Chapter 173: Kristoff’s Resolve

"My decision is final, Charlotte. We can no longer be together."

The words struck her like a physical blow.

For a moment, Charlotte could only stare at him.

Final?

No. He couldn’t mean it.

"No!"

She lunged forward and wrapped both arms around him, clinging to him as though holding on tightly enough could keep him from walking away.

"I love you, Kris." Her voice broke. "I love you so much. I can’t live without you."

Her sobs grew louder, her fingers twisting desperately into the fabric of his shirt.

But Kristoff remained unmoved.

He reached down, pried her arms from around him one by one, and stepped back.

The sudden distance between them felt like a chasm.

"Considering that you saved my life in that car accident," he said coldly, "and because of the years we’ve spent together, I won’t take back anything I’ve given you."

Charlotte’s tear-filled eyes flickered with a faint glimmer of hope.

Then he added,

"Except the ring."

Her heart stopped.

Almost instinctively, Charlotte curled her fingers around the engagement ring and hid her hand behind her back.

"Kristoff..."

She stared at him in disbelief.

"How can you be so cruel?"

Kristoff’s expression remained impassive.

"Don’t you know me, Charlotte?"

His voice was quiet, yet there was something terrifying in its calmness.

"I am merciless toward anyone who crosses me."

Charlotte’s lips parted.

She wanted to argue. To plead. To remind him of everything they had shared. Of every promise he had made. Of every time he had told her she was the woman he wanted beside him for the rest of his life.

But one look at his icy eyes silenced every word.

There was no warmth left in them.

No hesitation.

No trace of the man who had once held her as though she were precious to him.

"Starting today," Kristoff said, "don’t appear in front of me again."

Charlotte’s breath caught.

Something inside her shattered.

She clutched her chest as though she had been struck there. The pain was so sudden and violent that she struggled to breathe.

Her knees weakened.

For one terrifying second, she thought they would give out completely.

Don’t appear in front of me again.

The words echoed mercilessly in her mind.

She had spent years dreaming of becoming his wife.

Now he was telling her that he didn’t even want to see her.

"Kristoff..."

His name escaped her lips like a final plea.

But he didn’t look at her.

"Owen."

His voice was calm and decisive.

"Escort Miss Harris out."

The command landed like the final blow.

Charlotte’s face drained of color.

Owen stepped forward.

"This way, Miss Harris."

His tone was polite, almost apologetic, but Charlotte barely heard him.

She stood frozen for another moment, staring at Kristoff’s back.

He had already turned away from her. Just like that.

As if their years together meant nothing.

As if she had never been the woman he once loved.

As if she had already become a stranger.

Owen gently gestured toward the door.

Charlotte finally moved. One trembling step. Then another.

Her legs felt weak beneath her, but she refused to let herself fall.

She held her hidden hand tightly against her chest, the engagement ring pressing painfully into her palm.

It was the only thing she had left of the future Kristoff had just destroyed.

...

Owen escorted Charlotte to the CEO’s private elevator and accompanied her down to the basement parking garage, where the Porsche Kristoff had gifted her for her birthday was parked.

When the elevator doors opened, Owen stepped out first and waited.

Charlotte remained inside for a moment, staring blankly ahead.

She felt strangely detached from everything around her, as though she were watching someone else’s life unfold.

"Miss Harris."

Owen’s voice pulled her back. He extended an open palm toward her.

"The ring, please."

Charlotte froze.

For a few seconds, she simply stared at his hand.

The engagement ring suddenly felt unbearably heavy around her finger.

The ring.

The symbol of the future she had believed was hers.

Her marriage to Kristoff. His promises. Their life together.

All of it had ended upstairs.

And now she was being asked to surrender the last physical proof that it had ever existed.

Her fingers trembled as she slowly raised her right hand.

She twisted the ring free.

For one brief moment, she held it between her fingers, staring at the stone through tear-blurred eyes.

Then she placed it in Owen’s waiting palm.

The tiny clink of the ring against his hand sounded deafening in the quiet garage.

Charlotte said nothing.

She turned away and walked toward her car.

"Take care, Miss Harris."

She stopped.

Owen’s voice followed her.

"I hope you won’t make any more mistakes."

Charlotte’s shoulders stiffened.

For a moment, she stood completely still. Then she continued walking. Faster this time.

She didn’t turn around.

She couldn’t.

The moment she reached her Porsche, she fumbled with the door and climbed inside. As soon as the door slammed shut, the composure she had desperately clung to finally shattered.

A raw scream tore from her throat.

"AHHH!"

She slammed both hands against the steering wheel again and again, the sound echoing violently through the empty parking garage.

Tears poured down her face.

She screamed until her throat burned.

The woman who had walked out of Kristoff’s office trying to preserve the last scraps of her dignity was gone.

There was only Charlotte now—heartbroken, humiliated, and furious.

She pressed her forehead against the steering wheel, her body shaking uncontrollably.

Her gaze fell to her bare finger.

The place where the engagement ring had been felt strangely cold.

She curled her hand into a fist.

"No..."

Her voice came out broken.

"This can’t be happening."

But the empty space around her offered no answer.

For the first time, Charlotte realized that Kristoff hadn’t merely ended their engagement.

He had closed the door on her completely.

"It’s because of Isobel and her bastard."

Charlotte spat the words through clenched teeth, her tears still wet on her cheeks.

"If it weren’t for them..." Her fingers curled tightly around the steering wheel. "Kristoff would never have broken off our engagement."

Her grief twisted into something darker.

Something poisonous.

She lifted her tear-streaked face, hatred burning in her eyes.

"Isobel..."

Her voice trembled with rage.

"I hate you!"