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Dream's Shadow

Summary:
This is my take on the over- and usually poorly- done plot. Edward leaves Bella again. She is changed and they meet again in the future. There will be a big twist! Requested by Iris. Banner by Iris!

Notes:
Try it! I know stories like this usually stink, but I thought I'd give it a try. I own nothing. Stephenie Meyer owns all.

56. Chapter 56

Rating 4.5/5   Word Count 557   Review this Chapter

“N… no. I can’t lie to you.” I look down. “But I am… it’s not totally a lie. I am marrying you because I love you. But there is a secondary reason.”

He grips my chin, forcing my eyes into his “You don’t want to marry me.”

“I do. See, this is why I didn’t want to tell you. I definitely want to marry you. But…”

“Why are you marrying me? All the reasons.”

“The truth, the whole truth… and nothing but the truth?”

He grins wryly. “Yes, Bella. Every last bit of it.”

“Okay… I… There are a lot of reasons. First of all, I love you. I love you more than anything. Second, I want to make you happy, and I know this will…”

“Every minute I spend with you is a happy one, Bella. You don’t have to…”

“But I want to make you even happier, Edward. I want to give you something as wonderful as what you’ve given me…”

He interrupts suddenly. “And what makes you think you haven’t?”
Because if you loved me anywhere like as much as I love you, you’d never have left me… “If you keep interrupting, you’ll never get those answers, Edward.”

“Oh, all right.”

“Third, I want to be a part of your family. I love you all, and I want to be… I want to be really related to all of you, not just the freeloading girlfriend. And, a very, very small part is… I am afraid. I’m afraid that if I don’t find some way to make you mine, really truly mine, you’ll end up leaving again… and I don’t know if I can stand that. Actually, that’s not true. I know I can’t stand that. So what am I supposed to do? I know that if you marry me you’ll never leave. You’re so old fashioned. You’d think that once we’re married, well, that’s it, it’s forever.”

“It is. Forever, forever, forever, forever and ever. Until I die, and I am never going to…”

I don’t bother calling him out for the interruption. “And I need to be with you forever.”

“Okay.”

I am shocked. “What? That’s it? You’re actually accepting my decisions?”

His smile is sarcastic and hard. “Yes. I can’t keep hurting you. I have to trust you, and if you want to marry me… if that’s what your choice is, than I can’t hurt you by… by trying to talk you out of what we both want… as long as I’m what you want.”

He doesn’t place the appropriate inflection, but I can absolutely tell that it’s a question, the last part at least. He is no more certain of our eternity than I am. “Yes. I want you more than anything, more than everything.”

He takes my hand. “Come on. We have to find Alice.”

“How far can she have gotten, honestly?” I ask.

He turns and runs into the forest. “Race you!”

I laugh with his rare high spirits. He is already disappearing into the brush, but I use the last of my newborn blood to speed past him.

“I win!” I call, and then look around in shock.

She is nowhere to be found…