A couple of days later, Evelyn was speeding down the long highway towards the coast with her windows down and the chilly March wind flying through her hair. After much begging and pleading on her part, Marie had begrudgingly allowed her to make a trip out to the reservation to speak to Leah. Evelyn had been dutifully observing the conditions of her grounding (aside from the night at the Cullens', which she knew nothing about) and, in truth, she was worried about the Clearwater girl since she had not seen her in weeks; she had resigned from her job at the restaurant almost immediately after Harry passed and vanished without a trace.

Evelyn had no idea what to expect when she got to Leah's house. She knew that her friend was notorious for holding a grudge, so she knew to expect some sort of anger and resentment. She only hoped that Leah would let her apologize and attempt to make it up to her.

After about fifteen minutes, she pulled cautiously into the driveway. Through her windshield she could see Seth and Leah sitting on their front porch, the latter with an unreadable expression on her face as she stared at the car. Evelyn took a deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment to prepare herself, before she stepped carefully out of the car and walked slowly up to the house. She held Leah's stony gaze the entire time, pausing a few feet from the porch steps to give her some space.

Seth broke out into a good-natured grin when he recognized her. "Hey, Ev! Long time no see, huh?"

She returned his smile, her stomach in knots as she worried about what to say to Leah. "Hi Seth! It's good to see you." She turned to his sister. "I've been trying to talk to you... I left you messages."

"I got them," Leah snapped. "I just don't care about what you have to say. You shouldn't have come."

Evelyn bristled, but she stood her ground. "Yeah, well, maybe I shouldn't have, but here I am." She stepped forward, hoping to appeal to her friend. "I came to say that I'm sorry, Leah. I'm so incredibly sorry that I wasn't there for you when I should have been. Leaving like that was a really shitty thing to do and I want to find a way to make it up to you."

Leah rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "I really thought you were my friend, Ev. I needed you that night, and you couldn't even be bothered to call me back until three days after everything happened. Clearly our friendship didn't matter that much to you."

"I am your friend," Evelyn insisted, taking another step forward. "I swear, Leah, that never changed. But he's my friend, too, and I couldn't just not help him. He would have died."

"He's already dead! Don't you get it, Evelyn? These bloodsuckers you love so much aren't even alive and you're risking everything to make sure that they're safe and happy. It's disgusting." Leah's eyes were hard as she held Evelyn's gaze. "I tried to keep my faith in you, Evelyn, I really did. But after we phased and Sam told me what they were... and that you had chosen them..."

She shook her head, her voice breaking in emotion. "You made your choice. I had to deal with phasing and my dad dying alone because I chose to believe that you would be there for me. But you picked them over me, and I don't know if I can get over that."

"Leah, come on," Seth said beside her, looking worriedly between the two girls. "She's trying to make it up to you. She can care about them and us, too."

Evelyn stepped forward again, pausing at the first porch step. "Please, Leah. I know how you feel, probably more than anyone, and I know I should have been here and I wasn't. But I'm here now and I want to make things right. Tell me what I can do."

Leah stood, descending the steps and meeting her eye to eye. Her face was like stone as her dark eyes narrowed. "You can leave and never come back here. I don't wanna see you, anymore." And with that, Leah turned and took off into the trees, disappearing from sight. Evelyn heard a profound ripping sound and a howl, and she knew that Leah had phased and wouldn't be coming back anytime soon.

Seth stood, too, coming down the steps to stand beside her as they both stared off into the trees. He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "She just needs some time to cool off. You're one of her closest friends, she won't forget about that so easily."

"I know," Evelyn sighed. "I just feel terrible that I wasn't here for you guys. I'm so sorry about your dad, by the way. He was always so kind and genuine."

The young boy smiled, brown eyes sparkling. "Thanks, Ev. I appreciate it. Try not to worry about things with Leah too much though, okay? She'll come around eventually."

Evelyn nodded, though she was not entirely convinced. "I really hope that you're right."

***

Evelyn felt defeated as she drove home, the sun setting behind her as she made her way back into Forks. She knew that Leah would be upset, but she hadn't expected things to go that badly. She hoped that Seth was right and that her friend would forgive her eventually, but after seeing how angry she was, Evelyn didn't want to get her hopes up.

Marie's car was gone when she arrived back at her home, so she assume that she must still be at work. When she walked into the house it was dark, with only a small lamp in the first floor hallway lighting her vision. The sounds of the stairs creaking as she ascended the staircase were the only sounds that she could hear, and they echoed through the empty house. She was all of a sudden very tired, wanting nothing more than to try and sleep and forget about everything that had transpired that day.

