As I stepped out of my car, I could hear voices and laughter coming from inside the house. My mind was still spinning from the secrets that Jacob had let me in on, but I finally felt peace knowing I wasn't on the outside anymore. With that came the hurt knowing that my sister would have kept her secrets from me forever. We had spent our entire childhoods telling each other everything, and with the insight I had now, I could pinpoint the exact moment that I began to feel shut out of her life. It all made sense now. Part of me felt guilty for being so hurt and holding it against her; it wasn't just her secret she would be divulging. The same secret I was holding now too.

I swallowed the sour feeling, climbing the handful of stairs to the porch. As I pulled the screen door open, I could smell the dinner that had probably been waiting on me for a while. No doubt she had placed my plate in the microwave, it would have disappeared into the stomach of a teenager boy if she hadn't.

Sam sat at the small dinner table with Paul and Embry deep in a conversation, though I didn't listen closely enough to figure out what they were talking about. Sam glanced up at me with a polite smile as I dropped my bag by the door, but I walked past him into the kitchen where Emily was putting away the remnants of the dinner ingredients.

She looked over as she shut a cupboard door, grinning brightly at me. "How was school? I thought you'd be home earlier, but I didn't want to hover, so I didn't call."

I shrugged, leaning my back against the fridge. "It was fine."

I didn't offer any other details, and this caught her attention. She stopped, a spice bottle still in her hands. "Is everything okay?"

To this, the conversation a few feet away fell away into an uncomfortable silence. I looked down at my shoes, the edges still dark from the wet sand of the beach. "Can I talk to you... alone?" I asked, my voice hesitant and quiet.

She glanced over at the guys, and I heard Sam shoo them out the door as he followed. In their absence, I took a deep breath as she studied me carefully. Before I could figure out where I wanted to begin, she spoke up first. "You know."

I just nodded, meeting her gaze again.

"I was wondering how long Jake would hold out on telling you," she smirked, turning to put the spice bottle in its place before leaning against the sink ledge, crossing her arms.

"Yeah, well I didn't really give him any other choice. I wasn't planning to leave without an explanation," I shrugged again.

"I'm glad you finally know, everyone's been walking on eggshells making sure they didn't let it slip," she laughed lightly, but I could only nod, biting my lip. "I tried to tell him it wasn't as bad as he was making it out to be, but-" she rambled on, and I finally cut her off.

"Em..." I started, my hands fidgeting with my sleeves again. Her smirk dropped off, and I felt the guilt creeping back in. "You weren't going to tell me. What really happening. I would have gone forever not knowing."

"Livie, I couldn't," she said though her voice was barely over a whisper. My chest ached as the memories flooded back once again, the pain I had pushed away once I had known she would be okay. I had never fully dealt with it, telling myself everything was fine now.

"You would have kept this to yourself forever," I accused, feeling my eyes sting with tears. I hated that I always cried when I got angry, no matter how hard I tried to fight it off. There was no easier way to have your anger dismissed.

"Not to myself. Everyone here knows. Leah knows," she reasoned.

I couldn't help myself as I rolled my eyes, "Yeah, and I'm sure she's just chomping at the bit to pour out support to you right now," I said spitefully, seeing the hurt flicker in her eyes as it left my mouth, instantly wishing I could take it back.

"Olivia, I had to make a choice. Now you understand that I wasn't just protecting Sam. I was protecting the entire tribe." I nodded silently, chewing on my lower lip to stop myself from crying.

"I'm your sister. None of it made sense. We thought you were going to die," I countered, and she moved toward me. I let her wrap her arms around me, leaning into the embrace as she stroked my hair, her cheek resting against the top of my head. The familiarity of this was comforting, and I felt the anxiety I had been holding onto melt away.

"You are my sister, and I promise I'll never keep anything from you again."

I sighed as she pulled back, giving her a small smile. "Now you don't have any reason to."

