But he didn’t have to treat her this way. If he really, truly didn’t want to be with her, he could have just said so. She would have stepped aside for them...
This was just breaking her heart...
She grabbed her bag, stood up, and walked out the door.
When the round ended, Leo Joyce looked up and saw that the woman on the sofa was gone. He stood, exchanged a few words with the others, and then left.
Once outside, he saw Tiana just reaching the top of the stairs.
He frowned deeply, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he followed her.
By the ti he got downstairs, Tiana had already hailed a taxi and was gone.
Worried, he got in his car and followed close behind.
Leo didn’t relax until he saw her get ho safely.
He leaned back in his seat, pulled a cigarette from his pocket, and lit it.
Gloom settled in his eyes...
’I’ve never felt like such an asshole...’
’Loving one woman, yet being drawn to another...’
’I’ve always known what I wanted. I’ve always been so sure of who I like.’
’But now...’
’This feeling is horrible...’
He needed ti to co to terms with the situation.
’I know it isn’t fair to Tiana, but I really need ti to heal...’
By the ti he’d finished the pack of cigarettes, it was already past ten o’clock. He glanced toward the Grayson Family’s ho, let out a self-deprecating laugh, started the car, and drove away.
「Newcroft, Villa District.」
Tristan Grayson brought Kiki into the house. As he looked around, his eyes filled with a bottomless sense of desolation.
"Daddy, Kiki won’t leave you," Kiki said, looking up at Tristan Grayson, his voice choked with emotion.
"Good boy, Kiki. Daddy won’t leave you, either." A warmth spread through Tristan’s chest as he crouched down and pulled Kiki into a tight embrace.
"SOB..." Kiki’s eyes reddened, and he began to cry, burying his face in Tristan’s shoulder.
’Even though I know that bad woman can’t take away anymore, I’m still so, so sad...’
Listening to Kiki’s sobs, Tristan was on the verge of tears himself, but he had to stay strong.
’If I start bawling like Kiki, we’d just be a truly pitiful, pathetic pair...’
Kiki cried for a long ti before falling asleep, nestled in his father’s arms. Tristan carried him upstairs.
When he opened the bedroom door and looked inside, an uncontrollable pang of pain shot through his heart again.
The few days she had spent with them after her return now felt like a dream.
She had returned so suddenly, only to leave just as abruptly.
He laid Kiki on the bed, tucked him in, and then turned to leave the room.
Leaning his back against the wall, he pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket with his left hand. With so effort, he lit one and began to smoke it slowly, puff by puff.
His eyes were bleak and sorrowful, and his entire figure seed utterly pitiable.
His brow was tightly furrowed as Ian Shaw’s words echoed in his mind.
Ian had asked him if he really couldn’t live without that woman.
’I desperately want to say yes. That without her, I truly don’t know how to live, or what the point of living even is.’
’But I can’t be that selfish. I still have my family, I still have Kiki...’
’But I also know that, for the rest of my life, I’ll probably never find a reason to live again...’
’Because she’s gone...’
「One month later. LK Group, CEO’s Office.」
Ian Shaw burst in, newspaper in hand, looking thrilled. "Tristan, look! Lately, our LK Group’s stock price has been closing in on the IS Group’s!"
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