Bella couldn't help but chuckle, but it was a bitter one rather than a happy one.

"With all due respect, Mr. Pettigrew, you're a man," she commented, leaning forward to prop her arm up and rest her chin in a single palm as she faced him. "Women like me — we're regarded as lost causes. Men changing their ways and bouncing back from misfortune is a storybook plot. Women trying to change their ways — well, you don't see many of those in storybooks, do you? Not as heroines."

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