Chapter Text
Hearing her phone ring as she sat on the front porch at her dad's house, Avery put down the magazine she was reading and reached beside her, picking up the cell phone and seeing the number from the local hospital in Owen's Corner.
It was a number she only knew because she'd had to call it once or twice during the times she'd been pregnant and so to say she was surprised would be an understatement. She didn't understand why the hospital was calling her.
"Hello?" she questioned after hitting to accept the call.
"Is this Avery Hanson?" an unknown woman's voice asked from the other end of the line.
"This is her," Avery said with a nod.
"I'm Megan from Owen's Corner Hospital and I was just calling because you are Zac Hanson's emergency contact. He was just brought in with a burst appendix and is in surgery right now," the woman continued and Avery just sat there numbly as she listened to what the woman said.
She listened to her give instructions on if she planned to come and of course Avery was going to go to the hospital. Zac had been there for her when she'd had her appendix out so why wouldn't she be there for him?
They may have been separated but she wasn't heartless. Not to mention the boys...Zac would want to see the boys and they needed to see him. They needed to know that daddy was hurt but that he'd be okay.
Once the phone call was over, Avery went to her contacts, sending Taylor a text and letting him know everything Megan had told her. She knew from Mattie that in the days after she left that Zac and Taylor had some sort of falling out but she suspected or hoped that Taylor would at least go to the hospital. He was closer than Avery was right now and she didn't want Zac alone even if he was in surgery and wouldn't even know anyone was there.
Avery didn't want him to be alone and so hopefully Taylor would go. Reaching up for the ring that she wore around her neck Avery closed her eyes as she took several deep breaths, telling herself that Zac would be okay. It was a procedure that she herself had gone through and she'd been okay.
Then again Zac had been there for her and played doctor once she was home from the hospital. Zac had been there for her and while Avery would be at the hospital everything would be different this time. Avery wouldn't be there to take care of him. She wouldn't be there to nurse him back to health.
Not because she didn't want to, but because she couldn't. She wasn't ready to be around him again, not when the thought of being alone with him hurt and made her angry at the same time.
-----
Letting out a small sigh as she sat at a table in the hospital cafeteria, Avery looked down at her coffee as she tried not to worry about Zac who was still in surgery or so she assumed anyway.
Taylor had promised he'd text her once Zac was out of surgery because he knew there was no way she could wait upstairs in the waiting room. It wasn't that she didn't want to, but well, she didn't want Diana or Walker to see her and maybe tell Zac that she was here.
She didn't want Zac to know she'd stayed longer than dropping the boys off because if he knew maybe it'd give him false hope that she was coming back and it had only been three weeks since she left. Three very long weeks but not enough time that she was ready to take him back.
Not that she was sure she'd ever be ready to take him back because he had broken their vows. He'd broken the trust she had put in him long before she'd even married him.
Zac had fucking broken their entire relationship and she wasn't sure there could be any coming back from that and she really didn't want him to have hope if there was no hope.
Looking up from her coffee cup as she heard someone sat down at the table where she was seated she raised her eyebrow seeing Felicity sit down in front of her and right now she swore she was having deja vu. This was the reverse of when she'd sat at Felicity's table at the coffeeshop the day she'd left Zac.
"Why are you here?" Felicity asked her with what sounded like annoyance and Avery found the question hilarious because she was the one who should be asking Felicity that.
Why was Felicity here? She had no business being here because she wasn't Zac's wife...she wasn't family and Avery didn't want her fucking here at the hospital.
"I could ask you the same thing," Avery said as she let out a sigh and looked at the blonde in front of her. A blonde who she had been comparing herself to for months.
A blonde that her husband had found attractive enough to fuck. A blonde he'd ruined his entire goddamn family for when he chose to go to her house that night three weeks ago instead of just staying home like Avery had asked him.
Because if he had stayed home then they'd still be together. It was Zac choosing to go to Felicity for sex when they were actively having sex like they had before all their issues seemingly got worse after Jude's birth that was the final straw for her.
He'd had her for sex and they'd also been so happy. Things had felt like old times and yet Zac had just went to Felicity even when Avery had asked him to fucking stay. He chose Felicity over her and that made her so goddamn angry as well as still hurting mainly because it was so fresh.
"I'm here because Zac fainted at work," Felicity sighed with a frown. "I..I left as soon as they had him in the ambulance and I've been here ever since and why wouldn't I be?" she asked as if Avery should know better than to ask why she was there. "He's the man I love and we...you're gone now so you know what that means," she shrugged with a small smirk. "He is finally mine."
"So you two are together?" Avery asked not sure why she was surprised by that.
