All I wanted was to make Alice happy. That was my one greatest wish. She had been so sad lately. I knew she was missing Bella terribly. I also knew she deeply resented Edward’s decision. But we had promised him. We had sworn not to go near her…

* * *

I could feel all of their emotions. Except Edward’s, of course. He was in South America. Rosalie was annoyed, I guessed her hair wasn’t styling the way she wanted it to today. She was the only one who truly could not give a damn about Bella, but recently she had begun to feel the strain the separation was taking on our family. I don’t think she realized the difference Bella made in our lives. Emmett was moping. Esme was sobbing downstairs, that one especially caught my senses. I sent out another wave of calm. Carlisle was at the hospital. And Alice was in the bathroom punching through the remainder of our less-than-intact wall in frustration. I sighed. If this got any worse…

Well, I knew I physically couldn’t hold any more pain. Or deal with my own. I was sick of this. Sick and absolutely exhausted.

I felt terribly guilty. This was my fault, even if no one blamed me. If I hadn’t lost control at that damned birthday party… I shook my head. I could still see the monster reflected in Bella’s eyes as I lunged for her. Damn it. It was my fault.

Poor Bella. She had certainly got the worse end of the stick. When Edward had said good-bye, told her that we were leaving, she had no idea we were all in the trees behind him. Sure, he had said we had already gone to LA. It disgusted him how easily he could lie to her face. It disgusted me, too. The emotion rolling off her was unbearable. And I couldn’t have helped her, she would have known immediately I was there.

I couldn’t stay for the end, for the final good bye. It was too hard, her emotions alone were enough to torture me, but throw in those of Edward, Alice and the others and it was a recipe for disaster. Or complete mental breakdown.

I heard a bang downstairs and realised that Esme had dropped something. I was there almost instantly helping her clean up the glass of the broken platter. She was still sobbing relentlessly. I soothed her with my gift.