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Chapter 93

last update Terakhir Diperbarui: 2025-04-11 03:43:15

Sophia

Death wasn't as quiet as I thought it would be.

It was loud. Deafening, even in the silence, in the thud of every heartbeat that still resonated despite the sedative crawling like smoke through my veins. My body was limp, a hollow shell, but my mind was fully awake. Burning. Watching. Listening.

This was what it was to be a ghost with a heartbeat.

Outside the mock ICU room, the world buzzed. Choreographed chaos. Nurses shouting codes that weren't real. A crash cart was brought in for dramatic effect. Bellion had orchestrated every note like a maestro of war. The ECG beeped in steady rhythm, a lifeline strained to a lie. To my lie.

I was dead.

Or I was supposed to be.

The room they'd placed me in smelled of rust and bleach. Softly humming white lights above cast a cold glow that flickered occasionally like they knew this room wasn't meant to accommodate the living. I could hear the beep of the heart monitor beside me, forced into showing a steady, albeit slowing, rhythm. It had
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  • After Divorce, I became the CEO of my Ex-Husband's Company    Chapter 94

    AlexI wasn't supposed to hear her voice yet. Not until I'd processed it. Until I'd decompressed it into a form the human brain could comprehend.But there it was. Raw. Distorted. Defiant."I didn't die," she asserted.I stared at the encoded waveform across the black terminal screen, her voice wavering through the circuit like a ghost crawling through noise.She was alive. She'd woken up—and I wasn't ready for what that entailed."She drugged me again," she gasped, breath thin but clipped. "She wanted me under."My jaw snapped shut. Chloe.Of course.I'd suspected she wasn't loyal, but this? She was racing so fast on the betrayal before the dirt had even settled on Sophia's empty grave."She hired Deimos," Sophia continued. "They're attacking the compound before Athena can get wind. They think I'm out of the game.""They're making a play," I snarled. "Premature. Amateurish.""Let them."She had sounded like war in silk. Broken but smoldering. And like that, the plan was changing. Aga

    Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-04-12
  • After Divorce, I became the CEO of my Ex-Husband's Company    Chapter 95

    SophiaThe smell of her cologne still in the air.Vanilla, amber, something synthetic trying to mimic heat. Chloe only put it on whenever she needed to pretend to have a soul.I waited in ambush in the tribune room's peeling pillars and broken crystal chandeliers, a poetic observation of what both of us had become. Queens without kingdoms. Sisters without blood. Enemies by design.The air lay heavy. There was ancient judgment within these walls. Sentences echoed through seams in the ceiling.I had wished she'd hear it also.She appeared with her heels clicking as though she owned moments. No guard. No hesitation. Just this smirk carved upon her lips like she'd already emerged victorious.I didn't move.I stood until she was three strides past the threshold before I shattered the silence."You actually believed I'd stay in the ground, didn't you?"She ceased her movement.I advanced one slow, measured step, letting the light strike my face first. Her eyes expanded, shock curving into c

    Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-04-12
  • After Divorce, I became the CEO of my Ex-Husband's Company    Chapter 96

    AlexThe world did not explode in fireworks. It fell apart in the silent cracks.I was at dawn on the east edge of the roof of the manor, the sky bleeding into shades of bruise and fire. Another day, another thread breaking. Nathan's kingdom had started to rot from the inside out, and he hadn't even been aware that the worms were his own people.Bellion stood at my shoulder, silent as always, a specter in suit jackets and restraint."She moved the next pawn," he said, glancing down into the street below where the black SUV parked, one of ours."She was always the better chess player," I grumbled, drumming on the railing with my fingers, timing out the seconds until Nathan snapped.Twelve.That's how long it took.Bellion's com crackled, and then the voice, husky, claustrophobic."Holding an emergency board meeting," he told him. "He's playing it straight down the line. Asset freeze. Public denial. Legal counter-attack.""It's a scandal, is it?"Bellion's mouth flexed. "It's a reckonin

    Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-04-13
  • After Divorce, I became the CEO of my Ex-Husband's Company    Chapter 97

