# Chapter 169: A Building Held Hostage by a Tyrant's Heartbreak
Hello, dear readers! It's me again! How are you all doing today? I hope life is treating you wonderfully. Today, I'm thrilled to continue our journey through the gripping world of "The Untouchable Ex Wife." Let me tell you, Chapter 169 is absolutely packed with intrigue, mystery, and a delicious dose of workplace chaos that will make you gasp. So grab your favorite beverage, settle in, and let me walk you through every breathtaking moment of this unforgettable chapter.
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The mystery had only deepened, and Leia found herself trapped in a labyrinth of questions with no clear exit in sight. At the heart of the maze was Shirley—a name that echoed through the corridors of her mind like a haunting melody. Shirley was a rising star in the entertainment industry, a woman whose face graced screens and magazines across the nation. True, her commercial value might have been considered average by industry standards, but her fans adored her fiercely, and her reputation was as pristine as fresh fallen snow. That very fame, however, made her all but untouchable. Her whereabouts were a closely guarded secret, hidden behind layers of managers, publicists, and security detail. Ordinary people simply could not get near her, and even after a relentless round of questioning, Leia found herself hitting wall after wall of frustrating silence.
But Leia was not a woman who surrendered easily. When the world refused to give her answers, she knew she had to find someone who could unlock the door. And there was only one person who had known Shirley intimately, who had loved her deeply enough to make her a permanent scar on his heart—Xavier Stuart himself. If anyone knew the true story behind Shirley, it had to be him. Shirley was his first love, after all. Such bonds left imprints on the soul that could never be washed away.
With her heart pounding and her resolve steeling, Leia made her way to the towering headquarters of Universal Entertainment. As she stepped through the grand revolving doors of that glittering empire, the atmosphere hit her like an arctic wind. Something was profoundly wrong. The young receptionist at the front desk sprang to her feet the moment she spotted Leia, her face lighting up as if she had just witnessed the arrival of a heavenly savior.
"Miss Osborne! You must be here to see Mr. Stuart. He's in his office right now. Please, you can go straight up—no appointment needed!" the receptionist chirped, practically vibrating with relief.
"Uh... okay." Leia scratched her head, thoroughly baffled by the enthusiastic welcome. She and Xavier had once dated in secret, their romance carefully hidden from the prying eyes of the world. Very few people had known about their relationship back then. Every visit to Universal Entertainment had been an ordeal, requiring complicated procedures and frustrating negotiations just to see him. Meeting him without an appointment had been virtually impossible. This sudden, unguarded access was... strange, to say the least.
As she progressed deeper into the building, the strangeness only grew. Employees darted along corridors with wide, furtive eyes. If any unfortunate soul accidentally caught her gaze, they would instantly look away, like frightened mice scurrying back into their holes. The entire building seemed shrouded in a suffocating cloud of tension. Every corner hummed with anxiety. It was as if each person was tiptoeing through a minefield, terrified of a single misstep that might detonate destruction.
Then, something extraordinary happened. Her sudden arrival, so unexpected and unannounced, appeared to ignite a spark of hope in the sea of despondent faces. Employees who had been carrying the weight of unbearable stress suddenly straightened their shoulders. They welcomed her like she was the cavalry arriving at the eleventh hour, their eyes glistening with gratitude and anticipation.
One particularly charming female employee took charge, leading Leia toward the elevator with almost reverential enthusiasm. But then came an unexpectedly touching gesture: the woman pressed a pack of tissue paper into Leia's hands with a grave expression. "Miss Osborne, please take this. You might need it later."
Leia felt as if she were being escorted into a battlefield rather than an office building. A nervous laugh escaped her lips as she studied her escort's stiff posture, her pencil skirt cutting into her movements, her high heels clicking nervously against the polished marble floor. "What's going on here? Has this building been hijacked by terrorists or something? Are you all being held hostage?" Leia asked, genuinely uncertain whether she was joking or not.
