I Saw the Name in My Fiancé’s Heart So I Walked Away Chapter 03

I Saw the Name in My Fiancé’s Heart So I Walked Away Chapter 03

A long time ago, Riley truly saw me as her most important person.

Freshman year of high school, I’d just transferred in. Nobody wanted to sit with me.

Riley dropped into the desk beside me and announced, loud enough for the whole room, “Maya Hayes sits with me. From now on.”

Later, when someone threw my uniform into the pool, she didn’t say a word—just walked over and threw their backpack in, too. The teacher called her parents. She showed up the next day with her face bruised.

Senior year, Riley turned down some guy from the vocational school. He cornered her in the alley after class. When I got there, she was shoved against the wall, and I threw my arm up to block the glass bottle coming at her.

She lay on that hospital bed, sobbing. “Maya, you almost lost your hand, do you get that?”

I was sweating through the pain, but I still forced a joke. “So what? Guess you’re stuck taking care of me now.”

She nodded through the tears. “Fine. From now on, if anyone messes with you, I won’t let them get away with it.”

So when Derek told me she’d fallen and was in the hospital, I still got in a cab and went.

When I walked in, the room was full of people. Derek sat next to her, a crumpled payment slip still in his hand.

Over his chest, where the word Fiancée had been last night, it now read, cold and plain: [Maya Hayes]

But when he looked down at Riley, the label shifted. [Someone who can’t get hurt]

A bitter smile tugged at my mouth. This was the man who swore he’d never see me differently.

He spotted me, irritation flashing across his face before he reined it in.

“Maya, do you realize your comment sent her into a spiral? She was so distracted she tripped and fell.”

I tightened my grip on my suitcase handle and looked at Riley.

She was pale. She coughed and forced her voice out. “I’m so sorry, Maya. I honestly had no idea it bothered you that much.”

“I just figured—Derek’s your fiancé, so he’s basically family. Right?” She paused, her voice going raw.

“Today was supposed to be my promotion presentation. The screenshot already hit the department group chat. Can you please delete it? Just this once. For me.”

I looked at her, a mess of feelings tangling in my chest. The girl who once promised no one would hurt me was now hurting me alongside him.

Derek saw I wasn’t moving. His voice turned sharper.

“Maya, Riley is already apologizing. Is that not enough for you?”

“Delete the comment, say something to clear it up, and this whole thing is over.”

I met his eyes. “But everything I said was true.”

Riley froze, panic slipping through. “Maya, how can you think that about me?”

“If I’d known you felt this way, I never would’ve let him help.”

Derek’s voice cut through, cold and final. “Enough.”

He stood, snatched my phone from my hand, pulled up the comment thread, and held it out to me.

“Maya Hayes. Delete it.”

I held his gaze steady. “I’m not deleting anything.”

“And that’s my phone. Hands off, Mr. Foster.”

Someone in the room sucked in a breath.

Riley shook her head fast. “Maya, don’t say that. Derek and I are really—”

She didn’t get to finish.

Derek let out a short laugh, no warmth behind it. “You need me to prove it to you, Maya? Fine.”

Before I could blink, he leaned down and pressed his lips to Riley’s cheek.