A.N

Hi guys, this is my first fanfic so be a little gentle!

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or the Twilight Characters.

Prologue

The list of things to do was endless.
Grocery shopping, standing in line at the post office for twenty minutes to post the birthday present for her dad, home to unpack the groceries, back out to take Hamish the dog to the vets for his yearly check up and shots, pick up Max from kindy, home to bathe, feed and put the children in bed, shower, do hair and make up and be ready to let the baby sitter in at 7 and wait around for her husband to get home. Instead of crawling into bed early after a dinner of fish fingers and peas and try to get more than three hours of uninterrupted sleep, Jacob, her husband had planned to take her out for dinner to celebrate 5 years of marriage.
Yay. The sarcasm was real.

Bella knew that she should have been more motivated and excited about the prospect of a child free evening with her husband at some posh restaurant in the city, but she knew better.
Their conversation would be stilted, the food wouldn't be as good as promised and she'd beg Jacob to drive through a takeaway place before they got home so she could eat a cheeseburger.
Jacob would talk about the office or work or something so boring that Bella would have to bite the inside of her mouth to stop from yawning, and Jacob would look at her with confusion when she mentioned something about her friends, or something funny the children would do.

They just weren't connecting. They were in a rut, she convinced herself. All they needed was a holiday maybe? Or some marriage counselling. She snorted loudly at the idea of her husband showing up to marriage counselling. He'd check his phone sixty times throughout the hour and then blame it all on her anyway. No. Marriage counselling wouldn't work.
Maybe they needed to be more adventurous? Maybe they just needed to have sex more?
Bella knew that was her doing. She was tired. So tired there were days she wondered how she managed to get up and out of bed in the mornings. Two kids under five meant that she simply didn't have the option to sleep in, no matter how many times she told the kids that mommy needed to have five minutes more.
She couldn't even nap when her youngest Violet napped because at 2 years old, she had loudly declared NO NAPS. And that was that. Violet knew what she wanted and naps were firmly on the 'not on your life lady' list.
Instead, she'd hide away in the pantry and doze while standing up, pretending she was looking for something while the kids tore apart their playroom or watched the same episode of paw patrol again and again.
She couldn't say how many times she had fallen asleep in her weekly yoga class…it was too many to count.

Bella's job was to be the wife to Jacob Black. CFO of a large tech company. She was expected to wine and dine Jacob's associates and do it with a smile on her face. The house had to be perfect, her clothes designer, her children silent and she was expected to enjoy her boring existence.
When Violet was just starting to walk, Bella made a passing remark that she'd like to look into doing some kind of degree. Jacob had laughed loudly for a good long minute and then dismissed her. Her job was to look after the children and the house. Like a good little wife.
She had silently fumed for a long time, but instead of telling him to stick his 1950's ideals, she carried on with her 'job'. Being mommy, going to yoga, learning to cook gourmet meals for her husband's dinner parties, picking up dry-cleaning and trying not to fall asleep in the post office line. This was her life. She loved her children and she loved her husband. This was a phase she told herself. When the children were older, things would be easier.
Somewhere along the way, she lost herself, but she'd find it again. Someday.

