The CEO's Regret: Darling, Don’t Leave Me novel Chapter 102

Chapter 80: A Simple Coffee.–1

Clara

Claim

I didn’t plan to stop by, the meeting ended earlier than planned and I decided to walk a little before asking

for the car. I needed air. Order. Distance from my own thoughts. And then I saw it.

The building, imposing, familiar… Intact.

Blackwood Enterprise.

My steps stop without me ordering it, how many times I crossed those doors as the wife of the CEO. How many times did I go up to the top floor with the certainty that I belonged there.

Now I’m just… Clara. Ex–wife.

My gaze drifts to the coffee shop on the corner. It’s still there. The same as always. The same one where Ethan and I used to escape for ten minutes when their schedule allowed it.

I keep walking before my mind can interfere.

I enter. The aroma of freshly brewed coffee envelops me like a warm memory. I ask for one. Then, almost

without thinking too much, I look up.

“Two, please.”

The word comes naturally. As if I’ve been waiting for days to say it, while I wait, I try to rationalize it.

He has had gestures, small, yes. But constant. He changed his number, he appeared at my house.

He embraced me with that vulnerability that I had never seen him before. And when my father died…

I close my eyes for a second. Ethan was a pillar, he didn’t move from my side in the hospital. He did not delegate to assistants. He did not send flowers. He was.

He held me when I couldn’t stand on my own. Compared to that… a coffee is nothing.

It is a minimal, harmless gesture. It doesn’t mean anything. Right?

I receive the two glasses. The heat goes through the cardboard and wakes me up.

r

I cross the street. The building seems taller today, or maybe I’m the one who feels smaller.

Automatic doors open. And with them, a wave of looks.

Some faces that I recognize instantly, others new.

The reception is the same.

The shiny marble, the dark steel logo behind the counter. For months I avoided this place.

Not because I was forbidden to enter. But because I didn’t know who I would be here without the title of

wife.

Chapter 80-4 Smple Coffee !

step forward, a couple of employees look at each other.

There is surprise, curiosity. But also something else…

Affection.

Claim

“Good morning, Mrs. Blackw–mean, Miss Sinclair,” says one of the analysts ! vaguely remember from

internal events.

I smile at him.

“Good morning.”

My voice does not tremble. That surprises me, I move towards the elevators, holding both coffees

carefully.

I feel every look on my back, but it doesn’t bother me like I thought it would.

Rather… It reminds me that I was part of this.

That I was not an accessory. That I worked with Ethan on more than one social project. That my presence

here was not decorative.

Before I can press the elevator button, I hear my name.

“Clara?”

I turn around, and I see her. Marina.

The secretary who for years was Ethan’s administrative right–hand woman. The woman who knew when I

needed five minutes of silence and when I needed a double coffee without sugar.

Her eyes light up as she recognizes me.

She gets up from her desk almost immediately.

“I can’t believe it’s you,” she says with a broad, genuine smile.

My chest tightens a little.

“Hello, Marina.”

She quickly circles the counter.

“I’m so happy to see you again in these halls.”

r

The way she says it… It doesn’t sound like protocol. It sounds real, and for the first time since I walked through the door, I feel like I’m not walking in like an intruder.

But as someone who, in some way, still belongs.

Marina doesn’t even hesitate.

“Of course you can go up,” she says matter–of–factly. “He is in his office.”

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<Chapter 80 A Simple Coffee 1

She doesn’t ask me for identification, she doesn’t call to let him know. She doesn’t ask if I have an

appointment… Nothing.

As if the protocol did not apply to me, às if the treatment was still the same as before.

Claim

That detail, small but mighty, shakes me inside. Because for months I convinced myself that I no longer

belonged here. And yet, no one looks at me as if I were a stranger.

The elevator arrives quickly, I enter alone. The doors close, and for a second, I see myself reflected in the

interior mirror.

I hold two coffees, like a nervous college student about to propose. I almost smile at the image.

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Chapter 80 A Simple Coffee 2

Chapter 80: A Simple Coffee.–2

What am I doing? It’s not a statement, it’s just a coffee. Just a gesture.

I take a deep breath as the elevator opens on the top floor. The corridor is the same.

Quiet. Elegant. Thick carpet that cushions steps.

How many times have I walked here with automatic safety, today every step is conscious.

I stop in front of his door, the black plate with metallic letters still there:

“Ethan Blackwood – CEO”

My pulse quickens, I could turn around. To say that it was an impulsive idea.

But I don’t, I knock. Two soft knocks.

“Go ahead,” I hear his voice from inside.

The same firm voice as always, I push the door. And I see him.

Claim

He’s standing behind his desk, checking something on a tablet. He wears a dark, impeccable suit, perfectly

fitted sleeves. Concentrated. Unattainable.

He looks up, and stands motionless. Literally motionless,

His expression changes in a matter of seconds, first surprise. Then disbelief, then something more

difficult to define.

“Clara…”

My name sounds different in his mouth when he didn’t expect me.

I close the door behind me gently.

I barely lift the coffees, as if that explained my presence.

“I had a meeting nearby,” I say, too quickly. “And I passed by the cafeteria on the corner

He looks at the glasses in my hands.

Then he looks me in the eye again, he doesn’t say anything. His silence is not cold. It is content.

I walk to his desk feeling the invisible weight of everything that happened last night.

The image of Alexander in my living room, the glass of wine. His “happy night“.

I leave one of the cafes in front of him.

“I thought maybe–you’d want one.”

There’s a split second where I don’t know if he’s going to accept it. If he is going to distance himself.

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<Chapter 80 A Simple Coffee 2

If he’s going to remind me that he was “busy,” but he doesn’t.

His fingers slowly circle the glass, the heat seeming to anchor him to reality.

“You remember how take it,” he says finally.

It is not a question, it is a statement. I smile barely.

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