A shrill cry from the monitor resting on my bedside table woke me from my shallow sleep, and sighing, I wiped my hands over my face. Looking quickly to my left, I noticed that the sheets were undisturbed and cold. I wasn't particularly surprised, especially after the fight we'd had last night.

"Edward, you can't be serious!" I shouted.

"Bella, I can't help it! I've said I'm sorry, what do you want me to do?" He shouted back at me, his entire face had gone red in his rage. I'm pretty sure mine was exactly the same.

"I want you to get your head out of your ass and realise that you have obligations other than your damn work!"

"My damn work?" He repeated in outrage. "It's my damn work that keeps this family going!"

I sighed, drained, and collapsed onto the bed. Edward and I had been married for 5 years, and had a beautiful daughter. We'd known each other all our lives, our parents had been best friends, and our mothers had had our wedding planned since we were old enough to walk. Luckily for them, it had worked out, and we'd been dating since the age of fifteen.

College had been difficult, as we were separated on opposite ends of the country, but we made it back to Forks for every single holiday. We were strong, and we made it through. We had moved back into Forks in a cottage by the forest, and were married at the age of 22. At 25, we were expecting out first child, our beautiful little Lilly, who was a perfect mix of her father and myself.

Edward's father was a surgeon, and was extremely upset when Edward decided against the medical career to become a business man. He was very successful at it though, and Carlisle's proud shone when Edward quickly rose to the top of his chain.

Now, however, Edward was lost in his work. He was never home, and I honestly couldn't remember the last time he was home in time for dinner.

He sighed and walked towards the bathroom that was attached to our bedroom as I lay fully back on our bed and rested my head on the pillow, throwing my arms over my eyes.

He came out of the bathroom a few minutes later and began to pace the floor. I could hear the pause in his steps and I peeked out from under my arms to find him staring at me.

"I can't get out of this, Bella." He said in a way that meant there would be no arguments, his word was final. I tried anyway.

"Edward, it's your only daughter's second birthday... how can you choose work over that?"

Something in his eyes hardened and he looked away, I simply looked on at the man stood in front of me. I knew the man I fell in love with over a decade ago was still in there somewhere, hiding behind the shell that had formed over the last few years.

"I don't choose it, Bella," he spat. "I don't have a choice."

"You don't have a choice? You're the boss! You can do whatever the fuck you want, Edward!" I argued hopelessly. There was no changing Edward Cullen's mind once he was set on something; he was even more stubborn than me.

"It's not that simple, Bella! I can't just leave my staff on their own; I have a duty!"

I glared at him, getting up and walking towards the door, pausing in the entry.

"You have a duty as a father, and a duty as a husband, Edward. Think about that." And then I slammed the door shut, crying because I knew I'd be thinking about it. And thinking about the fact that the last time I remembered him telling me he loved me was the day of Lilly's first birthday party, and I couldn't be positive that we were enough to hold him here anymore.

Another cry caught my attention, and I quickly jumped up and went to Lilly's room which was down the hall a little.

My beautiful little baby girl was stood in her crib, her little hands grabbing the bars with big, fat tears streaming down her porcelain cheeks. Her chocolate brown eyes were glistening with unshed tears, and her bronze hair was matted and messy, showing signs of her restless sleep.

"What's wrong, Lilly-bug?" I pouted, modelling her adorable little quivering lip, which was waiting to let loose another sob.

She sniffled and buried her face in my neck, grabbing a handful of my hair in her tiny fist. I kissed her head, unable to contain the amount of love I felt for her, and grabbed her pacifier from the crib, holding it against her lips and waiting for her to take it. She did quickly and began suckling quietly, her sniffles calming and becoming more relaxed in my arms.

"Let's go downstairs and see if we can find some milk, hmm?" I asked her, obviously knowing I wasn't going to get a response, but loving being able to talk to someone in person. With Edward constantly at work, it was a hard feat, as I was looking after Lilly during the day and the only visitors we got were mine or Edward's parents.

I checked the clock on the wall in the hall before we got to the stairs and noticed that it was just after 11pm. I bounced Lilly in my arms lightly and she giggled happily through her pacifier and I bounced her again as she shrieked with laughter. Her pacifier fell out of her mouth and I was surprised that I managed to catch it, but thankful that I could see her beautiful smile rather than her frown.

I walked into the kitchen and straight to the fridge, searching its contents for some of Lilly's night time milk.

"No milk!" She exclaimed.

"You don't want milk?" I asked her as she stumbled over her words slightly.

"Nanas!"

"You want bananas?"

