Dear Readers.

Also, in this chapter I have written ALL of David's thoughts in italics that Edward could hear - as these thoughts and memories are quite important in this chapter.

Verena

Chapter 59

Problems About Problems

David

My cell phone alarm clock quietly rang me awake. Automatically I gave the head on my shoulder a kiss on the forehead, but I hesitated when I opened my eyes.

Wrong hair color!

It took me a moment to get my bearings.

Oh right. Yesterday I had fled head over heels to Bella.

Endeavoring not to wake her, I carefully pushed Bella away from me and put the blanket over her.

After all, it was only 5:15 a.m.

Quietly, I gathered my clothes, picked up my bag, which was still by the front door, and went into the guest room. I rummaged around for my toiletry bag, went into the tiny bathroom and washed myself to wake up completely.

Crap! I hadn't packed any sports clothes, only my shoes. My departure had also been pretty rushed.

So, I looked for the most comfortable pants I could find. I finally found an old pair of jeans in the closet, together with some other clothes of mine yet.

Dressed, I'll go downstairs and turn on the coffee machine ...

Its already running?

I eavesdropped for a moment, but heard nothing from above.

Whatever.

I picked up my key and quietly closed the front door behind me.

There were still two cars sitting in the driveway. Plus mine, of course. Since the kids' VW Golf was broken, I suspected one of them was a loaner, and the other I had at least assumed was Edward's yesterday, whom hadn't really thawed out during the evening. But now at half past five in the morning the two cars sat here again and both did not look like repair shop rental cars. Yesterday in the rain I hadn't paid much attention, but now I recognized a rather expensive BMW and also a not too cheap Audi. I would probably find out, I thought and ran into the forest.

That was one of the reasons why I liked being here. The forest right by the house. At home I had to run over paved roads, which wasn't nearly as much fun, even if you had to watch out for the uneven ground here.

At ten to six I was back in the house and grabbed a coffee.

Now there was also a bag of fresh rolls?

I took a quick look inside.

Whoever was responsible for this service: Thank you very much! I was apparently included in the planning.

Then I considered for a moment and noisily slapped the flat of my hand in front of my forehead.

The ring I had taken off Bella yesterday. Maybe Bella's boyfriend had come and brought the rolls. Luckily, I no longer was laying with her in the bed, I thought smirking and mentally shook my head. That I had not even thought of it yesterday. He could have come here at night, while I was laying in her bed. But I really hadn't thought about it because of my tiredness.

Quickly I went to shower and shave.

At quarter past six I still didn't hear from the others and decided to wake Bella up.

With coffee, of course. Otherwise, she was obnoxious in the early morning. I knew her well enough!

"Good morning, my sunshine," I lied completely uninhibited and smiling overly charmingly.

Bella was anything but a sunshine at this hour. A thunder and lightning storm was usually more like her. The way Bella reacted, they had probably all overslept. That was not at all like her. Normally she checked at least three times a day to see if she had turned on the alarm clock on her cell phone. Oh well. Now she was awake, woke Jake and Leah, and I went to get dressed. Standing in the way of any one of the three was deadly, I grinned to myself. That's why the guest room had its own bathroom now, even if it was really small and you could hardly move around in it.

Bella appeared nervous while she made breakfast.

I watched her more closely as I lent a hand and then finished the rolls she surprisingly offered me.

The crease between her eyes was constantly there. She kept looking in the direction of the front door or the terrace. As if she were waiting for someone. Maybe she was waiting for the person whose ring she was wearing. If it was like that, I could understand it, but I wondered who was so stupid to leave Bella alone at night anyway. I was curious when Bella would tell me that.

With our usual kiss, I said farewell and drove off.

The further I got, the worse my mood became.

The customer was plain exhausting. I could be happy if I was out of there before sunset. If I was present, the boss always found something that I should obligingly look at and change. Even if I wasn't responsible for it. He had no idea about computers. If one asked him what kind of PC he had, his answer would certainly be 'Black!' He saw no difference between me, who was only responsible for a small part of the software used, and his actual IT-specialist.

