Too Late For Regret: My Ex-Husband's Downfall
Colette Bentley gripped her terminal leukemia diagnosis, her world shattering. Her only comfort was that her husband, Edwardo, was the country's foremost hematologist.
But when she called him, desperate for a lifeline, she didn't hear his reassuring voice. Instead, she heard the playful voice of her own sister, Cleo.
"Edwardo, hurry up. The water's getting cold..."
As Colette stood outside an exclusive club hours later, collapsing in a pool of her own blood, Edwardo was busy pressing Cleo against his car and gifting her diamonds.
He ignored Colette's emergency calls, coldly texting back that he was too busy to be bothered.
When Colette miraculously secured a single, priceless vial of an experimental drug to save her own life, Edwardo broke into her private safe and stole it.
He fed her life-saving medicine to his mistress to treat a minor symptom, smiling proudly as he claimed he knew Colette wanted to help.
"I confirmed it was the VX-7 compound and gave it to Cleo. The effect was miraculous."
He had completely erased her existence, casually sentencing his own wife to death to play the hero for the woman who ruined her marriage. How could a doctor who swore to save lives be so monstrous?
But Colette wasn't going to die quietly in the shadows.
She slapped the smug smile off his face, extorted a hundred-million-dollar divorce settlement, and walked into a rival research institute. This time, she chose to live for herself.
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Chapter 4
Colette discharged herself against medical advice the next morning. She felt a fragile strength returning, a temporary reprieve she knew wouldn't last. She took a taxi back to the penthouse.
Eliza greeted her at the door, her face etched with worry. "Ma'am, you look dreadful. Are you ill?"
"Just low blood sugar, Eliza. I'm fine," Colette lied, waving off her concern.
She had just settled onto the living room sofa when the doorbell chimed. It was her mother-in-law, Genevieve Lucas. She swept into the room like a storm front, her posture ramrod straight, her expression severe.
"I spoke with Edwardo," Genevieve began, forgoing any pleasantries. "He said you were unreachable all day yesterday. That you didn't come home. As the wife of a Lucas, that behavior is unacceptable."
Colette remained silent, letting the accusations hang in the air.
Genevieve's eyes narrowed. "You've been married for seven years, Colette. Seven years, and still no heir. The Lucas family requires a legacy. I'm sure you understand." It was a threat, wrapped in the guise of family duty. A warning to either perform or be replaced.
This was the opening Colette had been waiting for.
She leaned forward, her voice soft but clear. "You're right, Genevieve. I do understand. That's why I've decided to divorce Edwardo."
Genevieve's perfectly sculpted eyebrows shot up. This was not the reaction she had expected.
"And," Colette continued, pressing her advantage, "I want him to leave with nothing."
A harsh, barking laugh escaped Genevieve's lips. "Are you insane? You signed a prenuptial agreement. You get nothing."
"I'm aware of what I signed." Colette took out her phone, unlocked it, and opened the encrypted folder. She tapped on the video file and slid the phone across the marble coffee table. "I'm also aware of the infidelity clause. The party at fault forfeits everything."
The video began to play. The grainy footage of the parking garage. The passionate, desperate kiss. The Cartier box.
Genevieve's face, already a mask of cold composure, hardened into granite. Her eyes were fixed on the screen, her jaw tight. The only sound in the room was the faint, tinny audio of Cleo's delighted gasp.
When the video ended, Colette reached over and stopped it. The silence that followed was heavy, suffocating.
"So this is your plan?" Genevieve's voice was like chipping ice. "To blackmail my family with this... sordid little video?"
"It's not blackmail. It's a business transaction," Colette corrected her. "I don't want Edwardo's personal assets. A contested divorce would be messy, public, and time-consuming. I want something cleaner."
She paused, letting the words sink in.
"I want five percent of the Lucas Family Trust. One hundred million dollars. A single, clean payment."
She saw a flicker of something in Genevieve's eyes. Not shock. Not anger. It was respect.
"You transfer the funds," Colette said, her tone all business, "and this video, along with any copies, will be permanently destroyed. I'll sign a non-disclosure agreement and disappear from your lives. Edwardo's reputation remains intact. The Lucas name stays out of the tabloids."
Genevieve was a pragmatist. She understood numbers and leverage far better than she understood emotions. A hundred million was a small price to pay to erase a scandal, to get rid of a barren daughter-in-law, and to clear the way for a more... suitable match for her son.
"You're smarter than I gave you credit for, Colette," Genevieve said, standing up.
"I learned from the best," Colette replied, her expression unreadable.
"Fine." Genevieve's decision was swift. "One hundred million. But I want this done in three days. My lawyers will be in touch to finalize the agreement."
"Of course," Colette said. "And please, make sure your son is ready to sign."
At the door, Genevieve paused. "As for your sister..." she said, her voice dripping with disdain. "I will handle her. The Lucas family does not tolerate messes."
Colette knew that was a threat aimed at Cleo. She found she didn't care.
After Genevieve left, a wave of weakness washed over her. The adrenaline was gone, leaving only exhaustion and the deep, aching illness in her bones. She retrieved the small white box from her purse. The Asidancanmab.
She knew she should save it. It was priceless. But she needed to be strong for what was coming.
In the privacy of her bathroom, she administered a tiny fraction of the dose into her thigh. The effect was almost immediate. A gentle warmth spread through her limbs, pushing back the crushing fatigue. The ghastly pallor of her skin receded, replaced by a hint of color.
It was a temporary fix. A borrowed strength.
