My conversation with Rose left me conflicted and emotionally exhausted. I wanted nothing more than to curl up with my kings and sleep, but I still had at least one more difficult conversation to get through and I had no doubt this one would be more fiery than the rest.

Edward.

The two of us usually got along. We were of the same breed, Edward and I. Quiet, watchful, and often underestimated. And we both had tempers like ticking time bombs, most explosive when we faced off against one another.

Edward and I only had one true fight between us, when he told us we had to leave Forks for Bella's sake. I argued because it was bullshit. He argued because he felt he had no choice but to leave Bella as a jilted lover. But we always made up, even after small arguments. It was simply the nature of our relationship.

I wasn't sure there would be any making up after this one.

I rapped lightly against the door of Carlisle's study, which was already slightly ajar, before letting myself inside. Aro was speaking earnestly to Renesmee, who was listening with rapt attention, and I would have thought the scene endearing if not for the weight of coming conversation resting on my shoulders.

"Amore," Caius greeted, smiling when he saw me. He looked rather bored, but the calculating expression in his eyes was enough to tell me otherwise. However, my arrival had distracted his attention away from my niece and onto me. "How did your conversation go with Rosalie?"

"Quite well. I'd be happy to fill you in on the particulars later. But I'm actually here to steal Edward, if I can. I think the two of us need to have a long overdue discussion," I said, crossing my arms and leaning against the doorframe.

"Auntie Rowan," Renesmee said, turning away from her conversation to bounce over to me. "After you finish talking to Daddy, do you want to see my room?"

"That sounds lovely, Ness. I'd be honored." I gave her a gentle smile and the only real gesture of affection I knew: ruffling her rust-red curls, just like Emmett often did with me. She giggled as I did so before scampering back over to Aro and beginning to speak in such a rush that I almost couldn't keep up. I wondered how he had managed to get her to talk so; upon first meeting, she seemed to rely more on her gift to communicate than her words.

"Edward is free to go with you. Renesmee is our main focus at present, and Bella will still be with her," Marcus said, as if he sensed Edward's unease at leaving his daughter with the three Volturi kings.

"Thank you. Come on, Edward." My words were phrased as an invitation, but there was an undertone of authority to them that even I was surprised to hear. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Caius smirk. Edward walked out of the room and trailed wordlessly after me. I still had my mind shielded, so he couldn't hear the chaotic, swirling thoughts that had tormented me since I had learned of my family's betrayal.

I lead him back to the garage, which Rose had vacated to give us privacy when I mentioned I planned to speak to Edward next. He shut the door and my tenuous control on my temper snapped as I spun on my heel to face him. "What the actual hell is wrong with you, Edward? Huh? I mean, I can maybe get not telling me while Bella is pregnant, but afterwards? After she turned and you realized that neither she or Renesmee were threats to humans? But no. Am I not trustworthy anymore, Edward? Or are you just so selfish that you don't even think past your own damn self to see that there are people you care about that will be hurt by your actions?"

Edward opened his mouth to speak, his brow pulled down in a way that said I had struck a nerve, but I wasn't finished. "And I'm not even talking about me, Edward, though I have every right to be pissed with you beyond belief - which I am, by the way. I'm talking about Bella. Can you not look past yourself to see that your insistence to keep Renesmee a secret - and your reasons are complete bullshit, but don't even get me started on that - was hurting her too? I'm her best friend and you basically ordered her to choose between me and her daughter. So I'd like you to tell me what the actual hell is wrong with you, because I'd really love to know."

I had never seen Edward speechless before, but my tirade and gradually rising volume seemed to have left him unable to say a word. I took advantage of his silence and kept right on going. I was on a roll now, and there wasn't much that could stop me once I really got going. "Oh, and did you ever stop to think that your completely asinine reasoning for keeping this quiet could have put me in danger, too? I mean, clearly not, because here we are, but how far does your head have to be up your ass for it to not occur to you that if this happened to Bella, it could happen to me, too? But wait, I forgot, it doesn't really matter as long as it doesn't directly affect you-"

"Rowan, would you shut up and let me talk?" Edward cut me off so rudely that, if it weren't for the fact that I was human and thus at a great disadvantage, I would have strangled him.

As it was, I gritted my teeth, narrowed my eyes at him, and nodded. "Fine, Edward. I wasn't finished, but say your bit, by all means. I'm simply dying to know what you have to say. Of course, I could have actually been dying as a result of your negligence, but I guess we don't have to talk about that."

"We can, if you'd like. And as you've been right on every charge you've levelled against me so far, I have no doubt that you'd be right on that count, too," Edward said.

It was my turn to be stunned into silence. Edward never admitted he was wrong. "What?"

"I said you're right. About everything. I was a complete ass. To my family, to your parents, to Bella, and most of all to you. I thought you were overreacting. I thought you'd forgive me, forgive us, as soon as we told you why we hid this from you. For a mind reader, I guess I'm pretty dense, because it took you telling me exactly how wrong I was, just now, for me to get it."

"Well, good for you. I'm so glad I was able to put some sense into your dumbass head. But that's not an apology, and before you give me one, know that apologizing isn't going to magically fix everything. Take responsibility for your actions for once, Edward, instead of relying on everyone else to solve everything for you, like Italy and Victoria. Once you've figured out to do that: then we can talk." I shot him one more venomous glare before stalking past him out of the garage.

I sought escape in the one place of the house that was rightfully mine: my bedroom, which I hadn't entered in nearly four long months. I shut the door with a quiet click and leaned against it, letting out a breath. Yelling at Edward had been therapeutic, in a way. I thought I would feel more angry after my discussion at him, but instead I just felt tired. I was overcome by the sudden desire to travel back home to Volterra, where I could laugh with the guard and curl up with my mates at the end of a long day.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket, dialed Kate's number, and held the phone up to my ear with my good shoulder as I poked around my room, looking for a spare bag to put some of my belongings in to transport back to Volterra.

