After I Proposed Breaking Off The Engagement, Don Regretted It Chapter 08
Six months later, every partnership between the Ferrante family and the Crowe family had been dissolved.
My engagement to Silas was nothing but a piece of scrap paper.
The tower was mine now.
I stood by the floor-to-ceiling window on the 28th floor, holding a glass of wine.
The TV in the room was playing financial news:
A massive accounting hole had been discovered in one of Ferrante’s companies. It was on the verge of bankruptcy.
When Silas called, I picked up.
I expected him to hate me.
The Ferrante family had made a lot of enemies. Once I stopped being their Consigliere, it was inevitable that some of those enemies would strike.
I hadn’t warned Silas. I’d just stood back and watched.
But his voice was full of relief — and barely hidden hope.
“Marlowe, you’ve always paid back every slight. So why didn’t you go for the kill? Why leave Ferrante some assets to survive on?”
“You can lie to yourself, but you can’t lie to me.”
His voice shook. “You still love me. Don’t you?”
I looked down from the 28th floor. The people on the street looked tiny. And the past — those times I’d cried silently against this same window — felt very far away now.
I let out a breath so soft you could barely hear it. I wasn’t sure if I was saying it to Silas or to myself.
“All these years, my feelings for you were always one of two extremes. Sometimes I loved you. Sometimes I hated you.”
“But not once — not for a single second — did my heart ever stop beating for you, pathetically.”
“But today.”
I pressed my hand over my heart and smiled.
“Today, it’s finally calm.”
On my eighteenth birthday, Silas had saved me from fate.
He kept me from ruin. From heartbreak.
And now, by leaving the Ferrante family those last surviving assets, I’d repaid him.
I said softly, “Now. We’re truly even.”
Silence on the other end of the line.
I opened my mouth and closed the door on thirteen years of entanglement.
“Silas. Let’s never see each other again.”
I hung up.
Caius wrapped his arms around me from behind.
At that exact moment — fireworks exploded outside the window.
Old memories always get buried under new ones.
Every day from now on would be brighter than any firework.
…
What happened to Silas:
Ferrante was on the edge of bankruptcy.
His phone was blowing up from every direction.
There was so much he should have been doing.
But Silas just went home.
Back to the home — his and Marlowe’s home.
Marlowe was merciless to her enemies, but inside their home, she’d had a surprisingly romantic side.
In the beginning, she’d loved decorating the place with little touches.
Flowers. Rugs. Paintings…
But later, neither of them had ever come back.
Silas hadn’t paid attention back then. But now, her traces followed him everywhere.
Like needles, thousands of needles, stabbing through his heart.
Silas raised his left hand. He remembered not long after they’d gotten engaged.
Marlowe had leaned against his chest, holding his left palm in both hands. She’d examined it with the same curiosity as a kid watching ants. “Silas, your scar looks so long from this angle.”
She’d stared at it, her lashes trembling slightly.
Then she’d kissed his palm, carefully and preciously.
The speaker was still playing Marlowe’s favorite song.
Soft. Slow. Like a promise that no one was waiting for anymore.
Silas sat in the empty room, looking down at his palm.
Five years ago, Marlowe had left a kiss there.
He hadn’t kissed her back.
But now, there was nothing in his palm.
No kiss from her.
No engagement ring.
No woman who would always turn around and come back to him.
Silas slowly closed his eyes. He lowered his head and kissed his own palm.
A late kiss landed where it was supposed to land.
No one saw it.
And no one would forgive it.
Marlowe had once been the easiest person for Silas to keep.
But now, she was the one he would never get back.