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."

little thing, catches that

mom funded to help children who were less fortunate." Noah is the one that answers. "She's the founder of The Hope Foundation and those houses give the children

proud he was of his mother. You could also see the love

face clears as if a light

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

like she's an alien from space. I, on the

looked so familiar," Lilly told Ava. "You're Ava Sharp, though you changed your last name. Your foundation is worth millions of dollars and

she was good... That's the thing about Lilly, she takes in information like a sponge absorbs water. Anything to do with money,

all this, sweetheart?" Gabriel's dad asked

shrugged like it wasn't

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

eyes turned to me and I almost froze. The keyword being,

I added, "Actually,

this?"

would I stand in her way? Anything I can do to support and

clearly see she was fighting back tears. "She's just like her daddy. Gabriel also used to obsess over numbers when he was

he was a grown-up man. It's like he was

like this, so different from the cold man I was used to, was overwhelming to say

he show me this side of him when we were together? Why now when I wanted nothing to