BPOV

Once again, I was pacing around the room, much like the previous night. I knew this time I could not bring Ness along. I sent a quick text to Jess - although I knew it was late, but I thought it's better to send a message sooner rather than later, and I will know first thing in the morning whether she would be able to take care of Ness or not.

After waking up from a fitful sleep, I saw a message saying that Jess would be there.

I woke Ness up and told her the plan.

"I'm happy Bewwa! You are makin fwiends!" Ness said excited. "Also can you give dis to mista Edwood?" She gave me the drawing she had done in the restaurant.

"I was makin it for him, but we left." Ness explained. It was a drawing which clearly included the three of us, holding hands, with the word 'frends' written on it. It was adorable but I didn't know if I should give it to him.

"Ok Ness... I'll try to give it to him."

"Otay thanks Bewwa. I can't wait for miss Jessica!" She said excitedly.

I let her eat her breakfast while I changed into my jeans and my favorite comfort hoodie that I borrowed from my dad. It did the job of getting me through my roughest days, and I had that hoodie ever since or maybe during when Edward and I were together. I couldn't say, it had been quite a long time.

That moment the doorbell rang, and I walked towards the door to let Jess in. I hugged her while also thanking her.

"It's all good Bella. You go do what you have to do."

With that I left, neatly folding Ness's drawing and putting it in my jeans' pocket.

Once again much like yesterday, I was nervous to enter but, I knew I had to do this for my peace of mind.

As I entered the cafe, Edward looked a bit shocked, but composed himself almost immediately.

"Why did you just do that?" I asked.

"Do what?" He seemed confused.

"Look shocked and then act impassive?" I questioned.

"How do you do that?" Edward asked surprise.

It was now my turn to ask, "do what?"

"Know what I'm thinking?" He asked.

"I have known you for a long time Edward, I've known you since university. Plus, you are pretty expressive..." I realized what I had said and blushed slightly.

Edward chuckled, most likely at my blush. He used to make me blush pretty often when we were together, because he thought it was pretty. His laugh brought back so many memories.

"Stop that!" I told him with a smile. I forgot how easy it used to be... to lose track of time when I was with him.

We sat a bit in companionable silence, and then placed our orders.

"Where's Ness?" He asked suddenly.

"She's at home with one of my friends. Thank you for asking, and before I forget -" I handed him the drawing Ness had made. After all it was meant for him. "She made this for you yesterday, and wanted you to have it." I explained.

He was looked at the drawing for some time before looking at me - "thank you for this Bella... also please tell Ness thank you as well. She is quite the artist." He said genuinely.

"I agree and I will let her know that." I said with a genuine smile.

Edward cleared his throat - "Bella... before anything else I want to say... I really am sorry. It was incorrect of me to act the way I did. I mean I just assumed the worst... it was wrong that I made assumptions and even if you were with someone, it shouldn't matter, because you're right... it was after we broke up... so I'm so sorry Bella."

I was stunned. He seemed sorry, "thank you for apologizing Edward... but I want to know everything from that day, I need answers..." I was impatient, and needed to know what happened that day, for my sanity, and also to leave the past behind so I could move forward with my life.

"That's fair... but it's a long story..." he seemed unsure of himself.

"That's ok... I have time." I wanted to hear and know everything. I am sick and tired of having nightmares and having so many unanswered questions.

"Well to start off... I really did want to marry you as soon as possible. I meant that, when I said I couldn't wait for you to be my wife. Then around five months before the wedding Aro Volturi, one of the co-owners of that firm, personally offers me a position as the head of the finance department... I was ecstatic, but then he told me that the position also meant I had to be transferred. That's when I declined... I mean we had just gotten adjusted and you were doing so well, plus our wedding was in a few months I didn't want to take that away from us."

His admission shocked me, but if he declined the job -

"I know what you're thinking Bella... yes I really did decline the job. But Aro was persistent, telling me that I was the only one who was competent and capable enough to handle the job... I couldn't believe what I was hearing... it sounded amazing hearing that in such little time I had made a 'huge impact', and was 'destined for great things' as he put it... I wanted to tell you so many times but I didn't want you to think that I was choosing my career over you, so I didn't tell you..."

"Yeah well that's obviously how it came across to me." I said with sarcasm laced in my words. I was annoyed at how he was acting like it was my fault. Like I made him hide stuff or like I wouldn't support him, or even that he didn't trust me enough to tell me.

"Give me a moment here Bella... please let me finish." He pleaded.

I nodded for him to continue, my annoyance for sure seeping into my expression.

He cleared his throat and continued - "so after months of his persistence, I told him the reason why I couldn't take up the position, to which he told me that you wouldn't care for me, because you were selfish, 'all women were'... and he tried to fill my head with nasty thoughts about you and how you wanted to be more successful than me, which I didn't believe for a second. Especially since you always considered me even when you had to plan most of our wedding on your own... you always gave me an out, and you always gave me a choice. I guess that pissed him off further."

He took a deep breath and continued - "but eventually he managed to get through to me by increasing my salary and employee benefits, by a lot... and at that moment all I could think was - we wouldn't have to struggle anymore and we could literally have our wedding anywhere..."

I didn't say anything, so Edward continued -

"That day when I told you about that... and you were pissed and disappointed, in my mind it just confirmed his statement that you were selfish and didn't care about me, even though part of me knew it was wrong and stupid... but I still lashed out on you and got defensive, and the other part of me that was angry thought that maybe Aro was right... you didn't care about me... I was so dumb and I was being the selfish one... I should've just told you or even asked you what you thought..."

His head was down, in shame. As I was about to speak he said -

"But you know as they say what goes around comes around..."

What did he mean by that!?

A/N:

Sorry for the delay in posting. I had a bad case of writer's block. I knew where I wanted to take the story but couldn't figure out how to get there. On top of that I have so much to do, and things are hectic. So when inspiration hit, I got to work immediately and thought better late than never.

Hope you enjoyed this Chapter! And hopefully it puts things into perspective. Do you agree with Edward's decisions? What happened to him?

Once again sorry for the delay...

and maybe also for the cliffhanger ;)