to go on living as if I never existed.

It was there in the confines of your room long after evening's twilight, deep into the night and before the breaking of the dawn that I had told you that I love you. I swore by my love and the beating of your heart that your life would be better with me gone.

There was no room for arguing and no reason for debate. I could hear on the whisper of your lips the hint of my name as if I was already fading into the void.

I was taking the road not taken.

I had two choices as I looked down one as far as I could to where it bent in the undergrowth. These two paths alike because their outcomes were uncertain yet gravely different.

Though I trusted that I was keeping you safe, as just and fair as my decision was, I sigh to think, if I could go back and in the same breath doubted if I should ever come back. Though here I am standing before you now while memories and mementos scatter the streets of Forks missing their version of Bella.

I am telling you this with a sigh and with a tightness in my throat, that I took the road less traveled.