It's Edward's turn! See what he's thinking and leave some thoughts at the end.

Chapter 2

EPOV

Pulling in the driveway, I see Bella's car is there.

Good, I can always count on her to be here when I get home after a hellacious day at work. It's really starting to get to me that my construction company is just completely swallowing me whole. There's so much to do as the boss, and even though my dad gave me the tutorial on things, I never realized that I would have to be the one that has to babysit every single little detail. And that's, unfortunately, an important part of the job. Because if something is off, even by a little bit, someone could ultimately end up hurt or dead because something slipped through the cracks.

It's insane, and I don't know how my dad did this for so long and so well. He'd had time to come to terms with it when he started though. Me? I was kind of thrust into this after dad had a mild heart attack a couple years ago. My mother put her foot down and told him he was retiring or she was gonna start looking for caskets…

She's slightly over dramatic sometimes. But, I can't say that I blame her. It scared all of us when we got the call that he'd been rushed to the hospital and we waited for hours for some news on his condition.

Things just seem to pile up, and pile up some more, then pile up some more. It never seems to get me anywhere, no matter how hard I'm trying.

I've at least got my family to come home to every night. No matter what, it makes it better when I get to see my beautiful wife and my amazing kids. They're the best part of my day.

Walking in the back door and into the mudroom to kick my shoes off, the house seems quiet. Hmm, maybe the kids are watching a movie together in one of their rooms.

I walk through the kitchen and send a quick "Hey baby." over my shoulder as I make my way to our bedroom to take a shower, almost tripping over the laundry that's in the floor.

"Damn it." I mutter to myself as I right myself and keep walking.

Coming into our bedroom, I start removing my clothes and head to the shower to wash away the gross ass day I've had.

Once I'm done, and get dressed, I walk back out into the bedroom and go to sit on the edge of the bed, but stop short when I see the blankets are thrown halfway onto the floor, and the bed not made.

That's really weird. Bella is OCD about making the bed every single day. I don't think there's really been a day that's gone by, while we've been together, that she hasn't made the bed.

I grab the blankets and go to throw them onto the bed and stop short again when I see something shiny on Bella's pillow.

It's her wedding band.

And my heart momentarily stops, before picking up speed and running double time.

"Bella?!" I yell, and run out of the room, towards the kitchen and living room, because that's usually where she's at when I get home, doing something or other around the house.

Skidding to a stop in the front hall, I look right into the living room, not seeing her there, but noticing the kid's toys are everywhere. I then turn left towards the kitchen, and still not seeing her, and seeing the kitchen sink full of dishes. What the hell? The house looks like a bomb went off in it. Bella never leaves this kind of mess around the house.

"Bella?! Baby?!"

No answer.

I run back down the hall and see if she's somewhere else in the house, and not seeing her anywhere, or the kids.

"What the hell?" I mutter to myself, and turn to go back towards the kitchen to find my phone. She would have called if something had happened.

I look on the counter and see there's a note, and my throat closes up a little.

Oh shit. This can't be good.

I walk over and pick it up, scared to read what was on it.

Edward, I can't do this anymore.

This blatant ignoring of things in

your life has gotta stop.

I feel like you don't even know

who I am anymore. I don't feel

like anything here at home is important

to you. I feel like you

left a long time ago because you're

not mentally here at home.

I've been trying, but if you just want

to go, then go. Your total focus is

somewhere else entirely, so you need

to make a decision.

-Bella

What?

I read the note several time, trying to make it sink in, but I'm having a hard time getting past the part where she says she can't do this anymore.

Can't do what anymore? Be married to me? I thought we were ok in our marriage. Sure, I don't get to spend as much time as I used to, but I still try to make time for my kids and such.

What in the hell is going on?

I find my phone and try calling Bella, but it goes to voicemail. I try several more times and still, no answer.

"Damn it!"

It's almost ten o'clock and I'm starting to get worried.

I'm just so confused. I sit down at the kitchen table and shove my hands into my hair. What made her think she needed to leave? Why wouldn't she just talk to me about this? We'd always been able to talk about things, no matter what it was. This just doesn't make any sense.

I try calling her one more time before I take off out the door trying to track her down.

"Hello." I hear her hesitant voice finally come through the phone.

