The CEO's Regret: Darling, Don’t Leave Me novel Chapter 426

23

(Chapter 335: Lonely, I Feel Lonely.

Chapter 335: Lonely, I Feel Lonely.

Ethan

I can’t stay here… I can’t.

The air in that room grows heavy, dense… unbearable.

Clara starts to get agitated, her voice barely rises, her breathing changes, the doctors/come in, the nurses move quickly… and I just feel like I’m in the way.

That I’m a nuisance, that my presence… makes her uncomfortable. That… that’s what hurts the

most.

I take a step back, then another. And I leave without saying anything, without looking back.

The door closes behind me and the sound… echoes inside me more than it should.

I walk, I don’t know where. I just walk… Hallway after hallway.

People pass by me, voices, footsteps, everything blends together, but I can’t hear anything clearly.

Only… that emptiness.

411

”

That feeling that something broke, something important, something I don’t know how to fix.

I reach the hospital exit almost without realizing it, and push open the door. The cold night air hits my face.

I take a deep breath, but it’s not enough. It’s never enough.

I walk a few more steps to a bench and collapse, literally. As if my legs can no longer support me.

I rest my elbows on my knees and bring my hands to my face.

“No…” I murmur. “It can’t be…”

My voice breaks, and I close my eyes tightly. But seeing her… seeing her like this… it comes back again and again.

Her gaze, empty of me, unrecognized, unloved.

“She… she…” I swallow, but I

Can’t finish the sentence.

I can’t even say it out loud, because if I do… it becomes more real. And I don’t want that.

God, I don’t want that.

I feel something in my chest, a pressure. A pressure I already know.

716

O

<Chapter 335: Lonely, I Feel Lonely.

Guilt… Guilt that spreads, that burns.

“I should have gone for you…” I whisper. “I should have been with you…”

I squeeze my eyes shut.

Tears begin to flow uncontrollably.

“If I had been there…” my voice trembles. “If I had arrived five minutes earlier…”

I shake my head.

“None of this would be happening…”

The silence of the night surrounds me, but it doesn’t calm me, it’s useless.

Because the noise is inside me, and it doesn’t stop.

Then I feel a hand on my shoulder, I tense for a second. But I don’t move away.

I open my eyes and when I look up… I see her. Clara’s mother.

She’s there, looking at me with that mixture of pain and tenderness that only a mother can have in

a moment like this.

She sits down beside me, slowly.

“The doctors are going to examine her again…” she says softly.

I nod.

I don’t trust my own voice, so I bring my hands back to my face. And this time… I can’t hold it back

anymore,

I start to cry, truly, uncontrollably, without restraint.

“This can’t be happening…” my voice breaks. “It can’t be real…”

I feel her embrace, her arms around me. As if she’s trying to hold me.

“Oh, Ethan…”

Her voice is soft, pained.

“It’s okay…”

But I can’t, I can’t be okay.

“She…” I try to speak, but it’s hard to breathe. “She doesn’t recognize me…”

anart inside

Chapter 335, Lonely, I Feel Lonely.

“To her… I’m nobody…”

I close my eyes.

“Worse than nobody… I’m her past…”

My chest tightens.

“Everything we lived through… everything we built…” I shake my head. “I don’t exist for her…”

I feel her hand on my back, moving slowly. Trying to calm me.

“Ethan… look at me…”

I lift my gaze, with difficulty.

“You have to be strong…” she says. “For her.”

I let out a bitter laugh.

“Strong?” I murmur. “How am I supposed to do that?”

My voice trembles.

“How am I supposed to go in there… and act like nothing’s wrong… when to her I… am nothing?”

Silence.

She takes a deep breath.

“This is a process…” she says carefully. “The doctors will explain it better, but… these things happen

I shake my head immediately.

“No… no… this can’t be…

My voice breaks again.

“She can’t just… forget me…”

I lower my gaze.

“Not me…”

My chest burns.

“Not us…”

She takes my hand.

Chapter 335: Lonely, I Feel Lonely. “Ethan… listen to me…”

I look at her.

“I didn’t see anything strange…”

I frown.

“What…?”

“Before you arrived…” she continues. “She woke up… she was confused, yes… but calm…”

I swallow.

“Calm?”

“Yes…” she nods. “We talked…”

My heart races.

“About what?”

“About the accident…” she answers. “I explained what little we know…”

Her eyes cloud over.

“I told her about things… about her life… about us…”

She stops… She breathes.

“And everything was coherent…”

I stare at her.

“Coherent?”

“Yes…” she says. “She responded well… she remembered… she understood…”

My mind tries to process.

“So… why…?”

I don’t finish, but she understands.

“I didn’t realize…” she whispers. “I didn’t see anything strange…”

She squeezes my hand.

“Until you came in…”

The blow is silent, but brutal.

O

Chapter 335: Lonely, I Feel Lonely

“No…” I murmur.

“Ethan…”

“No…” I repeat, shaking my head. “It can’t be just me…”

My breathing quickens.

“It can’t be that… just me…”

My voice breaks.

“Just me…”

Silence falls between us, heavy, painful.

“Maybe…” she says carefully. “It’s temporary…”