He Sent Me Overseas to Marry Her, I’m Staying Overseas to Never See Him Again Chapter 10
Bennett’s funeral was painfully simple.
The Vale family was too terrified of the legal fallout to show their faces.
I stood in front of his headstone, looking at the photo of the man who had once seemed sø dazzling and untouchable.
In that moment, I suddenly understood why he had chosen to take his own life.
A man as proud as Bennett could not accept falling from such a height.
Even less could he accept that I had been the one to push him down.
His suicide was his final weapon against me, a desperate plot to shackle me with guilt for the rest of my life.
But as I looked at his photo, all I felt was calm.
“Bennett, you were still so selfish.”
I placed a bouquet of white roses in front of his grave and turned away.
When I got back to the office, Mina handed me a new letter of acquisition intent.
“Ms. Rowan, several of the senior executives back in the States want to restructure Stellaris.
They’re asking you to return and take charge.”
I did not even look at it.
“Tell them I’m no longer part of Stellaris.”
“Clearview Global’s future is international. I have zero interest in sweeping up the ashes of Bennett’s empire.”
Mina nodded and was about to leave, but then she stopped.
“Ms. Rowan, Tessa… she had a miscarriage at the hospital.”
I froze for a second.
“A miscarriage?”
“I heard the shock was too much for her. She was three months along.”
I closed my eyes, and something strange and heavy tightened in my chest.
Three months.
That meant before Bennett sent me away, he had already known Tessa was pregnant.
So that was the real reason he had insisted on getting hitched so fast.
He had not only wanted my technology.
He had wanted a complete family too.
He wanted everything from everyone, and in the end, he was left with nothing.
“Let her be.”
I waved Mina out.
The office fell quiet again.
I walked to the window and looked out at the glittering city.
The sunlight here was always so bright, but it still could not reach the shadows inside me.
A month later, Clearview Global officially went public on the international exchange, with me ringing the opening bell.
I became one of the youngest female CEOS in the industry, with countless headlines and honors wrapped around my name.
At the celebration dinner, Walter lifted his glass to me.
“Claire, you did it.”
I smiled and clinked my glass her from his. The whiskey burned its way down my throat, sharp enough to sting my nose.
“Yes,” I said. “I did.”
After the party ended, I drove to the beach alone.
The ocean wind was fierce, whipping my hair into a tangled mess.
I reached into my bag and took out the engagement ring I had carried with me all this time.
Seven years ago, Bennett had bought it with his very first paycheck.
It had cost next to nothing, but I had treasured it like something priceless.
I watched the ring catch the moonlight, giving off a faint, fragile shine.
Then I swung my arm hard and threw it into the endless dark sea.
“Goodbye, Bennett.”
I said it softly into the wind.
Without Bennett, without hatred, my life could begin again. I could go anywhere I wanted.
But I also knew some things would never come back.
When I returned to the residence late that night, I saw someone sitting by the front steps.
It was Miles.
He looked much older than before, and he was holding a worn cardboard box in his arms.
“Ms. Rowan, these are the things Mr. Hale left behind at the detention center.”
“I took them out quietly. I thought you should see them.”
I accepted the box.
Inside were only a few yellowed notebooks.
I opened the first one. On the first page, he had written:
[Claire, today is our one-thousandth day together.]
I turned the pages one by one.
Inside, he had recorded every little detail of our life together.
The day I got sick. The nights I stayed up late for a project. The day I smiled because of something he said.
On the final page, the date was the day he died in detention.
There were only a few messy words.
[Claire, I’m sorry. I lost the boy I used to be.]
I closed the notebook, and at last, my tears broke free.
Miles sighed and turned away, disappearing into the night.
I held that box and sat by the door for a very, very long time.
No one won this war.
Bennett lost his life.
Tessa lost her mind.
And I lost the purest part of my heart.
The next morning, the sun rose as usual.
I was still Ms. Rowan, decisive and merciless when I had to be.
Only on certain late nights, I would still think of the boy in that basement office.
He had smiled at me and said, “Claire, when I have money one day, I’m going to buy you the most beautiful diamond ring in the whole city.”
His voice had been so light.
But it echoed for a lifetime.