Unmasked My CEO Ex-Husband’s Regret novel Chapter 5

Elara clenched her fists and cast a dismissive glance at her, refusing to take the coffee. Instead, she looked at Julian. "She looks unfamiliar. A new intern?"

Julian disliked her condescending tone. He frowned, deflecting the question. "I thought you didn't drink coffee. I'll make you some tea."

He was changing the subject, but also quietly explaining the situation to pacify Vivian.

As Julian turned to make the tea, Elara shifted her gaze back to Vivian, who was slightly shorter than her. "And what's our new colleague's name?"

Their eyes met, and Vivian feigned confusion.

She had deleted the chat history right after sending the photo last night. Julian had no idea she had sent it. There was no way Elara missed the deliberate manicure in the photo of Julian in the shower.

So why was she acting so calm?

Did she not receive it?

Not getting the reaction she wanted, Vivian kept her composure. She smiled gently and introduced herself. "I'm Vivian Winthrop. Everyone calls me Vivian."

"Oh."

Elara gave a flat response, then suddenly leaned forward.

Thinking Elara was going to strike her, Vivian instinctively shrank back. The coffee cup in her hand tilted, spilling scalding liquid onto her hand. She gasped in pain.

"Elara!"

Catching the incident out of the corner of his eye, Julian abandoned the tea and rushed over in three long strides. He snatched the coffee from Vivian's hand, slammed it on the desk, and grabbed her wrist to inspect it.

"Are you burned? Let me see..."

Vivian tactfully pulled her hand back, stepping away to put distance between them. She offered Julian a gentle smile. "Thank you for your concern, Mr. Beckett. I'm fine."

She was deliberately stepping back to save Julian from an awkward situation, taking the grievance all upon herself.

Julian's heart ached for her even more. He knew they couldn't act too close with Elara in the room, so he had no choice but to let Vivian suffer for now, casually dropping his hand.

"Go to the infirmary and get it checked."

"Yes, Mr. Beckett."

Vivian cradled her right hand, offered Elara an apologetic smile, and headed for the door.

Elara watched it all unfold, her heart turning icy cold. All she could think about was how Julian used to protect her exactly like that.

When she and Julian first started dating, everyone thought that, even though he was the stepson, he was still entirely out of her league as the daughter of the Beckett family's housekeeper.

Julian's mother never approved of her and constantly made things difficult. To protect her, Julian always stood in front of her, taking all the blame so his mother had no excuse to attack Elara, and so Elara wouldn't hold any grudges against his mother.

Their friends used to look up to him as the gold standard for balancing family conflicts.

But now, the scales in Julian's heart had tipped toward Vivian. The ones he protected were no longer her and their daughter.

"Wait."

When they reached the elevator lobby, Julian's phone rang.

Elara was close enough to see it was her mother-in-law calling. "I can head down myself. You better get that."

If her mother-in-law found out he was delayed because of her, she'd get an earful again.

As the elevator doors opened, Julian answered the phone and turned to walk back to his office.

Just as she reached the ground floor, Elara suddenly remembered that today was his nephew Sebastian Vance's birthday.

Julian hadn't been home lately, so she hadn't had a chance to give him the gift to pass along.

Figuring Julian was still on the phone, Elara hit the button and returned to the top floor.

The office door was ajar, and as she approached, she heard Julian talking on the phone.

"Don't worry, I'll take Vivian to Sebastian's party tonight."

"I haven't told Elara that Sebastian invited her too."

"How am I going to explain it to Sebastian?"

"Melody had another meltdown last night. I'll just say Elara had to stay home to take care of her."

"Everyone knows about Melody's situation. I'm sure Sebastian will understand."