Five Years Ugly My Ex Begged Me Back After I Married a Billionaire

The day I went to City Hall to finalize the divorce, I wiped off the ugly makeup I'd worn for years and switched to something simple.

When Andrew James saw my face, his impatience flickered into surprise.

He stared for a long moment, then let out a half-regretful laugh. If you'd put in a little effort earlierfixed yourself upwe wouldn't have ended up here.

I said nothing. Just got in the car.

After we got the certificate, he kept staring at my face, making no move to leave.

"If things get hard for you later, you can come find me. For old times' sake, I won't let you starve."

I smiled but didn't answer.

No.

That day would never come.

Because in thirty minutes, I was marrying my childhood sweetheartthe man who'd loved me for ten years.

Outside City Hall, Andrew clicked his key fob twice. A Porsche beeped at the curb.

A girl in a pink coat ran over, beaming. "Andrew! You're done?"

He smiled indulgently and nodded.

Sophie Quinn snatched the divorce certificate, grinning so wide her face might split. "Congratulationsyou're finally free!"

"Let's get hot pot tonight. Celebrate properly!"

She noticed me still standing at the entrance and her smile sharpened.

Andrew glanced back. "Can't get a ride? Want me to drop you somewhere?"

His voice dripped with condescension. And relief.

He slid an arm around Sophie's waist, eyes narrowing as he looked me over. "No need to feel awkward. We're divorced, but we can still be friends."

"Sophie's not like youshe's not petty or difficult. She won't mind."

Sophie hooked her arm through his, staking her claim. "Yeah, Elena. You don't have a car now, so just let Andrew give you a lift."

Charity. That's what her tone said.

She was savoring this momentthe mistress who'd driven out the wife. To her, this was victory worth flaunting.

I kept my face blank. "No need. I have somewhere to be."

My phone buzzed. A text from Luke.

Five minutes out.

I replied: Okay.

Sophie's mocking laugh rang out above me. "Elena, standing here like you can't leaveare you hoping Andrew will change his mind?"

"Nothing lasts forever. He loves me. You're divorced now, so move on."

Can't leave?

She had it backwards.

"Don't forget," I said, "I'm the one who filed."

I glanced at Andrew. "A man who can't stay faithful? I wouldn't pick him out of the trash."

"You want him so badly? He's yours."

Sophie didn't believe a word.

As she passed me, she leaned in close. "Elena Fox, being a sore loser is pointless."

"Look at youall that pretty makeup, and Andrew still divorced you."

"Face it. A woman like you, a failure who couldn't keep her man? Once your looks fade, no amount of makeup will save you."

"But me? I'll be a better Mrs. James than you ever were." She smiled. "Thanks for the spot."

I met her provocative gaze and let a mocking smile spread across my face.

"You really are something special." I tilted my head. "A woman with your talent for climbing into men's bedshard to find, even in Havenport."

Sophie's expression shifted instantly, her eyes reddening on cue. "Andrew, look at her..." Her voice trembled. "I was kind enough to offer Elena a ride, and she doesn't just refuseshe humiliates me like this."

Andrew James, who'd been leaning against the car smoking and eyeing me up and down, went cold. "Elena Fox, let me make this clear one more time." He flicked ash off his cigarette. "Sophie isn't a mistress. You and I were already over. She just happened to walk into my life." He paused for effect. "She's my true love."

The same rehearsed script. I ducked my head and laughed softly. "Say whatever you want. It doesn't matter anymore."

I waved the divorce certificate in my hand. "Andrew, you're the one who said I trapped you. Well, here's your freedom. So why are you still here? Get lost."

Sophie slipped back into her wounded-dove act, eyes glistening like she might cry. "Elena, I've always looked up to you like an older sister. I've respected you so much. Even if you and Andrew are divorced, you could still be friends. Why make things so ugly?"

I snorted.

How Andrew and I ended up herethis homewrecker knew better than anyone. And she still had the nerve to stand in front of me, playing the victim, batting those innocent eyes.

I wasn't buying it.

"Sophie Quinn." My voice dropped. "If you show your face in front of me again, I'll make it much uglier."

Rage flared in Andrew's eyes. He slammed the car door so hard the bang echoed down the street. "Sophie, forget her. She doesn't know kindness when she sees ittreats our goodwill like garbage. We don't need to play the nice guys anymore."

He wrapped his arm around Sophie, climbed into the car, and drove off.

I stood there, motionless, watching until their taillights disappeared.

Then

"Elena, why are your eyes red?"

I turned.

