Chapter 140 Watch Me
Rebecca folded her arms tightly.
“Then why are you here?” she asked again, this time, her voice was softer, not because she wasn’t angry but because something in her chest already felt tired.
Derek didn’t answer immediately. He just looked at her like he was trying to see something in her face.
After a while, he sighed and said, “I came to see you.”
Rebecca scoffed. “You came to see me?” she repeated. After all this time, was it now that he knew to come see her?
“Yes.”
“At this time?” she asked. “After everything?”
Derek’s jaw tightened. “I didn’t plan it,” he said. “I just… ended up here.”
Rebecca let out a small breath. “That doesn’t even make sense.”
“It doesn’t have to. I miss you and want to see you,” he replied, making Rebecca look at him incredulously.
“You’re unbelievable,” she said with a shake of her head.
“And you moved on fast,” he shot back, and that hit her harder than she expected.
Rebecca’s expression changed immediately. “I didn’t move on,” she said.
Derek gave a short laugh. “So what was that?” he asked, pointing toward where the car had been. “A business meeting?” he added.
Rebecca’s eyes flashed, anger creeping in. “Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Don’t act like you have the right to question me,” she said.
“I do,” Derek replied.
“No, you don’t,” Rebecca said, trying not to say everything on her mind.
“Yes, I do.”
“You lost that right,” she said, her voice shaking now.
That made him pause just for a second to think. But then he shook his head.
“No,” he said. “Not like this.”
Rebecca frowned in confusion. “What does that mean?”
“It means you don’t get to pretend like I don’t matter,” he said.
Her chest tightened. “You made that decision yourself,” she replied.
Derek stepped closer. “I made mistakes,” he said.
Rebecca laughed. A small, broken laugh.
“Mistakes?” she repeated. “Is that what you’re calling it now?”
“What do you want me to call it?” he asked.
“The truth,” she said.
“And what is that?”
Rebecca looked at him. “You chose someone else,” she said quietly. “Isn’t that the truth?”
The words hung in the air, like a heavy blanket covering them.
Derek didn’t respond and that silence said everything.
Rebecca swallowed. “You... you are the one who chose someone else and now you’re here,” she continued, her voice softer but sharper at the same time. “Looking at me like I’m the one who did something wrong.”
Derek ran a hand through his hair in frustration. “That’s not what I’m doing.”
She shook her head. “It is,” she said.
“It’s not.”
“Then what is it?” she asked hotly.
Derek looked at her, his eyes looking different now like he was less angry.
“I don’t like seeing you with him,” he said.
Rebecca looked at him and she could see the honesty in his eyes. They matched The honesty she'd heard in his voice when he said the words that honesty hit her but it didn’t soften her.
Instead, it made something twist inside her. “You don’t get to say that,” she replied.
“Why not?”
“Because you didn’t think about me when you were with her,” she said, making Derek go quiet.
Rebecca took a step back, like she needed space to breathe since his presence was suffocating her.
“You don’t get to come here and act like you care now,” she added.
“I do care,” Derek said.
Rebecca shook her head. “No,” she said. “You don’t.”
“I do.”
“You don’t,” she repeated.
“Rebecca—”
“I waited for you,” she said suddenly, cutting him off.
Her voice broke a little when she said it. No matter how hard she'd tried to hold herself together, she couldn't.
Derek stopped talking, his heart breaking when he heard the pain in her voice.
“I waited,” she repeated. “Even when I knew I shouldn’t have.”
Her eyes filled, but she didn’t let the tears fall. She couldn't cry. Not here and not in front of him.
“I told myself you would come back,” she said. “That you would fix things.”
Derek swallowed. “I was going to—”
“But you didn’t. It's been over three weeks now,” she cut in and Derek went silent.
“You didn’t,” she said again.
Derek looked away, his guilt taking over.
Rebecca nodded slowly. “Exactly.”
She didn't need to say more as that one word carried everything there was to say. Her pain, her disappointment and the truth that he didn't care as he thought he did.
Derek stepped forward again. “Rebecca, listen—” he started, wanting to speak to desperately explain that she didn't understand but Rebecca cut him off.
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “You don’t get to explain now.”
“I need to,” he said, but she shook her head. “I don’t want to hear it.”
“You have to,” he insisted.
“I don’t!” she snapped.
Her voice echoed slightly in the quiet night. Both of them went still, breathing a little harder now.
Derek lowered his voice. “Tell me you didn’t feel anything tonight,” he said.
Rebecca frowned in confusion. “What?”
“With him,” Derek added. “Tell me it meant nothing.”
Rebecca stared at him. “That’s not your business.”
“It is to me.”
“It shouldn’t be,” she said with a scoff.
“It is,” he repeated.
Rebecca shook her head. “You don’t get to do this.”
“Do what?”
“Make me feel guilty for living my life,” she said.
“I’m not—”
“You are,” she cut in.
Derek stepped closer again, inching even closer than necessary.
“Then tell me,” he said quietly. “Look at me and tell me you’re over me.”
Rebecca’s heart skipped. Just for a second but Derek saw it and that was enough to tell him all he needed to know.
“You can’t,” he said matter of factly.
Rebecca’s jaw tightened. “Watch me,” she said, holding his gaze. In an instant, without thinking much about it, she said, “I’m done, Derek.”
The words came out steady and clear like she'd rehearsed it before. But something inside her still shook.
Derek searched her face like he didn’t want to believe her.
“You don’t mean that,” he said, hoping and praying she didn't and had just said it to spite him.