This chapter will be in Edward's POV so you can get some perspective on what happened last chapter. Has always thanks for reading. The end of the chapter ends with Bella's POV.

CHAPTER 21

( August 2007)

Edward's POV

It was around 12 noon when I finished with my first morning appointment. Alice had just had her baby two hours ago and I was dying to get a glimpse at my new niece. I told my nurse Carolyn that if I was needed to have me paged and made for the 3 rd floor of the hospital.

I had been on call when Jasper and Alice had first arrived in the hospital so I had visited them briefly before my rounds. So I headed in the direction of their room 121. I knocked before I entered I could hear my sister's voice cheerfully calling me in.

"Hey Edward." Alice smiled from her bed holding baby Claire with Jasper sitting next to her.

"Well congrats guys, how does it feel to finally have her in your arms?" I smiled at my sister

"God I love her so much Edward, words just can't explain it." She kissed the top of her daughter's head.

"Would you like to hold your niece?" She gave me a big grin.

"I don't know Al, she is small, what if I drop her?" I was backing off a little bit.

"Oh Edward, you will do fine, sit in the chair. Jasper hand him the baby." Alice giggled passing Claire to her father.

"You better not damage my kid, do you understand?" Jasper squared his eyebrows at me.

"I will do my best Jasper." I shook my head at him.

He placed Claire in my arms and I cradled her little head. She was perfect. I looked down at her little face and rubbed her cheek with my thumb. She cooed at my touch and it warmed my heart. I imagined what it would feel like to have a baby of my own.

Bella and I have been trying for the last 6 months without luck. It broke my heart to see her so disappointed when she would tell me her period had came. But over the last few months, it had gotten easier to deal with, the loss of our baby.

After hanging out with Jasper, Alice and Claire for a little while I got a page to go to the Chief's office. I knocked softly when I came to his door and he yelled for me to come.

When I walked in he was on the phone and motioned with his hand for me to sit in front of him. I crossed my legs and began to fidget.

After about 3 minutes he finished up his phone call and cleared his throat.

"Thanks for coming up Edward, there is something I want to discuss with you." His voice was serious

"No problem Phil, what's going on?" I was nervous

"Well you know how every year the medical board will choose residence for the Falcon Project. Normally its only about 4 or 5 from the whole country and normally never the same hospital."

He had my interest alright. The falcon project was a big deal. My father had been one of the attendings on 3 or 4 cases and it was documented in medical journals. Its a high honor to be asked.

"They have chosen two residence from this hospital." Phil stated matter a factually

I just looked at him urging him to go on.

He let out a small chuckle and went on. "They have chosen you and Irina Edward."

His smile grew wide on his face, like a proud father.

I looked at him in pure shock. Did I hear him correctly?

"They chose me?" I could hear the surprise in my own voice.

"Yes of course they chose you, don't seem so surprised my boy. You are Carlisle Cullen's son, they were watching you very carefully."

"I can;t believe it, wow I am so honored Phil. I mean tell me all about the case. Did you tell Irina yet?" I was just going on and on.

Phil went on to discuss the case of a little girl named Nicole who was plagued with tiny tumors in her brain since she was 2 years old. Every 2 years of her life they go in remove some of the tumors and then close her back up.

He explained we would be gone for 3 weeks and we would be required to be on call the entire time we were there. That was when I began to question myself. Three weeks with no Bella, how would she understand that she couldn't go? How would she react? Would she be upset that I already accepted it?

I explained to Phil I needed to talk it over with Bella first, but I really hoped she would be supportive. However if she knew that it would be me and Irina going, I doubt she would be so willing to let me go. So I came up with a plan in case she asked, that I didn't know who they picked.

I needed Bella to trust me and to know I never had feelings for Irina in the slightest. Irina had apologized to me for the Ball and I was more than willing to put it behind us. She even joked saying Bella had a mean left hook. She hadn't tried anything since and for that I was grateful.

After I explained things to Bella and she finally let up about me going, I called Phil to let him know I was in. I had let Irina know Bella didn't know she was going also, and she told me she wouldn't make it hard on me.

Once I landed in Italy I was exhausted from the 6 hour time difference. It was only 4:30 pm, while it was about 10 pm back in Seattle. I called Bella to let her know I landed and that I was going to get some sleep. I already missed her and it was only a few hours ago that I saw her.

We were already in week 2 of the surgery and it was going really well, better than we expected. However trying to sleep was hard for me the last few days. Being away from Bella was harder than I thought it would be. I was hoping she would just appear in Italy to surprise me, but that was very unlikely.

The only good thing about the time difference was, no matter what time I tried to call her, I know that I would be able to get through, I knew she would answer her cell. I was sitting in my hotel room around 8:30am because I didn't need to be in the hospital today so I chose that time to call my beautiful wife.

Her cell phone rang about 3 times before she finally answered.

"Hey honey, hows it going?" I could hear her giggling.

I began to smirk. Her laughter was always so lovely to hear and since the loss of our child, she rarely did it anymore.

"I had the day off so I thought I would call my beautiful wife. What are you doing?" I chuckled into the phone.

"Oh I am just having coffee with a friend." She giggled even more.

Then in the background I could hear a male voice saying her name and her trying to shh him.

"Who is with you Bella?" My curiosity peaking.

There was a short pause before she began to talk. "Umm, just someone from the school, John is his name."

And you could hear the man laughing loudly in the background.

"Am I interrupting you?" Feeling jealousy bubble in my stomach.

"Of course not Edward, don't be ridiculous." Her voice so sweet

"I miss you, I wish you were here with me." I sighed into the phone.