Luke Baxter. My childhood friend who'd chased me for ten years. The boy next door I'd trusted since I was small. For the entire five years of my marriage, he'd kept his distance, afraid rumors might hurt me.

Only now did he appear again.

"Did that bastard Andrew bully you again?" His jaw tightened. "Did he hit you?"

He wore a black trench coat, his frame lean but solidthe kind of presence that made you feel safe just standing near him.

"Luke."

My eyes stung harder, but I forced a smile and held up the divorce certificate. "Look. I'm free."

I exhaled slowly. "I should've listened to you years ago. Andrew James was never the right choice." My voice cracked. "If I'd listened sooner, I wouldn't have wasted five years."

Something flickered across Luke's facepain, maybeand he pulled me into his arms.

"Elena, do you have any idea how I survived these five years?" His voice was low, rough. "I kept hoping you'd lose. And hoping you'd win."

My gaze dropped. I closed my eyes and let myself sink into his warmth.

Five years. I'd lost. Completely.

This time, I was truly done.

Andrew had no idea that five years ago, marrying him had nearly destroyed everything between Luke and me.

Luke had tried everything to stop the wedding. He swore Andrew would never be a good match. And I'd fought him like a woman possesseddesperate to break free of his hold on me.

We'd pushed each other to the breaking point. And finally, exhausted, Luke made me a bet.

"You say he's your true love? Fine." His eyes had been hollow. "I'll give you the chance to prove it."

"Elena, how about we make a bet?"

Luke proposed that after I married Andrew, I couldn't deliberately do my makeup or dress up whenever I saw him.

He even wanted me to make myself look ugly with foundation.

If I could keep that up for five years, he would give up and let us be together.

But we didn't make it.

The first year, I darkened my skin, pretending I'd gotten a tan.

The second year, pimples broke out across my face.

The third year, little freckles appeared.

Along with my tiny, almost imperceptible changes, Andrew's attitude toward me deteriorated.

At first, he stopped calling me "baby" and coaxing me. Holidays came and went with no flowers, no gifts, no red envelopes. Whenever I asked, he'd shrug carelessly.

"We're already an old married couple. Isn't all that stuff exhausting?"

Later came the silence. Especially when he came home from work and saw me looking unkempthis mood would sour instantly. He started spending most evenings buried in his study.

After that, impatience crept in.

On weekends he'd obviously go out with friends, but tell me he was working overtime. I even heard a recording one of his buddies sent.

His friend joked, "Andrew, weren't you a total wife guy before? When you first got married, you wouldn't even come to our hangoutscouldn't wait to be glued to her every day. You told us Elena was a rare beauty and you'd found true love. It's only been three years. What, now you're hiding from her?"

Andrew's voice was thick with impatience.

"Elena? Sure, I loved her like crazy at firstbecause she was still beautiful. Who knew that after just three years, her best days would already be over? Every day I see that face, and she still clings to me wanting gifts and kissesI'm about to throw up."

"Forget sleeping with her. I haven't touched her in six months. I feel nothing."

When I heard those words, the blood in my veins turned to ice.

After all, Andrew had whispered to me countless times, his voice so gentle: "Elena, what I love is who you are inside. It has nothing to do with your face."

"Even if you become ugly someday, become oldmy love for you won't change."

But the truth was, I only became ugly.

And he revealed his true face.

Women are always softhearted. Even after hearing something so vile, I still gave him a chance. I told myself he was just in a bad mood, just irritated for the moment.

Until the company annual party, when Andrew and his secretary Sophie disappeared at the same time.

When I burst into that hotel room to catch them, I found them with their clothes in disarray.

I went crazy, hurling a wine glass at them.

Andrew's first instinct was to shield Sophie, pulling her behind him. Then he turned to me, his face twisted with disgust.

"Elena, are you done making a scene?"

"Staring at that face of yours every day, I feel like throwing up even when I haven't eaten."

"Look at yourself right nowlike a shrew. What man would want that?"

His words cut like knives, stabbing straight into my heart.

The love I thought would last a lifetime didn't even survive five short years.

"It's okay. No matter how bad things were before, it's all in the past."

Luke squeezed my hand, pulling me out of my memories.

"Elena, forget all of that. Look forward."

He pinched my cheek, smiling as he led me into the county clerk's office.

When we came out again, his face was split with a doting grin, his whole body practically vibrating with joylike he didn't know what to do with himself.

"Elena, I really feel like I'm dreaming."

"This scene that's appeared in my dreams countless times has finally become reality."

"Elena, I'm not like Andrew. I'll love you properly. I'll protect you."

I smiled, then picked out a few carefully selected photos.

"Yeah, to welcome a new life, I should post a few on social media to announce it. I want everyone to know my husband has changed."

