Too Late For Regret: My Genius Wife

Too Late For Regret: My Genius Wife

Tao Yaoyao

5.0
Comment(s)
View
20
Chapters

My five-year-old daughter was dying in the ICU, her heartbeat replaced by the continuous, electronic scream of a flatline. I gripped her cold hand, my throat sealed shut by a terror so absolute I couldn't even cry out. I dialed my husband Grayson's private number, the one reserved only for me and his assistants. He declined the call instantly. A second later, a text buzzed against my palm: "In a meeting. Do not disturb. Stop calling." Five miles away, Grayson was at a luxury gala, adjusting his silk tie and laughing with Belle Escobar. He told her I was just being "dramatic" and using our daughter's "fever" as an excuse to avoid the event. He had no idea Effie's heart had already stopped. When I finally reached our penthouse, soaked from the rain and carrying Effie's small socks in a plastic bag, Grayson didn't even look at me. He snapped at me for ruining the hardwood floors and asked if I'd left Effie with the nanny just to "feel sorry for myself." Three days later, while I buried our daughter in a small, lonely ceremony, Grayson was at the Hamptons. Belle posted a photo of him golfing with the caption: "A mental health day with the boys." He didn't even attend the funeral, but he returned home demanding I clear out Effie's room to make a study for Belle's son. The injustice burned through me until there was nothing left. I swallowed a handful of sleeping pills, desperate to join my daughter. But instead of the darkness, I woke up to blinding lights and the scent of Grayson's expensive cologne. I was standing in a ballroom, wearing a blue silk dress I had already burned. Above me, a banner read: "Happy 5th Birthday Kaiden & Effie." I was back, exactly one year before the tragedy. This time, I wasn't going to be the grieving wife. I was going to be their worst nightmare.

Chapter 1 1

Isolde sat in the dark, listening to the silence of a house that no longer held her daughter's heartbeat. She just gripped Effie's hand.

It was so cold.Effie was only five. Five-year-olds were supposed to be warm, sticky with juice. They weren't supposed to be cold.

"Time of death, 8:42 PM. Cause, complications from acute pneumonia leading to cardiac arrest."

The doctor's voice was flat. Professional.

Isolde's knees hit the linoleum.She fumbled for her phone. Her fingers were shaking so violently she dropped it twice before unlocking the screen.

Grayson.

She dialed his private number.

It rang once. Twice.

Declined.

A second later, a text message buzzed against her palm.

In a meeting. Do not disturb. Stop calling.

Isolde stared at the screen. The white letters on the grey background blurred.

Five miles away, the crystal flutes at the Lancaster Charity Gala chimed like delicate bells.

Grayson Lancaster adjusted his silk tie, his expression the perfect mask of bored affability. He stood near the chocolate fountain, watching Belle Escobar dab a smudge of fondant from a six-year-old Kaiden's cheek.

"You're spoiling him," Grayson said, but the corner of his mouth ticked up. It wasn't a smile, exactly, but it was the closest thing to warmth he'd shown all evening.

Belle laughed, the sound light and practiced. "Someone has to. Where is the lady of the house? I thought Isolde was bringing Effie tonight."

Grayson's face hardened. The warmth evaporated. "She's being dramatic. Effie had a fever or something. Isolde uses the girl's health as an excuse to avoid these events. She knows I hate it when she sulks."

"Poor thing," Belle murmured, though her eyes were scanning the room for photographers. "She really struggles with the pressure, doesn't she?"

"She struggles with everything," Grayson muttered, taking a sip of his champagne.

Back at the hospital, the nurse handed Isolde a plastic bag. It contained a pair of small, pink socks and a hair clip shaped like a butterfly.

"Mrs. Lancaster," the nurse said softly, pity etching lines around her eyes. "Is... is your husband coming? For the transport arrangements?"

"He's busy," Isolde whispered.

She walked out into the New York night. It was pouring rain. She didn't have an umbrella. She didn't call a driver. She just walked.

The water soaked through her cheap wool coat. The cold rain mixed with the hot tears she finally allowed to fall, masking them.