I let out the breath I was holding and finally let a little of the stress dissipate. Not much, but still.

"Bella! Baby, what's going on? What's this note about? You can't leave me! I'm sorry for whatever I did! Tell me what happened that you thought you had to leave!"

I hear her sigh through the phone. "Edward, the fact that you're just apologizing for general purposes, means you have no clue."

"No, I don't, but I want to fix it! Bella, I can't lose you! Just tell me what's wrong and I'll do whatever you need!" I was getting a little desperate now. I didn't realize before that I needed her in my life, until she was gone.

"You need to think long and hard, Edward. When you come home and barely acknowledge me, hurts. When you only spend maybe a half an hour each night with your kids, hurts not just me, but them. When you just assume I'm going to take care of everything around the house, and the kids, hurts. When you brush me off when I try to talk to you like I don't matter…" I hear her voice crack a little. "hurts, Edward. When you don't seem to remember I can't eat anything with nuts in it anymore, hurts. I feel like you went off to work one day, and never really came home. You're there, physically but you've checked out on your home life. Something's gotta give. I can't take this lack of mutual relationship that we're supposed to be in. We're supposed to be a team, Edward. That's me AND YOU."

I think about what she's saying for a minute and try to see where she's coming from.

"I don't want you to make a decision right now. I want you to sleep on this tonight, and figure out what you really want. Marriage is work, Edward. It's not just, 'oh you get married and everything is perfect from there on out'. We've gotta work at it all the time. We may have to fix things here and there, but it has to be the both of us, together, doing it. I love you but I can't keep this one sided relationship going by myself. So, go ahead to bed, and we'll talk more tomorrow."

I hear the phone click off, and panic a little.

She didn't even give me a chance to respond.

Which, maybe that's for the best, because I'm really not sure what to say anyways.

This is a lot to take in.

I scrub my hands over my face and get up and grab a beer out of the fridge, then head into the living room to sit on the sofa.

She just unloaded a lot of information on me. And I need to figure out what she's talking about.

You barely acknowledge me

I say 'hi' to her every time I come home… But that seems to be all I can really remember saying to her lately.

You barely spend time with the kids

That… ok, yes, I guess I don't get to spend quite as much time with the kids like I used to. I at least try to help them with their homework whenever I can, and I try to make it to Jake's baseball games… not as much lately. Hmmm…

You assume I'm gonna take care of everything

I love her cooking, and she's really good at it. She could probably have her own restaurant if she really wanted, she's that good. She always does the laundry and cleans the house, takes care of the kids… I guess I haven't really helped with that lately. We used to always split things up between us, and since I took over for dad, I just haven't been home as much to do that with her.

You brush me off when I try to talk to you, like I don't matter

I haven't done that, have I? I mean, I'm super busy all the time and I get so deep into what I'm working on in my office when I get home, that I don't always hear everything… Damn it…

You don't seem to remember I can't eat anything with nuts in it anymore

Wait… oh shit. That's right. She can't eat nuts anymore. I totally forgot about that. She gets kidney stones if she eats peanuts and almonds and such. But why would that come up… Aww god damn it… I brought her a fucking snickers bar home the other night, without thinking because I saw it in the candy jar at work and thought of her. I guess I didn't think hard enough.

I kind of smacked myself in the head at that one. Stupid, stupid man.

You went off to work one day, and never really came home

You're there physically but you've checked out on your home life

I guess she's right there, again. When I took over for my dad, I just totally immersed myself in the job and never really came up for air. I've been so focused on not letting my father's life's work crumble that I just let it take over everything in my life.

I love you but I can't keep this one sided relationship going by myself

And she's right, again. I've piled everything in our life on her so that I can focus on the company. She shouldn't have all of our, both hers and mine, responsibilities stacked solely on her shoulders.

Well, one thing seems certain from what she's told me tonight.

She feels neglected.

And that's my fault.

I need to call her back.

I grab my phone and dial her number again.

"Edward, I told you, we'll talk about this tomorrow. You need to think this all through and figure out what you really want." She said quietly as she picked up.

"Bella, please, I don't want to lose you. I… Baby, please come home and talk to me about this." I was an anxious mess.

