They Played a Game to Make Me Beg, I Played a Game to Make Me Gone Chapter 10

They Played a Game to Make Me Beg, I Played a Game to Make Me Gone Chapter 10

He didn’t say anything else.

He finally understood I wasn’t just being stubborn. I had let him go, completely, from somewhere deep inside. No matter what he did, how much he gave, how low he stooped, I was never turning back.

The next morning, the apartment across from mine was empty. Before Derek flew back home, he left a note. A few words. [I’ll wait for you.]

I tossed it in the trash without a second look.

Neither of us could’ve predicted the real nightmare waiting for him back home.

Savannah, her mental state now completely untethered, fixated all her obsession onto Derek. She’d always had a thing for him.

Now, with relatives whispering that she tanked my engagement party out of pure jealousy, she’d convinced herself of one thing: landing Derek was the only way to put her life back together.

The day he landed back home, she started camping outside his building. Showing up at dawn, not leaving until after dark. If he stayed inside, she just stood there in the courtyard, not moving. If he tried to drive off, she threw herself in front of his car.

Her stability came and went. In her lucid moments, she’d cry. “Derek was always into me. Why else would he have helped me prank Natalie?”

During her breakdowns, she’d grab his clothes and scream. “I don’t care! If you don’t marry me, I might as well just die!”

At first, my parents saw her obsessive spiral and tried to help her get what she wanted. They went to Derek over and over, applying pressure, guilt-tripping him.

“If it weren’t for that engagement party disaster, she wouldn’t be like this! A daughter’s a daughter. What difference does it make which one you marry?”

Derek’s patience went from strained to completely dead. Late one night, he packed a bag, quit his job, and disappeared. He deleted all his contacts, shut down his social media, and vanished from the city without a trace.

In that moment, it finally hit him. He realized exactly how pathetic his big romantic gesture to Milan must’ve looked from my perspective.

After Derek was gone, Savannah never had another lucid day. My parents simply couldn’t take it anymore. They had her committed to Green Valley Psychiatric Center.

Another year passed. Another Thanksgiving. My parents begged Jessica to send me a photo. The dishes on their dinner table had gone cold, been reheated, and gone cold again. They were still longing for a reunion with me. I didn’t need it anymore.

I was in Milan, alone. I tidied up my apartment and bought myself a pumpkin pie.

No one using me as their personal punchline. No one forcing me to be the bigger person. I soaked in the quiet peace of my own company, feeling lighter than I ever had.

The ones who did the hurting stayed stuck in the past. The one who struggled got away. Outside my window, the street was quiet. A bright moon hung high in the clear night sky.