The CEO's Regret: Darling, Don’t Leave Me novel Chapter 258

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Chapter 184: Making a Decision, Part 1

Chapter 184: Making a Decision, Part 1.

Alexander

I don’t believe in coincidences, much less… in people like Vanessa.

I place the glass on the bar; the ice clatters against the glass with a dry, repetitive… almost hypnotic sound. I’ve been here longer than I should be, but I’m not leaving. Not yet. My mind keeps returning to the same point, to her. To the way she looks at me, the way she speaks…. as if she always knows more than she lets on. And that… I don’t like it… Or maybe I do.

I exhale slowly, running a hand over my jaw.

“Interesting…” I murmur to myself.

Vanessa didn’t appear by chance, that much is clear. No one returns a tissue days later… waiting outside a building… with the perfect excuse. That was planned, calculated. And the most unsettling thing… is that it didn’t bother me. On the contrary.

I pick up the glass again and take a small sip. My reflection is etched in the glass before me… serious, focused.

“What do you really want?” I think to myself. Because there’s something, something behind every word, every pause, every suppressed smile. And the worst part… is that she reminds me of myself. I smile slightly, ironically. Maybe… maybe she wants the same thing I do. That thought arrives unannounced, direct, uncomfortable. But I don’t reject it. I can’t, because it’s true. Because I’ve spent days… weeks… avoiding saying it out loud. Avoiding putting a name to something that’s no longer simple.

Clara… Her name appears in my mind uninvited. Like always, like every damn day. I close my eyes for a second and there it is: her voice, her gaze. The way she frowns when something doesn’t add up… the way she concentrates, how she moves, how she breathes. Everything. Too clear, too

present.

“Shit…” I whisper, leaning my head back slightly. I shouldn’t be thinking like this, not with her. Not with everything she represents, but I am. And it’s not new. What’s new… is that now someone else seems to see it. Vanessa, she hinted at it. Not directly, she never does. But she dropped enough

hints.

“It must be interesting to work so closely with a woman like that…”

I clench my jaw, yes… It

> 100 much so. And that’s the problem. Because working with Clara was

never just work, not for me. At first, yes, it was strategy, it was growth. It was opportunity, but at

Chapter 184: Making a Decision, Part 1

+25 Points some point… It stopped being that. It became something else, something I didn’t plan, something I didn’t seek. But that I also haven’t wanted to stop. And now… Now Vanessa appears. Observing, measuring, pushing… without doing it obviously.

“She knows…” I murmur. Not everything, but enough. Enough to make me uncomfortable enough to make me think, enough to make me doubt. What about? Myself, my intentions, what I’m doing… or letting happen. I open my eyes and stare into nothingness.

“What are you doing, Alexander?”

The question hangs in the air, without an immediate answer. Because the truth… It’s not simple. Clara isn’t an option, she shouldn’t be. She has a history, a past, she has… Ethan.

Ethan…

That name makes something tense inside me. Ethan. I exhale sharply; he’s not just her ex-husband. He’s the man who’s still there, the one who keeps coming back, the one who keeps insisting. The one who… clearly… isn’t finished with her. And that… That complicates everything. Because I’m not competing against a memory, I’m competing against someone real. Present. And that changes the rules.

I lean forward, resting my elbows on the bar.

“And yet…” I murmur.

Even so, I don’t stop, I don’t walk away. I don’t set clear boundaries. Why? The answer is uncomfortable. Because I don’t want to, because every time she’s near… every conversation… every glance… It feels good. Too good. And that… That’s dangerous. Vanessa saw it, understood it. And now… She’s playing with it. I don’t know exactly how, but she is. And the worst part… I don’t know if I want to stop her.

That thought makes me chuckle.

“Perfect…” I whisper.

Now I don’t just have one problem, I have two. Clara… And Vanessa.

One… unknowingly, the other… knowing too much.

I finally stand up, taking the empty glass and placing it on the bar. I can’t stay here any longer, not with this head, not with these thoughts.

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