My Ex Chose His Mistress, the Billionaire Heir Chose Me

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It was Labor Day weekend, and Les Henson insisted on stopping at an abandoned highway rest stop. Said the car was stuffy, said he needed to stretch his legs. He'd be right back. I sat in the car for twenty minutes, dread climbing in my chest, then went looking for him.

And there, behind the abandoned gas station, I saw him kissing Lila Bennett.

She was curled against him, her voice sweet and shameless: "Exciting, isn't it? Your wife's sitting in the car and you're out here fooling around with me?"

Les let out a low laugh. "You little temptress. Keep it down. Don't go upsetting my wife."

I stood at the corner, and suddenly I was back in the year he'd been pursuing me

I told him the thing I hated most in this world was cheating. That my father had destroyed my mother that way.

He'd said: "Hope Swanson, I will never do that to you. If I do, you can deal with me however you want."

Now he'd done it.

So everything I'd given him

It was time to take it back.

I answered a phone call, then turned and walked back toward the parking lot.

"Hope!" Les shouted behind me.

I didn't stop.

Lila's voice came chasing after me, thick with tears: "Hope I'm sorry it's all my fault"

I reached for the driver's side door.

"Hope." Les caught up, planting himself between me and the door.

"Give me the keys." My voice was shaking. My grandmother was in critical conditionI needed to see her one last time.

"I'll have someone handle Grandma's situation," he said, pausing for a beat. "The best specialists. They can be there tonight."

I stared at him.

Lila trailed over too, eyes red, voice small and cautious: "Hope, please don't blame Les it was me I seduced him"

Her voice cracked as she spoke, her shoulders hunching inward, shrinking into herself like something small and cornered.

Les glanced at her, then back at me.

"Look at her." His gaze went soft on Lila. "She's already like this. How far do you have to push her before you're satisfied?"

Lila kept her head down, shoulders trembling, tears dropping one by one onto the asphalt.

And just like that I remembered her first day at the companyhovering timidly in my office doorway, holding out a cup of milk tea: "Hope, my treat."

I hadn't drunk it. Les said he had. Said the girl was thoughtful.

After that, I kept thinking about how she'd made it all the way from some tiny mountain village on her owna young girl, step by step, with no one behind her. So I helped her. At work, in life, wherever I could.

When I couldn't, I asked Les to.

And that was how it wenthelping, helping, helpinguntil the two of them helped themselves into the same bed.

"Les." I turned to face him. "My grandmother raised me. She's in the ICU right now, and I need to see her one last time."

"You know how much she means to me, Les." My voice wouldn't stop shaking.

He said nothing.

My phone buzzed again.

A message from my mother: Grandma's fading fast. Where are you?

I gripped the phone until my knuckles went white.

Les saw.

He was quiet for two seconds. Then he reached out and wiped the tear from the corner of my eye with his thumb.

"Don't cry." His voice was soft, his thumb pausing against my cheekbone. "Grandma's going to be fine. Trust me."

"Just let her apologize," he said. "She feels terrible about it. All you have to do is nod. Then I'll give you the keys."

Lila was sobbing beside him, nodding along: "Hope please just accept my apology I won't be able to live with myself otherwise"

Grandma was waiting for me.

"Fine," I said.

Lila jumped right in: "Hope, I'm sorry, it's all my fault"

"Enough." I cut her off and looked at Les. "Keys."

Les handed me the keys.

"Drive safe. I'll stay with Lila for a couple of days, then come find you."

I didn't look at him. I pulled the door open, dropped into the seat.

Key in. Turn. The engine rumbled to life.

The car didn't move.

I turned the key again. Nothing. Not even a tremor through the wheels.

I got out and found a wide dark stain spreading across the ground beneath the car.

Someone had punctured the fuel tank.

Les walked over, glanced under the chassis, and frowned.

