Prime Priority - Chapter 9

---- Chapter 9 In the private hospital suite, the doctor had already finished treating Clayton's injuries. I sat at the bedside, watching the peaceful curve of his sleeping face, and finally let myself breathe again. Just then, there was a soft knock on the door. I opened it. Ethan stood alone in the doorway with his head lowered. The confidence he once carried was completely gone. "Laurel..." he rasped. "Can we... talk?" I glanced back at the sleeping Clayton, then stepped outside and closed the door behind me. He lifted his head, and his bloodshot eyes met mine. " Laurel, I was wrong.

After you left, I realized how completely I had failed you." His voice trembled with guilt. "I thought about how, no matter how late my meetings ended, you would wait at home to make me hangover soup. When my stomach problems got ---- worse, you learned to make special soups just for me. "T was a fool. I let Vivian blind me. I took your love for granted. I'm not asking for forgiveness. I'm only asking for a chance to make things right. I can give all my shares and assets to you." He stepped closer, trying to take my hand. His voice was raw with desperation.

"Just come back to me." I stepped back, out of his reach, my expression calm and cold. "Ethan, it's too late. You cannot make up for the child who died, or the five years of my life you wasted by using me as a shield. The Laurel who loved you died at the bottom of that cliff." The color drained from his face inch by inch. "And more importantly," I added. "I've already found the life that belongs to me. So let me go and let yourself go." He stood there for a long time, as if all strength had left his body. Finally, he lowered his head and whispered, "All right.

He lifted his head and looked at me one last time, his ---- eyes filled with a kind of fragility and despair I had never seen in him before. "T failed to protect you again today. I'll make sure Vivian pays for what she's done," he promised. "And from this moment on, I won't disturb you again. Then he turned and walked away. The man I had depended on for five years was now nothing but a lonely silhouette. One year later, Clayton and I were in our atelier office, reviewing new designs. Our jewelry brand had risen to become one of the top luxury houses in the world in just a year.

"T heard Ethan took full control of Fuller Group," Clayton said as he draped a shawl over my shoulders. "Tn the past year, he's become ruthless. He's now the new richest man." "He got what he always wanted," I answered calmly, then met Clayton's tender gaze and gave him a soft ---- smile. "Tt's all in the past." Clayton didn't say anything more. He simply held my hand gently. Sunlight poured through the office windows onto him and onto the sketches spread across my desk. They were our masterpieces, and also the future I built.