She reached the penthouse two hours later.

The apartment was dark. Silent.

On the mantle sat a framed photo. The "Family" portrait. Grayson sat in a leather chair, Kaiden on his lap. Belle stood behind them, her hand resting familiarly on the chair back. Isolde was in the background, slightly out of focus, holding a blurring Effie.

She sat on the floor in front of the cold fireplace, shivering.

It was past midnight when the elevator chimed. Grayson walked in, bringing the scent of rain and Belle's signature perfume-sandalwood and roses-into the stagnant air.

He loosened his tie, his eyes narrowing when he saw Isolde sitting in the dark, soaking wet.

"For God's sake, Isolde," he snapped, tossing his keys onto the console table. "What are you doing? Ruining the hardwood floors?"

Isolde didn't look up. She was staring at her hands.

"Where is Effie?" he asked, his tone clipped. "I assume she's asleep? Or did you leave her with the nanny so you could sit here and feel sorry for yourself?"

"She's gone," Isolde said.

Grayson sighed. He rubbed his temples. "Gone to sleep? Good. I don't have the energy for her crying tonight. Or yours."

He walked past her toward the master bedroom. He didn't see the plastic bag on the floor.

"Grayson," she said.

He paused at the door, not turning around. "What?"

"Nothing," she whispered.

He slammed the door.

Isolde sat in the dark, listening to the silence of a house that no longer held her daughter's heartbeat.

Continue Reading

Other books by Tao Yaoyao

More
The Placeholder Wife's Revenge

The Placeholder Wife's Revenge

Romance

5.0

I sacrificed everything for my husband, Ryan. My ambitions, my career, even turning down a dream job in another city to support his perfect image. I managed our home, believed his promises of devotion, and trusted him completely. Then, his college girlfriend, Chloe, reappeared after her husband's tragic death. He flew to her side, claiming to offer comfort. But when he returned, he brought her straight to our home, introducing her as though she belonged. That night, I heard them. Chloe' s soft voice, "I can' t believe she' s not even here to greet you." And Ryan' s reply, a cold, dismissive murmur that shattered my world: "Don' t worry about Ava. She' s just a placeholder, a shield. I married her to keep you from doing something reckless after we broke up. She was never the one." A placeholder. A shield. My entire marriage, a meticulously crafted lie designed to protect him and hide his true love. My heart pounded, a cold knot of dread tightening in my stomach. In the days that followed, I endured their blatant affair in my own home. My bank account was emptied, my treasured family heirloom was stolen and broken, and I was thrown out of my own bedroom. When I finally confronted them, Ryan brutally struck me, then coldly told me he was divorcing me and I' d get nothing. Yet, despite the pain, I couldn't shake the unsettling feeling that something far more sinister was at play. Why had he been so insistent on my "minor surgery" years ago? What dark secrets did he truly hide beyond his betrayal? Driven by a desperate need for answers, I sought a new doctor, uncovering a truth so chilling, it shattered every last piece of my broken life: Ryan had secretly sterilized me, without my consent, ensuring I could never bear children. Now, with nothing left to lose, I began to plot my escape and his ultimate downfall.

