Edward's POV

I sighed again, pinching the bridge of my nose. It was late and my newest customer was being extremely unhelpful in picking out his car. I owned the Volvo business here in Florida but right now I just wanted to put this all on hold and go home. I gripped the phone harder,

"Well, from your descriptions it seems like the Volvo C70 or S80 would be best for you." I tried to convince him to pick one or the other. Right now I was jealous of this man, he was relaxing at home with his family while I was stuck here in this stupid cubical away from mine.

"Hmm…" He said, yet again. Ugh, I ran my hand through my already messy hair. The secretary Lauren poked her head in.

"Mr. Cullen, I'm finished with my work. The paperwork you requested is right here." She stepped in handing me a file but leaning in closer than necessary giving me a big view of her breasts. I bit my lip.

"I'm on the phone right now Ms. Mallory. Not today." I told her.

"Excuse me?" The man on the other line exclaimed.

"Sorry, not you. My secretary, sorry about that." I apologized, Lauren pouted but waited by the door. Eventually I got him to pick the C70 and finally hug up the phone, already packing up to go home. I stood up as she came closer,

"Hard day?" She asked coming over to sit on my lap pushing me back down loosening my tie and unbuttoning her shirt. I glanced at the clock; I was so late.

"I'm sorry, I have to go home right now. The kids are waiting for me." I pushed her off of me. She put her hands on her hips.

"Fine, maybe tomorrow." She said them turned back around sauntering out of my office. I ran my hand though my hair standing there an extra moment then practically ran out the door. I scrambled into my beloved Volvo then threw my briefcase in the passenger seat and backed out of the parking lot. The clock on my dashboard glowed bright neon green showing me it was 8:20. Shit! God, I missed picking up Nick and Emma from school again! I'd have to take them to the toy store sometime this week. Ten minutes later I pulled my car into the driveway and slid my key into the lock of the big French doors that led into my house. (A.N. The dialog is just going to repeat here from Edwards POV for a little while)

"Emma, Nick! I'm home!" I called up into the great big house. When nobody answered I called again.

"Emma, Nick?" Finally they descended the staircase with angry faces, their arms crossed protectively over their chests. I immediately felt awful.

"Guys I'm sorry, my work held me back again and I just…" I tried to apologize but I trailed off when my gaze set on Bella.

"Bella? What are you doing here?" I asked surprised. At first I was excited and happy until I assessed her position. Her face made me feel like I was in big trouble.

"Turns out I am Emma and Nicks new teacher." She said flatly.

"Okay…that's great! But what is going on? Not that I'm not happy to see you it's just unexpected." I still didn't understand why she was here. Was it for the kids? Where they in trouble?

"I learned today that Nick and Emma have been walking home everyday from school when you failed to pick them up." Her voice cutting into my thoughts. She was defiantly not happy; I gulped.

"I am truly sorry about tha—" I started to explain, really if she knew how hard I worked everyday she couldn't stay angry

"Did you realize how far your house is from the school? That they walked a mile each day just to get home because their father forgot to pick the up? That they're not allowed to walk home from school without a walking pass because their house is just that far? Did you know that they have felt unwanted and alone because of you neglecting to pick them up? Did you?!" She yelled her hand was currently gripping the rail and I was currently worried about it's condition, I was pretty sure it was going to break.

"Bella, I couldn't my work held me back late!" I tried to tell her again but my words were stopped short when she held up her hand.

"I've heard your excuses and they disgust me!" She sneered, brushing past me. She opened the door then stopped.

"I've helped them with their homework, they've brushed their teeth, and gotten into their pajamas. All they need is for you to tuck them in. I hope you can do at least that." She slammed the door harshly in my face. I stood their shock for a second then looked back up to the twins who were standing there looking equally as surprised as me by the ferocity of her angry. Emma made the 'shoo-ing' hand motion for me to go after her. I wrenched open the door, running out.

"Bella wait!" I called she was about to climb into her car. I walked over too her until she walked over to me meeting me halfway in between.

"What?" She growled. We were nearly chest-to-chest and right now I was hyper aware of everything.

"It's just that being a single parent is a lot harder than I thought and I really do love them. They mean everything to me but…" I trailed off, once again, realizing I was wrong. I looked up at Bella her hands balled up into fists at her sides; I gave her a hopeless, desolate, look.

"I'm sorry." I said simply and just for a second I thought I saw her anger weaken. "What I've done shouldn't have an excuse." I said quietly looking down ashamed.

"You shouldn't be saying sorry to me." She said, she turned me around and started pushing me toward the door. I opened he door looking for the twins but they had already gone back to bed. I walked up the stairs Bella at my side encouraging me forward. I looked in their room and saw Nick curled up along with Emma in her bed. She must have asked him to stay with her. They're eyes were closed but I could tell they were awake. Bella stood there by the door as I sat on the end of their bed.

"Emma, Nick?" I said softly, stroking their cheeks with my thumb. Their eyes fluttered open, questioningly.

