Twilight belongs to the ridiculously talented Stephenie Meyer.
A Father's Hope belongs to me.
A HUGE thanks to my awesome beta, twimom817 she's a lifesaver. Thanks BB, you ROCK!
Are y'all still with me? Remember this is Edward's story, but we'll meet Bella in a few more chapters. How many of y'all are ready to strangle Irina? Yeah, I know, me too.
She needs an epic flogging of the highest order, but wait … she only gets worse if that's even possible. So … on with Edward's story. I'll see y'all at the bottom.
Chapter Two
"I'm sorry, Rina … I have to go. This is what I signed up for. You always knew there was a possibility that I'd be deployed."
"I know, but I guess I never figured Chloe into the equation. I'll be all alone here with her."
"My mom said you could go visit them for a while. They'd love to have you and Chloe there. Besides, Alice would love to take you out clubbing, I'm sure."
"You really don't think they'd mind?"
"No, babe. I really don't think they'd mind. I'm sure playing with Chloe is pure torture for them," I said sarcastically.
While I headed to the Middle East, my wife and daughter headed to the Pacific Northwest to spend a couple months with my parents and sister. As I promised, my Mom was delighted to have Chloe there. My Dad was too. They found so much happiness and joy in her. Being grandparents suited them.
Mom and Dad encouraged Irina to spend time with Alice since they were about the same age. I wouldn't say that Alice and Irina became good friends; Irina loved Alice and Alice only tolerated Irina for mine and Chloe's sake.
After about four months, Irina felt like she and Chloe had worn out their welcome at my parent's place in Washington. The truth was that they wanted to keep Chloe and send Irina packing. Irina said that my Mom had become irritated with her when she asked her to cook something special or when Irina waited for my Mom to do her laundry.
"I'm not a maid, Edward. God certainly didn't put me on this green earth to wait on your wife hand and foot. That girl is just lucky I didn't put my little foot up her little ass!"
It was rare that I got to call home, but when I did, I certainly didn't want my Mom to spend twenty minutes telling me how vile my wife was. I didn't need her to tell me, I'd experienced that side of Irina first hand.
Irina and Chloe returned to Parris Island for a few more months before she started going stir crazy again. She sent me an email saying that her parents had bought tickets for her and Chloe to go home to Bahrain and they'd stay there until just before my tour ended. The only good thing about that was that I'd be able to see my wife and daughter when I had a weekend off.
I knew that I'd missed my little girl, but up until I saw her I hadn't realized just how much. She was growing up before my eyes and I was helpless to stop it.
"Daddy!" Chloe cried.
"Chloebear!" I smiled as I scooped up my daughter and swung her around in my arms.
"I missed you, Daddy!"
"I missed you too, baby. Have you been a good girl for mommy?"
"Yep! Just like I promised, Daddy."
I set my daughter on her feet and reached down to hug and kiss my wife.
"I've missed you, Rina."
"I've missed you too, Edward."
"Everything okay?" I asked.
"Yeah, everything's fine. I'm just going to leave you and Chloe to play for a while … we'll talk later?"
I nodded and went off to play with Chloe.
"Daddy … you should meet Mommy's friend Felix. He comes over a lot to see Mommy. He's nice and said he could be my friend."
Excuse me?
My four year old just told me that my wife invited another man into MY house. But she's four so maybe she just doesn't understand. Maybe he's the mailman or something. There has to be a logical explanation for it.
Neither Irina nor Chloe mentioned this Felix guy again, so I blew it off. Until, a few days later I got an email from a buddy of mine who was still at Parris Island. His wife had never particularly cared for Irina, but she saw a talk dark haired guy knocking on our door late one night and apparently Irina answered the door and the guy didn't leave until the next morning because my buddy's wife had seen him leaving. I replied to his email and asked if it was the first incident. It took a few days for me to get his reply but he said no, that it was a regular occurrence.
The weekend that I'd spent with Irina and Chloe, Irina was distant. When I thought about it, it made complete sense. If she was cheating on me, she would be distant because she probably felt guilty. The more I thought about it the more my chest ached. I would never … could never cheat on my wife. I'd made a commitment to her; while we didn't always see eye to eye, I loved her – at least I thought I did.
About six months before I was supposed to come back from my deployment, Irina told me she was going back to Parris Island.
"Edward … I met someone. I love him. I'm going to South Carolina to pack up my things and I'm moving to California with him."
"What about me?"
"What about you, Edward?"
"Did I matter at all to you?"
"Of course you mattered! You're the father of my child. We just got married too young. We made a mistake. We never should have had Chloe and we never should have gotten married."
"How can you say that, Irina? Chloe is the best part of us," I argued.
"Maybe. You can't argue that we don't belong together, Edward. Together we are toxic. You want someone like your Mom and I want a career. I'm not the person you want me to be and I won't apologize for that."
I'll be the first to admit that I never had any grand illusions that Irina would ever be the perfect wife, but I was okay with that. I was willing to accept her imperfections and work around them. But the more I thought about it, she was right. We were toxic. I shouldn't have to change for her and she shouldn't have to change for me. However, she did need to bend a little where Chloe was concerned.
"Fine. I'll be home in a couple months and I'm not re-enlisting so I'll be going back to Washington. I'll take Chloe for the summer."
"Fine. Goodbye, Edward."
I felt so hurt and betrayed by Irina I could barely breathe. If what she really wanted was to run to the arms of another man, I wasn't about to stop her. She didn't want to fight for our marriage so there was no point in me fighting either. I would however, fight for my daughter. She was the innocent one in all of this mess. If I couldn't make it right for me, I'd make it right for her.
True to my word, before I flew home to Washington, I made a stop in Southern California. Irina met me at the airport with Chloe and together Chloe and I went to Washington for the summer.
"Daddy … why don't you live with us anymore?"
My heart broke at the expression on my daughter's face. She was so young to be asking such big questions and I hated that she needed to ask.
"Oh Chloebear … sometimes it's better for mommies and daddies not to live together. Sometimes they get along better that way, like your mommy and me."
"Is it better for you not to live with me, Daddy?"
"Chloebear … if you lived with me instead of your mommy she'd miss you so much."
"But don't you miss me, Daddy?"
"Every day, baby, every day."
A/N: Just a few things because I know a few of you have been wondering. (And you know who you are, but I love ya so it's all good ...lol)
1. This story will be 13 chapters including the Epilogue. I only have the Epilogue left to finish up, so … that brings me to the next thing.
2. Since I'm done writing and the majority of the chapters have already been beta'd I will post once a day since I know it's killing most of you to know what happens next. (And I don't really want to leave you hanging because I hate it when that happens!)
3. This story is entirely in Edward's point of view since it's his story, but I'm pretty sure that no one is complaining about that. =)
4. As I've said, this story is loosely based on things that happened to a family member of mine. Everything that you see in this fic regarding "Irina" is actually true. She really was that awful.
I can't wait to see what you think so leave me a review! =D