Lila bit her lip, her voice so small it was almost a performance. "Hope I loosened it. I just wanted a little more time with Les I'm sorry"

Les reached over and tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear, casual as breathing, as if he still had the right.

"Hey, relax," he said. "I'll get someone out here to fix it."

"Wait in the car for now." He turned, wrapping his arm around Lila. "Let me see if I can find some tools."

Lila leaned into him, then looked back at me over her shoulder.

Tears still on her face, but the corner of her mouth twitched, just slightly.

The sight of them walking away like thathis arm around her waist, her head against his shoulderstung behind my eyes like something had been driven in.

That was when my phone buzzed.

A message from my mother: Hope, Grandma keeps calling your name. Please come back.

I stared at the words and clenched the phone until it dug into my palm.

I pulled the diamond ring off my left hand.

I had to see Grandma one last time.

I searched every corner of the rest stop.

No other cars. No other people. No tools.

The signal on my phone kept cutting in and out.

I finally found a spot with enough bars and dialed roadside assistance.

The nearest team couldn't come until tomorrow.

A section of the road had collapsed.

I hung up. Les came over.

"Hope, just leave it till tomorrow." He glanced at my arm. "Lookyou've gone and scraped yourself up. Be good. Don't make me feel bad."

I ignored him.

A little while later, my phone lit up.

Grandma's number.

I answered immediately.

"Grandma."

"Hope" Her voice was so faint. "When will you be here?"

"I'm on my way, Grandma. Soon."

"Hope, dear Grandma misses you so much. You were so little, you'd lie across my lap and pull at my sleeve until I told you a story"

"Grandma, don't tire yourself"

"I'm afraid there isn't time." A small, quiet laugh. "When your grandfather went, I never got to say even one last thing to him. Hope, you be good to yourself."

My tears fell.

"Hope, that boy Les is he good to you?"

I didn't answer.

"Hope."

Les walked up behind me.

"Give me your phone a sec," he said. "Lila's is dead. She's got a work message to send."

I gripped the phone tighter and turned my back to him.

"I'm on a call. My grandmother"

"Yeah, I know." He stepped around in front of me. "One minute. She'll send it and I'll hand it right back."

"No."

Les's brow creased.

On the other end, Grandma was saying, "Hope? Hope, are you still there?"

"Hope." His voice went low, the way it did when he'd decided the conversation was over. "This client matters to Lila. It could decide whether she makes full-time."

"I said no."

Lila had followed him over at some point. She stood behind Les, eyes rimmed red.

"Hope just one second please, I'm desperate" Her voice cracked, tears sliding down. "I won't keep it long I'm begging you"

Les looked at her tears, then turned back to me. His expression changed.

"Give it to me."

He reached out.

I pressed the phone behind my back.

"Les, my grandmother is in the ICU"

He grabbed my wrist before I could finish. Wrapped his hand around my fingers and pried them open.

He was so much stronger than me.

I gripped the phone until my nails dug into my own palm.

"Les!"

He pried it free.

He turned and handed the phone to Lila.

Lila took it, tears still wet on her face, and bent her head to type.

I stood there.

Grandma Marianne's voice still echoed in my earsthat last, tentative "Hope?"

I wanted to grab it back.

Les stepped in front of me, his face hard with irritation. "One minute. You can't give her one minute?"

I looked into his eyes.

Those eyes used to be gentle when they looked at me.

Now there was nothing in them at all.

Lila finished and handed the phone back.

I looked down.

The screen was open to Lila's Instagram.

She had just posted.

The photo was of her and Les at the gas station.

His arm around her waist, her head on his shoulder.

The caption: Happy Labor Day weekend~ out with my husband, couldn't be happier ?

I stared at that line.

My phone.

Her and my husband.

While my grandmother's last call was still on the line.

I looked up at Les.

He glanced at the screen, barely interested. "She's just playing around. What are you getting worked up for?"

Playing around.

I looked down at the phone.

