The CEO's Regret: Darling, Don’t Leave Me novel Chapter 403

Chapter 312 She’s My Target.

Chapter 312: She’s My Target.

Vanessa

The silence in my apartment is no longer silence, it’s noise.

Noise of thoughts that won’t shut up, noise of images that return again and again, the noise of their smiles… Their smiles.

I clutch my phone between my fingers as the screen illuminates my face in the dim light.

The photo is still there, Clara dressed in white. Ethan looking at her as if no one else in the world

existed.

I swallow, but it doesn’t go away. That lump is still there, stuck in my throat, as if it refuses to let me breathe normally.

“Congratulations on your marriage…” I murmur with a smile I don’t feel.

My eyes slowly lower to the table in front of me, the bouquet… White roses, perfect, flawless,

untouched.

My fingers glide over one of the petals, with an almost reverent gentleness.

White… Always white. Because white is purity, isn’t it? White is innocence, perfection.

Everything she appears to be, everything everyone sees when they look at her.

My jaw clenches.

“How ironic…” I whisper.

Because I know it’s not like that, I know what’s behind it. The perfect woman, the perfect wife, the

perfect story.

Everything fits together too well, too neatly… Too… correct.

As if life really worked that way, as if people like me… simply had to accept being left out of the

picture.

I let out a low, empty laugh.

“No…”

I slowly shake my head, no. That doesn’t work on me, not this time.

The first bouquet was… an impulse, almost childish. A way of saying, “I’m here.” I heard about their

HI

Chapter 312 She’s My Target.

wedding and I congratulate them on their shitty perfect wedding.

The second… the second was a necessity. I needed confirmation, proof of something I don’t even know what it is. And the third…

My lips barely curve.

The third one is no longer a coincidence; it’s intention, it’s control, it’s presence.

I lean forward, resting my elbows on my knees, holding my phone as I scroll to another image.

Clara entering her building, Clara leaving a clinic, Clara walking with that confidence I hate so much. That I so desperately want to shatter.

My eyes narrow slightly.

“Each rose is a step closer to you.”

The words come out softly, almost sweetly. But they aren’t… None of this is.

It wasn’t difficult to follow her, to see her, to observe her in detail.

Yes, she’s beautiful… when she smiles, she… she looks beautiful. The way she runs her hand

through her hair, the way the waves fall across her face and move with the cool city breeze.

Her features and mine are so different…

I sighed and turned my gaze to the window.

Learning her schedule, understanding her routine. Clara is… predictable, very organized,

methodical.

Everything in her life is in its place, everything… except this.

I get up from the sofa and walk slowly to the window. From here, the city looks immense.

Full of lights, of people living their lives… Of stories that cross paths without ever touching.

But mine… Mine has already crossed paths with hers, and I don’t intend to go back.

I remember the first time I saw her, after all, not in photos, not in the news… In person.

She was leaving her building, her hair pulled back, her stride firm. That damned calm expression.

As if nothing could touch her, as if nothing had ever touched her.

etching her, not moving, barely breathing.

for what, maybe for her to stop, to look in my direction, to feel something.

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Chapter 312. She’s My Target.

But no, she kept walking. She got into her car and drove off.

As if I didn’t exist.

I clench my teeth.

“But I do exist…” I whisper, more firmly this time.

I do exist, and I’m going to make her feel it.

I return to the table and pick up one of the roses. I examine it closely, perfect, without blemishes,

without imperfections… Exactly like her.

My fingers tighten the stem a little more.

“Let’s see how long that perfection lasts…”

1

I place it ba

e vase, carefully, almost tenderly. Because it’s not about destroying it all at

once.

No, th

too easy, too quick.

Th

mething else, this is… Process.

ag and the keys, the access keys I took from Alexander’s apartment the last time I gaze lingers for another second on the bouquet… on this third bouquet.

em, lined up, silent… Waiting, like me.

esn’t know yet that I’ll be there…” I murmur.

se, a faint smile.

she will.”

rn off the lights, and as I leave the apartment, closing the door behind me… My mind is no nger confused, lost, or broken… It’s clear.

Clearer than ever.

I don’t want to push him away, no. I understand that now.

My eyes harden; my target isn’t Ethan, it’s her. Because if she disappears… If she ceases to exist… Everything falls back into place.

Everything goes back to how it was before, or at least… close enough.

I walk down the hallway

a course in my life

determined stride. Feeling, for the first time in days… Direction,

else, something dark, something that grows silently.

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