Too Late for Regret novel Chapter 54

Roger’s POV

“Mom, stay out of this. It’s not your concern. No one asked you to follow me here. Haven’t you caused enough. trouble? You need to leave. This is a place of business, and you three are causing a disturbance here. I don’t want you here, and if you continue to lie, I’ll make sure you three will be the ones dealing with the fallout,” I snapped out. I turned back to Elizabeth. I needed to make sure she knew the truth.

“Elizabeth, please, just give me another chance. I’ll pay to use your designs from now on. I swear I’ll treat you how you deserve to be treated. I’m divorcing Sasha; it should be complete any day now. She cheated on me on our honeymoon, and she’s not who I want to be with. I never should have married her in the first place. I know that now. My mother lied to me and led me to marry Sasha because she wanted me to have a child. I’ve seen Sasha’s true self; I no longer want to be with her. I know the best person to be my wife, my partner, was the partner I already had,” I pleaded.

Elizabeth didn’t know about the baby not being mine or that I was trying to get a divorce. I wanted her to know that first. Elizabeth has always been a kind–hearted woman. I know she still loved me. She’s just mad right now, but she will come around. I just needed to charm her, and she would fall right back in line. She always has before.

“Roger, what are you saying? None of that is true. You’re making horrible accusations about me, with no

proof. I still want to be your wife. I want to raise our child together. I never wanted this divorce. You’re the one

forcing me into this,” Sasha interjected.

Sasha knew she looked bad. But I am not going to let her twist this around and make Elizabeth look bad. I

needed to rectify this situation, not make it worse. She’s very good at portraying a part with her innocent act, but I’m not falling for it anymore.

“Brother, how could you be so cruel?” Regina asked.

She was honestly shocked. She had intentionally been left in the dark. Regina couldn’t keep a secret. Dad knew I would look worse if the information got out. But we are well past that now. It’s out and I don’t care. I

just need Elizabeth to know that I am willing to do anything to got her back. Everything I used to believe was

different now. I wanted to marry Elizabeth, to make her my legal wife, and have her be the mother of my

children.

I had learned my lesson. I had been so wrong and was only now realizing that Sasha was the one who was inferior. I reached through the gate towards Elizabeth. I needed her attention on me, and not on the women behind me. I needed to take control of this right now, before it spirals even more out of control.

“Elizabeth, I made a huge mistake. I hurt you, and I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you, if you’ll let me. If you don’t hear anything else I say, hear this. I’m sorry. I know I was wrong. I promise you that if you marry me and return to the company, everyone will know that you are mine. They will know exactly who you are, the heart and soul of the company,” I pleaded.

“Roger, you only say that now because your company is crumbling faster than your marriage. I know you, Roger. Yes, your mother pushed you in the direction she wanted you to go. But we both know that you don’t do anything you don’t want to do. You wanted to marry Sasha, to make her your wife,” Elizabeth replied coldly.

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It All Comes Out

“Sasha was my first love, I admit that. I wanted her, but I was wrong. She’s not who I thought she was. I still care for you, Elizabeth. I was angry that you were forcing me to marry you. I admit, I took it too far, but how can you blame me? If someone forced you to marry them, how would you feel? I’ll tell you the answer, Elizabeth. You would feel used and helpless. Like your own wishes didn’t even matter to the person

compelling you to do it, I know I was wrong. I see that now. I was getting input from people who didn’t like you. I felt like they were right, and you deserved what I was going to do to you,” I replied.

“Your plans to use me until I was no longer useful to you were disgusting. I gave you everything you ever

dreamed of, Roger. I made your dream a reality by using my own money. What did you do to me in return? You

tried to leave me with nothing. As I mentioned before, I was the only one who invested my time and money. I

poured everything I had into your company. I was the one making all the effort, while you acted like the

success was all yours,” Elizabeth told me.

“You vile woman, how dare you act like this is all because of you? My son is the reason for his company’s

success. Without him and his vision, there would be nothing there. Yet you stand there and act like it was all

you,” Joyce scoffed. “Elizabeth, you’re shameless to the end. Do you see it now, Roger? You look like an i****

right now begging her to return to you. I have told you repeatedly, one employee can’t destroy a company. Let

her go. We will get the lawyer to battle this out. I don’t believe Fashion Forward will back her once they realize

what she’s done. They’re a large company, and they can afford to pay you what you deserve after she took

your designs.”

