CEO Ex-Husband, Don't Bother Me-Chapter 86 - 84: Fatal Misunderstanding 3

He suppressed the sorrow in his heart and asked her,

"Where do you want to go?"

She thought for a moment.

"Syan, I think. It’s my father’s homeland, after all. I want to live there. I think the nursing skills I’ve learned over the years should be enough to support me, right?" 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Tyson agreed.

"Alright. Contact us once you’ve settled in."

The day after Naomi Shaw left with Dylan, Julian Donovan received an email from her lawyer with the divorce agreement. He stared at the computer, so furious and resentful that he wanted to smash it with his fist. ’She’s really ruthless.’

He bought a plane ticket and flew back to Thailos. Just as she was about to head out with Dylan, he appeared before her, travel-worn, and blocked her path.

"We need to talk!"

She just looked up at him, her eyes devoid of any emotion.

"When Juliet Jennings is completely out of your heart, then we can talk!"

He was furious that she brought up Juliet Jennings again. After she had left, he had already had a final confrontation with Juliet, telling her that he wouldn’t care about her anymore, whether she lived or died.

She pulled her hand away from his grasp.

"If you have anything to say, take it up with my lawyer!"

Naomi Shaw took Dylan’s hand, lowered her head, and walked away. Julian Donovan stared at her resolute back, feeling a sense of defeat. ’Maybe it’s for the best if we separate for a while to cool down,’ he thought. He never expected she would choose to leave Thailos, much less that she would encounter a shipwreck on her journey and be lost to him forever.

In the end, they signed the divorce papers. The root of their problems was that he had made it clear from the beginning that he didn’t love her. This caused her to feel insecure and to distrust him completely. She believed it was impossible for him to ever fall in love with her, so she refused to believe his explanations. He, in turn, was too arrogant and not a man who excelled at expressing his feelings; he felt that saying something once should have been enough. She couldn’t see the sincerity in his heart and grew to believe he was just going through the motions. This drove her deeper into despair, and they ended up locked in a cycle of hurting each other.

Julian Donovan called a press conference and, in a fit of pique, took over The Shaw Dominion. Her decisive departure after the press conference caught him off guard. Then, the news from Tyson about her shipwreck shattered him. If Ken hadn’t been there to stop him, he really would have shot Tyson dead.

When Dylan heard about the shipwreck, he cried all night long. He cried until his voice was hoarse and he could barely breathe. No one could console him. Julian stayed by the little boy’s side the entire night, his own heart twisting in agony. Memories of his time with her replayed in his mind, one after another.

The shyness when she first bumped into his arms. The pain and beauty of their first time together. The way she looked when she lowered her head and smiled softly. The way she looked when she cried from being wronged. The way she looked as she carefully ironed his shirts. The way she looked when she cooked for him with her own hands. The way she looked when she called him "Julian" so gently. The countless versions of her he could no longer enumerate...

He had thought he remembered nothing about her, yet it was all so clear.

He sent people to search the entire sea where her accident occurred, but they found nothing.

Only when love is gone does one truly understand the pain of being abandoned by it.

Three years. For some, it’s the blink of an eye. For others, each day feels like a year. While it might not be a pain so great one wishes for death, every day, every second, feels impossible to endure.

Julian Donovan belonged to the latter group.

Guilt and self-blame tore at his heart, especially whenever he faced Dylan.

He never dared to mention her in front of Dylan, because Dylan would always say with solemn stubbornness,

"Mommy isn’t dead. I’ll definitely find her!"

Only when she was gone did he understand what "gone" truly meant.

He didn’t know how to make Dylan accept this cruel reality. He could only choose silence, allowing the six-year-old to use his own various connections to search for any news of her.

He had searched too, but after countless fruitless attempts, he lost the courage to continue. He had nowhere to vent his pain, as everyone around him condemned him for his heartlessness toward her. He could only turn to cigarettes and alcohol to drown his sorrows.

In these three years, Felix Draper and Sarah Sutton had divorced, Caleb Rhodes and Lillian Huxley had finally gotten their happy ending, and Henry Hale had remained single.

