Chapter 21
When Daniel Reed walked out of the detention center, it was as if his very soul had been hollowed out.
He stood in front of the towering headquarters of the Whitmore Group, gazing up at the building that now seemed impossibly out of reach, clutching in his hand a letter filled with his remorse.
The autumn wind tossed his messy hair as he called Claire Whitmore’s number over and over again, only to be met each time with the cold, mechanical busy tone.”
For three days and nights, he waited outside the building. Finally, on the fourth morning, he saw her car.
When the window rolled down to reveal her cool, composed profile, Daniel lunged forward as if grabbing at his last lifeline. “Claire! I was wrong! I know I was wrong! Please… give me one more chance-“}
The car didn’t stop. From the open window came Ethan Cole’s calm, unyielding voice: “Mr. Reed, the past is over. Don’t disturb her life again.“}
The black Bentley glided away, leaving Daniel collapsed on the pavement, tears streaking down his dirt–covered face.
Without Sophie Lane’s false “support” and with his reputation ruined by the kidnapping case, Daniel’s company plunged into crisis.
Investors withdrew, banks called in their loans, and employees resigned en masse.
He sat dazed in his empty office day after day, with neither the will to manage nor the ability to salvage anything.
When news came that the company’s cash flow had completely dried up, he felt no anger–only numbness–as he signed the bankruptcy papers.\
The grand empire he once dreamed of had crumbled into nothing but debt and a bitter joke.
Six months later, the city buzzed with talk of the wedding of the century–Whitmore Group’s president, Claire Whitmore, marrying Ethan Cole on a private island overseas.
The ceremony was broadcast live on massive screens worldwide. In the video, Claire wore a flowing white gown, her veil draped gracefully, her face glowing with serene happiness.
Ethan held her hand, his eyes brimming with tenderness.
The wedding was a gathering of the world’s business elite–luxurious, romantic, and suffused with the beauty of being cherished.
Crowds filled the streets to watch from giant outdoor screens.
Daniel, wrapped in a tattered coat he’d picked up somewhere, huddled in the shadows of a corner.
Onscreen, the bride’s smile shone brighter than he had ever seen
He thought of the nights she ate instant noodles with him, the lamplight when she stayed up late revising his proposals, the look in her eyes when she lost their daughter… His chest tightened as if pierced by countless needles, the pain so sharp he could barely breathe.
2
Someone in the crowd recognized him and pointed. “Look, that’s Daniel Reed. Heard he used to be married to Ms. Whitmore…“Z
“Yeah, and he threw it all away. Serves him right…”
The words cut into him like knives, but he no longer had the strength to lift his head in protest,&
niel
When the wedding broadcast ended, slowly, shuffling away through the crowd.
se
No one knew where he went. Some said they saw him boarding a train out of the city; others claimed he froze under a bridge one winter night and never emerged again.
In time, his name faded into silence, drifting away like a speck of dust in the wind.
A year later, Claire Whitmore gave birth to a healthy baby boy in the hospital.
Ethan cradled the newborn, then gently placed him beside her. Sunlight streamed through the floor–to–ceiling windows, illuminating the smiles of a family of three.!!
Claire stroked her son’s cheek, her eyes calm and tender after all the storms she had endured.”
The pain of the past had been washed into distant memona
by time. Her true new life was only just beginning.
