He Said Caring For Girl Best Friend Was Duty, So I left Chapter 01

He Said Caring For Girl Best Friend Was Duty, So I left Chapter 01

The night before we were supposed to get our marriage license, Derek Hale didn’t come home until two in the morning.

Because Bellamy Vance was in trouble again.

I heard she went up the mountain alone to watch a meteor shower.

The park shut down because of the weather, and she got stranded halfway up.

When Derek got the call, he only said one thing.

“Bellamy, Colt trusted me to look after you, not to scrape your body off a cliff in the middle of the night.”

He reamed her out. But he still went.

That was how it had always been.

When he came back, Bellamy was right behind him.

She kicked off her heels and collapsed onto the couch.

“Derek, you’re seriously terrible at taking care of me.”

Derek let out a cold laugh. “If you’re unhappy, dig Colt up and complain to him.”

Bellamy fell quiet for a moment.

Then she suddenly said, “I dreamed about him last night.”

“He said you’ve never really been there for me.”

Resting her chin on her hand, she turned and smiled at me.

“Colt also said that since he saved both your lives back then, it only makes sense for Wren to give Derek to me.”

The living room instantly fell silent.

I looked at Derek without thinking.

He didn’t say a word.

He stayed quiet for so long that the cigarette burned all the way to his fingers before he remembered to put it out.

***

Bellamy froze too. She probably hadn’t expected a casual joke to leave him silent for that long.

After a while, Derek finally crushed out the cigarette.

“You’re taking a dream seriously now?”

Bellamy pouted. “If Colt knew I’d turned out like this, he’d definitely regret saving you.”

Derek smirked. “Then his judgment wasn’t very good.”

With that, he stood and yanked her off the couch.

Bellamy stuck her tongue out at him.

As she passed me, she suddenly bent down.

Her voice was so low only I could hear it.

“Wren, the living never beat the dead.”

Then Derek took her upstairs while she laughed.

Not long after, something crashed upstairs.

Then came shouting. And Bellamy’s hysterical sobbing.

I stayed where I was.

I’d seen this scene play out too many times—the kind that always left me on the outside looking in.

Senior year of high school, I qualified for nationals.

On the day of the award ceremony, Bellamy skipped class and disappeared into an internet café.

Derek left me stranded at the venue and spent the whole night looking for her.

When I graduated from college, I was chosen to give the commencement speech as an honors graduate.

Bellamy got into a fight and ended up at the police station.

Derek skipped graduation photos and went straight to bail her out.

Later, on the night he planned to propose, the ring had already been bought.

Bellamy drank herself into a stomach hemorrhage at a bar. Derek carried her into the hospital.

That ring sat in a drawer for a full year.

Every single time, it was the same—she caused the mess, he cleaned it up.

And I was always the one pushed aside.

Because she had a dead brother. A brother who supposedly died for us.

The argument upstairs lasted half an hour.

Eventually, Derek came back down.

He had changed clothes. A fresh scratch ran along the side of his neck.

I looked at him.

Then I suddenly asked, “You know she loves you, don’t you?”

His steps stopped.

“I know.” His answer was calm. As if it wasn’t a big deal at all.

“So how much longer is this going to go on?”

A frown slowly formed between his brows.

“Wren, do you really have to start this right now?”

“Colt’s dead! She lost her only family! We’re all she has left!”

“If you knew even a little gratitude, you wouldn’t be jealous of her.”

That line again. I’d been hearing it for eight years.

Eight years ago, Derek told me that Colt died in that accident to save us.

That we owed Bellamy for the rest of our lives.

From that day forward, I gave up almost everything for her.

But this afternoon, I found one of Derek’s old journals.

That’s when I learned Colt had never saved anyone.

Derek just felt sorry for Bellamy.

The whole life-debt story was a lie he’d been feeding me year after year.

When I didn’t respond, Derek assumed I’d given in. His tone softened.

“Alright. After we get the license tomorrow, I’ll take you back to orphanage. You’ve been wanting to see Mr. Collins again, right?”

He reached out and lightly tapped my nose.

His voice was firm and gentle.

“You and I climbed out of that mess together.”

“We’ve been tied together for a long time.”

“No matter what happens, you’ll always be the most important person in my heart.”

I looked at him. And suddenly, I felt exhausted.

He was always like this.

He’d hurt me, sweet-talk just enough to keep me around, then find another way to make me give in.

“Derek.” I spoke softly, “Are we really getting that license tomorrow?”

He hesitated. “Depends.”

“Bellamy’s emotional state isn’t very stable right now.”

I nodded. Suddenly, I didn’t have the energy to argue anymore.

“Okay. I’ll wait for you one last time.”

“Tomorrow, eight o’clock. If you’re not at City Hall, we’re done.”

Derek froze. Then his face darkened.

“Wren, you’re seriously willing to say something that harsh over this?”

I didn’t explain.

I pulled away from him and went back to my room alone.

Late that night, I got up for a glass of water.

As I passed the study, I noticed the light was still on.

The door wasn’t fully closed.

I looked through the gap.

Derek sat behind the desk, all the documents we needed for tomorrow laid out in front of him.

My heart softened for a moment.

Then, in the very next second, he lifted a half-burned cigarette and pressed it against the family records.

Flames spread across the paper.

I watched as he closed his eyes in exhaustion.

Then he muttered under his breath, “Bellamy… I’m so damn screwed when it comes to you.”