"Daddy?" Emma asked, sitting up. She cupped my face, again like this morning.

"What's wrong?" Nick asked worried. I pulled them both into my lap.

"I'm sorry." I paused for a second before continuing, "I have been being an awful dad and it wasn't fair of me to leave you guys to walk home every day. You have every right to be mad at but I want to you to know I love you guys more than anything else in the entire world!"

"As high as the sky and as deep as the deep blue sea?" Emma asked, repeating the saying I used to tell them when they were younger. I shook my head,

"Much higher then the sky and way deeper than the deep blue sea." I told them kissing them each on the forehead.

"I love you, Dad." Nick hugged me. Emma nodded.

"I love you too, Daddy." I pulled them closer and hugged them tighter. How did I get such wonderful kids?

"I love you guys too. More than you will ever know." I said as Emma yawned. I laid them back into bed tucking their blanket up to their chins. Kissing them both on each of their cheeks before getting up to turn off their light.

"Sweet dreams." I whispered before closing the door. I looked at Bella who was sitting on the steps but stood up when she heard me coming.

"I think that was one of the sweetest things I've ever heard." She offered me a smile for the first time since I came home.

"Thank you Bella. I needed a wake up call like that." I said earnestly looking deep into her eyes. Bella turned away blushing.

"No problem, I should go now." She rushed down the stairs. I found myself not wanting to let her go I rushed out to meet her she was already at the front steps when I stopped her.

"Bella don't go." I called. She waited for me until I reached her. "Don't go yet, it not that late." I touched her shoulder. Suddenly and electric spark went up my arms, I drew my hand back quickly, what was that? Bella looked up at the sky, the stars were just about to come out.

"Okay." She finally said. I led her back up the steps and to the porch swing. It felt like fireworks were exploding inside of me just because she agreed to stay. We sat down gently pushing the swing back and forth until I asked the first question.

"Why did you bring them home? I mean, why didn't you just let them walk home?" I didn't ask this to make be mean to the kids but I was honestly curious.

"Because it was the right thing to do. Would you let two small kids walk home when you were able to take them there?" Bella looked at me with her hypnotic eyes.

"No, I see your point." I responded.

"Well what about you? What's so important about your job that made you late?" She asked expectantly.

"Um, well, I own a Volvo business and it's fairly new so I've need to put extra time into it to get it started." I explained, Bella nodded.

"So what made you want to become a teacher?"

"It's a long, sad story." She warned.

"I want to know." I pushed. Bella took a deep breath before answering and pulled her legs up to her chest, hugging them close.

"I was 18, I had graduated early so I was in college by the time I met James. He was like one of those gorgeous supermodel type guys and he was so sweet and romantic, so I fell in love." The mention of this James for some reason made me feel immensely jealous. But Bella wasn't looking at me anymore; she wasn't looking anywhere, lost in her memories.

"So I dated him, we were dating a long time before he moved in with me. One night he had come home after becoming particularly drunk and I guess that made his hormones go crazy or something but I felt it too so we did it." I was going to kill this man!

"That's not the end though." She began crying but tried to hide them. She bent her head back to look at me, her eyes were slightly red. I wiped the remaining tears away.

"What happened?" I asked softly.

"I got pregnant." That son of a bitch was going to die!

"But…you're not…not…" I made the 'pregnant' motion with my open hand over my stomach.

"Yeah, I'm getting to that part. I didn't kick him out or anything because I knew my baby needed a father so he stayed and I still loved him. The baby began to grow and by now I was showing, my stomach was humongous. From the sonograms they said it was a girl, a beautiful baby girl." She voice choked up but she continued on.

"I had everything ready—the room, the food—everything. I was so happy but no one in my family knew about her yet, I was going to go there and surprise them after she was born and I don't like people watching me suffer, like in childbirth, so only James, me, and the Baby's 'R' Us people knew—to this day, besides you and those people, no one else knows. I guess that was for the better…Anyway, I was only a month away from giving birth but then one day I was coming own the stairs, and knowing me with my clumsiness paired with not being able to see my feet because of my belly, I fell… and…and…" She started to cry even harder.

I hesitantly wrapped an arm around her pulling her closer, trying to soothe her. She curled into me, and buried her face in my shirt crying for a while. And I just sat there thinking about the electricity she was emitting into my body. I wrapped both arms around her now, hugging her close and rubbed circles in her back and brushed stray hairs out of her eyes.

"And…I lost her…"

AH! I know right? Betcha all never saw that coming! Haha, you're all probably thinking 'whatchusay?' but really that was planned from the beginning, and that wasn't the time James raped her FYI (I'll get to that later). Umm, lets see what else? Oh yeah, thank you all for all those amazing reviews and for that I'm making the chapters longer! Did you notice? This one and the last one are longer that normal! I'm gonna try to make 'em all that way from now on! All right I think that's it! Review!

Love you!!!

Grace Cullen