Sealed With A Vow

Chapter 11- A Familiar Face

Derek's POV

I stood frozen in my spot, watching as Claire angrily threw her suitcase into the car trunk before getting in the driver's seat. After igniting the engine, she quickly backed out of the driveway then turned at the corner of the street, disappearing from my sight.

But the worst part was, the whole time, I had seen tears streaming down her beautiful face. And it tore me apart knowing that I was the one responsible.

What the fuck had I done?

After all of these months, I finally figured out the reason behind Claire's distant behavior towards me ever since she moved in. This marriage of ours had shattered her dreams that she'd worked so hard to achieve.

What made me angry with myself was the fact that I had never even attempted to get to know who my wife truly was. Instead, I'd been so engrossed with my work and completely oblivious to the way I had treated her at home.

In all honesty, I did care about Claire. I just tended to not show it because most of the time, I acted like a total douche.

Just yesterday, she and I had gotten into a huge argument over her chocolate cake because my executive staff, including me, had thought it'd tasted horrible. But that wasn't the point.

The point was, Claire had been terribly sick and instead of taking care of her like a normal husband would, I'd ordered her to bake me a cake for work, not to mention that I had told her it tasted like shit the previous night.

I'd become outraged when she had called me an asshole during our fight, but now, I realized that she'd been right all along. I should've just bought a cake that night instead of putting my poor wife through all that trouble to bake me one.

As I headed upstairs to my room, the image of Claire storming away in the rain last Friday suddenly popped into my head. To this day, I still hated myself for just letting her go like that.

What if something terrible had happened to her? For god's sake, some crazy guy could've kidnapped her, or she could've been hit by a drunk driver. I'd never be able to live with myself if a situation like that had occurred.

I had planned on yelling at Claire for being such an idiot once she got home, but the moment I saw her at the top of the stairs, any trace of anger I had previously felt instantly vanished.

The sight of my wife soaked to the bone in water had just been too pitiful, and the last thing she'd needed was to have someone giving her a hard time. So, I had remained quiet. I was just relieved that she'd made it back home in one piece.

To be honest, I'd had no idea why she'd just left my car like that in the first place. I thought she'd been angry that I hadn't defended her in front of my parents.

It was then that I suddenly realized the reason for Claire's behavior that night. I had said that she was "just another money-loving woman".

That had to be it.

I also recalled her saying something about how she didn't want me to have to sit next to a 'money-loving bitch' when I'd scolded her for getting out of the car the following afternoon.

And just now when Claire was yelling at me, she had mentioned that she wasn't the 'money-loving woman' that I thought she was.

I couldn't even imagine how hurt she must've been when I'd said those words to her because clearly, my wife was anything but a money-lover. No wonder she had left the car and gotten herself sick.

I wished she had talked to me about everything sooner so that I would actually know how much she'd been enduring ever since we got married.

The truth was, Claire wasn't just any average woman. No, she was much more than that. She was strong-minded and independent.