His Regret Arrived Three Days Late novel Chapter 38

Hank gave her a complicated look. “Mr. Beryl is going through his emails.”

Annika didn’t reply, simply remaining at the door, perfectly still.

Finally, a voice from inside said, “Come in.”

Annika glanced at the flicker of relief on Hank’s face before pushing the door open and stepping inside.

The room was dark, save for the glow of a computer screen. Conrad sat in a large executive chair, his head bowed, his long fingers flying across the keyboard. He didn’t look up until he had dealt with every last email. Only then did he slowly raise his eyes to the silent woman standing by the door. “Come here.”

Annika obeyed.

In the dim light, her beautiful face was blank, like a doll. Looking at her, Conrad’s mind flashed back to Zoltan’s birthday party, to the moment Annika had left with Tyler, her face lit with a smile so pure and radiant it had eclipsed everything else. He realized that since their divorce, she hadn’t smiled at him once.

Throughout their two-year marriage, Annika had always been dutiful, occasionally even trying to please him, but he’d always dismissed it as a calculated act to secure her place in the Beryl family. He never knew how much he would crave a genuine smile from her, a smile like the one she gave Tyler, so brilliant it made the world fade away.

A sudden bitterness soured in his gut. He reached out, hooking a finger under her chin and tilting her face up, forcing their eyes to meet.

Annika’s pupils contracted sharply against the sudden light.

Conrad slowly pulled his hand from her grasp, his fingers tightening into a fist.

“You once said,” Annika continued, her voice now filled with a tragic pity, “that you would make me pay for what Serena lost. Conrad, I have nothing left—except my father.”

In truth, Conrad had done nothing but watch from the sidelines. Even after their argument, when he had threatened her with the Sargent Group, he hadn’t acted on it. The thought had crossed his mind, a fleeting temptation to force her hand, but he’d never gone through with it.

He wanted to tell her that none of this was his doing, but would she believe him? Not after he had sworn to make her pay.