Filed to story: The Hidden Queen: My Husband’s Mistress Ruined My Empire (Serena & Christian) Book PDF Free
By now we had drawn a crowd and there were several reporters in the club aiming their cameras towards us. I glanced nervously towards them. No doubt they were hoping for a juicy story. Lexi was notorious for getting in trouble with the press and her grandfather would be upset if she got maligned again. Before I could intervene or interfere, Serena moved, faster than I could have anticipated, her anger overcoming her and she slapped Lexi, hard, across the face, a bright red handprint appearing on Lexi’s left cheek. Lexi put a hand up to her cheek in shock, tears springing to her eyes as she let out a scream.
“Do not confuse me with yourself” Serena hissed with venom “I am not a slut. I am not a homewrecker like yourself. I have nothing to be ashamed of, unlike yourself Lexi Vance, who had an affair with a married man” she declared loudly, the reporters hanging on every word as Lexi glanced around, her face paling as she realized. I grabbed Lexi’s hand, preventing her from retaliating. The man with Serena took hold of her hand.
“Serena, let’s go,” he said gently, “I think you’ve had enough for tonight.”
She smiled up at him and nodded her agreement. Without another word, both of them turned and began to head for the exit, while Rachel followed calmly in their wake.
“She slapped me” Lexi wailed as I looked down at her.
“Miss Vance, would you like to make a statement on what we just saw?” A reporter called out excitedly.
Lexi sniffed while I began to drag her towards the exit, cursing inwardly in my mind. Not only had tonight not gone as planned, with Lexi now being caught by reporters provoking Serena, but I was no closer to discovering the identity of the man that Serena was with.
“Christian, what am I going to do?” Lexi moaned as we headed towards our car “If Grandfather sees me in the paper again…” she trailed off, looking sick.
“Will your brother help you?” I asked tightly.
“Half brother” she snapped “and no.”
I clenched my jaw and got in the car, a desolate Lexi hopping in the backseat with me. Nothing more was said.
Serena POV
I never expected to see my soon-to-be ex-husband in the club tonight. All I wanted was to spend some time away with my friend Rachel, partying instead of licking my wounds on that undeserving bastard. I never anticipated his reaction to seeing me though. Was it my imagination, or had my ex-husband acted jealous? I seethed as I stormed from the club, Rachel in my wake.
“That son of a b***h” I muttered through gritted teeth as Rachel put her hand on my shoulder, attempting to comfort me “How dare he accuse me of cheating when he was the cheater!” I exclaimed indignantly.
I glanced down at my hand and flexed my fingers. I had to admit that slapping Lexi Vance had given me great satisfaction. Rachel snorted “Well you certainly gave the reporters a scandal to write about,” she said as I turned my head to look at her.
I shrugged. It was not my business if they plastered Lexi’s pathetic face all over the papers. In fact, I hoped they did. I wanted her reputation to be ruined. She thought she was a victim in all this? It was galling that she had seen fit to accuse me of the very thing she had done to me.
My brother stepped forward. It had been a long time since I had seen Knox, years in fact. Ever since I insisted on marrying Christian against my family’s wishes, I had cut them off, pretending to be a nobody, to gain Christian’s trust and have him fall in love with the real me, rather than my family’s name. That had backfired. It had been Knox I had been dancing with when Christian saw fit to interrupt me with his damning accusations. I smirked. If Christian knew how wrong he was and what Knox’s real identity was, he’d be horrified. Then again, Knox tended to stay out of the papers and was something of an introvert at times, while his fraternal twin Ian, was the face of our family name and the occasional extrovert.
“Say the word and I can have Christian disappear,” Ian said tightly, a scowl on his face.
I knew he had never liked Christian and this little scene had cemented in his mind exactly how untrustworthy and despicable Christian’s character was.
I shook my head and gave my older brother a grim smile. “As much as I would like to take you up on that offer Ian, I want to deal with Christian on my own. Once the divorce is final, he’ll have no reason to continue contacting me or be in my life. That’s all I want, is for him to leave me alone.”
Rachel looked troubled. “He didn’t act like a man that was going to leave you alone Serena. Did you see the angry look on his face? He acted like you were still his wife. He acted exactly like a jealous husband would act.”
I laughed, trying to shrug off Rachel’s concerns “Well he’s out of luck then because the divorce will be final soon. Besides” I sneered, folding my arms across my chest and regarding my brother and best friend steadily “I would never get back with somebody who cheated on me.”
Knox frowned even deeper. “Father is going to be displeased when he finds out that Christian had the gall to cheat on somebody of your status,” he said with glinting eyes.
“I’m aware that Father is going to be extremely angry” I agreed “but he should be angry with me. I’m the one who ignored his warnings about Christian. I’m the one who told him that Christian was the one for me. He was right when he said that Christian was untrustworthy and undeserving of my love” I said a bit bitterly.
Knox glanced around and noted that reporters were beginning to walk out of the club. He grabbed me by the arm and tugged me into the limousine, Rachel hastily getting in behind us.
“Where to Mr Grant?” the driver asked respectfully, dipping his head to me and giving me a warm smile.
Knox flattened his lips “My mansion” he said.
“Knox, I can’t go there,” I said, even as the limousine began to peel out “What is father going to say when he sees me?” I added, feeling slightly panicked.
He gave me a cool look “The sooner you get this over with the better. Besides, did it occur to you that your face is about to be plastered over the newspapers as well? It’s better that father hears from you about Christian than seeing the news for himself in the paper.”
“What about Rachel?” I asked grasping at straws.
“I love Knox’s mansion,” Rachel said, the traitor, looking through the window “and it’s not as though I haven’t stayed at your family home before” she added nonchalantly.
Damn. I felt betrayed as I stared at her. She blinked her eyes at me. I glowered at Knox. He looked at me unrelentingly. “He’s going to be so disappointed in me” I whispered, feeling close to tears “I did everything he asked, except for this one thing and I failed. I failed at my marriage” I added, sniffling, and then the dam broke as I burst into noisy tears, Rachel looking stricken, while Knox’s arms went around me and held me close.
“Serena you didn’t fail” Knox murmured, his grip tight and strong, as I laid against him “I know you. You’re tenacious, stubborn, loyal, and sometimes a right pain in the ass” he teased as I stared at him with watery eyes “the woman I know would have given her all in the marriage. You gave up everything to be with him. You changed your name, you worked, you cooked, you cleaned. You did everything he wanted. You didn’t fail. Christian’s just an asshole” he growled.
I gave a small laugh. “Oh Serena” Rachel murmured sympathetically “You really loved him, didn’t you?” she asked quietly.
