The Billionaire’s Regret: Ex-Husband Wants Me Back

Chapter5

Five years later

SOPHIE VAUGN'S POV

“Mom! Mom, I’m still talking to you. Listen to me!” Eloise’s high-pitched voice broke through my thoughts as she skipped beside me, her tiny legs matching my pace while I loaded the last grocery bag into the trunk.

Eloise was at that age where children thought themselves grown but still managed to be unbearably adorable.

“Of course I’m listening, Mon Cherie,” I replied with a tight-lipped smile, shutting the trunk with a thud. Turning to face her fully, I added, “Mommy’s attention is completely on you now.”

“That means you weren’t listening earlier!”

I couldn’t help but smile at that. Her logic was flawless. “Forgive me, Cherie. Go ahead—tell me everything. Trouble at school, right?”

“Non non,” she started, but then did a quick double-take, switching back to English. “You know our school’s no-bullying policy? I think it’s too lenient—”

“Ooh, ‘lenient.’ You’re learning big words now ehn?” I interrupted, not even trying to hide how proud of her I was.

Eloise ’s lips twitched, and her eyes shone with answering pride.

“Well, our school insists we report bullies,” she continued, finally letting her happiness spill over, “but I think it’s dumb!”

I chuckled as I slid into the driver’s seat, buckling her in beside me. “Seems like a good policy to me.”

“Well, it’s not! There’s this girl, Amelia, and she’s very… gênante —”

“Troublesome?”

“That’s what I said!” Eloise huffed dramatically. “Anyway, she came up to me when I was about to eat and demanded I give her my lunch”

My smile faltered, but I stayed quiet, curious to hear where this was headed.

“I said, ‘Mince! Don’t get me started, or I’ll make you regret the day you ever met me.’”

I nodded. Absent mindedly. Her little brows were knitted together, her silver-grey eyes shone with suppressed anger. At that moment, she looked exactly like her father. I swallowed a lump.

“Mommy, are you listening?” Eloise ’s concerned voice jolted me from my thoughts.

“Yes, Cherie. Except, you shouldn’t say mince —it’s a bad word.”

Eloise pondered that for a moment, then nodded. “Okay, I won’t say it again. But that’s what I told her,” she said, scrunching up her face in a mock menacing glare. Normally, it would have made me laugh, but the knot in my chest wouldn’t let me.

“What’s wrong, Mommy?”

I turned to her, guilt pooling in my chest. She’d been talking all day—on the way to school, after I picked her up, and now—but I hadn’t really looked at her until now.

Not for the first time, her resemblance to her father hit me like a sucker punch. Silver-grey eyes dominated a heart-shaped face framed by dark curls

“Are you okay, Mommy?”

“I’m fine…” I started, then sighed. There was no point lying to Eloise . She was too perceptive for that. “I’m just a little worried. We might have to move soon. My company is transferring me.”

“Your hire a manager company?”

I nodded. My job at the management firm had us moving around France for years. But this time was different. This time, the rumors weren’t about a move to a new country.

I had come a long way from the poor, uneducated, pregnant waitress I was before I fled here. To start with, Sophie Vaughn’s details said she had a bachelor’s degree in business management. I’d had to read up on business, and business laws before I dated to use her credentials to apply for a job.

I was already used to being Sophie Vaughn, but sometimes, in the middle of the night, I’ll wake startled with fear. What if the authorities found out I was a fraud? I could spend some serious time in jail for impersonation.

“Yes,” I finally answered Eloise’s question. “My job at hire a manager.”

Eloise took a dramatic breath. “It’s okay, Mommy. What part of France are we going to? I just learned the map of France at school!”

“That’s the thing, sweetheart,” I said softly, my fingers tightening on the steering wheel. “It’s not France. It’s another country.”

Her eyes widened, then sparkled with excitement. “Another country?! You mean we’ll fly?”

“I hope not,” I muttered. My phone rang before I could say more.

“Hello, Alain ,” I answered, instantly regretting it.

Alain’s laugh was rich and smooth on the other end of the line. A former fling I wished I could forget, Pierre had a knack for making himself unforgettable.

“I wanted you to hear it from my mouth first,” he teased.

“What is it?” I asked, glancing at Eloise . I considered warning Alain not to say anything inappropriate—he had a habit of crossing lines.

“You’re going to the United States. The company is the Surrello Conglomerate. It’s the branch at Douglas road, in Los Angeles.”

His words landed like a punch. My vision blurred as I pulled into the garage, shutting off the engine.

Alain kept talking, with excitement in his tone. Something about how he was proud of how far I had come, that the Surrello was a very big business name

But I couldn’t hear him.

The past I’d worked so hard to escape had finally caught up with me. And I wasn’t ready to face it.

Wordlessly, I took the groceries inside, and prepared an early dinner for Eloise, then I filled a tub, and got in with my full clothes.

The water was warm, yet my body began shaking violently, as dry sobs racked my entire frame.

Why was I reacting like this to the mere mention of the name Surrello? I was no longer that doe-eyed waitress as a seedy bar, I was Sophie Vaughn! I needed to start acting like it.

I drew in a steadying breath, and lit a cigarette – I had started smoking as a distraction to forget my hurt, after a fling with Alain had not worked. It was almost as though my mind and body knew I belonged to Mateo.

And yet, to him I was just a bet!

I swallowed as buried my hurt. I had literally thrown away my whole life because of him, and yet, he was able to move on that quickly. I’d seen on TV that he got married to Camille Lombardi, another snobby heiress from his social circle, and barely three months after he crushed my heart like it meant nothing.

A cold, ruthless smile twisted my lips. Perhaps it was time to show rich men like Mateo Surrello that he shouldn’t get to mess with people’s lives just because they were poor. I was going to take that job at the Surrello Conglomerate, and I was going to finally get my revenge.

“Mateo Surrello,” I whispered eerily, “you better watch your back cause I’m coming for you.”