He Saved Me Just To Watch Me Die Chapter 2

The car pulled into the driveway, where Willow Sterling was helping my mother, Eleanor, stand at the front door.

When she saw me get out, Eleanor let out a cold scoff and turned her head away. My heart ached, but I didn’t speak.

Though the memories in my brain were disjointed, my body remembered. I instinctively walked across the living room and pushed open the door to my old room.

My old writing desk, the baby grand piano—all gone.

In their place was a sprawl of Legos and action figures covering the floor.

Derek stepped in front of me, trying to block the view inside the room.

“Jenna, I’ll have this room cleared out for you right away.”

Before he could finish, a five-year-old boy suddenly darted out of the corner. He spread his arms wide, blocking the doorway, and glared at me fiercely.

“This is my toy room! Don’t touch anything! Get out, you bad lady!”

The boy hurled the metal toy car in his hand directly at me. The hard projectile hit my kneecap, and a sharp, piercing pain shot through me.

I gasped, my body swaying, almost stumbling backward.

“Leo!”

Willow rushed over, covering the boy’s mouth, her face a mask of panic.

I didn’t get angry. I just felt the pain in my knee travel up my nerves and settle in my heart. The air felt too thick here; I could barely breathe.

I turned and dragged my aching leg outside. Derek followed me. He forcefully put me into the car and drove me to a high-end hotel.

The moment the room lights came on, the memories I had suppressed flooded back to me instantly.

I was seven years old when my parents took me to the group home, saying they wanted to adopt an older brother for me. Among the children desperately trying to impress, only Derek huddled quietly in a corner.

My parents didn’t like him; they thought he was too solitary, too hard to bond with.

But when a few older kids pushed me to the ground, fighting over my candy, Derek had stepped in front of me. He was battered and bruised, his nose bleeding, but he wouldn't move.

That day, I cried and threw a tantrum in my parents’ arms, pointing at his bloodied face.

“I want him! I want that brother!”

And so, Derek came home with us.

For over a decade, we went to school together, we grew up together. He sheltered me, protecting me from every slight and sorrow.

Later, we got married.

But on our first wedding anniversary, I had booked a restaurant and couldn't reach him anywhere. Fearing something had happened, I tracked his phone.

It led me to a high-end hotel, just like this one. Willow, wearing a silk slip, opened the door. Derek lay passed out on the bed inside.

One was the man I had loved for over a decade, the other my confidante for just as long. In that instant, my world collapsed.