When Andrew scrolled to my announcement post, he was at a bridal shop, accompanying Sophie as she tried on wedding dresses.

He looked at the photosmy face bright and gorgeous, like a fully blooming red rose. And I was standing arm-in-arm beside another man, smiling sweetly.

Something clenched tight in his chest. Restless. Irritated.

When did Elena become this good-looking?

For five years, he'd grown sick of my ugly face. Dark, sallow skinlike I'd come from the countryside. Just because a friend had once said in private, "What kind of taste does Andrew have, actually finding such an unrefined country bumpkin?"

From then on, he never brought me to any gatherings again.

But nowthe bright, gorgeous woman in those photoshow was that still the Elena he remembered?

"Hey, Andrew, I'm talking to you. Did you hear me?"

A hand slapped heavily onto his shoulder. Sophie's whiny voice cut through.

"What exactly do you mean? Do you really want to marry me? I heard your family's housekeeper Sarah Lambert say itwhen Elena married you, her wedding dress was custom couture. Fine, no couture for me, but you actually picked something this plain? How am I supposed to wear this? It's hideous!"

"Do you even have me in your heart at all?"

Andrew's brows knit tight. He only felt irritated. He perfunctorily handed over a bank card.

"Buy whatever you want yourself."

Sophie's dissatisfaction instantly melted into a grin. She took the card, but as soon as she lifted her head, her eyes met mineand her smile froze.

"Elena... why are you at a bridal shop?"

She glanced at me, then looked at Andrew with a weird, sarcastic expression.

"Don't tell me you regretted the divorce and came to stalk him?"

Luke and I looked at each other and smiled.

"Coming to a bridal shop? Of coursewe're also here to try on wedding dresses."

Hearing my voice, Andrew suddenly raised his head. He stood abruptly and walked over.

"Elena?"

A disdainful snort-laugh. "I didn't expect you to have some tricks. Just a few days after the divorce, you already hooked another man."

"But your acting is too clumsy. You want to use this man as cover to stalk medo you think I can't tell?"

I stayed silent.

After all, this kind of thing had happened before. In the period when Andrew had just started cheating, I was like I'd been possessedcrazily stalking him, crazily wanting to catch evidence, like self-abuse.

But every time, what I got in return was him hurting me even more recklessly.

He went from hiding it at the beginning, cheating in secret, to being brazen and self-righteouseven right in front of me, taking Sophie to a sex hotel to get a room. Or coming to the house, deliberately editing sex videos and sending them to me.

Calling it, in a nice-sounding way, "letting me appreciate them."

But from the moment of the divorce, I had already ended the self-abuseand drawn a clear line with him.

My expression didn't waver. "You misunderstood. I'm getting married."

"Married?"

Andrew looked like he'd just heard the funniest joke of his life.

"You? Do you dare let this guy see what you look like without makeup?"

He turned to Luke, voice dripping with mockery.

"Fair warning, buddyyou might want to see Elena's real face before you commit to anything. Trust me, once that makeup comes off, you'll think you're staring at a ghost."

"I'm her ex-husband. I stared at that face for five years straight. I know exactly what's under there. Consider yourself warned."

Luke stood off to the side, a half-smile playing on his lips as he glanced at me.

"Ah, Mr. James. What a coincidence."

He pulled out a wedding invitation and extended it toward Andrew.

"I was planning to have this delivered to your place, but since we ran into yousaves me a trip."

"Elena and I are getting married next month. You're welcome to attend."

Andrew's face went white.

He stared at the invitation for a long moment, then let out a cold laugh.

"Elena, I have to hand it to youyour game has seriously leveled up. The acting, the props... you really went all out with a fake wedding invitation. Is there anything you won't do?"

"You might fool other people, but you can't fool me."

He tossed the invitation straight into the trash.

Luke's expression darkened. "You"

He moved to confront him, but I caught his arm.

"It's fine."

I smiled. "The guest list is already packed anyway. We won't miss him."

I turned to the clerk waiting with my custom haute couture gown.

"Besides, we came for the dress. Let's grab it and go."

The moment I took the gownthe store's crown jewelSophie's face twisted.

"Andrew, look! She's taking the store's treasure!"

"You said Elena was ugly now. That she had nothing. That she'd be miserable without youso how can she afford a custom haute couture wedding dress?"

"Is that guy actually loaded?"

"I don't careyou're buying me one too!"

Andrew snapped, clearly fed up with her whining.

"Get lost."

"Sophie, does someone like Elena deserve to even be compared to you?"

"This is all a performance. Can't you see that?"

