The CEO's Regret: Darling, Don’t Leave Me novel Chapter 173

Clara

I don’t stop touching the necklace, my fingers brush the small stone over and over again, as if I needed to make sure it’s there… that it is real.

Under the gaze, the glow is subtle, elegant. Exactly the way I like it, but that’s not what has me like this. That’s what it means.

I look up at Ethan, and I really watch him.

He’s here with me. Looking at me that way… as if I were the only important thing at this moment. And something inside me… it moves.

Because he’s being everything I ever wanted, attentive, present, careful.

That man I often imagined… Now he’s in front of me. Real… And that… It scares me a little. But it also

makes me feel… special. Too special.

I smile slightly, touching the necklace again.

“It’s very cute…” I whisper, more for me than for him.

But then… His words come back to my mind.

“Wouldn’t you like to go home?”

My smile fades little by little, not completely. But enough is true.

I look up at him, and there he is still waiting.

So confident in saying it… and now so attentive to what I answer.

I swallow hard, because it’s not just any question. It’s not just “going home.”

It’s going back, back to everything. To what we went, to what hurt. To which it did not work.

r

I take a deep breath.

“Ethan,” I begin, slowly.

Looking for the right words, but there’s no perfect way to say this.

“We’re moving forward,” I say finally.

And it’s true, I feel it, I see it. We are doing well.

Much better than before.

My fingers gently squeeze the necklace.

“And I like it,” I add, looking at him honestly.

< Chapter 123–mple Doubt

Because I don’t want him to doubt that, I don’t want him to think that I don’t value him. But…

“I’m not sure that’s the right thing to do.”

Silence falls between us, and this time… it does weigh.

I hold his gaze, even if it costs me.

“Going home is no small step,” I continued. “It is… everything.”

I feel a small knot in my chest.

“And I don’t want to do it from the emotion of the moment… or because everything feels good now.”

My voice is a little lower, softer and at the same time vulnerable.

“I want to be sure that this- it’s real. That it is stable.”

That we are not going to go back to the same thing, I look down for a second. And then I look back at him.

“Because if I come back,” I whisper, “I don’t want to go out again.”

There it is, my truth without embellishments or filters.

My hand reaches for his, I take it gently.

“It’s not a no,” I clarify.

Just…

“It’s a… not yet.”

My fingers squeeze theirs a little more.

“I want to continue building this with you.”

But well, without haste. Without skipping steps… I look at him with everything I feel reflected in my eyes.

“Can we do that?”

Because, although a part of me… it means yes immediately… the other… the one that learned from what we have already lived… we need to go slow. And this time… I want to do it right.

I feel his hand around mine warm, firm, present. And for a second… Everything seems to be calm between the two, but then he speaks.

And what he says… It takes me by surprise.

“There’s a pending remodel in the house,” he says, staring at me. “I was going to start it…”

He pauses briefly. As if measuring his own words.

“But I don’t want to do it until you get back.”

I blink once, twice. My mind takes time to process it.

“What?” I whisper, almost without realizing it.

He does not look away.

He does not hesitate.

“I want you to decide,” he adds. “As before.”

I feel something in my chest, something that tightens. Because I know exactly what he means.

To that house, to every space, to every detail that was once mine.

Ours.

I remember the furniture, the colors, the decisions, the arguments even… for things as simple as a curtain or a lamp.

And now… he’s saying he doesn’t want to touch anything… until I come back.

My breathing becomes a little slower, deeper.

“Ethan,” I murmured.

I don’t know if that makes me happy… or if it scares me more.

Maybe both.

“I don’t want to change anything without you,” he continues. “It doesn’t make sense.”

Under my gaze, my fingers return to the necklace. I gently squeeze it between them, because this… This is no longer just an intention.

It’s a wait, it’s leaving something on pause… for me. And that weighs heavily.

I look up at him.

“You’re… stopping something important for me,” I say.

He shakes his head softly.

“I’m waiting for the important thing.”

His words hit me harder than I expected. Because they don’t sound impulsive, nor do they sound empty.

They sound… determined.

I swallow hard.

My chest goes up and down slower now.

“I don’t know if that’s fair,” I confess.

And I don’t say it for him, I say it for me. Because I know what it means for someone to wait like that

I know what it entails

< Chapter 124 Simple Doubt

He takes a small step closer.

I don’t care if it’s fair or not,” he replies. “That’s what I want.”

Silence returns, but this time… it feels deeper, more serious.

My eyes stay in his, looking for something.

Maybe a doubt, maybe a crack. But there isn’t. And that… It disarms me a little.

“You don’t have to,” I say finally, softer.

But even I don’t sound convinced, because a part of me… wants him to do it.

A part of me wants to know that that place… still has room for me.

Ethan doesn’t respond right away, he just looks at me and in that look… I understand that he has already

made that decision.

A while ago.

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