She nodded, clapping her little hands and I grinned and tickled her stomach.

"Okay then!" I set her down in her high chair and then strapped her in before turning and grabbing a bowl from the cupboard and a spoon. I cut a banana in half and mashed one half into a bowl and set it front of Lilly with her little plastic spoon. She took it from me and began eating her bananas, but I'd just call it making a mess. I sat down at the island and ate the other half of the banana as I read the newspaper that Edward had left on the table.

Lilly signalled that she had finished her bananas by knocking the bowl onto the floor. I sighed as I looked at the mess all over her and the tiles. I wet a towel and wiped her face and hands and then looked down at the bowl, then back at her and bit my lip. Lilly looked like she was falling asleep, but if I didn't clean up the bananas now they'd stain the floor.

"I'll get that." I looked up to see Edward stood in the doorway.

"Huh?" I asked as I took in his appearance. He'd clearly just got home from work, his tie had been loosened and his top buttons undone, his suit jacket had come off and his sleeves had been rolled up to his elbows. He looked like the epitome of sexy.

"The bananas, I'll clean them up." He repeated, walking towards me.

"Oh, thanks." I muttered my gratitude whilst picking up Lilly, avoiding his eyes the whole time.

"Don't mention it..." he whispered as I fled from the room and straight up to Lilly's. I sat in the rocking chair in the corner in the room and sang to her softly until she fell asleep, and then set her gently in her crib and kissed her forehead.

"I love you, Lilly." I whispered before checking the baby monitor and wandering into my bedroom.

Quickly falling into bed, I told myself it was because I was tired when really I was anything but. Edward was downstairs, actually making an effort with something other than Cullen Ltd, and I was hiding up here like a child? I lay there mentally berating myself, and before I knew it I had fallen asleep.

I awoke when I felt a dip on the side of the bed and a soft finger stroking my cheek. I fluttered my eyes open slowly, allowing them to get used to the bright light of the room. Once I was able to see, I looked in surprise at Edward sitting on the edge of the bed tentatively, with an unreadable expression on his face.

"Edward?" I croaked, before clearing my throat.

He just continued to stare at me like he had never seen me before. I looked quickly at the time and groaned: 3am.

"Edward," I repeated. "What are you doing?" I sat up in the bed until we were at the same level.

He remained silent and reached up to stroke my cheek. I started panicking at his lack of response... had something happened? To him? Despite everything, I still loved him more than anything excluding Lilly.

My eyes widened and I grabbed his hand that was still stroking my face and held in tightly in mine.

"Edward, you're scaring me. What's wrong?" I asked with wide eyes.

He laughed once. It scared me; it wasn't a happy laugh. It was a sardonic laugh.

He sighed and looked away for a few seconds before looking back to me with a determined look in his eyes.

"Isabella, I love you."

My eyebrows rose in shock and his face crumpled. I felt kind of bad, but the last time he told me loved me was... a long time ago.

"This... this is why I'm a shitty bastard." He muttered quietly.

This time, my eyebrows scrunched together in confusion.

"What are you talking about?"

"The fact that when I tell you I love you, you look at me in shock like its un-fucking-heard of, Bella!" I jumped back as he stormed up and started to pace the room, his words exploding from his mouth in his rage.

He stopped suddenly and ran back over to me, holding my hands in his face tightly.

"I want you to tell me truthfully Bella, when was the last time I told you that I love you?" He asked, never breaking contact with my eyes.

I bit my lip and looked away, trying to avoid the question. He held my face tighter.

"Please, Bella." He whispered brokenly.

I took a deep breath and he closed his eyes, as if he was preparing himself for something bad, "The day of Lilly's first birthday party."

A sob left his lips and he collapsed onto my shoulder, causing me to fall back onto the bed as he lay on my chest. I sighed, unable to contain my current frustration and stroked my fingers through his hair slowly as he cried into my chest. Shouldn't it be me that was being comforted?

Edward's arms wrapped around my waist for the first time in a long time, and I couldn't help but sigh in content. I'd missed feeling close to him.

After about ten minutes, he managed to calm down enough to look up at me. His eyes were bloodshot and the tip of his nose was red, in contrast to his pale face.

"Bella, I'm so sorry."

I looked at him carefully... if he was apologising for ruining my shirt with his tears and I was going to hit him.

"Why?"

"Because I'm a piece of shit that doesn't deserve you." As angry as I was at him, I couldn't stand it when he disregarded himself like that.

"Edward..." I started, but he cut me off.

