My Husband Chose His Ex I Became His Regret novel Chapter 1

15:14 Tue, May 12

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The ballroom went quiet when my husband reached for another woman’s hand

Not mine

The crystal chandelier above us glittered, throwing shards of light across champagne flutes and silk gowns. but all I could see was Mark Knight’s fingers curling around Sienna Whitmore’s wrist, gentle, familiar intimate. The kind of touch you give someone you love without thinking.

Someone gasped.

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1 felt it before I heard it, the shift. The pause. The collective intake of breath from a room filled with people who suddenly remembered I existed.

I stood three steps behind them, dressed in pale blue, the color Mark’s assistant had chosen for me. “It suits the brand,” she’d said, eyes flicking over me like I was part of the décor. A wife-shaped accessory for the Knight Group’s annual charity gala.

Mark hadn’t looked at me once all evening.

Now he looked at Sienna.

“Be careful,” he said softly, his thumb brushing her knuckles. “The floor’s slippery.”

Sienna smiled up at him, all innocence and wide eyes. “I’m fine, Mark. You worry too much.”

He smiled back.

It was small, instinctive, and devastating.

I had been married to Mark Knight for one year. One year of waking up alone in a house big enough to echo. One year of dinners eaten without him, of conversations that never happened, of learning the sound of his footsteps well enough to know when he’d pass my door without stopping.

And in all that time, I had never seen him smile like that at me.

The host cleared his throat at the podium. “Mr. Knight, would you like to say a few words before we announce tonight’s donation recipients?”

Applause rippled through the room. Cameras lifted. Phones came out.

Mark released Sienna’s hand and straightened his cufflinks, slipping easily into the role he wore better than any husband-CEO, heir, golden boy. He took the microphone, his voice calm, assured.

“Thank you all for coming,” he said. “Tonight is about generosity, about legacy, and about honoring the people who matter most to us.”

His gaze drifted, not to me, but back to Sienna, who stood just behind him now, close enough that her arm brushed his.

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Chapter I

People noticed.

Whispers bloomed like rot

“She’s here again?”

“I thought that was over years ago,”

“Isn’t his wife standing right there?”

:.

I felt my spine stiffen, my smile freeze into something brittle.

Mark continued. “Before we proceed, there’s someone I’d like to acknowledge.”

He turned fully toward Sienna.

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“For years,” he said, “this woman has been my support, my inspiration, and the one person who truly understands me.”

The room exploded.

Gasps. Murmurs. The unmistakable click of a hundred cameras capturing the exact moment my marriage was publicly dismembered.

Sienna lifted a hand to her mouth, playing the part beautifully. “Mark, you don’t have to-”

“Yes, I do,” he interrupted, his voice firm. “I’ve hidden this long enough.”

Hidden.

I was standing right there.

My ears rang. My fingers curled into the fabric of my dress so tightly I thought it might tear.

I waited-for him to correct himself. To glance back. To remember.

He didn’t.

“Lila,” Mark said suddenly, and my heart leapt traitorously at the sound of my name. He finally looked at me, his eyes cool, assessing, distant. Like a stranger interrupting his speech.

“Come here.”

Every instinct in my body screamed not to move. But my feet obeyed him the way they always had.

I walked forward, heels clicking against marble, each step heavier than the last. Faces blurred past me—pity, curiosity, satisfaction. Someone I recognized from the board smiled faintly, like this was better entertainment than dessert.

I stopped beside Mark.

15:14 Tue, May 12

Chapter 1

Sienna stood on his other side.

The symmetry was cruel.

:

“This is my wife,” Mark said, his tone neutral. Flat. “Lila Stark.”

Stark. Not Knight.

A murmur rippled again.

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“And this,” he continued, placing a hand on Sienma’s back, possessive and sure, “is Sienna Whitmore The woman I loved before my marriage-and the woman I still care about deeply.”

The words landed like blows.

1 felt them in my chest, in my throat, in the hollow space just below my ribs where hope had once lived.

Sienna turned to me then, her gaze strong and confident. “You’re nothing. I’ll always be the one for him.”

She said it softly. Kindly. Loud enough for everyone to hear.

I tasted blood where I’d bitten the inside of my cheek.

“Mark,” I said. My voice sounded strange to my own ears-steady, calm, unrecognizable. “What are you doing?”

He frowned, as if annoyed by the interruption. “Being honest.”

“With me?” I asked.

His jaw tightened. “Lila, don’t make this difficult.”

A laugh escaped someone in the crowd. Quickly smothered. Too late.

I looked at him, the man I’d loved quietly for years, the man I’d defended when his family dismissed me, the man I’d married knowing his heart was elsewhere-and realized something inside me was breaking with terrifying clarity.

He wasn’t cruel by accident.

He knew exactly what he was doing.

“Are you saying,” I asked slowly, “that you brought your ex to a public event, introduced her as the woman who understands you, and expect me to stand here and smile?”

Mark leaned closer, his voice dropping. “You’re my wife. Act like it.”

Sienna shifted, pressing closer to him, her shoulder brushing his arm. She smelled like expensive perfume— one Mark had once bought me, then told me it didn’t suit me.

“You know your place already don’t you Lila? We’re just publicly announcing it. Did you really think you

15:14 Tue, May 12

Chapter 1

mean anything to him or anyone?”

Someone sighed sympathetu ally

For me

Mark straightened again, facing the crowd. “I believe in transparency,” he said. “And I believe in not pretending anymore”

Then he turned back to me, his gaze sharp.

“Lila,” he said, into the microphone, “you’ve always known where my heart was.”

The room went silent.

He held out his hand-not to me.

To Sienna.

“I think it’s time everyone else knew too.”

The world tilted.

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