“She’s lying about getting married, Roger. Who would marry her? She has no one willing to accept her. She’s

used goods. She’s just trying to manipulate you into taking her back. Don’t fall for it. You finally got rid of her;

don’t let her worm her way back in. You know how badly you wanted out of the engagement. Just look at it

as a positive. You can focus on your company and take it to the next level now. Mom is right, you never

needed Elizabeth,” Regina stated, backing our mother up.

“Regina, you don’t know what’s going on, so stay out of it. This has nothing to do with you. You already knew what you were doing by getting Mom started up, coming into the house like you did. Mom was wrong about many things, Regina. She knows nothing about Elizabeth. I’ve already asked you all to leave. I need to speak to Elizabeth, privately. How will she decide to come back to me with all of you here? You’re just making it

harder on me. I see how badly Elizabeth was treated in our home. Your presence here is a reminder of that.

Bottom line, my relationship is none of your business. I don’t need your approval, or Mom’s, for me to move

forward,” I replied.

“I don’t need a reminder of how they treated me, Roger. I remember it vividly. They’ve treated me horribly since

the day we met. But I will save you some time, you can leave with them. I won’t be taking you back for any

reason. You are not listening to me at all. I am getting married, just not to you. You don’t have to get a

divorce to try to get me back. Just keep your dream girl. No need to lose money on a divorce,” I replied.

“I don’t need your help. He married me because he wanted to. Unlike you, having to force him into doing it. You just hate to admit he loves me I’m the one that he’s always wanted, and you’re the pathetic b***h who can’t keep a man Joyce used to tell me about you, and I agree with her. You are a sad, ugly woman. You might have lost weight, but you’re still big You believe that the tiny bit of help you provided the company makes you worthy of being Mrs Roger Cook It’s not You need to go find a place to lick your wounds. I changed my mind I’m not going to divorce Roger. I won’t make it easy on you to get your claws in him again,” Sasha announced to the group Looking into a camera as she wiped the tears off her face.

“I don’t care if you divorce him or not, Sasha. I hope you stay with him. I mean, he gave me up to get with you.

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+6 Points >

The least he could do was stay with you. I don’t want him back. I’ve moved on to bigger and better. The difference between us is that I never needed Roger. I wanted him, but I have always been self–sufficient. You, on the other hand, enjoy being given everything you have. You’ve managed to make it to work, two days this week? You’re really on a streak, aren’t you?” Elizabeth mocked.

“Are you spying on me?” Sasha shrieked out.

“I would have to care to do that. Someone mentioned it in passing. I don’t care if you don’t go to work at all. I

find it unfair that I worked at least sixty hours a week for five years, yet you’re lucky to clear ten hours in a

week. Must be nice to have that kind of cushy job because you’re sleeping with the boss,” Elizabeth snapped

back at her.

Sasha ran over to the gate and spoke softly, “At least he wanted to sleep with me. The difference between us

is pretty large.” Sasha laughed, eyeing me before saying, “You think you can compete against me, but you

can’t. I won’t be divorcing Roger. I think that would make you happy. After all you’ve done to ruin everything, I just can’t allow that. Roger’s company was doing well until you decided to undermine it. Now it’s just a shell

of its former glory. I won’t let you get away with it, b***h. I’ll get those designs back. This time, the praise is

coming to me. I’ll make sure that you’re ruined in the design community for plagiarism. We will see who’s willing to hire you after that.”

“Are you saying that you designed them, Sasha? Or perhaps the design team? You weren’t even around when I started working on those designs. I can’t see you being able to prove it. They were mine from the first tracings until the final product. But I have to admit, I like your way better. We need to make this public; let the people decide who’s lying about and trying to steal the designs. We will see who admits defeat,” Elizabeth replied. She gave the same smile she gave Mom last week when she was arrested.

“Elizabeth, I know you didn’t do anything wrong. The people who alleged a theft do not represent me or our company. Please leave our company out of this. Think of our employees, many of whom could lose their jobs. Please just put the punishment where it belongs, on the ones who started this, the day you were arrested. Mom and Sasha are here again today, causing you problems again. If you’re not willing to do that for me, at least do it for the people who work for our company. They didn’t do anything wrong,” I begged.

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