A/N: Not much to say right now. Here's a little Edward for you, don't know if you'll start to like him or not, I don't blame you if you don't.

I don't own Twilight, it owns me…


Chapter 3 – Gone

EPOV

I looked down at my phone as my finger hovered over the talk button. I had debated over and over whether I should call her. Alice had given me her number a few days earlier after much begging. I haven't been in anyone's good graces since the wedding. A year later and everyone seemed to still hate me…as they should.

I wanted to make amends though. I missed her. I loved her. I was completely devastated when I found out she was leaving and moving to Pennsylvania. I was even more so when she hadn't been the one to tell me. She despised me so much; she had to send Emmett, Alice and Jasper to pack her belongings.

I arrived at my apartment after a long shift at the hospital. There was a small moving van in front of the building. I hadn't heard of anyone moving in or out, but then again I was hardly around. When I got to my floor, I noticed the boxes along the wall in the hallway. Then I saw Emmett with a box coming out of my apartment.

"Emmett, what the hell is going on?" Before he could answer Jasper came out, followed by Alice. "Is Bella here?" I asked my voice tinged with hope. "Let me talk to her." I pushed through to enter my place.

"She's not here Edward," Alice answered annoyed.

"Where is she? Why are you guys packing up my stuff?"

"She's at her father's and we're packing her stuff, not yours. She asked us to do it because she couldn't face you and, honestly, I don't blame her."

"Is she moving back to Forks? What about her job here?" I continued with the questioning. Alice glanced at Jasper who then looked to Emmett. I glared at the three of them. "What is going on?" I couldn't contain my anger anymore.

Jasper spoke up. "Bella's leaving. She's leaving Washington."

I was confused now. "What do you mean she's leaving?"

"She was offered a better job…"

"Where?" I pinched the bridge of my nose; I was getting tired of these short vague answers.

Alice chimed in. "She's going to Pennsylvania. She was offered a position as Associate Professor in the English department at UPenn."

"But she wasn't looking for work…"

"How would you know? You were too busy fucking other women," Emmett growled out.

"Emmett…" Jasper warned.

"No. Fuck that. He may be my little brother, but he needs to know how totally fucked up he is. I wouldn't even have said anything to him Alice."

"Well, it's too late for that and it is a good thing that he knows now. He can see that she's moving on…without him."

"Hello…I'm still in the room," I said sitting down on the couch. "I can't believe she's leaving me. When does she leave?"

"In two days." I snapped my head up.

"What? She was just going to disappear like that without telling me, without giving me a chance?"

"Do you really think you deserve better?"

"Yes, damn it! We were supposed to get married, we love each other."

"Could have fooled me," Emmett muttered.

"Shut up Em, you're not helping," Alice hissed.

I jumped up with new determination and walked to the door.

"Where are you going?" Emmett inquired.

"I'm going to see Bella. I'm going to tell her to stay. She can't leave me…she can't leave us behind."

Alice shook her head. "Good luck."

~*~

Bella opened the door looking radiant as always. I wanted to hug her and kiss her and tell her everything was going to be all right, but she wasn't budging, she wasn't letting me in.

"Please let me in."

"I tried that already. It didn't go so well."

"Bella, I love you, please don't do this to me," I pleaded, my hands reaching to her.

"Do this to you? Are you kidding me?" I flinched at her the harshness of her tone.

"Come on, you couldn't even tell me that you were leaving? I had to find out when I see my brother and best friend packing up all of your things? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Really? I have to tell you everything? Bit of a double standard don't you think? I thought we did pretty well keeping secrets from each other, why stop now?" I knew she was talking about my cheating on her, but I wasn't planning on leaving her ever.

I sighed. "It's not the same. You're moving away. You're moving three thousand miles away from me. You can't do this to me," I sounded desperate.

"You're right, Edward. It's not the same. I never lied to you. I never cheated on you. I never said I loved you to your face and then go fuck someone else."

"It was just once…" I knew I was lying to her, I had been with Tanya a few times and Jessica once, but I couldn't get myself to tell her that and hurt her more.

"It was twice, with two different women. Well, at least I think it was only twice, you did have a lot of double shifts," she spat out.

"It didn't mean anything." It truly didn't. I can't even think right now of the reason I gave in to their temptation.

"Obviously it did or else you wouldn't have left me out to dry on our wedding day." What? I didn't leave her at the altar, she ran away. I wanted to make things right between us and talk to her.

"I didn't leave you to dry, you ran away, just like you're running away now instead of trying to make us right again." I was angry now, which was not what I wanted. How did this go so horribly wrong? When you decided to put your dick in someone other than the woman you love.

"You have some fucking nerve trying to put our break up on me. Get. Out. I never, ever want to see your face again."

She slammed the door before I could say anything. I leaned against it for a moment, hearing her sobs through the door. What I would give to be able to hold her and console, be the best friend that she needed.

I drove around for the rest of the day and night. I didn't know what to do anymore. The love of my life was leaving me for good. My world was shattered. I had to think of a way to get her back, to stay with me and work things out. Yes, I totally messed up everything so that left me with the responsibility of fixing it. It wasn't her fault.

