My Husband Chose His Ex I Became His Regret novel Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

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Storm Industries stood tall.

I am here again.

This is real, I told myself.

Inside, the lobby was beautiful. Marble floors, high ceilings, people moving with quiet purpose. No wasted steps. No nervous glances. Everyone here looked like they knew exactly where they were going.

I didn’t.

“Ms. Stark?”

I turned quickly.

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She was tall, elegant, dressed in charcoal and cream, her posture effortless. The kind of woman I once would have studied with a mixture of admiration and envy.

“Yes,” I said. Too fast. Too eager.

Her lips curved faintly, not unkind. “Mr. Storm is expecting you.”

Of course he was.

We rode the elevator in silence. Each floor ticked by, numbers climbing, my heartbeat keeping pace. The higher we went, the tighter my chest felt, as if the air itself was thinning.

Top floor.

The doors opened.

Aidan’s office wasn’t just a room. It was a statement.

Floor-to-ceiling windows wrapped around the space, the city sprawled beneath like something conquered and catalogued. A massive desk sat centred but uncluttered. No personal photos. No trophies. Power without sentimentality.

Aidan stood near the window, jacket off, sleeves rolled, hands clasped loosely behind his back.

He didn’t turn when I entered.

“Sit.”

The word was calm. Unquestionable.

I crossed the room, my heels sounding too loud on the floor, and lowered myself into the chair opposite his

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Chapter 11

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desk. My hands folded automatically in my lap, fingers twisting together.

“Sorry,” I murmured as I adjusted the chair closer.

Aidan urned then

His gaze dropped to my hands. Then lifted to my face.

“Lesson one,” he said evenly. “Stop apologising for existing.”

Heat rushed up my neck.

“1-“I stopped myself. Closed my mouth.

I hadn’t even realized I’d done it.

Aidan moved to his desk and leaned back against it, studying me with that same unreadable intensity. “You apologised for sitting down,” he continued. “For taking up space in a room you were invited into.”

My throat tightened.

“That habit,” he said, “will end.”

Something in his voice, firm, not cruel, made my eyes sting.

“Yes,” I said quietly.

He shook his head once. “Try again.”

I hesitated. “Okay.”

“Better.”

He gestured to the windows. “Do you know why I work up here?”

I followed his gaze, my stomach fluttering as I looked down at the city. Cars like moving dots. People like thoughts you didn’t have to carry.

“So you can see everything?” I guessed.

“So I can remember perspective,” he replied. “Power shrinks problems. Fear magnifies them.”

He took a seat across from me, folding his hands. “Today isn’t about tasks. It’s about assessment.”

My shoulders tensed. “Assessment?”

“Of you,” he said simply. “Physically. Mentally. Emotionally.”

The words landed heavy,

“You’ve been conditioned,” Aidan continued, “to believe you’re less than you are. That doesn’t disappear

Chapter 11

because you signed a contract”

I nodded slowly

“You’re intelligent,” he went on “Observant Resilient. But your self esteem has been eroded systematically

The accuracy hurt.

“By your marriage.” he said. “By your family. By years of being told you were lucky to be tolerated.

My fingers curled tighter.

“That kind of damage,” Aidan said, “requires deliberate reconstruction.”

I swallowed. “How?”

He stood and walked to a whiteboard I hadn’t noticed before. Picked up a marker.

“Transformation,” he said, writing the word cleanly. “Not cosmetic. Not superficial.”

He underlined it.

“First, your mindset.”

He drew a line beneath it.

“You will stop seeing yourself as someone who waits to be chosen,” he said. “You will become someone others position themselves around.”

My pulse quickened.

“That means,” he continued, “learning to speak without shrinking. To make decisions without seeking permission. To fail without self-destruction.”

I shifted in my seat. “What if I’m not good at it?”

“You will be,” he replied. “Because you’re hungry.”

That word again.

“Second, emotional recalibration,” he said, writing it down. “You confuse endurance with virtue. That ends.”

I thought of all the times I’d stayed quiet, believing patience made me good.

“You will learn boundaries,” Aidan continued. “Not ultimatums. Boundaries. The ability to say no without guilt.”

My chest felt tight. “That sounds… hard.”

“It will be,” he said. “You will grieve the version of yourself that survived by being small.”

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Chapter H

I looked down at my hands.

“Third, physical presence”

I looked up quickly.

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“This is not about becoming someone else,” he said calmly, anticipating the fear flickering across my face. It’s about alignment. How you carry yourself. How you enter a room. How you let people see you before they speak over you”

1 imagined myself walking into Mark’s office again, this time with my head high.

“And finally,” Aidan said, “education.”

He clicked a remote. A screen lit up on the wall, schedules, names, programs.

“You’ll study finance, negotiations, corporate psychology,” he continued. “You’ll shadow meetings. Sit in rooms you were never meant to enter.”

My breath caught.

“You’ll learn how men like Mark Knight think,” Aidan said. “Not from resentment. From clarity.”

Silence filled the office.

My heart was pounding so hard I was sure he could hear it.

“And if I fail?” I asked quietly.

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