Dumped My Cheating Ex. Now I'm Sleeping Next to a Billionaire CEO novel Chapter 348

Cooper felt like he’d been punched in the chest by her words.

Regret burned through him. He should’ve been more ruthless back then. If only he’d stuck to the plan. But the moment he saw Teresa crying quietly over the old man’s illness, something in him caved. Against his better judgment, he stopped the medication.

That tiny pause was all it took. The old man bounced back just enough to realize something was wrong—he even figured out Cooper had messed with the computer in his study.

After that, Cooper had no choice but to up the dosage and finish things off quickly. But by then, it was too late. The old man was gone, Starlight Corporation was finally in Cooper’s hands, but the company’s most important secrets were nowhere to be found—the old man had hidden them away for good.

He and Claudia had spent half their lives scheming for this. They were supposed to walk away with everything and build their own tech empire overseas. Instead, all they had was a shell company under Claudia’s name, burning through cash every month because they never got their hands on the real technology.

If he hadn’t swiped a bunch of half-working systems from Emmy over the years—stuff she never even got around to patenting—and sent them overseas to be polished up and sold, the whole thing would’ve crashed and burned already.

Thinking about it made Cooper’s expression even darker.

He and Claudia had clawed their way up from a dirt-poor mountain village, the kind of place where no one ever got out. Once they’d seen the glittering world of the capital, there was no going back. After catching a glimpse of high society’s luxury, they both wanted more—so much more. They wanted to take it all, right from the top.

Teresa was their ticket, handpicked after careful consideration.

Claudia made the first move, getting close and testing the waters. It didn’t take long to realize Teresa Drennon, the eldest daughter of the Drennon family, was as naive as they come. Sweet, trusting, protected from everything—she was a flower raised in a greenhouse, untouched by the world.

People like her were the easiest to trick.

Their plan fell into place almost effortlessly.

Looking back, it was almost funny. There was a moment, somewhere in the middle of it all, when Cooper actually thought about settling down, having a normal life with Teresa. But every dirty secret from his past was in Claudia’s hands. One slip, and she could destroy him.

So even if he sometimes felt a flicker of warmth for his wife and daughter, he always ended up siding with Claudia.

“At worst, I’m the mistress. People might talk, but what do I care?”

She paused, then slid her arm around his neck, voice dropping to a whisper.

“But our company overseas still needs that core tech. You bring it, and I’ll get you out of the country. Then it’s just us, running our own empire. Isn’t that what you want?”

Cooper was barely holding it together. “How am I supposed to get it? The old guys at Starlight treat me like a criminal.”

Claudia’s eyes sparkled with mischief. “What’s the rush?”

She leaned in close, her words soft and dangerous. “Those old board members at Starlight are ancient. How much longer can they hold on? They can’t take those secrets to the grave.”

She bent down, her lips brushing his ear. “Here’s what you’re going to do…”