His Promise Failed When I Found Out Who He Was Sleeping With Chapter 07

His Promise Failed When I Found Out Who He Was Sleeping With Chapter 07

Derek couldn’t sleep anymore.

Every night, he sat alone in the living room, staring at the lamp.

He tried turning it off. But when the dark swallowed everything, the images got sharper.

Me curled in the corner. The cuts on my arms. My face after he slapped me.

He opened his phone. Scrolled through photos.

Pictures of Amanda. Pictures of Leo. Family photos of the three of them.

But in his whole phone, he only found three photos of me.

One he’d taken secretly. Me in the kitchen making spaghetti, hair a mess, mid-yawn.

One from when we first got together. Me smiling, eyes curved. His arm around my shoulders.

And one from when my depression was at its worst.

Amanda had taken it and sent it to him.

I looked skeletal. Sunken eyes. Cracked lips.

Back then, he just smiled. Thought I was being dramatic.

Thought I couldn’t survive without him.

Now he saw it differently. He saw the woman he’d destroyed.

He did that to me.

His breathing got shallow. His chest hurt.

Amanda left.

She packed up quietly. Took Leo and went.

Before she left, she put her keys on the shoe rack and said, “We both wronged her.”

Derek didn’t stop her.

He knew now. His heart was never really hers.

A moment of weakness. A mistake he let drag on for years.

He went to a lawyer. Wanted to leave me some money.

The lawyer hesitated. Then said, “You’re married. She’s not your family. Not your wife.”

“Legally, this isn’t clean. Your wife is your next of kin.”

Wife.

Derek sat in silence.

He remembered what I’d said before I left.

“After today, we’re not friends. And Derek and I? We’re done.”

He realized I’d been with him for eight years. And I didn’t even have a title.

Now he wanted to make things right. And he couldn’t even do that.

He went to the hospital. Found my old doctor.

The doctor remembered me. Sighed as he pulled my file.

“Vivian Hart, right?”

“She was in bad shape. Tried to off herself all the time. Almost didn’t make it a few times.”

The doctor looked up.

“Are you family?”

“I’m her… ex-boyfriend.”

The doctor paused. Then said, “There was a woman who stayed with her the whole time. I thought she was the family.”

“Where was her husband?”

Derek didn’t know how to answer.

How could he tell the doctor that woman was his wife?

How could he explain that while I was in the hospital, he was home with Amanda and their kid?

“She said something once. I remember it clearly.”

The doctor flipped through the chart.

“She said, ‘If I ever get better, I’m leaving. Somewhere no one knows me.'”

“I thought she was just talking. But now… I think she meant it.”

Derek walked out of the hospital. It was dark.

He stood at the door, watching people pass by.

He felt like a joke.

He had Amanda. He had Leo. He had a perfect family.

But he lost me.

The one who stayed when he had nothing. The leaky apartment. The single piece of bread.

The one who didn’t leave when everyone else would have.

He thought about the day of my accident.

My phone auto-sent him my location. Told him I was in danger.

He saw it.

But Amanda had a stomachache. She looked pale. He was with her.

He put his phone on silent. Told himself he’d call back later.

Then he forgot.

When I finally reached him a month later, my voice was wrecked.

“Why didn’t you come see me?”

He hesitated. Then lied.

“I was busy.”

I was quiet for a long time. Then said, “Okay.”

He finally understood. That “okay” was full of despair.