WRONG DECISIONS

Disclaimer: The Cullen's, the Swans, and most of the characters mentioned in the story that are known from Stephanie Meyer's beloved Twilight Saga, are all hers and hers alone. I neither have nor wish to pass them off as mine. I do appreciate the fact that she did bring them to life and allows us to play with them in our imaginations. The only thing I will claim is the current storyline.

The awesome and talented dowlingnana searched out my errors and corrected them.

"However, you need to get a hold of Edward Cullen and let him know about this situation. He has more resources than you or the law has to be able to get this resolved." Irina continued to tell her friend.

"I can't." Bella said as she began sobbing uncontrollably falling down into the chair she had been standing in front of.

CHAPTER 2: HAVING TO LET GO

AN ENDING FIVE YEARS AGO

As Bella was standing by the door getting ready to enter the courtroom for the last time, she felt a presence behind her. She didn't need to turn around to know who it was. The vibes that his nearness gave had always been enough for Bella to be able to know where her soon to be ex-husband was.

She reached out to open the door when Edward whispered ever so softly, "Bella, please drop this nonsense. You know that I love you and I know that you still love me. Stop this before you regret your actions."

Bella felt a shiver go down her body as she listened to his words and knew that what he said was the truth, but she refused to back down. She had told him that she couldn't live the lifestyle that he had chosen. She refused to live in constant fear and refused to subject any future children to the choices that Edward had made.

She had given him one last chance to change his decisions, but he refused. So, with that in mind, why should she change her mind? It wasn't going to happen.

Edward had come by her apartment two weeks ago and they had had this same discussion and with the same stand off. Edward had been so upset that he had even tried seducing her with his exceptional love making skills, and she had almost changed her mind.

He had left after she had fallen asleep, evidently thinking that he had achieved the desired results. However, he soon found out that nothing had changed, and now, everyone was in court for the divorce to be finalized.

Edward was there with his parents and cousins, Emmett McCarthy and Jasper Whitlock, with their wives, Rosalie and Alice. All of them carried the look of distress and disappointment as they entered the courtroom behind Bella and Edward. Distress due to losing someone they loved and disappointed that nothing could be resolved to keep things from getting to this point.

After a moment of hesitation, Esme walked over to where Bella was taking a seat next to her attorney and asked if she could speak with Bella for a moment privately. Bella looked at her attorney as if seeking his advice, but all he told her was that it was her decision. Bella looked at Esme and said, "I'm sorry, but I don't think that we have anything to discuss because I'm not changing my mind." So, Bella turned to continue taking her seat next to her lawyer.

With that said, Esme stayed where she was for a minute or two as if hoping that Bella would change her mind about speaking with her. Esme had been determined to try one more time to do her best to try and get Bella to reconsider the actions she was taking. To consider what the consequences might be if she decided to go through with the divorce.

Esme had, well, the whole family really, had developed a deep love for this young woman. It started from the very first moment that Edward had introduced her to the family.

Bella had just published her first book which had become a runaway seller and was on a book tour with one of the stops being in Chicago. Edward happened to be in the same bookstore as Bella was signing her book for fans and from the way he tells it, he was struck stupid by her sheer beauty. That was when he decided that he had to get to know her. He said that instant draw let him know that he had found his forever and became determined to do everything within his power not to lose the opportunity to achieve it.

After that Edward made it a point to turn up at each of the stops for the rest of her tour. And, once the tour was over, he had managed to make regular trips to Seattle to court her and even managed to talk her into making frequent trips to Chicago.

After a year of the coming and going back and forth between the two, Edward proposed, and the couple were married six months later. During all this time, Edward never once mentioned to Bella what the family business was; only let her see that he was involved with property rentals, ownership of a hotel chain across the country and the publishing business; all legal businesses as far as Bella knew.

Many times, Edward had tried to convince Bella to switch to his publishing company, but the answer was always no. Bella always told him that she was under contract with her current publishing company and was happy with doing business with them. And besides, she didn't want her business to be connected to her personal life.

Edward accepted her decision but wasn't happy with it. However, he said no more to try to change her mind.

As time passed, Bella became curious about why Edward's work schedule was so different than what she thought it should be. He would put in time at his office and come home to be with her in the evenings, but at times he would get a call in the middle of the night and be gone all night. He would be walking in the door as Bella was getting ready to sit down for breakfast.

The clothes he would come home in would be nothing like what he had hanging in their closet. They would seem to be of a cheaper quality than what Edward chose to wear.

Another book tour came up to support publication of another book written by Bella and while Bella was gone, Edward became harder to reach by phone. It was as though his mind was on other things more than her. This behavior was entirely different than what Edward had ever given her before. This treatment started putting a distance between them in their relationship, especially since it appeared to start becoming the normal.

When Bella returned from her book tour, she tried several times to talk to Edward about why he wasn't available when he had promised to be each time that they had spoken to each other. He always had some work-related excuse and promised to do better, which never happened. That was when Bella started to suspect there was more going on than what she had been led to believe.

She even came home unexpectedly from the tour as a surprise for Edward to find another woman asleep in the marriage bed. Bella left without saying a word to anyone about her early arrival, or what she had found. That caused Bella to start investigating more of what could be going on with her husband and his business.

When she did finally let her husband know of her quick coming and going and what she had seen, Edward had merely explained, in an off-handed manner, that the woman was an old family friend that needed a place for the night until she could get checked in a hotel for her visit. He had offered her a place since he wasn't going to be home for the night as a kindness and thinking that Bella wouldn't mind.