***

"There is someone else."
"What?" she looked down at her feet quickly, quite expecting to see her guts lying splattered at her feet. They weren't. Just her black Jimmy Choos standing on the plush carpet of their living room. She needed to sit down.
"I need to sit down." She stumbled a little and backed up into the sofa.
"I'm sorry but it just happened."
"It just happened?"
"Yes. We tried to stop it."
"You tried to stop it?"
"We are in love"
"You're in love?"
Bella realised she was repeating everything he was saying, but couldn't for the life of her stop the words that were coming out of her mouth.
"We want to move on with our lives. Move in together. Maybe try to start a family. You should move on too."
How could one 'move on with their life' when she wasn't aware that she even had one to begin with that warranted moving on in the first place. She didn't even know what that meant.
And this is where Bella thought that there was a very legitimate chance that she was going to commit a horrible bloody murder. Although thinking about it, it wouldn't be that horrible. It would be almost joyful she thought.
They hadn't even made it to dinner. Her hair was done, her make up perfect, she'd even squeezed herself into the black dress she knew her husband loved.
What the actual fuck.
She wore spanx for fucksake.
"So. Let me get this right. You and your girlfriend of how long?"
"Two years. Give or take." He looked a bit sheepish.
POP went a braincell. Bella could actually feel the rage building inside her. It was like hot molten lava. It started in her toes (that was bloody well painted a nice slut red) the rage was bubbling up into her throat.
She tried heavy breathing to stop the herself ripping her husband's throat out.
"Right." She bit out. "You and your girlfriend of two years-give or take" she glared daggers at him " want to start your lives together and maybe start a family. That sounds really lovely Jacob. It really does. There are just a few issues I have with this set up though."
Jacob was looking a little pale. Sweat was beading on his forehead and he was slowly moving backwards as if he had found himself in a lion cage and was about to have his face bitten off.
"Firstly. You're already married, you asshole. To me. You can't just run off and start a new happy life when you have a wife at home, you pig!" Her fingers were tingling.
"Secondly, and the most important. You have a family. You have two children who love you very much, or did you forget about them too, when you were boning your girlfriend?" By now she was shrieking and she hated it when she shrieked. "Wait, how long? Oh my god, Were you seeing this woman when I was pregnant with Violet?"
He had the grace to look ashamed.
"Oh my god." She whispered. "No, I'm really going to be sick." She held her hand over her mouth and took a deep breath through her nose willing the nausea away.
"I didn't know you would act this way Bella." Jacob gestured wildly back at her. "I thought you kind of knew. I thought you'd be happy about this"
"What? Why would you expect anything less? What did you want me to say Jacob?" she rolled her eyes and put her hards on her hips. "Oh sure darling, off you trot with your little trollop, go have babies and live happily ever after. I'll just stay here and take care of the first bunch of children you already have. I could KILL you Jacob. I really could. Who the hell is she anyway? Do I know her?"
"Victoria."
"Victoria your PA?" She was going to pass out. She knew it. What a cliche. How embarrassing. Did that still happen? Husband's running off with their personal assistants? It was like a terrible soap opera script that was playing out in their living room. What else had she been assisting him with?
Don't think about it. She demanded. Don't even think about it.
Jacob swallowed visibly and then straightened his shoulders. "I think we should have a break for a little while." He was edging himself towards the door now, where Bella noted he had a bag packed ready and waiting for his escape.
"Jacob, you listen to me right now!" she bellowed. Oh god, now she was bellowing. The neighbours could probably hear this.

"There is no break. You will never step foot in this house again. We are done. DONE you hear me!" She was screaming now. Nothing could stop her. Her hands were now zinging with adrenaline and she felt that she would be sick at any moment.
"Get out right this minute before I do something you will regret."
Jacob turned and practically ran to the door, grabbing his getaway bag as he raced by.
He quietly closed the front door behind him.
"Coward" she whispered at the door.
Bella stood in the living room listening to his car start, then reverse down the driveway and then away from the house and away from their marriage.
She stood there in the silent and now empty house. Her stomach rolled violently.
She only just made it to the bathroom, where she lost the fish finger she'd stolen off her son's plate.

Several hours after Jacob had skulked off, Bella sat in bed watching the telly and eating the last few spoons of the chocolate chunk ice cream she had been hiding in an empty frozen pea bag at the back of the freezer.
How the hell did she get here?
Having just turned 30 with two children under the age of 5, a mortgage that was far too large, no career, not even a part time job to tide her over and a husband that had just that evening announced he was leaving her AND their children… It was all too much. She knew she should be in a corner sobbing, or at the very least, setting her husband's clothes on fire in their front garden for the neighbours to see.
Sadly, and unfortunately luckily for her soon to be ex husband, the neighbourhood committee would have a fit over the fiery display and instead of feeling vengeance, Bella would be left with a strongly worded letter from Linda, the committee president and neighbourhood tyrant. And crying…Why wasn't she crying?
This is certainly something you should cry about.
That's what women did when their husbands told them they were being dumped for some woman called Victoria. She was thin and tall too with amazing fire engine red hair. The complete opposite to short, brown-headed chubby side of curvy Bella. People looked at Victoria and thought "sex goddess" or at least "lock up your husbands ladies, this woman is a husband stealing slutbag." Bella looked like she belonged in a primary school library.
She searched her emotions. She was angry. That was okay. She guessed she should be angry. But more than anything, she was embarrassed. Their babysitter had listened to the entire exchange and waited for Bella to stop throwing up before she patted her kindly on the back and asked if she was still needed.
Bella shook her head while she wiped her face from vomit and runny mascara and watched as Kimberly had raced out of the house and presumably to tell the rest of the neighbourhood what had happened.
Linda and the rest of the neighbourhood committee would have a field day.
She should call her mom. Her mom would know what to do.