The CEO's Regret: Darling, Don’t Leave Me novel Chapter 73

Decided.

Chapter 51: It’s Decided.

Ethan

The office is quiet, too quiet. Before, silence helped me think, today it locks me up.

+25 Points

I take off my jacket and leave it on the chair. I walk to the window. The city is still there, in that strong rhythm that demands to move with it… Everything works. Everything is moving forward.

Except this.

“It wasn’t just the work.”

The phrase repeats in my head, over and over and over again… It was not only the agenda. It wasn’t just the office, so what was it?

I lean against the desk, I remember dinners where she talked… and I answered without listening.

I remember decisions I made without consulting her, I remember social gatherings where I left her alone while I negotiated…

I remember assuming that she would always be there, always.

Maybe it wasn’t that I wasn’t there, maybe it was that I never put her first. The door opens without knocking.

Vanessa.

There she is, perfectly dressed, as always. Professional, impeccable.

She has some documents in her hand.

“I need your signature,” she says, setting the folder in front of me.

I nod without looking at her too much.

“I tried to call you on the weekend.”

I turn the pages without actually reading them.

“I was busy.”

Silence.

“Just that?” she asks.

Chapter 51: It’s Decided.

I look up. She watches me too closely.

“Yes.”

+25 Points

“I didn’t hear from you. I thought you’d be preparing the presentation for the consortium.”

“I did.”

“But you weren’t available.”

His tone is not accusatory, it is curious. That makes me more uncomfortable.

“I had something pending.”

She crosses her arms.

“Something professional?”

There it is.

Always direct.

“No.”

Vanessa studies me. And for the first time, I am the one who looks away.

“Has it to do with Clara?” she finally asks.

My silence does not answer, but she is not surprised either.

She walks to the window.

“You know this can complicate things.”

“This?”

“Whatever you’re doing.”

I clench my jaw.

“I’m not doing anything.”

“Then you’re thinking.”

That takes a short exhale from me.

Too well knows me.

“Lately I’ve seen you pensive, to be clear, I’ve seen you like this since she… she returned.”

Vanessa clears her throat.

<Chapter 51: It’s Decided.

+25 Points

“You two are divorced, Ethan… Don’t forget that things didn’t work out with her. You were not compatible, and well, surely there will be more things that led you to make the decision to separate.”

She comments naturally, as if she knows the exact reasons why we separated.

“Clara didn’t leave just for work,” I say more for myself than for her.

Vanessa does not speak.

“I thought so. That it was a matter of schedules, pressure… But it was not that.”

“And what was it?” she asks.

I look at her.

“I was the one who didn’t do things right.”

The word is suspended.

Vanessa barely blinks.

“You always chose what was convenient. You’re fine now and that’s what’s important. It means that your decision was the best one.”

She does not say it with reproach. She says this as a diagnosis.

“I put her on the back burner,” I continued. “And when someone lives too long in the background… she ends up leaving the stage.”

Vanessa is silent.

But something in her position changes.

“What now?” she asks.

Deep breath.

This is where everything is defined.}

“I want to try things again with Clara.”

Vanessa stands still. Her eyes open slightly.

“Are you kidding?”

I don’t answer right away, just hold her steady gaze.

“No.”

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Chapter 51. It’s Decided.

The silence becomes denser.

“After everything that happened… do you want to go back?”

“I can’t go back,” I say. “But I can try to do better.”

Vanessa lets out a brief, incredulous laugh.

“I thought you were finally focused.”

“I am.”

“It doesn’t seem so.”

She walks to the desk.

“She’s gone, Ethan. She made a decision.”

“I know.”

“And you’ve never been good at accepting that someone doesn’t choose you.”

That hits harder than it should.

I approach her.

“It’s not about me being chosen. It’s about the fact that I didn’t know how to choose her before. I didn’t know how to do things right.”

Vanessa looks at me as if she were seeing someone else.

“What if it’s too late? It’s been a long time, don’t you think? It is no use retrying something that did not work.”

The same question I asked myself last night.

“Then I’ll know I tried.”

I take the folder, sign without looking. I give it to her.

“I thought it was right to let you know.”

Vanessa holds the documents.

“Why?”

Because there was always a blurred line between us.

+25 Points

Because Clara could have felt something that I never saw. Because I don’t want to repeat the same mistake.

Chapter 51: It’s Decided.

“Because I don’t want there to be any misunderstandings.”

Vanessa nods slowly, professional again. But their eyes are no longer the same.

+25 Points

“I understand. So, you and she… did she give you a chance? Did something happen between

you?”

“Do you need me to sign anything else?”

She shook her head and headed for the door. Before leaving, she stops.

“If you’re going to do this, Ethan… Make sure it’s not out of pride. I know you better than yourself, I know you more than she does, don’t forget that. I know why you’re acting like this all of a sudden.”

The door is left ajar, her phrase floats in the air.

I know why you’re acting like this all of a sudden.

I stare at her.

“Oh, yes?” I ask, without raising my voice.

Vanessa does not move. She does not back down. She does not smile.

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