Leandro no longer woke to the weight of meetings, reports, or investor demands. The heavy suits were gone, the endless calls silenced. For the first time in years, his mornings stretched quietly before him.”
And instead of contracts, he chose a canvas.
The brush trembled slightly in his fingers the first time he picked it up again. He hadn’t painted in so long–years, perhaps decades. Emerald had once teased him about it in college, about how he could capture sunsets better than any camera. “You paint like you’re in love with the world,” she had told him once, her own fingers stained with watercolor.
Back then, they would sit together for hours in the studio. Sharing brushes. Arguing about colors. Laughing until their sides ached. That was where their bond had first been forged–not in wealth, not in power, but in the simplicity of creating something together. She had believed in him when he was nothing. She had given him her inheritance, every cent, telling him it was for their future. He had wasted it.
Now, the smell of paint and turpentine grounded him. He worked in silence, strokes of blue and green bringing back memories of her. For once, there was no board, no title, no empire to hold. Just him, his grief, and the ghost of a woman he had loved and destroyed.”
“Sir?” a voice interrupted gently. It was Mateo, his butler, hovering at the doorway with a clipboard. “Your calendar is still full meetings with the board, investors demanding statements, the press asking for-“”
Leandro lifted a hand. “Cancel them all.”
“Sir?”
“I said cancel them. I’m done wasting my days bowing to men who never cared about this company more than their profits. I’ll stay here.” His gaze drifted back to the canvas. “This house has taken enough from me. I don’t intend to lose what’s left.“” Mateo hesitated but nodded, scribbling notes quickly. “Very well, sir. And what of your schedule for the week?“&
“Clear it.” His voice softened then. “Instead… arrange the west wing. The spare room. Fill it with her things. Gwen’s drawings, her toys. Emerald’s old sketches I kept locked away. I want it all there. A place for them.”
The butler’s chest tightened, but he bowed. “Yes, sir. I’ll see to it.“”
When he left, Leandro leaned back, staring at the streak of blue across the canvas. For the first time in years, his house would no longer be a monument to his ambition–it would become a shrine to the two souls he had lost.”
But Nadine did not share his desire for peace.
She lingered around him constantly, her voice dripping with need. “Leandro,” she whispered one evening, slinking into his studio uninvited. Her figure was framed in the doorway, clad in lace so thin it was more suggestion than clothing. “Don’t you ever get tired of painting? Don’t you miss… other things?“”
Leandro’s jaw tightened. He set down his brush slowly. His eyes, however, betrayed him–sliding briefly over her body, hunger flickering despite himself. Nadine noticed, of course. She always noticed. With a sly smile, she stepped closer, swaying her hips, her perfume heavy in the air.”
Her hands rested on his shoulders. “You promised me marriage,” she purred, her lips brushing against his ear. “A future. Isn’t this what we’re supposed to share?”
Leandro didn’t move. Didn’t resist when she straddled him, her warmth pressing into him. His body betrayed his restraint, his pulse hammering.”
But when she leaned close and whispered his name, his response was not what she wanted.!!
“Emerald…” he groaned, eyes shut, lost in a memory that wasn’t hers.
Nadine froze. The name sliced through her, a reminder of the ghost she could never exorcise. She kissed him harder, almost violently, as though she could erase the other woman from his lips.N
But no matter what she did, the name fell again in his low, ragged moans. Emerald. Always Emerald.!!
When it ended, she collapsed beside him, tears spilling down her cheeks. “You bastard,” she choked, her voice trembling with fury. “You still love her! She’s dead, Leandro, dead! And yet you won’t see me–you won’t love me! What am I to you? Nothing? Just a body you use when you’re lonely?“”
Leandro sat up, his face cold, his chest heaving. “I told you from the beginning,” he said flatly. “We will co–parent. Nothing more. I will care for our child. But love? Marriage? That will never happen. Not with you.”
“You can’t just change your mind!” Nadine screamed, slamming her fists against his chest. “You promised me! You owe me, after everything I’ve done for you–after all I’ve sacrificed!”
“I owe you nothing,” he snapped, grabbing her wrists and pushing her away. “If you want riches, find another man. I’m no longer the CEO. I have nothing to give you but this child, and even that, I will raise myself if I must.”
Her face twisted in rage, in humiliation. “You’ll regret this, Leandro! I’ll make you regret every word!”
But his expression didn’t change. He turned back to his easel, back to the strokes of his brush, as though she were nothing
but noise.
་་་་་་་་ན་ ག་ང་ན་
but noise.
That was what broke her.”
Nadine stumbled out of the studio, rage burning her throat raw. She cursed him. Cursed Emerald, cursed the world that had never given her enough. The servants scattered in fear as she stormed down the hall, hurling vases, overturning tables, her screams echoing through the estate.
“Ungrateful bastard! All of you! I gave everything and I’m still nothing–NOTHING!“”
Her body shook with the force of it, her vision blurred. And then, as if her fury had drained every ounce of strength from her, her knees buckled. She collapsed onto the marble floor, gasping, clutching her stomach..
By the time the maids rushed to her, Nadine had already fainted, her
escaped her mouth–words not of love, nor anger, but despair.”
“Why… am I never enough?“\
body limp, her lips trembling with the last words that
