The CEO's Regret: Darling, Don’t Leave Me novel Chapter 439

< Chapter 345-the Home

Chapter 345: Like Home.

Ethan

The drive felt endless, and at the same time… too short.

I didn’t know when we left the city behind and entered the mansion area. I only know that, when the gate opened in front of us, I felt something in my chest.

What is it? Is it relief?

No, it isn’t… because I don’t feel completely at ease. I think… it’s something more… tense, or perhaps uncertain.

I stopped the car and got out first, taking a few deep breaths, as many as I needed. As if that were enough to prepare myself. It isn’t…

I walked around the car and opened the back door.

“We’re here…”

My voice came out softer than I expected. Clara looked up at the house and stood there observing.

Her mother got out first, then she carefully followed, without rushing.

Her eyes slowly scanned the facade, every window, every detail, every corner.

As if she were searching for something, or confirming something.

She takes a few steps forward, I don’t move… I let her.

I need her to do it, to look, to feel, to… connect.

I just watched her and thought, you can… If you can… I know it would help if something inside her responds.

Finally, she speaks.

“I remember it…”

My heart stops for a second, just one.

“It looks the same.”

There it is… That silent blow.

The one that makes no sound… but destroys.

I swallow.

“Not entirely…”

I finally say.

<Chapter 345- Home

She havely turns her face toward me, not completely, just enough.

“What do you mearr?”

I take a couple of steps toward her, without intruding, without getting too close.

“You… made some changes.”

She stands still, waiting, so I point to the entrance.

“That painting…”

Her gaze follows the direction of my hand.

“It wasn’t here before.” I pause. “You chose it.”

I move a little closer.

“And the walls…”

I run my hand along one of them.

“They were darker.”

She frowns slightly.

“You changed them.”

Her gaze shifts, analyzes, compares. But she finds nothing.

I see it in her expression.

“The living room too…”

I continue…

“You moved the furniture. You said you wanted more light, more space, more… air.”

A small, sad smile forms on my lips.

“I didn’t really understand… but you insisted.”

Silence.

She doesn’t answer, she can’t because it’s obvious, isn’t it? She doesn’t remember.

And that… is palpable every second.

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Her mother watches us from the side, her eyes moving from Clara to me. And when our eyes meet… she smiles at me.

It’s a small, subtle smile… Like it’s encouraging me, like it’s saying “keep going,” like this… could still work.

1 look at Clara again; she’s still observing, but now it’s not curiosity.

It’s something more, something… unsettling. As if this place were speaking to her of a version of herself

Chapter 345-the Home

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she doesn’t recognize. As if it were showing her someone she doesn’t know if she is. And that leaves her… beside herself.

“Do you want to come in?”

I ask her, and she barely nods.

We go inside, silence greets us. But it’s not the same as before; now, this silence is more… heavy, more full of meaning.

She walks slowly, her steps soft on the floor, her eyes never stopping, she takes in everything… Too much, as if she needs to understand every corner, every object, every change.

I stay a little behind, watching her. More than the house, because now…

She is the mystery, not this place.

She stops in the living room, looks at the flowers, the colors, the details. Everything I prepared.

She doesn’t say anything, and I don’t know if that’s a good thing… or not.

“It’s… beautiful.”

She says finally, short, simple, and polite.

Not excited, not genuine.

“You did it this way…” I reply.

She lowers her gaze, as if that sentence weighed more than it should.

Why that gesture?

As if she didn’t want to carry that burden, as if she didn’t feel like that woman.

“I want to rest…”

She says suddenly, so her mother takes her arm and looks at me.

“Sure, that sounds good…”

Clara looks up at me, waiting for my answer.

“Ethan…”

I understand.

“Upstairs.”

I reply.

“The room… is the same as always.”

Clara looks up at me, and for the first time… There’s something clear in her expression.

Hesitation.

< Chapter 345-The Hom

The saine one?“

tnad.

“Yes.”

And then she says it.

“Will we sleep in the same room?”

The question hangs in the air.

That silence heavy with discomfort… so direct, so blunt, so unvarnished.

I bit my lower lip, felt my chest tighten, but I didn’t look away.

“We sleep in the same room.”

I don’t say “yes.” I don’t state it as something imposed, I just say it as a fact.

As something that is, or… rather, that was.

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