Love Bite

Chapter 5

I DO NOT OWN CHARACTERS OR TWILIGHT

Bella blinked rapidly and turned to Rosalie, a slow sinking feeling beginning to build in her gut.

"What do you mean he left for Denali three days ago?" she gawked, trying very hard not to ball up her fists but it was too late; they clenched until the whites of her knuckles showed.

No, no, no, her brain said. She's a liar. Rosalie's a filthy liar. He wouldn't do that to me.

"I mean exactly what I said. Are you slow now, too? Damn, we should have grabbed your helmet before we left! I knew I was forgetting something," Rosalie snapped her fingers as if she'd just remembered, then smiled coldly.

A quiet rage stirred in her gut as her throat closed. Never, in all her life, had Bella hated her quite so much. The rage became stronger when Bella realized that Rosalie had known. She had known the moment the blond told her that Edward was 'preoccupied' that she was holding back, and had waited for the perfect moment to really hit her as hard as possible with the news.

This was not kicking Bella while she was down. This was stomping her into a bloody pulp.

For the first time, the brunette understood how deeply Rosalie must hate her if this was how far she'd go to hurt her, but for the life of her, she did not know why.

"Rose!" Esme barked. "Out! Now!" she pointed to the staircase, eyes blazing as Bella made a soft noise in the back of her throat.

"He wouldn't have done that," the human breathed, arms wrapping around herself, but when she looked to Carlisle for confirmation with her eyes already watering, she knew it was true. The blond patriarch looked pained and he put a tentative hand on her shoulder which only made it hurt a thousand times worse.

"Obviously, he would," Rosalie snorted as she stood, dragging a frowning Emmett by the hand.

"Rosalie!" both he and Esme yelled as Bella blanched.

What in the nine circles of hell was her problem?

"I want a word with you, young lady," Esme ground out through clenched teeth. Rosalie rolled her eyes and tossed her hair over her shoulder, unbothered by her adoptive mother's tone. Within seconds, all three of them blurred up the staircase and out of the room. The sound of a door slamming shut punctuated their exit.

"I'm sorry, Bella. I'm very ashamed of Rosalie; I don't know why she acts so cruelly. But I am more ashamed of Edward. We tried to tell him to settle your problems maturely, but he...He wouldn't listen," Carlisle said in that soothing doctor voice of his.

Bella felt like she was being told a family member had just died during surgery and that, too, only worsened the pain.

He left. He really up and left. I never thought he was taking the fights that seriously, she thought, breathing shakily and shrugging off Carlisle's shoulder as politely as she could. But then again, wasn't I too? Had I not thought about breaking up with him if it kept up? But I never would have done him this way! Tears burned the back of her eyes as a powerful feeling of betrayal settled heavy on her shoulders and a bitter laugh left her mouth before she could stop it.

"I guess I should have seen that one coming," she huffed, furiously wiping her eyes.

There was dead silence from the other two people left in the room, one of which should have been right next to her right now, wrapping an arm around her and consoling her with her soft, bell-like voice, calling Edward every name under the sun and telling Bella it would be okay.

But Bella did not even have the strength to look at Alice right then and see what expression might be on her face. All the pain of knowing she'd probably officially lost her best friend came rushing up again and mixed with...