"No Bella, don't try to defend me," he said with a glint in his eyes. "I'm so sorry that I've been such a shit head to you, and I'm so fucking sorry that it took me so long to realise what I was doing to you."

What he was doing to me? "What do you mean 'doing to me'"?

"I know I've been hurting you, Bella. I just hadn't realised how much until recently. Your beautiful eyes used to be so full of energy and life... they used to sparkle. And now they're still beautiful, but they don't hold the love there anymore." He sighed in defeat.

"Edward!" I protested. "I love you, you big idiot!" I exclaimed, kissing his forehead.

He looked at me in disbelief, which pissed me off a little bit.

"Don't you dare doubt my love for you, Edward Cullen," I whispered fiercely. "You know how much I love you."

He saw in my eyes what I'd hoped he wouldn't.

"You just don't think I love you anymore."

I sighed and closed my eyes, unable to lie to him.

They opened again when I felt little kissed pressed all over my face.

"I hate myself for making you think I don't love you, Bella. You and Lilly are my whole life." He whispered in between kisses.

"It doesn't always seem that way, Edward. Sometimes it just seems like you love your work more than you love us." I admitted, overwhelmed at how good it felt to get it off my chest.

He nodded solemnly, "I realise that now. Before I honestly thought I was doing the right thing, making a life for us, you know? I wanted to make sure that you and Lilly never had to ask for anything, that we could always live comfortably. But after a while I guess I just got drawn in, and I didn't realise until we had that fight yesterday."

"I know, and I love you for wanting all this for us, but all we want is you, baby." I said softly, I wanted him to understand that I'd be happy on the streets as long as we were together. Obviously, I wanted more for Lilly, but if it was just the two of us... I wouldn't care.

"I'm sorry Bella, I know that we have a lot to work out, but I'm so sorry. I'm not working as much now, I promise. I was there all today telling everyone that from now I'm working a regular 9 till 5 shift, with weekends off. And I booked off the day of Lilly's party. I'll be there, love."

I grinned up at him through my happy tears, and he stared down at me tenderly.

"There's that beautiful smile," he whispered before leaning down to kiss me gently.

Being that it was the first time we'd kissed in God knows how long, we both moaned at the contact and I gripped the back of his head to bring his closer to me. He licked my bottom lip and I opened my mouth, allowing him to enter and our lips to touch. We both moaned again at the contact, and he climbed under the covers to lay over, as opposed to how he was above them before. I wrapped my legs around his waist and I groaned as his erection came into contact with my center through the thin layers of cotton that our pyjama pants consisted of.

I groaned again as he thrust up against me as he tugged my shirt over my head.

"Edward," I whispered as he licked down my neck to my bra, sucking on my nipple over the material. It hardened instantly, and suddenly I was rushing to unhook my bra and throw it across the room. I moaned far too loudly and he sucked a nipple into his mouth, nibbling on it gently and tweaking the other with his fingers, before swapping over.

"Oh god, Edward," I moaned and pulled his t-shirt over his head and threw it across the room, letting it land in a heap on the floor with mine.

I ran my fingers down his defined his abs and he moaned.

"Oh fuck, Bella," he moaned as he thrust up towards me again.

I lowered my hands to untie the drawstring on his pyjama pants and he got the picture, breaking away from me to pull them down his legs and then pulling mine down as well.

We both moaned breathlessly as his cock came into contact with my dripping center, and I spread my legs wider so he could fit in between.

"I love you, Edward." I whispered as he got himself into position.

"I love you too Bella, so much." He whispered back as he slid into me slowly, and suddenly I felt whole again.

As soon as he was buried to the hilt, we both sighed. He laced our fingers together above my head as he kissed my hair, my face, my neck. I felt cherished and loved for the first time in a long time.

Edward pulled out slowly and then pushed back in and I groaned at the friction, wrapping my legs around his waist.

"Fuckkkk Bella," Edward groaned as he began to move faster.

I could feel myself getting closer and closer to that big O, and as soon as Edward's fingers reached down to play with my clit, I was done for.

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!" I squeaked as I clenched around Edward tightly, squeezing his hands and throwing my head back against the pillow.

He buried his head into my neck as he moaned my name, filling his with his juices.

Finally coming down, I collapsed onto the bed as a sweating, panting mess. Edward wasn't much better.

I reached my fingers up to run them through his wet hair as we both calmed down until we could breath normally again.

"I love you," he whispered into my sticky skin.

I sighed in content, "I love you, too."

"I'll never ever make myself unworthy of you again, Bella."

I smiled and hugged him tighter to me. No words were needed.