A/N: And so we have reached the end of another fic, but as previously stated, this one is getting a sequel. Again, it's only ending here because of upcoming events that do not coincide with a "T" rating, nor is everything able to be in Bella's POV. So we hope you have enjoyed Stupid Volvo Owner, and hopefully we will see you for its sequel, Tomorrow or Eternity?, which should start posting very soon, as we have already begun writing it. Thank you so much for your support.

Each of the Cullen's stood around me with the same horrified expression on their faces, although Edward's was noticeably more pained. Clearly, something was very wrong.

"I don't understand. Why would they be coming here?" I asked and felt Edward's arm secure around my waist, for once, providing me with no comfort. I remembered him telling me about the Volturi guard the night we made the decision that my change was going to happen. I tried to remember what little he told me about them, but the only thing that stood out in my mind was that they would destroy his family if they ever found out they'd had a human in their midst who knew their secret. My panic immediately began to rise. "No, we can't. Not while I'm still human. Edward, we should just change me now."

Alice closed her eyes for a mere second before she began shaking her head. "No, the consequences would be far worse. It would raise too much suspicion with you suddenly disappearing, and your father would not let it go. He would investigate and keep digging until he learned too much. They would destroy him as well and anyone helping him find you."

My heart began pounding harder and I felt my throat start to tighten. My father would pay the consequence for our actions—I couldn't live with that. Though I knew one day I'd have to break his heart, the thought of causing his death made my stomach churn.

"So, we don't tell them until it's time for Bella's transformation," Edward suggested, and again, Alice shook her head and stated that the vision had not changed. A few rarely, if ever, said words in my presence slipped unfiltered through his lips before his voice rose to address everyone. "We'll run. Hide. Separate. With Alice's visions, Bella and I would stay one step ahead of them."

My eyes clenched shut, imagining my father go through something like that. "My father would never stop looking for me then, either."

"Which would still likely lead to him finding out more than he should about our family, and—" Jasper didn't need to finish; the outcome would be deadly for my father. It wasn't an option and from the look are their faces, they would never consider it.

"What if we say we're running away together?" I asked the question aloud, but already knew the answer. "I wouldn't even make it to the state line, and he'd likely try to have you arrested."

"Our identities are solid to a casual observer," Jasper stated, but shook his head. "But under intense scrutiny, they would only raise more questions."

"Still leaving us all in danger," Rosalie reasoned. "Is there anything we can do?" Emmett's arms wrapped around her, nearly swallowing her in his embrace.

My heart broke. This was my fault. I was the one making them vulnerable. The human that would cause their utter destruction. If I hadn't come to Forks and fallen in love with a vampire…

"Bella," Jasper voice cracked, having sensed my sudden onslaught of emotions. "None of us can't help who we fall in love with, sweetheart."

No doubt having read Jasper's mind, Edward immediately turned to me, placing his hands on each side of my face. I couldn't help the tears that soon followed, the look in his eyes reflected everything I was feeling.

He didn't even have to say it. I knew that he would carry the blame for it all on his shoulders.

"If anyone is to blame, it's me, love. Not you." His thumbs brushed away at my tears. "Had I been human when I met you, the Volturi wouldn't be an issue."

"You'd also be dust by now, Edward." Emmett, always the voice that penetrated the darkness of my mind.

"Emmett," Rosalie hissed, rolling her eyes. "You may be right, but this is hardly the time."

"Bella, what we're trying to say is, this isn't your fault. It's Aro, and his need to be the ultimate power." Carlisle had to look away from me, rubbing his mouth with the back of his hand. "As our coven grew, I knew it would be only a matter of time. We try to interact as little possible with those of our kind. The honest truth is, he'd see our family as a threat if he knew of the gifts we possess."

Closing my eyes, I pulled away from Edward. I needed to ask Alice something, to be sure there was absolutely no other way out of this and his touch would be too much for me to handle once he read Alice's mind.

Already deciding to ask, Alice gasped as her eyes snapped open, her head shaking.

Edward grabbed a hold of my face, anger and fear filled his darkened gaze. "No, Bella. Do not even consider it. It is not an option." He was trembling.

Oh, Edward, I'm sorry you had to see that. "Judging from the look on your face, it could work."

"It is not an option!" He was hurting me, but I didn't dare say another word.

"What is it? What is the option she's thinking of?" Rosalie asked, laying a hand on Edward's shoulder. She murmured something too low for me to hear, his grasp relaxed minutely.

When neither Alice and Edward replied, I cleared my throat and tried to answer over Edward's mantra of "No."

"I thought, what would happen if I went to the Volturi to sacrifice myself for the sake of Edward and all of you?"

A gasp fell from Esme's lips, her hand covering her mouth in horror. Emmett only shook his head. One look at Alice, and Jasper did the same. Even Rosalie couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"What would happen if she did that, Alice?" Carlisle asked. I tried to look at him, as he was the only one out of my field of vision, but Edward held me firm, facing him.

"No! You look at me! This isn't an option. It doesn't matter what they say, I will not let you sacrifice yourself."

"Aro would accept her sacrifice but insist on torturing her to get more information about us. And in the end, she would either be changed and serve him forever, or die."

"You'd sacrifice yourself for us?" Rosalie asked, stepping forward. "To save Edward?"

"For you all," I cried out. "For my father, maybe even Forks and the tribe. You can't ask me to carry that kind of guilt, Edward."

Edward pulled away and shouted, "It is not an option!" Carlisle settled a hand on Edward's shoulder, but he shook it off. "Not an option. I'd never ask any of you to give up your mates to save us, so do not ask me to even consider it."

