Chapter 2 — The Man Who Finally Understood

Elena’s company, Hart & Vale, had become one of the fastest-growing investment firms in the region.

Daniel couldn’t understand how she had achieved so much in only three years.

Then he discovered the truth.

While he had been rebuilding his reputation after their divorce, Elena had started from nothing.

She had rented a tiny office.

She had worked eighteen-hour days.

She had lost deals.

She had been rejected by investors.

She had cried alone in hotel rooms after difficult meetings.

But she never went back.

She built her company piece by piece.

And eventually, people stopped calling her Daniel Cross’s ex-wife.

They started calling her Elena Hart.

One evening, Daniel found himself standing outside her office.

“I wanted to talk.”

Elena continued reviewing documents.

“About the acquisition?”

“No.”

She looked up.

“Then what?”

“Us.”

Her expression remained calm.

“There is no us.”

Daniel swallowed.

“I know I hurt you.”

“You did.”

“I regret it.”

“I know.”

His eyes lifted.

“You know?”

“Yes.”

“Then why won’t you give me another chance?”

Elena closed the folder.

“Because regret isn’t the same thing as change.”

Daniel had no answer.

He had spent three years thinking about the night she left.

He remembered every small thing he had ignored.

The way she used to wait for him at dinner.

The coffee she prepared before his morning meetings.

The messages she sent when he traveled.

The way she celebrated every promotion he received.

He had mistaken her patience for weakness.

Now he would have given almost anything to hear her complain about his late nights again.

But she didn’t need him anymore.

And that was the punishment he had never imagined.

A month later, Daniel heard another piece of news.

Elena was engaged.

The man was Adrian Vale, the founder of a respected technology company.

Daniel saw their photograph online.

Elena was smiling.

Not the polite smile she gave him.

A real smile.

The kind Daniel hadn’t seen in years.

He stared at the picture for a long time.

His assistant noticed.

“Sir?”

Daniel closed the screen.

“Nothing.”

But it wasn’t nothing.

For the first time, jealousy burned through him.

Not because another man had taken his place.

But because Daniel finally understood that someone else was giving Elena the happiness he had once assumed she would wait forever to receive from him.

That evening, he went to a restaurant where Elena and Adrian were having dinner.

Daniel stood across the street.

He watched Adrian pull out Elena’s chair.

He watched him listen when she spoke.

He watched Elena laugh.

Daniel suddenly remembered how many times Elena had asked him to have dinner with her.

How many times he had said he was too busy.

Now another man was enjoying the moments Daniel had thrown away.

He turned around and walked back to his car.

For the first time in his life, Daniel cried over something money could not buy.

A second chance.