The CEO's Regret: Darling, Don’t Leave Me novel Chapter 382

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Chapter 291 A Clean Retreat.

Chapter 291: A Clean Retreat.

Alexander

The engine is still running, but I don’t move. My hands are gripping the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles are turning white. My breath is still heavy in my chest, ragged, labored… as if the fight

hadn’t really ended… As if it were still happening inside me…

I look ahead, at the empty road, the silence. And then… I slam the steering wheel. Once, then again.

“Shit! Shit!”

The sound echoes inside the car, but it’s not enough. It doesn’t release anything. It doesn’t change

anything.

I close my eyes tightly… And I see him. Ethan, his fist, his voice.

“So you never hit my wife again…”

I clench my jaw.

“Your wife…”

I let out a dry, bitter laugh. Because there lies the damned truth. She’s his wife, not mine, she never

was, she never will be.

I rest my forehead against the steering wheel for a few seconds, taking deep breaths, trying to regain control… but what rises isn’t calm. It’s something else, something heavier, more

uncomfortable… it’s defeat.

I slowly open my eyes, looking at my hands. They’re still trembling.

“At what point…?”

I don’t finish the sentence. Because the answer is clear: the moment I stopped playing fair. The moment I let everything become personal, the moment Clara stopped being a partner… and started being something I couldn’t have.

I clench my teeth.

“No…”

I shake my head.

I’m not going to fall for that. I’m not going to stay here like an idiot wallowing in self-pity.

I sit up in the seat, running a hand over my face, over my beard. Trying to compose myself.

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Chapter 291 A Clean Retreat

“You’re not defeated.” I say it quietly, but even I don’t quite believe it. Because if I’m honest… Ilut

everything. Clara, the company. My reputation is hanging by a thread. And now… even Ethan came

to set a damn boundary for me as if I were nothing.

My hands tense up again, but this time I don’t hit anything.

I just breathe slowly, controlled, like I always have. Because losing control… was exactly what

brought me here.

I glance in the rearview mirror. The face staring back at me has a faint trace of blood on the lip, a

bruise on the cheekbone.

I barely smile.

“Pathetic…” But not for him, for me. For having reached this point, for having let everything spiral

out of control like this.

I close my eyes for another second, and this time, when I open them… Something shifts. The idea

forms, clear, cold, logical.

“This won’t be fixed by fighting.”

I straighten my back.

I take a breath.

“It’s getting cold.”

Silence.

“And I need to disappear for a while.”

The word sounds strange even in my own head, disappear. I… But it’s the right thing to do, because staying… will only make everything worse.

The investigation continues. Clara has already made her decision, Ethan is ready to kill me if I go near her. So what’s the point of staying here?

None.

I won’t be running away, I simply won’t keep wasting my energy where I simply can’t do anything.

I start the car more firmly this time, but I don’t move immediately. I stay for a few more seconds, just one. The last one, because, even though I don’t want to admit it… There’s something weighing on me. Something that won’t go away so easily, Clara.

Her name pierces my chest like a thorn, her gaze, her voice, her rejection.

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Chapter 291 A Clean Retreat

I close my eyes for one more moment. I admit I felt bad for pushing her, but I couldn’t contro!iny Impulse and my strength. That slap wasn’t just to my face, it was to my ego too.

Yes, I messed up for a long time, but I tried to save her. I tried to save her from a man who doesn’t love her, who discarded her… because that’s just how he is. Ethan doesn’t deserve her… and I think,

I think I don’t either.

She’s too good for men like him and mie.

“That’s it.”

I say it like it’s an order. As if that’s how I can turn it off.

“It’s over.”

I start the car, this time for real. I merge onto the road and as I drive away… I feel like I’m not running away from myself, not exactly. I’m… retreating, withdrawing. Because this war… It’s not worth fighting anymore. Not for her, not for the company, not for anyone. And yet… There’s a truth I can’t deny, no matter how hard I try… Losing her…

Time away will force me to reinvent myself, time away will force me to restructure my life, my

plans, my projects.

I refuse to stay here, to be singled out and exposed to everyone. I wouldn’t forgive myself for that,

and neither would my mother…

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