I Let Her Ruin Herself Chapter 35
Derek raised his hand, about to hit her the way he used to.
This time, Taylor didn’t just stand there and take it.
She shoved open the door, ran out to the street where other tenants could see, and called 911 in front of everyone.
She did not hide Derek’s name, and she did not excuse his violence in the name of love.
When the police arrived, Derek didn’t dare touch her. He could only stand on the sidewalk and curse at her.
Taylor showed the officers the scratch marks on her arm. They documented the scene and contacted Derek’s parole officer, warning him that coming near her again would violate the terms of his release.
Shirley no longer had the energy to cause scenes at the station. Taylor refused to withdraw her statement.
Derek left.
He never became the successful man Taylor had once imagined.
Without other people’s houses and money to live off of, he couldn’t even support himself.
Taylor sat in the police station lobby and cried for a long time.
At last, she had made the choice she should have made at eighteen.
But Mark was never coming back. Her three daughters had already grown up, and the wasted years could never be recovered.
Later, Taylor found a cleaning job in an office building.
The pay wasn’t much, but it came from her own labor.
Every month, she transferred a small sum to each of her three daughters. They didn’t forgive her, but they didn’t send the money back, either.
When I heard all this, I felt neither joy nor sympathy.
Whether Taylor’s life went well or badly had nothing to do with me anymore.
She was not a childhood friend I had to protect, not a damsel in distress, and not the center of my world.