Too Late, Mr. CEO: You Lost Her

Too Late, Mr. CEO: You Lost Her

L. FITZGERALD

5.0
Comment(s)
25.2K
View
11
Chapters

I sold my cameras and lenses-everything that defined me-to buy the first servers for my husband's startup. Fifteen years later, on my birthday, Dustin left me alone to celebrate with his new assistant, Jami. When I confronted him about the affair, he didn't apologize. He threw a fifty-thousand-dollar check at me and told me to buy something pretty. But the betrayal didn't stop there. Jami broke into our safe and stole my late mother's vintage sapphire ring. When I tried to take it back, she snapped the eighty-year-old gold band in half. I slapped her. In response, my husband shoved me hard. My head cracked against the solid oak nightstand. Blood poured down my face, staining the rug I had picked out. Dustin didn't call an ambulance. He didn't even check my pulse. He stepped over my bleeding body to comfort his mistress because she was "stressed." When his parents found out, they didn't care about my injury. They came to where I was hiding, accused me of being clumsy, and threatened to leave me with nothing if I ruined the family image. They forgot one crucial detail: I was the one who designed, coded, and installed the penthouse's smart security system. I had synced every camera to my private cloud before I walked out. I had the video of him assaulting me. I had the audio of him admitting to fraud. And I had my father on speed dial-the man who owned the bank holding all of Dustin's loans. I looked at his terrified parents and pulled up the footage on the TV. "I don't want your money," I said, my finger hovering over the 'Send' button to the District Attorney. "I want to watch him burn."

Too Late, Mr. CEO: You Lost Her Chapter 1

I sold my cameras and lenses-everything that defined me-to buy the first servers for my husband's startup.

Fifteen years later, on my birthday, Dustin left me alone to celebrate with his new assistant, Jami.

When I confronted him about the affair, he didn't apologize. He threw a fifty-thousand-dollar check at me and told me to buy something pretty.

But the betrayal didn't stop there. Jami broke into our safe and stole my late mother's vintage sapphire ring.

When I tried to take it back, she snapped the eighty-year-old gold band in half.

I slapped her. In response, my husband shoved me hard.

My head cracked against the solid oak nightstand. Blood poured down my face, staining the rug I had picked out.

Dustin didn't call an ambulance. He didn't even check my pulse.

He stepped over my bleeding body to comfort his mistress because she was "stressed."

When his parents found out, they didn't care about my injury. They came to where I was hiding, accused me of being clumsy, and threatened to leave me with nothing if I ruined the family image.

They forgot one crucial detail: I was the one who designed, coded, and installed the penthouse's smart security system.

I had synced every camera to my private cloud before I walked out.

I had the video of him assaulting me. I had the audio of him admitting to fraud.

And I had my father on speed dial-the man who owned the bank holding all of Dustin's loans.

I looked at his terrified parents and pulled up the footage on the TV.

"I don't want your money," I said, my finger hovering over the 'Send' button to the District Attorney. "I want to watch him burn."

Chapter 1

Eliana POV

The bottle of bubblegum-pink nail polish sitting on Dustin's mahogany desk certainly wasn't mine, but the shark-tooth bracelet next to it definitely belonged to his new assistant, Jami.

I stood frozen in the center of the home office I had personally designed, holding a tray of freshly brewed espresso.

The steam curled against my face, sharp and bitter.

My husband didn't even look up from his monitors.

Dustin was typing furiously, his brow furrowed in that intense way that used to make my stomach flip with admiration.

Now, it just made me feel invisible.

"You left this in the kitchen," I said, my voice sounding thin in the expansive room.

"Just set it down, Eliana," he muttered, waving a hand dismissively without shifting his gaze from the screen. "I'm in the middle of a crisis."

I placed the coffee near the pink bottle.

The contrast was screaming at me.

The sleek, dark wood of the desk, the professional clutter, and that cheap, neon vial that looked like a stain on our life.

I walked out, my heart thumping a slow, heavy rhythm against my ribs.

I went to the kitchen and checked the oven.

The roast had been done for an hour.

It was drying out, shriveling in the heat, just like the conversation I had rehearsed in my head all afternoon.

Fifteen years.

We started in a garage that smelled like mildew and old oil.

I sold my cameras, my lenses-everything that defined who I was-to buy his first servers.

I was his first investor, his first employee, his first believer.

Now I was just the woman who made sure his coffee was hot and his house was clean.

My phone buzzed in my pocket.

It was a text from an unsaved number, but I knew who it was.

He loves the way I taste.

Attached was a photo.

It was blurry, taken in low light, but I recognized the leather seats of Dustin's car.

