Shane walked in to his house feeling completely exhausted. Mitchie had decided to leave early, which left him with a lot of work to tackle by himself. Even if their relationship didn't work out, he hoped she would still stay his assistant. She was actually really good at her job.

"Ashley, I'm home." He called out as he walked upstairs to their bedroom. He noticed her car was parked in the driveway and not in the garage like it usually was. It was a bit odd but nothing too out of the ordinary.

"I'm in the kitchen." He heard her yell back at him. He made his way into the kitchen, loosening his tie as he walked. He ran a hand through his hair, something he often did when he was tired.

"Wow," Ashley exclaimed looking away from the bowl of pasta in front of her and up at Shane. "You look horrible. Rough day at work?"

"Yeah. Mitchie wasn't feeling well and left early so I had a lot of paperwork to handle myself. It was exhausting." Shane explained taking a seat at the kitchen table.

Ashley looked away from him and back down at the food in front of her. It amazed her how he could sit there and lie straight to her face. When she saw Mitchie leaving earlier today, she looked every bit of healthy. She couldn't shake the feeling something else was going on. His tired look, nearly undone tie and messy hair all just worsened her suspicions. She couldn't shake the bad feeling in the pit of her stomach and she knew the only way to get rid of it was to confront Shane. If she didn't, it'd just eat at her until she finally did.

"I visited your work today," She stated looking over her shoulder to glance at him. She could see he was busy clicking away on his phone. It was bothering her that instead of catching on to her annoyed tone, he was all about his cell phone at the moment.

Shane was hearing everything Ashley was saying but it was going in one ear and out the other. Mitchie hadn't answered any of his earlier phone calls and he was a little worried about her and wanted to check in on her. He was texting her for the fourth time hoping she'd text back.

"Shane," Ashley called out trying to get his attention. He tapped at his phone without even flinching at the sound of his name. "Shane, I'm trying to talk to you."

"Just give me one second, okay?" He said holding up a finger.

"What is so important that you can't put your phone down for five minutes to talk to your wife?" She asked angrily. When he didn't respond, she stomped over to him and in one swift move snatched the phone out of his hands.

Shane quickly shot up out of his chair and attempted to reclaim his phone from Ashley. He had left his messages open and he really didn't want her reading his texts.

"Ashley give me my phone," He said as calmly as he possibly could. He stood behind her trying to reach over her shoulder and grab the phone out of her hands but she kept squirming making it hard for him to do so. "Seriously, Ash. This isn't funny."

Just as quickly as she had grabbed the phone, Ashley darted from the kitchen to the living room, Shane on her heels. She looked down at the phone and attempted to read the messages on the screen before he came trying to snatch it away from her again.

"Please answer your phone. I miss you. Can we just talk, please?" Ashley read the messages aloud. Shane stopped inches from her and closed his eyes in anguish. He knew he couldn't hide it from her forever. She was bound to find out someday and he guessed today was that day.

"Ashley," He slowly reached his hand to touch her shoulder but she jerked away, absorbed in the phone as he once had been.

"I can't stop thinking about you. Let's meet up and talk." She read more of the messages, taking her eyes off the screen for just a second to look at him. The contact wasn't saved and she didn't recognize the number. Her mind wondered with possibilities. "Shane, who are these to?"

When they locked eyes, he could see the hurt all over her face. He hated it. He nevermeant to intentionally hurt anyone but he knew that wasn't a possibility. He was playing a dangerous game. Someone was bound to get hurt.

"Shane, answer me." She demanded, stepping closer to him. His eyes went from her face to the floor. "Who do you miss, huh? Who can't you stop thinking about?"

He stayed quite and unmoving. He didn't want to answer her, he didn't even want to look at her. He just wanted to somehow magically fix this entire situation.

"You know, I suspected something like this was going on but I didn't want to believe it. I refused to believe that you would cheat on me but these messages obviously say otherwise." Her voice trembled as she shoved the phone into his chest.

"I'm sorry, Ashley." He said quietly. He knew it didn't mean much but it was something and that was better than nothing.

"Don't apologize." She said abruptly. "You made your bed, now you have to lie in it, right next to the skank you've been cheating on me with."

Shane watched her stomp pass him and go upstairs. He wanted to follow her, call her on the watch he found but that would only start a big fight and he wanted to avoid that. She was upset with him. In a weird way, that was a good thing. If she were mad, that would give her a reason to end things between them. And if she ended things, there was a good possibility he wouldn't lose the funding for his label. Maybe there was a silver lining in this dark cloud after all.

As Ashley packed a small luggage bag with clothes and other items, she couldn't help but feel totally pissed at Shane. And not for the obvious reasons, either. Yes, she was upset about the text messages but she was even more upset that he wasn't up here standing behind her begging her not to leave. He was putting up no fight at all and that was making her seriously think about their marriage. If he wasn't willing to fight to keep her, why should stay at all?

Minutes passed by before Shane heard footsteps coming down the stairs. He ran to the end of the staircase and saw Ashley coming down with a bag in her hand. She was leaving?

"I'm going to stay with my sister tonight." She informed him. He looked her up and down and sighed before nodding. She shook her head at his passiveness. Again, she gave him an opportunity to stop her and he just chose not to. "Goodbye Shane."

Once he was alone, Shane took a deep breath and pulled his phone out his pocket and dialed the same number that had gotten him in this trouble in the first place.

Just like he figured, it went straight to the machine. This time, though, he waited for the beep to leave a message.

"Hey, listen, I know you don't want to talk to me but I need to talk to you. Ashley just walked out on me and…" He trailed off feeling himself getting a little choked up. Even if he wasn't in love with Ashley, he still loved her and it hurt to be walked out on by someone you love. "I would just appreciate it if you called me back or even texted me. I just need to talk and you've always been my go-to-girl for that. So, yeah, just please call."

Shane ended the call and slid the phone back into his pocket. Figuring he would spend his night waiting on a call back, he went upstairs to get ready for the wait. After a shower and an hour of watching some stupid reality show on TV, he was ready to call it a night. Ashley walked out on him and Mitchie wouldn't call him back. Here he was thinking he was going to at least end up with one of them and now he had neither. Just as he flicked the TV off, he heard the doorbell ring. He hopped out of bed and raced downstairs thinking maybe Ashley had come back or something. When he opened the door, he was pleasantly surprised.

"You said you needed to talk to me so here I am."

…

Sorry it took me so long to update! I was swamped with end of the year exams and graduation and everything. Plus I developed a little addiction to Jonas Brother FanFiction Archive so most of my 'writing time' was spent there. Haha. I hope everyone liked this chapter and do me a huge favor and review! I'm going to try to update either tomorrow or the following day.

Thanks for reading!