"Me too baby, but you will be home next week, just a few more days. Can I call you when I get home, I don't want to be rude." She was trying to hurry me off the phone.

"Of course you can sweetheart, I love you, enjoy your coffee." I tried to keep the irritation out of my voice.

"Thank you, you too." With that the line went dead.

I stared at the phone for a moment. I never remembered her having any friends named John, who exactly was he? So my first instinct was to call Alice and hopefully she had an idea.

So I dial up my sister. Her cell rang about 4 times before answering and she sounds tired.

"Hello." A groggy voice answers.

"Hey Al, I'm sorry, were you sleeping?" I asked feeling bad for disturbing her.

"No no Edward, its okay, whats up?"

"I just got off the phone with Bella and she mentioned having coffee with a friend named John, do you know him?"

She hesitated before she answered me. "I don't really know Edward. She's been kind of distant with me since Claire arrived."

I ran my hand through my hair.

"Really? Do you want me to say something to her?" I wanted to help, I didn't want the baby to be a strain on their friendship.

"No, that's not necessary, but thanks. I'm sure she is just going through stuff with you being gone and all." Alice sighed

"Have you seen her since I left?"

"She stopped by last Thursday, but that's the last time we spoke. I am so tired most of the time getting up with Claire, I haven't even bothered to call her."

"Okay, I will let you get some rest. I love you Alice."

"Love you too big brother. Take care. Call me when you get back so we could have dinner."

"Will do Alice, bye." Then I ended the phone call.

The fact Bella had barely spent anytime with Alice struck me odd considering they constantly kept in contact, the longest they ever went without speaking was a couple days. Bella being short with me on the phone was out of the ordinary also. What was going on with her? I would get to the bottom of this.

It was around 6pm Italy time and I still hadn't heard back from Bella. I had spent the day with some of the residence exploring Italy, but it wasn't the same without her.

I knew it was around midnight in Seattle and I didn't want to disturb her sleep,but I had this nagging feeling something wasn't right. I decided I would wait it out and take a shower really fast. So I descended to the bathroom.

Bella's POV

After I hung up the phone with Edward I instantly felt my chest tighten. I just straight out lied to the man I love about who I was with. I didn't need to lie to him, he would have been upset, but he would get over it. The lying about it though, I couldn't do that to him.

The humor had long wore off once I hung up with him and I looked over at Jake who was smirking at me.

"What?" He looked at me innocently

"I can't lie to him Jake, I need to tell him I been seeing you. I can't hurt him." I began playing with the napkin in front of me.

"Bella, look at me." He commanded

I looked up at Jake and he was still smiling.

"I don't want to cause problems in your marriage, so if you don't want to be friends anymore, just say so."

"I just need to talk to Edward about it, its been years since we were together, he would understand." But something told me he wouldn't.

How could I be so dumb to think he would understand. That would be like me saying it was okay for him and Tanya to be friends or Irina, we both knew it would never happen.

"I need to get home, I will talk to you later Jake." I got out my wallet to pay for my coffee, but jake grabbed my hand before I could pull it out.

"I got it Bells." He smiled

"Thanks, I better go." I stood up to go and he grabbed me into a hug.

"Thank you for giving me a chance, I really missed you." He muttered kissing the top of my head.

I gave him a weak smile while I walked away.

I spent the entire afternoon practicing what to say to Edward, how to explain myself. Before I knew it, it was already 11:30pm. I had wasted the entire day and I had resolved nothing. Edward was probably wondering why I didn't call ,but I needed to be strong for this conversation. I couldn't break down.

So I finally got the nerve up to call him. It was late here ,but I think it was about dinner time over there.

His phone rang about three times before it finally was picked up.

"Hey Edward, listen I need to talk to you." I needed to get this off my mind.

"Um, he's in the shower, who is this?" A female voice sang from the other end.

I was speechless. He was what? Who the hell was answering his phone.

"Hello, can I help you?" Irritation clear in her response

"Tell him his wife called." And I closed my cell.

I dropped the phone on the floor and slid down the wall in utter shock. I didn't know what to say or what to do? Who was that girl? Was he really cheating on me? I had felt bad about telling him about Jake all day and I come to find out he has someone with him. Of course I was a fool.

About 5 minutes later the phone rang but I didn't bother to look at the screen. Whoever it was could go fuck themselves for all I cared at that moment. It didn't stop ringing and I was too numb to cry or scream or even move. I just sat there staring at the wall.

Edward's POV

I came out of the shower with just a towel around my waist to find Irina sitting on my bed. I nearly jumped out of my own skin when I noticed her and then I looked at her hand, she was holding my cell phone laughing.

"How the hell did you get in here and why are you holding my phone?" I screamed at her

"Oh calm down Edward, I got a key from the front desk and someone called, I just happen to answer to let them know you were busy." She didn't even look at me. She stared at her finger nails examining them.

"Who the fuck was on the phone and what makes you think I want you in here?" I spat at her

She looked up at me and flinched like she couldn't believe I said that to her.

"I think it might have been Bella, but who knows?" She smirked at me.

"Get the fuck out of my room before I have security drag you out!" I roared at her.

She looked at me astonished. "Edward, I just-"

Get out now! Don't make tell you again." I glared at her

Tears began to form in her eyes and she ran out of the room. I felt no pity for her. Who did she think she was answering my phone and if it was Bella, oh my god how would I explain that to her?

It was Bella who had called and I immediately called her back. I needed to explain this terrible mess and she needed to know that it was nothing to worry about. I spent the next three hours calling her non stop but eventually it just went straight to voice mail. I left her about 12 messages. Eventually I gave up and somehow fell asleep.