The CEO's Regret: Darling, Don’t Leave Me novel Chapter 23

Chapter 16: A New Doubt.-1

Ethan

I got into the car without haste. Maybe with a little… The driver closed the door with that dry and definitive sound that I had always liked; order, finality, continuity. I settled into the back seat and loosened the knot of my tie just barely. The event was generally over. Everything had gone well. There was nothing else to do there, from one moment to the next I just wanted to leave.

“Home, sir?” the driver asked from the front.

I nodded, without looking at him.

“Yes.”

I kept looking out, but I stopped torturing my eyes and looked straight ahead. The engine started

smoothly, but we were not moving forward yet. The traffic in front of the place was still dense. Luxury cars coming and going, lights, reflections on the wet asphalt at night.

I rested my elbow on the armrest and looked out the window, not looking for anything in particular.

And then I saw her again, in the middle of that chaos… there she was.

The car was right in front of mine, it was moving slowly, elegantly, discreetly. It wasn’t the vehicle that

caught my attention… it was what I knew was inside. Clara.

I didn’t see her directly. I didn’t need to.

“Go ahead,” I said to my driver.

“But, sir, there’s a lot-”

“Move forward.”

We passed through the chaos until we saw the profile of the ear, the way it was moving forward, even the exact moment I crossed in front of it.

Γ

I felt something strange in my chest, and it wasn’t pain, nor was it nostalgia. It was no clear regret.

It was… a slight pressure. A misplaced void. Something without a name.

Like when you know you’re late for an important place, but there’s no one left to tell you.

I followed the car’s movement until it disappeared among the other vehicles. My eyes remained fixed for a few more seconds on the spot where it was no longer there.

Vanessa moved beside me.

I felt her presence before I saw her. Her body leaned slightly toward me, her gaze following mine.

“Ethan,” she said quietly. “She’s your…”

Chapter 16 A new Dogt

raised my hand without looking at her.

It wasn’t a sudden gesture. It wasn’t anger, it was automatic… As if I needed silence to avoid losing something that was already slipping away from me.

“No,” I said.

I lowered my hand slowly and exhaled, resting my head against the backrest.

“I just want to go home.”

The driver advanced. The lights began to move, the city resumed its rhythm, and the place was left behind. Vanessa said nothing more. Neither do I… But as the car drove away, I understood something with uncomfortable clarity, it wasn’t seeing her that had messed me up. It was what I could no longer reach.

And that feeling… That did not go away with the traffic, or with the silence, or with the night.

The morning after the event started like all the others.

There was no disorder. There was no hurry. There were no surprises. I woke up at the same time, with the light coming in at the same precise angle between the curtains. The house was quiet, a clean, managed silence. Everything worked.

I got up, walked to the bathroom, and turned on the faucet. The water came out at the exact temperature. The mirror returned a familiar image to me, the same firm face, the same controlled gestures. Nothing seemed out of place. And yet, something didn’t fit.

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