She sighed and said, "You need time to yourself. You don't need me or the kids there, in your ear, making this harder. I just want you to think about what you want, and how you think we can fix this. We'll talk more tomorrow."

"You don't think coming home and finding my wife and kids gone, the house in shambles, a note and then your wedding ring on the pillow, would make this harder? I just about crawled out of my skin thinking you'd just taken off forever and my marriage was over." I said, just trying to keep myself in some sort of control.

"Look, you needed some sort of wake up call. This is it. You need to make some decisions and figure out what you really want for us, and what you want for the future. I can't do it for you Edward, no matter how many times I've offered to help you in some way, I can't do it."

She was right, again. I needed to figure this out. Apparently I did need this wake up call, too. This was the shock to the system that I needed to get my head out of my ass.

"I…" I didn't know what else to say.

"Do you realize this is the most we've talked in the last two months, Edward?" She said, out of the blue, and it brought me up short.

Really? Was she right that we hadn't talked more than this in the last two months? That seemed… a little far-fetched, but… looking back, I don't remember the last real conversation I had with her. And that's insanely sad.

"I'm so sorry, Bella… I don't…" What did you say to that? There's nothing that CAN be said, because I'm just a shit. And I've neglected my family.

"Try to get some rest, Edward. I'll talk to you tomorrow." She said quietly, and hung up.

I just hung my head in shame. What the fuck is wrong with me? She's completely right; I've ignored her and my kids for the last year. And there's no excuse for it. Absolutely none.

I need to fix this. I can't lose my wife and kids over my work. I can't lose them, period. They're the best part of my life, and I'm nothing without them.

Bella is such an amazing woman. She's not one of those damsels in distress types. She can handle shit herself. Her dad, god bless him, taught her how to fix things around the house, how to do yard work, how to change the oil in a car, etc. He basically taught her how to handle things so she didn't need a man. She's self-sustaining. She can do almost anything. She takes care of Jake and Kate without fail. As any mother would, but Bella is just effortless in doing it. And that just makes her all the more amazing.

And I just assumed, when I took over at the construction company, that she'd have no problem in doing it.

Like an idiot, I assumed it.

And Jake and Kate… had they noticed that I'd sort of checked out? I couldn't say… which goes to show that I haven't been paying attention to my family.

I feel like such a miserable shithead.

I've gotta find some way to… I don't know. I've gotta get some of this stress off my back at work, because I can't handle all these little things and actually do the construction part of my job too. Well that might be something I've gotta think about too. I may just have to pull back on the actually hands on construction aspect of the job and focus on the running of the company. I've toyed around with hiring someone, like an office manager, to help out with things too. I've just never had a chance to put it into practice. Maybe it's time to step back and look at things and restructure some things at work. That needs to be done ASAP, because I'm not gonna let this breakup my marriage.

I pick myself up off the sofa and just look around.

I'll be damned if I let my job ruin my family. So, let's get started on sharing the load again.

I walk into the laundry room, start separating clothes, and getting a load of laundry started.

Then, I go into the kitchen and start loading up the dishwasher, and cleaning up the kitchen.

I also go into the living room and start picking up the toys and putting things away.

Then I run back into the laundry room and switch the first load over to the dryer and start the second load.

Jesus, does Bella do this every day? Or almost every day? Plus she works and cooks dinner and takes care of the kids… Now I feel even worse than I did.

It takes more work than you think to run a house by yourself. And I just left her to fend for herself without any help from me.

I looked at the clock and it was after midnight. Dear god, I'm not even done yet.

I'll finish the rest of this in the morning. Thank goodness it's Friday night and we've got the weekend ahead of us.

I walk back down the hall to our bedroom and into the bathroom to get ready for bed.

Standing there as I brushed my teeth, I look at the counter and notice medicine bottles.

Huh. They're not mine. That much I know. And I can't for the life of me remember seeing these before… but Bella's right, I haven't really been paying attention lately.

I pick one up and read it.

Anti-depressants? Bella's not depressed. She's always been the happiest person I kno…

Ah shit… How could I not see this?

I'm a horrible husband.

I didn't even notice my wife was depressed.

I picked up the other two bottles and almost swallowed the toothpaste that was in my mouth.

What the ever-loving fuck?