I finally sat down in the server room, grinning.

The boss was on vacation. The new intern spoiled me from end to end. Coffee, made eyes at me, gave me a sandwich for breakfast break, and her phone number.

I finished early, threw away the slip of paper with her cell number on it, and drove back to Saco again.

I was able to service one company today. One in particular.

I was making some small talk with the boss on the way to the server room when my favorite user called me.

"Get your programming ass over here!" she nagged through the receiver.

I grinned.

"How could I refuse such a gracious invitation?" I purred.

She briefly explained the problem and I agreed to come immediately.

She asked, "When?"

"If you call, of course it would be immediately!" I said and opened the door to her room at the same moment.

Bella stood with her back to the door and just shook her head.

Probably to get rid of the echo.

Peter pointed in my direction and she turned around in amazement.

"Now that's prompt service," she stated matter-of-factly.

"With you, always," I smiled in a well-behaved way.

I greeted Peter, asked about Stan, and congratulated him warmly on their engagement.

On my last visit, I had only heard about it, but unfortunately had not seen either of the two. I was invited - at least already verbally - to the wedding. There were apparently difficulties with the printing of the invitations. At the last attempt, Peter and Stella was written on the invitations and Stan went into a fit of rage. I could imagine it vividly. He and Stan had really sought and found each other, I thought to myself.

Bella showed me what the problem was with the software and then I went about my business.

Every now and then, someone would stop by to inform me of any difficulties, just chat with me, or speak about the programs. One would bring me coffee, ask if I had everything I needed, and I would talk on the phone with the administrator of the entire computer system. As with any other customer.

Later, I went over to Bella's lab and asked her to try again what had not worked at noon today. Standing directly behind her, I looked over her shoulder at the monitor. Everything ran smoothly again, but I still recognized a small malfunction in the layout of the output. By the waist, I pulled Bella closer so I could get to the mouse and immediately corrected it when a new-to-me face entered the room.

The lady's name was Kimberly, she thought she had to adore me and sarcastically told Bella that she shouldn't let me go. Otherwise, she would try her luck with me.

I rolled my eyes.

"The best men are either gay ..." Bella pointed at Peter. "... or married!" she made a debauched gesture to me and I showed off my wedding ring.

That was obviously the end of the subject for her. She grumbled to herself as she left the room.

"Are you here with your bike or do you need a ride?" I then asked Bella.

It was already just before 4:00 p.m.

"Neither. I'm being picked up."

"It's nonsense, when I'm here anyway ... Or is your boyfriend picking you up?", I asked curiously though.

"Boyfriend?" now Peter was keen-eared and grinning.

I reached into a small side compartment of Bella's purse, which sat on her desk, and as expected, pulled out the ring I had discovered last evening.

Bella always worked without her rings because they interfered with her lab work.

Bella immediately blushed.

How sweet that was every time. No matter how old she got, she would probably never lose this cute quality.

She pulled out her cell phone in a huff and typed a text message, peeling awkwardly out of her lab coat and tossing it on the table in displeasure.

"Are we going now?" she asked irritably.

Quickly I went into the other room again and got my things.

I became mistrustful.

If not even Peter knew something about the friend and she now specially canceled him, there must be something wrong. She was hiding her boyfriend! But why? I didn't think Bella was stupid enough to get involved with a married man. I would probably have to check with Jake and Leah a little bit. Or call Zoey.

Bella had to go to the supermarket, but then at home we met the twins playing basketball. So, I drove the car back down the driveway a bit. I took my laptop bags and Bella's groceries out of the trunk.

"Don't you guys have practice now?" I asked.

"The gym is under water," Jake replied.

Then he grinned and threw me the ball.

I caught the ball with almost no problem and grinned back. I threw it from a standing position and from quite a distance into the basket above the garage entrance.

