?Chapter 751:


    “Ste… are you really going back to him?”


    That question—he had turned it over and over in his mind all night, and it had robbed him of sleep.


    His eyes searched her face, desperate, unyielding.


    “Does it mean that no matter what I do… you’ll never trust me again? That you won’t even give me another chance?”<fn0a38> N?w ?ovel chapt?rs are published on </fn0a38>


    William’s blunt question sliced through Ste’s defenses, ripping open everything she had tried so hard to bury.


    His raspy voice and burning gaze tightened around her heart like a steel vise, stealing her breath and making her pulse quicken.


    She stood rooted in ce, staring at him in stunned silence as a wave of bitterness—sharp and unfamiliar—flooded her chest.


    His hoarse question dropped like a stone into still water, shattering everyst trace of calm she had left.


    Unable to bear the disappointment swimming in his eyes, she jerked her gaze away, fixing it on the dim end of the corridor.


    Her voice turned cold. Freezing.


    “Go home, William. Stop wasting your time on me.”


    His shoulders jerked—almost imperceptible, but enough to make her chest ache.


    Ste forced herself to press on. The knife had to be quick and clean. She had to sever every lingering feeling.


    “I can’t be with you. No matter what you do, nothing will change that—you know it.”


    She swallowed her own heartache, ruthlessly pushing aside the chaos inside.


    “And Marc?” She scoffed softly. “There’s zero chance we’ll ever get back together. I’m only here because his grandfather was kind to me once. That’s it.”


    Marc… just the thought of him filled her with disgust.


    Before the divorce, she had given him chance after chance—until there were no more left. She would rather die than offer him another.


    Silence crashed over the corridor like a tidal wave. All Ste could hear was the thunder of her own heartbeat.


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    She didn’t dare look up. She couldn’t bear to watch the light drain from William’s eyes—couldn’t bear to see hope copse into despair. So she stood there, stiff as a statue, waiting for him to walk away.


    Seconds passed like torture.


    Finally, she heard a long, heavy exhale behind her, followed by footsteps retreating down the hall.


    No words. No pleading. William headed for the elevator, disappearing behind its silver doors without a nce back.


    The moment he was gone, Ste’s body buckled. Her back hit the cold wall as her knees threatened to give way.


    Rejecting the one man she had slowly started to care about… might have been the cruelest thing she’d ever done. A self-mocking smile tugged at her lips. The corridor was empty now—dim, silent, unforgiving. She stood there alone, cloaked in loneliness so thick it almost suffocated her.


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