Contract Marriage: The President's Stand-in Lover - Chapter 25:

Love and Repentance

Gu Chen had never known time could move so slowly.

The day Lin Vianne left, he stood outside Song Qian’s apartment for three hours straight,

watching sunlight shift from soft white to a burning gold.

Only when her car disappeared completely from view did he finally turn away,

feeling as if his soul had been quietly stripped out of him.

When he returned to the Gu residence, the house felt unbearably empty.

The living room was silent, untouched. On the coffee table lay the folder she had forgotten to take,

and tucked inside was a photo the one a reporter had captured of them at a charity gala.

In the photo, he was leaning down to fix the collar of her gown.

She was looking up at him, smiling.

That smile so gentle, so real hit him like a blade. He realized, with a crushing ache,

that it might be something he would never see again.

That night, Gu Chen sat alone in his study, a single lamp throwing a faint glow across his sharp

features. On the desk lay another photo the one he had kept hidden,

the one that had caused her to misunderstand him.

The woman in the picture did resemble Lin Vianne.

Her name was Shen Sheng, the girl he had once loved and lost in his youth.

Back then, he had just started his company, obsessed with structure and numbers.

Shen Sheng, free-spirited and brilliant, had chosen art and the pursuit of her own life.

In the end, she went to Paris.

He had tried to bring her back. But she had looked him in the eye and said softly,

Gu Chen, I don’t want to live in a world you’ve calculated for me.

That was the day he decided love was unnecessary. That control was safer.

But years later, he met Lin Vianne. And in her clear, stubborn eyes,

every defense he had built began to quietly crumble.

He never dared admit it. He was terrified that if he did,

he would lose control completely.

He truly believed he could keep love on a leash.

Now he finally understood he was the one who had lost himself.

In the days that followed, he went to every meeting,

spoke with his usual calm precision, and convinced everyone he was fine.

Only at night, when the office lights dimmed and he sat alone in his car,

did the emptiness crash into him like a wave. The reflection of the streetlights blurred

across the glass, just like his thoughts silent, chaotic, and full of her.

He had once thought love was a luxury, that control was protection.

But when Lin Vianne walked away, he learned the truth some things,

once lost, no power on earth can bring back.

His assistant approached one evening, holding a report carefully.

Mr. Gu, should I prepare the jet for Paris tomorrow?

You were scheduled to attend the brand conference.

Gu Chen didn’t answer. His gaze remained on the city lights outside the window.

When he finally spoke, his voice was so soft it almost broke.

Let her go a little farther.

It sounded calm, but the quiet held the sound of something tearing apart inside him.

He knew that if he saw her now, he might not be able to let her leave again.

Half a month later, the ginkgo trees in the Gu family garden had begun to turn yellow.

He sat alone on the wooden bench, beside him a worn book she had left behind

Midnight in Paris.

The cover was faded, and between the pages, a small note in her handwriting was still tucked there:

One day, I will live for myself, not for anyone else.

His fingers trembled as he traced the words.

He finally understood. What she wanted had never been just love

it was respect, freedom, the right to breathe without being defined by someone else’s shadow.

A soft breeze stirred through the leaves. He gave a bitter, broken smile.

He had always believed he was the one saving her.

But now he saw it clearly she had been the one who once pulled him out of his darkness.

Now that the light was gone, he finally knew how deep the dark could be.

That night, he dreamed of her.

She was standing on a Paris street, wearing that beige trench coat,

smiling at him over her shoulder.

Gu Chen, don’t look for me anymore.

Her voice in the dream was gentle, but final.

He reached for her, desperate, but his hand closed only around the wind.

When he woke, the pillow was cold beneath his cheek. And for the first time, he felt it fear.

The kind that seeps into the bones.

The fear that he might spend the rest of his life waiting for someone who would never return.

Dawn crept through the window. Gu Chen sat on the edge of the bed, his voice raw, barely audible.

Vianne… I was wrong.

No one answered.

Only the light moved across the floor, touching his pale knuckles, his lonely face,

the edges of a man who had finally learned what it meant to lose everything.

Because the worst punishment in love is not being abandoned.

It’s loving someone so deeply and watching them walk away, powerless to stop them.