A stroke of luck. I was amazed at myself. But my poker face sat!

"I need opponents, not victims!" I announced snootily.

Jake raised his eyebrows challengingly.

"I'm going to change," I laughed against the two of them.

I put my bags on the dining room table - I would have to do some work later - and took the groceries to the kitchen. Upstairs, I changed and put my watch and my wedding ring on the dresser. I kept my necklace on.

The baptismal rings of my children. I never took them off!

Jake played really well and Leah was also not without merit. Together, however, they were a deadly duo and I really had to try hard to keep up.

A few years ago, I was still sure to win every time, even if I let them win most of the time in the end, but the kids got better and better. Proportionally to my age. Was there a connection? Still, I loved playing with them both. The only thing that could top this was playing with my boys. Luces is nine and Deacon is seven years old, so I had to be more reserved and cautious, but nothing beat the feeling of happiness of doing something with your own children. Whether it was sports, help with homework, tinkering with something. It didn't matter. Their own children made everything an experience. Even something as banal as washing the dishes. The twins gave me nothing for free. No respect for age! And I noticed my age.

Eventually I gave up and struggled to get into the house with the last vestige of my pride and dignity.

It wasn't until I slammed the front door behind me that I let myself fall, broken, onto the stairs.

I could take no more and was on my last legs. I would probably not move away from here for the time being, and in my mind settled down on the uncomfortable steps for a longer period of time.

Bella brought me a bottle of water laughing at the top of her voice.

"You're not twenty anymore," she teased me.

"You could have mentioned that before!" I complained.

I dragged myself after her into the kitchen. With difficulty, I climbed onto the countertop and pulled off my soaking wet T-shirt, but sank it with a skillful toss into the laundry basket that stood in the adjacent laundry room.

There you go. Apparently, I wasn't quite that old after all.

"How are you, Bella?" I then asked, after I felt like I was back among the living and not panting so much.

We chatted a bit while Bella started preparing dinner at some point.

Bella knew that I was not here for any petty conversations. But it was her decision when I should talk about things. And apparently the time had come.

"You wanted to talk to me. So! The twins are outside. Talk," she prompted me good-naturedly.

She was curious. She knew that I didn't just show up here for no reason.

I nodded and went back to the coat rack by the front door to get a picture out of my jacket. I hid it in my pants pocket for the time being and hopped back onto the kitchen counter.

I could have saved myself the trouble. Bella would freak out at any moment.

"Point one, Sonya doesn't know I'm here!" I admitted.

"Ahhh ...!" Bella cried out and I reacted immediately.

She had cut herself.

I jumped off the work surface, sucked away the drop of blood and closed the small cut completely and firmly with one finger. At the same time, I threw the knife into the sink and turned on the water.

"Just keep breathing, Bella!" I gently urged her, looking into her eyes.

I slid an arm around her waist so she had more support and didn't buckle.

The kids quickly stood with us.

When had they come in? They could hardly have heard Bella. It was probably just a coincidence that they had come into the house right now. And since when was Edward here again? All three looked at us in fright, Edward in particular seemed very tense. Two children and yet a small drop of blood made her sway. I would have loved to be there when the twins were born. To have seen her face at that time!

I waited a moment until Bella looked reasonably relaxed. Not letting go of her finger, I pulled her to a nearby drawer.

"Hold your breath," I said, waiting for her to actually do it.

I took my finger from the small wound and sprayed some New Skin over it.

A normal plaster wouldn't help Bella as long as it was still bleeding. Only with this stuff could she really escape the smell of blood.

I quickly licked away the blood that hung on my finger. Only now Bella was breathing again.

Crisis over, I thought with a grin, while Bella just stood there delightfully shocked, looking at her finger.

Then she had apparently remembered why she had cut herself in the first place.

Immediately she shouted at me.

Okay. I had expected that. Perhaps also deserved.

She stormed past all of us grumbling vociferously and reached for the phone.

Quickly I went after her and snatched it out of her hand.

