His Wolf Pup - a Jasper Hale Story

46- We Need to Talk

Jasper and I stayed wrapped up in a hug for a very long time. Neither of us wanted to let go, and neither wanted to deal with what had happened.

But, Carlisle decided it was time for us to talk by saying, "Emma."

I pulled my head off of Jasper's shoulder to look at him, and his eyes broke my heart. He looked devastated, and I just wanted to fix it.

Jasper could tell it was time for us to talk, so he walked the two of us over to the couch. He sat down and let me shift around, so I was sitting in his lap with his arms wrapped around me. I gripped his arms with my own, securing the two of us to each other. I leaned back into his chest as I prepared myself for the conversation to come.

I looked around the room and saw the entire family looking at me with frowns on their face. Emmet and Rosalie were sitting next to Jasper and me on the couch, and both were gripping each other's hands tightly. Carlisle and Esme stood beside them; his arms wrapped gently around her. Alice had made her way over to Noah, and both were sitting on the chair across from the couch. Edward had settled between Carlisle and Alice, leaning against the wall and not looking at anyone.

"Emma," Carlisle repeated. "We need to talk about what happened."

"Before you do," I said, interrupting him. "Edward already told me everything. I know why you left."

At the sound of his name, multiple people shot glances over at Edward, but Jasper's arms tightened around me as he buried his head in my shoulder. I could feel his chest rise as he took an unnecessary deep breath.

Carlisle turned to look at me once more. "Emma, you have to understand why we left with Edward."

"Stop," I told him, my voice wavering.

"Emma," Rosalie said, reaching out to lay a hand on my leg.

"No. I don't want to have this conversation right now. Right now, I just want to be happy that you are all here." I could feel tears gathering in my eyes, and I tried not to let them fall.

"No," Edward said, finally looking up at me. Everyone looked at him, including Jasper, as he spoke. "You should say what's on your mind; you should yell at me like you wanted to on the plane so that we can move past this."

"Move past this?" I asked him, leaning toward him as I spoke. "You think this is that easy?"

"Yes. You and Jasper were hurting without each other; now you're together, so everything is fixed."

"Edward," Carlisle said, trying to get him to stop.

I narrowed my eyes at Edward. "It is not that easy," I told him. "You could have gone about leaving in a very different way."

"Why is it harder for you than Jasper? He's moved on."

Jasper pulled me closer, feeling the inner turmoil I was going through, but I pushed against him, standing up.

"I promise you he has not; he's just trying to block you out like I was." I walked closer to Edward as I spoke, slowly getting everything off my chest. "And it is harder for me than Jasper because we did not think the same way. To him and all of you, you were going to see me again. To me, you left! I thought I was never seeing you again!"

"We were going to come back," Jasper whispered.

I turned to look at Jasper as his words really affected me. "But you didn't tell me that."

"We would have come back for you," Carlisle said a little more definitely.

"We would have been too late," Edward said, remembering what I told him.

"Why?" Emmet asked.

I looked at everyone in the family before stopping and looking at Jasper. "I stopped phasing when you left."

His mouth parted as if he were going to gasp, but he didn't. Instead, he said, "I'm sorry," while looking deep into my eyes. I could tell he was being honest, but it didn't mean he still didn't hurt me.

"I know," I told him. "But the way you left to hurt me." I looked around at everyone once again. "You all hurt me."

"We did what we thought was best," Edward said.

"No," I told him, turning to face him. "You made everyone do what you thought was best. When you forced them to leave, you had no one else's interest in mind."

"I did not."

"Son, yes, you did." Unlike Edward and I, Carlisle spoke calmly. With that simple sentence, he took authority over the entire argument and got everyone's attention.

Carlisle continued saying, "I shouldn't have let you, but you did. You forced us to choose you over Emma and leave her behind, tearing apart our family in the process. No one was happy when we left here, Jasper has been in physical pain since we left, and you didn't think about that once. You continued to tell us it was best for all of us, but it wasn't." Then he turned away from Edward and looked at me. "And I'm sorry for everything we did, and I don't expect you to forgive us, but know we still love you like a daughter and a sister."

"And I love you too," I told him. I glanced around the room and said, "I love all of you; that's never been a question in my mind."

"Then what is the problem?" Edward asked me honestly, not understanding.

"I don't trust you anymore," I whispered, my voice breaking. "You left me alone, you lied to me, and you broke my heart."

Jasper's eyes met mine once again as he asked, "Can you ever forgive me?"

"You promised me forever," I told him, "and then you left."