And I recognized the hand resting on a thigh clad in denim.

It was Dustin's hand.

I recognized the watch. The Patek Philippe I had saved for three years to buy him for our tenth anniversary.

I stared at the screen until the image seemed to sear itself into my mind.

I didn't cry.

I think I had cried enough over the last six months to fill the harbor view outside our window.

Instead, I felt a cold, hard stone settle in my gut.

I walked back to the office.

Dustin was laughing now, talking into his headset.

"Yeah, Jami, that's brilliant. No, seriously, you saved the day."

He spun his chair around and saw me.

The smile vanished instantly, replaced by a look of annoyance.

"What is it now, Eliana? I told you I'm working."

"It's my birthday," I said.

The silence that stretched between us was suffocating.

He blinked, once, twice.

He looked at the calendar on his screen.

"Oh," he said. "Right."

He didn't apologize.

He didn't stand up to hug me.

He just rubbed his temples like I was a headache he couldn't shake.

"I'm sorry, El, but we have this launch. Jami and the team are waiting for me at the office for a debrief. I have to go."

"You're going to the office? At nine p.m.?"

"It's work, Eliana. Stop being so sensitive. You know how important this is."

He stood up, grabbing his keys and his phone.

He grabbed the shark-tooth bracelet, too.

"I'll make it up to you," he said, brushing past me.

He didn't kiss me goodbye.

I watched the elevator doors close on his face.

He was already typing on his phone, a small smile playing on his lips.

He wasn't going to work.

He was going to celebrate.

Just not with me.

I walked back to the kitchen and took the dry roast out of the oven.

I dumped it directly into the trash can.

Then I went to the bathroom and opened the cabinet.

I took out the pregnancy test I had bought earlier that day.

I hadn't used it yet.

I stared at the unsealed box.

A plan began to form in the cold, dark corners of my mind.

I wasn't going to be the supportive wife anymore.

I wasn't going to be the anchor that held him steady while he drifted away.

If he wanted a storm, I would become the hurricane.

Continue Reading

Other books by L. FITZGERALD

More
The Heiress Who Rewrote The Script

The Heiress Who Rewrote The Script

Romance

5.0

My summer holiday at our Hamptons estate started like any other, quiet and peaceful. Then, a sleek black SUV pulled up, and my world began to unravel. Out stepped Ethan Vance, our estate manager's son, a quiet boy I' d grown up with, but now he was radiating an unsettling arrogance, accompanied by a woman I didn' t recognize. Suddenly, obnoxious social media comments flashed across my vision, overlaid on reality itself. "OMG, Ethan & Chloe, the power couple, are finally reunited! Ash better not get in their way this time!" Another popped up: "Ash is so gonna be the jealous villainess again, lol." Ethan then delivered his shocking demands: Chloe would stay in my favorite Azure Suite, and I was to pull strings for her big Hollywood audition. His voice dripped with condescension as he announced, "My heart belongs to her," then chillingly warned he might "let my family off easy" if I complied. The comments revealed a horrific truth: a "previous life," a "web-drama" where Ethan had used me, married me, and destroyed my family to be with Chloe. I, Ashley Miller, was merely the "jealous, overbearing heiress" destined for total ruin. My mind reeled. Villainess? Use my money? Dump me? This wasn't a hallucination; it was a script they expected me to follow, a pre-ordained triumph. But the sheer audacity, the contempt in his voice, ignited a fierce, unyielding fury within me. They expected a lovesick fool, a doormat. I wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of that ending. I raised my hand and slapped Ethan across the face. This was my story to write, and their script was about to be shredded.

A Woman Scorned Rises

A Woman Scorned Rises

Romance

5.0

He spent $9.99 million to put my name, Chloe Miller, on every billboard in Times Square. "Chloe, marry me." The proposal of the century, they called it. For ten years, I had been the perfect fiancée to Liam Sterling, heir to an empire. That proposal was supposed to be our grand finale. Then he vanished. Thirty days of chilling silence, broken only by paparazzi photos. Liam, in Paris, Rome, Tokyo – with her, Sarah Jenkins, his "white moonlight." The tabloids spun a tragic romance: Sarah, terminally ill; Liam, the noble savior on a farewell world tour. He became a saint. I became a footnote. Today, they returned. I stood at the private jet terminal, not to cry, but to end it. He strode out, tanned and relaxed, she frail and clinging. "Chloe," he said, annoyance flashing in his eyes. "What are you doing here?" "We're over, Liam." Sarah peeked from behind him, watery-eyed. "Chloe, please don't be mad at Liam. It's all my fault. I just wanted to see the world one last time before I go." Her performance was flawless. But I saw the healthy glow beneath her pale skin. "Upset her?" I asked, my voice dripping acid. "She looks healthier than I do." I held up my phone, showing a lab report. "Sarah, according to this, you are in perfect health. Not a single marker for any terminal illness." Liam snatched the phone. "Chloe, stop it! You've lost your mind! You're being cruel and manipulative!" He didn't want to believe me. His eyes, once full of trust, now saw me as a monster. "There's a sick woman who needs me," he said, stroking Sarah' s hair. "And then there's you, acting like a psycho." He offered me a crumb: "We'll get married as planned. Just... give me some time to handle this." He thought he could have us both. But looking at the man I had loved for ten years, I felt nothing. No, I thought. We will not be getting married. Not now. Not ever. I walked away, leaving him standing there. He didn't believe I would actually leave. He would soon learn just how wrong he was.

