Unmasked My CEO Ex-Husband’s Regret novel Chapter 49

Elara never meddled in Julian's corporate affairs, deliberately keeping her nose out of Ark Solutions' highly classified dealings.

However, Julian had always loved venting about the highs and lows of his workday over dinner, meaning she had a terrifyingly accurate grasp of his operational pipeline.

But a few months ago, the daily debriefings had abruptly ceased.

Coincidentally, that was exactly when his sudden surge in "mandatory overtime" skyrocketed and his nights at home practically vanished.

The corporate crisis was a complete fabrication. His wild affair with Vivian was the cold, hard truth.

As Julian spun his pathetic narrative, Elara's mind flashed back to the clandestine documents she had scoped out in his briefcase last night.

There had been five or six thick files in total. One was a brutal divorce settlement, and the rest were heavily redacted corporate contracts.

The divorce terms had been insultingly straightforward: a few million dollars and a mediocre condo, on the explicit condition that she surrender full custody of Melody and forfeit all claim to his marital assets.

She had only skimmed the corporate paperwork. A new partnership agreement and an application to charter an entirely new subsidiary had looked distinctly sketchy, but her focus had been deadlocked on the divorce papers, so she hadn't dug too deep.

Now that Julian was randomly pushing a "company in crisis" narrative, the puzzle pieces violently snapped into place: He was establishing a smokescreen to legally hemorrhage his net worth into offshore accounts.

His supposed business emergency was nothing more than the prologue to a massive asset-stripping operation.

Elara's brilliant legal mind mapped out his entire strategy in mere seconds. Maintaining a flawless poker face, she asked, "What kind of roadblock?"

"Is it severe?"

"Do you want me to take a look at the contracts? I can run an analysis."

Back in the chaotic startup days, Ark Solutions had nearly been gutted by a predatory vendor. It was Elara who had ruthlessly scoured the fine print, zeroed in on a fatal loophole, and single-handedly saved his company from bankruptcy. She possessed the raw legal firepower to do it again, making her request entirely reasonable.

But Julian was obviously not about to hand her the smoking gun. "My legal team has already combed through it. We've mostly got it handled."

"I'm sorry, sweetheart. You're completely right. I'm setting a terrible example."

Melody scowled darkly. "You say 'I'm sorry' a lot these days, Dad. Why is that?"

"If you can't follow the rules, why do you even bother making promises?"

She sat up ramrod straight, leveling an unblinking glare at Julian. Like a tiny prosecutor, she methodically laid out his extensive rap sheet.

"You promised you would always pick up my FaceTimes. You promised you'd take care of me when I was sick. You promised we'd get strawberry shortcake when I got better. But you didn't do a single one of those things!"

"Whenever I call you lately, you always swear you're coming straight home, or that you'll be back as soon as you finish your work. But you never, ever come back. You're always just 'working'."

"If you actually can't come home, you should just tell me the truth. Even if it makes me sad or breaks my heart, I'm not some stupid baby who just throws tantrums. I would try super hard to understand, and I wouldn't bother you while you're working."

This was the massive backlog of betrayal she had been dragging around for weeks.