All Of Your Flaws

Part Eleven

"Aaron? What's going on?" Addison asked as soon as she answered the phone. Aaron sighed deeply for a moment.

"Oh man, the shit really hit the fan." Aaron said sounding exhausted. "Mark was full on screaming at Dad, he was going on about how Dad's never believed in him or cared about him and how Dad's probably wished he was a clone of Eric. They were yelling at each other for hours and of course, once Eric got involved it just made matters worse." Addison could imagine that. She'd been present for enough fights to know that Eric's opinion on any matter was not one Mark ever wanted to hear.

"Fuck..." Addison muttered rubbing the bridge of her nose as she felt a tension headache begin to form.

"Yeah, it's a real shit show here. Did you stay with Brigid last night?" Aaron asked.

"Umm no...I stayed at Niamh's house. I'll ring Brigid though and probably stay with her until Monday." Addison said. "What's Dad like?" she then asked cautiously.

"What do you mean?" Aaron asked.

"What kind of mood is he in?"

"Oh...he's pretty pissed about what Mark said..." Aaron said. The way that he said made it clear that he was thinking about whether or not he should actually carry on talking. Addison braced herself. That was probably the best thing to do. "Mark kind of mentioned you..." Aaron added and Addison just knew he was wincing waiting for Addison to shout.

"Me? Why would he do that?" Addison asked, her voice tinged with anger. She couldn't raise her voice like she wanted to because then Niamh and Leo would hear her. That was the last thing she wanted. "What exactly did he say Aaron?"

"He said that if Dad were here more often then maybe he would notice more stuff about you. He pretty much called Dad out about the fact that he wasn't there six months ago when he should have been. He said that if Dad had been around more he would have seen the signs and maybe he could have stopped you." Aaron said slowly as if trying to gauge how Addison would react to this. Addison stilled and had to breathe in deeply for several seconds. Her Dad hadn't been there on that day and it hadn't gone unnoticed by any of the Harper siblings.

The one thing Addison regretted about that day was that it had been Aaron that found her. Aaron had been the one to open the door and be hit with the cloying metallic smell of Addison's blood.

"-are you in here?" the door opened as Addison's eyelids grew heavy and the searing pain in her wrists grew unbearable. "Addison? Fuck! Addison? Addison! Dad? Eric?" Hands gripped onto Addison as if life depended on the pressure of the fingers against her cool skin. "Someone call an ambulance! Addison come on, don't do this! Mark! Eric! Someone call a fucking ambulance!" Aaron yelled as he gently shook Addison's shoulder with his free hand. "Come on Addison, don't do this to me. Please don't do this. Someone call a goddamn fucking ambulance!"

"Addison...are you still there?" Aaron said pulling Addison out of her memory. She shook her head, desperate for the memories to disappear.

"Mark...Mark shouldn't have brought that up. That's my business, not his." Addison said, her temper barely staying under the surface. She could feel her chest becoming tight and her skin began to crawl. She needed to get out the Willis's house and go for a run before she ended up screaming.

"He was pissed off Addison; he just wanted to hurt Dad-"

"It wasn't his place to say that though!" Addison said.

"Addison, he was just trying to hurt dad."

"But using me as a weapon wasn't right at all! I'm not just some object that can be thrown at Dad whenever Eric or Mark feels like it! I'm a goddamn person!" Addison snapped loudly before cursing her inwardly because no doubt Niamh and Leo had heard him from the kitchen.