Too late for regret: Ex-husband and his son wants me back
Seven years. A three-million-dollar contract. A heart broken into pieces.
Serena Powell was never more than a ghost in her own home. Hired by a billionaire to heal his broken son, she spent seven years playing the role of a devoted wife and mother, hiding the jagged scar on her palm,a reminder of the night she saved Victor's life. She thought her love had finally overwritten the contract. She was wrong.
When Victor's "true love," Eliza, returns with a child of her own, the fairy tale dissolves. Overnight, Serena is branded an outsider. Her husband treats her like a servant, and her son,the boy she raised as her own,tells her to "just die already" so Eliza can take her place.
Accused of a crime she didn't commit and slapped by the man she sacrificed everything for, Serena finally realizes the truth: In a world where feelings come with a price tag, she's already paid too much.
Now, the divorce papers are signed, the suitcase is packed, and a prestigious design firm in Glonia is calling her name. Serena is done being a substitute. But as she walks out the door, Victor is about to learn that some things,once broken,can never be repaired. Especially when he realizes he didn't just lose a contract... he lost the only woman who ever truly loved him.
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Chapter 1
On the other end of the line, Victor Powell's father, Albert Powell, asked, "Seri, are you sure you want to terminate the agreement and divorce Victor .
Serena Powell held her phone calmly. "I'm sure."
"Even if Leon's custody goes to the Powell family, you're still leaving?"
"Yes. I believe Leon would rather stay with his dad. The Powell family can give him the best education. He doesn't need me anymore."
Albert's voice was low. "Alright. As for the divorce agreement, you can talk to Victor yourself."
"Okay," Serena replied.
Albert didn't hang up right away. "To be honest, I've been satisfied with how Victor's been these past few years with you around.
"So, as a reward, I'll arrange for you to join the design team in Glonia you've always wanted. In a week at most, you'll be out of the Powell family."
Serena thought, 'A reward? Rich people really do live in a different universe. In their world, even feelings come with a price tag!
She agreed. After she hung up, her phone screen was still frozen on a recent Instagram post from her husband, Victor.
Victor had never posted anything before. Not even their wedding. He'd said it was private, no outsiders needed to know. But for a month now, he'd been posting every day.
In the newest video, their son Leon Powell was playing happily with another kid around his age. The ironic part was, everyone in the comments thought Serena was the one who filmed it.
Someone commented: [Your wife's really good with the camera. Your son looks so happy.]
Victor's reply stood out like a slap: [Yeah.]
Serena thought, 'Yeah? Is he praising Eliza Stone, his childhood sweetheart, for her camera work, or is he just letting people assume she's his wife now?'
Serena grew up in an orphanage. Seven years ago, when she was still in college, Albert suddenly approached her and offered her three million dollars- to buy seven years of her life.
To pay for surgery for the orphanage director who had been kind to her, Serena reluctantly agreed.
Back then, she had already heard the story of Victor and Eliza. Both of them came from powerful families, grew up together as childhood sweethearts, and were deeply in love. But the year they graduated college, Eliza vanished. When Victor found out she'd gone abroad for an arranged marriage, he lost it. Started drinking, smoking, pushing himself to the edge.
The psychiatrist said only emotional healing could cure a wounded heart. So Albert found Serena- a girl who looked strikingly similar to Eliza- and had her care for Victor.
From then on, Serena began to get close to Victor on purpose, relentlessly pursuing him. And with a face that looked just enough like Eliza's, she made sure to stay in Victor's sight every single day.
When he was down, she would cheer him up. When he got sick, she stayed up all night to look after him. And when his depression hit, she was the only one who ever reached into the darkness and pulled him back.
With time, Victor gradually got used to having Serena around.
Until one day, Serena caught him in the middle of a breakdown, about to slit his wrists. She grabbed the sharp blade with her bare hand and forced it out of his grip.
Her hand was sliced open, the cut deep and long, bleeding uncontrollably. The doctor said if it'd gone any deeper, she would've lost the use of her hand. Because the wound was so severe, even after it healed, a jagged scar remained across her palm.
That was the first time Victor hugged her. "Seri, let's get married. Okay? Let's go to city hall tomorrow," he said.
Serena stood frozen, thinking it was her sincerity that had moved him. But later, when she found Eliza's wedding invitation tucked in a drawer, she realized it had all happened on Eliza's wedding day.
