The Healer's Heartbeat

Ariadne Dimitriou was running again.

That's how she'd always handled her problems. Nobody had ever really wanted her. Until Xavier, that is. He swept into her life, making her feel loved and cared for. He was 27, a gentleman, and so mature. So, she slept with him --- several times. When her parents found them together, they kicked her out. And suddenly, Xavier wanted nothing to do with her.

That was how she ended up pregnant at 17 and alone in Forks, Washington.

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Carlisle Cullen was engulfed in a sea of loneliness.

He'd thought that if he could just gather enough people around him, he'd be free of that feeling.

It hadn't worked.

So, when they moved back to Forks after being gone for 70 years, he wasn't expecting to find her. The woman who he was destined to be with. The one who would become his heart.

But she was struggling with things he didn't understand. Her pain was palpable, her past a heavy burden. Can these two wounded souls overcome the obstacles in their way? Or will they be consumed by their pasts?