The CEO’s Unspoken Love (Eleanor and Derek) novel Chapter 133

Chapter 133

Derek POV

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I sat in my car across from Four Seasons Florals, the engine running just enough to keep the heat on while snow collected on the windshield. Through the shop’s illuminated windows, I could see Eleanor sitting alone, reading a book, occasionally glancing up at

the falling snow. The sight of her-so peaceful, so beautiful, so utterly unaware of my presence-made my chest ache with a longing

I had only recently allowed myself to acknowledge.

Tonight was Christmas Eve. More importantly, it was Eleanor’s birthday-a date I had never properly celebrated during our marriage

but one I would never forget. I had learned from her assistant Rachel, who I’d bumped into at a coffee shop two days ago, that

everyone at the flower shop had been given time off for the holidays. Eleanor would be spending her birthday alone.

I looked down at the small velvet box beside me. Inside was a sapphire pendant, I’d spent hours selecting it, discarding options that

felt too impersonal or too presumptuous. But now I sat paralyzed, unable to cross the street and give it to her.

“Give her space,” I had promised when I last saw her at the flower shop. The memory of her tired eyes and weary voice asking for just that-space-had haunted me for days. I had agreed, forcing myself to stay away despite every instinct screaming to do the opposite. Three days of respecting her wishes while feeling like I was slowly dying inside.

I turned up the car’s heat, rubbing my hands together as I continued my silent vigil. The last few weeks had been a disaster of my own making. My “campaign” to win Eleanor back had been relentless-waiting outside her house each morning, following her to work, showing up unannounced. I thought persistence would prove my devotion, but all I’d managed to do was push her further

away.

My thoughts were interrupted by movement across the street. A familiar figure approached the shop, and my hands instinctively

tightened on the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white.

James Fort.

Even through the snow and darkening evening, I recognized him immediately. He carried a small box-a cake, I realized with a sinking feeling. Of course he would know her birthday. Of course he would know exactly what to do, while I sat uselessly in my car

with a gift I didn’t have the courage to give.

I watched as Eleanor looked up, surprised by the door chime. Her face transformed with a smile-not the broad, unguarded one I once took for granted, but a gentle upward curve of her lips that still managed to illuminate her entire face. She let him in without

hesitation.

“Why him?” I whispered to the empty car. “Why does she welcome him while pushing me away?”

But I knew the answer. James had never hurt her. James had never treated her marriage as a burden, never fled to another country to escape it, never left her alone for years only to return and expect everything to be as I wanted. James hadn’t spent years taking

her for granted.

I should leave I had promised her space, and sitting here watching her through a window was the opposite of that. It was borderline

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Chapter 133

stalking, and I knew it. But some desperate, irrational part of me needed to see-needed to know if there was still any chance for

me at all.

Through the window, I could see James opening the cake box, lighting a single candle. Eleanor closed her eyes to make a wish, and I found myself holding my breath. What was she wishing for? Was I part of that wish, or had she finally, completely written me out of

her future?

When James reached forward to wipe the cream from the corner of her mouth; I felt a stab of jealousy so acute it was physically painful. The casual intimacy of the gesture, the way Eleanor didn’t flinch away-it spoke of a comfort between them that I had

squandered in my own relationship with her.

And then James leaned in and pulled Eleanor into an embrace, kissing her.

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14:16 Thu, Jul 2 MAA

The CEO’s Unspoken Love