The call with Grandma Marianne had ended.

I called back.

Dead. The phone was off.

I clutched the phone, shaking all over.

Les walked over. "What's wrong?"

I didn't look at him.

"My grandmother's call dropped."

"Probably ran out of battery"

He went quiet for a few seconds.

"I'll handle it first thing tomorrow," he said. "Just calm down."

Calm down.

My grandmother could be dying right now. Could already be

And he was telling me to calm down.

I lifted my head and looked at him.

"Les."

"Hm?"

I looked him in the eye.

"I want a divorce."

His expression finally changed.

"What did you say?"

"Divorced. We file as soon as we're back."

He stared at me for a few seconds.

"HopeI"

"Ahhh!"

Lila's scream cut him off.

She was crouched by the bench, clutching her calf, her face drained white.

"A snake! There's a snake!" Her voice shook. "It bit me"

Les looked at me.

Then turned and ran to Lila.

He crouched down and checked the wound on her calf.

Lila clung to his arm, sobbing so hard she could barely breathe. "Les, am I going to die"

"No." He tore a strip from the bottom of his shirt and tied it above the bite.

That was when the sound of an engine came from down the road.

Roadside assistance.

The tow truck pulled up and the driver jumped out. "You the ones who called?"

Les stood. He pointed at Lila. "She was bitten by a snake. She needs a hospital, now."

The driver looked at Lila's leg, then at me. "Cab only fits two. She can ride on the flatbed, but it's not safe."

Les didn't hesitate.

He pulled open the cab door and helped Lila up.

Then he turned back to me.

"Hope, just stay here. I'll take her to the hospital and send someone back for you."

"How long?" I asked.

"Soon."

Soon. Again.

He climbed in and shut the door without a second's pause.

I watched Les drive away with another woman and leave me behind.

And me? He left me here.

I stood at the rest stop, alone.

No car. No signal. No water. No food.

Les didn't look back.

He wasn't coming back. I knew that.

Not because he'd stopped caring. Because he assumed I'd wait for him.

The way I always had. Every single time he told me to wait, I waited.

I pulled my own bag out of the trunk and went through it.

Wallet. ID. One bank card. Enough.

I started walking along the highway.

I didn't know how far the nearest town was, or how long it would take to get there.

The blisters on my feet had burst a long time ago. Every step hurt. I didn't stop.

About an hour in, headlights lit up behind me.

"Hey, what are you doing out here alone?"

"Car broke down. Could you give me a ride? Just to the next town with a train station."

"Hop in."

When I reached the town, I bought the earliest ticket available.

Once I was on the bus, I borrowed a portable charger and turned my phone back on.

Dozens of messages flooded in.

Not one of them was from Les.

I called Attorney Fox directly.

"I need you to draft a divorce agreement."

"He leaves the marriage with nothing."

A pause on the other end. "Nothing? That's a tall orderunless there's serious fault on his side"

"He cheated during the marriage. I have evidence. Also, that major client his company relies on? I'm the one who brought them in. The contract expires next month. I've already spoken with the other side. They won't be renewing."

"Understood. I'll start drafting immediately."

I hung up and dialed my assistant.

"Rachel, book me a flight out of the country this afternoon. Anywhere. Just get me out."

"President Swanson, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I said.

Two days passed before Les had his assistant reach out to me.

"Theodore, get Hope on the phone. I can't get through to her. Tell her I'm at the hospitalLila's still in critical care, I can't leave. Have her wait at the rest stop. I'll send someone to pick her up later."

Theodore hesitated. "President Henson President Swanson is already back."

"What?"

"President Henson, President Swanson's side Attorney Fox sent over a divorce agreement. And Westbridge Holdings they've sent a client termination notice."

Everything behind Les's eyes went white.

He couldn't feel his legs. Couldn't feel his hands. He just stood there, hollowed out, like something vital had been ripped clean through him.

"President Henson? Are you still there?"