"Never," rung out in unison from six set of lips, including Rosalie.

"I only wanted you to know the outcome, not that I had any intention of seeing it followed through upon. You needed to know that it would serve no purpose, no matter what," Carlisle assured us, but his eyes were firmly set on Edward. "I would never ask that of you, Edward. And Bella is a part of this family, and we will face this together as a family."

I sobbed. "But it's the only way."

"Bella, it would solve nothing. Once Aro finished with you, whatever he decided, he would still come for us. There is no way around this," Alice said, her eyes the saddest I'd ever seen them.

The whole room fell so silent, I could swear I could almost hear the light snowfall beginning to collect on the ground outside. It was hard to believe that just a few hours ago, I was waking up in the arms of the love of my life, exuberantly happy. I was engaged and looking forward to spending the rest of eternity with Edward. And now, we're all going to die for it.

"How long do we have, Alice?" Carlisle asked, and all our gazes turned to her, waiting anxiously for her response.

Her eyes flickered from side to side for several moments, as if running through more scenarios in her mind, but her sigh in the end was discouraging. "Once you make the call, we'll have a week. And the longer you wait, the worse the consequences will be, and farther reaching."

Edward and Carlisle exchanged glances and they both nodded simultaneously. Normally, I would have said something about that kind of conversation between them that drove me nuts, but I just couldn't find the will to argue anymore. As Carlisle left the room, I felt myself being drawn back into Edward's embrace and I heard Esme say that they would give us some time alone.

Even as my body started to shiver, I held tight to him, needing him close to me. As terrified as I was, his presence and his arms were the only things that could even remotely calm me. "I'm so sorry, Edward. If I had stayed away from you like you'd wanted me to, none of this would have happened. None of you would be facing this."

"It wouldn't have mattered, because it wasn't just you, but I'm also not the least bit sorry." Both his words and tone drew my attention up to his face, and his expression was not what I had expected. It was a mask of sheer calm, and his gaze finally sifted down to meet mine. "The only regrets I have are what I am taking away from you and your parents. And that is not something that you need to apologize for, Bella. To me or my family. We've all had more than we ever would naturally, and we are all grateful for what we've had in that time. And I'm still getting everything I could ever ask for. To spend the rest of my existence with you."

I ran my fingers through his hair, earning the softest of sighs. "A week, a month, and a hundred years would never be enough, Edward." My lips pressed to the underside of his chin, his arms circling around me fully. "A part of us will continue after we're destroyed and I'll be right beside you."

"I want to believe that. You have no idea."

There would be no convincing him that our souls would carry on that night, so instead, I held him as tightly as he held me. "What are we going to do?"

His lips, cool and firm on my forehead, lingered longer than usual. "You'll write letters to your mother every day just to let her know you love her. Call her or leave her voicemail—"

"Since she's always forgetting to charge her phone," I whispered, nodding against his chest.

"Yes, and we'll spend what time you can at school with the friends you've made."

My hand twisted in his shirt at the thought of losing Angela so much sooner than we had originally planned. "Make and have dinner with Charlie every night."

Edward chuckled half-heartily. "We'll have to have dinner with him at least a few times until the—."

I looked up at him, touching his lips with the tips of my fingers to stop him from saying the word that would only hurt us both. "You'd subject yourself to that again?"

"I'd do anything for you, Bella. He's such a good man and how can I not when all he's ever done is love you."

I sobbed at that and begged him to hold me as even he couldn't catch my tears fast enough. "Keep going."

"We'll go to the meadow a few times, maybe even skip a few classes. Every night when your father heads to bed, I'll sneak into your room and hold you, sing to you, and remind you I love you with all that I am."

"I love you, Edward Cullen."

"I love you," he choked up suddenly, long enough for me to catch it. "I love you, Isabella Cullen."

His words started a fresh bout of tears, as if I hadn't cried enough. Even if I never saw the day that that title rang true, I was forever his, bonded by so much more than any piece of paper or surname could ever accomplish. I was a Cullen in everything but a technicality. My lullaby was the only thing that soothed me—my body, mind, and soul emotionally and physically exhausted.

A part of me wanted to believe the future was uncertain, that Alice's visions were subjective. That things aren't as bad as they seemed to be. She hadn't seen me hitting her brother's car all those months ago in the school parking lot.

All it would take was one decision to change everything, I was determined to find it.

Teaser for Chapter 1 of Tomorrow or Eternity?

It was never supposed to be this way. If I had just stayed away from her as I should have, Bella would have had a safe and happy life; a normal life. Regardless of how long or short it would have been, she could have married, maybe even had a child before the cancer appeared, and her time on this earth would have been full and worthwhile. Yet, because I was selfish in my need and desire for her presence, death was knocking at her door at the age of eighteen, without ever having enjoyed some of the simplest pleasures that life had to offer. I did this to her, all because I was weak.

My thoughts ran through my mind at breakneck speed; everything I refused myself to voice. I also knew, even without the ability to read her mind, that Bella still harbored similar thoughts of her own, despite my attempts to convince her otherwise.

However, in our hearts, we both knew the undeniable truth that no amount of self-condemnation on either of our parts could change—it truly would not have mattered if we had tried harder to stay away from one another. I loved Bella with everything in me, and I knew she felt the same for me, but it was more than that. It had always been more than that. She was destined to be my mate. Every part of her was bonded to me, as I was to her. The deep love we shared was just a beautiful bonus.