D E R E K ' S   P O V

She's not coming.

I've been sitting at the diner, tucked away in the back corner booth for hours now. This is the first place we got dinner together months ago after I helped Layla buy her car. I picked this place because only she would know where it was. It's the most secluded place I know and I didn't want to have to write down an address and risk being followed.

I've been watching out the window all night, staring at the hours pass by on the clock, but there's no sign of her coming.

I'm on edge every time the bell above the door sounds, checking who walks through the door. There's an elderly couple eating dinner at one of the tables and a few truck drivers have passed through but no Layla.

Not yet. I'll sit here all night in case she shows up. That means she hasn't completely given up on us yet.

The bell over the door chimes and like I have all night, I look up and to my surprise, this time it is her. My heart fills with hope at the sight of her.

Layla's hood is up and her sweater and cheeks are covered in raindrops because it's pouring outside. She takes down her hood and scans the diner. There's no reaction when she sees me sitting here. If anything, her reaction is pure and utter disgust at the sight of me. There's no denying it, she looks fucking miserable. I hate that I'm the reason for it.

Layla doesn't say anything as she sits across from me. She eyes me cautiously and her guard is up, which is completely understandable.

"I got you a chocolate milkshake," I say, breaking the ice. They're her favourite. "It's melted now but—"

Okay, stalling was clearly not the way to go because Layla very quickly rolls her eyes and gets up from the table.

I grab her arm, stopping her. "Layla, I didn't sleep with her."

Layla pauses and I feel her arm tense beneath my fingers like she wants to pull away but can't. She still doesn't look at me, she's staring at the door like she about to bolt.

"I promise you, Layla." I say, pleading her to stay and let me explain. "I did not sleep with that girl."

That gets her attention and she finally looks back at me. "What?" she asks quietly, completely confused.

"Layla, I would never cheat on you." I say sincerely. "Drunk, sober, knife to my throat. I would never."

"Then why did you tell me you did?" She asks, trying to mask the pain in her voice.

I motion for her to sit back down and she does, albeit very skeptically and I sigh, rubbing my temples to try to alleviate the pressure that's been building there for days. "She's blackmailing me."

Still not completely convinced, Layla's face hardens. "Tell me everything."

"After I got your text that you were staying over at Penelope's, Spencer and I left the bar and went home. I went to sleep but when I woke up the next morning..."

My head is pounding. I didn't even drink that much last night but I think I am officially at the stage in my life where the hangover is not worth the few drinks.

My eyes open and I instinctively look towards Layla's side of the bed, and it's still empty. I was ready to grovel all night but she texted me that she was staying over at Penelope's after our fight to get some space. I couldn't tell her why I was so upset yesterday because that would mean telling her that—

"Good. You're awake."

My whole body freezes because who the fuck just said that. I look up to find some strange girl standing at the end of my bed. My gun is in the top drawer of my bedside table but I can't reach it from where I am. I slowly try to inch myself closer to it.

"Who the fuck are you? How did you get into my house?"

She looks offended. "I'm Emma. We met at Rossi's New Year's Eve party. I went with Anderson."

I couldn't fucking care less. "Cool. Now what the fuck are you doing in my house?"

"How well do you think you know your girlfriend?" The way she says her name is almost laced with poison. "Layla."

What does she think this is? A game of twenty questions? I'm the one with twenty questions. The first being how the fuck did she get into my house and second being why the fuck did I move my gun from my beside table to the dresser she's standing in front of.

"Cut to the fucking chase."

"You know her ex, Jake? He's dead. She killed him."

"No, she didn't." I know her and I know she wouldn't do that.

There is something so malicious about her smile when she flips her phone towards me. "This video proves otherwise."

"What was the video?" Layla gasps, already imagining the worst. "What did she do?"

I nod, confirming her fear. "She killed him."

"Oh my god," Layla breathes in complete shock. "When?"

"I'm still not sure," I sigh. "I'm still trying to get all the pieces together."

"He was texting and calling me all the time after we broke up. He wanted to get back together. Until he just stopped one day.. I thought he finally got the hint." She's on the verge of tears. "But she killed him? Why?"

"Because he still wanted you and not her. She couldn't handle it."

I watch the video and it's fucking brutal. I can't deny it, it does look like Layla. To anyone else, they would probably think it's her. But not everyone knows her like I do. That's not Layla. You can't see her face but her hair colour is a little lighter than Layla's, the dress she's wearing doesn't sit on her like it would Layla and the vengeful way she's stabbing Jake? Layla doesn't have that in her.

"You expect me to believe this is Layla?" I want to laugh in her face because this is comical. "This isn't Layla."

Emma's eyes narrow and her head tilts in a condescending way. "You sure a jury would agree with you?"

She is sick and twisted. "What did you do?"

"They're going to find her dna all over him."

If this girl is crazy enough to kill somebody, I believe she's crazy enough to have somehow found a way to get Laylas dna on his body to frame her. I don't want to find out if she's lying or not. "Why did you do this?"

"Because he could have had me but he chose her." She says the word her with disgust. "He could have had me but he went crawling back to her, begging for her to take him back. It was pathetic."

Maybe because you're a fucking psychopath I want to say but don't. It wasn't Layla's fault he still chose her either I want to say but don't because I can already tell there won't be any convincing her. Instead, my jaw hardens. "What do you want?"

"I want you to break her heart." She tries not to smile but fails. My stomach churns at the realisation that she's actually enjoying this. "You need to make her feel rejected otherwise this video goes straight to the police and she goes to prison for the rest of her life."

"Okay," Layla nods absently, trying to piece everything together in her head. "Then what happened?"

"Then you walked in."

I watch Emma climb into her car and pull out of the driveway from the upstairs window. When her car is out of sight, I sit back down on the bed and let my head fall into my hands. What the fuck just happened?

I can't let her show that video to anyone because what if Layla gets arrested for this before I can prove she didn't do it? But I can't break up with Layla. She wants me to break her heart, make her feel rejected. How spiteful can one person be. None of this is Layla's fault.. this is so—

"Tell me you didn't."

Her voice startles me.

I turn to see Layla standing in the bedroom door. Her eyes dart to the bed and the unmade sheets before back to me, half naked because I didn't get a chance to throw something on. She closes her eyes, too disgusted to look at me.

"Tell me you didn't sleep with that girl I just saw walk out of here."

She thinks I cheated on her. The fact that she even thinks I have that in me breaks my heart and when I realise that I have to let her think I did cheat on her, it breaks my heart even more because this is the only way she'll walk away from me.

I want to scream that I didn't, that I could never, but it dawns on me in this second that I have no idea how long that girl was in here or what she did. What if she bugged the house and is listening to this conversation right now? Only knowing how little I do about her, I wouldn't be surprised.

So in that spilt second, I make a choice to let her believe I did the unimaginable and hope to god one day she'll forgive me.

"I can't."

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A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'm so curious to hear your thoughts! :) sorry for making you guys sweat but cheating is absolutely disgusting and there would be no come back and you know I would never write a story without a happy ending🫶