All Chapters of Between Desire and Ruin: Chapter 41 - Chapter 43

Days pass with neither reaching out, both too afraid to open old wounds.At the firm, people began to notice.Dante stopped correcting small mistakes. He stopped filling the room with certainty. Meetings ran longer because no one wanted to be the one to interrupt him when he went silent mid-thought, eyes fixed somewhere beyond the glass walls as if listening for a voice only he could hear.The Riverline Project stalled.Deadlines were pushed. Decisions deferred. Momentum once sharp and relentless dulled into hesitation. People whispered in corners, careful to keep their voices low when Dante passed.He noticed. He just didn’t care.On the fourth day, HR asked if he was managing everything alright.Dante smiled and said yes.On the inside, he felt hollowed out.At night, the apartment remained unchanged, like it was holding its breath for Ethan to return. Dante didn’t move Ethan’s things. Didn’t clean up the mug still sitting in the sink. He told himself it was temporary, that touchin

Ethan was in the middle of making tea when the knock came.He froze, kettle humming softly on the cooking gas, heart jumping for reasons he didn’t immediately understand. Dan wasn’t expecting anyone. Neither was he.The knock came again.Ethan turned off the cooking gas and wiped his hands on his jeans, moving slowly toward the door. A strange unease crept up his spine, the kind that came when something unexpected brushed too close to a wound that hadn’t closed yet.When he opened the door, Martin Hart stood in the hallway.Impeccably dressed. Calm. Familiar in a way that made Ethan’s stomach tighten.“Ethan,” Martin said, offering a measured smile. “I hope I’m not intruding.”Ethan blinked. “Martin? How did you…”“I asked around,” Martin said lightly, as if that explained everything. “May I come in?”Ethan hesitated. Every instinct told him to say no. Instead, courtesy won, curiosity or the residual habit of deferring to people like Martin Hart.“Sure,” he said, stepping aside.Marti