    SophiaAlex's study tasted like decisions. Heavy. Bitter. Smelling of the burden we both knew was going to befall us.He hadn't uttered a sound since I'd given him the pages, Chloe's writing, her hubris bare on every page, in every carefully disguised betrayal and deal. He read slowly, methodical, as if dissecting her lies with a scalpel.I stood at the window, arms folded, watching twilight fall into the cracks of the city. It seemed smaller from up there. Controlled.Contained."You're quiet," I said eventually, my tone a low buzz, too soothing for the turmoil in my heart.Alex didn't look up. "Because if I do, I may tell you how much I want to destroy everything."I turned to him. "Then say it.".His eyes locked on mine, and for a moment, I lost the ability to breathe."I want to take her reputation, her company, her legacy. I want to make Chloe disappear like she made you disappear. But more slowly. So she can see it coming."My lips curled, not into a smile... no, that feeling ha

    Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-04-13
  • After Divorce, I became the CEO of my Ex-Husband's Company    Chapter 98

    SophiaThe lights didn’t just flicker, they died.The sudden blackness swallowed everything, leaving only the sound of my own breath, jagged and alert. My heart jackhammered against my ribs, instinct bracing me before my mind could catch up.Alex moved instantly. Silent, precise. A shadow brushing past me as he reached for the gun tucked in the hollow behind the liquor shelf. I didn’t flinch. I knew better now.I wasn’t the girl who used to ask permission to fight back."Down," he whispered.I crouched, flattening myself beside the heavy armchair, eyes adjusted to the outlines. The comms had gone silent. Whoever triggered it didn’t want us warned. But it was already too late for them.Because Chloe wasn’t just walking into a house.She was walking into her reckoning.Boots echoed in the hallway.I counted two sets. Maybe three. Too light for Nathan. Too tactical for Bellion. Not Chloe either... she never got her hands dirty. No, she paid others to do that for her.The first shot wasn’

    Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-04-14
  • After Divorce, I became the CEO of my Ex-Husband's Company    Chapter 99

    SophiaI didn't flinch. Not when the message burned across my screen, Not when Alex gazed at me as if I were the question and the answer, Not when the walls in this house... my house started to feel like paper on fire. "You still don't know what you are." The words weren't a threat. They were a taunt. A dare. And something else. Something worse. A truth."What does it mean?" Alex whispered, even though his voice was already coming undone. I looked down at the necklace, the one I'd worn since childhood, a gold spiral of metal and negative space. The missing stone wasn't a mistake. It was never decoration. It was a key. A message. Something left to me by a woman I was never able to meet. Elara.Elara Vance.My mother.His mother's sister.And the entire world crumbled under my feet."Tell me this doesn't make us... " he began."It doesn't," I cut in, sharp and fast. "Our parents weren't together. Yours loved your father. Mine died trying to expose the ones who destroyed her

    Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-04-14
  • After Divorce, I became the CEO of my Ex-Husband's Company    Chapter 1: Shattered Illusions

    Sophia's POV The golden light of dusk spills through my bedroom window, casting long shadows over the sleek, modern furniture. I adjust the diamond studs in my ears, my reflection in the mirror poised yet exhausted. The red silk dress clings to my body, hugging every curve in a way I know Nathan used to love. Tonight is supposed to be special—our anniversary, a chance to remind him of the woman he fell in love with. Lately, things have been distant between us, but I refuse to believe our marriage has lost its fire.I glance at the elegantly wrapped gift on my vanity and smile to myself. It’s a personalized watch, engraved with Forever, S & N. A small token, a reminder of our promises. Maybe this will rekindle something in him, remind him of the nights we spent laughing over cheap wine and takeout before success consumed us. I smooth down my dress, grab my purse, and head out, heart fluttering with anticipation.The drive to Carter Enterprises is smooth, the city lights twinkling like

    Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-02-10
  • After Divorce, I became the CEO of my Ex-Husband's Company    Chapter 2: The Betrayal Runs Deep

    Sophia's POV The moment the elevator doors slide shut, the weight I had been holding crashes down on me like a tidal wave. My chest tightens, my breath hitching as I lean against the cold steel wall. The image of Nathan and Chloe tangled together is burned into my mind, replaying in vicious loops. My fingers curl into my palms, nails biting into my skin, but it does nothing to stop the storm inside me. The doors open, and I step out into the empty parking garage, the sound of my heels echoing like the hollow ache in my chest. I make it to my car before the first tear falls.I grip the steering wheel, my vision blurring as silent sobs wrack my body. Six years. Six years of laughter, of whispered dreams, of standing beside him through every success and failure. Had it all been a lie? The late nights at the office, the unexplained business trips, the growing distance I had convinced myself was just stress—was it always her? My own sister? The betrayal cuts deeper than I thought possible

    Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-02-10

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  • After Divorce, I became the CEO of my Ex-Husband's Company    Chapter 99

    SophiaI didn't flinch. Not when the message burned across my screen, Not when Alex gazed at me as if I were the question and the answer, Not when the walls in this house... my house started to feel like paper on fire. "You still don't know what you are." The words weren't a threat. They were a taunt. A dare. And something else. Something worse. A truth."What does it mean?" Alex whispered, even though his voice was already coming undone. I looked down at the necklace, the one I'd worn since childhood, a gold spiral of metal and negative space. The missing stone wasn't a mistake. It was never decoration. It was a key. A message. Something left to me by a woman I was never able to meet. Elara.Elara Vance.My mother.His mother's sister.And the entire world crumbled under my feet."Tell me this doesn't make us... " he began."It doesn't," I cut in, sharp and fast. "Our parents weren't together. Yours loved your father. Mine died trying to expose the ones who destroyed her

  • After Divorce, I became the CEO of my Ex-Husband's Company    Chapter 98

    SophiaThe lights didn’t just flicker, they died.The sudden blackness swallowed everything, leaving only the sound of my own breath, jagged and alert. My heart jackhammered against my ribs, instinct bracing me before my mind could catch up.Alex moved instantly. Silent, precise. A shadow brushing past me as he reached for the gun tucked in the hollow behind the liquor shelf. I didn’t flinch. I knew better now.I wasn’t the girl who used to ask permission to fight back."Down," he whispered.I crouched, flattening myself beside the heavy armchair, eyes adjusted to the outlines. The comms had gone silent. Whoever triggered it didn’t want us warned. But it was already too late for them.Because Chloe wasn’t just walking into a house.She was walking into her reckoning.Boots echoed in the hallway.I counted two sets. Maybe three. Too light for Nathan. Too tactical for Bellion. Not Chloe either... she never got her hands dirty. No, she paid others to do that for her.The first shot wasn’

  • After Divorce, I became the CEO of my Ex-Husband's Company    Chapter 97

    SophiaAlex's study tasted like decisions. Heavy. Bitter. Smelling of the burden we both knew was going to befall us.He hadn't uttered a sound since I'd given him the pages, Chloe's writing, her hubris bare on every page, in every carefully disguised betrayal and deal. He read slowly, methodical, as if dissecting her lies with a scalpel.I stood at the window, arms folded, watching twilight fall into the cracks of the city. It seemed smaller from up there. Controlled.Contained."You're quiet," I said eventually, my tone a low buzz, too soothing for the turmoil in my heart.Alex didn't look up. "Because if I do, I may tell you how much I want to destroy everything."I turned to him. "Then say it.".His eyes locked on mine, and for a moment, I lost the ability to breathe."I want to take her reputation, her company, her legacy. I want to make Chloe disappear like she made you disappear. But more slowly. So she can see it coming."My lips curled, not into a smile... no, that feeling ha

  • After Divorce, I became the CEO of my Ex-Husband's Company    Chapter 96

    AlexThe world did not explode in fireworks. It fell apart in the silent cracks.I was at dawn on the east edge of the roof of the manor, the sky bleeding into shades of bruise and fire. Another day, another thread breaking. Nathan's kingdom had started to rot from the inside out, and he hadn't even been aware that the worms were his own people.Bellion stood at my shoulder, silent as always, a specter in suit jackets and restraint."She moved the next pawn," he said, glancing down into the street below where the black SUV parked, one of ours."She was always the better chess player," I grumbled, drumming on the railing with my fingers, timing out the seconds until Nathan snapped.Twelve.That's how long it took.Bellion's com crackled, and then the voice, husky, claustrophobic."Holding an emergency board meeting," he told him. "He's playing it straight down the line. Asset freeze. Public denial. Legal counter-attack.""It's a scandal, is it?"Bellion's mouth flexed. "It's a reckonin

  • After Divorce, I became the CEO of my Ex-Husband's Company    Chapter 95

    SophiaThe smell of her cologne still in the air.Vanilla, amber, something synthetic trying to mimic heat. Chloe only put it on whenever she needed to pretend to have a soul.I waited in ambush in the tribune room's peeling pillars and broken crystal chandeliers, a poetic observation of what both of us had become. Queens without kingdoms. Sisters without blood. Enemies by design.The air lay heavy. There was ancient judgment within these walls. Sentences echoed through seams in the ceiling.I had wished she'd hear it also.She appeared with her heels clicking as though she owned moments. No guard. No hesitation. Just this smirk carved upon her lips like she'd already emerged victorious.I didn't move.I stood until she was three strides past the threshold before I shattered the silence."You actually believed I'd stay in the ground, didn't you?"She ceased her movement.I advanced one slow, measured step, letting the light strike my face first. Her eyes expanded, shock curving into c

