Chapter 352
As for intimacy, Nick’s pursuit of perfection bordered on the exacting. The two of them rarely even held hands… let alone kissed.
Yet, everything he cherished so carefully meant nothing to Michelle.
In that moment, Nick’s heart shattered into a thousand pieces.
But he had been accustomed to abandonment since childhood. Perhaps he had struggled along the way, yet when the moment finally came, he felt… nothing.
He simply waited calmly until Michelle noticed him. Amid her panicked explanations, he ended things-he broke up with her.
On the day of the engagement party, Michelle attended, but Nick was absent. Without a single word of explanation, he had whimsically canceled the engagement, drawing the scorn of both families.
The childhood bond they once shared-their innocent, entwined past—was over.
Time passed, and Michelle and Nick met again three years later.
During those years, Michelle had two boyfriends, both brief affairs. She could never forget Nick. Though she had been the first to waver, in the end, she was the first to regret it. And with each passing year, the regret only deepened.
Love, in the end, settles into routine. Happiness lies in the longing for repetition.
Every day apart from Nick, Michelle longed to return to the past, back to the time when they had first met.
She had kept tabs on him all along. After learning that no other woman had come into his life after she left, she could no longer wait.
Just as she returned to the country to host a charity gala, Nick appeared.
Michelle assumed he had come for her.
That night, at the ball, she mustered her courage and, in front of everyone, invited him to dance.
To ensure he wouldn’t refuse, she tied the dance to the charity donations. Before Nick had even said yes, the crowd watching their dance had already contributed millions.
Since he was attending anyway, he couldn’t publicly refuse a cause like this. Michelle knew him too well-he would separate personal from public matters, and with the families’ history and mutual respect, he wouldn’t embarrass her in front of everyone.
Sure enough, he didn’t refuse.
Michelle hoped to use the dance to draw closer to him, perhaps even rekindle what they had lost.
But she never expected his first words to be, “It’s been a while.”
And his second, “I should go find my fiancée. Excuse me.”
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Chapter 352
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The dance ended in an instant, unfinished, cut short by his decisiveness.
From that day on, she could only watch his back, her feelings for him growing stranger by the minute.
A faint vibration broke her reverie. Michelle loosened her grip on her phone, then her despair gave way to a spark of hope.
Nick had replied to her message!
That evening, Khloe arrived early at the private dining room Oscar had reserved.
Before leaving, she had informed Nick she would be having dinner with her uncle. Though Nick hadn’t said much, she caught a trace of reluctance in his eyes.
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