03
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Derek changed into comfortable clothes and headed to the kitchen to cook.
After all these years of marriage, I had no idea he even knew how to cook.
Not once had he made soup for me when I was sick.
All his special attention was reserved for Vanessa.
During dinner, Derek suddenly asked, “Vanessa, did you carve the statue in my office?”
I perked up, floating nearby with excitement.
Was he starting to doubt her?
Vanessa paused for a moment, her fork falling from her fingers as she lightly touched her right hand, a look of disappointment crossing her face.
“I wish I could have made it myself, but my hand…”
Derek gently took her hand, concern etched on his face.
all Eva’s fault! I can’t believe her jealousy ran so deep that she’d ruin your hand and stop
you from sculpting!
“If I’d just divorced her back then, I wouldn’t have lost everything. I wouldn’t have had to rely on you to save me! Vanessa, every time I think about it, I wish I could find Eva and make her pay!”
I screamed in frustration, but they were oblivious to my anguish.
When Vanessa first returned to the country, Derek often went to see her.
Once, I confronted her in the sculpture studio, begging her to keep her distance.
Instead, she stabbed her hand with a sculpting tool.
When Derek rushed in, her palm was dripping with blood, and I stood right next to her.
“Eva! How could you hurt her?” he shouted, rushing toward me.
He slapped me hard, knocking out a tooth.
Before I could defend myself, Vanessa weakly said, “Derek, don’t blame her. She didn’t mean
to hurt my hand…
Ah! It hurts so much… Derek, I’ll never be able to sculpt again!”
Derek shot me a furious glare, kicked me hard, and then carried Vanessa to the hospital.
I felt two ribs crack under his kick.
At that time, we were both in the same hospital. Derek doted on her, while I didn’t see him
once.
Vanessa spread her version of events around, and our mutual friends gradually turned away
from me.
Derek blamed me for ruining a talented sculptor’s future.
With this excuse, he lavished her with even more attention, saying he was atoning for what
happened.
Thinking back on all of it filled me with rage. The so–called genius sculptor was a sham!
She had once been approached for a national project but had purposely injured herself to frame me, fearing her secret would be exposed.
vanessa cooedd tenderly stroking Derek’s bock
pon hearing that, he pulled her closer and murmured, “Honey, no matter what you’ve done, taways believe in you!
Even it that body had something to do with Vanessa, he would go to great lengths to protect
She was his greatest supporter during his worst moments when his marriage crumbled and
his career hit rock bottom.
As I listened to Derek’s heartfelt declarations, tears streamed down my face.
if he had trusted me even a little, I wouldn’t have been dead for three years without him noticing
it felt like my heart was being ripped apart.
At a class reunion, Derek brought Vanessa along.
