The CEO's Regret: Darling, Don’t Leave Me novel Chapter 131

Chapter 96 Mistakes of tow

Clara

Alexander finally enters the office. His gaze passes over the flowers in my hands before walking to my desk.

“Well,” he says with a half-smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. “I think someone has gone ahead of me.”

His tone tries to sound light, almost joking. But there’s something underneath those words.

Something tense, something I know.

He approaches and leaves his bouquet of red roses on the desk.

They are right next to the other flowers, for a moment I stare at both bouquets.

They are so different.

Ethan’s flowers… soft, elegant. Alexander’s red roses… intense, almost dramatic.

“They’re his, aren’t they?” says Alexander.

I look up at him. I don’t need to say the name.

We both know who he’s talking about.

“Yes,” I answer.

The silence that follows lasts barely a second, but the atmosphere in the office changes.

Alexander’s posture becomes more rigid. His jaw tightens slightly.

“It seems that you have not yet learned your lesson.”

His voice is different now. Colder … I blink, confused.

“I don’t understand what you mean.”

Alexander lets out a small, dry, humorless laugh.

“Come on, Clara.”

He rests a hand on the edge of my desk and looks directly at me.

“You wasted years of your life with him,” he says firmly. “And it looks like now you want to do the exact same thing again.”

I feel something inside me tense. My fingers close around the card I still hold.

“It wasn’t like that,” I say, almost automatically.

But even as I say it… I know that the conversation has already moved to a dangerous place.

Alexander slowly shakes his head.

“Of course it was.”

His eyes go down to Ethan’s flowers, then back to me.

“He broke your heart, Clara.”

Ethan’s name floating around in that sentence hits me in a way I didn’t expect.

He pauses slightly.

“And at that moment I thought that he simply did not know how to value what you were”

His words sound… correct. Too correct.

But something about the way he says them makes me uncomfortable.

Alexander leans slightly over the desk.

“But it seems that- well… In the end, men and women are not equal.”

My eyebrows come closer together.

“What do you mean?”

He shrugs a little.

“That you women tend to be a little more sensitive, aren’t you?”

He makes a small gesture with his hand, almost casual.

“It’s easier to manipulate a woman’s emotions than a man’s.”

I stare at him. My brow is clearly furrowed now.

There’s something about that phrase that I don’t like at all.

“I’m afraid that conversation isn’t of interest to you,” I say calmly, but firmly. “It is a purely personal issue.”