Chapter 121 Was It All Real?
Rebecca did not sleep that night. She stayed in the guest room until the first pale light of morning crept through the curtains.
The silence in the house felt unbearable now. Every wall reminded her of Derek. Every memory felt poisoned.
She sat on the edge of the bed for a long time, staring at nothing. Her mind replayed the same image again and again.
Derek asleep. Celia leaning over him. The closeness. The familiarity. The lie.
The word echoed bitterly in her mind. Even though he wasn't cheating on her, what had he been doing in Celia's home, comfortably asleep when he'd rushed off, claiming it was work?
Why had he continued lying to her even after he returned? There was nothing he had to say. Nothing to explain to her about. He'd made that decision with his eyes open so there was nothing she'd hear him say.
Quietly, she sat up and swung her legs off the bed. Her body felt heavy, like she had been carrying something all night.
She washed her face, tied her hair back loosely, and picked up her bag. The house was silent and for a brief moment she wondered if Derek had left already.
But as she opened the guest room door and stepped into the hallway, her heart skipped a beat and she stopped. Derek was there, right outside the door.
He hadn’t gone back to their bedroom. He hadn’t even made it to the couch downstairs. He was on the floor.
Curled slightly against the wall, one arm folded beneath his head like a makeshift pillow. His jacket had been tossed aside, his tie loosened, and his hair was slightly disheveled.
It looked like he had slid down the wall sometime during the night and fallen asleep right there while he'd been waiting for her.
Rebecca stood still for a long moment, staring at him. He looked exhausted.
There were faint dark circles under his eyes, and his breathing was slow and deep in the way only true exhaustion could produce.
For a brief second, her chest tightened painfully. He had stayed there all night. Outside her door.
Maybe hoping she would come out or that maybe hoping she would talk to him while she was leaving.
But the memory of the picture returned just as quickly. The lies and the secrecy. The way he had run to Celia again and again.
Rebecca swallowed. Her fingers tightened slightly around the strap of her bag.
She could wake him. She could ask him again. She could demand the truth until he finally said something that made sense.
But she knew what would happen. He would explain. He would promise to change or stop and she wasn’t strong enough yet to hear those promises.
Not when her heart still felt like it had been torn open. Slowly, carefully, she stepped around him. The floor creaked softly beneath her foot.
Derek shifted slightly in his sleep, his brows pulling together faintly like someone caught in a restless dream.
Rebecca froze and looked down at him, praying and hoping he wouldn't wake up since waking up would make it harder for her to leave.
When he didn't wake up, she exhaled quietly. For a moment, she looked down at him again.
Despite everything, there was something painfully human about the sight of him there.
Not the powerful Derek Hemsworth or the confident businessman everyone respected.
Just a tired man sleeping on the floor outside a closed door, waiting for her.
Her chest tightened again. But this time she forced herself to look away. She walked down the hallway, down the stairs, and out the front door.
As the morning air hit her face, she felt something she hadn’t expected. Relief. Relief that he had been asleep.
Relief that she hadn’t had to face him. Relief that she had escaped before another conversation could pull her back into the storm.
She got into her car and drove away quietly, leaving the house behind. She didn’t even think about where she was going. Not until the familiar gate appeared in front of her.
It was her father’s house. The place she hadn’t visited in months. The place that had once felt like the safest place in the world.
The gate creaked softly when she pushed it open. The house looked exactly the same. The only difference was that it felt quiet and still, like it had been waiting for a living soul to step inside.
Rebecca walked inside slowly, the scent of old wood and faint cologne lingering in the air. Her father had loved this house. Every corner carried his presence.
For a moment, she stood in the middle of the living room, trying to breathe normally. But the memories came rushing back too quickly.
Her father laughing and her father giving her advice, telling her that a man who truly loved her would never make her doubt her place.
Her father was gone. Her child was gone, and now, it seemed like her marriage was disappearing too even though it wasn't even real to begin with.
Her knees gave out. She sank onto the couch and finally... the tears came. The tears came so violently, Rebecca thought the people in the neighborhood would hear her.
Rebecca buried her face in her hands and sobbed like something inside her had shattered completely.
“Why?” she whispered through broken breaths. “Why does everything keep leaving me?”
Her shoulders shook as the grief poured out of her. First her father and the woman she'd grown to love as her mother.
Then the baby she had barely gotten the chance to love. The memory of the hospital room after Vanessa’s kidnapping flashed painfully in her mind.
The doctor’s quiet voice.
We’re sorry… we couldn’t save the pregnancy.
It hadn’t even been three months and she had cried for weeks after that, mourning someone she had never even met.
Derek had held her then. Promised they would heal and that she wasn’t alone. He'd tried to make her believe by showing her all that love that they would try again but here she was.
Rebecca pressed her hands against her chest now as the pain returned all over again.
“Was any of it real?” she whispered hoarsely but the empty house offered no answer.
The crying eventually slowed into quiet sniffles, but the emptiness remained. She wiped her face and stared at her phone for a long time.
There was only one person she could call. Her fingers trembled slightly as she dialed.