He Took the Pain With Him When He Left Chapter 01

He Took the Pain With Him When He Left Chapter 01

When I was seven months pregnant, Derek handed me a cup of milk tea. I took a big sip without thinking.

The spicy chili water instantly seared its way down my throat.

I coughed so hard I couldn’t stand straight. Warmth ran down my legs, out of control.

My light-colored maternity dress was soaked in seconds. Drops hit the mall floor.

His assistant Serena suddenly rushed over and threw herself into Derek’s arms.

“I told you pregnant women leak down there. A few coughs and she can’t hold it.”

“Derek, you lost. You’re taking me to a movie tonight.”

“Anyway, Vivian’s already peed herself. You’re not going to want to touch her tonight, right?”

Derek wrapped an arm around her waist and smiled. “A bet’s a bet.”

Serena leaned on his shoulder, grinning.

“One more bet. Guess if Vivian’s going to cry?”

Derek glanced back at me.

He didn’t even try to cover the stained hem of my dress. Didn’t stop the people filming.

He just smiled.

“I bet she will. She cares about face. She won’t last three minutes.”

They walked into the elevator together, laughing.

I stood there alone, caught in the stares of strangers—curious, mocking.

I didn’t cry. I dialed a number.

—

That night, hundreds of guards surrounded Serena’s apartment.

I pressed a knife to her face and smiled.

“Want to make a bet? Guess where my next cut goes. Your face? Or your heart?”

Serena’s eyes locked on the blade. She shrank back.

“Vivian, don’t do anything crazy!”

“There are cameras everywhere. If you touch me, Derek will destroy you!”

Even now, she used him against me.

I pressed down.

She screamed and squeezed her eyes shut.

The blade grazed her ear. A lock of hair fell.

“Relax. I’ve always been fair when it comes to settling scores. I just made a bet with someone too. We’re betting how many cups of chili water it takes before you cough and wet yourself.”

I nodded to the guards. They opened a box on the table.

Inside were dozens of cups of chili water.

“Same game you played with me this afternoon. Now it’s your turn. Drink.”

Serena pressed her lips shut.

The guard lifted a cup to her mouth.

Then Derek burst through the door.

“Stop!”

He shoved past the guards, ran to Serena, and pulled her into his arms.

“Vivian, what exactly are you trying to do?”

Serena’s tears started the second she saw him.

“Derek, I was just joking with Vivian. Then she brought all these people, held a knife to my face, and scared me.”

She pointed at the hair on the floor.

“If you’d been any later, she would have sliced my face open.”

Derek checked her over, making sure she was fine. Then he turned to me.

“This afternoon was too much. I’ll admit that. But did you have to take it this far? You’re in good health. A little choking from chili water wasn’t going to do any real harm.”

“Serena has a bad stomach. She’d end up in the hospital if she drank that.”

He knew about her stomach.

He didn’t remember I was seven months pregnant, and that my doctor had told me to avoid anything spicy.

I didn’t argue. I just asked, “You told her about the leaking?”

Derek paused.

“I mentioned it once. I didn’t think she’d use it for a bet.”

When I was three months pregnant, I leaked for the first time after a sneeze.

I locked myself in the bathroom and wouldn’t come out. Derek waited outside, coaxing me for a long time.

He carried me back to bed, changed the sheets for me. He said there was nothing to be ashamed of between husband and wife.

He promised: “Only the two of us will ever know.”

Now his assistant was using my private humiliation as a joke.

Serena hid behind him and explained softly, “Don’t overthink it, Vivian. Derek only mentioned it because he was worried you might have trouble recovering after giving birth. I even looked up pelvic floor rehabilitation for you.”

I stared at her.

“So filming me without my knowledge was part of helping me too?”

She faltered, then shrugged.

“I just sent it to a few friends. They’re the ones who spread it. That’s not my fault.”

She shoved her phone in my face.

The video had been shared tens of thousands of times.

The comments were filled with mockery of my body and the urine-soaked dress.

Someone had even turned the moment I lost control of my bladder into a GIF.

Derek barely glanced at it.

“The internet forgets. Give it a few days, and no one will remember.”

Easy for him to say.

He wasn’t the one who’d been filmed at his most vulnerable.

He wasn’t the one being mocked by tens of thousands of strangers online.

I had the guard pour another cup of chili water.

“I’ll make this simple. Drink it, delete the video, and post a public apology. Then we’re done.”

Serena didn’t take it.

She touched her belly. A moment ago she’d been crying like a victim. Now her eyes were full of triumph.

“I can’t drink that.”

“The doctor said pregnant women can’t have anything too spicy.”

I thought I’d misheard her.

“What did you say?”

Serena pulled an ultrasound report from her bag and unfolded it for me.

“I’m pregnant. And it’s Derek’s.”