"Wait, Bella," I urged her, and she got angry. Was clear.

She hit me and kept trying to get to her phone.

Much too roughly, I held her while I threw the phone far away on the sofa.

That was not really my style, but she was not allowed to call Sonya! Not yet!

She squirmed under my grip, deliberately ignoring my request to hear me out first, until she finally lay on the floor.

I noticed restlessness in the corner of my eyes, but I didn't have time to pay attention to the children. I was too busy trying not to hurt Bella.

I finally sat down on top of her, which finally gave me the opportunity to pull the picture out of my pants pocket and held it right in front of her eyes.

"Point two!" I said clearly.

Bella immediately became quiet, took the ultrasound image from my hands and looked at the photo.

The first picture of a baby in the womb. Only a few weeks old.

Immediately I got off of her.

She looked at the picture in shock and put a hand over her mouth.

I turned away from her, as she was not giving the impression of straightening up immediately. I propped myself up on the dining table with my back to her and waited for her to find her voice again.

That she would continue to snap at me. I was sorry to have been so hard on her, but a call to Sonya without knowing the reason I was here was pointless.

I guess one of the kids eventually helped her get up.

The seconds passed and I braced myself for anything.

"Get out!" she told the children commandingly.

A sound rarely heard from Bella.

She waited until there was absolute silence.

"How many weeks?" she mumbled.

She didn't scream, I noted with relief. The small mistake on this shot apparently escaped her, although she was otherwise so attentive. She would notice soon enough.

"Sixth," I answered without looking at her.

"So still early enough to ..." she continued muttering.

Clear. It was early enough to abort it. Unfortunately, there was a problem.

"Sonya wants it!" I interrupted her agonizedly, turning to face her.

"Why?" she asks, stunned.

I must have sounded something like that when Sonya told me.

"Ask me something easier."

I let myself fall weakly onto a chair and ran a hand irritably through my hair.

I could not understand it. With the best will in the world, I could not understand why she wanted this child so badly. We had three children together! All three healthy and lively. Except that Sonya almost didn't outlive our little Emma a good three years ago. Normally the birth became easier with each child, with Sonya it was the opposite. She had almost bled to death and the doctors had strongly advised her not to have another child. It would be life-threatening for her.

Bella was by my side at that time, when it was not yet clear whether Sonya would pull through. Day and night. She had slept in an armchair in the corner. Had only left me alone to take care of Emma. Had taken Emma to Sonya when I failed to stop her. I had not paid any attention to this child. I hated it because it almost took away my beloved wife. Jake and Leah had taken very touching care of my sons so that they did not realize the seriousness of the situation, which they themselves had not fully understood too. We had tried to keep it away from them. Only when it was certain that Sonya would live, had I gone to the little child and she had enchanted me at first gaze. My little 'smooch ball'.

Just like that time, Bella was also with me now. She sat sideways on one of my legs and held me tight. I was so grateful to her for just being there.

I cried on her shoulder.

I couldn't bear to lose Sonya.

It took me a while to calm down. I gently pushed Bella away from me and went to the bar display case.

My whiskey was empty? No one else drank it, however.

I looked in the closet underneath.

A new bottle. Perfect.

I poured Bella and myself a generous sip.

"Are there any other points?" she asked after emptying the glass in one go.

"One more," I said, whereby I would like to smack myself for that point.

Bella waited patiently.

I downed the whiskey.

"Because of this new pregnancy, she got the idea that I could hang up my client services here in Portland!"

Bella wordlessly held her glass out to me and I poured us both a refill.

"Just say you can't!" Bella said, without thinking about it

A mistake I had already made yesterday. "I already have."

"And?"

"Now Sonya is mad at you too!" I confessed, hanging my head.

"Why at me?"

I smiled indulgently.

"The fact that we never really dated doesn't absolve you of the suspicion that you wouldn't cover up an affair."

