My Husband Chose His Ex I Became His Regret novel Chapter 53

Chapter 53

Chapter 53

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Lila

I’ve been home for three days. Haven’t gone to the office. Haven’t answered Aidan’s calls, all seventeen of them. Haven’t done anything except stare at the ceiling and wonder how everything fell apart so quickly.

Singapore feels like a dream. The kisses, the confessions, the way Aidan looked at me like I was something precious, none of it feels real anymore.

What feels real is the destroyed office. The lost clients. The Lee Corporation deal evaporating. Mark’s texts. The fire. The lawsuit.

The way Aidan’s expression shuttered when I said I needed time. The way he told me not to expect him to

chase me.

The way I walked away like a coward.

My phone buzzes. I ignore it. It’s been buzzing constantly, Patricia, Margot, even Marcus trying to reach me. I can’t face any of them. Can’t face their questions or their concern or their disappointment.

I pick up my phone and see 37 missed calls, 62 unread text messages and 43 unread emails.

I start with the emails. Most of them are work-related such as; meeting requests I am missing, updated project status I need to review and questions I can only answer.

Then I see one email from HR. The subject line reads: Urgent-need a meeting to discuss current media allegations and their impact on Storm Industries.

I open the email.

To: Lila Stark

From: Human Resources

We need to schedule a time to meet in order to discuss current media allegations and the impact on Storm Industries. Please call us so we can schedule a meeting.

HR

Media allegations? What do they mean by media allegations?

I then do a quick google search to find out what media allegations they are referring to.

My stomach sinks.

The first link that appears when I Google search ‘Lila Stark’ is titled, “Storm Executive Caught in Love Affair: Did Lila Stark cheat on her Husband with CEO Aidan Storm?”

NO! It can’t be!!

10:15 Wed, May 13

Chapter 53

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I click on the link and when it opens there are multiple photographs of Aidan and I in Singapore, Aidan and I in a car and Aidan and I having dinner together where I am leaning toward Aidan looking as if we were intimate.

It is horrific.

According to an unnamed source that is a close friend of Mark Knight, Lila Stark, Mark’s ex-wife, was having an affair with CEO Aidan Storm and was still married to Mark Knight at the same time. The source claims that Lila has always been ambitious and she saw an opportunity with Storm and jumped at it. Mark was crushed.

“Mark was everything to her,” says another unnamed source. “He provided her with a house, a lifestyle she couldn’t afford on her own, and then she did this to him by sleeping with a competitor

I read it a few times. Finally, I read it enough times for the words to start to run together. Affaire. Cheater. Opportunist. Gold digger.

They’ve painted me in a way where I’m the villain. The woman who destroyed her marriage for money and power. The woman who used Mark for everything he had and then moved on to Aidan after finding out the grass was greener at Storm’s.

I scroll down, and the comments get much worse than the article itself:

“Of course she cheated on him! Look at her! There are two guys she is way above her normal range.”

“Mark Knight missed out! Good for him finding a good woman who is loyal to him.”

“Storm can be described as a desperate man if he is dating his employee on the job. Isn’t that quite a direct form of sexual harassment?

“Gold digger. I bet that if Storm didn’t hire her, she would have threatened to sue him.”

I’m going to puke.

I turn and sprint towards the bathroom. I can’t take anymore of this, and I vomit just off the toilet. I’m shaking and holding onto the toilet for dear life.

I know for sure this is Mark. This had to have started with him. There’s no doubt that he’s the “source told reporters close to Mark Knight. This is his way of getting revenge against me.

First, he released articles stating I was unstable, now it’s that I’m a cheat? Come on, he should stick to one narrative and are people so dumb? He’s the one who cheated, always parading Sienna.

I look at my face in the mirror. I have dark circles under my eyes. My hair has not been washed for some time. The confident girl from Singapore is no longer there. Instead of her, there stands….the ghost of me four months ago…broken…small…erased.

No.

So, I pick up my phone and search more articles…

10:15 Wed, May 13 N

Chapter 53

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There are thousands… of them published in the last 48 hours…and they all state the same thing…that I am a “manipulative cheating liar who slept my way to a billionaire.”

Another article features an “anonymous employee of Storm Industries,” who states, “Nobody can understand why she was hired by Storm. She has no experience. The only explanation is….well, you guess.”

Not only are these people attacking my character, but they are also attacking my competence, my value, and all that I have been building…

Worse yet, it is having an effect.

All the comments, all the speculation, many people have come to believe I am exactly what Mark has portrayed me to be…a scheming opportunist who used sex to get ahead.

Then, my phone rang and the caller ID was a number I did not recognize. I picked it up without thinking.

“Is this Lila Stark?” said the voice on the line, it was a woman.

“Yes,” I said.

“This is Jennifer Cho from Tech Industry Weekly; I am writing a follow-up to the recent allegations against you concerning your relationship with Aidan Storm. Would you like to comment?”

I stuttered, “I-uh-no-no comment.”

“Is it true that you began a romantic relationship with Aidan Storm while married to Mark Knight?”

“No, that is not..I’m not going to answer any questions…”

“Our sources indicate that you were compensated heavily for a senior role at Storm and that hiring you in that role was based on sex…”

I hung up the phone. My hands were shaking.

They are actually calling me to comment on their fabrications.

My phone rang again. Different number. I didn’t answer it.

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