My Husband Chose His Ex I Became His Regret novel Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Ardan

85

Wolters

The last time Mark Knight ruined my life significantly was when I was seventeen and very naive and had no. idea that possessing talent alone would not guarantee my success.

As I stood backstage at the auditorium, the smell of the polished wood mixed with the scent of sweat from the other boys, and I could feel both the anticipation and ambition hanging heavily in the air. There were signs hanging throughout the auditorium that said “Merit,” “Excellence,” “Legacy.” These were meaningless words to boys like Mark, who were born into privilege.

I was standing backstage, holding on to my notecards so tightly as though they were the only things keeping me from falling apart, and feeling my heart pounding out of my chest, not because I was scared, but because I was so nervous I felt sick. The audience consisted of the scholarship board members who were going to award the full scholarships to provide funding to enable me to get out of a situation that is already unraveling around me.

Mark was 3 rows from me…with his foot resting on his knee in a lazy manner, surrounded by people who were laughing. Mark was so cocky that he believed the world was created to be the way he wants it to be.

I decided to go onto the stage.

I spoke to them about what Innovation is; Systems; The market failures that exist when an individual is not born into the system. I spoke as a boy who,was working to learn as much as possible so that one day he could be an innovator.

The applause was good…not overly loud… but it was real.

And then, Mark stood up.

“Very good speech… Aidan, was it? However, didn’t your father get fired from Knight Holdings last year for falsifying documents?”

The room went dead silent.

You know the way when the room suddenly goes dead silent, the first thing people do is take a deep breath; you can hear the room take a deep breath, and all eyes moved away from me and to him.

“No, that is not true.”

Mark responded, with this huge arrogant smile on his face, and said, “Isn’t it? I am quite certain my father personally signed the documents to terminate his employment with Knight Holdings.”

People began whispering as they looked at me.

My throat went dry. “My father resigned on his own.”

Mark tilted his head and said, “He resigned after an internal investigation. Integrity must run in the family,

huh?”

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Chapter S

Some of the people laughed out of nervousness and some laughed out of cruel intentions

I was stamming the audience for the committee members, who had changed their expressions from being interested to being doubtful

I did not notice my mother in the crowd but was aware she was nearby, still pretending as if she could not hear what was going on around her.

“I have some documents,” Mark said as he reached into his pocket, folding some records from out of his pocket like a magician, ” that I think the committee should see.”

Mark handed the documents to the committee.

I never saw what was in the documents.

I did not need to see the documents.

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When the night ended, the applause meant nothing to me, and the scholarship was awarded to someone other than me. I spent the next several years applying for jobs and going to job interviews with my name out in the world to forever be associated with that experience.

I learned that evening.

Power calls the shots regardless of whether something is true.

On the Friday two weeks later, my father came home at 5pm.

He did not say very much, just sat at the dinning room table staring at his hands. By the end of the month, Knight Holdings had frozen all of our accounts due to a “contractual disagreement,” and we lost everything by the end of that year.

Mark Knight must have forgotten.

I never forgot.

Fifteen years later, I stood in my office, floor-to-ceiling windows framing a city I now owned numerous buildings in. Storm Industries glowed behind me in etched glass, my name, my empire, built brick by brick out of that humiliation.

Some men forget.

I remembered everything.

The conference room was totally quiet except for the hum of life outside the building. I loosened my tie and rolled my shoulders one time. I was now in control of myself, and it was like having learnt a new language of

communication.

Lila Stark stood still next to the window, her posture as if bracing for a collision.

“I’ve

spent 15 years building an empire to take down his,” I said to her in an even voice. “And you are the final piece of that puzzle.”

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Chapter 8

She did not turn.

:

Her face was reflected faintly off the glass of the building, a look of hollowness from strength instead of weakness. That kind of hollowness does not exist from defeat. It is the result of having survived

“Why me?” she asked softy.

The question was not full of desperation..

It was filled with fatigue.

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I took a step towards her, stopping at a safe distance behind her. It was close enough to be heard but not close enough to be claimed.

“Because you’ve been through a lot and you need this.”

She released a small breath, almost like a laugh. “So you believe my pain makes me valuable.”

“No,” I clarified. “Your hunger does.”

She turned around to face me, the sharpness of her eyes good despite the weariness etched on her face. “You don’t even know me.”

I held her gaze, and I did not look away.

“Anyone who has been deprived of recognition shows the same signs. You need ambition,” I said to her.

Her head turned to look down again as she tried to contain her emotions.

“I believe that when Mark disgraced you,” I continued, “he believed he had destroyed you. He didn’t. He has merely trained you.”

Her fingers were grasping the windowsill with a ferocity about them.

“You are a gifted observer,” I continued. “You learned how to read moods and respond before shift. Power can be navigated without ever being acknowledged. That’s not weakness, Lila.”

She gulped.

“That’s apprenticeship.”

The silence between us was long, heavy but not unfriendly.

“I’ll be upfront with you” I said finally, “this isn’t going to be clean. Mark Knight doesn’t fall very easily and men of his calibre never fall easily.”

She chuckled softly in a bitter fashion, “he already believes he won.”

“Of course he believes he has.” I replied,” Because he always believes he has, that is why he will lose.”

She studied me then, really studied me, like she was searching for cracks.

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Chapter 8

“What do you get out of this?” She asked

1 hesitated to answer

This isn’t about money.

Or revenge alone.

This is about balance

:

“My father died thinking that he had let us down, due to a lie that Mark Knight perpetuated, My mother worked herself to death cleaning offices that were owned by the same company that caused us to be homeless.

Her eye softened not with pity but understanding.

“I don’t just want to humiliate Mark Knight,” I told her. “I want to expose him.”

She nodded slowly, “You believe I am the key.”

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“You are the mirror,” I corrected her, “you and you alone are the reflection of everything that he is unwilling

to see.”

She looked at her hands, “What will happen to me when this is done?”

This was a serious question.

I respected this question.

“You will be who you were designed to be from the beginning, with or without me,”

“You talk as though you already know how it ends.”

“I plan like it,” I replied.

Her lips curved in a small smile, her first genuine one for me.

Then her phone vibrated.

The moment vanished.

She looked at the screen and her expression changed.

“Mark,” she said at last.

Of course.

“He is increasing his aggression,” I said matter-of-factly. “No surprise.”

She hesitated. “He wants to meet.”

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Chapter 8

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1 stepped back from her and gave her some space. “He will,” I said. “He believes that if he can be near you, he can control you,”

“And you?” she asked. “What do you believe about it?”

“That there is no control,” I said. “There is influence.”

Her phone vibrated again.

This time she didn’t break her stare with me while reading the text.

“What did it say?” I asked.

Her voice was flat when she answered. Too flat..

“He knows about Storm Industries,” she said. “About my offer.”

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