Edward grips the steering wheel so tightly the leather creaks under his white fingers as the silver Volvo rolls to a halt in the shadowed parking lot. Rain flicks against the windshield, blurring the sullen afternoon light. Bella stands just outside the doors of Forks High, her hair damp, cheeks flushed, clutching a battered paperback against her raincoat. Alice appears beside him in the passenger seat, gaze unfocused, a future flickering through her eyes.
“She’s safe for now,”
Alice murmurs, voice low so Bella can’t hear.
“But you can’t wait much longer.”
Edward watches Bella step out alone into the deepening gloom. Her scent sears him even at this distance, both agony and anchor. One slip means everything ends. A group of students laugh nearby, oblivious to the razor-wire tension in his chest. Alice’s hand lands on his arm.
“What will you do, Edward?”
He opens the car door, rain cold and prickling on his skin he cannot feel, and crosses the distance to Bella, his shadow falling long across the wet tarmac. She looks up at him, unaware of the storm gathering just out of her sight.