I don’t remember how long we had been laying, staring at the familiar surroundings of my bedroom. Carlisle and Alice were tending to Charlie and everyone else was repairing the damage done by the earlier commotion.

Edward held my head against his chest and ran his hand absent mindedly up and down my back sending a constant stream of shivers down my spine.

I let my thoughts wander . I hadn’t been able to stop worrying about the consequences to my actions since the fire had died 5 hours ago. I had just been the main cause of the massacre of one of the Volturi’s biggest assets. Would that now result in the extermination of the Cullen family at my expense? I wondered idly if I would be able to convince Aro that Jane’s demise was my fault and take the punishment myself I had put this family through so much already.

Also tugging at the frayed edges of my mind was the pending conversation with Charlie. I had a lot of explaining to do to his weak heart. And then, Jacob. All of this was brought on by him. Charlie’s life had been endangered twice by his loud mouth…but then, was it his fault, or was it really my own? Why not , I decided. Everything else was my fault, why not this too?

“Bella?” Edward spoke softly.

“Yes?”

“I love you.” His voice was pained.

“I love you too…” I turned in his arms to face him.

“I’m so sorry that this all happened to you.” He apologized.

I let my hand flutter up to his face and placed a finger over his lips to silence him. “What do you have to be sorry about?” I frowned. “This is all my fau-”

“No, Bella. You need to stop blaming yourself for this.” He cupped my face in his hands and forced eye contact. “If anyone is to blame it is me. My very presence caused this. If it weren’t for me, you would be having a happily ever after as a mortal with Jac-”

“Stop it.” I ordered harshly. “You know you are all I want. You’re the only thing I will ever want. Its me who should be sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry about.” He whispered as he pressed his lips to my forehead.