THE DISABLED HEIRESS, MY EX-HUSBAND WOULD PAY DEARLY.

Chapter 352

At that moment, Cora stared at the email notification with Lovi’s name on it for a few more seconds, and then she made a deliberate decision to simply leave it alone and not open it. She wasn’t going to bother reading the contents because she genuinely had no idea what Lovi was driving at, and frankly, after the emotionally exhausting evening she had already been through with Penelope, she didn’t have the mental energy to deal with whatever game Lovi was playing right now.She was literally in the process of exiting the email application and putting her phone back into her handbag when her curiosity suddenly got the better of her, that nagging little voice in the back of her mind whispering that maybe she should just take a quick peek. Maybe it was something genuinely important that had come up suddenly and Lovi couldn’t keep it to himself, something that couldn’t wait until morning when he could have contacted her secretary through the proper channels. Maybe it wasn’t what she feared it might be at all.

So immediately, without wasting another second, she made the fateful decision to open the email and see exactly what was inside.

She was first of all greeted by a long, carefully written message from Lovi that began with him saying how sorry he was for having to do this, that he genuinely hadn’t wanted things to come to this point, but that she had left him absolutely no other option and that was why he was being forced to take this drastic action. He claimed that her behavior had driven him to this decision and that she only had herself to blame for what was about to happen next.

Immediately upon reading those opening lines, Cora’s eyes started widening and her jaw started tightening as she continued reading through the email, her fingers gripping the phone more tightly with each passing sentence. Then her arms started shaking - a barely perceptible trembling that started somewhere deep in her chest and radiated outward to her fingertips as the full weight of what she was reading began to sink in.

Then she scrolled down and saw the instructions Lovi had written, detailing exactly what he expected her to do and where he expected her to show up within twenty-four hours. And then, at the very bottom of the email, she saw the video attachment.

With trembling fingers, she pressed play on the video, and immediately her whole world seemed to collapse inward on itself.

It was a video of her being intimate with her ex-husband - deeply personal, completely private footage from a time in her life that felt like another world entirely. This was something that belonged to the most vulnerable and private Chapters of her past, something that had absolutely no business existing on anyone’s phone anymore.

And that was when her brain immediately rebooted with crystal clarity, and she remembered with sickening precision that this video had been specifically among the private files that she had requested Lovi to permanently delete a long time ago. She had asked him clearly, directly, and without any ambiguity to get rid of it entirely. She had trusted him to honor that request like a decent human being.

But Lovi hadn’t deleted it at all. He had kept it hidden this entire time, stored away like a secret weapon, waiting for the perfect moment of desperation to bring it out and use it against her as leverage. And now here she was, sitting in Oliver’s car with her hands shaking and her face burning with a mixture of rage, humiliation, and fear.

The realization hit her all at once that Oliver was sitting right beside her in the driver’s seat, completely unaware of what she had just discovered but certainly noticing that something was very, very wrong. She could feel his occasional glances in her direction even as he kept his eyes on the road, and she knew that her expression and body language were betraying her completely.

She didn’t want Oliver to be aware of any of this. Not now, not ever if she could help it. This was embarrassing beyond words, it was a slap directly to her face, and it involved the most intimate and private aspects of her life that she had never intended to share with anyone new, especially not someone she was just beginning to build something beautiful with.

So immediately, with a composure that cost her every ounce of strength she had left, Cora cleared her throat and looked over at Oliver with what she hoped was a convincing expression of calm urgency.

"I think I’ll be stopping here actually," she said, her voice coming out slightly tighter than she intended.

"A very important matter has just come up suddenly and I need to deal with it right away, so I’ll be getting out here."

Oliver glanced at her with genuine surprise, his eyebrows lifting slightly as he processed the sudden change in atmosphere inside the car.

"Why the sudden change?" he asked, his voice gentle but clearly puzzled.

"I thought we both agreed earlier that you weren’t going to worry about anything tonight, and that I was going to take you wherever you needed to go. So why this sudden decision to stop here of all places?"

Cora shifted slightly in her seat, carefully avoiding his penetrating gaze.

"Well, I said it’s an emergency, and you know very well that I have absolutely no control over something like this when it comes up," she replied, trying to keep her voice steady and natural.

"You just need to stop here and let me out, and I’ll continue my journey from here and handle this emergency that just came up immediately."

At that moment, Oliver was quiet for a moment, his hands steady on the steering wheel, but his eyes were thoughtful and perceptive as he glanced between her face and the road ahead.

"Well, I would have dropped you without any hesitation if I genuinely believed this was simply an emergency," he said carefully, his voice measured and calm.

"But it seems very clear to me that whatever message you received a few minutes ago contains something that has literally changed your entire mood and demeanor completely, and I don’t think it’s just a regular emergency." He paused for a moment before continuing.

"So if I may ask, what exactly is it that has upset you so much? And do you mind sharing it with me? Because I genuinely believe that a problem shared is a problem solved, and I might just be able to help you through whatever this is, I might just be able to resolve all of this for you swiftly and quietly, without it becoming an even bigger problem than it already is."