Those Seven Years Between Me and Him: From Lovers to Strangers

I looked up at Regina calmly, but I did not reach for the candy. "No. It is just a little sweet treat. When I was a child, I did not have much, so I treasured it. Now I have more than enough. I do not need it anymore, and I do not feel like I am losing anything by giving it up."

The sweetness of a single piece of candy was fleeting and cheap.

Regina's hand froze in midair. Her face went pale. In the end, she silently pulled her hand back, lowered her head, turned around, and hurried away.

I watched her leave, then looked down at the food on my tray, and found that I had completely lost my appetite.

I cleared my tray and returned to the office.

The key overseas project between the Lambert and Reynolds families officially kicked off, and everyone began intense work.

As one of the core leaders of the project, I brought my team to the site first thing in the morning, checking every piece of data and confirming every step of the process.

Everyone in the office was buried in work, rushing to meet the schedule, except Regina.

She sat at her desk, holding her pen without writing a single letter for a long time. Her eyes kept drifting past the crowd and resting on Kristian nearby as he was talking about work with the others in a meeting.

I stood behind her and watched for two minutes.

I knew that unmistakable look of admiration and dependence in her eyes too well, and she did not even bother to hide it.

I suppressed the messy and complicated emotion inside me and looked down at the parameters of the project on her screen she had entered.

"Regina," I said calmly. "Take a look at the data you entered. You can even make mistakes in such basic data verification work. What exactly were you looking at just now?"

Regina stiffened as she was being called out for her mistake in front of everyone. She immediately snapped back to reality.

Everyone around us turned to look at her. Her face went pale, her lips trembled slightly, and tears fell from her eyes the next second.

Kristian pushed through the crowd and stepped in front of Regina, shielding her behind him with an evident displeased look on his face. "It was just a mistake when entering the data. It happens all the time. She'll fix it, and it'll be fine. You do not need to be so harsh on her."

As I watched the scene unfold, countless old memories came rushing back in my mind.

Back when we worked together, even if I made a tiny mistake that did not matter much, he would never shield me.

He would frown and tell me that there were no lucky breaks in the business world, and that one careless mistake could ruin everything.

He used to be a man of principles. He hated nothing more than carelessness at work.

That was exactly why I had fallen for him.

He was a Reynolds, heir of the most powerful elite family. He could have spent his life indulging himself, yet he worked harder than anyone.

We were rivals, but we were also two of the few people in that world who were like-minded.

I had once believed that we were the most clear-minded people in this glittering world.

I looked up at him. "There are no lucky breaks in business. One careless mistake can ruin everything. Kristian, you were the one who told me that."

Kristian's body went rigid.

He stared at me blankly, as if he had recalled all those years we had spent side by side at those words.

But the guilt in his eyes lasted barely a second. The next moment, he turned to look at Regina, who had already run out of the office crying.

Without giving me another glance, Kristian immediately chased after her.

I suppressed all my emotions and finished the work I had, then went to the rooftop of the group's office building alone.

This place was my only haven.

For years, whenever the pressure from work became too much, I would come here to catch my breath.

It was a secret only Kristian and I shared.

But the moment I pushed open the metal door to the rooftop, I saw a slender figure standing in the wind.

It was Regina.

I felt devastated to find that he had told her everything.

Without me knowing, the secret that he and I had once shared had already been told to a third person.

Regina turned when she heard the door open, her face still tear-stained. "Elianna, please don't be mad. I was wrong just now. I was not focusing on my work."

I said nothing but simply looked at her silently.

She continued, "Kristian and I really did not mean for this to happen. We were both drunk that night..."

I cut her off directly. "Was that night the only time? Then what about the used condom I found in his car? Were you both drunk that time too? You were drunk, yet somehow you still remembered to use a condom?"

Regina's face turned even paler. After a brief pause, she continued. "I know you have always been good to me, but people cannot control who they fall for. I never truly meant to hurt you, so I do not think I truly wronged you. You are terrific. You are exceptional with your career, your connections, your abilities, everything. But I am not. I am ordinary, timid, and useless. I need someone to protect me. I appreciate everything you have done for me, and I will always remember that, but I do not owe you anything."

After hearing that, I suddenly wanted to laugh.

I had spent more than a decade giving my heart to her, but she thought that it had all been something she simply deserved. In the end, she even said she did not owe me anything.

Just then, the door to the rooftop opened again. Kristian walked in.

He looked at me. "Elianna, you are too strong-willed and aggressive. It seems like you never need me, and you can handle everything on your own. A lot of the time, I felt like you did not care about me at all. With or without me, you would still live your life just fine. But Regina is not like that. I am all she sees. Only when I am with her do I feel truly needed."

When I heard that, I finally laughed.

But as I laughed, tears began to fall.

He said I did not care about him.

But in seven whole years, he was the only person I had ever truly loved.

I never relied on him too much because I believed what we had was love between two adults, which should not be built on childish dependence.

I was afraid my vulnerability would become his weakness and my dependence on him would become a weapon someone else could use against him.

I never realized that he would take all my independence and strength as proof that I did not care about him.

And Regina was not some fragile, innocent woman. She had simply made a habit of choosing whoever could protect her best.

I wiped away the tears from the corners of my eyes and did not want to say anything more, knowing that when two people had completely different values, there was no point in saying anything at all.

I looked up at them and said calmly, "Are you finished? If you are, get out of my way."

This place had been my secret haven. But from this day forward, I would never come here again.

Without giving either of them another look, I turned and walked away from the rooftop.