Chapter 20
Blake and Ryan knelt on the cold, wet floor, staring at that closed door that would never open for them again, as if their souls had been completely drained.
After that night, Blake and Ryan collapsed like their spines had been removed.
Blake returned to Morrison Group.
He became even more silent and cold than before, ruthlessly inhuman.
He worked frantically, practically living at the office, filling every minute with endless meetings and tasks, trying to numb his dead, barren heart.
He became a perfect work machine-swift decisions, iron-fisted methods, expanding Morrison’s empire larger, accumulating
more wealth.
But beside him, there was no one. He refused all matchmaking and introductions, ice-cold to any woman who tried to approach.
His world contained only cold numbers, documents, and endless business warfare.
His emotional world? A lifeless wasteland-he never married.
Ryan went to the opposite extreme.
He completely abandoned himself, drowning in alcohol, parties, and countless men and women.
He spent recklessly, scandals constant, becoming a tabloid regular.
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He tried using the most extreme sensory stimulation to fill the massive void inside, escaping that bone-deep pain and regret through hedonistic oblivion.
But no matter how many people surrounded him, how drunk he got, his eyes stayed empty, finding no trace of real happiness.
He’d often stare out windows alone after wild nights until dawn, eyes holding only endless loneliness and emptiness.
He could never find anyone who made his heart skip again, never find a night that let him sleep peacefully.
Years later, at a top business summit, Blake, as a business titan, was the center of attention.
He moved through the crowd, face cold and imposing, no one daring to probe the emptiness deep in his eyes.
At the other end of the venue, Ryan had his arm around a popular actress, joking with people, playing the dissolute playboy-but that smile never truly reached his slightly clouded eyes.
The brothers accidentally spotted each other in the crowd, eyes meeting briefly before looking away coldly, like strangers.
All past grudges and obsessions had turned to ash in years of despair and their respective hells.
Midway through the summit, Blake’s assistant quietly approached with a whispered report.
Almost simultaneously, Ryan got a knowing phone call from one of his party friends.
The news was shockingly identical-
Madison had become a highly respected industry expert, leading important projects with an excellent reputation.
More importantly-she was married.
To a gentle, refined man from a good background, met through work, bonding over quiet compatibility.
No earth-shattering romance, just warm, steady mutual support and respect.
She lived peacefully, happily and securely.
In that moment, time seemed to freeze. The noisy venue went silent.
Blake’s wine glass trembled almost imperceptibly, the amber liquid rippling gently.
His cold mask cracked slightly, eyes churning with massive waves before settling into dead gray defeat.
He could picture her in a white wedding dress, giving another man the peaceful smile he’d never earned.
Across the room, Ryan’s flirtatious grin froze instantly, standing rigid in place.
His phone slipped from his hand and shattered on the floor.
The giggling women around him still laughed, but he found it grating. The whole world’s sounds faded away, leaving only the thunderous pain of his heart being hollowed out and a ringing in his ears.
He could picture her being carefully protected by another man, all the warmth he’d desperately craved but destroyed through his own actions, now given completely to someone else.
Both men unconsciously turned toward the same direction, as if they could see through walls to that figure and the happiness they’d forever lost.
They stood at the pinnacle of prosperity, holding endless wealth and power, but in that moment felt unprecedented poverty and desolation.
Their hearts contained only ruins buried by time’s sandstorm, and that eternal, bone-deep regret.
In the end, they understood what they’d done-
Lose her. Forever.
