This is a part of the All Too Well Series, but it can be read as a stand alone fic. Since do not have any series indicators, I'll just put the roman numerals in front, but the fics can be read in different order (but of course, the numberings are how I recommend/intended them to be read haha.)
No copyright infringement intended.
Enjoy reading!
Addison rushed out of the trailer to follow Derek, watching with fire in her eyes as the man looked around for a definite escape.
Everywhere in the land is an escape.
"You don't understand. You never did!" A notch higher and Addison would have been screaming at Derek, in the middle of the woods, with the light from the trailer barely illuminating their faces.
Derek turned to face her, eyes equally burning as hers.
"What don't I understand, Addison? You fucked my best friend. My best friend since I was a kid, what more do I need to think about?!" Their voices were overlapping and it was overwhelming for the other, yet no one was giving way or backing down anytime soon.
"It wasn't that simple, Derek." Her tears were close to falling, yet she was swallowing repeatedly to hold them back.
"It is , Addison. It is as simple as me catching you with Mark after work in OUR HOUSE—"
"I wished I never married you!" Addison matched Derek's loudness, her voice cutting ice through the humid Seattle air.
Derek never expected to hear those words from Addison because as far as everyone was concerned, she was the one holding on tightly to their marriage—way more than him.
She was the one putting more effort, more time, more sacrifices as the time went by and maybe, just maybe, a part of the anger radiating from him was directed towards himself, and the guilt subconsciously eating him alive.
"What?" He whispered, not wanting her to repeat those words, yet not quite believing them. The pain in Addison's eyes was immeasurable and he was sure he had the same look in his, with how Addison faltered.
"You were so indifferent, Derek, way before Mark happened, that it drove me into thinking whether it was the right decision to marry you. I keep forgetting the good times, if there ever were, or whether I was just fooling myself.
"They were constantly overpowered with memories of you not showing up, or avoiding me, or dismissing me and I honestly wish I never married you because watching you fall out of love from me was the most painful thing I ever had to see and, and—" A sob cut her off, her chest giving away from the pressure of holding tears back.
"I wish we didn't happen 'cause maybe, we would be happy now. You, free from me." Addison wiped the tears constantly, feet ready to leave, or go back inside, away from her husband.
"You don't mean that," Derek said, the sudden numbness that overcame his body surprised him, that it left him unable to say more words.
"I do, and it's been in my mind for years , the moment I realized you weren't coming home for dinner anymore, or to my birthday, or holidays. It was painful, Derek, and now, I honestly don't have any more to give."
They stared at each other, eyes wet with tears, both holding back from reaching out. Raw was something they both yearned, and now that it happened, they did not expect the sudden numbness and emptiness that followed.
He shook his head, exhausted, silently resolved to continue the conversation some other day. He walked to his jeep, mind half expecting Addison to scream at him or call him out or stop him, but it never came.
And when he came back hours later, she was gone.