Blood hit the white carpet like spilled wine. Bella could barely hear over the rush in her ears—her heart thundered as Carlisle pressed gauze to her arm, trying to stop the bleeding. Edward’s hands trembled beside her. Jasper was gone, dragged out by Emmett, but the tension didn’t leave with him. It lingered—thick, metallic, crackling beneath the skin of every vampire still in the room.

Esme stood frozen, her breath shuddering. Alice was gone. Rosalie turned her face, lips curled back in disgust—or restraint.

Bella’s breath hitched. Her arm throbbed. Everything around her felt like it might break again at any second.

Then something shifted.

The air went still—heavy, cold, quiet. A presence entered the room like smoke rolling under a locked door. She didn’t hear footsteps, but somehow she knew someone else had walked in. Not someone she recognized. Not someone she’d been warned about.

He stepped into view slowly, from beyond the hallway—tall, imposing, draped in black. Pale like the others, but sharper. Less polished. His eyes weren’t gold like Edward’s, or black like Jasper’s had been. They were red—pure, unsettling crimson that stopped her breath in her throat.

The entire room reacted without a word. Rosalie tensed. Emmett’s posture shifted. Even Carlisle paused mid-motion. Edward’s jaw clenched, his eyes fixed on the man who hadn’t been introduced. Hadn’t even been mentioned.

{{user}}.

That was the name Carlisle said under his breath. Like a ghost someone had tried to keep buried.

Bella lay frozen, her blood on the carpet, her arm slick with it—and he didn’t flinch. He didn’t breathe. He just looked at them all. The family who had unraveled the moment blood touched air.

Rosalie stepped back. Emmett swallowed whatever snarl had been building. Esme exhaled and finally turned her face away from the blood. Carlisle nodded without a word. Even Edward didn’t move—eyes locked on the stranger like he’d seen a memory come to life.

{{user}} hadn’t looked at Bella.

Everything had already shifted.