Rebirth: The billionaire's ex wife is a genius のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 1 - チャプター 7

Chapter 1 He threw the divorce papers at my face. “Sign it,” Lucas said. With no sympathy and no feelings, his fingers dug into my jaw, pinning me so hard against the wall like I was an animal that might bite. Three years of marriage. Three years of lies and deceit. He had only ever touched me when his mother ordered it… and he chose right now to throw me out. “I won’t.” It was the first time I had ever stood facing him without breaking. His mother laughed from the doorway. Her Chanel perfume couldn’t hide the smell of bleach and smoke. “Barren and useless,” she said, spitting out her forever description of me. “My son needs an heir, Elena, not a charity case.” Victoria Hale. The woman who taught me how to set a table for forty and how to disappear when her friends came. She stepped into the light, her pearls and Dior flickering with gold. “You heard my son.” She tapped her manicured nail on the mahogany table. “Sign. Or I call security. They’ll drag you out the way we drag tr

Chapter 3 I walked into my room and stopped. Resting on the center of the bed was a white dress. It definitely wasn't my choice. Victoria had picked it out that morning, claiming white was "lucky" for the heir's wife. In my last life, I wore the white dress. I looked small. I hid in the shadows of the corners while Celine wore a vibrant, blood-red dress that night. Everyone looked at her. No one even noticed me. This life, I’m going to wear a red dress—tight, loud, and impossible to ignore. If I have to bleed tonight, I'll make sure they all watch. I walked over to the wardrobe. The clothes hanging inside belonged to the old me—the timid, gullible, easily manipulated Elena. The girl who couldn't raise her voice, whom nobody ever noticed. I turned away and stared at the bathroom door. I walked in, locking it firmly behind me. For three years, Lucas had never once knocked. This bathroom was the only space in the entire Hale mansion that was truly mine. In my last life, I cried

Chapter 5 At exactly 7:00 PM, the Hale mansion didn’t just open its doors—it exhaled. Crystal chandeliers dripped from a ceiling so high it swallowed all sound. A thousand tiny lights bounced off polished marble and landed on everyone’s faces like a judgment. The air smelled like money: expensive cologne, fresh roses, and the faint burn of candle wax. A string quartet played in the corner, but no one was really listening. They were too busy pretending not to stare. I walked down the grand staircase slowly. Each step clicked under my heel and echoed through the walls, cold under my feet. The red dress moved with me like liquid fire. Backless, slit up my thigh, it caught the light and threw it back at them. For three years, I wore beige in these halls and tried to be small. Tonight, the walls couldn’t hold me. Heat hit my skin not from the lights, but from the eyes. Three hundred people. Senators, CEOs, old Hale money with wrinkles and sharp smiles. They lined the ballroom in sil

Chapter 7 “Marry me, Elena, and I promise to make every single drop worth it.” I stared at him. Marry your worst enemy's wife? I didn't know the real Julian Edelman yet. I only knew one thing about him from the shadows of this city: he absorbs power like a black hole. And right now, power was the only thing I wanted. I let out a sharp, dry laugh. “Hell no. Marry you? Julian, no.” He raised a dark brow. “No?” “No,” I repeated firmly. “We can work together. We can be allies. I’ll give you the code. You’ll give me thirty percent. We’ll break the Hales together. But I’m not signing papers to be someone’s substitute.” Julian tilted his head, the corner of his mouth twitching. “Substitute for who? Lucas?” “Substitute for anything, ” I said, my voice hardening. “I spent years being Mrs. Hale. I spent years being quiet, being picked apart, being grateful for whatever help came my way. I’m done. I am completely finished being claimed by another man just because we happen to share the s