Gone Girl 3

Chapter 6

After a few hours of rest, someone softly knocks on the door.

Today I'm going to be released and I will have to go home with my mom.

"Yeah," I barely find the force within me to talk.

Derek peeks through the door. "Can I enter?"

"Sure," I respond, still a bit tired.

"I know you are feeling horrible," he says, reading my mind. At least he didn't ask me how I am like everyone else. I'm tired of that question.

"Perceptive," I joke.

He smiles.

It's still weird since this is our first talk in three months, especially now that he knows the truth. I hid it from him for years, I didn't accept his love because of this and he finally knows why. How will this affect us? Will this change anything?

"I'm not here to pester you with questions but you need to file a report for what happened. We saw the house. There was blood everywhere..." he admits.

Ugh.

"Please... Derek. Let's not talk about what happened, for now," I say and he nods defeated.

"It hurts me that I could never help you and left you alone... I don't even know how to live with the guilt," he admits as he looks down, seemingly nowhere.

"Then be here for me now. I'm still the same person you knew," I say.

"Veronica, you weren't doing good before either. You need help. You've been ruining yourself since it happened. Tell me who is it, we will report him together and you will get the help you deserve."

I shake my head. "No, Derek. You don't want to report him." I know him too damn well. "You want to kill him."

He chuckles at how well I know him. "You're right about that. I would torture him every day."

I just want to ask the question I'm dying to ask because I won't sleep at night. He said he wants to avenge me, but does he want revenge because he sees me as tainted and broken, something to fix?

"Tell me the truth. Do you think less of me now?" I ask.

He furrows his eyebrows, annoyed that I could even dare to ask him that.

"You want to know what I really think?" he asks after a few seconds and I nod.

"I think you've been through hell and back and I can't believe you still find the force to keep going, to pretend you are okay and this never happened to you, even when you believe that you deserved it. I've never met someone stronger than you, fuck, even I am not that strong. I crumbled when I lost you. You didn't see the way I was in prison. You are just as amazing as you were when I met you."

My mouth drops to the floor. "Oh."

My therapist asked me a few days ago if someone ever complimented me on something other than looks. I guess this is it...

He chuckles. "Left you speechless."

"Are you going to leave me again?" I ask. His speech is useless if he leaves me.