Chapter 223

Jessica straightened up and turned to look at him. She took half a step back, creating distance.

"Mr. Smith." Her tone was flat, as if discussing something utterly irrelevant to her. "Who you visit the cemetery with, who you pay respects to, and what relationship you have with anyone—none of that requires explanation to me. That's your private business."

"No, I have to explain!" Stanley panicked, instinctively reaching out to grab her wrist.

Jessica's eyes turned cold. She sidestepped cleanly, avoiding him.

Her movement carried undisguised revulsion. "Mr. Smith, don't dirty my clothes."

She threw out that cold remark, walked around him, and headed straight for the cemetery exit.

Stanley froze in the rain, watching her retreating figure. His legs felt like lead—he couldn't take a single step forward.

That evening at ten o'clock, Jessica finished PineTech's cross-border executive meeting and drove back to her penthouse.

The elevator doors opened on the eighteenth floor. The motion-sensor lights in the hallway flickered on, and Jessica immediately spotted Stanley leaning against her door.

He still wore the same clothes—his black trench coat stained with dried water marks, seven or eight cigarette butts scattered at his feet.

Seeing her step out of the elevator, Stanley immediately straightened up. Like a prisoner awaiting judgment, he hurried toward her.

"Sylvia." His voice was terribly hoarse, thick with congestion.

Jessica didn't look at him. She pulled out her keys and walked straight to her door.

Stanley watched her indifferent profile, panic expanding infinitely in his chest.

He rushed forward a step, blocking the doorframe, trying to explain what happened at the cemetery. "Today was a misunderstanding. I agreed to go to the cemetery solely because of Nicole's life-saving grace years ago. I promise you, from now on, except for her death anniversary, I will never see anyone from the Moore family again."

As he spoke, he tried to close the distance between them.

His hand lifted slightly, attempting to touch her shoulder.

Jessica paused. She turned around, her gaze ice-cold as she looked at him.

She took a large step backward, pulling the distance between them to an absolutely safe range.

"Stanley." Jessica's hands were tucked in her coat pockets, her spine ramrod straight, not a trace of warmth in her eyes. "How many times do I have to repeat this before you understand? I'm not interested in your grudges and entanglements, and I'm even less interested in whether you see the Moores or not."

She looked at his hand frozen in mid-air, her tone utterly distant and impatient. "You don't need to promise me anything, because to me, you're just an insignificant stranger. Save your self-indulgent explanations and stay away from me."

The hallway's sensor lights cast cold white beams on Jessica's expressionless face.

She looked at the disheveled Stanley before her, not a hint of emotion in her eyes.

"Stanley, you always get your priorities wrong." Jessica's voice was soft, yet like an ice-tempered blade, precisely severing his last shred of hope. "You say you have nothing to do with Lydia, but the moment she brings up Nicole, you compromise without any boundaries. Whatever dynamic exists between you two—whether guilt or habit—it has nothing to do with me."

She paused, her tone becoming absolutely businesslike. "I'm stating my boundary one final time. From today forward, aside from the collaboration between PineTech and Smith Corporation, we need no private contact whatsoever. If you cross the line again like you did today, I will directly apply to the board to replace the liaison officer."

With that, she turned and inserted her key into the lock.

Stanley stood frozen, watching helplessly as that door closed mercilessly in his face.

He didn't even have the courage to reach out and stop it.

The hallway fell back into dead silence.

Stanley leaned against the cold wall, the air in his chest feeling completely drained.

He finally realized with brutal clarity that no matter how much he lowered himself, no matter how humble he became, the relationship between him and Jessica had reached an absolute dead end.

That chasm was bottomless. There was no way back.

Late at night, in a high-end private bar in Empire City's CBD.

The lighting was dim in the corner booth, empty bottles lying haphazardly across the table.

Stanley reclined on the leather sofa, holding a glass of whiskey with ice. He tilted his head back and downed it in one gulp.

The burning liquid rolled down his throat, but couldn't suppress the tearing pain in his chest.

When Liam arrived after receiving the call, this was the utterly dejected scene that greeted him.

"Stanley, are you insane? What about your stomach?" Liam snatched the glass from his hand and slammed it heavily on the glass table.

Stanley didn't resist. He hung his head, hands roughly raking through his hair, his voice unbearably hoarse. "She won't even give me one last chance, Liam. She told me never to appear before her again except for work."

Liam looked at his friend's utterly lost appearance and sighed helplessly.

He sat down across from Stanley and signaled the bartender to bring water instead.

"Stanley, do you still not understand? You're pushing too hard." Liam's tone was serious, carrying an observer's clarity. "You think you're making amends, but in her eyes, every time you approach is just consumption and harassment. She's not the Jessica who used to revolve around you anymore. She's Sylvia now—she has her own career and life. The more you cling desperately, the more repulsed she becomes."

Stanley clasped his hands together, pressing them hard against his forehead.

"Then what should I do?" His voice trembled, filled with deep helplessness and panic. "If I don't go to her, she'll completely forget me. I'm afraid if I let go, I'll never see her again."

"If you don't let go now, you'll lose even the right to see her." Liam's words cut straight to the point. "Take a step back, Stanley. Give her space and leave yourself some dignity. At least you still have the project connecting you—don't destroy even that last thread."

Stanley fell silent.

Low jazz music echoed through the bar. He stared at the water stain on the table, the light in his eyes gradually dimming.

Over the following days, Stanley seemed to vanish from the face of the earth.

He still attended meetings between PineTech and Smith Corporation, but remained strictly professional throughout.

He made no more attempts to approach Jessica, sent no more lengthy apology messages, and even left first when meetings concluded.

Jessica was quite satisfied with this arrangement. Without Stanley's entanglement, her work efficiency improved dramatically.

However, peace in the business world is always temporary.

A week later, an explosive tech news story rapidly dominated major media headlines across Empire City.

[Moore Corporation Reborn: Secures Hundreds of Millions in Venture Capital with Cutting-Edge AI Technology]

The accompanying photo showed Lydia in a haute couture gown, standing under spotlights, champagne glass raised, her smile triumphant and smug.