Too Late to Regret: The Dead Wife Who Owns His Empire Now
Damien Hayes was a workaholic, and as an illegitimate son who had clawed his way to the top, he seemed to care about nothing but Hayes Realty.
For three years of marriage, Lydia Carter had always been waiting for him.
She waited during dates, waited on anniversaries, waited for prenatal checkups, and even waited for the surgical abortion.
What she finally received was a livestream of Damien throwing an extravagant birthday celebration for another woman.
Devastated, she was caught in a chain car accident, convincing Damien that she had died with the wreck.
Yet Lydia survived against all odds and unexpectedly became the sole heir of the world's richest man.
The moment she set foot back on her homeland, she swore she would make Damien taste a pain sharp enough to pierce the heart.
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Chapter 6
Julian produced the DNA test results between Grace and Richard.
The sight of it brought Richard to tears once more.
"When I was young, I devoted myself entirely to the family business and neglected my wife in her youth. I left her waiting and waiting, alone, until she fell gravely ill and passed away. I believe she must have hated me to the core, which is why she resolutely sent our young daughter away before her death. I didn't even know your mother existed until more than twenty years ago, when an old acquaintance came to me and told me the truth. By then, regret was already useless, and yet I continued making mistake after mistake."
Only later did Lydia learn that Richard had begun searching for his daughter more than twenty years ago. But with his status growing ever more prominent, and age making him increasingly suspicious and volatile, nothing was simple.
All of it had been carried out in secrecy, yet schemers took advantage of the situation. Every person brought before him came with ulterior motives.
Richard pointed toward Julian. "He's my adopted grandson and calls me Grandpa as well. From now on, he'll do everything in his power to take care of you and support you. Everything I leave behind will be handed over to you."
Lydia looked at Julian in surprise.
He showed no emotion on his face, only a faint smile as he looked back at her.
In the days that followed, Lydia stayed almost constantly in the small white building.
She kept Richard company, occasionally describing her mother's appearance and habits to him.
Richard always looked at her with affection, a smile of unfathomable depth in his eyes. "You resemble her very much."
He gently traced the only photograph he had of his daughter, the one Lydia had reluctantly given him.
In the photo, Grace looked serene and graceful, faint dimples on her cheeks as she held a still-young Lydia in her arms.
Thinking of what Julian had told him earlier with such a grave expression, Richard couldn't help but look up at his granddaughter.
She was bent over, studying the intricate medical equipment, her brow tightly furrowed. The oversized shirt hung loosely on her slender frame.
He frowned. "That man thinks you're dead?"
Lydia froze for a moment. Without turning around, she gave a soft hum in response.
"That's fine then. Consider it a brand-new beginning."
Lydia soon understood what Richard meant by a "new beginning."
Her identity and all related records were completely replaced.
When she received the new identification documents, Lydia looked up at Richard in a daze. "I… I have to change my name?"
"Of course."
Richard forced himself to sit upright, solemnly signing his name across a thick stack of documents.
The two men who had just entered the room were said to be Richard's private attorneys.
"From now on, your name will be Elena Sterling. I know this isn't how it's usually done, but you're the only blood family I have left. I want you to take my name."
As he said this, Richard's expression darkened.
"That so-called biological father of yours doesn't deserve a daughter like you."
He told Lydia that he had already revised his will and completed all notarization procedures.
"Elena, come with me downstairs to sit in the sun."
Outside, the sunlight was perfect, not a single breeze stirring.
Richard sat in his wheelchair. It was the best he had looked in over a year.
He narrowed his eyes slightly, savoring the warmth as it soothed his body.
"Elena."
He called her several times before Lydia finally came over, her face faintly flushed, and crouched down beside him.
"I'm still not used to this name."
"That's alright. You'll get used to it soon."
Richard reached out and gently patted his granddaughter's head. The hollow that had expanded in his heart over decades seemed to be healing, little by little.
He spoke softly. "If time could be turned back, perhaps I should have gone to find my daughter myself. I made the wrong choices in many things. So the regret and pain I feel now are what I deserve. As for the business world, Julian will teach you well. What I can give you may only be these few lessons about life. Don't trust anyone easily. And never forgive those who have betrayed you. But don't let hatred trap you either."
It had been a very long time since Lydia had felt care from family.
Even though there was still distance in her heart, and she couldn't truly forgive the harm Richard had brought upon her mother, at this moment in a foreign land, she chose a temporary reconciliation.
She rested her head against Richard's knee.
She murmured softly, "Are you really going to give everything to me? What if I don't do well? What if all I want is to punish Damien severely? I really hate him, Grandpa. I loved him so much back then, and now it feels like I hate him twice as much."
Richard gently stroked her hair, a trace of a smile in his voice.
"Then punish him. Let him taste a pain that pierces the heart. If everything I leave you can help you easily strike back at those who hurt you, then it's all worth it. If your grandmother had been given such a chance back then, perhaps she wouldn't have given up everything she cherished in such despair."
Under the sunlight that day, Richard spoke at great length.
He said he could finally rest easy now, having handed everything over to his granddaughter, and go without distraction to seek forgiveness from his wife and daughter.
"I just don't know if they'll still be willing to give me that chance now."
His voice gradually slowed, becoming like a drifting feather, rising and falling in the evening breeze that had just begun.
At last, that aged hand slowly fell limp…
Just past midnight that night, two explosive pieces of news left business circles around the world unable to sleep.
First, the world's richest man, Richard Sterling, had passed away due to illness. His funeral would be held privately, with only close friends and family in attendance.
Second, according to Richard's will, all assets would be inherited by his only granddaughter, Elena Sterling.