"Hey there heartbreaker, what's happening?" Kate asked cheerfully, picking up on the third ring.

I laughed. "Hey, Kate. I'm back in Forks, did you not hear from Irina?"

"Oh, I heard the whole messy story. The family really did you dirty, I'll tell you what. Tanya had half a mind to come down there herself and tell them off, but between you and those kings of yours, I knew you had it covered. Though I'm happy to stop by for moral support," she said.

I laid flat on my belly, pulling an overnight bag out from underneath my bed. "Well, you're right on that count. I just finished ripping Edward a new one, and damn did that feel good."

"I bet it did!" Kate laughed loudly. "Have you sorted things out with Rosalie and Emmett?"

"For the most part, I think. I'm still pretty mad, but it's not like the past can be changed, and we all screw up. Sometimes in big ways," I said, tossing an empty sketchbook and an unused tin of fancy colored pencils into the bag, along with a couple books. "I know that Caius, at least, wishes I would be more hard on them. I'm sure Aro and Marcus agree with him, but they'll all go along with whatever I decide."

"Good. Kings or not, if they didn't respect you, the three of them and I would be having words," Kate said. "How are you holding up?"

"As well as I can, I guess. It still feels like a bad dream. I keep thinking I'll wake up at any second, but then I pinch myself and remember I am very much awake," I said.

She made a sympathetic noise. "You won't feel like that forever. They'll grovel for a while, you'll eventually forgive them, and things will go back to normal. You'll see."

"I have no doubt. Anyway, I did have a reason for calling. Do you mind if we stop by after we finish up here? I wanted to say hello to everyone. We'll be back in Volterra for Christmas, so you won't have to worry about an extended visit," I said.

"You're always welcome here, Rowan, you know that. Your mates as well, of course, but only because they're with you."

I laughed. "Thanks, Kate. I think you can plan on us arriving the day after tomorrow. Does that work for you?"

"I don't see why not. I'll let the rest know as soon as I get back to the house - I had to do some last minute Christmas shopping, you know."

"Everything you do is last minute, so that doesn't really surprise me," I said, smirking.

"Oh, shut up. Do you want to visit or not?" she asked playfully.

"You're all bark, Kate. I had better go, but give the family my love and tell them I'm looking forward to seeing them soon," I said.

"Will do, hot stuff. Talk to you later."

"I'll see you soon. Bye," I said, hanging up and feeling marginally better. Then again, talking to Kate always had a way of making me feel better.

"Grab your picture of you as a baby, you'll regret it if you don't." I gave a spectacular start when I heard Alice's voice behind me, whipping around to see her and Jasper standing just within the doorway.

"Don't you know how to knock?" I asked irritably.

"Sorry, darlin'," Jasper said. "We didn't mean to startle you."

"It's alright," I said, pulling the old framed photo of me and my parents out of it's drawer and shoving it face down into my bag. "What do you want?"

"To talk. I know you're mad at us, but please at least remember that we were some of the ones advocating for you," Alice said.

I raised my eyebrows. "That's nice. You know what would have been nicer? Someone picking up the damn phone and calling me."

Alice gave a noncommittal hum as she opened my closet and began riffling through the clothes that were left. "Probably. But I think everything has turned out alright. And Edward learned his lesson."

"Wait," I said slowly, turning to face her. "You knew what would happen this whole time, didn't you?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Rowan," Alice said innocently.

"You wanted the family to get caught. Why?" I demanded.

"Object lessons, sister mine, are much more effective than anything in the world. And Edward dearly needed to learn one," Alice said, tossing me a cardigan. "Take this, it's cute and Volterra is going to have a cold snap shortly after you get back."

"You're telling me that you used me as some sort of pawn? Just to teach Edward a lesson?" I asked, feeling both angry and impressed at her cunning.

"When you say it that way, it sounds bad. Look, if one of us had gone behind Edward's back early on and told you what was going on, would you have been as mad at him?" Alice asked.

"No. Probably not," I admitted reluctantly.

"Exactly. I didn't want to keep this from you. Jasper was halfway to calling you and telling you himself before I stopped him to explain the alternative. You and I both know that even though you're still as much of a Cullen as any of us, dynamics have shifted now that you're living in Volterra. The best way to remind certain, who shall remain nameless, that you're still a part of this family was for them to find out the hard way. Which meant, unfortunately, withholding some information."

I stared at her, wondering if I should be irritated or impressed. "Uh-"

"We tried to convince Edward to tell you everything. We tried a lot," Jasper said. "It was after my fourth time trying to talk sense into him when I retreated and was about to call you. That's when Alice stopped me, and even though I knew it wasn't right for us to use you in this way, it was a good plan."

"It was a good plan. That doesn't change the fact that you played me like a chess piece. But I suppose, since you sort of did it in my best interests, I can get over it. Even though I don't agree with your methods," I said slowly. "How did you manage to keep your plot from Edward, Alice?"

She winked at me. "I have my methods."

"Which are..."

"Don't worry about it. Point is, Edward is learning a well-deserved lesson and I don't think he'll make the same mistake twice, especially not after this," Alice said. "Anyway, have you gone shopping in Italy? Why am I asking, I know you have. I'm so jealous. What's it like? You have to tell me everything!"

"I'll leave you ladies to your girl talk," Jasper said, shooting me a smile and walking off.

"Wait, take me with you!" I called. His laughter echoed down the hall. "Traitor," I grumbled.

"Tell me everything," Alice repeated, and I resigned myself to the knowledge that I wouldn't soon be getting out of this conversation.

Edited 6/26/2021