Less than two years after they got married, Serena gave birth to Leon. During those two years, Victor wasn't particularly affectionate, but he treated her with respect. Also, Leon was very close to her-he clung to her more than he did to Victor.
Serena had feelings, after all. She had already come to see this place as her home. She loved both Victor and Leon deeply. It wasn't about the black-and-white contract anymore. She truly wanted to be with them for the rest of her life.
So for the sake of her family, Serena gave up her dream of being an accomplished designer and became a full-time housewife.
During the day, she cleaned the house. At noon, she brought lunch to Victor. In the evening, after picking Leon up, she cooked dinner for him. At night, she still had to meet Victor's needs in bed.
She was like a machine that never stopped working year-round, quietly and tirelessly taking care of her husband and son for five straight years.
Serena used to think things would just continue like that. But a month ago, Eliza came back. She was divorced and brought her son with her.
When Victor found out, he rushed to the airport without an umbrella, ignoring the heavy rain. He could even forgive everything Eliza had done in the past, as if none of it mattered anymore.
He thought Serena didn't know. But she knew everything. Over the past week, Victor had grown more and more impatient with her. He started treating her like a servant, barking orders at her. Even Leon had become cold and harsh toward her.
Serena had argued with them and fought back, but they called her ungrateful and narrow-minded. Then, in the next moment, they gave all their tenderness to Eliza.
Ever since Eliza came back, Victor's Instagram had been full of pictures of the four of them-him, Leon, Eliza, and her son. They all looked so warm and loving, as if they were the real family.
That was how Serena learned that when she was sick, Victor and Leon were out shopping with Eliza. When she was heartbroken, Victor and Leon were celebrating Eliza's birthday.
Even yesterday, on their wedding anniversary, Victor and Leon ignored the dinner Serena had spent the whole day preparing just to be with Eliza. When Serena tried to stop them, they told her she was being dramatic.
Serena thought, I should've realized it a long time ago. There's no place for me in this family anymore. I actually believed I could move beyond that contract and stay with them forever-I was being delusional. It's time to wake up and leave.'
She took a deep breath and wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes with a cold hand.
Just then, the sound of the front door opening came from outside. Victor and Leon were back, the chill of the wind and rain still clinging to them as they came in.
"Seri, Leon fell and got hurt. Take care of his wound," Victor said, his voice low and steady, calm as always, automatically slipping into that usual commanding tone.
"I don't want her to do it. She never shuts up and nags the whole time." Leon's brows were furrowed tightly, his face full of annoyance. "I want Eliza to do it."
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8.1
When the private elevator pinged. That was the moment Eleanor's two-and-a-half years as a billionaire's perfect fake girlfriend abruptly ended.
Julian was terminating her services early because his real first love was moving into the penthouse tomorrow.
His assistant stood by the marble counter, bracing for a screaming match. He handed over a brutal non-disclosure agreement.
He slid a five-million-dollar check across the table, fully expecting her to cry, beg, or throw the money back in his face.
"Miss Palmer... Giselle is moving in tomorrow," he warned.
Instead, Eleanor calmly borrowed his Montblanc pen, signed her name three times without hesitation, and slipped the money into her planner.
"Congratulations to Mr. Caldwell-Prentice on finally getting what he wants," she smiled flawlessly.
They all thought she was just a high-end, emotionless mercenary who felt absolutely nothing for the men she served.
They didn't know she was actually Cara Love, the last surviving heir of the ruined Love Foundation, living under a fake name to avenge her dead father.
For years, she swallowed her burning hatred, playing the perfect emotional substitute to buy dark web intel and hide her unnatural, rapid-healing body from a ruthless medical syndicate.
But now, a tech billionaire client had just uncovered her true identity, and her burner phone flashed with a terrifying emergency alert.
The syndicate had found her.
Eleanor grabbed her suitcase and ordered the private jet back to New York.
The facade was over; it was time to face the deadly storm.
8.3
I grew up feeling like an adopted child. They made me feel I was not part of them. They said I could not do as good as my sister. They said my younger sister was better in every aspect. It was understandable coming from my step mother. But my step father should have protected me. But he joined them.
That day my sister announced:
"My billionaire, Jordan, has asked me to marry him, and I said yes."
