My Husband Chose His Ex I Became His Regret novel Chapter 94

Chapter 94

Chapter 94

Lila

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She smiled like she’d already won the game. Right then, I decided she really hadn’t.

The foyer went silent in that way rooms do when everyone’s holding their breath. I could feel Aidan behind me, that kind of stillness he gets when something massive is brewing inside him. Thomas stood next to him, hands clasped, face locked in his careful professional mask. He was calculating, probably three steps ahead. Two security guys appeared by the entrance without anyone calling them, which meant the team had been watching the gate cams and had a whole protocol for this exact moment.

Evelyn Marsh was right in the middle of my foyer, looking like she’d designed the place herself.

She was gorgeous, the kind that takes effort and knows it. Her dark coat was cinched just right, her hair unbothered by the snow outside, lips painted that very particular red women use when they want the perfect entrance. She watched me with a look that pretended to be pity but had something sharper lurking under it.

I recognized the look. I’d seen it on Sienna in a ballroom, two years back, wearing my grandmother’s pearls. She’d smiled at me with that warm, satisfied air of someone sure about her place.

Aidan moved first. I heard him begin to speak, felt the air shift and the temperature drop, which meant he was about to shut this down with his usual decisive edge.

“Don’t,” I said. Just that one word. He stopped.

I walked across the foyer. Not slow, not fast, just normal. Not performing. I stopped three feet from Evelyn and really looked at her. The way I learned to look at anything I needed to understand: eyes steady, no flinching, no rush, taking in every detail.

She was not what I’d imagined.

I’d built my own version of her from what Thomas found, from articles, from videos, all strategy and resentment. But the real surprise was how human she was. A bit of tension around her eyes, barely disguised by her composure. The way her chin lifted, just a fraction, as I approached, not confidence, but defensiveness.

She was afraid. Not of Aidan. Of me.

Now, that was interesting.

“I was wondering when we’d do this properly,” Evelyn said. Her voice was warm, social, it had that practiced register. “Without him in between.”

“Here we are,” I replied.

She tilted her head, something flickered at her lips, amusement, or maybe just performing it. “You’re calmer than I expected.”

“You thought I’d be upset.”

“I thought you’d be scared.”

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Chapter 94

“I know,” I said.

She scanned my face, searching for a crack.

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“You should be,” she said, softer now, like she was letting me in on something useful. “You don’t understand the full shape of what’s coming.”

I let her words land. Sat with them. I’d learned, years ago in my first marriage, that people who think they hold power over you always tell you their plans. Not to be cruel, but for the sheer thrill of being seen as powerful. The performance, they need an audience. Mark did it. Sienna did it. Everyone who tried to make me small told me first. Because telling is the point.

“I know what you’re doing,” I said.

Her face stayed steady.

“I know why you’re doing it.” My voice stayed level, relaxed, like we were talking about the weather. “And I want you to hear something.”

I leaned forward, closing the space between us, making it private, just us inside that three-foot bubble.

“I’ve already survived worse than this,” I said. “The version where the person had legal access to my life, my home, my money, my name. Where I had no help, no resources, nobody on my side.” I paused. “You are not that. This is not that. And I’m not the woman who survived it by shrinking herself.”

Silence.

I watched her face change, the first real thing I’d seen since I crossed over. It wasn’t anger. It was something deeper. A tiny fracture ran through her composure, gone in a second, but still. She expected fear, the raw kind from a woman defending her marriage, something she could work with, something to leverage. What she found instead was stillness, clarity, and a woman who had been through hell and knew exactly where she was standing.

The crack closed up.

She gave me the other smile, the built one.

“You’re more interesting than I thought,” she said.

“I know,” I said. “That’s your miscalculation.”

I stepped back, looked past Aidan and Thomas, straight to the security guys by the door. “Please see Ms. Hart out,” I said. “Safely.” The please was deliberate.

I walked back, stopped beside Aidan without looking behind me.

I heard Evelyn’s heels clicking on the marble, steady, controlled, the walk of someone carefully choosing her exit. I heard the front door open, cold air rush in, the burst of camera clicks and voices outside, then the door closing.

I stood there and breathed.

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9:42 Mon, May 25

Chapter 94

Aidan barely moved next to me. I knew he was looking at me, but I didn’t turn right away.

“That,” Marcus said from behind me, “was extraordinary.”

“It was necessary,” I replied.

I finally turned to Aidan. His face had shifted, like something inside him just shifted, a different

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understanding of something he’d already considered. He looked at me like I’d just shown him a part of a house he thought he knew top to bottom.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“I am. You?”

He almost smiled. “I’m fine.”

“She wanted to destabilise us,” I said. “She wanted a reaction she could use. If I’d gotten upset or defensive, she’d have footage for her narrative. If I stay clear, she gets nothing.”

Aidan nodded slowly. “You thought that through before you crossed the room.”

“Yes.”

“In, what, three seconds?”

“I’ve had lots of practice thinking fast in bad situations.” I kept my tone even. “I had a good teacher.”

He watched me for a long moment. Whatever was going on in his face was complicated, warm, and way more layered than I could unpack right then.

Thomas appeared at my elbow.

I’d almost forgotten he was even there. He had that talent for making himself invisible when needed, then reappearing when information mattered.

“The cameras caught Ms. Hart’s exit,” he said. His voice was calm, just the facts. “The footage is already circulating. She’s the story, not you. The image is her leaving.”

“Good,” I said.

Thomas glanced at me, then at Aidan. Something passed between them, the kind of silent code only people who’ve worked together forever can manage.

“There’s more,” Thomas said.

I faced him fully.

His face stayed neutral. But his hands, usually relaxed or clasped with practiced ease, came together just a bit.

A small tell.

“What is it?” Aidan asked.

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Chapter 94

Thomas looked at both of us, but then zeroed in on me. That told me the info was about me.

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“I’ve been running the intelligence on tonight,” Thomas said. “Why she came, the timing, what she said. When she said ‘this is where it actually starts,’ I figured it was theatre, a dramatic closing line.”

“And?” Aidan pressed.

“It wasn’t for show.” Thomas’s tone stayed steady. “My team picked up two flagged communications in the past forty-eight hours, both linked to Evelyn’s PR accounts. Both reference a time stamp.'”

I watched him. “What time stamp?”

Thomas looked at his watch, then back at me.

“Midnight,” he said.

The foyer got very quiet.

Outside, snow was still falling. The cameras had moved on. The night felt like it was over, except it wasn’t.

“Something goes live at midnight,” Thomas said. “We don’t know what yet. We’ve got…” he checked his watch again, “four hours and seventeen minutes to figure it out.”

I looked at Aidan. He was already looking at me. Neither of us said a word.

Somewhere, the fire crackled softly.

What could she possibly be releasing?

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9:42 Mon, May 25