Ethan Yu stood still, his expression blank—but his eyes, dark and fathomless, flickered with restrained fire.
"What exactly did I do to you, Hailey?" His voice was quiet, but cold. "To make you look at me like that. Like I'm a monster."
It wasn't a rhetorical question.
He truly wanted to know. Because right now, the woman in front of him seemed to be carrying a lifetime of wounds—and he had no idea how he'd caused them all.
Hailey Tang didn't respond. She just turned her face away, wiping her tears on the back of her hand like she was tired of being caught crying.
"You didn't do anything," she said finally, her tone flat. "That's the problem."
"What?"
"My biggest mistake wasn't anything you did to me," she continued, still not looking at him. "It was loving you in the first place."
The words landed like a knife—swift, sharp, and merciless.
Ethan stiffened, the air leaving his lungs.
He almost laughed, but there was nothing funny about the ache spreading in his chest.
So that's how it was.
She was the one who'd chased him relentlessly. Who had clung to him through rejection after rejection. Who said she didn't care if he loved her back—just being with him was enough.
And now?
Now that he'd finally decided to let his guard down, to give her the thing she always claimed she didn't need—
Now she was saying it had all been a mistake.
He clenched his jaw, biting down the surge of disbelief and anger crawling under his skin.
So what was this? A game?
You want him when he's cold, and the second he warms up, you spit him out?
"Is that it?" he asked harshly, grabbing her wrist—not with cruelty, but with desperation. "You're upset because I never gave you a clear answer back then?"
Hailey didn't flinch. She just looked at him like he was a stranger in her memories.
Dead eyes. Hollow eyes. Eyes that had once been bright with hope, now dulled by exhaustion.
"I'm not asking for your love anymore," she said. "It's too late."
He exhaled, jaw trembling with restraint. "Then… let's start over. Hailey. Let's just—try. For real this time."
It wasn't a grand gesture. It wasn't a dramatic confession.
But for Ethan Yu, it took everything he had to say those words.
He'd never been good at emotion. At softness. But this… this was him trying.
And yet—
Hailey didn't even blink.
She just pulled her hand away like his touch burned her.
"Ethan," she said, her voice like ice cracking. "Do you know what the one thing I've been certain about lately is?"
He didn't answer. He couldn't.
"I want a divorce," she said. "And I will never change my mind."
The room turned to glass. Cold, fragile, ready to shatter.
"I'm warning you," she added, "don't fall for me again. Because I'll never love you back. Not now. Not ever."
Her words were final. Brutal.
And for the first time in his life, Ethan Yu—CEO, heir, untouchable—looked like a man who had just lost everything.
His face twisted, rage flickering beneath the surface. "You really hate me that much?"
Hailey didn't speak.
"You think this is fun?" he hissed. "Tearing me apart piece by piece like this?"
Still, she said nothing.
"Fine," he snapped, the fury in his chest finally breaking loose. "You want out? You've got it. Let's get divorced. The sooner the better."
Without waiting another second, he turned on his heel and stormed toward the door.
His steps were loud. Final.
And when the door slammed behind him with a resounding BANG, Hailey Tang finally collapsed.
She dropped to the floor like a puppet with cut strings, arms wrapped tightly around herself as the tears came uncontrollably.
Hot. Silent. Endless.
She sobbed into her knees, not caring how pathetic she looked. Because this was it. The dam had broken.
All the pain. All the bitterness she'd been holding in since her rebirth—it finally overflowed.
She had told herself she wouldn't cry. That she'd moved on. That she could handle it now.
But the truth was—she still remembered everything.
She remembered the nights spent waiting alone.
She remembered begging for his attention, his affection, and getting nothing but polite indifference in return.
She remembered the loneliness of being married to a man who made her feel invisible.
And in the end, she remembered how she'd died, with her heart full of regrets, and his name still on her lips.
Maybe she was foolish for loving him.
But he had been cruel for not even trying to love her back.
If only… if only he'd given her just a little warmth in that past life.
If only he'd looked at her—not as a burden, not as an obligation—but as someone he could maybe, possibly care for.
She might have lived differently. Might have smiled more. Might not have done all those stupid, desperate things to earn a sliver of his affection.
But now, even if he was finally ready to love her…
She didn't want it anymore.
He was too late.
She hated that it still hurt. She hated herself for still crying.
But most of all—
She hated Ethan Yu.
Not because he was evil. Not because he was cruel.
But because his indifference had buried the girl she used to be. The one who loved too much and hoped too hard.
…
Ethan didn't come back that night.
He didn't call. Didn't text.
Instead, he took his team out for dinner. A big celebration for the project's progress.
He didn't mention Hailey once.
Didn't even look back at the hotel.
It was easier this way. He told himself that over and over.
She wanted out. He'd give it to her.
Even if every step he took away from her made his chest feel like it was caving in.