Chapter 13
Tina didn’t overthink it. After making a pot of ginseng chicken soup, she brought it to Clay.
He only took a sip; the slightly oily taste hit his stomach, instantly killing his appetite and making him feel a bit nauseous.
“Something’s off with this flavor.”
Clay frowned, slamming the bowl to the floor. The butler and Tina looked at each other, both embarrassed and helpless.
“Mr. Sterling, I followed Ms. Moore’s recipe exactly. I really tried my best,” Tina said, trembling, fearing for losing her job.
Clay furrowed his brows and stormed into the kitchen, following the steps I’d taught him.
“No! No! This is all wrong!”
He smashed bowl after bowl, his frustration mounting.
The process was identical, but the soup tasted completely different.
Was it because I wasn’t there?
The more he thought about it, the angrier he got, smashing the entire kitchen into chaos.
“It shouldn’t affect me! I only love Riley!”
He repeated this to himself, eyes red.
After a long while, to numb himself, he drove to the company and finished all the pending work piled up over the past few days.
For days, Clay almost lived at the office.
But with my resignation, the atmosphere had changed.)
Projects kept failing, collaboration among employees was less harmonious, and conflicts and arguments grew more frequent.
Bang!
In the conference room, Clay slammed a proposal onto the table.
“Is this your attitude toward the National Park project? If the next proposal is still at this level, then none of you need to bother working here anymore!”
“This bid deviates from our plan. How did you verify it? Such elementary mistakes! I need to reassess your capabilities!”
“Who’s in charge of the negotiations for this project?…”
The entire conference room fell silent, so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
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Every project lead and department head was berated.
Everyone wanted to bury their heads in the ground, feeling the meeting was painfully torturous.
Finally, Clay dismissed the meeting with a dismissive wave.
Everyone hurriedly fled the room, as if released from prison.
Clay exhaled deeply, slumping weakly into his chair.
After I left, his life had changed drastically.
The colleagues who fought alongside him, who shared everything, were gone.
Everyone was timid around him; efficiency plummeted.
Even at home, it was the same scene.
Though there were servants, the place still felt cold and empty.
The weather had also been gloomy for days.
Back then, he was disabled in both legs. I found a famous doctor to treat him, and he got better, but he was never the same.
Bad weather still caused him pain.
These days, the pain in his legs was especially intense and hard to bear.
“Ugh…”
Clay, overwhelmed, slumped his legs, but the pain didn’t ease at all.
“Maya…”
He murmured my name weakly, his longing growing stronger.
He even remembered how my soft, warm hands massaged and acupuncture on his legs.
But now, I was gone, completely done with him.
Everything around him was a mess–every aspect making him miserable.
The anxiety and depression I once calmed down now flared up again.
At this moment, Clay finally realized that it wasn’t that I couldn’t live without him, but that he couldn’t live without me.
After I left, his life was totally chaos–everything just didn’t feel right anymore.