Sonya knew Bella and knows, that with her there was no reason for jealousy. Bella was simply too good a person for that. Sonya also knew that I definitely had ended up in bed with Bella a few times. In the past. When we were still in college. But it meant nothing. Neither to her nor to me. Except for the first time, too much alcohol had usually been the trigger.

However, I could remember the last time quite well. I even knew the date. Saturday, April 6, 2013. I had met Sonya on this Friday. I had fallen violently in love. I had practically begged her to go out with me and she had stood me up the same evening. Bad-tempered I had then driven to Bella on Saturday, as had been planned for a long time. She greeted me, together with Zoey and plenty of sparkling wine, while the twins were at a pajama birthday party at Lisa and Jason's. For her part, she had give a guy the kiss-off that day, after he asked where the father of the 'brats' was and if they couldn't stay with him. After all, he was not a babysitter. Later it was just the two of us; we cursed the whole world and questioned why we couldn't just find someone who was just a little bit like us. A boozy evening that ended with a severe headache. And us in bed together. We had never regretted such gaffes and today could laugh about it together. That Bella and I kissed each other on the mouth had somehow stuck from that time.

When I got back to Philadelphia a few days later, I learned that Sonya had a little accident on the way to our date. Nothing dramatic. A bicyclist bumped into her while she was talking on the phone on the boardwalk of the Delaware River. She fell on her wrist and the cell phone landed in the water, which is why she couldn't let me know. By the time they let her out of the ER with her arm bandaged and she got to the restaurant, I wasn't there. And I had waited a long time. Almost two hours. We made up for the date. A year later we were married and after another year Luces was almost born. I had always been faithful, moreover I adored my wife, and had never seriously thought about betraying Sonya. Especially not with Bella. Our friendship was too precious for that.

"Ever thought of telling her the truth?" Bella asked after emptying another glass.

"Thought many times. But never put into practice," I admitted.

She looked against me reproachfully.

"What do you want me to tell her, Bella? ... That I've been lying to her ever since I met her?" I grumbled meekly.

Without customer service in the field, I no longer had a reason to come here. I would miss Bella, Jake, and Leah. They were kind of my little surrogate family when I was here. But it could be worse. They could come to us and we could come to them for a visit. After all, four hundred miles was not the end of the world. It had worked fine up to now, however. What was much worse, I wouldn't see my illegitimate son again. Daniel. That was the only reason I had not only accepted, but specifically requested, client care in the area. When I met Sonya, he was already three years old and already living with his maternal grandparents in Sanford. Only about thirty minutes by car from here. Seeing Bella regularly through was just a little added bonus.

"I've always told you that you can't keep it a secret from her forever ... What's going on with Vanessa?" Bella asked.

"What should there be with her? She continues to be silent! After all, I pay her enough for that. I don't even know where she is."

The world had probably never seen a worse mother than Vanessa. As far as I knew, Vanessa had not been with her parents for months, and therefore also not with Daniel. But if the child support was even one day late in her account, she could immediately contact me. But was I even one bit better as father in that case? Someone who only came over once every three months for a few days and otherwise only sent gifts. Why should I lie to myself? I could still carry my three children on my hands like this, it did not make good that I neglected the fourth child.

Bella let herself fall backwards onto the sofa and sighed in frustration.

I braced myself with my forearms on the high backrest and looked at her. Buried in thought, she raised one hand and played with my necklace.

All four baptismal rings were hanging on it. Sonya lived in the belief that the fourth belonged to Jake or Leah.

"You need to talk to Sonya!" she said seriously.

"And where do you think I should start? With Daniel, whom I've kept from her for eleven years, or at the spot where she threatened me with divorce if I didn't agree to have the child?" I asked bitterly.

Bella swallowed dryly.

"Then I guess I should talk to her."

"Then you can pick up where I packed my things and drove here as quickly as possible."

"You really don't do things by halves. Even when you're in trouble, you go all out!" she complained.

"You know me!" was all I said.

Thanks for reading!