The CEO's Regret: Darling, Don’t Leave Me novel Chapter 99

Chapter 77: Fears.-1

Ethan

I saw her before she got up, it was not what she said. It was how she said it.

+25 Points

In the cafeteria, when she mentioned Vanessa, Clara held the cup with both hands. Her fingers looked calm, but her thumb stroked the edge in slow circles. That gesture.

That damn gesture. I had seen it before… The last time I saw her was the night she told me she was

leaving.

That night when I was convinced that she was exaggerating. That it was just a tantrum. That Clara would

never be able to break what we had built.

I remember her calm voice, too quiet.

“I can’t go on like this anymore, Ethan.”

I thought it was an emotional threat. I thought that the next day everything would return to its place.

She did not return.

That night she had the same expression I saw today in the cafeteria; a dangerous serenity. It wasn’t anger.

It wasn’t jealousy, it was decision.

When she said, “You don’t owe me any explanations anymore. Not anymore.”

Something inside me tightened. Because that “no longer” sounded definitive.

Like the one that time, I saw her get up. Be grateful for the coffee, leave without looking back.

And for a second I felt exactly the same as that night in the bedroom when she closed the door with the

suitcase in her hand.

Fear.

Not to lose an argument, to lose her.

I paid the bill almost without thinking. I went out behind, but kept my distance. I didn’t want to appear

impulsive.

Until I saw her get into her car, start the engine, drive away. And that’s when fear ceased to be rational.

The image was superimposed on my head: her back crossing the door of our house with that same irreparable calm.

No, not again.

I got into my truck and followed her, not with the intention of pressuring her.

With the intention of making sure that I was not repeating the same mistake of months ago: staying still

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while she left believing that she was exaggerating.

+25 Points?

The distance between us was just three cars. Her red taillights were the only thing I could see clearly. And

I thought…

If I let her go now… what if there’s no return this time?

When I took the exit to the main avenue felt something that I did not feel even in the toughest negotiations of my life: lack of control.

I wasn’t calculating, I wasn’t measuring consequences.

I was just reacting.

I called her, when she answered, her voice sounded calm.

Too quiet.

She pulled over. And my heart was beating faster than it should. Not for running. Out of anguish.

I got out of the truck and walked to her car.

As I got closer, I remembered that night of the divorce. I remembered how I stood, convinced that she wouldn’t really leave.

I was wrong.

This time I wasn’t going to sit still, I touched the glass with my knuckles.

She rolled down the window. Her gaze was firm. Controlled.

But I saw the sparkle in her eyes.

The same glow of the day she told me she was leaving, and then I understood why I was really following

her.

It wasn’t because of Vanessa, it wasn’t because of pride.

It was because when Clara adopts that calm… She has already made a decision.

And I couldn’t let that decision be to leave my life for good without having tried to stop her.

The conversation progressed. We talk. I told her about the number. I tried to show her that I was setting

real boundaries. But when she first raised the glass and ripped off a few inches before stopping again, I

felt a twinge in my stomach.

As if the past were repeating itself frame by frame, then I did the only thing I didn’t do that night.

I stopped her again, went around the front of the car. I touched the glass again, firmer.

I wasn’t going to let the distance grow silently.

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Chapter 77 Fears- !

“You didn’t need to change your number,” she says at last.

“Yes, I needed to.”

“Why?”

I take a step closer. My voice is low.

+25 Points

“Because when you told me she knew too much- I understood that I failed more than I thought. And I

don’t want you to look at me again with that doubt.”

My pulse quickens from the intensity with which she is looking at me now.

“And do you think changing a number erases what happened?”

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Chapter 72 Fears–2

Chapter 77: Fears.-2

“No,” I deny. “But it shows that I’m willing to do concrete things. Not speeches.”

The wind moves her hair and for a second I forget everything I should say next.

Because the truth is not elegant. The truth is raw.

+25 Points

“Vanessa is not the problem,” she finally says, and her voicè no longer sounds curt, it sounds honest.

I frown.

“Then what is it?”

She holds my gaze. It does not dodge. She does not protect herself.

“That feeling I used to have… if I am not enough.”

The phrase hits me harder than any accusation.

Because it was never my intention to make her feel that way.

But the intention does not change the effect.

“You were never insufficient,” I reply, almost automatically.

She bows her head slightly.

“But I felt that way.”

And therein lies my mistake. Not in what I did only… but in what I allowed to grow among us.

Silence settles in for a few seconds. Cars pass by, the city is still alive, but for me only it exists.

I take another step toward the car door.

“When I saw you in the cafeteria…” I begin, and my voice is no longer firm, it’s real, “you made that gesture.”

“What gesture?”

r

“The one with the cup. That of moving the thumb in circles. You did it the night you told me you were leaving.”

I see her blinking.

She didn’t expect me to remember that.

“That day I thought you were exaggerating,” I continued. “I thought you’d be there the next day. That you weren’t able to leave… looking at your finger while you were talking to me, twirling your thumb over your dress and… that gesture.”

I swallow hard.

“I was wrong.”

Chapter 72 Fears- ?

She doesn’t speak.

But she doesn’t look away either.

+25 Points

“I saw you the same today, I confess. “And when you got up and walked out without looking back… I felt

the same as that night.”

“That’s why I followed you,” I admit. “Not because of control. Not out of pride. Because when you adopt

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