Why wouldn't they be together? Avery had left Zac which freed him up to go right to the fucking whore and she should have known he would. After all, like she had thought earlier Zac had chosen Felicity over her so of course he'd be with her now.
It just stung to realize that she'd been so wrong about the man she'd spent eleven years of her life with, eight of them as his wife. It stung to know that he hadn't even tried to fight for them and he'd just gone right into Felicity's waiting arms as if Avery and the life they had together meant nothing.
"Did you honestly think we wouldn't be?" Felicity asked with a smirk as her blue eyes lit up. "I thought Zac was in love with you but I was wrong, Avery," she said finally using Avery's real name now and Avery had to admit she hated the way it sounded in the other woman's mouth.
She hated Felicity saying her name.
"I..I thought..." Avery started but stopped because what did she think? It was clear she'd never truly known the man she married apparently.
That or Zac had changed from the man she married. Three years with a whore had changed him.
"Never mind," Avery said as she stood from the table finally. "What I thought was stupid," she muttered out but before she could leave Felicity stood too and looked her right in the eye.
"No, what's stupid is you being here. Zac doesn't want or even need you here," Felicity said with what sounded like a brutal honesty to Avery. "You were nothing more than a mistake he let himself make and stay with for years," she shrugged. "Now he has me and that's all he needs. He doesn't even need your kids Avery..kids that let's be honest are they even truly his?" she asked like she really thought Avery had cheated on Zac. "I mean you weren't giving him what he needed when he came to me so who's to say you weren't getting it from someone else?"
After she said that Avery watched as Felicity just looked at her, her smirk growing and before Avery could even stop herself she reached out and slapped Felicity hard across the cheek, not caring that they were in public and that people had seen them.
"The truth hurts doesn't it?" Felicity asked and at that Avery reached down for her coffee cup and she swore she would have thrown the coffee at her had Taylor not shown up then, coming to stand at her side and putting a hand on her arm.
"Ave?" he asked cautiously as he looked at her before letting his gaze fall on Felicity. "Is everything okay?"
"It is now," Avery said as she plastered on a fake smile and looked at the man who for the time being was still her brother-in-law. "Is Zac okay?" she asked knowing he had promised to keep her updated on things.
"Yeah, they just brought him out of surgery if you want to see him," Taylor told her before turning to Felicity and giving her a glare. "And you need to go. No one and I mean exactly no one wants you here," he told her, staring her down for what felt like forever but Avery knew it was only a matter of seconds but it was enough to get Felicity to walk away.
It was enough that she left and it was only then that Avery felt like she could breathe again and she hated that the woman could wind her up so tight. She hated that the woman mad her blood boil but she did.
Just like Avery hated Zac too for making any of that possible to begin with. If he'd just kept his dick to himself and to her then everything would be okay.
-----
Once she and Taylor had made it back to the floor that Zac was on after his surgery, Avery stepped out of the elevator and looked at Taylor, seeing the look he gave her. It was one that let her know he knew she wouldn't be staying now that Zac was out of surgery.
"Are you sure you don't want to see him?" Taylor asked her with a raised eyebrow. "When I went back to see him you were the first person he asked for."
"And what did you tell him?" Avery wondered what Taylor had said when Zac asked for her.
"I told him you brought the boys and left," Taylor said with a shrug. "I wasn't sure..." he started but Avery shook her head and spoke up.
"No, that's fine because I don't plan on staying," Avery said with a sad smile. "I'm just going to go and head back to my dad's. Zac's fine and if anything changes you can get ahold of me."
Taylor nodded his head and Avery was thankful he didn't judge her for her decision to leave.
"You can bring the boys to my dad's later," she continued in Taylor's silence. "I just..I need to go and please don't tell Zac I stayed longer than what I did. I don't think he'd care anyway," she said remembering her conversation with Felicity.
Apparently she'd just been a mistake Zac had made in his life so why would he care that she stayed. After saying that she turned away from Taylor so that she could leave and the moment she was turned away she reached for her necklace as tears built in her eyes and she didn't even try to stop herself from crying.
It seemed whatever anger she had felt had now just given way to intense sadness.
-----
Avery chewed on her lip as she sat in Zac's computer chair in his home office, she wasn't even sure why she'd come in here. She rarely had come in here often before she left him, the only time she'd spent any long amount of time in here had been the night she left Zac and wrote her letter in here.
But now she'd come to the house while Zac was recuperating from his appendix surgery and she'd cleaned up. She'd wanted him to at least come home to a clean house and so she'd came to a house she hadn't been to since the night she left and she'd cleaned up and now here sat in Zac's home office, having rummaged through the drawers to clean them out too and maybe now she kind of wished she hadn't because in her hands she held three different results of STD testing Zac had done.
