Unmasked My CEO Ex-Husband’s Regret novel Chapter 28

Long before Elara and Julian had even started dating, Meredith had despised her.

She found Elara entirely too independent and completely lacking in proper etiquette.

To Meredith, Elara was nothing but a housekeeper's daughter who had the audacity to play big sister to the heirs of the Vance and Beckett empires, dragging a young Sebastian through gritty back alleys.

Worse, she had seduced Julian. She had corrupted the son Meredith had so meticulously raised, fueling his rebellion to the point where he refused an incredibly lucrative arranged marriage just to marry a penniless nobody.

If Julian had just listened to her and married the heiress she had selected right out of college, he would already have everything he ever desired. He wouldn't be reduced to frantically scheming and begging for scraps of influence now.

The more Meredith thought about it, the more her blood boiled. "As Julian's wife, if you truly wanted the best for him and his company, you would know your place! You'd know which circles you don't belong in and stop dragging him down!"

The barrage of insults flowed relentlessly. Once she finally ran out of breath and paused, Elara replied in a slow, even tone, "We didn't follow Julian there."

"Sebastian drove us himself."

Meredith's fury hadn't even peaked. She was fully geared up to relentlessly berate Elara until the younger woman swore never to interfere with Julian's ambitions again.

But that single, nonchalant sentence acted like a bucket of ice water over her blazing rage.

Having built up so much momentum, the sudden interruption left Meredith paralyzed. The insults she had primed died in her throat, causing her face to flush an ugly, mottled red.

Elara watched her with the same cool, unbothered expression. "I've already explained this to Julian."

"Besides, Julian eventually realized that Sebastian had explicitly invited Melody and me to the party from the start."

"He was simply too busy to pass the message along."

"..."

Meredith had never bothered to hide her disdain for Elara. Even after the wedding and Melody's birth, she had never truly accepted Elara as her daughter-in-law.

Meredith's reaction right now proved both theories flawlessly.

Since she refused to admit defeat, Elara didn't humiliate her further, effortlessly shifting gears. "Don't you think our presence at the banquet actually worked in Julian's favor?"

"Wh-what?"

"Didn't Sebastian officially introduce our family to everyone?"

Elara spelled it out for her. "If my memory serves me right, before that moment, Julian was desperately chasing down executives to network. After Sebastian introduced us, quite a few heavyweights approached Julian directly."

"Wouldn't you call that helping him?"

"..."

Meredith was visibly staggered. "That was Sebastian helping Julian. What does that have to do with you?"