All Chapters of You Left Me in the Dark: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

9 Chapters

Chapter 1

In the dark storage closet, the drug burned through me like fire, leaving my whole body weak.I bit down hard on the back of my hand, refusing to make a single sound.Just beyond the door, Natalie's flirtatious voice drifted in from the hallway."Derek, those sponsors in the private dining room aren't exactly gentlemen. If they take things too far and Amber can't perform tomorrow, what happens to your tour?"My eyes went wide. I stopped breathing.She hadn't just drugged me. She had offered me up as a plaything to keep the investors happy.And my boyfriend Derek knew every bit of it.After a brief silence, Derek's cold voice came from outside."Good. I've wanted her out of the spotlight for months. She can stay home like a good girl and choreograph behind the scenes."A memory from five years ago flashed through my mind.Back then, the theater didn't even have heat. Derek had practiced lifts with me through a 102-degree fever.He had wiped the sweat from my forehead, eyes red-rimmed, a

Chapter 2

The rehearsal hall fell dead silent.Every pair of eyes in the room darted between Natalie and me.I clenched my fists, nails digging deep into my palms.I looked straight at him. Each word came out clipped and clear."What gives you the right to replace me, Derek?"The theater's executive director, Mark Harris, pushed through the door.He had caught Derek's announcement, and his expression darkened as he turned to me."Amber, you vanished in the middle of dinner and left those sponsors sitting in the private dining room. Do you have a problem with how this theater operates?"Harris's words set off a wave of whispers among the dancers.Natalie seized the moment. Her eyes shone with staged tears, and she pressed one hand dramatically to her chest."Amber, I know you've had issues with me because I'm new. But you can't fake being sick and act like a diva just because you're jealous of me. You're dragging the whole theater down."I shook her hand off and spoke icily."Shut up.""If this i

Chapter 3

The old warehouse roof was full of holes, and freezing rain poured through the gaps.I shivered at the iron door. In a flash of lightning, I spotted a familiar silver bracelet wedged beside the padlock outside.Natalie had been wearing it during warm-ups that morning.She had followed me here and locked me in.The warehouse was damp and freezing. The drugs from last night had already left my body dangerously weak.Soaked by the rain, I quickly spiked a fever. My legs buckled, and I slid down the iron door to the ground.My head was splitting. My vision started to blur.Survival instinct made me dig out my phone. One faint bar.Instinctively, I called Derek.The phone rang for a long time before he picked up.His voice dripped with irritation."What? What do you want now, Amber?"My voice was so weak it was barely audible."Derek...""I'm locked in the old warehouse on the west side. Someone locked me in. I have a fever... can you come get me..."Derek scoffed."I'm with the sponsors. I

Chapter 4

The door to the private lounge stood open. Music pounded inside, and smoke clouded the air.I stood at the entrance, looking at Derek seated in the center of the sofa.A cigarette was pinched between his fingers, and Natalie was draped against his shoulder.I walked over and set the soup his mother had made on the coffee table.My tone was flat, as if I were speaking to a stranger."Your mother wants you home."The moment Natalie saw me, she sat up straight and sneered."Well, well. If it isn't our former principal dancer. Reduced to running errands like a delivery girl?"I ignored her, caught Derek by the arm, and gave him my first public ultimatum."Derek, if you don't give the choreography credit back, we're done. For good."Derek froze, then frowned at me as though I were the unreasonable one."Amber, can you stop being so selfish?"He tried to defend Natalie."Natalie is new. She needs this opportunity to establish herself. You've won plenty of awards. What's the harm in letting h