Three different results from the last three years and well luckily for him all three had come back clean. Her husband hadn't had any STD's. Zac had always been clean it seemed but Avery wasn't sure she was so lucky with the papers she held in her hand because it seemed her brain had come to the most likely conclusion of what this meant. Her husband had fucked his whore with no condoms. He'd been with Felicity unprotected and Avery wasn't sure how to handle that knowledge.
Zac had been having sex with another woman unprotected while also having sex with her unprotected too. He'd had sex with her without condoms knowing he had also had sex with some fucking whore without condoms too.
Had he not even thought about her health by taking that risk? Yes, obviously he'd thought of his own but had he not thought of her before he even put his dick in another woman without a condom. Did he just not care that he could have brought something home to her?
Also what if Felicity had gotten pregnant? It was obvious from when Avery had talked to Felicity that she wasn't against having children with Zac so Avery doubted she was using birth control and fuck what if she had gotten pregnant?
Would Zac have wanted that? Did he want that? Did her husband really want a baby with another woman? Maybe he did..maybe then it'd be easier for him to leave her if his whore gave him a baby. Maybe then he wouldn't feel guilt if he left her because he'd have a good enough reason besides whatever was going through his head.
"Fuck him," she muttered to herself as she came out of her thoughts and folded the papers up, slipping them into the pocket of her jeans. She knew she should trash them but well she wasn't going too.
No, Avery was going to save them and she was going to keep them until there was a time when she felt like broaching this topic with Zac and she would broach it some day. Just not any time soon.
-----
Once she had finished cleaning the house, Avery chewed on her lip as she sat on the edge of the bed that she once used to share with Zac. A bed that the last time she had been in it was the night before she'd left her husband. It was a night she couldn't forget because it had seemed so normal.
Everything had felt like it was going to be okay. They'd been back in that groove of things being good after her birthday. The groove where they hadn't been arguing and their sex life had been back to normal. They'd been having sex pretty damn consistently.
Hell, they'd had sex the night before she had left him. Avery had allowed Zac to be inside of her not even twenty-fours before he decided he just had to go thank Felicity by winding up inside of her too.
Her husband had chosen to go sleep with someone else when he very much had her and she couldn't help going back to what Felicity had told her in the cafeteria about how she had been a mistake in Zac's life. A mistake that he'd stayed with for way too long and as she eyed the picture of them from their wedding day that was still on the nightstand by the bed she couldn't help but wonder if those were words Zac had told Felicity at some point.
Had he told his whore that she was a mistake he'd made? Did Zac truly think him being with her was just a mistake and if so why couldn't he have just told her that?
If he had ever thought that she would have let him leave willingly. She wouldn't have fought him.
Avery had never wanted their marriage to end like her parents had because of cheating and yet it seemed like it was going too. She was going to lose Zac because he just had to fucking screw another woman. He cheated on her and now at least from what Felicity said in the cafeteria it seemed like he'd chosen to be with Felicity.
Zac had done just like her mother had and he was choosing the person he'd had an affair with over the family he'd built. It seemed pretty clear now to Avery that she was going to have to go meet with that lawyer she'd seen in the days leading up to Christmas. She'd see that lawyer and she'd file for divorce so that Zac could be free to be with his whore.
She'd file for divorce so that she would no longer be a mistake that he just kept staying with.
Avery would set Zac free even if it broke her heart to do so because it wasn't what she wanted at all. What she wanted was her family together and happy but if Zac truly saw her as a mistake how could they be happy?
If Zac was with his whore how could they be happy?
Feeling tears come to her eyes she harshly wiped them away before looking away from the wedding picture and reaching for the ring around her neck. A ring that she was half tempted to pull off and leave behind as well but she didn't.
Instead she kept it on because maybe it could remind her at one point in their relationship things had been good. There had been a time when Zac hadn't considered her a mistake or even considered the possibility of being with another woman.
"I just want to know when I became a mistake to you Zachary," Avery whispered out to the empty room as she swallowed around a lump in her throat. "When did you feel like what we had was a mistake?" she asked, wishing the silence of the room had an answer for her.
There were so many things that she wanted and needed answers for it seemed but there was no way she was going to see Zac to get them. She knew seeing him would hurt too much right now. So she'd keep her questions for a time when it felt safe to see Zac again.
Just like she'd do the same with the STD tests results that were still folded and in the pocket of her jeans. She'd keep everything that needed to be said or talked about for a time when she didn't have Felicity's words of her being a mistake running through her mind.