The CEO's Regret: Darling, Don’t Leave Me novel Chapter 34

Chapter 22: Face to Face… again.-2

Before I could answer, Alexander appeared next to me.

“Clara,” he said. “Come, I want to introduce you to someone.”

Vanessa took a step back elegantly.

“It was a pleasure,” she added, holding my gaze “Welcome back.”

Something struck me as odd: she wasn’t with anyone. However, I dismissed it I nodded and left with

Alexander without looking back.

The night continued.

Interesting conversations. Promising contacts. People who listened when I spoke. I felt… in control.

But the body does not forget so easily. When I felt the need for air, I asked Alexander for a moment. A second alone, I had smiled so much that my cheeks trembled.

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“Go,” he said. “I’ll catch up with you later.”

The bathroom was empty. I leaned against the sink for a second and took a deep breath. I was not altered. I just needed that moment of silence to come back to me.

I adjusted my hair, looked at myself in the mirror.

“You’re okay,” I said to myself.

On the way out, the hallway was dimly lit. Thick carpet, light walls, antique paintings. I walked calmly, ready to return to the living room.

And then I stopped. He was there.

Standing, a few steps away, as if space itself had decided to place us face to face. Ethan.

He hadn’t seen me arrive. He was checking something on his phone. More serious than I remembered. More tired, perhaps. Or maybe just more real.

My first impulse was the same as always, to ignore him. To pass by as if he did not exist. As if he had not been part of my history. As if I don’t know exactly what his presence feels like in a room.

I took a step and then he spoke.

“Congratulations, Clara.”

His voice reached me before my decision.

I stopped… For a second, I thought about keeping walking. Pretend I hadn’t heard. That I didn’t care. But I

didn’t.

I turned slowly and looked at him.

Chapter 22-4 Fate te

Not because I hesitated, but because I wasn’t in a hurry. I learned that pauses also say things.

Ethan looked at me with that neutral expression he had always used in public. The right face, the

measured gesture, as if nothing could pass through it without permission. I thought, with almost clinical clarity, that this had been one of the reasons I got tired.

“Congratulations on your contract,” he repeated.

There was no irony. Nor enthusiasm. It was a fact said out loud.

“Thank you,” I replied.

My tone was the same as I would use with anyone I knew. No more, no less.

He nodded slightly, as if confirming something he already knew.

“It’s a big contract.”

“I know.”

I didn’t add anything else. There was no need.

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His lips curled slightly, not in a smile, but in that gesture he made when evaluating scenarios.

“I didn’t know that your company had the capacity for an operation of this level.”

I looked at him for a second. Not with defiance. Calmly.

“It does.”

Silence.

I felt the urge to leave, to go back to the living room, to leave him there with his thoughts. I took a small step back, marking the natural closure of the conversation.

“Well,” I said, “it was nice to see you.”

But he spoke before I could move at all.

“I never doubted it,” he added. “I just… I didn’t think it would be so soon.”

I didn’t answer. Not because I didn’t have anything to say, but because I wasn’t going to give him

explanations.

He inhaled slowly, as if measuring his next words.

“I suppose New York suited you well.”

“It’s a demanding city,” I answered. “I like that.”

I turned my body back toward the living room.

“Clara.”

I stopped again.

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Not out of habit. Because of the way he said my name. Lower. Less safe.

“Are you staying?” he asked. “In the city, I mean.”

It wasn’t a question about business. Nor about contracts.

It was something else.

I turned slightly, just enough to look over my shoulder at him.-

“That doesn’t depend on the city,” I replied. “It’s up to me.”

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Chapter 224