They were all happy and they told me again:
"Laura, learn from your sister. Do something productive with your life."
I took their advice, and married my sister's fiance.
9.1
June woke up transmigrated into the body of a ruthless billionaire's toxic, disposable wife.
Before she could even process the massive Beverly Hills mansion, a cold system voice announced she had exactly five minutes of lifespan remaining.
To survive, she was forced to bind with the system and strictly maintain the original owner's "brainless, abusive drama queen" persona to earn hours to live.
She was forced to violently slap hot coffee out of a terrified maid's hands and physically spank her manipulative five-year-old stepson.
When she tried to escape this nightmare by throwing divorce papers at her terrifying husband, Isaac Walton, he simply ripped them to shreds.
Every time she tried to be reasonable or show a hint of kindness, the system tortured her with agonizing cardiac pain, cementing her status as the most hated monster in the family.
The most absurd part happened when she threw a hysterical, system-mandated tantrum over a gossip magazine, and Isaac's icy demeanor suddenly melted.
He gently touched her hair, offering the one thing she desperately needed.
"Stop crying. I'll handle it."
Just as a spark of hope ignited in her chest, the system's critical death warning exploded in her skull: accepting his sympathy would instantly deduct thirty days of her life.
To stay alive, June had no choice but to violently slap away the only hand reaching out to save her, forcing herself to play the greedy villain while her husband's gaze turned dangerously dark.
7.1
I lay paralyzed on stiff white sheets, a prisoner in my own skin, listening to the rain lash against the window like nails on a coffin. My father, Elmore Franco, didn't even look at my face as he checked his clipboard. He just listened to the steady, monotonous beep of the heart monitor-the only thing proving I was still alive.
Without a hint of remorse, he pulled a pen from his pocket and signed the Do Not Resuscitate order. My stepmother, Ophelia, stepped out from behind him, wearing my favorite pearl necklace and smelling of cloying perfume. She leaned close to my ear to whisper the truth that turned my blood to ice.
"It was the tea, darling. Just like your mother. A slow, tasteless poison."
She chuckled as she revealed that my fiancé, Bryce, had a two-year-old son with my sister, Daniela. My inheritance had been funding their secret life for years, and now that the money was secure, I was an inconvenience they were finally scrubbing away. As my father yanked the power cord from the wall, the beeping died, and the darkness swallowed me whole.
I was being murdered by my own flesh and blood, used as a bank account until I was no longer needed. I died in that sterile room, drowning in the realization that every person I ever loved was a monster who had been waiting for me to take my last breath.
Then, I gasped. I woke up in a luxury hotel suite surrounded by silk sheets, five years in the past-the very morning of my wedding. Next to me lay Basile Delgado, the "Wolf of Wall Street" and my family's most dangerous enemy. In my first life, I ran from this room in a panic and lost everything. This time, I looked at the man who would eventually destroy my father's empire and decided to join him.
"I'm not leaving, Basile. Marry me. Right now. Today."
9.0
Irina Volkov has three rules: no emotions, no real names, and never meet in person. For two years she has survived on those rules alone - running romance scams on wealthy men, funneling every stolen dollar toward the crushing debt her abusive stepfather signed in her name before she escaped. She is not greedy. She is desperate. And she is very, very good.
Until she targets Nikolai Dragunov.
What Irina doesn't know is that Nikolai has known about her from the beginning. He created the perfect bait - a lonely businessman with money to burn - and waited for her to find him. Because in a world Nikolai controls down to the last detail, Irina Volkov is the only unpredictable thing left. He wanted to see how far she would go.
Now the game is over. The con is exposed. And Nikolai isn't asking for his money back. He's keeping her.
Trapped in his penthouse with nowhere to run and a Bratva boss who looks at her like she's both a puzzle and a prize, Irina has to survive the most dangerous mark she's ever made - and somehow stop herself from falling for him in the process.
She's a liar. He's a monster. And neither of them expected to fall.
"You took my money, malyshka. Now you belong to me."
8.5
He rejected her. He tried to kill her. And he called their unborn child an abomination. Now, Emily Reed is under the protection of the most dangerous Alpha she's ever met-a man who doesn't play by the rules.
One thing is certain: in Ethan Carter's world, fear is currency, and she just became priceless.