He Thought I Was Faking My Death, But I Was Really Gone Chapter 09

He Thought I Was Faking My Death, But I Was Really Gone Chapter 09

The storm online broke faster than anyone expected.

Someone leaked the recording from that walkie-talkie channel-that desperate cry for help.

My faint, weak voice pleading for rescue left everyone who heard it seething.

Right after it came Derek’s cold, merciless taunting.

And Paige’s quiet needling in the background, just as clearly audible.

The rescue team’s records surfaced too.

Derek’s false statement to the rescue crew about the headcount was made fully public.

Public opinion flipped instantly.

The same people who’d once torn me apart online turned white-hot with rage.

Paige’s self-pitying post became the very evidence that convicted her.

Countless comments flooded in, furious.

[Murderers! Every single one of them is a murderer!]

[Taking away her only chance at survival, cutting off her last hope-what else do you call that but murder?]

[Arrest this Paige Norwood woman!]

[Derek Sinclair doesn’t even deserve to call himself human!]

Paige’s employer issued a statement that same night, terminating her immediately.

Derek’s company cut ties with him overnight too, voiding his contract.

Tyler and Chase weren’t spared either-their social accounts were flooded with abuse until they deactivated

them.

Derek dragged himself back to the city, exhausted.

He didn’t dare go home. He ended up hiding outside my old apartment building.

He wanted to go up and see the place where I used to live.

Then he remembered-he’d already thrown out everything of mine the day before.

Derek bolted like a man possessed toward the dumpster at the end of the hallway.

The trash had already been collected.

He got in his car and drove straight to the county landfill on the outskirts of town.

He dug through the reeking piles of garbage with his bare hands.

Hours later, his hands were sliced open and bleeding from broken glass.

And he finally found the black trash bag.

Derek clutched it to his chest and sank down onto the filthy ground.

He opened it carefully.

Inside were photos of the two of us together, the scarf I’d only half-finished knitting for him, and my diary.

His hands shook as he opened it.

The most recent entry read:

“Once this desert trek is over, I’m going to say yes when he proposes.”

Reading those words, Derek completely broke down.

“Nora, please come back.”

“I’ll never take anyone else’s side again. I’ll trade my life for yours-please?”

He slammed his head against the metal case beside him.

Blood ran down from his forehead, dripping onto the pages of the journal.

Tyler and Chase weren’t doing any better.

Furious strangers threw red paint across their front doors-they didn’t dare leave their houses.

Tyler’s girlfriend, unable to bear the pressure, broke up with him on the spot.

Paige became the target of everyone’s contempt.

Walking down the street, an older woman who recognized her hurled a rotten egg at her head.

Paige fled in a panic into a side alley, collapsed onto the ground, and sobbed uncontrollably.

She pulled out her phone and called Derek.

“Derek, please, save me. I really can’t take this anymore.”

Derek’s voice came through the line, venomous and cold.

“Can’t take it? Then go die!”

“Why don’t you just die? Why was it Nora instead of you?”

“You’ll never have a good day again for the rest of your life! I’ll make sure of it!”

Paige threw her phone away in terror.

She curled into a corner, her mind finally shattering, muttering nonsense.

“It wasn’t me who killed her. Don’t come after me…”