The CEO's Regret: Darling, Don’t Leave Me novel Chapter 67

Chapter 45: A few “simple” messages.

Clara

We were about to enter the house when my phone vibrated in my coat pocket.

+25 Points

I don’t usually check my cell phone when I’m with someone. Much less here. But something in the insistence made me take it out.

When I see the screen I realize that it is a message from him… Ethan.

Just seeing his name made something in my chest tense immediately.

Alexander kept walking a few more steps before noticing that I had fallen behind.

I opened the message.

“Where are you?”

Nothing else… It was simple, direct, without greeting.

I swallowed hard, I didn’t respond. But when I wanted to take it back to my coat, the phone vibrated again almost instantly.

“I went to your apartment. The secretary of your building gave me your address.”

The air went out of my chest. I opened my eyes wide and read again.

Another message.

“You’re not here.”

And then:

“Are you with him?”

I looked up instinctively. Alexander was with his back turned, opening the front door. The spotless house behind him. The structure. Order.

My phone vibrated again and I felt nervous. Despite not having anything with him, that he is part of my past, I felt something strange in me, as if I was doing something wrong.

“Answer me,

Clara.”

It was not a claim. It was an urgency…

I felt something I hadn’t felt all morning, an accelerated pulse. Yes, that’s… it was my heart churning like crazy.

Chapter 45: A few “simple” messages.

“All right?” Alexander asked from the doorway.

I put the phone away.

“Yes.”

I lied… We enter.

+25 Points

I tried to focus on the conversation his mother had picked up in the living room, but my mind was elsewhere.

In someone who does not measure his messages. That he does not calculate times, that he does not write perfectly.

Why did he go to my apartment? Why did my secretary give him my address?

The phone vibrated again.

This time I couldn’t ignore it, I immediately took it out and read.

“Tell me you’re not starting a relationship with him. Is that it? Is that why you said all those things to me that day?”

That’s where I got out of my mind. Because he knew, he knew exactly where to play.

I got up.

“I’m going to take a breath for a moment,” I murmured.

I went out into the garden and got far enough away to respond to messages.

I answered,

“I’m out of town.”

The response came almost immediately.

“With him?”

I closed my eyes and didn’t answer.

The next message took a few seconds longer.

“Clara, answer me. You read my messages and you don’t say anything. Is that it?

I read and read, but I couldn’t answer.

I swallowed again and when I was about to answer a “it’s none of your business” or “it’s not your problem” the following message arrives.

2/5

Chapter 45: A few “simple” messages.

“Don’t let me lose you without fighting.”

My breathing changed.

It wasn’t jealousy, it wasn’t possession… It was fear, a real fear, but fear of what?

+25 Points

I wanted to fill myself with courage, this doesn’t have to be his business, Ethan can’t ask me for explanations.

“What the hell is wrong with him?”

The phone vibrated once more.

“If you’re trying to convince yourself that it’s easier with him… tell me the truth. But don’t leave me thinking that I was never enough for you to stay.”

I rested my hand against the trunk of the nearest tree.

I read that message again and just didn’t want to respond, not here.

The wind moved the branches above my head and the lake, a few meters away, seemed too calm for what was going on inside me.

I read the last message again.

“But don’t leave me thinking that I was never enough for you to stay.”

My chest tightened. My fingers trembled a little, I knew he was waiting for an answer, but…

I let out a sigh and shook my head.

“Not here,” I said aloud this time to convince myself.

Not in the house where everything had order and logic and structure. Not while someone, miles away, was writing to me with their heart in their hand.

I turned off the screen, breathed and that’s when I heard footsteps on the gravel. They were not rushed. They weren’t heavy…

I knew who he was.

They were safe.

“Clara.”

I turned too fast.

a

Alexander stood a few feet away, his hands in his trouser pockets, watching me with restrained attention.

Chapter 45: A few “simple” messages.

“Are you okay?”

I nodded too quickly.

“Yes.”

His gaze narrowly lowered to my hand, the phone.

+25 Points

Without thinking, I took it to my coat pocket. The movement was automatic. Instinctive.

As if I had been caught doing something wrong, as if I had to hide it.

When I looked at him again, his expression hadn’t changed… but something in his eyes does.

He didn’t ask who, he didn’t ask what was going on, he didn’t ask for explanations.

“Is it your father?” he asked calmly.

That question threw me off.

I denied.

“No.”

There was a second of silence. A long one. Dense… I think I should have said that he was my

father.

Alexander took a step closer, but kept just the right distance.

“If you need to leave earlier than planned, we can do it,” he said.

There was no reproach, his words were his, of that Alexander I met in the city… There was no

pressure.

“No need,” I replied, feeling my pulse still racing under my skin.

He held my gaze for a few more seconds, as if he were evaluating something that didn’t quite

fit.

He knew he wasn’t my father.

He didn’t need to ask to understand it, but he chose not to go deeper.

He chose to respect. And that choice… It made me feel worse. Because I was hiding something.

Not an act, not a betrayal. But it is an emotion.

“It’s cold,” he said finally. “I don’t want you to catch a cold.”

4/5

< Chapter 45: A few “simple” messages.

So simple.

He held out his hand, not to demand anything from me, just to escort me back.

“Come on, don’t stay here.”

I looked at his hand and felt a little guilty for taking it, but why?

I picked it up and felt the phone again, but I think it was paranoia.

+25 Points

His skin was warm. As we walked towards the house, I felt the weight of the phone in my pocket as if it was burning. As if it were a block that led there.

Alexander didn’t ask again, he didn’t mention the gesture, he didn’t change the tone.

But the silence between us was no longer the same.

I don’t know why, but I felt that, from those messages, something would change. That returning to New York, to work, would no longer be the same.

Ethan wouldn’t be the same.

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