When she opened the door to her bedroom, however, all thoughts of sleep vanished from her mind as she was met with a pair of mesmerizing golden eyes.

Jasper had been studying the walls of her bedroom, now so bare than from before he had left. Part of him ached at the loss of all of their pictures, his poems, and her drawings that had once adorned her room, but he supposed he didn't blame her for wanting to get rid of all reminders of him. His eyes met hers as she walked in, and he couldn't help the little jolt of anxiety that ran through him when he saw her. He hoped that she wouldn't just throw him out, even though it was probably what he deserved.

"I'm sorry if I'm intruding," he started, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "I just need a couple minutes of your time, and then I can go."

Evelyn blinked, still in shock and not quite sure what to do. Ever since he had returned, she had to remind herself that she wasn't hallucinating when she saw him. She eyed him curiously as she studied his face. "Is everything okay?"

Jasper sighed, pulling a pair of white envelopes from his back pocket. "These are for you. One is from Will," he couldn't help the slight scowl as he said his name, "-- and the other is from me." He extended them out to her as she walked towards him, and she took them carefully from his hands.

"I didn't know you were doing Will any favors," she said, her voice teasing to hide her trepidation and distaste for the vampire she had once called a friend. His name felt wrong as it left her mouth, and she knew Jasper didn't like him almost as much as she did.

Jasper chuckled, a warm sound that filled the room. "Trust me, it's the last thing I want to do, but he came by the house today to speak to Carlisle. Edward told him that his friend, Rebecca, had been killed, so then he wrote this for you and told us he was going back to Italy. For what, I don't know, but I think that was probably best. I was planning on coming to see you anyway, so I volunteered to bring it with me."

She hummed in agreement, wondering idly what more Will could possibly have to say to her in this letter, but she decided that for the moment, she didn't care. She met Jasper's eyes again, raising a curious eyebrow. "And the other one?" She held up the one that she knew he had written for her. "What's this for?"

Jasper smiled sheepishly, looking down at his feet. "I read the letter that you left me with your journal, and since I'm better with words when I write them, I wrote you a response. But only if you want to read it, and whenever you're ready to read it. You may never want to, but I want you to have it, just in case."

"Oh... well, thank you." She moved past him, placing both letters on her desk. Her stomach was in knots; there was so much she wanted to say to him, but she had no idea where to start. And it seemed he felt the same way. The tension between them hung thick in the air like smoke, filled with the words left unspoken and the unresolved feelings that clouded their future together.

She finally decided to just suck it up and say what she had been thinking about since that night at his house. "Jasper, I really just want to say thank you, for what you said the other night and for supporting me. I really did appreciate it, even though it looks like I don't really have a choice in the matter, anymore." She still felt scared of the future and what was to come, but after talking with Rosalie, she felt much better about facing the uncertainty. And Edward was convinced that they could postpone the transformation, so she had decided to hold on to the hope that they could figure something out.

He smiled, leaning on the foot of her bed and crossing his arms over his chest. "I meant every word. No matter how much joy it would bring me to be able to have you forever, I just want you to be happy. And I know that this life isn't what you want."

Evelyn bit her lip, leaning on her desk as she faced him. "I think--" she started, searching for the right words, "-- that if it were to happen, I could be happy. I mean, I think that I could come to terms with it, eventually. But I'm scared."

And suddenly they both knew that she wasn't just talking about becoming a vampire; she was talking about them, too, and how she felt about the possibility of their relationship. Jasper tried to fight the butterflies that had erupted in his stomach at her words; he didn't want to scare her away, and he knew that she needed time and space to figure things out. He needed the time, too, to prove that he was still worthy of her.

"We can take it one day at a time," he said finally, a small smile on his lips. "And we'll figure it out when we get there. But I promise that I'm here for you, now. I'm not going anywhere."

All Evelyn could do was nod, the weight on her chest now lifted after speaking to him. They both turned their heads as they heard Marie's car pull into the driveway, and the girl's mouth raised up in a grin as she faced Jasper again.

"Well, you actually should probably go, now. Marie isn't too pleased with you at the moment and if she sees you it's not going to be pretty." He laughed, making her smile brighter at the melodic sound of his voice.

Jasper ran a hand through his blond waves as he took one last look at the girl he loved. "I suppose I'll have to find a way to get back on her good side, won't I?"

