He Said Caring For Girl Best Friend Was Duty, So I left Chapter 07

He Said Caring For Girl Best Friend Was Duty, So I left Chapter 07

either of them spoke for a few seconds.

But Derek didn’t blow up the way he normally would.

He just looked at me. His voice shook.

“Wren… I want to apologize.”

Even Owen looked surprised.

In all the years I’d known him, Derek had never been one to back down. Apologizing just wasn’t in his nature.

But all I felt was tired.

“Are you finished?”

Derek frowned. As if he hadn’t expected me to be this calm.

Before he could answer, hurried footsteps sounded from behind.

Bellamy burst in, still catching her breath. “Derek!”

She had obviously followed him here.

The second she saw me, her eyes turned red.

“Wren, I’m sorry. This is all my fault.”

“If I hadn’t leaned on Derek so much, you two never would’ve fallen apart like this.”

Tears started falling before she even finished speaking.

Anyone who didn’t know the situation would’ve thought she was the one who’d been wronged.

Owen let out a cold laugh.

I couldn’t even be bothered to look at her. I turned to go back.

Bellamy suddenly raised her voice.

“Wren, please. For Colt’s sake, come back.”

“If someone has to leave, I’ll go!”

What a performance.

In a few sentences, she’d painted herself as the wounded party and made me out to be the bully.

Before I could respond, Derek cut her off.

His voice was colder than I’d ever heard it.

“From now on, you’re moving out.”

“Your cards are cut off. And your position at the company is gone.”

“Don’t come looking for me again.”

The blood drained from Bellamy’s face. She stared at him in disbelief.

“You’re cutting me out of your life?”

Derek closed his eyes.

“Should’ve done it a long time ago.”

Bellamy left in tears.

Silence settled back over the hall.

Yet I felt nothing.

Because as far as I was concerned, things between Derek and me had been over for a long time.

In the days that followed, Derek acted like he’d completely lost it.

He waited outside my office every day.

The untouchable CEO everyone admired had become the joke of the entire social circle.

But I never once went to see him.

Then one day, Owen handed me his phone.

His expression was complicated.

“Wren. You should probably watch this.”

The video showed Derek completely drunk.

He sat alone in front of Mr. Collins’s grave.

By the time security found him at three in the morning, he’d already passed out from a high fever.

I watched the video.

Then calmly handed the phone back.

“It has nothing to do with me.”

That afternoon, Bellamy called.

She was crying so hard she could barely breathe.

“Wren, please save him.”

“He won’t listen to anyone.”

“If this keeps up, something’s going to happen to him.”

“Please. I’ll do anything. Just please talk to him.”

I was about to hang up.

Then her words echoed in my head.

“Something’s going to happen to him.”

And suddenly, I remembered what Mr. Collins had said before he died.

He hoped all of us would be okay.

So the next day, I sent Derek my first message since leaving.

Just one line: [Three o’clock. Grace Hill Home.]

Derek arrived almost an hour early.

He’d lost weight. He hadn’t shaved in days.

The man standing before me barely resembled the Derek I once knew.

We stood in the courtyard.

Across the yard stood the new library. I looked at it quietly.

Then I spoke, “Do you remember this building?”

Derek nodded. “I do.”

It was the first building he’d donated to Grace Hill Home, right after he graduated from college.

Back then, everyone in Fairview talked about it.

I smiled faintly. “Do you remember what it was called at first?”

Derek froze. Then he shut his eyes.

He remembered all right. How could he forget?

In the beginning, it was called the Wren Building.

Back then, everyone knew Derek loved Wren.

Mr. Collins used to tease us. He’d always say we’d end up married.

But later, the name changed. It became the Bellamy Building.

The reason was simple. Bellamy’s brother had saved Derek’s life—or so the story went.

So they renamed the building after him.

I looked up at the sign above the entrance.

My voice was soft.

“‘The truth is, I was never angry about the name.'”

“What hurt was that you changed it without even telling me.”

“Derek. Do you know what that meant?”

He tried to say something. But I answered for him.

“It meant that from that day on, she was your person. Not me anymore.”

A breeze swept through the courtyard, rustling the leaves overhead.

Neither of us spoke again.

The only sound left was Derek’s quiet sobbing.

I turned and walked away.

Derek stayed right where he was.

Through the afternoon. Through the night. Straight through till dawn.

The next morning, when the staff unlocked the gates, they found him still sitting there.

The old photograph was clutched tightly in his hands.

His eyes were swollen and red.

For the first time, he didn’t look like the man who was always looking out for everyone.

He looked like a lost little boy.

After that day, Derek did something no one expected.

He bought the entire property of Grace Hill Home and set up a permanent endowment.

It would cover every child’s future living expenses and education.

The day he signed the papers, one of the board members asked him why he was doing it.

Derek was quiet for a long moment.

Then he just said, “Because when I was here, I was still someone I could be proud of.”

His gaze lingered on the courtyard outside.

“And it’s where I buried the only love I’ll never get back.”