  • After Divorce, I became the CEO of my Ex-Husband's Company    Chapter 94

    AlexI wasn't supposed to hear her voice yet. Not until I'd processed it. Until I'd decompressed it into a form the human brain could comprehend.But there it was. Raw. Distorted. Defiant."I didn't die," she asserted.I stared at the encoded waveform across the black terminal screen, her voice wavering through the circuit like a ghost crawling through noise.She was alive. She'd woken up—and I wasn't ready for what that entailed."She drugged me again," she gasped, breath thin but clipped. "She wanted me under."My jaw snapped shut. Chloe.Of course.I'd suspected she wasn't loyal, but this? She was racing so fast on the betrayal before the dirt had even settled on Sophia's empty grave."She hired Deimos," Sophia continued. "They're attacking the compound before Athena can get wind. They think I'm out of the game.""They're making a play," I snarled. "Premature. Amateurish.""Let them."She had sounded like war in silk. Broken but smoldering. And like that, the plan was changing. Aga

  • After Divorce, I became the CEO of my Ex-Husband's Company    Chapter 93

    SophiaDeath wasn't as quiet as I thought it would be.It was loud. Deafening, even in the silence, in the thud of every heartbeat that still resonated despite the sedative crawling like smoke through my veins. My body was limp, a hollow shell, but my mind was fully awake. Burning. Watching. Listening.This was what it was to be a ghost with a heartbeat.Outside the mock ICU room, the world buzzed. Choreographed chaos. Nurses shouting codes that weren't real. A crash cart was brought in for dramatic effect. Bellion had orchestrated every note like a maestro of war. The ECG beeped in steady rhythm, a lifeline strained to a lie. To my lie.I was dead.Or I was supposed to be.The room they'd placed me in smelled of rust and bleach. Softly humming white lights above cast a cold glow that flickered occasionally like they knew this room wasn't meant to accommodate the living. I could hear the beep of the heart monitor beside me, forced into showing a steady, albeit slowing, rhythm. It had

  • After Divorce, I became the CEO of my Ex-Husband's Company    Chapter 92

    SophiaEvery falsehood we uttered was a blueprint for their annihilation.The hideout was silent, but now silence was momentum. Silence before an impact. The kind of silence you get immediately before a bullet is fired. My mind was a fuse, burning rapidly, unwinding the pieces as they fell into alignment. Athena. Deimos. Vince. Nathan.It was no longer a line, it was a net. One that I intended to burn.I scowled at the photograph tacked to the wall, Nathan, Alex, and me. A gala had been on this photo's activities; Champagne, forced smiles, staged applause. That's where the agreement on the London purchase was finalized. A choreographed PR sideshow to mask razor-sharp ambitions fueling all our bargains.Nathan had just acquired a struggling European firm, promising to "revitalize" it, when in actual fact we were stripping it bare from the inside out and selling its skeletons to the highest bidder. Alex had brokered most of the backchannel deals, seducing CEOs with velvet-gloved bul

  • After Divorce, I became the CEO of my Ex-Husband's Company    Chapter 91

    SophiaEvery lie we said was a blueprint for their destruction.The safe house was silent, but now the silence was movement. The calm before impact. My head was a fuse, smoldering hot, unwinding the pieces as they fell into place. Athena. Deimos. Vince. Nathan. It wasn't a line anymore, it was a net. One I intended to ignite.I looked at the photograph stuck on the wall and remembered that night two years ago. Nathan had brought in a large European firm. Alex was standing in the shadows, negotiating deals into the ears of men three times his age. And I... I was the smile they didn't anticipate. The woman in warpaint and stilettos who'd already mapped out their weaknesses before I even shook their hands.How quickly it all fell apart. "You're not saying anything," Alex said behind me. I turned. "I'm doing math."He moved closer, his feet quiet on the wood. "You're stalling too.""I don't stall," I said. "I wait. There's a difference."He folded his arms, looking at me. "So wh

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