"Derek, he was just here. It was one time. You have to believe me," she insisted, following her husband down the stairs with her desperate plea.

"You fuck my best friend and that's the best excuse you can think of?" he angrily yelled back, tossing an armful of her clothes out of the front door.

"Keep your voice down, the kids are asleep," she responded softly, the words coming out of her mouth from a force of habit after years of saying the same words to him.

"Get out and I'll stop yelling," he bargained, grabbing her arm to shove her out the door.

"Derek, stop, what are you doing?" she asked, startled by his tight grip of her wrist and the sudden yanking. "Derek, you're hurting me," she told her, trying to pull her arm out of his grip with no success.

That's when the front door opened and with a simple nudge, she found herself standing barefoot and nearly naked, save for the t-shirt, out in the rain.

"Derek!" she yelled through the door, banging on the glass for him to let her back in. The rain soaked through her t-shirt and drenched her hair as she sobbed without being able to control herself. She stopped knocking, hoping to avoid waking the kids and sank down on the top step of the stoop near the pile of clothes he tossed out. A few minutes went by before the door opened and she turned to see Derek walk out with a duffle back.

"I'm leaving," he told her, stepping over her to get down the stairs.

"Where are you going?"

"I don't know."

"What about the kids?" she asked.

He shook his head, "I don't know. Were you thinking about any of that when you fucked Mark?"

"No, I wasn't thinking about anything. I was just... I don't know what I was doing," she admitted quietly, still sitting in the rain.

"Go inside, you're gonna get cold."

"I've been cold since I got out here, I'm numb now."

He let out an annoyed breath and tried again, "Go inside, you don't want to wake the kids."

"What do you care, Derek? You're leaving anyway." she replied, not moving from her spot on the staircase in front of their home. She watched as he threw the duffle bag into his jeep (the car he desperately wanted and she hated) and then he drove off without even looking back. It took her a little while to pick herself up, to pick up her clothes and get cleaned up. But come the next morning, everything was in its place and she was showered and put together before her kids were awake.

"Did you hear the people screaming last night?" her son asked when he came downstairs in his school uniform. "I think the neighbors were having a fight. I had my earplugs in so I couldn't hear details. Did you? It was weird, at first it sounded like they were doing it and then it was fighting."

Addison froze, she took a gulp of coffee from the mug in her hand to buy herself time. Should she lie? Should she be honest?

"Can you sign this for me?" he son asked, changing the topic and sparing her the trouble of explaining.

She glanced down at the form he slid in front of her. It was the suspension notice that the man had mentioned to her during the brief call yesterday. "Christopher, you're one suspension away from being expelled."

"I know," he shrugged. "It's stupid. This school is stupid."

"They're one of the best private schools in the country," she told her son as she signed the slip and pushed it back toward him. "Christopher, you are not this kid. I don't know what has gotten into you lately but I need it to stop. I have enough on my plate, I can't deal with you being expelled. Please don't get into anymore trouble. Please."

"I'll try," he mumbled. "You're not mad?"

"I'm disappointed in you but I'm not mad. Honey, is there something going on that you want to maybe tell me about? There has to be a reason for this. This is unlike you."

"I just don't want to be in school."

Addison gave him a skeptical look. "You're a straight A student. You have been since first grade. You love school. At least you did up until last month. I just don't understand what changed. Is it new friends? Are you trying to seem cool to be accepted in a group?"

"No, Mom, it's nothing. I just don't like school anymore. People can change, you know?"

Addison sighed and nodded. She could not understand how he could go from being her mini-me to someone who hates school but she wasn't going to question it any further. She knew there had to be more to the story and she hoped he would tell her when he was ready. "We'll do the this the same way we did it last time, okay? You can come to work with me and stay in my office to do your classwork. I will check in on you when I can. I don't want you to be home alone."

"Mommy," her daughter called for her attention from the staircase, "Are you gonna come help me get ready for school?"

Addison placed her mug down and sighed tiredly. Having gotten no sleep the night before, she could barely keep up with the routine her children expected from her. "I'll be right there, sweetpea."

She parked her car at her son's school and walked into the office with him. She placed her hand on his upper back as they walked in and noticed him flitch and pull away. She found it odd, but lowered her hand, assuming that it was because he wanted to appear strong and independent.

"You go get your books, I'll leave this with the Vice Principal."

He nodded, and left to go get his stuff. As soon as he left, a suited man called his mother into his office. She seated herself in front of his desk.

"Mrs. Shepherd, I wasn't expecting you."

"It's doctor, actually," she corrected, like she did every single time she met with this man. "I know we had a call scheduled, but I had to bring him all the way to drop off this form, so might as well talk in person, right?"

"Will your husband be joining us?"

She was a little thrown off by the question but did not let it show. She gave a slight shake of her head as she crossed her legs, "No, he wasn't available. It's just me."

"Well, I'd love to be able to discuss with both of you, but we'll take what we can get because I know your schedules get busy. Christopher's behavior is spiraling out of control. It's become a daily habit for him to try to escape school during recess. We can't go on like this much longer."

Addison nodded. "I agree."

"As you know, per school policy, he will be expelled if this continues."

