After Bella turns down Edward’s proposal in New Moon, she takes off for college as far away from the normal stomping grounds for the Cullen family before she has to deal with the consequences of assisting Alice with saving her brother from the Volturi. Growing up and living a life of her own choices for the first time, she still continues to find that there is always something missing and is only ever satisfied marginally when the one Cullen she remained in full contact with visits her. Sometimes a person has to travel down a broken road in order to find love worth fighting for.