Chapter 931: Chapter 931: Can You Love Me Again? (1)_1

His mind had no clear thoughts, just a hazy fog, instinctively he started the car, pressed the accelerator, and took to the road, heading toward his apartment.

While driving, his attention was somewhat scattered, either shifting into the wrong gear or taking the wrong route, circling the main road several times before finally finding the exit. Just as he was about to turn, for some reason, he got the direction wrong, and then the car crashed straight into the central guardrail.

The force of the collision caused Howard to lurch forward violently. When he lifted his head and stared at the blinking rear lights in front of him, it took him a long moment to come to his senses. Then a panic of desperation rose from the depths of his heart, realizing the mess he was in. Madeleine had found someone new to love and would likely soon enter into a new marriage. Now, he and she truly had no chance at all.

In his mind’s eye, he envisioned a day when he would come home late at night; she would emerge from the bedroom, groggy in her pajamas, and say to him, “Howard, have you come back?” No longer was this a possibility.

He longed for the nights when she, wearing an apron, would stand in the kitchen doorway, asking if he wanted a late-night snack. That too was gone.

The future he hoped for, the future he yearned for, the future he wanted with her, would never be theirs again.

Even if these events were to happen to her, they would only belong to another man.

He and she were once together, but why did it become such an unrecognizable situation once they parted?

Thinking this, he felt incredibly resentful.

But no matter how resentful he felt, what could he do? He had personally quashed her love for him, so could he now go and destroy her second chance at happiness?

These thoughts overwhelmed Howard, and he could no longer hold back, resting his forehead on the steering wheel.

The night had deepened, and the streetlights, spaced every few meters, illuminated the city roads with an intense brightness.

The man leaning on the steering wheel appeared calm, but his hands gripping the wheel trembled faintly.

–

In the days that followed, Howard and Madeleine, except for encountering each other during company meetings, never met alone again.

Even in those meetings, there was hardly any communication between them, not even an exchange of glances.

Howard had seen Andrew several times come to the company to pick up Madeleine after work, and on one or two occasions, he had encountered them dining at a restaurant. Truly, as Madeleine had said, Andrew seemed to treat her well, he was elegant and talented, and they looked well-matched.

Time flowed like a stream, and in the blink of an eye, Madeleine’s birthday arrived.

For Madeleine, turning thirty wasn’t something worth celebrating, so she firmly rejected the idea of throwing a party.

Instead, on her birthday, she invited some close friends to gather in a private room at The Sapphire Bistro to have a get-together.

Andrew had come specially from Oceania to celebrate Madeleine’s birthday, so naturally, he was part of the evening gathering on her birthday.

When Andrew drove Madeleine to the entrance of The Sapphire Bistro, coincidentally, Howard also arrived by car, and the three of them met face to face at the threshold of The Sapphire Bistro.

Howard, holding his keys out to the valet, froze for a moment.