The Light I Buried for You Was My Biggest Mistake Chapter 01
Over Memorial Day weekend, a struggling student my husband Derek sponsored asked if she could ride home with me.
My car was small, she had a lot of luggage, and the drive was long. There just wasn’t room, so I said no politely.
That evening, Derek came home and was silent for a long time. Finally, he said, “She ended up walking along the highway shoulder. Her feet are blistered and bloody.”
I was a bit stunned. “The highways are free for the holiday. Couldn’t she have just called a ride-share?”
He smiled gently, nodded, and poured me a glass of water like he always did. I drank it, and blacked out.
When I woke up, I was standing on a blistering hot interstate.
From inside a Rolls-Royce Cullinan parked nearby, Derek held Sophie Clark close and pointed a phone at me, live-streaming with a cold, smug smile. “You said transportation was convenient, right? Let’s see you walk it yourself.”
The live chat was going crazy, with viewers betting on how far I’d make it.
I licked my cracked lips, looked into the camera, and said, “Had enough fun? Then come pick me up.”
***
The asphalt shimmered with heat.
Inside the Rolls-Royce, Derek held Sophie, laughing uproariously. He aimed his phone at me, and the live chat scrolled wildly.
“Look at Mrs. Foster, so stubborn,” Derek said, his voice dripping with amusement. “Still waiting for someone to save her.”
Sophie leaned out the window, looking worried. “Derek, maybe you should let her in. It’s so hot out there. She could die.”
“Not so fast.” Derek pinched Sophie’s cheek, then turned to me with a vicious glare. “Lauren, here are your options.”
“Apologize to Sophie like you mean it, or walk the full fifty miles. The interstate runs straight. Just follow it.”
The chat exploded.
[Serves her right! She didn’t care about making Sophie walk!]
[Typical rich wife throwing her weight around.]
[She needs to be taught a lesson. Go Derek!]
[Look at her, what a joke.]
[Fifty miles? She won’t make three.]
I stood in the sun, my clothes soaked through, my lips cracked and bleeding.
Sophie pretended to be upset, tugging at Derek’s sleeve. “Derek, forget it. I grew up poor, walking is nothing special.”
“Lauren probably had a good reason for not giving me a ride. Don’t be mad at her.”
But her sidelong glance at me was pure triumph.
For a moment, my mind went blank.
Before the holiday, Sophie asked to ride with me.
My car was packed. I literally had no space left.
I politely suggested a ride-share and even sent her money for it. I felt a little bad, honestly.
Now I was being painted as some kind of villain.
“Sophie, you’re too kind.” Derek’s voice was ice-cold, his arm tightening around her.
“You let people walk all over you. She used her position to make things hard for you. Now she has to face the consequences.”
I stared at him. The man I’d loved for six years.
I’d given up my creation, my company, Shadow Unit, to marry him. I thought he was worth it.
The first year was good. The second year, he started sponsoring underprivileged students. The third year, Sophie graduated, and he brought her on as his assistant.
I didn’t think much of it. It seemed natural.
But things slowly changed.
Once, she stepped on my dress and I stumbled and pushed her away without thinking. She fell and scraped her knee.
Derek yelled at me in front of the whole company. Then he didn’t speak to me for three days.
After that, it kept happening, more and more often.
When Sophie caught a cold and sneezed, he blamed my office air purifier for being set too high.
When Sophie worked late, he accused me of not knowing how to treat my staff and dumping all the work on her.
When Sophie’s birthday came and I didn’t get her a gift, he said I was cold and heartless.
Once, Sophie burned her hand on hot coffee in the break room. Without even asking what happened, he decided it was my fault, because I’d moved the coffee maker.
I started to believe I just wasn’t trying hard enough, so I tiptoed around her, watching every move I made.
But no matter what I did, he always found something wrong.
It wasn’t until today, standing on a highway hot enough to fry an egg, watching my own husband hold her while livestreaming my humiliation, that I finally saw the truth.
I wasn’t doing too little.
I was the one in the way.