"I understand that, Mr. Fields. What I don't understand is how you're unable to prevent him from climbing the fence to begin with. You do realize he can get hurt, right? Scaling a wall or a wire fence is not exactly safe. Wouldn't it be in your best interest to not leave him unattended?"

"He's not unattended. Ms. Jenkins stays with him. She is his math teacher. She is very attentive with him, but sometimes he gets away and starts trying to break out before she gets to him."

"Maybe it should be someone who would be better prepared to help him," she suggested.

"We're a school, Dr. Shepherd, not a bodyguard agency. Mrs. Jenkins is a great candidate for the job, she is great with all of our students."

Addison sighed. "Mr. Fields, there is clearly a bigger problem here and the fact that you're not allowing yourself to see that is a problem in and of itself. My son is wrong for trying to break out of here, I'm the first to admit that, but this is highly unlike him. He's been a straight A student since he started school, he is on two sports teams, and he volunteers at the hospital after school. Well he did. These couple of months have been different. The fact that you don't see that is shocking and the fact that you don't care is even more concerning. Punishing him is one thing, but not trying to understand the problem is the real issue here."

The fact that she managed to get through the rest of her day without a breakdown was a miracle. Addison turned the corner to her office to check on her son when she saw Mark standing outside.

"What are you doing here?" She hissed between gritted teeth.

"You ignored all my texts last night, all my calls today, what gives? You can't really be ignoring me."

"Leave me alone, Mark."

"Derek's ignoring me too. I haven't seen him at all. Where is he?"

"He left."

"He left you?"

"Yes."

"What about the kids?"

"He left them too," she replied quietly.

"That son of a bitch," Mark muttered. "I can't believe he'd just walk out that easily."

"He caught his wife and best friend in bed together," Addison reminded him. "Look, Mark, I can't do this. My son is on the other side of that door going through something I don't quite understand, my husband left me, I don't blame you but I can't, I can't have you in my life right now. I need to focus on my kids."

"I'm not here to try to get you to run away with me. I just wanted to make sure you're okay. Last night was a mistake, I was hoping we could move on and put it behind us."

"We can't. My husband left me. I need to figure out how to move on from that and I can't do that with you reminding me of my mistake."

"Okay," Mark nodded, doing his best to understand and respect his friend's wishes. He turned to leave and Addison opened the door to her office and stepped in to see her son seated on the couch near the door. She was just about to speak when he beat her to it.

"Dad left you? You slept with Mark and dad left. That's the commotion from last night. It wasn't the neighbors, it was you."

"Yes." Addison admitted, realizing he heard her entire conversation and that denying it would be pointless.

"You slept with Mark? Like had actual sex with him?"

"Yes."

"How could you do that?!" He yelled.

"Keep your voice down. I work here," Addison warned him, making sure the door was closed behind her. "I wasn't thinking. I had a little too much to drink and Mark was just there and it was stupid. It didn't mean anything. I told your dad but he didn't understand."

"Did you expect him to pretend that makes it okay?"

"Well, no, but I want him to know that I love him and it doesn't mean anything."

"You spread your legs for Mark Sloans and that means something. It means you're a slut."

She'd never been more tempted to slap her son, but she fought back the urge and took a breath to calm herself. She reminded herself that he's clearly troubled and it was a hard bit of news to get. "Christopher, I understand that you're upset, but I am your mother and you cannot say things like that to me," she told him patiently.

He shoved his stuff into his backpack and pushed passed her to get to the door. "I hate you, I want Dad!" he declared loudly with a small sniffle before slamming the door shut behind himself.

"Mommy, when is Daddy coming home?" the five year old asked Addison over dinner that night.

"He's not," Chris replied firmly, not looking at his mother as he poked at the sushi roll on the plate in front of him.

Avery looked at him with confusion in her eyes, "Whdya mean?" she asked.

"He left us, he's not coming back," her brother elaborated.

"What?" Avery looked at her mother for confirmation. "Where did he go? How come he's not coming back? Is he mad at us?"

"He's mad at mom."

"But he left us too," the five year old argued. She turned to her mom. "Why is he mad? Did you say sorry? I can say sorry too."

"Honey, he didn't leave you. He loves you more than anything in the world," Addison assured her kindergartener to comfort her. "And he will be back, I just don't know when. I did say sorry and when he's ready to forgive me, he'll be back, okay?"

"What did you do? Is it bad?" the little girl continued to asked curiously.

"Yes," Chris mumbled from across the table.

Addison glared at him, "That's enough, Christopher. Go to your room, please. I can't deal with you right now."

"You're the one that spreads your legs for random men and I'm the one getting in trouble for it?" he asked.

"Go to your room," she repeated firmly.

After Christopher had left the room, Addison exhaled a deep breath and looked across the table at her daughter. The little girl looked up from the small fork she had halfway to her mouth and she curiously asked her mother, "What does 'spread your legs' mean?"

A/N

First, thank you all for the great response to the first chapter! Second, I know many of you hoped Addison wouldn't cheat in this story but I hope you stick through and continue reading anyway. A lot of this story is about learning to overcome as a family and I felt her affair with Mark plays into that. Third, I got a guess or two as to what is going on with Christopher but no one has gotten it right so far. His behavior does continue to get worse, and I will warn of trigger warning as they start to apply.

Lastly, thank you for reading and please review! Any guess on what is going on with Chris?