It wasn't long after that that Bella found out the whole truth of what was going on; that Edward was fully involved with THE FAMILY BUSINESS. Sure, she had heard rumors about the Cullen's, but Edward led her to believe that he wasn't a part of that side of the family.

Bella gave Edward an ultimatum of leaving that side of things alone because she wasn't going to live that unstable lifestyle or have any of their children involved with it. She didn't want to have to worry about him being arrested, shot, killed or the police showing up at her door for any reason.

Edward didn't respond other than to tell her how much he loved her and to ask her to give him time to consider all that she had said. He never said that he would give it up or not.

That night after they had gone to bed getting into a very steamy love making session, the phone rang. At first, they tried to ignore the call, but the ringing became insistent, so Edward answered it. Immediately he got up, got dressed and gave Bella a hungry kiss before leaving without a word of an explanation.

As she heard the door close, Bella got up out of bed and packed a bag. She felt that Edward had given her his answer, so she left leaving a note saying only "You gave me your answer."

Bella checked into a hotel until she was able to find herself a small apartment to get settled into. She refused calls from Edward and any of his family. And she slowly got settled into her apartment while still starting work on another book. She even took the time to find a divorce lawyer to start filing for a divorce from Edward.

When Edward had been served with the divorce papers, he immediately got a hold of his attorney with the instructions that his lawyer was to fight the divorce and to put a stop to it straight away. The whole Cullen family had tried to get a hold of Bella to try to get her to put a stop to this, but with no results. Bella had had her number changed and kept to herself.

The separation and the actions she felt she had to take were taking its tow on her. She was having a hard time sleeping because she missed the love of her life. Bella was nothing if not honest with herself; she knew that she would always love Edward and no one else. Never would she be attracted to another man because that wouldn't measure up to the love she was having to leave behind.

The one person that was closest friend to Bella was Irina Sinclair. Irina had been a close friend of Bella's since senior year of high school and then later became involved in acting as a personal assistant for Bella when Bella began writing and had her first book published.

Irina had refused to listen to anyone that was trying to use her as a go between to get to Bella. She refused to give out any information as to how Edward or his family could reach Bella. She had known right from the first moment that Edward and Bella had started dating who the Cullen's were and what they did, but she also knew that Bella was stubborn and would make her own decisions where Edward was concerned. That was why Irina stayed silent about the Cullen's to let Bella come to her own discovery and decision of what she chose to do.

Of course, Charlie Swan, Bella's father wasn't quite as silent. However, Bella had convinced him that Edward was only a legitimate businessman and nothing more. So, Charlie being a father that wanted his daughter to be happy chose to overlook many things. Bella was an intelligent person, and he knew in time she would learn the whole truth and make the necessary choice that would be right for her.

Charlie knew that he would support his daughter no matter what and be there when she needed him. He was also familiar with the knowledge of what the phrase, "love of a lifetime" meant. He still was deeply in love with Bella's mom, Renee. Dealing with the hurt that came with accepting the faults of the forever love and the choices that had to be made to deal with all of the baggage that came with the decisions that became necessary.

Finally, the first court hearing for the divorce came around, but the judge, after listening to what both sides had to say, refused to dissolve the marriage at that point. He ordered both sides to see a marriage counselor to see if the marriage could be saved since the filing stated irreconcilable differences.

Now, six months later everyone was gathered for the final decision. Edward had little hopes that the decision would go in his favor. So, even though Edward had tried to get Bella to change her mind before entering the courtroom for this hearing and knew what her answer had been, he had his attorney pass a note to Bella's attorney that he asked to be given to Bella.

Edward watched as Bella read it and saw her look over at him to give him a simple nod of her head. The note had asked for her to meet with him privately after the hearing.

Both, Edward and Bella, had been taking a walk down memory lane, but had their attention jerked back to the present as the bailiff called the court to order and the judge made his appearance.

The judged looked at each of the parties seated before him before making his judgement. "I have read the reports of how the counseling went and to my disappointment it seems that this marriage can't be repaired.

"So, it's declared that this marriage is to be dissolved and I find in the favor of the plaintiff. She has requested not to receive anything from the defendant, Edward Cullen, no spousal support.

"And since there are no children resulting from this marriage there will be no award of child support."

With that declared, the judge banged his gavel and declared the case settled and dismissed all parties present.

XXXXXX

An hour later after the court hearing, Bella was meeting Edward back at the apartment they had once shared. He offered to let Bella pack and move anything that she had left behind when she had left several months before that she might still want now.

"I wasn't sure what you would or wouldn't want, so this is the best I can offer.

"Also, I wanted to tell you that I will be depositing monthly money into an account that will be established in your name. I refuse to let you do without." And, as Edward said those words, he walked over to Bella to slowly begin rubbing his hands up her arms.

She turned around to tell him to stop and to refuse his monetary offer, but the words never left her mouth. Edward bent his head and claimed her mouth in a soul reaching kiss; Bella returned it without thinking about what she was doing.

She didn't leave the apartment until several hours later after waking up next to Edward in their old marriage bed. Edward had taken his time to worship every inch of her body with love repeatedly.

Neither knew that that time would lead to some very long-lasting results.

AN: We are learning what happened between Bella and Edward that led to their divorce. Did Edward tell her the truth, or did he cheat? Or was there another explanation that hasn't been told as yet?

Hope you enjoy the story, and I will try to update every two weeks. I will also continue with updates for IDOR.