No Forgiveness:He's Not The One

No Forgiveness:He's Not The One

Romance

5.0

My daughter, Lily, was finally starring in her kindergarten play, a tiny, radiant sun. My surgeon husband, David, promised he' d be there, but he was always "too busy saving lives." As Lily nervously scanned the audience for her hero, I spotted him. Not in the empty seat beside me, but across the auditorium, whispering and laughing with Victoria, his college sweetheart, and her daughter, Chloe. My heart shattered as Lily saw him too, her bright smile instantly extinguished, her little voice choking back tears. I covered the gaping hole his absence always left with another lie: "He' s a hero, an emergency surgery." But later that night, Lily' s fever spiked, and she began convulsing in her bed. Panic gripped me, my hands shaking as I dialed 911, then David' s number, over and over-only to be met with voicemails. In the ambulance on the way to the ER, I saw him through the window of a dessert shop: David, Victoria, and Chloe, sharing a comically large ice cream sundae, him beaming, playfully dabbing whipped cream on Chloe' s nose. He was building a perfect family with someone else while our daughter was fighting for her life. The following day, a fire alarm shrieked during a movie we watched, just Lily and I. Chaos erupted, and I lost Lily' s hand in the stampede. In the smoke and terror, I saw David, already at the exit, pulling Victoria and Chloe to safety. "David, it's Lily!" I screamed, our paths separated by feet, but a chasm of his making. He looked at his daughter, his own flesh and blood, terrified and alone, then turned his back and ran, leaving her behind. My daughter, my sunshine, was trampled to death. The doctor' s words echoed like a death knell: "She didn't make it." The man I married, the father of my child, chose another family over his own daughter, leaving her to die. He abandoned Lily, not just by turning away, but by living a double life that ultimately cost her everything. Now, he wants forgiveness, a second chance. But there is nothing left to save. My story isn't one of grieving in silence; it' s about reclaiming what' s left of my life, even if it means destroying his.

You'll also like

Jilted Bride's Revenge: The Valkyrie Awakens

Jilted Bride's Revenge: The Valkyrie Awakens

Gujian Qitan
5.0

I had been a wife for exactly six hours when I woke up to the sound of my husband’s heavy breathing. In the dim moonlight of our bridal suite, I watched Hardin, the man I had adored for years, intertwined with my sister Carissa on the chaise lounge. The betrayal didn't come with an apology. Hardin stood up, unashamed, and sneered at me. "You're awake? Get out, you frumpy mute." Carissa huddled under a throw, her fake tears already welling up as she played the victim. They didn't just want me gone; they wanted me erased to protect their reputations. When I refused to move, my world collapsed. My father didn't offer a shoulder to cry on; he threatened to have me committed to a mental asylum to save his business merger. "You're a disgrace," he bellowed, while the guards stood ready to drag me away. They had spent my life treating me like a stuttering, submissive pawn, and now they were done with me. I felt a blinding pain in my skull, a fracture that should have broken me. But instead of tears, something dormant and lethal flickered to life. The terrified girl who walked down the aisle earlier that day simply ceased to exist. In her place, a clinical system—the Valkyrie Protocol—booted up. My racing heart plummeted to a steady sixty beats per minute. I didn't scream. I stood up, my spine straightening for the first time in twenty years, and looked at Hardin with the detachment of a surgeon looking at a tumor. "Correction," I said, my voice stripped of its stutter. "You're in my light." By dawn, I had drained my father's accounts, vanished into a storm, and found a bleeding Crown Prince in a hidden safehouse. They thought they had broken a mute girl. They didn't realize they had just activated their own destruction.

The Scars Behind My Golden Dress

The Scars Behind My Golden Dress

Catherine
5.0

I spent four hours preparing a five-course meal for our fifth anniversary. When Jackson finally walked into the penthouse an hour late, he didn't even look at the table. He just dropped a thick Manila envelope in front of me and told me he was done. He said his stepsister, Davida, was getting worse and needed "stability." I wasn't his wife; I was a placeholder, a temporary fix he used until the woman he actually loved was ready to take my place. Jackson didn't just want a divorce; he wanted to erase me. He called me a "proprietary asset," claiming that every design I had created to save his empire belonged to him. He froze my bank accounts, cut off my phone, and told me I’d be nothing without his name. Davida even called me from her hospital bed to flaunt the family heirloom ring Jackson claimed was lost, mocking me for being "baggage" that was finally being cleared out. I stood in our empty home, realizing I had spent five years being a martyr for a man who saw me as a transaction. I couldn't understand how he could be so blind to the monster he was protecting, or how he could discard me so coldly after I had given him everything. I grabbed my hidden sketchbook, shredded our wedding portrait, and walked out into the rain. I dialed a number I hadn't touched in years—a dangerous man known as The Surgeon who dealt in debts and shadows. I told him I was ready to pay his price. Jackson and Davida wanted to steal my identity, but I was about to show the world the literal scars they had left behind.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book