You'll also like

The Billionaire's Cold And Bitter Betrayal

The Billionaire's Cold And Bitter Betrayal

Clara Bennett
5.0

I had just survived a private jet crash, my body a map of violet bruises and my lungs still burning from the smoke. I woke up in a sterile hospital room, gasping for my husband's name, only to realize I was completely alone. While I was bleeding in a ditch, my husband, Adam, was on the news smiling at a ribbon-cutting ceremony. When I tracked him down at the hospital's VIP wing, I didn't find a grieving husband. I found him tenderly cradling his ex-girlfriend, Casie, in his arms, his face lit with a protective warmth he had never shown me as he carried her into the maternity ward. The betrayal went deeper than I could have imagined. Adam admitted the affair started on our third anniversary-the night he claimed he was stuck in London for a merger. Back at the manor, his mother had already filled our planned nursery with pink boutique bags for Casie's "little princess." When I demanded a divorce, Adam didn't flinch. He sneered that I was "gutter trash" from a foster home and that I'd be begging on the streets within a week. To trap me, he froze my bank accounts, cancelled my flight, and even called the police to report me for "theft" of company property. I realized then that I wasn't his partner; I was a charity case he had plucked from obscurity to manage his life. To the Hortons, I was just a servant who happened to sleep in the master bedroom, a "resilient" woman meant to endure his abuse in silence while the whole world laughed at the joke that was my marriage. Adam thought stripping me of his money would make me crawl back to him. He was wrong. I walked into his executive suite during his biggest deal of the year and poured a mug of sludge over his original ten-million-dollar contracts. Then, right in front of his board and his mistress, I stripped off every designer thread he had ever paid for until I was standing in nothing but my own silk camisole. "You can keep the clothes, Adam. They're as hollow as you are." I grabbed my passport, turned my back on his billions, and walked out of that glass tower barefoot, bleeding, and finally free.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book
Too Late, Mr. CEO: You Lost Her Too Late, Mr. CEO: You Lost Her L. FITZGERALD Modern
“I sold my cameras and lenses-everything that defined me-to buy the first servers for my husband's startup. Fifteen years later, on my birthday, Dustin left me alone to celebrate with his new assistant, Jami. When I confronted him about the affair, he didn't apologize. He threw a fifty-thousand-dollar check at me and told me to buy something pretty. But the betrayal didn't stop there. Jami broke into our safe and stole my late mother's vintage sapphire ring. When I tried to take it back, she snapped the eighty-year-old gold band in half. I slapped her. In response, my husband shoved me hard. My head cracked against the solid oak nightstand. Blood poured down my face, staining the rug I had picked out. Dustin didn't call an ambulance. He didn't even check my pulse. He stepped over my bleeding body to comfort his mistress because she was "stressed." When his parents found out, they didn't care about my injury. They came to where I was hiding, accused me of being clumsy, and threatened to leave me with nothing if I ruined the family image. They forgot one crucial detail: I was the one who designed, coded, and installed the penthouse's smart security system. I had synced every camera to my private cloud before I walked out. I had the video of him assaulting me. I had the audio of him admitting to fraud. And I had my father on speed dial-the man who owned the bank holding all of Dustin's loans. I looked at his terrified parents and pulled up the footage on the TV. "I don't want your money," I said, my finger hovering over the 'Send' button to the District Attorney. "I want to watch him burn."”
1

Chapter 1

12/12/2025

2

Chapter 2

12/12/2025

3

Chapter 3

12/12/2025

4

Chapter 4

12/12/2025

5

Chapter 5

12/12/2025

6

Chapter 6

12/12/2025

7

Chapter 7

12/12/2025

8

Chapter 8

12/12/2025

9

Chapter 9

12/12/2025

10

Chapter 10

12/12/2025

11

Chapter 11

12/12/2025