The CEO's Regret: Darling, Don’t Leave Me novel Chapter 130

Chapter 95 The Flowers and the Card

Clara

The door closes, the sound remains floating for a few seconds in the apartment, like a small echo that slowly dissolves into silence.

And suddenly… I’m alone.

I stand in the middle of the room motionless, still staring at the door where Ethan just walked out, as if my body hasn’t finished processing that he’s no longer here.

I exhale slowly.

“God,” I murmur to myself.

I run a hand through my still-wet hair and walk slowly toward the kitchen.

The dishes are still on the table, both of them. One in front of the other.

The cups, the breadcrumbs, the pan that’s still on the stove.

It’s funny how a place can feel so crowded a few minutes ago… and so empty all of a sudden.

I sit in the chair where I was before.

Irest my elbows on the table and cover my face with my hands, and then my mind starts to rewind everything.

Last night, this morning. Him waking up in my bed.

Ethan walking around my kitchen as if he was trying to remember how to do it, Ethan preparing breakfast.

The image comes back to my head all too clearly, him standing in front of the stove, concentrating on something as simple as cracking eggs in a frying pan.

I never thought that seeing that again was going to affect me so much, I swallow hard. And then… inevitably… another memory appears.

Ethan coming out of the bathroom, with only the towel rolled up around his waist.

I close my eyes for a second.

“Clara,” I whisper to myself.

Because yes, I looked at him. Of course I looked at him.

How could I not? Two years have passed. Two years since the last time I was so close to his body.

And suddenly he appears in front of me as if time had not passed.

With wet hair, water still falling down his 20

That relaxed way of walking that he always had.

And my brain just stopped working for a moment.

I feel my cheeks warm at the memory, it’s ridiculous.

After everything that happened between us, after having been in his bed for years.

After what we did last night… And yet… This morning I behaved as if it were the first time I had ever seen a half-naked man in my life.

I drop my hands from my face, I look at the table. The plate where my breakfast was still has a small piece of toast on it.

I smile just because there’s something else I can’t ignore. Breakfast.

Ethan making me breakfast, it’s such an image… domestic. So normal, and maybe that’s why it hits me so hard.

Because for a few minutes… It felt like before, as if those separate years hadn’t existed.

As if we were still that couple who shared quiet mornings before the world began to move.

I lean back in my chair, looking up at the ceiling. And I let out a long sigh.

The question appears alone in my head.

What exactly happened between us last night?

Because it wasn’t just sex, it wasn’t just nostalgia. There was something else, something soft.

Something that slipped through the uncomfortable looks, between breakfast, between that short

kiss before he left.

Ethan.

Of course it had to be Ethan.

I bring the flowers to my face and breathe in their scent. It’s soft, fresh… And somehow I feel that everything inside me is lighter than it was a few hours ago.

I’m still smiling when I hear my office door open. I look up.

And then I see him, Alexander.

He is standing at the door, in his hands is a bouquet of flowers.

Red roses… Again.

For a second neither of us says anything, but I don’t need him to say anything. Because I see exactly what’s going on in his face. First he enters with a calm smile, the one he always brings when he comes to see me.

Then his gaze is lowered, he sees the bouquet I have in my hands. The flowers on my desk, the card.

And his smile… disappears. Not all of a sudden, it’s more like it’s slowly going out.

Like a light that someone is slowly lowering, I feel my stomach tighten.

“Alexander,” I say softly.

He’s still at the door, his fingers squeezing a little on the bouquet of roses he’s carrying.

“I see that I was late,” he says.

His voice tries to sound light, but I know him well enough to notice the slight stiffness in it.

I look at the roses he brings, then the flowers Ethan sent. And for the first time since I opened the card… I feel a small twinge of discomfort in my chest.

Because until this moment… I hadn’t thought of anyone else.

Only Ethan.

I look back at Alexander, he’s still standing there. With the red roses in his hand.