FicWad

Yes, yes. Pete really did that. If you haven't yet loved someone so much that you would risk your own life for them then make sure you wait for that love. I know I'd do it for my husband. (Hi, baby!) Yes, he reads this and he encourages my creativity!! Anyway, on with the chapter!!!

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"Are you really watching Dr. Phil?" Pete asked gently as he walked into the living room. Cadence was curled up on his couch with a blanket. After the days events he couldn't blame her for just not wanting to move. He knew deep down that it wasn't going to be a fairy tale. It's not like her husband would die and she'd immediately fall into his arms and they'd live happily ever after. It would take time and healing but he was more than willing to wait around for her to get to where she needed to be.

"Heroin addicts." She said absently. She didn't move her head from the pillow. "Their families want to save them, but they don't realize that unless the addict wants to get better, they won't. You'll never be enough to save them." Her voice started to crack.

Pete sighed as he sat down next to her. His hand reaching under the blanket and finding hers. "You know that what he chose in his life was not your fault." He thought she had seen enough of this to know the couldn't be held responsible for someone else's actions. "You never blamed yourself for any of the stupid things I did."

"Not to your face, I didn't." She looked at him. "But don't think for a second I didn't blame myself every day for that little Ativan incident." She said and felt his grip tighten on her hand.

"Cad-"

"I don't want to talk about it." She shook her head. "Regardless, I heard every day how it was my fault that he had gotten addicted to pain pills and how when that wasn't enough it was my fault that he went to heroin." She pulled her hand away from him. "It was because I got pregnant that he felt like he had to take on those extra jobs and my fault he fell off that roof and my fault-" She would of kept going but Pete stopped her.

"And none of that is your fault, Cadence. None of it." He shook his head. "Do you want Arii hearing you talking like this?"

"Do you know where this leaves me Pete?" She turned sharply to look at him. She was feeling so many emotions. "I have ZERO dollars to my name. He fucking shot all my money into his god damn arm." She was seething now. "He stole everything, every piece of jewelery, every thing that had any value at all. Now, I have a house I have to sell that I won't get nearly enough for and no where to go."

"What do you mean no where to go? Why do you have to go anywhere?" He was confused.

"Do you expect me to sleep here forever?" She questioned.

"I didn't expect any of this to happen." He lied. He prayed to god she couldn't tell that he was lying to her. "I just thought it made sense. Arii is safe. You have somewhere to be while you sell the house and plan the funeral."

"Funeral. Ha." She laughed. "I hope they put the selfish bastard in a box and send him to potters field."

"For Ariana's sake, we will have him buried and try to remember him as the man he was not the man he became. At some point you loved him enough to marry him and have a child with him." Pete reminded her. David was gone. He was no longer a threat to her, to him, or to their love.

"My mother made horrible decisions and so did I." She shook her head.

"Your mother loved a man who she saw the good in."

"And it got her killed."

Pete stopped. For the longest time Cadence had said it was a sickness that killed her mother. "What?"

"My father murdered my mother and it was her own damn fault." All these emotions in her body was keeping her from even making any sense at all.

"Cadence..." Pete shook his head. "Everyone does what they think is best. I regret a lot of things in my life too." He looked at her.

"Like what?" She questioned.

"Like thinking that Ashlee could ever give me half the things I wanted when the only person ever capable of that was and is you." He stood up and grabbed her hands. "I love my son but he is the only good thing that came out of that marriage. Just like Ariana is the only good thing that ever came out of yours."

"I didn't leave David. He left me. That stupid selfish bastard left me!" She screamed at him. "I love him and he's gone."

Those words almost burned at him as she yelled them. He knew that he just couldn't make her love him again. It had been so many years since they had seen each other, but with the flirting, he thought..and she had said so many things. "And what about me, Cad?"

"What about you?"

"Don't you love me?"

"Does everything have to be about you? I just lost my husband!"

"Yeah, the guy who beat you, abused you, stole from you and didn't care if you or your daughter starved!"

"So? He wasn't perfect. Don't act like you are either!"

"You're still mad at me about the suicide attempt, I get it! But I have never, ever hurt you!"

"You don't think that hurt me?!"

"I didn't do it to hurt you!"

"Oh yeah and what about when you started fucking Lacey?" She shot at him. She had never said those words out loud before and he probably thought she had no idea about the affair he was having behind her back. But, she did. She knew all about it. But, she tried not to care. Tried to love him through it. Her whole life she had spent loving men despite all of their actions and despite all of the things they had done to her behind her back and to her face.

Pete's face dropped as he looked at her. "Lacey." He repeated. He couldn't believe she had just shouted that at him. "You really think that I slept with Lacey?"

"Gee, I'm pretty sure that's why I said it." She had her arms crossed over her chest. "And I don't think it. I know it."

Pete almost had to laugh. This was ridiculous. "And, where do you know this from?" He had never, ever, ever even dreamt of sleeping with anyone other than Cadence, even after they had broken up. "Who told you that Cadence, because it's bull shit." Now he was starting to get angry. He had risked his freedom for her and now this was all back firing in his face.

"Lacey was my friend, Pete. You don't think she'd call me and tell me? Guilt got the best of her. Just not of you." She whispered as she collapsed back down on the couch.

"Lacey was a fucking liar." He knelt in front of her. "This is why you broke up with me isn't it?"

"I told you last night..." She whispered.

"You told me last night that you had an abortion when you went to England. We both would of known we couldn't handle a baby back then. But, that wasn't it was it?" He questioned.

"It wasn't yours." She wiped her face to keep up with the flow of tears. "Lacey called me one night and all I could hear was you and the guys in the background and then she told me that you two were sleeping together..." She took a deep breath. "So, I slept with someone else and got what I deserved. But, I couldn't live with the guilt, Pete. Maybe you could have, but I couldn't have!" She looked him.

Pete looked down, he kind of had a feeling all along that something wasn't right with the whole story. "There was no guilt. I never did anything with Lacey." He held onto Cadence's hands. He was letting her know that he was still there for her. "That's all the past. Can't we move forward now?" He asked. "Because I still love you. I never stopped."

Looking into his eyes Cadence knew he wasn't lying. He was a horrible liar and when she looked at him she could tell. "Oh god. I'm sorry..." She immediately felt sick. She got up, pushed past him and ran into the bathroom immediately throwing up whatever she had managed to keep down that day.

Pete sighed as he rubbed her back. This was so much. Was there ever going to be a happily ever after for either of them?

"Mama?" They could hear Arii's voice carry down the hall from the baby monitor. She had been down for her nap.

"I got her." Pete said as he kissed Cadence's head and ran down the hall to get the baby. This poor kid was going to need some kind of father now and he wanted that to be him.