He and Felix Draper went from being rivals who were always at each other’s throats to brothers in misery. Felix was a bit better off than him, though; he dared to admit he had ultimately fallen in love with Sarah Sutton, whereas Julian lacked the courage. After attending Shani Linton’s wedding, the four friends had a rare get-together at a bar for drinks. Felix drank too much and sat there, wailing like a banshee.

"I want my Sarah..."

No one paid him any mind. Caleb Rhodes just looked at Julian Donovan.

"Julian, you can’t just stay single like this forever..."

Henry Hale, who never spoke a word about love, suddenly gave Julian Donovan a deep look.

"When you love someone in your heart, how could you possibly find someone else!"

Julian Donovan froze, a sharp pain stabbing at his heart.

Love?

He loved her?

He had fallen in love with her?

’No! He never thought he could fall in love with her.’

’But if it wasn’t love, why had his heart ached for all these years? Was it really just guilt?’

He drank one glass after another with a self-mocking sneer. ’So what if he had fallen in love with her? She was no longer in this world. He didn’t even have the chance to repent or make amends...’

Because of Caleb Rhodes, Julian Donovan had taken in and saved a girl named Willow Summers. Later, after Willow recovered and returned to her country, Dylan, for some reason, insisted on going back with her. Julian thought about it; he had property and a butler in Wincastle, and Caleb Rhodes and Felix Draper could help look after Dylan, so he agreed.

Although his mother, Jean Coleman, was also in Wincastle, he had never mentioned to her that he’d had a marriage and a son, afraid it would make her sad for him. Besides, he didn’t have the courage to bring it up. Mentioning all that would inevitably lead to mentioning the child’s mother, so he just kept putting it off.

He only told Jean Coleman that he had opened his own hospital. He never mentioned a single word about his years in Thailos. For Jean, who had high expectations for him since he was a child, knowing he had started out in the criminal underworld would surely be a disappointment.

Jean Coleman used the money he had given her over the years to open an orphanage, taking in and caring for homeless children. As a former nurse herself, Jean was very skilled at this kind of work and found great joy in it. He had originally wanted her to live out her golden years in peace, but seeing her like this, he didn’t stop her.

As for Dylan’s return to the country this time, he was thinking that once he finished up the work at hand, he would go back to Wincastle and take Dylan to meet Jean Coleman. After all, he couldn’t keep avoiding it forever; what had to be faced, must be faced. He would confess everything to Jean—that he had failed her, missed his chance with her, and lost her.

After Dylan returned to Wincastle, Julian Donovan would call him every night. He was incredibly good to Dylan, trying to make up for all his guilt by doting on him. That evening, when he called again, the butler answered. He was a bit puzzled.

"Where is the young master?"

The butler stammered,

"The young master... is already asleep..."

He glanced at the time and frowned.

"It’s only seven o’clock. He’s asleep already?"

The butler hesitated for a moment before speaking.

"Sir, I heard from the driver that the young master went to see a woman today. He cried the whole way back. After he got home, he wouldn’t say anything and just locked himself in his room. We’ve been calling for him, but he won’t come out!"

The phone in Julian Donovan’s hand slipped from his grasp and fell to the floor. He felt his heart clench tightly, then begin to pound violently, so hard he felt like he was suffocating.

He knew Dylan’s personality better than anyone. If it wasn’t someone or something important, he would be completely unfazed, let alone cry. And the only woman who could make Dylan care enough to cry... was her.

’Could it be? Did Dylan find her?’

Suddenly, he didn’t have the courage to think about it any further. He bent down, picked up his phone, ended the call, and threw himself onto the sofa. Through a thick haze of smoke, he gloomily raised a hand to stroke the Buddha Beads on his wrist, remembering the moment she had given them to him.

Her shy, smiling face, her expectant gaze as she looked at him, and her heartbroken expression after he refused her. After she left, he found them in a drawer and, for some reason, kept them. He had worn them ever since.

The next day, Julian Donovan booked a flight back to Wincastle anyway. When he saw Dylan, the boy’s eyes were still swollen; it was clear he had cried hard the night before. Dylan’s eyes were just like hers—they would always stay red and swollen for a while after crying. It reminded him of their days together, of the times she would cry after he angered her, only to appear the next morning with swollen eyes to make him breakfast.