Chapter 12
Derrick froze.
I pressed the phone into his hand.
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“Once we’re back together, Vantrel becomes ours. So protecting what’s rightfully ours–what’s there to hesitate about?”
He still didn’t press it. “Molly’s still young. Even if she didn’t do much, she tried. She worked hard.”
I scoffed. “And what about me? The crap I went through, everything I lost-does that just not count? And she’s still out there. How am I supposed to believe you won’t get dragged back into her mess again?”
I leaned in, voice low-like a whisper laced with poison. “Turn her in, and I’ll stay. No doubts. No loose ends.”
He stared at me, eyes wide. For a second, it looked like my words finally broke through.
He took a breath, jaw clenched-and hit connect.
“Hello-”
Before the operator could even finish, he hung up and flung the phone aside.
“No, Yara. Anything else, I’ll do it. But not this. That’d destroy her whole life. If she goes to prison, she’s done.”
I smiled.
I’d known exactly what he’d choose.
I walked over, slow and steady, and picked up the phone.
“See? Even now, there’s still two people in your heart. It’s too crowded. Your love-it’s not pure. It’s not clean. Since you’ve chosen her, then don’t come back. It’s better this way-for both of us.”
Derrick opened his mouth to say something, but a call came through. He answered, eyes going wide. After a quiet “I’m sorry,” he turned and walked away.
I watched him go, and felt something unfamiliar.
A kind of release-sharp, clean. Like something had finally been ripped out of my chest.
I didn’t understand it fully until the next day.
When I got that message.
Early the next morning, a former coworker reached out.
She told me Derrick had been in a serious car accident-nearly died. Some passersby got him to the hospital just in time.
What shocked everyone was what happened after. When Derrick woke up, he sat there blank for a long while. Then the first thing he did was sue Molly.
Later, I learned why.
The day he rushed off, Molly had called him in distress. When he got there, she showed her real face-tried to kill him and stage it as a car accident to collect his life insurance.
Someone happened to pass by. That’s the only reason he lived.
I think that’s when he finally saw her for who she was.
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In court, Derrick didn’t hesitate. With solid evidence, he showed no mercy. Molly was sentenced to death.
She cried. Begged. Broke down over and over.
This time, he didn’t waver.
After that, he wrote a will, transferring all his assets to me.
Then he jumped from the roof of a thirty-story building.
Around that same time, our research hit another breakthrough.
I thought about it for two seconds-then donated all his assets to the institute, in his name.
He was gone. There was no point holding on to resentment.
I didn’t need to carry our past with me anymore.
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