She brushed her thumbs under my eyes, something she used to do when I was younger and deeply upset about something. Though usually then it was over a dying baby bird on our front lawn or being told that we couldn't get a puppy for the tenth time. "Were you mad at him?" I asked, running my fingers through my hair.

"It didn't last. I couldn't stay angry with him when I saw how much he hated himself for what happened," she admitted, carefully folding the dish towel that had been lying next to the sink. "So I take it you took everything pretty well. You're not melting down."

I snorted, laughing lightly. "I'm pretty sure I'm just in denial. How is someone supposed to handle finding out that fairytale monsters are real?"

"If you ever figure that out, let me know. There are some days where I'm pretty sure I'm living in an alternate dimension," she joked as I hopped up, perching myself on the edge of the counter.

"So you've adopted the role as pseudo-mom?" I asked, gesturing to the table where the empty plates still sat.

She shrugged, crossing her arms as she leaned next to me. "Something like that. A lot of them can't tell their parents, they aren't already on the council. This is their safe place where they don't have to pretend, you know?"

I nodded, considering this. Realizing that I, too, would be keeping secrets from my own mother. Something that Emily had been living for more than the last year.

"Plus, I've always loved cooking, and I can test any recipe and know that they'll eat it," she laughed to herself.

"They really do put food away like it's a job," I agreed, feeling myself relax as I grinned back at her. "So they're all..."

She nodded before I finished, her eyes trained on the table where the crew of them usually were congregated. "Yeah, there's a few more they're keeping an eye on too. The elders on the council have traced back bloodlines so they know who to watch."

"And they're all okay with it?" I tried to imagine life with such a massive disruption, but even just the thought stressed me out.

Emily sighed, frowning slightly. "Some more than others. The elders hold a lot of pride in it, but they aren't the ones living through it. The boys take it seriously, but some struggle with what it means. Most of them have had to drop out of school for the time being. The council has been working with the school so they can still graduate on their time, but these kids are on the go constantly. For a while it seemed like they could go back to normal, but then the Cullens decided to come back."

"So they're bound to this indefinitely?" I asked, her comments reminding me of Quil's quips about his friends leaving school.

"It's hard to tell. The family doesn't stay in locations for very long, and they've already been here several years. Sam is hoping they'll move on after graduation in a few months."

"It doesn't seem fair. For all these kids to have their lives on hold until a bunch of other people decide what they want to do," I said as I leaned over, pressing a button on the microwave, turning it on to warm up my leftovers.

Em looked over to me, the left side of her mouth turning up in a smirk with her eyebrow raised. "What?" I mumbled, pulling a fork out of a drawer beside my dangling legs.

She shook her head, pushing off the counter to walk to the table, gathering the dishes left abandoned. "That just sounds exactly like something Jake would say. Just a bit more... PG."

I rolled my eyes again, though my cheeks flushed pink. Thankfully the microwave beeped done then, so I reached over to retrieve my dinner instead of responding. My sister, being herself, didn't leave it at that. "I take it that the conversation went okay. You aren't melting down right now. He was convinced it would be a disaster," she said casually, piling the plates into the empty sink and turning on the water with a flick of her hand.

I shrugged, picking off my first bite of lasagna. "Yeah, it was okay."

She glanced back at me over her shoulder, narrowing her eyes at me playfully. I was never the one to indulge her with details over boys, being far more easily embarrassed than her. "Do you like him?"

I had to bite my lip to stop myself from smiling. "He's cute," I admitted, grinning as she shook her head at my unwillingness to give her what she wanted.

"Thought so," she winked before turning back to the dishes. She probably did, at times I thought she knew me better than I knew myself.

And we are BACK! I made this chapter shorter because I wanted the next part with Jake to be quite longer, longer than I would want this full chapter to be. I love writing the sister dynamic between Liv and Emily. I'm happy to be back in action here, and I hope you all enjoyed this quick read! Thanks so much for the reviews I've gotten over the last few months, they mean the world to me. Each one has helped to push away my writer's block. Have a great Sunday and I'll see you all in a few days!