The CEO's Regret: Darling, Don’t Leave Me novel Chapter 96

Chapter 74: Businesswomen, Part 3.–1

Clara

The question is suspended between us.

“Are you going back to Ethan?”

My hand stops on the plate, I don’t raise my voice. I don’t smile, I don’t breathe faster.

I just look at her.

Vanessa holds my gaze with the firmness of someone who believes she has the right to an answer.

But something inside me is activated, it’s not jealousy, it’s not anger. It is memory.

+25 Points?

I remember years ago, sitting at a similar table, feeling that constant discomfort when she appeared too close to my husband. When she entered his office without knocking. When she called him at any time.

When her name slipped into conversations that didn’t include me.

I remember what it feels like to be the woman who asks.

And today, for the first time, I am not that woman. Vanessa clears her throat when she sees that I don’t

respond immediately.

“I say this because… I found out he sent you flowers the other day.”

Ah. So that’s it.

It is not a casual curiosity, it is confirmation.

She wants to know how much ground she has lost. I blink slowly.

Although, I felt that deep down she knew more than just flowers.

“Flowers?” I asked with genuine softness. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I see her react, it’s almost imperceptible.

But her fingers tighten slightly around the fork.

r

She didn’t expect that, she didn’t expect me to deny, she didn’t expect me not to offer context.

She did not expect to run out of information. And for the first time in a long time, I feel something dark

and small that doesn’t make me entirely proud.

Satisfaction.

I’m not going to give her what she wants, I’m not going to explain to her. I am not going to go into detail.

I am not going to confirm or deny anything beyond what I decide. For years, I was the one looking for

signs. The one that analyzed gestures, the one that interpreted silences, the one that tried to understand

what each closeness meant.

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< Chapter 74 Businesswomen, Part 3.–1

Now it’s her. And I’m not going to relieve the burden.

“thought that…” she begins, but she doesn’t finish the sentence.

I help her with a slight nod

“What?”

Her pride does not allow her to insist too much.

“Nothing,” she says finally, looking back at her plate.

I take the knife again and cut my flesh calmly. I’m not in a hurry.

I’m not acting, I’m choosing.

+25 Points

My inner woman – the one who felt small more than once, the one who doubted herself while another

woman occupied spaces that didn’t belong to her – doesn’t want revenge.

But if it wants balance, I don’t need to attack her. I don’t need to humiliate her… I just need to not grant her

access.

Vanessa was always confident, elegant. Owner of the professional land. But in the emotional field, she

always walked with an advantage because I felt at a disadvantage.

Not today.

Today the disadvantage changed sides. And I am not going to waste that by giving her certainties.

She drinks a longer sip of wine this time.

“I guess it was a misinformation,” she says with a controlled smile.

I do not contradict her. I do not affirm it.

I just hold her gaze.

The silence becomes uncomfortable for her first.

I know this because she moves her shoulders slightly, because she lowers her eyes before I do. Because it

needs to fill the space.

“Ethan’s been… different lately,” she adds.

I don’t answer.

Let her keep talking.

“More distant in the office.”

Interesting.

So she notices it. Of course she does.

“People change,” I say finally, in a neutral tone.

<Chapter 74 Businesswomen. Part 3-1

“Not so fast.”

+ cut another small piece.

“Sometimes yes.”

I don’t raise my voice, I don’t smile. But I don’t give in either.

Vanessa studies me as if she were trying to decipher if I am lying.

I’m not, I’m just keeping to myself.

+25 Points

For years, she had the comfort of knowing that her presence made me uncomfortable. I never said it

directly.

But I was sorry. And women perceive that.

We perceive when we are threat, and she enjoyed it. Now she feels the threat.

And I don’t intend to reassure her.

“I always thought you two were… closed off to the possibility,,” she says suddenly.

I close the knife and set it aside.

“Stories don’t always end when they seem to.”

My words are soft, but clear.

She holds my gaze again, there is no subtlety anymore. There is competition.

“I didn’t know you two were rewriting yours.”

And there it is, admission in disguise.

She knows that something is moving, and she wants to know how much. I lean back slightly in the chair

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< Chapter 74 Businesswomen, Part 3-2

Chapter 74: Businesswomen, Part 3.–2

“Vanessa,” I say calmly, “my personal life is not a public issue.”

It’s not aggressive, it’s borderline. She blinks once.

“I didn’t say it as a public issue.”

“Then even less…”

+25 Points

The table around it continues to talk about business, investments, markets. No one perceives the silent

battle that is going on between us.

But we do, she supports the fork.

“I just wanted clarity.”

That’s the key word, clarity. I loved it once too.

I wanted clarity when I saw her name on my husband’s phone, I wanted clarity when he was late from

endless meetings. I wanted clarity when I found that trace of lipstick on his shirt.

I didn’t get it, I got rational explanations.

Minimizations.

“You’re exaggerating.” Not today. Today I am not the one who seeks tranquility.

“Sometimes,” I reply softly, “the light comes by itself.”

And other times it doesn’t come, but I don’t add it. I don’t need to, Vanessa nods slowly.

She recomposes herself, returns to her impeccable posture. But something changed.

I see it in her eyes, for the first time she doesn’t feel safe. She doesn’t know… And not knowing is the place

where I lived for too long.

I do not wish to destroy her.

I do not wish to humiliate her. But I also don’t want to protect her from what she feels.

The woman I was cringed in her presence. The woman I am today is not.

I take my glass of wine and take a leisurely sip.

I walked out of the building and the night air hit my face.

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Barranquilla shone with scattered lights, humid and alive. As I walked to my car, I thought about the

question she had thrown as if it were casual.

Are you going back to Ethan? How did she know about the flowers?” I wondered, and deep down that

bothered me.

<Chapter 74–Businesswomen, Part 3-2

Hknow that this was going to reveal her more than any affirmation or denial.