Contract Marriage: The President's Stand-in Lover - Chapter 23:

The Night That Fell Apart

The rain came suddenly, fierce and cold.

By the time Vianne burst out of the Gu Corporation building,

night had already swallowed the city whole. The fine drizzle stung her skin like needles,

soaking her hair, her clothes, her very bones. She didn’t bother with an umbrella.

She didn’t look back. She just ran-ran as if distance could tear her free from

all the memories crushing her chest.

Her heels slipped on the wet stone steps, nearly sending her tumbling.

Pain flared along her arm, but she bit her lip and kept going, stubborn as ever.

Her breath came fast and ragged, the neon lights around her melting

into smears of color through the blur of her tears.

She had said it at last.

The words she had been too afraid to face.

I love you.

And the moment they left her lips, it felt as if her soul had been stripped bare.

The sound of traffic roared in her ears. The wind carried the rain in sheets,

lashing against her face with icy cruelty. She didn’t know where she was running to

only that she couldn’t go home. Not to that hollow house,

not to any place that still carried his scent.

Back in the stairwell, Gu Chen stood frozen, his breath shallow,

the air thick with damp and anger.

He hadn’t moved for a full ten seconds after she fled.

Only when his assistant came rushing in did he realize that his hand was bleeding,

the skin torn and raw.

President Gu, your hand.

Get out.

His voice was hoarse, almost unrecognizable.

He stormed out of the building, eyes scanning through the sheets of rain.

Neon lights flickered in the distance, cars hissed by on wet asphalt, but there was no sign of her.

For the first time in his life, Gu Chen felt true fear. Not anger, not frustration raw,

suffocating fear. The kind that hollowed him out from the inside.

He fumbled for his phone, dialing her number again and again.

No answer.

Once. Twice. Three times.

On the fourth call, the line went dead she had hung up.

Standing in the downpour, his knuckles pale and trembling,

he didn’t even notice how drenched he was. Rain streamed down his face,

soaking through his shirt, but all he could see was the image of her crying at the stairwell,

those clear, breaking eyes staring up at him.

Her voice echoed in his head.

Gu Chen, what right do you have to stop me from leaving?

He had always believed that as long as she stayed by his side,

it didn’t matter whether love existed or not.

But now he understood.

If she left, his world would collapse.

The night deepened.

Vianne finally slowed at a narrow, unfamiliar alleyway.

Her whole body was drenched, hair plastered to her face, her limbs shaking from exhaustion.

She pressed herself against the cold wall and wrapped her arms around her shoulders,

the rain mixing with tears until she couldn’t tell them apart.

Her phone buzzed again and again in her bag. She didn’t look at it, just held it tightly,

her fingers numb from the cold.

On the glowing screen, one name kept flashing Gu Chen.

At last, her trembling hand lifted the phone to her ear.

She said nothing.

On the other end, all she heard was his rough, uneven breathing.

The rain was so loud it seemed to pour straight through the line.

Vianne, where are you?

His voice was low, raw, scraped thin by desperation.

She stayed silent.

Come back, he said finally, his tone soft but breaking.

I won’t let you suffer anymore.

Her voice came out barely above a whisper, worn and empty.

Gu Chen… do you know what I feel when I hear your voice now?

I feel tired.

The other end went completely still.

Some words, she thought, lose their meaning once they come too late.

She drew a shaky breath, her thumb hovering for a second before pressing the red button.

The call ended.

The screen went dark.

She closed her eyes and slid down against the wall, collapsing onto the soaked pavement.

The night pressed low above her, the air heavy with rain and silence.

Slowly, she felt herself sink—inch by inch—into the endless black.

Not far away, at the corner of the street, a black car sat idling in the rain.

Through the blurred windshield, Gu Chen stared at her small figure curled beneath the streetlamp,

unmoving, fragile as glass. His throat tightened,

a pain swelling in his chest that no storm could wash away.

In that moment, he finally understood.

He had loved her all along.

Only now, it was too late.