He hadn’t closed the door. His brother’s rapping knuckles against his door frame stir him from his thoughts and he can’t help but sigh with breath they both knew he didn’t have.

He’d take a sharp breath he didn’t need. The normal hum of his supernatural abilities become too much when this sudden TIGHTNESS grips his long dead chest and causes it to seize with sorrow he was no longer able to physically show.

No one is fast enough to catch him when he falls to his knees, no one knows what to say when his family tries to quell his anguish as he SCREAMS into shaking hands. His face is dry but his hollow, bitter sobs are real. He’s scaring them, and they take this supposed stranger’s presence as an instant threat in lieu of Emmett’s lack of explanation.

Edward ordering his family to stop when they gear up for an attack is the only thing that holds the coven back. He knows, can hear Emmett’s anguish all too clear as he pulls his own mate close. All their families had long since passed.