She took the precious vial and walked to the large safe hidden behind a painting in their bedroom. She carefully placed the medicine inside. It was her future. Her only hope. And she would guard it with her life.
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9.3
Alyssa Gregory slept with Benton Steele, a recently disgraced and bankrupt heir, just to humiliate him.
She threw a massive check at his bare chest, treating the former prince of Wall Street like a cheap escort.
But Benton didn't take the charity.
Instead, he manipulated her anger, tricking her into signing an ironclad contract that surrendered absolute control of her entire trust fund to him.
When her abusive mother found out she had funded a penniless outcast, she slapped Alyssa across the face.
Her mother froze all her bank accounts, locked her inside her bedroom, and arranged to sell her off to a degenerate politician.
Desperate to escape, Alyssa climbed down her balcony, falling fifteen feet and shattering her ankle on the stones below.
Stripped of her money and freedom, she dragged her broken body to a VIP club just to publicly declare that Benton belonged to her.
She thought she was the boss, playing a rebellious game with a broken man.
But when Benton effortlessly carried her away from the club and locked her inside his rundown apartment, the terrifying calculation in his dark eyes shattered her illusion.
How could a man stripped of his entire empire still radiate such suffocating, violent power?
"You bought me," Benton whispered, his massive frame trapping her against the sofa. "That means I have to take care of you."
Physically trapped and completely broke, Alyssa stared into his consuming eyes, her mind racing to find a way to turn the tables.
9.5
On the day she discovers she is pregnant, Amara is handed divorce papers by the man she loved for three years. Betrayed by her husband and her best friend, she walks away with nothing-except the secret growing inside her.
But what Ethan Cole doesn't know is that the woman he abandoned is not weak... and not alone.
When Amara returns as a powerful heiress, no longer the woman he could control, Ethan begins to regret everything. But as secrets unravel and the truth about her pregnancy comes closer to light, one question remains-
When he finally finds out the child is his... will it already be too late?
9.5
My husband, Colton, the Wall Street mogul, slid annulment papers across the table, coldly discarding me and our unborn child. He thought he was getting rid of a useless wife, but he was actually throwing away the secret architect of his entire empire. Now, I'm ready to make him pay for every insult, every lie, and every single secret I've kept.
For three years, eight months pregnant, I secretly saved Colton's ten-billion-dollar company from collapse, enduring a cold, transactional marriage.
One night, he shattered that illusion, serving annulment papers and callously discarding me and our unborn child.
I signed, leaving luxury behind. Exposing his butler's fraud, I escaped. Colton later found his wedding ring gone and, on his desk, my SEC compliance fixes—proof I was his hidden genius.
Blindsided, he realized he’d destroyed his own empire. His mother then called, gloating. The injustice ignited a fierce resolve within me.
The next morning, I launched Kidd Legal Consulting. I'd use forty-seven folders of Farmer Capital's un-patched loopholes to force a fair settlement, securing my daughter's future.
8.1
He was powerful.
He was terrifying.
Said to be cruel and unjust...
7.1
After the one-night stand with a man who refused to tell her his name, Charlotte would figure out on TV that the man she had s*x with the previous night was the heir to a billionaire empire.
At the same time, Jace Norman-the infamous playboy heir-faces a public scandal that threatens his inheritance. To protect the family empire, his ruthless father forces him into an immediate contract marriage.
And just like that Charlotte would get married to the spoiled, reckless son of the most powerful billionaire in the city.
That One night, Room 55 and Five thousand dollars she desperately needed would change her life forever.
Weeks later, Charlotte discovers she's pregnant.
But before she can process the truth, her manipulative boyfriend claims the child is his and begins blackmailing her.
As their fake marriage becomes dangerously possessive, secrets begin to spiral. An ex-boyfriend demanding money. Jace's jealous college lover is determined to destroy Charlotte. Charlotte's sister is hiding betrayal behind sweet smiles. And a billionaire father who will eliminate anyone to protect the Norman name.
When a forged DNA test claims the baby isn't Jace's, the empire turns on Charlotte.
But the truth is far darker than any of them realize.
Because someone has been orchestrating every lie from the beginning.
And when Jace finally discovers the baby is his...
He will have to choose between his father's empire-
Or the woman carrying his heir.
9.8
I spent ten years locked in an asylum, heavily sedated, until my wealthy family dragged me back to their Hamptons estate. I pretended to be a brain-damaged lunatic to survive.
They didn't bring me back out of love. The Holden family was bleeding money, and they desperately needed me dead to inherit my massive trust fund shares.
My step-cousin Cristian was the mastermind behind the purge. First, he tried to quietly murder our billionaire grandfather with a mutated toxic orchid. Then, he ordered a guard to drop a deadly Gaboon viper into my bedroom in the dead of night. My father was a spineless coward, my mother was drugged into a stupor by the family doctor, and my brother was a crippled addict. They all stood by as I was thrown into the freezing mud, treated like garbage.
"She is a disgrace to this family! Get her back to the asylum immediately!"
My uncle roared, completely unaware that my brain was forged in a decade of clandestine warfare. But the strangest part wasn't my hidden combat skills. It was that my blood relatives could suddenly hear my cold, tactical inner thoughts.
Through my silent, telepathic broadcasts, I exposed Cristian's poison to my grandfather, woke my mother from her chemical haze, and turned my paralyzed brother into a ruthless, blood-soaked protector. Still playing the shivering, crazy girl, I smiled in the dark. The real war had just begun.