The CEO's Regret: Darling, Don’t Leave Me novel Chapter 100

Chapter 78: The Red Roses–1

Clara

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I didn’t think it was going to affect me so much. I thought that after the scene on the avenue I would go

home, take off my heels, pour myself a glass of wine and analyze everything with the coldness that has

cost me so much to learn.

But no. That night I didn’t sleep well.

Every time I closed my eyes I saw his expression, Ethan out of control, Ethan without calculation, Ethan

with fear.

I had never seen him like this before. For me. Not even the day we signed the divorce. And that… That

stirred up something I thought was buried.

What hit me the most was not that he changed his number. It was the reason.

“When you adopt that calm… You’ve already made up your mind.”

He knew me, he still knew me. And that disarmed me more than any apology.

For months I repeated to myself that he never understood how much it hurt me to feel displaced, to feel

that another woman breathed too close to ours.

And suddenly… he understood.

Late. But he understood.

I asked myself a question I didn’t want to ask myself. What if I decide to soften up a bit?

The very idea scared me, because softening up means taking a risk again.

It means lowering our guard, it means ceasing to hold dignity as a permanent shield.

But it also means something else. It means allowing something new to be born.

Ethan didn’t disappear after that day, he didn’t bombard me with messages. He didn’t pressure me.

But it began to appear. With small gestures. Firm. Constant.

A book I casually mentioned in a meeting appeared in my office lobby with a short note: “So you don’t have

to look for it.”

Without invading, without demanding. Just being. And that began to stir me.

Because he wasn’t the aloof Ethan who took my presence for granted, he was an attentive man… present.

One morning, after a particularly tiring week, I woke up earlier than usual. The apartment was quiet. I walked down the hallway still with that haze of sleep in my eyes. And then I saw him.

Leaning against the back wall, with white shirt rolled up. No bag, no hurry.

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Chapter 78 The fled Roses 1

“What are you doing here?” I asked, still incredulous.

His gaze swept over my face as if confirming something important.

“This time I have worked to see you.”

It didn’t sound arrogant, it sounded sincere. He approached slowly, I did not retreat.

I don’t know why I didn’t back down.

When he was close enough, he raised a hand and rested it gently on my waist.

That contact…

Claim

My body remembered before my mind the firmness of his palm. The warmth, the security that I always felt

there.

“Ethan,” I whispered, “why are you doing this?”

His arms wrapped around me then, not with possession. With need.

I felt myself drawn to him, and for a second my resistance vanished.

My forehead brushed against his chest. His breathing was deeper than normal.

“I really needed you,” he murmured.

He didn’t say “I want you.” He didn’t say “I love you.” He said “I needed you“… And that word went through

1. me.

Because I needed it many times too.

But I didn’t say it.

My hands, traitors, rested on his torso. I felt the tension in his body, the containment.

My skin reacted, not like a new spark. Like an ancient memory.

I remembered our first months, the early mornings talking tirelessly. Laughter in the kitchen.

The way he looked at me like I was the only thing that existed.

r

I remembered the beginning, before the cracks, before Vanessa. Before my insecurity growing silently.

My body knew how to fit in with his, I knew how to breathe with his. And that scared me.

Because it meant that love wasn’t dead, just hurt.

I barely moved away, just enough to look at him. His eyes had no calculation. They had vulnerability.

And then some. Determination.

“I don’t want to force you into anything,” he said, as if reading my mind. “I just want you to see that I’m

here.”

Chapter 78 The Red Roses 1

My heart was pounding.

Too much.

What if I decide to forget about the past? What if I stop holding the wound as an identity?

What if I allow myself to see what can happen now?

The idea started as a spark, small, but dangerous.

Because if I give it a chance… I will no longer be able to protect myself with the discourse of “I have already overcome this“.

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<Chapter 78 The Red Roses 2

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Chapter 78: The Red Roses – 2

I would have to feel, twould have to trust. And trusting was what broke me the most.

Ethan approached again, this time slower, as if waiting for permission.

He didn’t kiss me, he didn’t need to. His forehead rested on mine.

And that simple gesture touched me more than any grandiose statement.

“I’m not the same as before,” he whispered.

I looked at him.

“I hope so.”

A faint smile appeared on his lips, I took a deep breath. My mind screamed prudence, my heart…

something else.

Should I give it a try? The question did not leave me all day, because this time I didn’t see him as arrogant.

I saw him working for me, not perfect. Not redeemed… But trying. And perhaps love is not the absence of

mistakes.

Perhaps it is the conscious decision to correct them. That night, when I was alone in my room, I sat up on

the bed and hugged myself. I didn’t cry, I didn’t doubt my courage.

I just felt.

I felt like I still loved him, and that was as true as it was terrifying.

I closed my eyes. And for the first time in a long time, I didn’t think about what he owed me.

I thought about what I was willing to risk, because softening is not weakness.

It’s courage.

And maybe… just maybe… I’m ready to try again.

r

I don’t know at what point I went from resisting to remembering him… to miss him. No, that feeling is not

surprising.

The days following that morning in the hallway were strange. Short messages. Short calls. A “have you

eaten yet?” that seemed simple but was not.

Small gestures that did not demand anything in return. And the worst thing was that I was starting to wait

for them.

That night I was alone in the apartment. I had taken off my heels, put on comfortable clothes, and poured myself a glass of wine. The silence no longer weighed on me as it used to.

I sat on the couch, stared at the ceiling, and let the question come back. Should I give him a try?

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Chapter 78 The fled Bases 2

No to the past version, to this one. The one who seemed to understand, the one who seemed to work.

My chest tightened gently. Maybe love isn’t always an intense flame. Sometimes it is an ember that

refuses to go out.

I was thinking about him when there was a knock on the door.

My heart reacted before my mind, I got op almost immediately.

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