And he wondered whether the fire keeping him from giving up now was what she felt too the minute she found out where he was, the minute she stepped foot on Seattle determined to win him back. He will win her back.

“Yeah… I’d like to believe our Ella would be real. In another life.”

Their photos were still up, as if Addison hadn’t just packed her things. The photos left were mostly the two of them, and he felt as if he was literally punched by a decade-worth of relationship now fading in front of him.

All she could think about was how this spot, right here, inside Derek’s arms, was the only safe place she’s ever been in her entire life... and she wants to stay here forever.

She laughed darkly at the metaphor of it all—the almost thousand cuts, the blood-like stain on her clothes, the punchline to where this is all headed.

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.

This was something he never thought he missed—Addison needing him, and him being there for her.