Chris stared at the closed door for a long time after Clara left.
The office felt strangely empty now, unnaturally quiet without the soft sound of her voice somewhere nearby.
Slowly, he looked down at the resignation letter still resting in his hand.
A bitter tension settled in his chest.
He hadn't expected this.
Not from Clara.
She had always stayed.
No matter how difficult things became, no matter how impossible his schedule was, Clara remained beside him with unwavering loyalty. He had grown so used to her presence that he stopped questioning it years ago.
Maybe that was his mistake.
He loosened his tie slightly and walked back toward the window.
Outside, the city moved normally, unaware that something inside his carefully ordered life had shifted.
His thoughts drifted unwillingly toward Valerie.
Valerie Sterling.
His childhood friend.
His first love.
The woman who had owned his heart for as long as he could remember.
Even when life pulled them apart temporarily, even when work consumed him completely, his feelings for Valerie never changed. In his mind, there had never truly been room for another woman.
Which was exactly why he never noticed Clara.
Not really.
He noticed her work.
Her efficiency.
Her calmness under pressure.
But her?
No.
And now he realized how cruel that must have been.
Chris closed his eyes briefly, recalling Clara's cold expression.
All while he was planning a future centered around someone else.
His jaw tightened.
The truth was ugly.
His family had been pressuring him relentlessly about marriage and an heir. The company board wanted stability. His grandfather wanted the Lawson bloodline secured before retirement discussions began.
And Valerie—
Valerie had another man in her heart.
She only saw him as a friend only.
She loved him in her own way,in a way normal friend loves their friends.
So Chris had started considering alternatives.
Cold ones.
Practical ones.
A contractual marriage.
A woman respectable enough to stand beside him publicly, give birth to his child, and separate peacefully afterward once everything was settled legally.
No love involved.
No emotional complications.
Just an agreement.
And without realizing how deeply twisted it was—
he had thoughts of how he should marry Clara even though he knew he wouldn't love her.
A humorless laugh escaped him for the thought when he came into realization.
God.
He would just hurt himself and Clara.
The thought sat heavily in his stomach.
Suddenly, fragments from earlier replayed in his head.
"You only noticed after losing me."
"You remember the blood."
"For six years."
Chris pressed his fingers against his temple.
For the first time, he began seeing things he should have noticed long ago.
The way Clara always remembered exactly how he liked his coffee without asking.
The way she waited for him after late meetings even when everyone else had gone home.
The exhaustion she hid behind professionalism.
The softness in her eyes whenever he looked at Valerie.
And somehow—
he had missed all of it.
Or perhaps…
he simply chose not to see it because his heart already belonged elsewhere.
His phone vibrated suddenly against the desk.
Valerie.
A picture of her smiling brightly when she was in her teenage age,flashed across the screen.
He remember he wasn't the one who made her smile then. It was Ian McKellen.
Normally, he would have answered immediately.
Today, he only stared at it.
Because for the first time in years, the certainty he carried about his future no longer felt as steady as before.
And somewhere far from his office, Clara sat alone in a coffee shop in silence, unaware that the man she spent six years loving had finally begun to see the shape of the pain he has entered 💔💔💔.