Chapter 6 - The Marriage Derek Had Already Started Leaving
The first useful answer came from Claire’s neighbor, Nina.
She brought soup to the patient apartment and sat awkwardly at the small kitchen table.
“I should have called your dad months ago.”
Claire looked up.
“You didn’t know.”
“I knew something was wrong.”
Nina had seen Derek carrying boxes into his car late at night.
She assumed they were donations.
She had also noticed another woman arriving while Claire was at treatment.
Claire’s stomach tightened.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Nina immediately added, “I never saw anything romantic.”
Claire appreciated the precision.
“What did she look like?”
Mid-forties.
Dark hair.
Business clothes.
Usually stayed less than an hour.
Claire knew her.
Melissa Ward.
Derek’s sister.
That should have relieved her.
It didn’t.
Melissa was a financial planner.
Claire called her.
Melissa answered after a long pause.
“I’ve been expecting this.”
“What were you doing at my house?”
Another pause.
“Helping Derek organize finances.”
“My finances?”
“Household finances.”
“Did you help him take a loan from my retirement?”
Melissa went quiet.
Claire closed her eyes.
“Melissa.”
“He told me you authorized it.”
“Did you see me authorize it?”
“No.”
“What was the money for?”
“I thought medical reserves.”
Claire pressed her hand to her forehead.
“And the transfers?”
“I don’t know all of them.”
That wording mattered.
Not I don’t know about them.
I don’t know all of them.
Claire waited.
Melissa finally admitted Derek had been preparing for the possibility of separation.
“How long?”
“Since March.”
Claire nearly dropped the phone.
Two months after her diagnosis.
“Why?”
“He said the marriage had become impossible.”
Claire laughed bitterly.
“I had cancer.”
“I know.”
“No. Apparently everyone knew except my father.”
Melissa’s voice softened.
“Claire, Derek told us you didn’t want your family involved.”
That was true.
And not true.
He had taken Claire’s fear of becoming a burden and built a wall around it.
Then he had started preparing to leave while telling everyone the isolation was her choice.
Claire looked toward Walter, who was washing dishes in the tiny apartment kitchen without asking questions.
May you like
For the first time, she understood that Derek had not simply become cruel because cancer exhausted him.
He had already begun arranging a future where Claire’s illness—and eventually Claire herself—were problems he intended to leave behind.
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