"Why else would she come to this bridal shop instead of anywhere else? She's here to parade around in front of me. She's stalking me."

"Just wait. Give it a few days, and she'll come crawling back."

After we left the shop, Luke noticed my silence. That pained look crept back into his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Elena."

"Do you blame me? If it weren't for that bet... maybe things between you and Andrew wouldn't have ended up like this."

"And now he's marrying Sophie."

His voice was heavy with guilt.

I forced a casual shrug. "It's all in the past."

"Even without the bet, Andrew would still treat me the same way."

A bitter smile tugged at my lips.

"After all, the ways he's wronged me go far beyond this."

Luke's expression turned serious. He took my hand. "What else?"

What else...

I let out a soft, hollow laugh. "For example, six months ago, he listed me on a secondhand marketplace. Priced at $9.90."

Back then, Sophie deliberately posted a video to provoke me. I couldn't hold backI slapped her right across the face.

That same night, she ran crying to Andrew.

To avenge his precious mistress, he listed me on a resale website the very next day.

The buyer followed the address, knocked me out, and dragged me into a hotel room.

Half-conscious, I heard Andrew giving instructions.

"Just feel her up. Don't go further than that."

"I only want to teach Elena a lessonscare her enough that she won't dare touch Sophie again."

"She's still my wife, after all."

But that night, Sophie called him away.

The man he'd hired smirked and reached for my buttons.

In the end, I bit through my own tongue to stay conscious, kicked him hard, and smashed an ashtray into his skull.

Only then did I escape. He never got what he wanted.

Afterward, Andrew came crawling back, face full of fake remorse.

"I messed up, Elena. Forgive me."

"I was drunk, joking around with some shady friends, and forgot to take the listing down. I never thought someone would actually bid..."

"I never meant for you to get hurt."

"Thank God you're okay."

Looking at his hypocritical face, I knew I'd chosen wrong.

When Luke heard the story, he nearly lost his mind with rage. His fists clenched as he turned toward the door.

"That animal actually did this to youI'll kill him!"

I took a deep breath and smiled.

"It's all in the past now, isn't it?"

"Luke, you're the Baxter heir. Getting blood on your hands for trash like him? Not worth it."

His expression softened. He pinched my cheek.

"Why are you still calling me Luke?"

"We have the marriage license nowwe're legally husband and wife. You should call me 'husband.'"

My face flushed instantly. I couldn't bring myself to say it yet.

Meanwhile, at the bridal shop.

Andrew couldn't resist Sophie's whining and coaxing. In the end, he spent a fortune on an expensive wedding gown for her.

While she went to the fitting room, regret hit him. He fished the invitation out of the trash.

When no one was looking, he stuffed it into his pocket.

After that, Andrew came looking for me several more timesalways prying about my new man.

He dug around until he discovered Luke's identity: the Baxter heir, famous throughout the jewelry world.

I ignored him completely. The bodyguards threw him out.

As they dragged him away, he screamed at the top of his lungs.

"Elena! I knew you were hiding a man all along! You cheated on me ages agoI won't let you get away with this!"

I had no interest in listening to a dog bark.

Security was tightened after that. I never saw Andrew again.

Until the wedding day.

I was in full bridal dress when he crashed the ceremony.

"Elena! Do you dare let everyone here see your true face?"

His voice instantly sparked whispers through the crowd.

"Who is this guy?"

"What's his relationship with the bride?"

"Could he be the ex-husband? I heard she's been married before!"

Andrew stood there in a suit, cold sneer on his face.

"I am indeed Elena's ex-husband."

He stepped forward and greeted Old Mr. Baxter with exaggerated respect.

"Our families have done business togetherwe're old acquaintances."

"I couldn't bear to watch the Baxters get conned by a woman like Elena, so I had no choice but to interrupt your son's wedding." His voice rose. "I'm here to expose her true facethis marriage is fraud!"

"She only looks this pretty because of makeup. It's all fakeher real face doesn't look like this at all."

He looked at me coldly.

"Do you dare, in front of everyone, to take off your makeup?"

I didn't move, silent for a long moment.

Andrew smiled, certain of himself. "I knew you wouldn't dare, Elena."

"A con artist like youdivorced, secondhand goodshow are you worthy of marrying the Baxter family's crown prince?"

"I suggest you admit your scheme and stop the act, otherwise"

"Who said I don't dare."

The next second, I grabbed the bottled water beside me, then the makeup remover, and splashed them both across my face.

A collective gasp rippled through the crowd.

Every eye turned toward me.

Andrew stared blankly, then his eyes went wide.

"How how is this possible?"