Social networks both at home and abroad nearly collapsed as everyone fixated on one question.
Who was Elena Sterling?
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9.2
In LA's Business world, Zane Calloway, thirty, turns cartel king after his father's gruesome murder, ruling The Atlas Group with a bloody fist. He learned how betrayal could ruin even the biggest empire and was hell bent on keeping Atlas Group. However when Sienna Carter, his new assistant got in the picture, he threw caution to the wind. To become the only one controlling the cartel, he would use Sienna who was a supposedly ghost from a dead cartel as bait for his enemies. Sienna Carter made his mission become even more complicated as she ignites a dangerous sparks in him. Twenty-five year old Sienna Carter just wanted to stay alive, running away from danger had been the only thing she was capable of since her family were murdered. All she had as a semblance of her old life was the locket her dying father had given her and when a new job pops up in Los Angeles, she gambled for it, hoping for her sake that it wouldn't lead her straight to the same hell she was running from.
However, she would soon realize that the Atlas Groups was going to be more than just a survival decision but the key to everything.
8.7
To escape my toxic ex-fiancé and the father who froze my assets, I entered a contract marriage with Barrett, a cold but protective corporate consultant.
I thought he was my safe harbor. I even confided my secret, ruthless strategy to take back control of my company from my ex.
But at the most critical board meeting, a mysterious new chairman dialed in.
The synthesized voice coming through the speakerphone systematically dismantled the board and took over the company, using the exact, word-for-word strategy I had only ever whispered to my husband in the dead of night.
My ex-fiancé turned pale with panic. The board members were stunned into silence.
And I sat there, my blood running completely cold.
The man who had held my hand in the hospital, who had slept in my bed, and who had promised to protect me, had just committed the ultimate corporate espionage.
Every tender touch, every late-night confession—was it all just a calculated move to steal my life's work? How could the only person who made me feel safe use my deepest vulnerabilities to orchestrate my ruin?
I packed up my files, walked straight out of that boardroom, and prepared to disappear from his life forever.
But when I fled to my best friend's apartment to hide, I looked out the window.
The ruthless mastermind who had just stolen my empire was standing completely still in the freezing downpour, waiting for me to come down.
8.6
Four years ago, I melted my skin into the asphalt to pull Julian Moretti from a burning wreckage. I spent years in the shadows, nursing him back to health, hiding my scars while he reclaimed his title as the Underboss of New York.
But on the way to our wedding, everything shattered.
Estelle Russo, the woman who caused the crash that ruined me, complained of a stomach ache in the limousine. Julian didn't hesitate.
He ordered the driver to stop on the shoulder of the highway.
"Get out," he barked at me, his eyes cold.
He forced me out of the car in my wedding gown, leaving me stranded in the dust and exhaust fumes just so Estelle could lie down on the seat.
"Take a cab to the church," he sneered before speeding away.
He didn't just leave me on the road; he abandoned me at the altar to hold the hand of the woman who had once tried to kill him. He called our relationship a "debt" he was tired of paying.
I stood there, the lace of my dress heavy with humiliation, realizing I was never his Queen—I was just his collateral damage.
I didn't call a taxi. Instead, I pulled a burner phone from my bodice and dialed the one number that would end his reign.
"The deal is live," I whispered. "He chose her."
I stripped off the wedding dress, climbed over the guardrail, and stepped into the black sedan waiting to take me to his greatest enemy.
7.6
I am the illegitimate, mute daughter of the wealthy Owen family, kept hidden in the attic like a shameful secret.
To save his failing company, my father decided to sell me off to a repulsive, predatory investor named Grossman.
At the family dinner, Grossman's sweaty hands roamed my bare legs while my half-sister Kaleigh intentionally spilled red wine on my dress, laughing as she watched me suffer.
When I grabbed a steak knife to defend myself, my father slammed his fist on the table.
"Sit down, or I will cut off the maintenance payments for your mother's grave."
My stepmother and sister sneered, treating me like a piece of meat meant to be sacrificed for their luxury. I was starved, locked away, and treated worse than a stray dog, all while my family paraded their high-society status to the world.
I couldn't understand why they hated me so deeply, or who really ordered the hit that killed my mother twenty years ago. The police reports were buried, and I was entirely powerless, trapped in a house of monsters.
But they didn't know that the night before, I had accidentally stumbled into the secret life of Burleigh Livingston—the ruthless, supposedly paralyzed billionaire who was faking his madness.
When Burleigh suddenly crashed our family dinner and threw a limitless Black Card on the table to outbid Grossman and buy me for the night, I didn't hesitate.
I grabbed the handles of his wheelchair, accepted his twisted deal, and prepared to use the devil himself to tear my family apart.
9.7
Elena Whitmore always knew falling for her brother's best friend was a mistake. But one stolen night with Grayson Hale changed everything, and cost her more than she ever imagined.
When he vanished without a word, she buried the past and built a life no one could touch. A life that included a daughter Grayson has never known.
Five years later, he's back. Wealthier. Colder. Determined to uncover why she disappeared, and why she's engaged to a man she doesn't love.
As old sparks ignite and buried truths begin to surface, Elena must decide if protecting her secrets is worth sacrificing the only man she ever loved.
7.2
Ade had sacrificed the life she loved, the things she liked doing to please James. But it was never enough for him. Somehow, the one woman he just couldn't get, was the price, she was the gem.
And so once the opportunity presented itself, Ade became a past chapter of his life. A reject.
Betrayed and scorned, Ade is on a quest to reclaim her life back and face off adversaries.
But now what is she to do with the two men in front of her. One of them her ex James who can't seem to forget her and keeps stepping in her way, and the other, a billionaire who wants her at all costs.