BPOV

Dear Edward,

I know I should've talked to you when you were home this weekend, I'm sorry, I guess my nerves got the better of me. So, after much thought and an overly rehearsed speech I decided I would write you this letter. The purpose of this is two-fold – it saves me from having to face you when you learn this news, and it saves you from having to put on some happy false bravado. I want you to be able to take your time and truly think about what this all means and what you want for your future. No matter what you decide to do with this information, I want you to know I will always love and respect you.

Edward, I'm pregnant.

Call me when you want to talk.

Love You Always,

Bells

I sighed as I ran my tongue across the seal of the letter, allowing a few of my tears to stain the white envelope. I walked down to the mailbox at the end of my block and effectively mailed away my heart.

Victoria POV

I rushed to the mailbox, hoping the red leather boots I had ordered would've finally arrived. I grabbed the mail and sullenly walked back to the house, no box big enough for boots. I sat down at the kitchen table and quickly flipped through the stack of mail, dividing it up for all of my housemates. I couldn't help but pause at the worn looking white envelope to Edward from his precious Bella. I truly didn't understand why he stayed with that plain boring girl. Not to mention that she was on the other side of the country. It's not like I hadn't offered him a good time on more than one occasion. He'd always declined. You would've thought he was a damned boy scout. I was alone in the house and allowed my curiosity to get the better of me. I used the iron to steam open the envelope and quickly pulled out the contents. I couldn't believe it – that plain little mousling had gotten herself knocked up by Edward. There was no way in hell he would leave her now, he was too responsible for that. Shit.

An hour later I was still sitting at the kitchen table, an idea starting to form in my head. I quickly went to my computer, placing my fingers to the keys I quickly typed a new letter 'to Edward, from Bella'. I placed it in the envelope that had previously contained the real letter and carefully resealed it and placed it back in the pile of Edward's mail. I took Bella's letter and shoved it in the top drawer of my desk.

If I couldn't get Edward to leave his precious Bella, then I was going to see if I could convince him that she was leaving him.

EPOV

I threw my binder and books into my book bag and headed out of my last class for the day. Tiffany's had finally called, the engagement ring I had ordered for Bella had finally come in and I was free to pick it up any time. I had been working part time for the better part of the last year to save up the money for Bella's ring. I know I had plenty of money and then some from my trust – but that money was just given to me and I wanted this ring to mean something. I wanted to earn it for her. The ring was a beautiful square cut diamond, with two small emeralds accenting each side.

I sat the ring on my desk, staring at it as I worked on my homework for the evening. I had called Bella earlier as I was on my way home, but she said she still wasn't feeling well, so our conversation didn't last long. She seemed in better spirits than the last time I had talked to her though. She said she decided that it was easier to write me about whatever it was that had been bothering her so much. I think knowing that she had written it down was a major weight off of her shoulders. I insisted that she could tell me anything, she promised she knew that but she felt better doing it this way.

It was two days later when I got the letter. I took it up to my room and sat down on my bed, ready to read whatever had my Bella so stressed out. I was surprised to find the letter was typed, that was very un-Bella like. She always wrote personal correspondence, claimed it was 'much more personal'.

Dear Edward,

I wanted you to know that I have met someone else. I'm sorry I couldn't bring myself to tell you this in person. You and I have grown apart. You need to move on with your life. Find someone new. Enjoy your college experience.

Edward, Please do not try to contact me. It will just make everything that much harder. A clean break would be better. Have a good life.

-Bella

I had to re-read the letter about fifteen times before I could even partially comprehend it. My eyes had started to tear up after the first sentence. Bella, my Bella, had met someone else. She didn't want to be with me anymore? I couldn't make sense of the words in my mind. I reached for my phone, my first response to call Bella, but she had asked me not to and that broke my heart even more.

I'm not sure how long I sat there, I'm pretty sure the house could've burned down around me and I wouldn't have noticed. It took me almost a week to even leave my room, and then it was only to attend school and work. I seemed to do slightly better then, having something to take up a small part of my mind that could be freed of my Bella induced stupor. I threw myself into my school work, which was almost a requirement after missing a week of classes, especially this close to finals. I couldn't bring myself to travel back to Forks for Christmas, I just knew I didn't have the heart for it.

Alice and Jasper flew to New Hampshire as soon as their finals were over. I had barely spoken to any of my family and I certainly hadn't had the heart to tell them that Bella and I were no longer together. They all adored Bella and already considered her a part of the family, this would hurt them too.

