My Husband Chose His Ex I Became His Regret novel Chapter 102

Chapter 102

Chapter 102

Aidan

Evelyn’s crying shifts everything in the room. Not just because she’s crying, but because Evelyn never lets anyone hear her cry. She’s normally all performance, tears on cue, ready to weaponize them.

But the woman on the phone right now is terrified. And that scares me, too.

“Lila,” I say, eyes glued to the screen, “get Thomas.”

She doesn’t question me. That alone tells me just how grave my face looks. She’s already moving, phone in her hand, eyes locked on me. Always sharp. Always fast.

“Evelyn,” I murmur.

She’s panting, shaky breaths, like she’s running, or hiding, maybe both.

“Aidan…”

“Where are you?”

“I don’t have much time.”

My jaw clenches. Here we go. Drama again, always in a rush. But her voice cuts right through my annoyance. This time, it’s real. It’s panic.

“What happened?”

I hear a door close. Then nothing. Finally:

“I wasn’t looking at you.”

I stare at the floor, confused. “What?”

“The articles.” Her voice is falling apart. “The leaks, the recordings. I wasn’t looking at you.”

A cold chill snakes down my spine. Lila freezes, she caught that too.

“Evelyn.”

“I thought I was exposing a scandal,” she says, and her laugh is broken. Ashamed. “I was stupid.”

I close my eyes. There it is, regret. From her, of all people. I honestly never expected that.

“What did you find?”

Silence. Then: “Board records.”

Everything inside me stills. Not because the words mean nothing. Because, man, I know exactly what she’s hinting at.

Storm Industries. The board. Jesus.

“Evelyn.”

“Aidan, listen,” she says, suddenly razor-sharp. Desperate. Fear slicing straight through the phone. “The board is about to turn on you.”

10:05 Mon, Jun 1 MM.

Chapter 102

The study quiets down. Even Lila stops halfway.

“What are you talking about?”

“The acquisition documents.”

I move toward the desk. Toward the computer. Instinct kicking in, always.

“What acquisition?”

A pause, long enough to get under my skin. Then: “The one you don’t know about.”

A blast of cold runs through me as I sit down. This isn’t shock. This is clarity. The kind that means things just got very, very bad.

Storm Industries doesn’t buy anything significant without my approval. I control the shares. Every major move needs my say-so. Unless, someone found a way around me.

I feel my stomach knot.

“Evelyn.”

“I found shell entities,” she says. Papers shuffle in the background. “Six of them.”

My grip tightens around the phone. “Connected to who?”

“Three board members.”

The room tips, but not physically. Strategically. I see it now. Not full detail, but enough. Three board members, six shell companies. Victor Harlow. Months of distraction, months of scandal, months of shaking the public’s faith in my leadership.

Christ. They weren’t just trying to destroy Storm Industries. They were killing confidence, in me.

And if confidence tanks, control turns loose. Votes slip. Leadership crumbles. Hostile takeovers don’t start with contracts; they start with doubt.

I shut my eyes for two seconds, then open them. CEO mode, not husband, not victim. The switch happens clean, like always. Emotions shelved, action ready.

“When?”

My voice feels different now, colder, sharper.

Lila notices. So does Evelyn.

“They’re meeting tomorrow,” Evelyn says.

A pulse hammers at my neck.

“Who?”

“The board members tied to those entities.”

I need names.

“Evelyn.”

She gives them. Three names. By number two. I know she’s legit, because I already hated him. The third confirms it. The wildcard. The guy nobody trusts.

10:05 Mon, Jun 1 MM.

Chapter 102

No fourth. Just three. Three is enough.

I open my laptop and let muscle memory take over. Passwords, systems, files. The rush hits, not panic, focus This is my territory: crisis, pressure, strategy.

People always think leadership is vision. Nah, it’s clarity while everyone else loses their mind.

And right now? I’m laser sharp…

“What’s their plan?”

She lets out a miserable, soft laugh. “They want the board to question your judgment.”

Of course. Scandals, marriage, leaks, instability, every headline designed to make people think Aidan Storm is distracted, emotional, compromised. Not fit to lead. Not because anyone buys the affair theory. They just need to wonder if it messed/ with my head. Corporate perception, a nightmare, actually elegant. As much as I hate it, I’ve got to admire the move.

“They’ve been buying influence for months. Ever since you became involved with Lila.”

I start typing. Records appear. Ownership structures. Share movement. Patterns. And then, bam. There it is. A transfer, tiny hidden, three months ago. Another, five weeks ago. Another. My heartbeat slows. Always does when I get closer to the target

Lila stands beside me now, silent. Watching. Not interrupting. She knows this side of me, the strategist, the empire-builder. the winner.

My wife slides a coffee next to my laptop. No words, just coffee. I grab her hand for a second, and mouth thank you, her fingers squeeze mine, then let go.

Evelyn’s still talking.

“I copied everything.”

That gets my attention. Everything. Not just some files, all of it.”

“Where?”

Silence. “If I tell you, they’ll know.”

Fair. Paranoid, but reasonable.

“What do you want, Evelyn?”

She sounds tired now. Not angry, not dramatic. Just worn out.

“I don’t want them winning.”

That lands like a stone in my chest. For the first time, I believe her. Not fully, not cleanly, but enough. I think about the videos, the tears, the attacks on Lila, the humiliation, everything. And I wonder if Evelyn really gets how big this mess is. If she knows she nearly wrecked innocent lives chasing a different truth.

The silence stretches.

Then: “Protect her.”

I blink. “What?”

“Lila.”

My grip tightens.

10:05 Mon, Jun 1 MM.

Chapter 102

Evelyn breathes out, shaky. “They thought she’d destabilize you.”

The room pauses. Not just me, not just Lila, everything.

“They underestimated her.”

I look up. My wife is staring back, having heard every word. Something crosses her face, not triumph, not satisfaction but sadness. Because Lila’s still kind enough to feel sad for people who hurt her. Even now. Even after all this.

Evelyn continues. “They kept saying she’d break.” Another breath. “They were wrong.”

The call drops.

I stare at the phone. Lower it, slowly. The room is silent.

Lila speaks first. “Well.”

I laugh, once, quick, disbelieving. “Well.”

The fear is still there. The danger’s real. But now, I’ve got something better, direction.

I stand up fast. Action. Energy. Not anxiety, momentum.

I grab another phone, the direct line. Thomas answers at once.

“Aidan.”

“Conference room.”

Pause. “How bad?”

I smile. Cold, predatory. The kind of smile that usually means someone’s gonna have a rough day. “Oh,” I say, nice and quiet. “It just became my turn.”

Lila’s eyes widen, she knows exactly what that means. Thomas hears it, too.

Silence. Then: “You found something.”

“Yes.”

More silence.

And then I say the words that flip the board upside down.

“Call the board meeting.”

“Aidan…”

“Now.”

“They’re meeting tomorrow.”

“Not anymore.”

I head for the window, snow falling, city shining.

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