Westley You Are Late Chapter 34
Six months later, the first phase of the project was successfully completed.
At the celebration gala, I stood on stage with the first page of my proposal projected on the screen behind me.
There was still only one name on it: mine.
When I finished my speech, the applause went on for a long time.
My parents sat in the front row.
Thatcher sat beside them.
He wasn’t there as the president of the Sinclair Group, but simply as my husband, his attention fixed on me for the entire presentation.
After the event, I saw Westley standing at the edge of the crowd.
He was quieter now, more subdued.
He kept a respectful distance between us.
“Congratulations,” he said.
“Thank you.”
After a brief silence, he asked in a low voice, “If I hadn’t gone to Sofia that night… would we have been different?”
I thought about it for a moment.
“It wasn’t just that one night.”
He looked up.
“It was every night.”
Westley froze.
I didn’t elaborate.
Over five years, he had made so many choices.
Every single time, he knew I was waiting for him.
And every single time, he chose someone else.
Now that the outcome was laid bare, there was no point in asking “what if.”
Westley nodded slowly.
“I understand now.”
He stepped aside, clearing a path for me.
This time, he didn’t try to stop me.
Thatcher was waiting not far away.
When he saw me approaching, he held out his hand.
“All talked out?”
“All talked out.”
I placed my hand in his.
It had just rained, and the night air was crisp and cool.
Thatcher took off his coat and draped it over my shoulders, carefully adjusting the collar.
“Ready to go home?”
I looked out at the rain-slicked street, gleaming under the city lights, and thought of a year ago.
Back then, I’d thought I only had two years left to live.
I’d also thought that losing Westley meant losing my entire future.
But now, I had my health, my family, and a career I had built with my own two hands.
And I had someone who would always be waiting for me outside the doctor’s office.
I tightened my grip on Thatcher’s hand.
“Let’s go home.”
Side by side, we walked out into the night.