Chapter 26 CHAPTER 26
Anger
Ares Langford had spent the entire morning locked inside his glass walled office, a stack of contracts spread across his mahogany desk. His empire demanded constant attention, meetings, deals, numbers, expansion plans. But his mind was not fully there.
For months now, he had carried a quiet weight, an unsettling restlessness he never admitted aloud. He buried it under work, under the sharp lines of spreadsheets and the controlled discipline of business. That was how he kept himself sane.
But peace was fragile.
The sudden sound of hurried heels clicking against the marble floor outside his office made him frown. He hated interruptions. He glanced up as the door burst open without a knock.
Chloe’s chestnut hair bounced with each step as she stormed inside, eyes glinting with mischief. She was clutching her phone in her hand, excitement practically dripping from her expression. Ares immediately felt his stomach tighten. Nothing good ever followed Chloe when she wore that look.
“Ares,” she breathed dramatically, striding up to his desk as if she were bringing him breaking world news. “You will not believe this. Oh my God…you won’t even recognize her.”
He dropped his pen slowly, gaze narrowing. “What the hell are you doing barging into my office?” His tone was sharp, commanding. He didn’t tolerate disrespect in his space, not even from Chloe.
But Chloe was too consumed with her discovery to care about his irritation. With a giddy flourish, she placed her phone on the desk, tapping the screen to unpause a video.
“Look,” she said breathlessly, “look at what your precious Tessa has become.”
The video came to life instantly.
Ares’s eyes flickered down, and for a split second, he didn’t breathe. On the screen, a strikingly beautiful woman posed before a camera, her curves dramatic, her figure impossibly sculpted. Long glossy hair cascaded down her back as she twirled in a silk dress, pouting her plump lips. Her skin glowed, her movements confident, magnetic. She looked like she belonged on the cover of international magazines—untouchable, breathtaking.
And she was Tessa.
Ares’s jaw locked. He almost didn’t recognize her. Gone was the quiet, simple girl he remembered. This Tessa was bold, sensual, radiant. She had the kind of beauty that stopped people cold. She looked more striking than celebrities he’d seen plastered across billboards in Paris and Milan.
The video cut to another clip, Tessa sitting beside Ayisha. The two of them laughed into the camera, surrounded by racks of luxury shopping bags, sipping champagne while endorsing a new line of beauty products. The comments beneath the post scrolled quickly, thousands upon thousands of likes, heart emojis, words like goddess, unreal, body goals.
They weren’t just noticed, they were viral.
Ares’s chest tightened.
Chloe folded her arms smugly, enjoying every flicker of emotion that crossed his usually controlled face. “Can you imagine?” she said in mock pity. “First, she abandons her children’s with you—leaves them behind without even a second glance. Then, when her little boyfriend throws her out, she suddenly decides to sell herself online? Look at her. Parading like a cheap Instagram slut.”
Her voice dripped venom. “This is what she’s become, Ares. This is who the mother of your children is now. What a disgrace.”
Ares’s chair scraped against the floor as he stood abruptly, the tension in his body almost dangerous. He walked around the desk slowly, his eyes dark with something Chloe couldn’t quite read. When he finally spoke, his voice was low, cold, a warning laced in steel.
“Get out.”
Chloe blinked, caught off guard. “What?”
“I said…” his voice rose sharply, vibrating with anger “…get the hell out of my office.”
For the first time, Chloe faltered. She wasn’t used to being dismissed, not by Ares. She let out a nervous laugh, trying to recover. “Ares, come on. I’m just showing you the truth. You should be grateful. I mean, look at her, doesn’t it make you angry that she’s flaunting herself when she should be ashamed? She abandoned…”
“Enough!” His voice thundered across the room.
Chloe flinched.
Ares’s chest was heaving now, his fists clenched at his sides. The veins in his arms strained against his skin. His usually calm, commanding presence had shifted into something raw, volatile. He was seconds away from exploding.
“I don’t ever want to hear you speak about her in my presence again,” he said through gritted teeth. His eyes were burning, not just with anger but with something else Chloe couldn’t name… something dangerous, something that almost looked like…pain.
Chloe swallowed, her smugness draining. She had wanted to provoke him, but this reaction unsettled her. She picked up her phone hesitantly, backing toward the door.
“You’re blind, Ares,” she whispered with one last desperate jab. “She’s nothing but a disgrace, and you’ll see it soon enough.”
The door slammed shut behind her.
Silence fell.
Ares stood frozen for a long moment, his breaths coming harsh and uneven. His mind was a storm, images of Tessa flashing in his head, colliding with Chloe’s words. He hated that Chloe had said them. Hated that she dared drag Tessa’s name through the mud in front of him.
But what unsettled him most was not Chloe’s venom. It was the video.
That face. That body. That laugh.
Tessa.
The sound of glass shattering echoed through the room before Ares even realized what he’d done. His hand had swept across the desk in blind fury, sending a crystal tumbler crashing to the floor. Papers scattered, his laptop clattered against the hardwood, the metallic clang of his pen holder reverberating.
Still not enough.
He slammed his fist down on the desk, the veins in his arms pulsing, his chest heaving with rage. The carefully controlled mask he wore every day at work, with family, with the world—cracked wide open.
He hated this. Hated the power she still had over him.
Why? Why after everything…after she had been thrown out, after she’d left, after he convinced himself he was done…why did one glimpse of her undo him like this?
He pressed his palms against the desk, leaning forward, his head bowed as he tried to catch his breath. But his thoughts wouldn’t still. He saw her face, her new body, the effortless way she smiled into the camera. The internet was worshipping her now.
Ares Langford, the man who had conquered boardrooms and empires, couldn’t decide if he was furious… or if he wanted her to…
The conflict burned inside him, twisting tighter and tighter until his throat ached. He let out a guttural sound, half growl, half sigh, and struck the desk again with his palm, hard enough to sting.
The office was a mess now. His control was gone. And still, it wasn’t enough to quiet the storm.
Not even close.