After driving around through the night, I called Alice.

"Alice…" I started when she picked up, "I need your help."

"If this is about Bella, you're too late. Her flight leaves in two hours." That was all I needed to know.

"Thanks Alice." I hung up and headed to the airport.

I had a feeling that the gang would go to the airport and say goodbye to her. I didn't know which airline she was flying so I drove around the terminals until I spotted Alice's yellow Porsche. Perfect. I slid my car into a spot and ran inside.

I was too late.

Bella was already on the other side of security. We locked eyes, I saw her crying again. Then she stopped and mouthed to me the three words that gave me hope. "I love you." Then she turned away.

I looked at Alice. "I told you were too late. It's for the best, Edward."

My finger was still hovered over the talk button. I can't do this, not today.

"Dr. Cullen, there you are," I heard from behind me. "What are you doing hiding in the stairwell?"

"Hey Angela, what's going on?" I asked turning around to face her.

"Esme is here. She's been looking for you. She's waiting in your office."

"Thanks," I smiled back only to get daggers in return. Angela was Bella's friend and she saw firsthand the destruction I caused a year ago. She has not forgiven me, but, because she's a nurse here at Seattle West, she has to deal with me.

I walked past her to the stairway door, but was stopped by her words.

"Happy Anniversary," she said quietly. I continued through the door to my office. No one will ever let me forget what I did.

"Mom!" It was good to see her. Though she hated everything that happened, she was still on my side. She loved Bella just as much as I did and wanted the best for us.

"Edward, dear," she hugged me. "How's my son doing today?"

"I'm holding up…" I replied. Trying to deflect the subject from Bella, I asked her what her plans were for the day.

"Not much…" she began. "I'm waiting for your father to get out of the board meeting. They are deciding the next chief of staff* you know," she winked at me. I knew I was a shoe-in for the position, but I wasn't particularly excited about it today.

"Right, I remember that." I took in my mother's appearance. "Dad taking you out somewhere nice?" My mother looked fabulous. Her hair caramel hair was getting lighter from age, a few silver streaks coming through. Her hazel eyes, though, still sparkled with happiness. She was wearing a simple black dress with sequins at the hem that hit just below her knees.

"Oh…yes. We're just going out for dinner," she responded nervously.

"What's the occasion?"

"Nothing," she answered quickly.

"Sounds like you're hiding something," I looked at her expectantly knowing that she hates keeping secrets from me.

She rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine. We're going out to celebrate our marriage."

I scrunched my brows. "But it's not your anniversary…" Then it dawned on me. They were celebrating their happy marriage on the day that I should have been celebrating my own. My father was rubbing the mistakes I made in my face. "That's kind of messed up, mom."

"I know darling, but it was at your father's insistence. I didn't think it was right."

I shushed her with a wave of my hand. "I know dad still resents me for what happened. It's okay. Enjoy yourselves."

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "Everything will work out Edward. I promise." She reached over and caressed my cheek. I leaned into her hand and nodded.

"I hope so. I miss her so much. A day doesn't go by that I don't beat myself up for what I did to her. She didn't deserve it. I don't deserve her."

"Well no one ever said that love was easy. There is no simple path to true love. You two are taking the long convoluted way but it will end the same way. You will be together eventually; it's just going to take longer than you had anticipated."

"But it was so easy for you and dad."

"Actually it wasn't." I looked at her in surprise. "I was the other woman. I was the other pregnant woman." I was stunned. I knew that my mother had been pregnant with Emmett before my parents were married, but this new revelation shocked me.

"I don't understand. I thought you guys were always together and happy."

"We loved each other yes, but your father was engaged to someone else. We had taken precaution, but when something is meant to be, it just happens. I had told Carlisle that I could take care of the baby on my own. My family had money; I had money from my business, so I wasn't worried. I didn't want to be the cause of his breakup, but he loved me. He didn't want to leave me and he didn't want our baby to be without a father. He broke off the engagement. He never told her the real reason why he did; at least I don't think he did. We had a small ceremony a month before Emmett was born and we've been together since."

There was silence in the room as I digested everything my mother told me.

"So, you're telling me that dad was a cheat as well and he left the woman he was engaged to so he could be with you. I take after him a lot then." I shook my head. "And he has the nerve to be angry with me."

"The only thing you have in common with him is that you both cheated, he didn't love his fiancé. That was essentially an arranged societal marriage. He's disappointed in you only because he had hoped for more from you. He knows how much you love Bella; he just couldn't understand why you did what you did to her."

"I have no real explanation for it either. I had moments of weakness. I was scared."

"Are you still scared?" I shook my head. "Then it will work out. You'll figure things out eventually and when you do explain things to her, be sure you have a better reason than 'I was scared,'" she chuckled softly.

"Thanks, mom... I needed that."

"I know. It's why I'm here. You'll be happy with her one day."

Yes, one day…we'll be happy.

A/N: Still hate him? Yes? Figures. It's hard to forgive a cheater. *I'm not sure if there is a chief of staff at a hospital, but I liked the sound so I wrote it in. Sue me later if I'm wrong. Lol See you soon!