The CEO's Regret: Darling, Don’t Leave Me novel Chapter 32

Chapter 21: Everything Was “Fine”-2

I didn’t think of her as my ex-wife, I thought of her as a rival. And that was the first thing that destabilized

In the morning, I went to my office as usual, as if nothing had happened. As I entered, I greeted those who crossed my path and in the elevator, I met her again.

“You have another important meeting today,” Vanessa said, checking her cell phone.

“Yes.”

“Do you want me to accompany you to tonight’s event?”

I looked at her. It was a reasonable question. She was a woman who was present, available, willing. Everything one is supposed to want.

“I don’t think I’ll be in time,” I replied.

It was not a lie, but neither was the whole truth.

Vanessa dropped her cell phone with her hand…

“Since yesterday you have been…”

The woman lets out a sigh and says,

“I know you’re not going to apologize for what happened yesterday, Ethan, but…”

“Why should I apologize?”

She shook her head and gestured with her eyes.

“You don’t change… But anyway, I can accompany you to…”

“I’m busy.”

“You always are,” she said, folding her arms. “But yesterday… it was different.”

I sighed.

“Don’t dramatize.”

The word fell heavily on us.

Vanessa held my gaze. There were no tears, no exaggerated claims. Only an uncomfortable lucidity.

“I’m not being dramatic, Ethan. I’m asking you if what hurts is losing… or losing to her?”

There it was.

The question I had avoided all night.

“It’s not about Clara,” I said firmly. “It’s about business.”

* Chapter 21-Ferything W

Vanessa barely smiled. A sad, tired smile.

“Of course

That “of course” hurt more than it should have.

The elevator opens its doors and I walk in right away.

The elevator closed, but Vanessa entered just before the doors reopened. She said nothing. Neither did I. The elevator was silent, dense, as if the air had thickened between us.

I felt her presence without looking at her. She had always known how to do it. Vanessa didn’t need to speak to be noticed. She did it with the way she occupied the space, with that dangerous mixture of care

and expectation.

When we arrived at my floor, I got out first. I walked down the hall with a firm stride, the same one I always had, the one that projects control even when it’s not there. I heard her heels clicking behind me. She didn’t stop. She didn’t linger at reception. She followed me.

I didn’t ask her not to.

I went into my office, put the briefcase on the desk and took off my jacket. I closed the door. The dry click of the insurance resonated more than it should.

“Ethan,” she said at last.

I didn’t answer. I approached the window, observing the city from above. Everything was still there, working, moving. The world hadn’t stopped just because I had lost something.

I felt her hands before I saw her. Vanessa approached slowly, as if she was afraid of scaring me. She turned my face gently, forcing me to look at her.

“You don’t have to carry this alone,” she murmured. “Let me be with you.”

Her eyes were looking for something in mine. It was not pure desire. It was a necessity. It was that urgency to be enough for someone who always seemed to be elsewhere.

She leaned toward me, slowly, calculating the distance, reading my silences as permissions. Her lips barely brushed mine, a lukewarm, careful attempt.

And that’s when I did it.

I took her wrists firmly, not abruptly, but definitively. I stopped her before the gesture became a promise I

couldn’t keep.

“Vanessa,” I said quietly. “We’ve talked about this before.”

She stood still. She did not struggle. She did not insist. She just looked at me, and in that second I saw something break, just a little.

She bit her lower lip, as if it contained words that she already knew wouldn’t change anything. Then she let

Chapter 214

go of my face. Her hands fell slowly, as if they were suddenly heavier.

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