"EDWARD!" Alice screeched, bounding into my room. Jasper followed casually behind her and actually had the courtesy to knock, not that it mattered since Alice has already stormed in, but at least the thought was there. Alice was talking a mile a minute, chastising me for not calling more frequently and for my lame excuse of school work for missing Christmas. She was still rambling about ten minutes later when she finally stopped to take a breath and finally took stock of my room. My normally spot-free clean room had dirty clothes strung everywhere, there were empty pop bottles and candy wrappers lining my desk. The biggest give away though had to be my now bare walls. I had taken all of the pictures of Bella down and slid them under my bed. I didn't have the heart to actually do anything with them, but I just couldn't take looking at her smiling face all the time. It just hurt too much. "Edward?" Alice finally questioned.

I couldn't bring myself to explain this to Alice, just as I hadn't truly talked to anyone about it. All I did was mope around. So instead of explaining myself, I reached into my back pocket and pulled out the very worn letter that Bella had sent me. With a shaking hand I held it out to my pixie sister.

Tears streamed down Ali's face as she read the letter and Jasper was suddenly on the bed with us, his arms around Alice. "I . . . I can't . . . believe . . she would . . . do this." Ali finally choked out.

"I couldn't either, Ali, I couldn't either," I said, shaking my head. Alice handed the letter back to me, her hand shaking.

Alice and Jasper stayed with me for almost a week, but decided they needed to go back to Washington for Christmas. It was going to be hard enough on Esme that I wasn't going to be there this year. They all tried their hardest to convince me to come, but I just couldn't. Alice passed the word on to the rest of the family about Bella and I splitting up, but, per my request, gave them no details. I didn't want them mad at Bella over this. No matter what, I still loved her. I dropped Alice and Jasper off at the airport at noon on Christmas Eve and returned to the solitude of my bedroom.

Victoria decided to stay in New Hampshire over our break, something about needing to work. I had a feeling it was because I was the only one who would be staying in the house over break, everyone else had gone home to their families. I was absolutely floored when she knocked on my door Christmas Day dressed in a Mrs. Santa negligee. I'm actually surprised I didn't break her fingers with as fast as I slammed my door. First thing the next morning I went to a hardware store and changed my door knob to one that had a lock and key, something I'd never realized was a necessity before.

I picked up extra hours at work to keep myself busy. I had initially planned on quitting my low paying job once Bella's ring was paid for, but then it served as a distraction and helped me kill time. I signed up for two extra classes on top of the full load I had already enrolled in for the spring semester and took on more responsibilities than any sane person could ever want.

Esme and Carlisle came to visit mid-February. I was trying, I really was, but I knew they could both see the dead look in my eyes. My life no longer held that spark that it once had. The one that had been there from the moment the untouchable and unobtainable Bella Swan had walked into my life. I should've known better back then. Although as much as I wanted to feel that way, I knew I was kidding myself. I would never regret a moment of the time I had spent with Bella. Esme had tried talking to me about Bella a few times, but I refused to listen, and she seemed to take the hint. Our conversations stayed very superficial after that.

BPOV

I spoke with Edward for half an hour the night after I sent the letter. Unfortunately I had to cut the conversation short because my dinner had decided to make a reappearance. I was seriously questioning the sanity of whomever named it 'morning sickness' because mine certainly didn't stick with just the morning. I didn't call Edward over the next few days. I was sure by the third day that he would've gotten my letter and I didn't want to push him. He could call me once he'd had time to process that information.

I was still feeling okay with life over the next few days. I'm sure Edward was in shock with the news I had dropped on him and still needed some time to adjust. Hell, I'd known for weeks now and still hadn't completely adjusted to the idea. I occasionally talked to Ali and would ask her if she had heard from him. At first she had scoffed at me and told me that I talked to him far more than she had, the next time I asked her she said she hadn't heard from him since the day after Thanksgiving and she was starting to get worried. He wasn't returning any of her phone calls. This worried me. If Edward was upset and didn't want to talk to me, I could understand that, it was after all, my irresponsibility that had landed us in this mess. But why would Edward not be talking to his family? He and Alice were always so close.

I was starting to panic by the next week – I was sure I would've heard from Edward by then. I was really hoping he would call – I was suppose to go back to see Dr. Gerandy on Friday and I wanted to talk to him about it.

Friday came and went with no word from Edward. I'd been reduced to crying myself to sleep every night. I just didn't understand it. I knew that this would all be a horrible shock and would take a lot of time to work through, but it never remotely crossed my mind that Edward would just walk out of my life without another word.