Chapter 5

The canceled premiere detonated across the dance world, becoming the industry's biggest scandal.The police opened a formal investigation into my drugging. The organizers announced the tour was suspended.The state arts commission then opened a compliance review and ordered the theater to turn over its contracts and management records.I turned the credit dispute over to my lawyer.The tables turned overnight.The next morning, I went back to the apartment to pack my last belongings.Diane Mercer and her husband, Thomas, sat on the sofa, crying and blaming themselves.Diane held my hand, her eyes swollen from crying."Amber, it's my fault. I didn't raise him right. I let you suffer like this."I placed the apartment key gently on the coffee table."Mrs. Mercer, I'm moving to New York to start over. The key belongs to you."Diane panicked. She promised to confront Derek and make him answer for everything if I stayed."Please don't go. I'll drag him here and make him apologize to your fa

Chapter 6

Derek's eyes were filled with shock and disbelief.He had grown used to five years of me swallowing my pride and caving in. Seeing me sharp and ruthless, he no longer recognized the obedient pushover he had taken for granted.While he stood rooted in place, his phone rang.Natalie's terrified, sobbing voice came through the other end."Derek, help! The detectives called me in. They say I could be charged with fraud and drugging Amber..."Derek seized the excuse like a lifeline and fled from my gaze.Thomas came thundering down the stairs, shouting for Derek to come back and apologize. Derek ignored him, slammed the car door, and sped away.He was using Natalie as a diversion to mask his own panic.Over the next two days, things spiraled further.The sponsors pulled all funding over the scandal. Humiliated and desperate, Derek revealed himself as nothing more than a petulant child.He not only hired a professional lawyer for Natalie but publicly vouched for her and even obstructed the s

Chapter 7

I pulled a set of photocopies from my bag and shoved them into his chest.It was the forged copyright assignment with Derek's and Natalie's signatures in black and white.My sharp voice echoed down the empty corridor."One mistake?""Derek, you treated stealing everything I had as your God-given right, all for power and a cheap thrill. When you let her drug me, did you remember that pipe you took for me?"I stepped closer, staring straight into his panicked eyes."You were the one who begged me to stay as your partner. If I was in your way, you could have just said so. I never wanted to cling to this miserable theater!"Months of bottled-up emotion came flooding out. My eyes burned red, and tears slid down my face before I could stop them."You conspired to destroy my work and my name. Derek, you didn't just ruin yourself. You destroyed the dream we built together!"Seeing such complete devastation on my face for the first time, the color drained from his.He tried to reach for me, den

Chapter 8

When Walsh's car passed the police station, I witnessed the most absurd spectacle of my life.A crowd of onlookers packed the sidewalk.Several members of Natalie's family had Derek by the shirt, tearing the expensive fabric while they screamed demands for an outrageous payout."Who do you think you are, hitting people? You were the one who put our girl up to the drugging, and we haven't even settled that score yet! Nobody's leaving until you cough up three hundred grand in hush money!"Natalie's relatives shouted Derek's last secrets into the street, stripping away what little dignity he had left.Thomas arrived with the family attorney, his face ashen, and forced his way between them.In the crowd, Derek, his face covered in scratches, looked at me through the car window from a distance.I finally understood.So this was Derek's idea of atonement: starting one more ugly brawl.Pathetic. Idiotic.When Natalie's relatives realized the Mercer family was about to call the police for exto

Chapter 9

In New York, Walsh took me straight to the Metropolitan Dance Company's private training center.The program cut off outside contact, and Walsh personally returned every Mercer apology letter and gift unopened.Two weeks later, Derek somehow tracked down the address and showed up at the facility gate.He stood outside the guard booth in the late-autumn wind, sobbing and begging Walsh to let him see me, promising to spend the rest of his life making amends.Walsh came outside and tore Derek's pity performance apart."Five years ago, practicing through a fever might have moved Amber. Today, no coward who destroyed her career will reach her. Leave. Don't show your face at this company again."Those words severed Derek's last thread of hope. He realized his selfishness had cost him everything.That afternoon, dazed and desperate, Derek followed the company's bus as it headed to an out-of-town rehearsal retreat.On a winding mountain road, he took a turn too fast and crashed.The car rolled

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