Ex-Husband’s Regret by Evelyn M.M

"Hi" for some weird reason, I squeaked the word.

Coming face to face with Ava was like coming face to face with your secret crush. I was all of a sudden sweaty and nervous. Instead of answering, she pulled me into a tight hug. It was a warm hug. It felt like hugging a soft and fluffy teddy bear.

"It's nice to officially meet you, Harper. Welcome to the family" she whispered right before she stepped away.

Gabriel then led me to the out-door setup that had multiple foods on the table. He moved me so that I was sitting right beside him.

Did he get that I hated his proximity for a reason?

Within seconds, everyone was digging in.

"So, Harper, what do you do?" Gabriel's mom asked.

I swallowed, when everyone turned to look. I hated it when attention was focused on me.

"I'm an interior designer," I replied, while trying to maintain eye contact.

If there was one thing my mother taught me, it's that eye contact was important, especially when it came to people from our world. The rich and influential viewed avoiding eye contact as a sign of weakness. My mother instilled in us to never show that weakness, no matter what.

"That's just perfect," Ava added. "I've been dying to change things in a few of the Hope houses. Maybe you can help with that."

curious little thing, catches that quickly. "What are Hope

that answers. "She's the

was of his mother. You could also see the love he had for her. It seemed

frowns, but then her face clears as if a light bulb just went on in

Hope Foundation. It's one of the biggest children's foundations in the country. No one knew who the

Lilly like she's an alien from space. I, on the other hand, was quite proud of my daughter's

changed your last name. Your foundation is worth millions of

about Lilly, she takes in information like a sponge absorbs water. Anything to do with money, Lilly probably knows

know about all this, sweetheart?" Gabriel's

it

and to her, it wasn't. "I know things.want to be a billionaire when + grow up and in order to achieve my dream, I need to study the

me and I almost froze. The

added, "Actually, anything to do with

this?"

I replied. "It's her dream, so why would I stand in her way? Anything I can do to

see she was fighting back tears. "She's just like her daddy. Gabriel also used to

and for a moment I forgot that he was a grown-up man. It's like he was

the cold man I was used to,

this when we were married? Why didn't he show me this side of him when we were together? Why now when I wanted nothing to do with him? Standing up, I excused myself. "Excuse me, I need