It's not like I hadn't considered what his reaction would be. I definitely had a few best case and worst case scenarios that had played through my head a few million times, but even in my worst of worst case scenarios had I ever thought that Edward would just walk away. I had imagined Edward flying home on his breaks to help me with our child, but me taking care of it while he was away at Dartmouth, that was one of my worst case scenarios. In the best case scenarios I had moved to New Hampshire with him or he had moved back to Seattle. We would get a place of our own and raise our baby together.

On Saturday I wrote Edward another letter, but kept it as short and sweet as possible.

Edward,

I don't know if you want to know or not, but I saw Dr. Gerandy yesterday. I got to listen to our child's heartbeat. Dr. Gerandy said it sounded strong and healthy. To me, it just sounded very fast. Dr. G says everything is looking good. I just thought you might want to know.

-B

I was taking my History final when I got the screeching phone call from Alice. At first I thought maybe she thought I was just ignoring her call, but after picking out a few more key words from her high pitched rambling, I figured out she had talked to Edward. I'm not sure what exactly he had told her, but it apparently didn't include anything about the baby or him leaving me. At the end of Alice's message she screeched that I was not to contact her, Edward or any of the other Cullen's ever again.

That cemented it for me. I knew that day that Edward wasn't just figuring out what to do with our situation – he had made his decision, and that was to leave us behind. If it hadn't just happened I would've argued and told anyone who would listen that Edward wouldn't do that to me and certainly wouldn't ever do that to any child of his, planned or not.

I skipped work that afternoon, curling myself up in a little ball on my bed and crying for hours.

I knew there was no way I could have this child without any support. I didn't have the money or time or experience to be able to handle a child. I spoke with Angela that night and told her that I would be moving out in a few days when I went back to Forks for Christmas Break. I would not be returning to college at U-Dub. I tried to get Angela to accept money for my half of the next month's rent, since I knew I was dumping this on her suddenly, but she politely refused. I felt slightly better when she told me that she had been thinking about moving in with Ben as it was, but hadn't wanted to leave me behind.

So, after my last final at the University of Washington, I packed everything I could fit into my small car and headed back to the small town of Forks.

I had left everything in my car initially, unwilling to unpack anything until I had Charlie's approval to move back home, which also included telling him about the baby. It took hours to convince my father not to kill Edward, but only moments for him to agree to let me have my childhood room back. He even called Jacob and convinced him and Sam to take his truck and get the rest of my belongings from Seattle. I had volunteered to go with them, but they had insisted I needed to stay home and rest.

It was the day after Christmas when I got my first and second letter back, 'RETURN TO SENDER' written in a harsh black scrawl. Both letters had been shoved into the same envelope. I couldn't bring myself to throw the returned letters away, so I placed them in the drawer of my bedside table. I just couldn't believe he could just walk away like this. Even as I was living it, it was still impossible to believe. I lost practically everything – the love of my life, my best friend, the closest thing to brothers and sisters I would ever have, plus two people who had practically been like parents to me. There were many days I couldn't bring myself to even get out of bed. The thought of the small being growing in my belly was the only thing that kept me going.

I managed to get a full time job cashiering at the local grocery store and was also offered a few hours a week typing up advertisements and obituaries for the Forks News, our tiny little version of a newspaper that was printed once a week. Having two jobs kept me exhausted, but I appreciated it. It helped keep my mind off of Edward and how screwed up my life had become.

Charlie and Jacob were worried about me, that was more than apparent. Charlie had called Renee and had her come visit. She took me shopping, not my favorite past time, but I knew it was necessary. We picked up a crib, a stroller, a baby seat and a few other things that would be necessities when the baby came. For once, Renee was actually acting like a mother. She had thought it would help relieve some of my stress if these things were taken care of, and she was right. She also paid for everything we bought, insisting she wanted to help with her first grandchild.

I continued to write Edward, but only after my doctor's appointments, and only updates on the baby. I never mentioned myself or the problems I was struggling through. I know he didn't want to hear any of this, but some small part of me felt that I should still try to tell him. It seemed unfair that Charlie, Jake, Renee and others knew things about his child that he didn't. So that was what I did, I wrote to Edward about our child and only gave updates to everyone else once the letter had been returned. Every letter was returned, unopened, the same dark black scrawl across the front 'RETURN TO SENDER'.

Jacob continued to come by every day or two, occasionally bringing more pregnancy and parenting books, plus things he had read was healthy for me to eat, but usually he just stayed and hung out. He knew how lonely I was without the Cullens and was trying his best to help fill that void. Jake's girlfriend, Leah, would come with him every once in awhile. The two of us would fix dinner while Jake and Charlie watched some basketball game. I was truly surprised at how friendly Leah had become. I guess she finally understood that Jacob and I were just good friends and that I was no threat to her.