My Ex-Husband Regrets It All Novel by Elara Voss _ Novel





My Ex-Husband Regrets It All Chapter 01

At 11:59 PM, still seething from the phone call that had shattered my sleep, I pushed open the gilded doors to the private room.
"Sorry to interrupt, everyone. I'm here to pick up my husband."
The next second, the New Year's countdown came to an abrupt halt.
Several of the city's power players snapped their heads toward me.
In the seat of honor sat a man in a crisp, tailored suit, a cold, stern expression on his face as he traced the stem of his glass.
"Maddison Gallagher?"
Someone finally broke the stunned silence.
"This is the University of Miami undergraduate alumni New Year's Eve party, not a charity event for second‑rate colleges."
The room erupted in mocking laughter.
"Aren't you the star of the whole Maddie‑ism scandal? To impress you, the campus genius Zachariah wrote 'Maddie‑ism' instead of 'materialism' on his entire exam—nearly gave the professor a stroke."
"I heard you crawled into your stepbrother's bed back then and kept pestering him to marry you. Why else would he have tied himself to a mediocre student like you? Now he's married to a Cambridge PhD—that's what you call a perfect match. How dare you even show your face here?"
The stares from around the table pierced me like needles.
They would never know.
Zachariah had once been at the very bottom of the entire school. He'd pushed himself to the brink, clawing his way to the top—all for me.
But none of that mattered anymore.
I met every gaze head-on, my face showing none of the flustered reaction they'd expected.
The corner of my mouth twitched slightly as I said, calmly, "I'm not here to celebrate the New Year with all you elites. I'm here to pick up my husband."
Zachariah Laffley finally raised his eyes, his gaze dark and heavy. "Maddie, we got divorced three years ago."
A slight curve touched my lips as a polished, professional smile settled on my face. "I know."
"So I never said I was here for you, Mr. Laffley."
"How shameless—still trying to leech off Zach even after the divorce."
A few stifled snickers broke out in the private room.
Wilson Wakelem lit a cigarette and stared at me lazily. "This is the first time I've seen someone practically beg to be called a homewrecker."
Wilson had once been our best friend in high school—Zachariah's and mine. He'd been the second kindest person to me in the whole world.
Yet when Zachariah and I were fighting through the divorce, he'd stood by Zachariah without a second thought.
Because the girl he loved was the other woman in our marriage. He'd been helping Zachariah hide their relationship all along.
I was the only one who'd been a fool, kept in the dark from start to finish.
"Wilson, that's enough." Zachariah pressed his lips together and snapped, his voice cold.
Wilson's jaw tightened in defiance. He stubbed out his cigarette and scowled, irritation plain on his face.
"What's wrong with a few words? Maddison is such an idiot. She doesn't hold a candle to someone as educated as Pris, not by a long shot.
"You're the only one interested in a fool like her. She has been dragging you down for years for nothing."
Zachariah's gaze locked with mine, his voice low and firm. "Maddison isn't an idiot."
Maddison isn't an idiot.
Coming from a genius like Zachariah, those words might have sounded absurd. But 16-year-old Maddison would have believed them without hesitation.
The year we graduated from junior high, my mother and Zachariah's father got married and started a new family.
We were around the same age, enrolled in the same ordinary high school, and even ended up in the same class. He was dead last in our grade, while my grades hovered right in the middle.
Zachariah hated me, so he never spoke a word to me.
I'd often see him getting into fights, only to receive a disciplinary warning right after. Each time, it was my mother who'd rush to the school to face the scolding, swallowing her pride and enduring every insult with her head bowed.
One night, I went to get a drink of water and found my mom sitting on the couch, crying.
"Maddie, how do you think Zach will ever accept me?"
I had no answer. All I knew was that after that night, the already-strained relationship between Zachariah and me turned hostile and tense.
I sprinkled wasabi in his drink, poured dirty water into his schoolbag, and slipped laxatives into his lunch.
Zachariah issued a vicious threat. "Got any other tricks up your sleeve? Maddison, I'm telling you—if you can't finish me off, I'll make your mom pay for it!"
We were locked in this bitter standoff for half a year.
I thought I'd hate Zachariah for the rest of my life.
In the end, though, he became the only person in the world who still loved me.

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