"Are you shitting me?" exclaimed Alice in shock. She eyed the Argentinean slum in avid distaste. I glanced at her, sensing the disgust rolling from her tiny body in waves. “I’m not going in there, Jaz. Not a hope in bloody hell.”

I laughed at my tiny wife. “You’re the one who demanded to come here and deliver a major butt-whoopin’,” I drawled in my Southern accent. “You’re not backing out now, are you?”

“No,” she said it as if she was trying to convince herself. “I’m just…”

“Afraid of ruining your new shoes.” I finished for her.

“But they’re so pretty…”

I shook my head, a small smile creeping around the corners of my mouth. I tried to focus my gift entirely on Alice. It was hard, in such a place as this, where misery clung to every frail beggar and every abandoned child. For some reason, it was easy to ignore today. Probably because I was here for a reason. Edward Cullen being that reason.

“Seriously,” said Alice giving the place a quick once over, taking in the cracked plaster, rusted metal, shattered windows… “How could he live here? I thought my brother had taste.”

Both of us were really trying not to think of Bella. I knew when Alice’s thoughts drifted to her best friend. Mainly because of the tidal wave of depression that washed over me. But mostly I could tell because her hands would shake, almost like a young werewolf.

“He’s not here,” I stated. We both knew it. I could feel no emotions that pertained to the complex feelings Edward experienced. And Alice saw no visions of us meeting him.

Alice had seen him here. At this house. Two days ago. We immediately took off for the airport. After seeing the state Bella was in, we never really had a choice. This could not go on. Edward and Bella were falling apart. Misery slowly eating them both, like some deadly form of malignant cancer. And I knew it was only a matter of time before one of them succumbed to the easiest way out. Alice thought it would be Edward. She knew how he was dealing with their separation – she could see it in brief flashes. In contrast, I thought that Bella would do it. No one but me could feel what she was feeling. And if I had been feeling that for the four months since we’d left, I would have stabbed myself for sure. Repeatedly. I sighed.