The CEO's Regret: Darling, Don’t Leave Me novel Chapter 82

Chapter 60: A Huy and a Promise.–1

Ethan:

She woke up even later. I heard her coming downstairs when ! had been sitting in the dining room for a while, pretending to check my phone.

Actually, I was listening intently for any sound coming from the second floor. I haven’t been able to fully relax since the hospital. Every move she makes puts me on alert.

When I saw her appear at the end of the hallway, my chest immediately contracted.

She looked devastated.

It’s not just that she had puffy eyes or pale skin. She walked as if the world weighed more than her body could support. As if each step cost her a conscious decision.

Clara has always had a firm way of walking. Even angry. Even sad. But today… Today she seemed disoriented inside her own house.

She approached the dining room in silence. The maid hurriedly moved a chair and asked her if she wanted something for breakfast.

“I don’t want anything,” she replied in a low voice. “I’m not hungry.”

I felt the tension rise up my back.

Since her father died, I haven’t seen her taste a single bite. Not even in the hospital. Not even yesterday. Not even last night. And I know that her body is paying for it.

The employee insisted gently.

“Perhaps a little light, Miss Clara.”

She shook her head without even looking at the makeshift menu on the table.

“No, thank you.”

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I didn’t think about it anymore. I stood up and walked to the chair in front of her, but instead of sitting in front of her, I dragged the chair and settled down next to her.

“I think you should eat,” I said calmly, but firmly.

She didn’t look at me.

She was staring at some point on the table, as if she were absent.

“I haven’t eaten anything, Ethan, I don’t want to.”

“Precisely,” I replied, trying not to sound authoritarian. “You haven’t eaten anything since yesterday. You must be strong. Your mom needs you strong.”

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Chapter 60 g and a Pomure

That phrase made her blink.

But she did not change her position.

“I don’t have an appetite.”

I took a deep breath, holding back the frustration that wasn’t against her, but against the situation.

+25 Points

“Then ask them to prepare something that is what you like the most. Whatever. But you have to eat. Even if it’s just a little. Your mother is quite affected, Clara. This morning I spoke with her… she is more fragile than she wants to show. You have to be strong.”

As I said it, I felt the echo of the conversation I had hours earlier in the living room. Mrs. Sinclair confessing to me that she did not know how to live without her husband. That she was afraid of silence. That she stretched out her hand at night and found no one anymore.

Clara looked up. And when her eyes met mine, something inside me snapped. Because in her expression ! saw exactly what her mother had described.

Loss, emptiness, disorientation. And for a second… I put myself in her place.

Not as an ex–husband.

Like someone who also knows the empty side of the bed.

Since Clara left, many nights I have awakened by reflex and I have extended my hand to her space. And there is no one. Cold sheets only. Silence. A space that was previously filled with her breathing, her perfume, her warmth.

But I lost her in another way.

I lost her while she was still alive.

And that difference hits me now like a hammer.

If it were the other way around… if Clara had died… if she didn’t exist in this world… if there were no possibility of ever seeing her again, of speaking to her, of trying to repair what we broke… I would be dying right now. Because not only would I lose her, I would lose every chance.

And for two years I had her there… Alive, close. And I didn’t do anything.

I feel like a fool for having wasted time believing that there would always be more.

I swallowed hard.

I took her hand carefully.

It’s cold.

r

I hold her in mine and with my other hand I slowly climb up to her face. I rest my fingers on her cheek. Their skin is warm, but fragile.

Clara closes her eyes on contact. And that gesture completely disarms me.

Chapter 60 The and a Premise 1

Lgently struke her cheek, slowly, as if afraid it might break.

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Chapter 60. A mee and a Printse

Chapter 60: A Hug and a Promise.–2

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I watch her, the woman who was mine. The woman I still love, even though circumstances have separated

1. us.

“I’m going to help you,” I say quietly, but with a determination that comes from my chest. “I know that there are many things that are going to be difficult from now on, but I am going to put it all in front of everything.” She opens her eyes slowly. She listens to me.

“Your father’s company… If I have to face anything, I will do it. Work in New York. The contract with Nicanor. Don’t worry about any of that now. I’m going to take care of it. I’m going to figure it out.”

I’m not thinking about strategies or consequences. I just know that I don’t want her to carry more weight than she already has.

She looks at me as if she is trying to understand if I say it out of obligation or something else.

“I don’t want you to worry about anything,” I insist. “All you have to do now is be with your mom. And eat.

A

Even if it’s just a little.”

There is a silence that is not uncomfortable, but intense.

Then her lips move.

“Thank you for staying.”

Three words. Nothing else… But they beat me with brutal force.

Thank you for staying. She didn’t say thank you for helping. She didn’t say thank you for organizing.

She said for staying.

I feel something rise up my throat, before I can contain it, I lean towards her and hug her tightly.

Not a contained hug, a real one.

I put my arms around her completely and pull her against my chest.

“Never,” I say against her hair. “Do you hear me? I’m never going to leave you alone.”

My voice breaks, but I don’t care.

“Never.”

I hold her as if I fear she might disappear.

As if this time life might snatch her away from me forever.

She clings to my shirt

And for the first time since Mr. Sinclair died, I feel like the hug isn’t just comfort.

r

< Chapter 60–A and & Premise ?

It is a promise. And deep down, as I hold her, I understand something that scares me and sets me free at the same time.

There is still a chance, as long as she is alive. As long as I’m here, as long as I’m here too. I don’t intend to waste that possibility again,

I don’t let go of her right away.

I remain hugging her for a few more seconds; as if I needed to confirm that she is there, that she is breathing, that she is not a fragile image that can fade.

When I finally part, her eyes are still shining, but they are no longer empty. There is something different. I don’t know if it’s decision or just tiredness, but at least it’s present.

She wipes her cheeks with the back of her hand and takes a deep breath.

“Okay,” she says quietly.

I don’t immediately understand what she means.

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