Yes, he knew that in the end Edward would give into weakness and change his Bella. True, the boy had misgivings about performing such an action. He had had the same misgivings once and in the end, he had also given in.

When Caius voiced his doubts yet again, asking how he could be sure since Edward seemed to have so many misgivings, Marcus’ only answer was, “I had misgivings about Didyme once as well, brother, and in the end, there was no choice.”

Both Aro and Caius stared with shocked expressions as he said her name. Caius recovered first and scowled, knowing that he could not argue against that and before Marcus could see Aro’s response he turned and glided from the room, the fabric of his dark cloak rustling softly as he made his way to his private chambers where he knew he would not be disturbed.

His chambers had hardly changed in close to a millennium. It was like a museum, a tribute to the life that he had once led with her…

…Didyme…

As he always did, he paused at the chamber door after closing it behind him and his eyes scanned the room. Her hair brush and comb, ancient things carved of bone and ivory, sat on the small vanity table in the corner. Strands of her red hair were still caught between the boar’s bristles that made up the brush and the teeth of the ivory comb that was now yellowed with age. The polished metal that had once served as a mirror sat propped up against the wall and he remembered how she used to sit there and stare at her warped reflection (mirrors were not the smooth surface with perfect images reflected back that they were now) as he combed her waist length locks.

His eyes drifted to the wardrobe door that was partially open. Her gowns, made of silks and cotton fabrics that had withstood the test of time, hung as if she would waltz into the room at any moment and try them on. Even the toes of the sandals she preferred peeked out from under the edges of the long skirts that hung to the bottom of the closet.

These things held his attention for a moment before he moved to the edge of the bed that was at the center of the room and just stood at the foot of the bed, looking at the painting that hung above the headboard. A painting of her…

…Didyme…

She had been extraordinarily beautiful to him as a mortal. As a vampire, there was no comparison. No one could ever equal how beautiful she had been to him. No one had come even close in over a thousand years. Sometimes he would stand there for hours, just staring at her portrait. She had been perfection.

At times, he stared so long that it was almost as if she were there, standing across from him, smiling softly, her crimson eyes dancing with some unknown secret that she would eventually tell him, but no, there were no secrets anymore. She had taken his joy in existence with her to the grave. So, in the end, his converting her to an immortal had not negated the fact that he'd lost her.

In the end, it was the thought that she would cease to exist that had caused him to change her to a vampire and though he had lost her, he would do it again knowing that he had had her for as long as he had. He briefly let his mind wander to Edward and Bella again.

He would change her. In the end Edward would feel that he didn’t have a choice in the same way that he had felt no choice in the matter. With a bond as strong as this young vampire and human had, he knew. He knew the future without having peeked into Alice’s visions as Aro had.

Bella would be a vampire, just as Didyme had been.

As his wife’s name drifted through his memory again he let out the softest of sighs and closed his eyes, letting his mind wander once again to that day long ago during the reign of Julius Caesar when he had first met the woman that would be his everything.