Unmasked My CEO Ex-Husband’s Regret novel Chapter 31

But when it came to love, merely staying by someone's side was never enough to satisfy the heart.

Fortunately, she wasn't just some ordinary girl.

She was the beloved heiress of Winthrop Global.

Even if Julian Beckett didn't truly love her yet, he wouldn't dare push her away, out of sheer respect for the Winthrop family's massive influence.

Making Julian fall in love with her was something she had once only dreamed of.

Having survived the most grueling five or six years of waiting, what did she have to fear now?

Taking care of his daughter temporarily was just a minor hurdle; she could afford to bide her time.

After dinner, Meredith Beckett headed straight home, leaving the two of them to enjoy their evening undisturbed.

Vivian Winthrop had been in a sour mood the past couple of days because of Elara Sterling.

Leaving the restaurant, Julian took her to a nearby theater to catch a popular new romance movie.

By the time they walked out of the theater, it was already past ten o'clock.

During those two hours, his phone had buzzed with a relentless stream of messages.

There were updates from clients, friends, and his executive team, along with texts from Elara.

After skimming through the urgent business matters, Julian tapped into his chat with Elara, completely ignoring the content and backing out immediately just to clear the unread notification.

Whenever he wasn't home, Melody usually insisted on a video call before bed, but since he had skipped them lately, Elara had taken to sending him monotonous, routine updates that he felt were entirely unnecessary to read.

Hovering his finger over the screen, Julian debated whether to just mute Elara's notifications entirely.

But thinking of his daughter, he hesitated and ultimately gave up on the idea.

He had already broken his promises to Melody several times, and if he kept ignoring her video requests, the little girl was going to be devastated.

Clinging to his arm, Vivian took in his every micro-expression before asking softly, "Julian, are we heading to my place or yours tonight?"

Julian briefly mentally calculated the commute. "Let's go to The Downtown Loft. It's closer."

The little girl looked up, a beat too late, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears. "Mommy, does Daddy really hate me?"

Caught in her own innocent sorrow, she forgot that Julian was the one who kept breaking his promises, automatically assuming she had done something wrong to push him away.

Elara gently took the phone from her hands, pulling her into a warm embrace and pressing a kiss to her cheek. "No, baby."

"You didn't do anything wrong, Melody. You've been perfect. Daddy is the one who made a mistake."

"Daddy broke his promise to you, and he's the one who didn't pick up the phone."

Elara was done making excuses for him; she chose to be completely honest with her daughter.

"Do you remember when Daddy promised he would always answer your calls?"

Melody nodded.

"But you called him twice today and he didn't answer, and he hasn't texted back to explain why. Don't you think Daddy broke his promise?"