"I wish you the best of luck with that," Evelyn laughed, knowing that it would probably take a miracle to get Marie to tolerate Jasper again. He knew that too, but that only made him more determined to earn back both Marie's and Evelyn's trust.

He fought the urge to kiss her cheek before he left, knowing that it wasn't yet the right time. He paused at her window, looking back at her as she watched him from her desk.

"I won't be far if you ever need me. I promise," he told her, and she had to try really hard not to melt at the voice she had loved so much. Her heart needed time, and she had to be responsible enough to give that to herself before she jumped back into anything that could break it. She offered him a smile and a wave as she watched him disappear out the window and into the forest behind her house, barely concealed by the darkness that was just beginning to fall.

Her attention turned back to the two envelopes on the desk. She recognized the one Jasper had written by his beautiful penmanship and the way he wrote her name. She slid that one to the side, looking curiously down at the one from her former friend. The outside was blank, but she could feel the thick paper inside.

Evelyn wasn't sure if it was a good idea to read it. All she wanted to do was forget about him and what he had done and move on, but she had never been very good at denying her sense of curiosity. Slowly, with shaking hands, she ripped open the envelope, pulled out the letter from inside, and began to read:

Evelyn,

I really hope that one day, you get to read this. I'm in no way trying to excuse what I've done, but I just want you to know what really happened that lead to the death of your parents.

A group of the Volturi guard were in Chicago to deal with some disturbance in the area, I honestly don't even remember why we were there. One night, while the others were out hunting, your parents coincidentally were also out on what I assume was some sort of date night. One of the vampires I was traveling with was new to the guard, and careless. He had found someone to drink from and dragged them into an alley off of a crowded street.

The vampire in question was anything but discreet. At the moment that he was feeding, your parents happened to be walking by when they heard something down the alley. They saw what was happening and were understandably frightened. The guard member realized that he had been seen and tried to go and find your parents, but they had disappeared into the crowd and called the police (who obviously never found anything, we had to clean up that mess before they could).

Their scents still lingered, and they sent me to track them down and eliminate them to protect our secret. I didn't want to, but I knew they were testing my loyalty. So I found them and was trying to work up the resolve to follow my orders until I found out that they had a daughter.

I saw you one day coming home from school. And the moment that I did, I knew I couldn't go through with it. Rebecca, my best friend that I told you about, would have been ashamed of me and I wouldn't have been able to live with the blood on my hands.

I tried to stop them, Ev, I really did. But they tricked me, and I got there too late. I vowed that night that I had to protect you to make up for what I'd done, and when I found out Victoria was also hunting you, I thought that if I could get rid of her, I could avenge what she and James did to Rebecca, too.

Edward told me that the Volturi have killed her, so now I'm going back to Italy to bide my time and plan my next move. But I couldn't leave without you knowing the truth, and since you won't speak to me I figured that this was the best way.

I will never stop trying to find a way to earn your forgiveness. I promise you that.

Will Cameron

Evelyn wasn't sure what to feel after reading his letter. There was some relief, knowing that he didn't want to hurt her parents, but the skeptical part of her wondered if he was even telling the truth. If he was going back to Italy, then it was better for her; she didn't want him around anymore as a reminder of the part he had played in the tragic deaths of her family.

She debated for a moment whether to just throw the piece of paper away, or perhaps even burn it, but with a sigh she folded it back up and placed it neatly in the back of one of her desk drawers.

Her eyes fell on the remaining enevelope, which she knew Jasper had written in response to everything he had seen in her journal and from the last letter she wrote him. She wanted to read it, more than anything, but something told her that now was not the right time. She ran her fingers over the swirls of ink that made up her name, wondering what he could have possibly said that he felt unable to say in person.

She understood him, though, and why he had chosen this way. He had wanted to give her the choice to accept it, and by reading his words it meant reopening the possibility of them being together again. It was his way to give her back the choice to make up for taking it away from her when he had decided to leave.

He was right because even after all these months, he still knew her well; she did need time, and there was no harm in putting the enevelope somewhere safe until she was ready to finally read it.

And so with a soft smile on her face and her heart at peace for the first time in a long time, she gently placed the unopened letter next to Will's in the dark drawer of her desk, hopeful for a time at some point in the future that she would finally be ready to open it.

******
ausbshsjskl im terrible at ending books and I lowkey hate this chapter lol but PLEASE read the epilogue it's vv important!