Divorced, Dead, and Still His Obsession
Chapter 11: The Other Woman
A woman’s intuition—Derek’s look told me that girl was special to him.
That night, he didn’t stay home or explain anything. He took a call and drove off.
His taillights disappeared down the block. I sat on the edge of the bed for hours, waiting for a text that never came.
Later, I learned from his mother that the girl’s name was Lillian West, Derek’s first love from his youth.
She showed me a photo—Lillian at a charity gala, tall and blonde, all confidence and class. I felt like a kid in a thrift store dress just looking at her.
Lillian was beautiful and talented, a rich heiress, the kind of girl who looks like she was born knowing how to order wine and never trips in heels. She was the light in Derek’s dark adolescence.
His mother told me how Lillian encouraged him to apply to Yale, how she cheered for him at debate tournaments. She was his muse, his “what if.”
But he missed his chance with her when he was young and unsuccessful. After Lillian went abroad, Derek studied business under his father and became the business prodigy he is today.
She left, he leveled up. Classic movie plot, except I was never the main character.
Lillian had dated several boyfriends, but Derek remained single.
The tabloids called him "the ice prince." He never smiled for the cameras, never brought a date to a gala. Until me.
People in their circle said that even if Derek got married, if Lillian called, he’d drop everything to go to her.
Unfortunately, I was the expendable bride in their love story, the proof of the hero’s undying devotion.
They made me the villain in a story I never even auditioned for.
