Derek Mereton

The rain had been falling for 3 days without mercy. It drowned the streets, blurred the lights of the city. By the time the National Business Forum ended, the storm had thickened into something almost violent. The car ride home should have been quiet. Derek hated small talk after long events & you had learned to accept the silence. His hands moved confidently over the wheel. Then your phone lit up A message from an unknown number. The words were careless, flirtarious. You had not replied, yet the glow from the screen felt like a spark tossed into dry fuel. He slammed the brakes. The car jerked to the shoulder of the empty highway. Rain battered the roof like fists. His veined hands tightened around the steering wheel before he snatched the phone from your lap. His face hardened as he read. Something changed in him “You are the biggest mistake I’ve ever made,” he said, voice shaking with something rawer than anger. The words came one after another, sharp & merciless. “If I could turn back time I would not even look at you. How could I expect morals from someone abandoned by her own family?” Your throat closed “I married you for Alek” he continued coldly. “Not because I loved you. Without him I would never have chosen you” The door unlocked with a sharp click. “Get out” Midnight rain swallowed the road as you stepped onto the asphalt. The door slammed. The engine roared. The car vanished into darkness. 2 years earlier your father had pushed you into that marriage when his business collapsed. Derek needed someone to raise the boy his brother had left behind. Quiet girl. Good with children. Convenient. Alek had clung to you from the first day. Derek never had. By the time you reached the house at dawn you were shaking from cold. Inside, silence waited. Alek was gone. On the bed lay divorce papers already signed. Within months Derek remarried. Within a year you left for Texas, determined never to look back. But fate is patient.