Chapter 12 - Why Derek stayed
Derek knew.
Of course he knew.
Margaret had placed him near me four years earlier.
His job:
Monitor me.
Learn whether Laura ever contacted me.
Watch for hidden evidence.
Report anything unusual.
Then something changed.
I became pregnant.
Margaret claimed she had never ordered that.
Derek’s relationship with me crossed from assignment into something she could no longer fully control.
“Did he ever love me?”
Why did I ask?
Maybe because humans still search for meaning inside wreckage.
Margaret’s answer was cruelly precise.
“I think he believed he did.”
That hurt worse than no.
Then Derek emerged from the far corridor.
Pipe gone.
A pistol holstered at his side, though he didn’t draw it.
Non-graphic.
Still terrifying.
“Mom.”
Margaret turned.
“You ruined this.”
He laughed.
“You told me to stay close.”
“Not build a life with her.”
“You don’t get to decide that.”
I stared at him.
“You abused me because your mother told you to?”
“No.”
At least he owned that.
“She told me to watch you.”
“Everything else was you?”
His eyes hardened.
“Yes.”
There was the truth.
No convenient mastermind to erase Derek’s choices.
Margaret may have created the assignment.
Derek chose the cruelty.
Then he looked at Nicole.
“Where’s the drive?”
“I told you. Gone.”
He raised his voice.
“WHERE?”
Margaret ordered:
“Enough.”
Derek turned on her.
“You think you can walk in now and clean this up?”
Her security men shifted.
Derek noticed.
“So that’s it?”
“What?”
“You’re replacing me.”
“You became unstable.”
He laughed.
“You trained me.”
There it was.
Another inheritance of cruelty.
Margaret’s face cracked for the first time.
Derek stepped closer to me.
“I can still fix this.”
I almost pitied him.
“What does fixing this look like?”
“You come with me.”
“No.”
“The baby is mine.”
“No.”
His face changed.
Possession.
Not love.
Again.
He reached toward me.
I stepped back.
Margaret shouted:
“Derek, stop!”
He ignored her.
Then Nicole did something none of us expected.
She threw Derek’s phone across the floor toward Margaret.
The screen displayed the live recording icon.
Everything.
The conversation.
The confession.
Margaret stared.
Nicole smiled.
“You all talk too much when you think terrified women aren’t listening.”
Then sirens appeared in the distance.
Real ones.
Police.
Someone had finally called.
But Margaret looked almost relieved.
That frightened me.
Because she whispered:
“Good.”
May you like
Then turned toward me.
“Now watch who they arrest first.”