The employee swallowed hard, her voice dropping to an anxious whisper. "Well... it's worse than a terrorist, Miss Osborne. We're not hostages... we're just innocent people who might be destroyed at any moment. Mr. Stuart will come after us if we're careless with the smallest detail."
Leia blinked, utterly scandalized. "What do you mean? Is Xavier out of his mind? Is he attacking people now?" She shook her head, refusing to believe it. "He's not an emotional man. Did his first love hurt him so badly that he's taking it out on his poor employees?"
The employee sighed heavily. "We don't know the details, but he changed after talking with you and Miss White the other day. He used to smile constantly, and we could joke around with him without a care in the world. But now..." The woman shivered. "A deeper breath could get us fired. The personnel department has already replaced his private secretary three times, and you won't believe the ridiculous reasons they were dismissed!"
Leia frowned deeply, her curiosity now sharpened into genuine concern. "Why were they fired?"
"One was fired for arriving five minutes late to work. Another got the axe because her lipstick was 'the wrong shade,'" the employee elaborated with the detached tone of someone narrating a bizarre novel. "And the third... the third was dismissed simply because her name sounded too similar to yours. You're Leia, and she was Ayra Dixon. So she was fired, just for that." The woman paused, then added almost offhandedly, "Though to be fair, Mr. Stuart did compensate them all generously—double the usual amount."
Leia stood frozen in the elevator, trying to process what she had just heard. Xavier, the man she once knew as calm, controlled, always smiling, had transformed into a tyrannical shadow of himself. He was firing innocent people over absurdly trivial reasons. A wrong lipstick color. Five minutes of lateness. A name that merely *sounded* like hers. This wasn't just irrational behavior—this was the behavior of a man spiraling, a man caught in an emotional storm he couldn't control.
The employees around Universal Entertainment, desperate and terrified, had started spinning their own theories. Whispers traveled through the break rooms and cubicles: Mr. Stuart's mysterious mood shift could only be connected to one of two women—Shirley, his first love, whose star was too bright for her to visit often, or Leia herself, who had finally come to crack the fortress open.
As the elevator climbed toward Xavier's office, Leia clutched the tissue paper in her hands like a talisman. Her mind churned with questions. What had happened during that conversation between her, Xavier, and Miss White? Why had his entire demeanor transformed so drastically? And more importantly, what connection did Shirley truly have to Doctor Snyder and the surgery that had set this entire storm in motion?
The assistant had revealed something deeply unsettling: Doctor Snyder had personally reassured Shirley before the surgery. That was strange enough. Doctors were friendly with their clients, certainly, but this went beyond professionalism. This was intimate. Personal. And the fact that Shirley had known about the surgery, had deliberately contacted the doctor beforehand... Leia's heart seized with reluctant understanding. Shirley was involved in this darkness somehow, and Leia had no choice but to confront her.
But first, she had to face Xavier. The man who might hold all the keys.
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## Reader's Impressions & Star Rating
Oh, what a phenomenal chapter! The tension in this installment is absolutely palpable, and I found myself holding my breath from the moment Leia stepped into Universal Entertainment. The image of a once-jovial Xavier reducing grown employees to quivering wrecks because of a lipstick shade is both hilarious and heartbreaking. The details—the fired secretary who shared a similar-sounding name to Leia, the tissue packet offered like a life preserver—are so vividly painted that I felt like I was walking those terrified corridors alongside her. Learning that Shirley was tied to Doctor Snyder before the surgery adds delicious layers of mystery to an already tangled web. I'm desperate to know what Xavier will reveal when Leia walks through that office door!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4.8 / 5 Stars
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## Next Chapter Prediction
If I know this story at all, the confrontation brewing between Leia and Xavier promises to be explosive. Xavier's erratic behavior suggests his feelings for Leia are far deeper than even he anticipated, and with Leia now demanding answers about Shirley, we may finally get the stunning revelation of how Shirley and Doctor Snyder are truly connected to the surgery. There is also the small matter of Miss White—what role does she play in all this? Get ready, because the next chapter is bound to shatter every assumption we've held!
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