1
Bella Cullen pulled the zipper of her overnight bag closed and ignored the heavy sigh coming from across the room. It hadn't been the first she'd heard that day, and she feared it wouldn't be the last. Turning toward the dresser, she unplugged her cell phone from its charger, slid it into her back pocket, and then bent to unplug the black power cord.
"You can take my extra one," Edward, her husband of almost ten years, offered.
"No, thanks." Her reply was short and harsher than she intended, but listening to him huff for the last hour had been annoying. She wrapped the cord around her hand before slipping it into the side pocket of her bag. Finally, she looked up at the man who had been her partner for most of her adult life.
Edward was a devastatingly handsome man with thick brown hair, warm hazelnut-brown eyes, and just enough stubble along his jawline to make him look rogue and manly. Bella had been in love with him since she was a wee girl, barely old enough to know what love was. It was hard to understand why she found herself in a fit of girlish giggles every time he came near her or when he chased her, and she didn't give him much of a challenge. They managed to make their relationship work through four years of high school and six years of college while they pursued Master's Degrees in different fields. Hers was marketing while he was a lover of words. He had a Master's in English Literature, which basically meant he was qualified to judge a person by the books they read and get away with it.
They were married at the age of twenty-six and settled into a serene life. Bella thought they had been happy for the last nine years, six months, and three weeks. Not that she had counted, of course.
They worked, came home, and had dinner. Spent weekends at museums, art galleries, and used bookstores. They had waited two years after they were married to start trying for a family — a family that never came. Month after month, cycle after cycle, Bella found herself in a pit of despair over not being able to give her husband a child. After three years of negative pregnancy tests, she told him she was done. She couldn't keep dwelling over the child they'd never had. Edward had suggested everything from fertility testing and treatments to adoption, but Bella's heart wasn't in it anymore. So, instead, she focused on her career.
Bella was the head of marketing for the most prominent advertising firm on the western side of the United States. Her job had become more intense and demanding, and with that came the fights.
Edward argued that she wasn't interested in him any longer; she didn't love him; she chose work over him, over their future. None of it was true, she claimed, but that hadn't stopped him from seeking comfort in the arms of another woman.
A younger woman.
A beautiful woman.
"So," Bella started, unsure what to say to him. "I guess it's about time for me to leave."
"Or you could stay," Edward suggested, raising an eyebrow. "You could put our marriage first for a change."
Bella pressed her lips together. The last thing she wanted was to fight. So, instead, she shook her head and picked up her bag, slinging it onto her shoulder. "We've talked about this already, Edward."
"And I'm not ready to say goodbye!"
"Then you shouldn't have slept with her," Bella snarled, trying to reign in her temper.
Angela Weber — his teaching assistant. Bella had only met the perky brunette at a few faculty mixers Edward had pressured her to attend. She never felt comfortable at events at the university. Perhaps it was because the professors all walked around with an aura of superiority, or maybe because she found them dreadfully boring. Angela was a graduate student who worked as a TA to help pay her tuition.
Pay her tuition, Bella thought ruefully. Break up her marriage was more like it.
She took a deep breath. "My lawyer said the papers should be ready in a few days. You can move my stuff into the storage building. I'll stay with Esme until I find a new place."
"You don't need a new place," he pleaded, pushing off the chair he was perched on and walking toward her. But she cringed away from him and hurried toward the door.
"Bella!"
"I'm sorry, but I can't do this anymore," she shouted back.
And leaving him standing in the middle of what used to be their bedroom, Bella fled with one bag of clothes, the small amount of money she'd been able to transfer into her new bank account, and what was left with her dignity.
Thank for you reading. This is something I wrote for 1234, who graciously bid and won on my gift during an auction to help drotuno. And now, I am sharing it with you. There are nine short chapters.